Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00009A
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00:21 Welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:22 I'm Pastor Mark Howard. 00:24 I'm here with my co-host, my brother Pastor Jim Howard 00:26 and we are studying the Book of Acts. 00:28 And we have been studying 00:30 some really powerful things in the Book of Acts. Right. 00:32 That power is a word that could be used 00:34 synonymously with the Book of Acts. 00:35 We see the power of the Holy Spirit 00:37 and the power of the apostles 00:39 in their cooperation with the Holy Spirit. 00:41 Now in our last study, we were in Acts Chapter 5 00:45 and we looked at the judgment that came upon the early church 00:49 on Ananias and Sapphira because of their hypocrisy. 00:53 And it's interesting that that judgment 00:57 actually ended up in a very positive outcome for the church, 01:02 maybe contrary to what a person would think. 01:04 But before we go right back in the scripture 01:06 and pick up where we had left off, 01:08 I'd like to start with a word of prayer 01:10 and ask God to bless our time in His word. 01:12 Father in Heaven, we do thank You for the word of truth. 01:18 We ask now Lord that You would guide us 01:20 in our study of Your word. 01:22 We ask You in Jesus name, amen. Amen. 01:25 It really grabbed my attention last time, Jim, in Acts 5:12-13, 01:30 after the judgment against Ananias and Sapphira, 01:34 where it says "And through the hands of the apostles 01:37 many signs and wonders were done among the people. 01:40 And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. 01:42 Yet none of the rest dared joined them, 01:45 but the people esteemed them highly 01:47 and believers were increasingly added to the Lord, 01:50 multitudes of both men and women." 01:53 And so the church was growing. 01:54 And this once again brought 01:57 the wrath of the religious leaders. 01:59 They were not happy with this burgeoning Church. 02:03 And so in verse 17 we're gonna pick up 02:06 it says, "Then the high priest rose up, 02:09 and all of those who were with him," 02:11 which is the sect of the Sadducees 02:14 and "they were filled with indignation. 02:17 And laid their hands on the apostles, 02:19 and put them in the common prison." 02:21 Now we've seen this before, right, 02:22 in Acts Chapter 4. That's right. 02:24 Where it says, "They came upon the apostles Peter and John, 02:28 here they were filled indignation, 02:30 they laid hands on them." It is said that in chapter 4. 02:33 Once again they can't refute the truth that's being preached 02:37 and so they resort to physical manipulation 02:40 and, you know, force. That's right. 02:43 Force, you know, different measures 02:44 and take them and they put them in, 02:46 the Bible says, "the common prison." 02:48 Now what's interesting is what comes next. 02:50 It says, "But at night the angel of the Lord 02:54 opened the prison doors and brought them out, 02:57 and said, 'Go, stand in the temple 02:59 and speak to the people all the words of this life.' 03:04 And when they heard that, 03:05 they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. 03:08 But the high priest and those with him 03:11 came and called and-" sorry, 03:13 "called the council together, with all the elders of Israel 03:18 and sent to the prison to have them brought." 03:22 You know, when I read this passage 03:24 it seems like the Pharisees, 03:27 the high priests and the Pharisees, 03:28 they have this assumed good reason for taking these men. 03:35 They're laying their hands on them. 03:36 It appears that they are trying to stand for truth 03:39 and stamp out something that would 03:41 point people away from the true God, 03:43 away from the true religion and- 03:46 Yeah, they seem to see very noble. 03:48 It seems noble what they're doing 03:49 if we were to really take it from the people's viewpoint. 03:53 But when you look closely, 03:54 there is a little bit of an indicator in this verse 17 03:58 that I think it says something different. 04:00 At the end of verse 17 it says, 04:01 "They were filled with indignation." 04:04 And that word indignation has a marginal reading. 04:06 So it-in the margin says or jealousy. 04:11 They were filled with jealousy. 04:14 And that sort of gives you 04:15 a little bit of a different picture as to what was happening 04:18 and what was potentially going on 04:19 in the hearts of these leaders. 04:21 As we look in verse 13 earlier in the chapter, 04:26 where you had quoted from Mark 04:28 it says, "Yet none of the rest dared to join them, 04:30 but the people esteemed them," 04:32 that is the apostles, how? Highly. 04:36 The people esteemed the apostles highly. 04:39 You can imagine if you were one of the high priests, 04:42 and among these leaders- 04:43 there's no miracles coming from you. 04:46 There is no miraculous happenings, 04:48 there's no clear reasoning from the scripture. 04:51 Or even there's- I say a powerful preaching. 04:53 That's right. 04:55 And as a result they've got nothing to gain any attraction, 05:00 nothing to attract the people to them 05:02 and the truth be known, 05:04 that's what they wanted. 05:05 They wanted that attraction. 05:07 They wanted to be known among the people 05:09 as those who were the best expositors of scripture, 05:13 those who knew the authority of God and what was right. 05:17 And here we find that if the truth be known, 05:20 they were revealing that it wasn't about the message 05:25 that the apostles were sharing. 05:26 But underneath that there was a love for praise. 05:31 A love for notoriety, a love for approval. 05:36 You'll remember that in the Gospels it said that 05:38 "they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." 05:44 And you know, I can't help but think that 05:46 this speaks through the heart of humanity, every one of us. 05:51 You know, sometimes we do something worthwhile but then 05:56 somebody else does something worthwhile in the Church 05:58 and they receive great attention. 06:01 We do something important at work, 06:03 but somebody else does something, 06:05 that doesn't seem to be quite as grand and yet they receive, 06:09 you know, the raise or the promotion. 06:12 And deep in our hearts we have to wrestle with the fact 06:15 that what the Pharisees had here and the high priests, 06:19 they had something that we struggle with as well. 06:23 And unfortunately, they refused to acknowledge it. 06:27 They tried to cover it up by making it an issue of the error 06:33 of what these apostles were doing 06:36 and that reveals something. 06:37 It means that sometimes what seems to be 06:40 the issue is not the issue. 06:43 Sometimes when we argue against something 06:45 or when somebody challenges some truth of scripture, 06:50 it's not because they don't see the truth of it, 06:53 but it's because deep in their heart 06:55 there is a consequence for accepting that truth. 06:58 It may be a lesser notoriety. 07:00 It may be, you know, perhaps a change in their life. 07:04 And so to avoid that 07:06 they make it sound as if it's not true. 07:10 Then we have to be careful that our hearts don't cause us 07:14 to come up with wrong conclusions about scripture. 07:16 Sure, in other words there's a tendency 07:19 to want to say that the reason I'm resisting this 07:23 is because I want to follow the truth. 07:25 A noble purpose. Right. 07:27 And this isn't truth but when the reality may be in my heart 07:31 that it's not about truth at all, 07:32 it's about me counting the cost 07:34 and realizing that if I follow that 07:35 I'm gonna lose my notoriety, I'm gonna lose my influence- 07:40 or I'm already jealous about the influence 07:43 as you're saying and that's very, very powerful point. 07:48 You know, we have to consider that today 07:50 that is an attribute of human nature 07:52 and it may be very much the case today 07:55 that religious leaders today can fall into the same trap 08:00 that we see them falling into here 08:02 of saying that they're fighting against something 08:05 and they're saying well, that's heresy 08:07 and I just want to guard my flock from that, 08:09 when the reality may be it has nothing to do 08:12 with truth or heresy, it has everything to do 08:15 with reputation and that jealousy. 08:17 Yes, it's very strong. 08:18 Well, and you were taking us 08:20 down the path of verses 19 and 20 08:22 and some of the experiences. 08:23 Yeah, they sent them to prison and- 08:26 the Bible tells us in verse 21 that, 08:31 when they called the council together, 08:34 "the high priest and those with him called the council together 08:37 and all the elders of Israel and sent to the prison 08:40 to have them brought." 08:41 Okay, so they have imprisoned them, 08:43 they're indignant, they took them by violent hands, 08:46 and so they're all worked up. 08:47 They put him in the prison 08:49 and you can only imagine the discussion, 08:50 "What are we gonna do with these guys?" 08:51 In a rage, now call them from the prison 08:54 and we're gonna really thrash them 08:56 and it's- the next part is powerful. 08:58 Verse 22 says, "When the officers came 09:02 and did not find them in the prison, 09:05 they returned and reported." 09:06 I mean, you've got a picture, 09:09 you know, an angel of the Lord comes 09:11 and commands them. 09:13 "I want you to go out and I want you to go back to the temple 09:15 and begin preaching." That's right. 09:17 So what do you do? What you do? 09:19 What the Lord says. 09:21 So when the guards come, everybody is unaware of this 09:23 but the apostles themselves 09:24 who now are back in the temple preaching, 09:26 the religious leaders think that they have them 09:28 securely locked up. 09:30 So they send the guards and when the guards go, 09:33 they reported, it says, they said, 09:37 "When we opened the doors" verse 23, 09:39 "indeed we found the prison shut securely, 09:43 and the guard standing outside before the doors." 09:46 Now something that our viewers need to understand here is 09:48 in the Roman culture, 09:50 those guards had to answer for their prisoners 09:55 at the cost of their own life many times. 09:57 So if their prisoner was found escaped, 10:01 then that guard could be executed 10:02 and so they took their work very seriously. 10:05 So here they are posted, 10:06 the guards are still outside of the cell, apparently, 10:12 totally unaware, 10:14 thinking their prisoners are still in there, 10:16 these men come and they say, okay, let's get the guys 10:18 and they go in and expecting to find them in the cell. 10:22 They said, they opened the doors 10:24 "And when we opened them, we found no one inside." 10:27 Verse 24 it says, "Now when the high priest, 10:29 the captain of the temple 10:31 and the chief priest heard these things, 10:32 they wondered what the outcome would be." 10:34 Where are we gonna find them, right? 10:37 Verse 25, "So one came and told them, 10:39 saying, look, the men who you put in prison 10:41 are standing in the temple 10:43 and teaching the people." Unbelievable. 10:46 I just tried to put myself there. 10:47 They're just, of course, totally beside themselves, 10:50 how did these guys get out? 10:51 There they are in the temple preaching again, 10:54 that which the rulers are trying to stamp out. 10:56 You know, you think that 10:58 if someone broke free from a prison, 11:00 they would flee to another country 11:02 or they would flee to somewhere 11:06 where no one could possibly find them. 11:08 And yet here they flee to the one place 11:10 where they're obviously gonna be found. 11:12 They know they're gonna be found again 11:14 but they're obedient to the voice of the Lord. 11:17 That's right and now here we have Peter 11:18 and the apostles not just Peter and John, 11:20 but Peter and John has been before- 11:22 have been before this group before, 11:24 now they're in the temple again. 11:26 And so it says in verse 27, 11:27 when they had- and verse 26 rather, 11:29 "The captain went with the officers 11:32 and brought them without violence." 11:34 Notice here, "for they feared the people lest 11:36 they, the rulers, should be stoned." Wow. 11:39 This is very interesting to me and then in verse 27, 11:41 "When they have brought them, 11:43 they set them before the council." 11:44 You remember where they set them before? 11:46 When we were back with Peter and John in Acts 4. 11:49 It was in the midst, they were there to intimidate. 11:52 Things have changed, now they're afraid. 11:55 They're afraid of the people, they're afraid of the influence 11:57 and things have changed with the leaders, 11:58 now they see the power of influence of the early church. 12:01 So they threaten them, they say in verse 28, 12:04 "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? 12:08 And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." 12:11 At which point the apostles could say, thank you. 12:14 Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. 12:16 That's what we've been trying to do. That's right. 12:19 And then they said, "And look, 12:21 you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine 12:22 and you intend to bring this man's blood on us." 12:25 And so now they're trying to take the conviction, 12:28 their feeling and put it off on the apostles 12:32 at-you guys are trying to make us guilty of something. 12:36 But what's interesting to me 12:37 is if we go back to Matthew 27 12:39 and we look at the words of the people there 12:41 in Matthew 27:24. 12:44 It says, "When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, 12:47 but rather that a tumult was rising, 12:49 he took water and washed his hands 12:51 before the multitude saying, 12:52 'I am innocent of the blood of this just person you see to it 12:56 and all the people answered and said, 12:58 his blood be on us and on our children-'" 13:01 Just before the crucifixion. 13:02 That was their own request 13:06 and so here when that conviction comes home, 13:08 when they have to answer for what they've said before- 13:11 now all of a sudden they don't want to be accountable for it. 13:14 They want to put it off on the apostles 13:15 and it's all the apostles' fault. 13:17 But the reality is they themselves had made that claim 13:20 and now they had to answer for it 13:21 and Peter is making them answer for it here. 13:24 And they are irate and there- 13:27 Peter's going to respond to this, 13:29 but I don't want to jump into that 13:30 until after we take our break, 13:32 that response here- he's responsive. 13:34 Once again it's powerful as we would expect. 13:36 And so we're gonna take a break 13:37 and we'll be back in a few minutes. 13:39 Hope you join us there 13:40 as we dive back into the Book of Acts. |
Revised 2014-12-17