The Word that Grows (Acts of the Apostles #14)

INTRODUCTION

One of the more remarkable blessings that the presence of the Holy Spirit brings is the ability He gives to believes to suffer scorn gladly. This is a remarkable thing in the moment, but it also serves as a portent of what it is to come. It is a statement in the present and a sign for the future.

 

THE TEXT

“And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men . . . (Acts 5:27–42).

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So the apostles were gathered up, set before the council, and the high priest spoke (v. 27). Didn’t we command you not to do this (v. 28)? But you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine (v. 28), and this doctrine includes the bloodguilt of Jerusalem’s rulers (v. 28). Peter and the other apostles replied with the great principle that obedience to God trumps obedience to man (v. 29). The God of our fathers vindicated Christ by raising Him from the grave, but the reason He was in the grave was because you murdered Him and hanged Him on a tree (v. 30). God raised Him exalted to be a prince and savior, to grant repentance and forgiveness to Israel (v. 31). The apostles are witnesses, and the Holy Spirit is a witness (v. 32). He is given to those who obey (v. 32). Hearing this, they were cut to the heart, convicted, and answered the charge of murder by taking murderous counsel (v. 33). Gamaliel, Paul’s former instructor, a famous rabbi, intervened and had them go into executive session (v. 34). Gamaliel kept his head and urged them all to keep theirs (v. 35). Remember Theudas, who thought he was something (v. 36)? Remember Judas of Galilee, and what happened to him (v. 37)? Gamaliel urged them to leave these men alone—if their cause is of men, it will come to nothing (v. 38). But if it is of God, you don’t want to be found fighting Him (v. 39). And so they consented, and brought the apostles back in. They had them beaten and reissued their (plainly empty) command (v. 40). And so the apostles left the council, rejoicing in the honor of being dishonored, the grace of being disgraced (v. 41). And the threats from the authorities didn’t even slow them down. They continued to teach and preach Jesus Christ, both in the Temple and in every house (v. 42).

 

WHERE THE SHAME BELONGS

When we are treated shamefully for the sake of the gospel, we are instructed, very directly, not to be ashamed of the shame we are accorded.

“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1 Peter 4:16). “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16). “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

The shame rightly belongs to the persecutors. As William Gurnall stated, “Paul does not blush to tell, it is for the gospel he is in bonds. The shame belonged to them that put on the chain, not to him that wore it.”

When the proto-Reformed Jan Huss was given a safe conduct to the Council of Constance, he was double-crossed by the Emperor Sigismund and there executed. When Huss reproached the emperor, the ruler visibly blushed at his lack of good faith. When Luther was given a similar safe conduct at the Diet of Worms (1521), the Emperor Charles V was urged to do the same thing, and he said, “I shall not blush as Sigismund did at Constance.”

We are to live in such a way as that our slanderers are forced to glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Pet. 2:12).

 

GRACE IN THE FURNACE

The Lord Jesus gave us explicit instructions in this regard.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:10–12).

We are sometimes taunted by mockers, as though we think we are persecuted simply because someone differs with us. No, but Jesus here includes being reviled as an aspect of persecution, not to mention the fact that people say “all manner of evil” concerning us. This is a nightmare for PR consultants, but Jesus tells us to maintain a different attitude toward it all.

“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified” (1 Peter 4:13–14).

 

JOY AS HARBINGER OF WRATH 

This glorious and gracious demeanor is a sign of three things. It is a sign that God is with us in the present, sustaining us. It is a sign that the mojo has entirely shifted. The persecutors are always trying to hang onto a vanishing world, and the persecuted represent the future. And last, this grace is a sign that the God who is with us in this moment will also be with us in the day of wrath. And so what will become of those who are against us in this moment?

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INTRODUCTION

The Founder of the Christian faith, the Lord Jesus, was murdered by the authorities. This is a fact that cannot be emphasized too much. After He ascended into Heaven, the second generation of Christian leaders all found themselves in jail within a matter of just a few weeks. This should tell you something about the nature of the faith we profess.

 

THE TEXT

“Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life . . .” (Acts 5:17–26).

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Sadducees were the dominant party in the Temple establishment. They were theological liberals, but conservative enough when it came to protecting their own power. They rose up together, full of indignation (v. 17), arrested the apostles and threw them into jail (v. 18). This set the stage for the first angelic jail break in the book of Acts. The angel opened the doors, brought them out, and gave a command (v. 19). The command was for them to go back into the Temple and by speaking the words of life to the people to disobey the authorities (v. 20). The apostles obeyed this command, doing this first thing in the morning (v. 21). Meanwhile, the authorities convened their council, and sent to have the apostles fetched from the prison (v. 21). The officers went to the prison, but soon enough came back without them (v. 22). They reported that the prison was locked up, and the guards were there, but nobody was inside (v. 23). When the authorities heard this, they began to worry about what could be next (v. 24). So then a messenger came in and said that the escapees were in the Temple, teaching the people (v. 25). And so then the captain and the officers went to bring them in, but gingerly, because they were afraid of being stoned by the crowd (v. 26).

 

DEALING WITH JESUS MOBS

We do have something in common with first century Palestine. We, like they, are living in a time of violent emotions and high tension. And in that moment, in a time like that, Jesus came into the powder keg of Jerusalem, and did not call for dialog. He came as a supremely effective provocateur. He went up to the Temple, and began flipping over tables.

Were there people in the Israel of that day who were on the side of John the Baptist, and Jesus, but who did not fully grasp the import of the Sermon on the Mount? Why were the religious authorities so careful about their plotting against Jesus? They thought “people will stone us” (Luke 20:5-6). The chief priests and scribes “feared the people” (Luke 20:19). They wanted to kill Jesus, but they “feared the people” (Luke 22:2). This is also said a few times in the second gospel (Mark 11:18, 32; 12:12). And when Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, he also had not grasped the nature of the plan that Jesus was living out (John 18:10).

Jesus did not entrust Himself to men (John 2:23-25), but it is also very, very clear that He did not worry about their misunderstandings. Their confusions did not even slow Him down.

 

THE WORD OF GOD IS NEVER BOUND

One of the things that Luke does for us in the Book of Acts is illustrate in a figure how the gospel cannot be thwarted or imprisoned by the wit of man. The gospel cannot be imprisoned, and Luke shows us this multiple times and in multiple ways.

“Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.” (2 Timothy 2:9). At least five of Paul’s epistles were written from prison, bringing life and liberty everywhere those letters have gone.

Luke shows us this by having two angelic jail breaks (here, and in Acts 12). Then he has an earthquake bust the prison of Philippi wide open, thus liberating the jailer (Acts 16). And then Paul is arrested in Acts 21:33, from which position he evangelizes two Roman governors (Acts 24:25; Acts 26:24), King Agrippa (Acts 26:28), a leading citizen of Malta named Publius (Acts 28:7), and the rabbis of Rome (Acts 28:23-24). The Word of God is not bound.

The gospel runs free when the evangelists do, and the gospel also runs free when the evangelists are chained to the wall.

 

THE UNCHAINED WORD OF LIFE

We see in this passage the total legitimacy of activities like Bible smuggling. Is it against the law? That actually doesn’t matter. We don’t care. The civil authorities do not have the authority to prohibit the gospel from functioning in their realm. What does the Great Commission rest on (Matt. 28:18-19)? “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me . . .” No civil authority has the right to say no to the gospel of free grace.

On top of that, neither do religious authorities have the right to get a bit and bridle on those who preach the word in truth. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, spent years in prison, and in a Christian country, and for what? Not for preaching, but for preaching without a license. When free grace starts running around freely, it is just a matter of time before some ecclesiastical fussers want to get their foot on the brake. They will come to a man, preaching hot gospel, and they will ask him, as they asked Jesus, “By what authority do you do these things?” Look to your Bibles. Whose question is this (Matt. 21:23; Mark 11:28; Luke 20:2)?

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Introduction

Jesus Christ was a murder victim, killed by the ungodly men who ran the ecclesiastical machinery of ancient Jerusalem. They thought that they had dispensed with the Christ threat, but He exploded their plans by coming back from the dead. Now this risen one had predicted that He would come back from the dead, as His enemies well knew (Matt. 27:63). This prediction had been fulfilled, as they also knew (Matt. 28:11-15). But in addition to this, He had also predicted that Jerusalem would be flattened within one generation (Matt. 24:34). The city was now on death row, and the clock running down. The resurrection was therefore the guarantee that the destruction to follow was certain.

In this context, the great apostle Peter was offering the miscreants terms. He was giving them a chance to repent. Many did, but—in the teeth of the evidence—many others did not. It was not a matter of evidence.

 

The Text

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:19–26).

 

Summary of the Text

In the first half of this chapter, Peter has preached the objective facts of the gospel—the death and resurrection of the Christ of Israel. He now comes to an appeal for the subjective response to that gospel. He tells his listeners to repent, to be converted, with the result that their sins will be blotted out (including the sin of crucifying Christ), and they will enjoy times of refreshing that will come straight from the presence of the Lord (v. 19). God will send Jesus Christ back again, the same one just preached to you (v. 20)—but this Christ must remain in Heaven until the “times of restitution of all things” (v. 21). These times of restitution have been spoken about by God from the world’s beginning, through all His holy prophets (v. 21).

Moses, for example, predicted that God would raise up a prophet like him, and the people were instructed to listen to everything He taught (v. 22). Moses also said that anybody who did not heed that prophet would be destroyed (v. 23). All the prophets, from Samuel on, were foretelling these days (v. 24). Those listening to Peter were children of these prophets, and children of the covenant that God made with their fathers (v. 25). This covenant was made when God spoke to Abraham, saying that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed (v. 25). And so consequently God, having raised up Jesus, sent Him to bless those who had murdered Him. That blessing would be in turning anyone from his iniquities (v. 26).

 

Faithful Prophecy

 Prophecy should be understood as having two components. There is the forthtelling—where the prophet speaks to the people, in the name of God, telling them what their current spiritual condition actually is. But how can the people know whether this message is truly from God or not? This leads to the foretelling, the predicting. Fulfilled prophecy proves that the messenger of God is truly speaking on behalf of the God who is in full control of all history. This is why Isaiah is able to taunt the idols. “Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: Yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together” (Isaiah 41:23).

Look at the showdown between Hananiah and Jeremiah (Jer. 28), revolving around just this point. The same was true of Micaiah and Zedekiah (1 Kings 22:15-25). “And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you” (1 Kings 22:28). False gods do not know the future, and the true God does.

Immediately after the passage that Peter quotes, false prophecy is made a capital offense (Deut. 18:20). But how can we tell? the people ask. The answer is straightforward. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:22).

This is a central qualifying characteristic of a true prophet. Christ met that description.

 

The Great Unforced Error in Apologetics

A number of years ago, I traveled with the atheist Christopher Hitchens, debating him, and one of his arguments was that Christ thought the end of the world was going to happen . . . and then it didn’t. Christ was clearly mistaken, Hitch thought, and so why should we listen to Him? The atheist Bertrand Russell thought the same: “He certainly thought that his second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. There are a great many texts that prove that.”

But Matthew 24 was not about the end of the space/time continuum, but rather (very clearly) about the looming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. “Your house will be left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:38). Not one stone will be left on another (Matt. 24:2). The disciples naturally ask when will this happen (Matt. 24:3)? Jesus says it will be within one generation (Matt. 24:34). People are confused because of the collapsing solar system word pictures (Matt. 24:29). But everywhere in the Old Testament that such imagery is used, it is always describing the destruction of a city, and never the destruction of the cosmos—as we discussed in the fifth sermon of this series, it is used of Babylon (Is. 13:10), of Edom (Is. 34:4), of the northern kingdom of Israel (Amos 8:9), of Egypt (Ezek. 32:7), and of Israel (Joel 2:28-32).

One of the great tragedies in the world of apologetics is that many conservative believers have interpreted Matthew 24 in a way that robs Christ of His great vindication, and robs Peter of the great and forceful point of this sermon. Listen to the prophet, and stand in awe, which is not the same as moving the fulfillment of His prophecy to the end of the world, well out of reach.

 

Christ the Faithful Prophet

Peter is at pains to show that Christ was the prophet that Moses had predicted would come. For Moses truly said. This prophet would be raised up, and moreover, He would be raised up again. You must listen to Him about everything. And every soul that will not listen will be destroyed. Will you not come? Will you not believe? What more could you want?

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INTRODUCTION

The main action in the second half of this first chapter has to do with the replacement of Judas Iscariot. But along the way, we learn quite a few things about the early days of the apostolic company.

THE TEXT

“Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren . . . And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:12–26).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

 After seeing Jesus ascend, the disciples came back to Jerusalem from Olivet (v. 12). This was a sabbath day’s journey, or about 2/3 of a mile. They came to an upper room, where all the remaining disciples were staying (v. 13). They devoted themselves there to prayer, together with the women, the Lord’s mother and brothers (v. 14). At some point, Peter stood up and addressed them, with the assembled numbering around 120 (v. 15). He said that the treachery of Judas, who guided them to Jesus, was a fulfillment of prophecy (v. 16). Judas was one of them, and was a minister with the rest (v. 17). The 30 pieces of silver had been used to purchase a field, the same field where Judas burst apart (v. 18). This become common knowledge, which resulted in that field being name Aceldama, field of blood (v. 19). The previously mentioned prophecy is then cited, from two places (v. 20). The first is from Ps. 69:25 and the second from Ps. 109:8. The task before the disciples that day was select a replacement for Judas, someone who had been with them from the baptism of John on, up to the ascension (vv. 21-22) They picked out two men who met those qualifications, Joseph and Matthias (v. 23). They then prayed to the one who knows all hearts, asking Him to demonstrate which one He chose (v. 24). This would be a man to join them in ministry, filling the office that Judas fell from by transgression, in order to go to his own place (v. 25). They then cast lots, Matthias was selected, and he was installed with the eleven (v. 26).

A BRIEF HARMONY

The gospels tell us that Judas threw the money down in the Temple before leaving to hang himself (Matt. 27:5), but this passage tells us that Judas bought a field with the money (Acts 1:18). The harmonization is that the Temple authorities bought the field with Judas’s money, and in Judas’s name. And the gospels tell us that Judas hanged himself (Matt. 27:5), and here it says he fell headlong and burst open (Acts 1:18). Which is it? Both. He hanged himself, but no one came and got him, and after some time the rope broke and he fell headlong and came apart.

THE USE OF LOTS

The Lord’s intention in selecting twelve apostles was not accidental. He was deliberately establishing the foundations of a new Israel, and Israel was composed of twelve tribes. The New Jerusalem is the Christian church, and it has twelve gates that are named for the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 21:12). The foundation stones of this same church are the apostles (Eph. 2:20). Not only so, but the territory of Canaan was divided up between the tribes by lot. “By lot was their inheritance, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half tribe” (Joshua 14:2).

And when Peter is exhorting elders not to be imperious, he tells them not to be lords over God’s heritage. The word for heritage is kleros—allotment. And in 2 Cor. 10:16, Paul is being very careful not to intrude into another man’s area of ministry, or territory. Paul also comments that he had a special commission to Gentiles just as Peter had to the Jews (Gal. 2:8). It appears that apostles could cross these boundaries, but they did so with care . . . because good fences make good neighbors.

In short, we shouldn’t conclude that casting lots is a great way to make decisions so much as to conclude that the early disciples were clearly echoing the ancient Israelite conquest of Canaan. They were dividing up the world, preparing for their invasion of it . . . once the Spirit was given.

CENTURIES BEFORE JUDAS WAS BORN

Jesus knew that one of the twelve was going to betray Him, and He knew who it was going to be very early in His ministry. “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him” (John 6:64). John says this knowledge was “from the beginning,” which may account for why the Lord prayed all night before He announced His selection (Luke 6:12-13). At the Last Supper, the Lord washed the feet of Judas, and then later we are told that Jesus identified Judas by giving him a piece of bread after dipping it (John 13:26). Centuries before, David had prophesied that one who had shared bread with the Christ would be the one who betrayed him (Ps. 41:9), and Jesus pointed to this prophecy that evening (John 13:18). And the fact that Judas would create a vacancy by his betrayal was written long before he was born.

Psalm 69 is a clear Messianic psalm, and is quoted in the New Testament in five different places. “Those who hate me without a cause” (v. 4) is quoted in John 15:25 and applied to those who had seen the Lord’s miracles and hated Him anyway. “Zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” is quoted in John 2:17 in the description of the Lord’s first cleansing of the Temple. The second part of that same verse—“the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me” is quoted in Rom. 15:3, where Paul applies it to Christ who lived out an example for us to follow. “Let their table becomes a snare before them . . .” (vv. 22-23) is quoted in Rom. 11:9 and applied by Paul to reprobate Israel. And then the verse that Peter quotes in our passage comes next—“let their habitation be desolate,” talking about the void that Judas left.

The next psalm quoted is one of the fiercest imprecatory psalms in the Bible (Ps. 109), and Peter quotes it without embarrassment. “Let another take his office.” The Greek in Acts 1 is episkopas—his bishopric. Prior to this, Judas had cast out demons, and had healed the sick. His treachery did not unwind those blessings, and did not cause the office itself to disappear.

Nothing is clearer than that God has the ability to wield sinful and wicked actions in a way that results in His own greater glory. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” (Acts 2:23). “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27–28).

There is no way for the Christ to be appointed to die for you without having other elements of the story appointed also.

 

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