Whatever Works [B]

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Transcript:

We’re going to be again in Acts chapter 5, where we look this morning. As we go through this series on some of the frequently misinterpreted verses of Scripture, or passages of Scripture, we’re going to come back and glean what we can from Acts chapter 5. Thinking about what people typically do with this passage made me think about yesterday.

We’re trying to get the kids to clean up all their toys that they’d scattered all over the backyard. before they could come in and eat dinner. And it’s not that we were trying to be mean and say you can’t eat, but I warned them, if you’re going to go play outside, everything is going to be picked up before you come back in and eat, thinking they like to eat and that will light a fire under them.

Trying to get Madeline to pick up the last of her toys. And we’re telling her, pick up the blue bucket. It’s out there by the back fence.

And I walk out there. Mom’s already shaking her head. I walk out there and she’s looking at the side fence.

Madeline, go get the blue bucket. It’s back there. She’s looking over here.

No, it’s over there. She’s looking over here. Right there, looking up in the sky like it’s going to drop out of one of the clouds.

And finally, how long? How long did it? A good five minutes?

It’s right there. I mean, we could have gone and stuck her face inside the bucket and she still would have been looking. I love Madeline, but that was cracking me up.

You’re not looking in the right spot. And those who teach from this passage, Acts chapter 5, and tell us that we need to take Gamaliel’s standard in order to discern what we need to do for God, they’re not looking in the right spot. Because there is something to be learned from Acts chapter 5 to apply to our Christian life and what we’re to do for God.

But it’s not Gamaliel that we look to, it’s Peter. And just to refresh your memory in case you had a nap today, we talked about this part at the end of the passage where Gamaliel tells the people, you know what, if God’s in it, if God’s in it, it’ll prosper. If he’s not, it won’t.

So we just need to leave him alone. There is some truth. As I said this morning, there is some truth in what he said when he says in verse 39, if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it.

There’s something to be said for the fact that when God has sovereignly decreed something, that there’s no force in heaven or in earth that can turn back the power of God. And yet at the same time, it is not entirely true, it is not entirely scriptural, to say, well, if it works, then God must be in it. Or if it doesn’t seem to be working, if it doesn’t seem to be beneficial, then God is not in it.

That is dangerous, dangerous teaching. For the reasons that I outlined this morning, first of all, Gamaliel was not a believer. He was not following God’s Holy Spirit.

He was using man’s wisdom. And why would we want to take spiritual advice from somebody who rejects Jesus Christ? I mean, that’s the biggest one.

It ignores the commands of Scripture because we’re not taught to discern by, okay, are things working or are they not working? We’re taught to discern right and wrong according to what does the Word of God say. So we can’t hold up a pragmatic standard and say, well, does it work?

Does it not work? Well, first of all, what does that mean, does it work? But we can’t, there’s too much confusion involved.

Does it work? Does it not work? No, we’ve got to go by what God’s Word said.

Just to give you an example, I was reading, I read most of the article today. It’s an article online talking about First Baptist Church of Greenville, South Carolina, and how they have, as a congregation, decided not only will they embrace same-sex marriage, but they’ll go a step further and say we’re going to ordain homosexual and transgender clergy in our pulpit. and I thought, whoa, you know what?

They’re getting praise from all over the world. People are, we’re so happy for you. Thank God for people like you.

Okay, that seems to be working for them. That seems to be working for them. It sparks some interest in their church.

It’s gotten them a lot of praise from man. But you and I would look at it and say, oh, just because it’s working for them doesn’t make it God’s will. So we want to be very careful and use not what works as our standard for right and wrong, but God’s word as our standard for right and wrong.

And third of all, as I pointed out this morning, it ignores the testimony of so many of God’s people who have done exactly what God commanded them to do and suffered for it. Or they’ve done exactly what God commanded them to do, and it doesn’t seem in human terms like it’s worked out all that well. You know, God says, go and preach the gospel, And a missionary may spend decades on the field and not win thousands to Christ. May lead a few people to Christ who eventually lead a few more to Christ and a few more to Christ. And we can look at it and say, what did you really accomplish?

Maybe God wasn’t in that. That’s not necessarily the case. And we talked about some of those in the Scriptures and some of those even in our recent history who have suffered for the cause of Christ. And this worldview of, well, whatever works, God must be in it, is an insult to the saints of scriptural days and those who’ve come on since and many in our own world who are now suffering for doing the right thing.

It can lead us to embrace things that are very dangerous, things that are contrary to scripture. and what I’ve shared with you this morning, the thing that I’m more concerned about, can lead you when you’re doing the right thing and suffering for it to say, wait a minute, I must not be doing the right thing or what’s wrong with me? Because if God was, I thought, I thought for sure God told me to do this.

His word says to do this. I’m doing what I believe God wanted me to do and I’m still suffering. And it can lead you to doubt where God is leading you.

And so we want to be very careful against buying into this idea of whatever works. Instead of looking at Gamaliel’s advice, I’d say from this passage, we need to look at Peter’s example because that’s somebody who’s truly following where God leads him. Let’s go ahead and we’re going to look at the passage again and then just share a few things with you and then we’ll be finished for the evening.

Starting in verse 17, just like this morning, it says, Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. And remember, as I said this morning, the Sadducees were sort of the religious liberals of their day. They denied the resurrection.

They denied angels. They denied life after death. Sort of the same thing as we would look at your ultra-liberal churches today that want to strip every miracle out of Scripture.

On the other hand, you had the Pharisees who were the legalists of their day. And the Sadducees were upset because in chapter 4, the apostles had been beaten and threatened not to preach anymore, not only that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, which upset the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but had also been told not to preach the resurrection, which was particularly a thorn in the flesh of the Sadducees. See, all these people were claiming Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, and the Sadducees said, no, that never happens.

Forget that you’ve got eyewitnesses. Forget all the people who saw it. Forget the fact that he was dead and then he was alive.

it couldn’t possibly have been a resurrection. We still hear that same sort of thing today. They said it couldn’t possibly happen because we know better that resurrection never happened.

Don’t try to confuse us with the evidence or the facts. We already know that miracles never happen, so there you go. They were angry because after they had beaten the apostles and after they had threatened the apostles, and the apostles had come back and said, do your worst to us, but we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard.

We don’t know anything else to do. We just can’t stop talking about this. They came back and they’re preaching again in chapter 5, and now the Sadducees are up in arms again.

And it says, 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. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.

But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keeper standing without before the doors. But when we had opened, we found no man within. So as soon as God miraculously, again, miracles never happened, yet somehow God got them out of prison with it still being locked down tight.

And as soon as God got them out of prison, it wasn’t, Here, I got you out, now escape, go hide, stay out of prison. God said I want you to go back and preach in the temple I want you to go back and do the very thing that just got you in trouble in the first place and they like good obedient disciples said absolutely and they went early in the morning they could not wait to get back to serving Jesus Christ forget about Gamaliel that’s the example we need to follow they went back early in the morning and so there was confusion hey these guys are preaching in the temple no that’s not possible they’re in prison we’ll send somebody to the prison to check it out They’re not there. The prison’s still locked down.

They’re not there. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on. Now, when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they doubted of them where unto this would grow.

What’s going to happen here? We’ve got to stamp this out. We’ve got to nip this in the bud, as Barney Fife used to say.

We’ve got to, who knows what will happen if this news gets out. We’ve got to put a stop to this. Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

Now when I was in the youth group at Southgate more years ago than it seems like now, we had a saying, thank you Captain Obvious. They now made commercials about it for that hotel company. Thank you for sharing the obvious as we’re standing here discussing what to do about this that’s just taken place, that they’re out of prison and they’re now preaching in the temple.

But that to them is not just the obvious, it’s oh no, other people are finding out that they’re in the temple preaching. Then went, verse 26, then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should have been stoned. We’ve got to go in there very nicely, ask them to come downtown with us so that the people don’t get mad if we go in there and we just rough them up.

We’re going to get roughed up ourselves. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in his name? Didn’t we give you specific instructions?

Not just go out there and behave, but we gave you specific instructions. You’re not to go out there and teach in His name. And behold, you have filled Jerusalem.

You’ve done the exact opposite. You have filled Jerusalem with His doctrine. And that doctrine, as I pointed out this morning, is the resurrection.

That doctrine is not, well, what is the Trinity? The doctrine is not, well, what is baptism? The doctrine is Jesus Christ is the Messiah sent from God to save us from our sins.

He came to die for our sins. And you know what? He rose again after three days just like he said he would.

He said, you have filled Jerusalem. The town is overflowing everywhere we turn. Oh my goodness.

If you want to know what they’re talking about, I cannot walk into a room. I cannot check my email. I cannot turn on the television or the radio without hearing Donald Trump.

And I apologize if you’re a fan of him, me not so much. Even if I was, I’m tired of hearing the man’s name. It’s everywhere this week, the last couple weeks.

That’s sort of what was going on in, you know, better message in that case. Sort of what was going on in Jerusalem in that day. Jesus and the resurrection, it was everywhere.

You couldn’t walk down the street. If they’d had email, you can’t check your email. If they’d had TV, it would have been all over.

His followers were doing a great job getting the word out. He said, didn’t we expressly command you? Didn’t we instruct you specifically that you’re not to be teaching in his name and you’ve done the exact opposite?

Now, the message of Jesus Christ is all over Jerusalem. He said, and you want to bring, you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. He said, and you’re charging us with guilt over what’s been done.

And as I said this morning, yes, they were guilty. The Jews were guilty for putting Christ on the cross. But before we sound anti-Semitic, which I am not, folks, they were guilty for putting him there on the cross, but so was I.

So were you. It was our sin. It might have been a Jewish order that sent him to the cross.

And it might have been Roman nails that attached him to it, but it was my sin that put him there in the first place. And then Peter. it’s amazing the transformation that took place in Peter’s life after the resurrection isn’t it bold and then cowardly and bold and then cowardly and always putting his foot in his mouth and he seemed to just be bold all the time but not in a way where he was being hasty anymore it’s like God gave him exactly the right words to speak at exactly the right moment Peter was Peter was a lion after the resurrection.

Knew exactly the right thing to say, how to say it, and when to say it. Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men, and that is exactly true today as it was 2,000 years ago. We should obey, we should be good citizens, but any time any man’s command contradicts the word of God, we ought to side with the word of God.

He said, we ought to obey God rather than men. Starting off with common ground, because even they would have said the same thing. But then he goes on to say, the God of our fathers, and he’s not just talking about him and the apostles, that encompasses all of them.

They’re all from a Jewish background. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus. Oh no, suddenly now you’re stepping on toes.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. God sent his son, God sent the Messiah that we’ve all been looking for for all these years, and you killed him. Nice job.

Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, to be a ruler and a redeemer for Israel, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. So he starts out with them on common ground and says, Our God, we should obey him before we obey men. But our God has raised up Jesus.

You killed him, and yet God raised him from the dead, exalted him to be a ruler over Israel, a redeemer of God’s people, to bring repentance and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses. You want to know why we can’t stop talking?

It’s because he has commissioned us to be his witnesses of these things. Not just witnesses in general that he was real, he existed, but witnesses of these things, that he died for our sins and that he rose again. The very doctrine you’ve got a problem with.

God sent us here to be witnesses of. So is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. You know what?

It’s not just us and our words that bear witness. it’s the Holy Spirit of God who bears witness that these things are sown. And when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them.

And I talked this morning about conviction, that conviction will not let you stand still. It’ll either drive you to God or away from God. It’ll drive you to repent or to rebel.

I learned about conviction early on because I used to, when people would do, when people would lash out in hateful ways and I would ask my mom, Why would so and so act like that? She’d always say it’s conviction. It’s conviction.

She still says it some. And I didn’t always know what it meant until I started reading in the scriptures. People are pricked in their hearts and they either run to God or they run from God, but they don’t stand still.

And these men decided to rebel because they were pricked in their hearts. They were convicted. They knew that what Peter said was right.

And yet they said, we are not going to go along with this. Instead of dealing with God’s message through Peter, they’re just going to kill the messenger. they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them then stood there up one of the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a doctor of the law had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space and he said unto them ye men of Israel take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do is touching these men don’t kill them for before these days rose up Theudas boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about four hundred joined themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught.

He said, you remember that man Theudas? He tried to raise up an insurrection and God wasn’t in that and he ended up being cut down along with his followers. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him.

He also perished and all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed. This other man Judas said he wanted to be the Messiah developed a following. They all are gone now too.

He said, don’t worry about it. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye be found to fight against God.

He says, in other words, if this is just man’s work, then there’s no need to do anything. They’ll fall apart, them and their message of Jesus, it’ll fall apart just like Theodos and Judas, and I just realized those rhyme, that it’ll fall apart just like their work. But if it’s of God, you can’t do anything about it anyway, so just sit tight and relax.

And that’s where so many churches take Gamaliel’s advice. So many teachers take Gamaliel’s advice and say, if God’s in it, it’ll prosper. You can’t do anything anyway.

If it’s not God, then it’ll fall apart. That sounds good. It sounds biblical. But we know from experience and from Scripture, it’s not entirely true.

Sometimes it’s true that God will prosper His work, regardless of what anybody does. But it’s also true that God will send us to toil away in obedience and not ever see massive results because He’s working. Sometimes His commands are to work more in us than through us.

Sometimes that happens. Sometimes what God calls us to do will be a massive success and sometimes it won’t because we always look at what works differently from what God does. So we never can use that as a standard of what’s right and wrong of what God wants us to do or doesn’t want us to do.

And to Him they agreed. And when they had beaten the apostles, we agree. Let’s not kill the apostles.

Let’s just let’s let them do their thing. And by the way, let’s give them a good beating on their way out. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

Really? Really? Didn’t you try that already?

That’s why you’re here mad again. Because you told, didn’t we tell you once before? This time it’ll be different.

We’re going to tell you again. Don’t you teach in Jesus’ name. Well, that’s going to go well for they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go verse 41 I love this and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name they were glad of their suffering hard thing to do they were glad of their suffering because they were suffering for the cause of Christ and daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ they departed straight out of the council and they went to the temple and they said, we’re going to preach Jesus Christ in the temple and we’re going to go to your house and we’re going to preach Jesus Christ’s name in your house and we’re going to go to your house and we’re going to talk about Jesus Christ and Let’s just not kill them.

Let them fall apart. That’s what they need to do. That’s not our standard.

Our standard is to do exactly what Peter and the other apostles did. God told them what to do. And it really didn’t matter what anybody else said.

It didn’t really matter what anybody else commanded them or did to them. It’s what God said. This is what we need to do.

It’s not what, as I ended with this morning, it’s not whatever works. It’s whatever he says. That’s our standard of right and wrong.

That’s our standard for discerning what it is we’re supposed to do in any given situation. Not what works, but whatever he says. Three things I want to share with you tonight real quickly about the example that Peter and the other apostles gave us and how we should look to Peter’s example in this passage instead of Gamaliel.

First of all, our mission is to preach Christ. Whatever else we do in the course of the day, our mission that God has left us here with is to preach Christ. Now, am I saying that you can’t have any other conversation? I don’t know how that would work. You walk up to order lunch at the restaurant, and what can I get for you this morning?

Did you know Jesus died for you? Okay, that’s going to make life a little more difficult. That’s not what I’m talking about.

But we can do a lot of things in the course of our day. We have liberty in Christ, and I think we have a lot of leeway to go about our business. But as we do, we better be looking for opportunities to preach Christ. That’s our ultimate goal. That’s the reason he left us here.

God could have made it a lot easier on all of us and saved us and immediately taken us to heaven, but he left us here because he chooses to use us to preach Christ. You know what? Every opportunity they were given, they went and preached Christ. Verses 20 and 21 say, Go and stand and speak in the temple all the words of this life, and when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. They had just gotten out of prison, and they went and preached Christ. Later on, they just get done dealing with the council.

They go and preach Christ. They weren’t going to be dissuaded. I’ve said before that I think we make this too hard. I think we make the idea of evangelism and preaching Christ, whatever you want to call it, I think we make it too hard.

We plan a program. We set aside a day of the week, and we go out and we do it, and we have to memorize all this stuff. You know what?

Go about your business. Go about your business, your daily life, and wherever God gives you the opportunity, you talk to somebody about Jesus and what he’s done for you. And by the way, make sure your life backs it up.

You know, we read the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

And we read that word go the way it’s translated in English, and we think it means you’ve got to make a special trip and set aside a special time. The way that’s really written in the Greek means as you’re going, make disciples. us.

As we’re going about the daily life that God’s given us, look for opportunities. They’re out there if we’re just alert to them and available to be used if we don’t walk around with blinders on. We’ve got to remember, Peter’s example is a great one.

Whatever else we do, whatever else you may do in the course of your day, preach Christ when you have the opportunity. Ask God for the opportunity. Second of all, our method is to use the opportunities available to us.

You know what, they wanted to talk about what had gotten them thrown in prison. Peter said, let’s talk about what got us thrown in prison. And he goes through the same list of points that had gotten him thrown in prison to begin with.

He went through the same list of points that he’d been talking about since the day of Pentecost, where he said they had with wicked hands crucified and slain Jesus Christ. He used the segue that was available to him. That’s what they did in their day. They used whatever method was available to them.

Paul in Acts chapter 17 walks into the temple there in Athens and sees all their altars to all their various gods and he sees one to the unknown God and says, I can use this. And says, yes, there is a God out there that you don’t know and let me tell you about him. And when talking to a Jewish audience, he would go through the Old Testament and say, let me take you through the scriptures and what it says about the Messiah.

oh by the way all of these apply to Jesus Christ. Folks we use the methods that are available to us as long as they’re scriptural as long as they don’t contradict God’s word. Use the methods available to you. If you want to go knocking doors you go knock doors.

I’ll be honest with you that’s a little scary to me. I’m not quite that outgoing but go sit down and talk to somebody one-on-one where I’m not invading their home. If I meet a stranger in a coffee shop or something and strike up a conversation with, great.

I know of people who have gotten Christian tattoos. Now that’s not really, I’m not really a tattoo person. I have none and never will.

But I’ve heard of people who’ve gotten Christian tattoos so that when they talk to other people with tattoos and they swap war stories, I don’t know exactly, I’m not part of that culture. But I guess it’s a normal thing to talk about when you’ve got yours and why you got it. And it’s giving them opportunities to talk about, I would never have thought of that.

That is so far from. . .

But you know what? They’re using opportunities that are available to them. Folks, God has put people in your world.

You sit down and make a list. You can do it on paper or you can do it in your mind, but sit down and make a list of all the people God’s put around you. Some of them are closer than others, but God’s put all sorts of people around you. And hopefully, not all of them are Christian.

And I don’t say that because I hope your friends and loved ones aren’t going to heaven. I’m saying I hope we surround ourselves with some people who are not already believers. Because how are we going to reach them if we’re not part of their lives?

But God’s put all of us, God’s put all of us around people who need to hear the gospel. Peter used whatever God-honoring method was available to him. I’m not saying go sit in the bar and have a drink with them.

We can love people and meet them where they are without joining them in their sins. But folks, we use the methods that are available to us. And finally, tonight, our measure of success is to be obedient.

It’s to be obedient. You know, there are times in the book of Acts where it says such and such were added to the church. The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

That day were added to the church about 3,000 souls. And those are great. Those are great reports.

I’m glad for that. We wouldn’t know how to handle it if that happen today. But I’m glad for those reports.

But you know what? We look at this, and this story of Peter and the other apostles is not a defeat. This is a victory story.

This is a story that we look to as an example. And have you ever realized we look at this as an example, even though God doesn’t say, and thousands came to Christ. Now it does go on to say in chapter 6, the disciples were, in verse one, the disciples were multiplied, but it also talks about conflict that grew up in the church because of it. So we’re not looking at this and saying, well, it was, they were successful when they went back out and preached because they grew in numbers and because they grew a wonderful church and they did this.

You know why we look at this and maybe I’m the only one who’s in awe of them for this. I hope not. But we look at this and think what an amazing thing they did.

The reason we think it so amazing is because they were so radically obedient. God’s measure of success for us is not success by the world’s standards. As many numbers as you can bring in, as many dollars as you can bring in, God says, I want to see that you’re obedient.

You know what, if we’re obedient to what he’s called us to do, that’s success in God’s economy. Whether we start a huge movement, whether we reach millions or not, if we’re obedient to the call he’s given us, that’s success. They had said in verse 29, we ought to obey God rather than men.

That was what they were concerned with. Peter could have very easily said, oh, if this is so bad, then why are people flocking to our faith? That was irrelevant.

That had nothing to do with it. That was playing right into Gamaliel’s argument. Well, this must be right because it’s working.

No, Peter’s argument was it’s all about obedience. It’s all about doing what God said. And then it said in verse 41 and 42, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

They were able to suffer shame for his name. They were worthy to suffer with him because they were being obedient and they suffered in their obedience. And daily in the temple in every house, they ceased not to preach and teach Jesus Christ just as they’d been told they were obedient.

And for that very reason, God holds this story up to us in Acts chapter five, made sure that Luke recorded it in the book of Acts, holds it up to us even today, 2000 years later, as an example, that obedience is the greatest thing that we have to offer to God. Obedience. Can I take some of the pressure off of you and then put a little back on in a different sense?

You don’t hav

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