I invite you to turn in the scriptures this morning to the book of Acts, the book of Acts. We return after some weeks now through the Christmas season, and now we come back to our study in the book of Acts, and we are in chapter 5. That's found on page 1161 in your pew Bible, 1161. We'll read from verse 12 to the end of the chapter of Acts, chapter 5. This is the word of the Lord. We will begin reading at verse 12, Acts chapter 5. least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council at the Senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported. We found the prison securely locked, and the guards standing at the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. And the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force for they were afraid of being stoned by the people and when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying we strictly charge you not to teach in this name yet you fill jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood on us but peter and the apostles answered we must obey god rather than men the god of our fathers raised jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree god exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to israel and forgiveness of sins and we are witnesses to these things and so is the holy spirit whom god has given to those who obey him and when they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them but a pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days, Thutis rose up claiming to be somebody. And a number of men, about 400 joined him. He was killed. And all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing after him judas the galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him he too perished and all who followed him were scattered so in the present case i tell you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or this undertaking is of man it will fail but if it is of god you will not be able to overthrow them you might even be found opposing god so they took his advice and when they had called in the apostles they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of jesus and let them go then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name and every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. And there is the reading of his word. And I have to just say, what an awesome passage, huh? Didn't you feel that reading that this morning? Great passage. The book of Acts is really helping us to understand the mission of the church and how it works, how it goes. And we're learning this great truth. In this book, the great truth that the scriptures teach us in many ways of what the Lord constantly says to us that your ways are not my ways, says the Lord, and my ways are not your ways. We don't accept that at times in the church and we get in all kinds of trouble. God's ways are not our ways. What we think is gonna work, what we think the message will be and what will work, it may work externally with numbers, but it doesn't mean it's God's way. how you look at things is not how god looks at things remember uh man looks outwardly but the lord regards the heart we've looked at that we will look at that so when we look at things with earthly eyes uh we we are going to find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a church and remember this is what the whole principle of the book of corinthians was as they had adopted worldly ministry to do uh worldly wisdom to do ministry god had to come and say right at the beginning of the book listen it pleased god to use the foolishness of the message preached to work so that's the same kind of principle this morning and this is helpful as we install new office fairs and new those who are serving as elder and deacon this morning to consider the important calling uh the specific calling of the church to give ourselves to the truth there is truth especially when opposition is the strongest for it's right then it's right there when opposition is the strongest in the roadblock you will find the surprising and remarkable blessing of the lord in the roadblock again we don't think this way and i'll show you that this morning lord willing we're going to see this uh here as we look at the success of the church the early church as the gospel's going out and by the way we're all sort of debtors to this whole program aren't we because it's happened to make it all the way to the other side of the earth to us this has been remarkably successful the success of the church the hatred of that success and then the answer and question the lord is giving us at the end of this for everyone to consider that's sort of the breakdown of this and that's how we'll look at this you remember last time, we looked at the particular problem of hypocrisy in the church. It's a problem, isn't it? A hypocrisy in the church. The particular problem of Ananias and Sapphira. That was a fascinating study to consider and see some of the challenges that we face internally. We were given before that, remember, a beautiful description of the church at work. The church in service, the church and love the church functioning and caring for the poor among them caring for people love abounded in the church and it was beautiful in fact remember people were not in coercion not in a forced sort of way were selling stuff to help the poor it was merely a care for the needy among them and the church functioned that way beautifully wasn't any kind of forced governmental system it was free will offerings from the heart which is different god never commanded it and they did it that was the beauty of it he never commanded it and they sold and gave this was the body of christ love abounded every other system is forced this was pure love the love that jesus taught us well now we were introduced then to a serious problem for two figures were raised husband and wife who said yeah we're going to do the same thing we're going we're going to sell a piece of land in jerusalem and we're going to give that as barnabas the son of encouragement gave we want the same kind of recognition we're going to do the same thing and we're going to donate that to the poor among us it sells and donation time came but in their hearts they had purposed not to give it all they had purposed to keep back a portion for themselves and put only some into the offering back now again remember we looked at this god didn't commandments. But when somebody did something like this, then he got involved. The problem was a painful one. The problem was a really exposing hypocrisy. They wanted to be viewed as great givers in the kingdom of God, and they wanted the recognition that way, remember. But in hypocrisy, nobody knew what they had made on the land. So they held back some of it for themselves, exposing they had no real heart, desire to help anyone but themselves. It was only a mere formality of giving, a display of being righteous, and God hates that. We're learning that. God hates that. That hypocrisy kills the church. That hypocrisy harms the message of the gospel. God always said, I love a cheerful giver. I want you free in your giving. I want you to be able to give in that way, but not that kind of way. Not as a disguiser for personal recognition in the kingdom. So the Holy Spirit exercised the first incidents in the New Testament church of church discipline. He killed them. He took them out. And we left off in verse 11 with the great truth that so great fear came upon all the church and those who heard these things. Great fear. That was connected with an earlier phrase that great grace had been given to the church. There was great grace and there was also needed great fear because that was constantly under assault. Now, I believe this is a huge moment for us. a huge moment to continue our study in the book of Acts as a church. Why did God do this? What was his purpose in dragging out the sin of hypocrisy right out into the open for everyone to look at and deal with? The Spirit drug it out into the open. Well, I think it's fascinating because the early church is being hit on every side. They have already faced persecution for the faith from without think about it they the apostles were already put on trial they were strictly warned you never teach and preach in jesus's name again and now in this chapter they're getting hit again in a second wave of great persecution against the church the church is facing external pressures and the church now is facing internal problems you know how we look at things think about how much opposition is going on right now against the church and acts if we look at things outwardly and we are being ravaged with external problems and internal problems and and just imagine if we had become the hatred of the object of hatred of the escondido city council and every religious group in the city and then we're having nothing but internal problems what is the thing that begins to happen among the members, you know, a certain fear takes over. Conflict and opposition brings fear. It's a fear at that moment of perception. The assumption is that opposition is a fruit and evidence that what we are doing is wrong. That's the assumption behind it. It always is. How many times do you hear about something that's criticized, and what is your immediate reaction to something that's criticized? You begin to look down on it. Well, imagine if your whole church is getting hit like that. That's how we evaluate things, isn't it? That is how we evaluate things. We look at the success of something, and we look at its perception, And then we look at approval ratings, right? This is what we do. Approval ratings drive us. And then we judge that way. That's how we think. So if something is hated, if something is constantly under attack, if something in the community that is a constant source of ridicule is despised among people, the natural response is to lose confidence in what you're doing. that's the natural response i get it you lose confidence for how is something that's right how could something that is right be under this much assault right that's that's how we think that's how we process and that leads to a downgrade of conviction and that leads to a downgrade of practice you have a pr problem now you got to fix that and the only way you fix perception is to change conviction so that you don't look the way that people are saying you look, right? You see, what we essentially begin to do is live by the fear of people. This is the major problem in the church today. We live by the fear of people. We live by it. Our Christian institutions do this all the time with great pressure. Just think of schools. Where are the students? What are we going to do? So do they go to the Lord? Or are they constantly thinking about how to downgrade the bad perception? Now, what caused the bad perception? Maybe it is something that needs to be thought about. But what if it's a right one? You see? Approval. Approval drives us of people. And almost certainly in any church that lives in this kind of fear and this kind of worry of perception, that church is on a fast track of being the most irrelevant church in the kingdom of God. The most irrelevant. That is the purpose of Ananias and Sapphira. What was the purpose of the event? No one in the history of the church would have put to death two members for heart hypocrisy nobody how do you do that can't read it but the holy spirit did that was lying to the holy spirit producing a facade of phony religion and the holy spirit took him out and what would what would the effect of that be in the early church which is the effect that it should have to this day still like a stone skipping across water still the reverberations and everything that we're facing from this it still should have the same effect what is it well anyone who understood that what ananias and the fire did should have said what that could have been me i can't point the finger at everyone else there's all kinds of heart hypocrisy going on that could have been me and what does that do produces a lot of humility doesn't it it also keeps a need for the gospel message of the forgiveness of sins at the forefront. It brings proper fear into the mix. The effect was that an entire kind of proper fear fuels the church. Proper fear. So much so, so notice the effect of the Ananias and Sapphira event, that in verse 13, no one dared to join them. who has any fear of joining the church today nobody that's a problem no one dared to join this group these loose there was a whole bunch of loosely connected people who have made no real heart commitment to jesus just to we're just kind of lingering there and who were there for all the wrong reasons the effect was them all to think about very carefully we better think about whether we should be a part of this and what we're believing. That was the effect. No one dared join them. We better think about who we're really fearing here. If we're just doing this for somebody else, we're putting ourselves in harm's way. Now fear is interesting because it's not the fear of an angry lashing out at any moment. It's a fear of recognizing I am serving the king. The king. not caesar the king of the universe the lord overall i'm in his kingdom that's the effect that's the fear he's sovereign he controls our heartbeats can end it and pull the plug anytime who do i bow to in this life who do i esteem who do i worship see if i'm going to be a part of this i'm coming to worship him that's not a game you see and in the next breath then it says that believers were added you see see what he's saying there he says that more than ever believers genuine believers were added people who wanted to be there people who feared the lord people where great grace was given to them they who people who understood the need of the gospel See the problem that Acts is showing us? It's a real problem. And so then it's no surprise then that when this kind of true believer begins to fill the church, what do you have happening in the midst of all this opposition? Great blessing from the Lord. Great blessing. And that's what's being shown to you here. It then proceeds to show us that great blessing fell on the church because of this reverence of him. Reverence. respect of the lord honor of the lord they were worshiping him they understood who they were coming before and great blessing fell upon the church because they were there for the right reasons and we'll get to that in just one second so much so that you notice all the sick were being brought to them this is deja vu this is the ministry of jesus they're being healed it's not the apostles who are doing the healing it's jesus who's doing the healing by the spirit great signs are being done through them the church is flourishing now what does that tell you this morning well the most needful thing for the church is great grace and great fear those two things great grace and great fear in other words the church that will be most successful if we can put it in those words will be the church that in the face of opposition in the face of pressure in the face of hardship in the face of persecution in the face of trial does not base what it does on approval ratings or the whims of the people but is willing to count the cause and boldly in what God has called her to do. And that's what I want to explore with you because it's his love, his kingdom, his rule, his power that makes this happen. The surprising thing here this morning is that in the very moments of intense opposition and intense hardship when grace and fear combine in this way godly reverence remember hebrew says that when you come to worship make sure you're considering who you're coming to worship worship god with reverence and godly fear when that's combined with great grace when you have that you have something very powerful happen then the church faces great blessing in surprising way surprising ways I think it should be evident to us look at the churches and look at the temptation by us it's it's it's in all of us the compromise look at the temptation to stand for nothing look at the temptation to live by the fear of people look at how you're all concerned about what people think. Look at the churches in which this happens. They have become a mere club of people not born again. It's sad. They're making no real effect in the kingdom of God. But instead, look at a church that stands for something. Look at a church of people who are hated for having conviction. There you will see a light. There you will see a surprising light. There you will see people born again by the Spirit. And that's now going to be shown to you. The early church, properly motivated by the fear of the Lord, now is utterly assaulted with the second wave of persecution. The first time they merely threatened them, they said, listen, you better never speak in His name again. And they severely threatened them, remember back in chapter 4. You don't speak or teach or preach in His name anymore. they were scared. That led to a great prayer service, didn't it? And then they prayed for boldness and the ground shook. Well, now we come to verse 17. Then the high priest and all the associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees, this was an exciting group, let me tell you, were filled with jealousy. Filled with jealousy. It says in verse 18 that they arrested the apostles and put them in public jail, public prison. We begin to go on and read then that the angel of the Lord comes in the middle of the night. He opens the doors of the prison. I love the imagery of this. If you're following this, he opens the doors of the prison and then locks it back up. There's some irony here, isn't there? It's just, he locks it back up. They're gone. they're out. And the next day, they're out preaching and teaching again, out in the marketplace. As they gather together their council, they have their senate, they choir, bring the apostles before us, and they go back on trial, because we had severely warned them, they better not do this. And someone comes running back, they're not there. What do you mean they're not there? The door's locked? I have no idea. They are absolutely perplexed by the whole moment. And I pause and say, which I could do a whole sermon on, nothing can stop the Word of God. Nothing. He wants it preached, it'll be preached. There's nothing that can stop it. Not even bars. Locked up. I love that truth. But I want you to notice something the Holy Spirit said that made this all come about. He gave one word that motivated this. Why does the opposition come? One great word shines here. They were filled with jealousy. Huh. In what way? He brings them and sets them before the council, the apostles. They're brought in to the Senate. Did we not strictly command you? You do not teach in that name, jealousy. You do not teach in that name. And you have filled Jerusalem with that doctrine. And you know what, we know what you're doing. You're intending to bring this man's blood on us. So this is the great moment. Second wave. Jesus has already been killed by these people. Jesus has already been crucified by these very people. Remember what Jesus said at this moment? When they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. That is chilling, isn't it? The Spirit of your Heavenly Father is going to speak. What do you expect the Holy Spirit to say? Peter and the apostles replied, verse 29, We must obey God rather than human beings. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior, lord and savior. You notice the powerful language that's used here in verse 30 to describe him. The God and fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. That's not a way to get released, by the way. You know, you just killed them and the Spirit was given to us. We're obeying Him. It's not how you get released. What just happened? We're back to the same old story of Acts this name we're preaching this name is not dead God is not dead God raised him whom you kill by putting him on the cross and guess what guess where he is he's at the right hand and he is leader and savior and you better repent because he is being very merciful right now in granting forgiveness to you in your hard heart. Don't play games. Stop playing games. Repent, believe, and he'll forgive your sins. He'll forgive all your sins. Well, that's got to be one of the most succinct statements of gospel I've read in the New Testament, put together in just a few lines I've ever heard. He died, he rose, he ascended, he's calling all peoples to himself, repent and believe. They're relentless in this. These guys are relentless even though these guys are ruthless in trying to kill them as we sung out about. Wouldn't this be the moment to respond in fear? Oh, look. Look, we don't want you to think we're being jerks. We're not better than you. We don't want anyone to think that we're better. Listen, that's a cop-out. Why do we always have to preface it with that stuff? Preach the gospel. that's an excuse to stand for nothing. You come with the message of the living Christ. Ambassador, don't cower. Have courage. Our sins killed Him. Our sins did this. God commanded us to preach this gospel so you can be saved. Repent and believe in Him. Have confidence in that message. That's what we need more than ever today, I say. Boldness. Boldness. Cowering compromisers have killed the church. Why are they full of jealousy? I'll tell you why. Because people are believing through this message. This is awesome. People are believing. They're believing in the name of a dead man, they think. How's that possible? They crucified. We nailed him to that cross. We saw his body. And that name is getting more recognition by multitudes and multitudes and multitudes of people than these guys ever got. How's that possible? How's that possible by a dead man? Jesus had called the apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and guess what happened? It worked. Lo and behold. It's working. It's working. And the issue is now they're incredibly jealous. When Jesus is preached, wherever Jesus is preached, it will create this. It has to create this. Because we have so many things and ideas of people trying to gather followings around them. If it doesn't, if the church is not creating this, Jesus is not being preached. People will, being saved, when that is seen and there are people or the gospels preached with conviction, jealousy will follow in that community in some way. That's the consequence of the cost of the of the message so what does that say well then to be ineffective all you have to do is don't say anything about jesus keep preaching whatever anyone else wants you to preach keep it light keep it happy keep it nothing too serious and you'll never have jealousy you'll never have problems you'll have problems but not the kind of problems that this is talking about or keep at the heart of your message the cross and the fact that jesus is saving people to be a special treasure to him zealous for good works as we read earlier you're going to be making a huge difference as a church what is succeeding right now it's the message and the response from them is as strong as ever when they heard this they were furious and they plotted to kill and And this gets to the heart of the book of Acts. I'm amazed at what people stand for and what they'll die for. That is all temporary. I think of the Braveheart line. Remember William Wallace rides in front of his group to go out and fight the king's armies that are coming in multitudes. There they are on the sand of the seashore on the hill coming at them. And they're scared. And Wallace says, you have two choices. You can fight or you can go home and years later, dying in your beds comfortably, you could then ask what you fought for. But today, you could die and fight for freedom. A lot of people you know have died and fought for freedom. Is there anything more noble to die for than a message that says Jesus died for you to save you? The most amazing thing happens at this moment. The great teacher Gamaliel stands up. Wise man, wise man. Aged teacher, respected by all. He'd been thinking about this. This is a real thinker. This is a brilliant man. Been thinking. Thought to himself, we've had all kinds of beliefs come and go. We've seen everything. Had a lot of charismatic leaders who've had great followings. this is different this is really different his name's not going away so he arises and says men of israel we better be very careful here remember that man through this years ago he rose up gathered 400 people with him remember what happened when he died scattered like roaches remember judas the galilean who forbid paying that josephus says had a tax rebellion and refused to pay taxes to Caesar when he died. Everyone dispersed. How many movements have you seen, David Koresh? How many charismatic leaders have you seen? And they are dead and gone, and anyone who followed them is gone. We need to be careful here. This is not going away. If it's just from men, it should have died by now. This is really an amazing moment, isn't it? It should have died by now. And what year are you in? And this hasn't died, by the way. It should have died. Nobody else has done this. If it's from God, we better be really careful here, our attitudes toward these men, because we could be fighting against God himself. That is a reasoning and logic that's brilliant. He may have been brilliant, but he was brilliantly insufficient. He left out a vital omission. The omission is, if there's nothing to it, it will die. It has not died. If there is something to it, if Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, then He is the Messiah. He's gathering a kingdom. If He's the Messiah, we better repent. We better believe. We can't be neutral. That was left out. You see what just happened? The bold preaching of Jesus. Listen to this. This is the whole heart of the message this morning. And we'll stop and we'll set our hands on these guys. It's really encouraging. The bold preaching of Jesus led the peoples to this conclusion. You see it? There's no power in any other message. But there's something with this message for it's still going on and everyone's bowing to this name. and believing in this name, he must be living. He must be living. You know how many people have claimed to be great? They go into the grave. Their ideas are always changing. They're always finding a new theory. Not with Jesus. Not one. Here we are, 2018, a new year. He's still being believed on in the world. And this is the question we should consider. If Jesus were not, so the message would become not. But Jesus is, and to this day the message rocks the world. Still. That's why this world's going on. When it's preached and the church that does it, that church is making a difference, contrary to what you think. But you'll have to look at things a little bit differently. Surrounding a church preaching this, surrounding a people committed to this in your personal lives too, there will be controversy. There will be jealousy. You'll be hated for conviction. There will be discipline of members as the Holy Spirit taught us, and people will hate that. But in the midst of what seems to be failure, in the midst of what seems to be a work making no difference, will be the blessing of the Lord in surprising ways. For true and genuine believers will be being added to the church they will be that's what we need more than ever God is telling us again in Acts this is how he builds his church this is how he builds his kingdom it's with the preaching of the gospel and how that changes everything and if you're just loosely connected with this with no grace or fear I think you should listen today to the words of Gamaliel a very wise man who was put before us. This is no mere paper name. This name lives. And God has said, whoever repents and believes in him will receive, this is the greatest news ever, isn't it? Will receive the forgiveness of all their sins. Why do you want to fight against that? That's the heart of everything. What message is greater than that? What are you living for that's greater than that? To have that gift. That's a message worth dying for. That is how the apostles, this is what took them. Well, they took them and they beat them. And these guys walk away rejoicing. Can you believe it, Peter? We just were counted worthy to get beaten for Jesus. It's not what you would think, is it? He counted us worthy to suffer for Him, for the truth. That inspired all the more boldness where chapter 5 ends saying that daily they were in the temple preaching and teaching Jesus as the Christ, as the Messiah. I close with this thought. We've got to install this. I see these signs everywhere. Be the church, be the church, be the church. See that? It's the in vogue thing to say today because the church is struggling to find out what works you don't have to run around figuring out how to be the church the church is the church and will make the greatest impact in a society when its members are committed to the word of god and the message and grace and great fear accompanies them there the church will be strong it will show itself to be the church in the most surprising of ways in loving one another in fellowship, in caring for the poor and the oppressed. It will have one holy passion, one holy desire to rejoice that God has blessed her with the most important message that is able to save those who believe. And that's why we're committed to it, because we believe that. When that's embraced, it would be the greatest blessing to suffer for the gospel's advancement, wouldn't it? Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us this morning and thank you for helping us in this way. It really is a matter of priorities and thank you for encouraging us with such a treasure. Give us boldness. Give us confidence. Let us not look at things the way that the world looks at things, but let us value the way that you've assessed things and be confident in what you have put into place. Thank you, Father, for your care and for your wonderful word to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.