Lechem Panim #145 "Before the Sanhedrin” (Acts 5:34-42) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome again to Lechem Panim. In recent weeks in our study of the book of Acts we have been talking about the signs and wonders being performed through the apostles, particularly in chapter 5. And these signs evoke a positive response from most of the people of Jerusalem, who are excited to see what God is doing through them; and yet the religious leaders are not so enthused, and have them arrested and thrown into jail. But amazingly, an angel delivers them and tells them to right back to preaching, which they do. And when the religious leaders find out, they have the apostles brought before the high religious court of the land known as the Sanhedrin, which interestingly was the very group of religious leaders who had had a hand in crucifying Jesus. And now these apostles, who are following in the footsteps of Jesus are seen by these religious leaders as a threat; and so they tell them to no longer preach or teach in the name of Jesus. But the apostles verbally commit to obey God rather than men; at least at this point where the command of these authorities goes explicitly against Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations. And Peter shares with them the Gospel message, during which he also indicts them with the crime of having killed the Savior. And this accusation invokes an immediate, furious response from the Jewish leaders, who suddenly begin plotting to kill them. But before things turn really ugly, someone intervenes. It says…

Acts 5:34 (ESV)— 34 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.

Gamaliel— Now this teacher of the law named Gamaliel is actually a pretty famous guy. [He was easily the most prominent rabbi of that time and one of the greatest of all antiquity. He was the grandson of another prominent rabbi, Hillel, and his successor as leader of the liberal wing of the Pharisees. Gamaliel was one of the few honored with the title rabban, instead of the usual title “rabbi”…. How highly he was respected by all the people may be seen in the following quotation from the Mishna: “When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder died, the glory of the Law ceased and purity and abstinence died”…. {So he was a pretty important guy. And of course} His most famous student was the apostle Paul (Acts 22:3).] And so this guy who is deeply revered by the Jewish people stands up, orders the apostles be put out of the room, and then it says…

Acts 5:35-39 (ESV)— 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 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. 38 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; 39 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,

Just Another Rebel?— Now the fact [That the Sadducees {(who made up most of the Sanhedrin)} would heed the words of a Pharisee shows how distinguished a man Gamaliel was.] But when we look closely, we find that although Gamaliel was supposed to be this great Jewish thinker, the advice he gives is actually very bad. Now God uses that bad advice for the apostles’ benefit, but the advice itself is horrible. Now he’s trying to be the cool head in all of this, but he is also trying to sit on both sides of the fence. And you just can’t do that with Jesus. Jesus is somebody you cannot be neutral about. Now to start off with, Gamaliel classifies Jesus and the apostles as just another group of false prophets, like two of the recent rebels in Israel’s recent history; Theudas and Judas). The problem is that these two guys (whom we don’t know that much about) were unlike Jesus and the apostles in just about every respect; primarily in that they never did any of the miraculous things that Jesus and the apostles did. They didn’t heal everyone of every disease and neither of them ever rose from the dead. In fact, the fact that Theudas and Judas died (and remained dead) is the crux of Gamaliel’s argument. And so even at that point alone Gamaliel’s argument falls flat on it’s face; and it shows that he (like the Sanhedrin) had already chosen to reject the evidence before them; the evidence of the empty tomb and the evidence of the signs being worked by the Holy Spirit through the apostles.

Will It Just Dissipate?— Now Gamaliel continues, saying that just as these particular heretical movements fell apart, so will this one if it is not of God. Now that is another faulty statement because there are plenty of things that DO succeed that are not of God. Just take a look at the many false religions and cults in the world today. And many of them spread (by Satan’s power) at an alarming rate; often faster than the Church. It’s as Mark Twain said: “a lie runs around the world while truth is still putting on her shoes.” And that’s true. Now will God be victorious in the end? Of course, but in the meantime multitudes of people can be led astray. And so Gamaliel’s advice is for them to just wait and see when he really should have been calling them to action. What he should have done was call for the Sanhedrin to follow him in examining the evidence thoroughly and honestly. But instead he just adopts this whole “lets just see how this all plays out” kind of position. Now there are some issues you can remain neutral on; but there are others that require you to take a stand; to make a choice. And this was the time to stand. And yet Gamaliel chooses to play it safe and ends up missing out on salvation because He didn’t make a choice about Jesus. Now for whatever reason his advice seems reasonable to the Sanhedrin, and so it says…

Acts 5:39b-40 (ESV)— So they took his advice, 40 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.

Beaten— Now the word “beat” here refers to the [beating of forty lashes, less one to avoid violating the legal limit (Deut. 25:3).] And it is important to note that [The flogging was {itself} criminally unjust and {was} done to frighten them…. {But} Apparently Gamaliel had no problem with the whipping, again revealing his {passive} indifference.] But it says…

Acts 5:41-42 (ESV)— 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

The State of Evangelism— Not long ago my father sent me some disturbing statistics on evangelism in the modern Church. They read: 99% of believers hold that ALL Christians are commanded to evangelize...and yet only 5% have ever won anyone to Christ! Only 2% are active in evangelism! 80% never share their faith! 49% of leaders never minister outside church! 63% haven't evangelized in the last 2 years. Yet amazingly, 96% believe churches would grow faster if ALL Christians were more involved in evangelism.

“Little Faith”— Now when we see this we ask, “Why is that?” Especially seeing as the men and women in the early Church had "boldness" to share the Gospel, it raises the question of what is missing in our day and age. Is it a belief problem? Is it a love problem? If having the mind of Christ means to be truly evangelical in our thinking and the way we live our lives, do we REALLY have the mind of Christ? It’s interesting, when I asked my dad about this, he said that (for the most part) it is a faith issue. He pointed out that all 5 times Jesus uses the word oligópistoi (ὀλιγόπιστοι)—meaning "little-faith"—He’s chastising the 12 disciples for not actually following His teachings. Bible dictionaries define the word as “dull to hearing the Lord's voice; disinterested in walking intimately with Him;” or “trusting too little!” And he said there are too many oligópistoi/cheap grace {disciples} today; not enough radical disciples who understand a costly grace. And you know, I think he’s right. These apostles knew what grace and salvation had costed God. They had just witnessed it first-hand on the cross. And that empowered them to live lives of radical self-sacrifice in their quest to make disciples of all nations.

An Honest Confession— Just recently I read a true account about something that happened in a particular church’s board meeting. And the board members [were listening to the pastor talk about evangelism. He shared from his heart about lost souls and caring for our neighbors. {But} One board member interrupted with something raw, real, and straight from his heart. {And} The essence {of what he said} was, “I don’t really care about my neighbors, at least not enough to move me to action, but I want to.” {And you know, I think} What an incredibly honest statement. {And if we’re honest, would we say the same thing? Now you’d think that would kind of kill the mood of the board meeting right there. But what actually happened is that} The board member’s candid and courageous admission broke him right in that moment. He had been praying that God would give him a heart of genuine love and concern, and that night, God answered his prayer. {Now} That {kind of} honesty and authenticity {is contagious; and it} caught fire among other board members, and then among leaders of the church. {And what ended up happening was} A movement swept across the church resulting in tremendous outreach, evangelism, and hundreds saying yes to Jesus. {How amazing it is that} God used a business executive who wasn’t sure he cared about his neighbors to start a revival in a local church.
    {Now this offers hope to you and to me. As the author I was reading pointed out:} If you don’t love others like you want to or feel you should, God can teach you to get there through his Word and prompts from the Holy Spirit. If you don’t care about others as deeply as you want to, God will place that emotion within you if you ask him.]

From Obstacles to Living Sacrifices— Now (looking back) we don’t know what the disciples prayed in Acts chapter 1 as they awaited the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. But what we do know is this. Before Pentecost they had little to no compassion on the lost. They were more obstacles to people coming to Jesus than anything else; and were rather focused on who was going to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus when He came into His kingdom; not on carrying the cross of Christ into the dark places of the world and being (as Romans 12:1 says) living sacrifices. And yet here we find that not only has God changed their hearts and given them a brokenness for the lost (as Christ Himself had) but that brokenness is so strong, that nothing (not even the ruling authorities of the land who had killed their Messiah) could stand in their way. And similarly, you and I are called to have that same boldness driven by that same brokenness for the lost. But that brokenness will never come until we also have our own personal Pentecosts; until we allow the Holy Spirit to create in us a perfect love of God that will translate into a perfect love of our neighbors. And so let us ask God to create in us that perfect love today. Let’s do so. Amen.