It, it is, well, I don't really believe in coincidences, but
it's sort of coincidence that today is also persecuted Church
Sunday. So that slot that Lily LED us
through earlier on in the video that we watched, it was only
this week that we discovered it was the persecuted Church
Sunday. But as we've begun to see in
recent passages in Acts and as we're going to see much more in
the coming ones as well as today, the the early church here
is in a time of persecution. So that's true of them then and
persecution of course in different forms as we've seen
already continues around the world today.
So we're going to see two big things today.
This is the the kind of the headlines as to where we're
going take this in. And hopefully this then connects
to the to what we see as we walk through our passage.
We're going to see two big things.
Firstly, we're going to see the opposition and persecution is
real and is painful. Painful somewhat understates it,
I think really. But opposition, persecution is
real and we could say painful, we could say horrific, whatever
the right word there might be. That's the first thing that
we're going to see. And in the light of that, we're
going to have some questions we'll come back to in a second.
But the second thing, we're going to see that God is more
powerful than even the strongest opposition.
God is more powerful than even the strongest opposition.
I imagine if we went to Christians in what were the top
ones today, North Korea, Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Nigeria,
Afghanistan, etcetera, it would be very easy perhaps for us to
think we will find Christians who think, yeah, this opposition
is so strong it feels much stronger than God.
Maybe that feels true for us today.
I suspect it's much less likely for us today.
We'll think about what that might mean for us as well.
Just back to that first point before we dive more in.
Opposition and persecution is real and is painful.
The question then that comes in the light of that for the
apostles. The question that comes for us
is in the light of that opposition, will we follow God
or will we follow the opposing principles, people, priorities,
etcetera, etcetera? Will the apostles keep sticking
to God, keep sticking to Jesus in their message about Him, or
will they be led to other things from their own hearts or from
the persuasive people and situations around them?
And what about us? Will we keep following Jesus
when there might be all sorts of things that would make us turn
astray? I did say in my notes at one
point, fear and follow God, and I mean that, but I I use the
word fear carefully. We want to have a reverence of
God, but I think it's really clear to say that we could fear
people much more than we could fear God, couldn't we?
We could think that the things that drive my daily behaviour,
that drive my decisions, that drive what I do, is about
pleasing people much more than it might be about pleasing God.
Because it feels so present, so real, doesn't it?
People are here in front of me. If I humiliate myself, if I say
something that they hate me for, I'll be opposed.
I might be persecuted, I might lose those friendships.
Whereas perhaps it feels less immediate if we don't fear and
follow God. So opposition and persecution is
real and painful. In the light of that.
Will we, will the and will the apostles follow God or we follow
other things that will tug at US and tug at US hard.
And as I say, we'll see that God is more powerful even than the
strongest opposition. In this passage, we kind of see
it's basically man versus God. And it's not just man.
It's the principles of sort of the power base of the
Israelites. It's what we're going to meet
the Sanhedrin. It's the religious rulers and
leaders battling against God. I'm no great superhero guy, but
it could feel a little bit like Batman versus Superman.
And you go, well, these guys are fairly evenly matched.
I don't know. One of them is going to win,
maybe, but probably they'll come to some sort of impasse.
But instead of feeling like that, it feels like Batman and
Superman against, well, it's just us or it's against God and,
and, and they seem to have so much power.
Who's going to win if it's man versus God that we see in these
passages? And it is again and again and
again. Just going to give you the
spoiler. I don't know if you've seen that
film, but here's the spoiler to this one.
It is man versus God and God wins.
It is man versus God, but God wins.
But the challenge is that it doesn't feel like God wins, does
it? So often in daily life we're
struggling. It's all sorts of different
things that might go on. If you're in South North Korea
or if you're in Afghanistan, you are struggling against very,
very real pressures and persecution from people against
God. Does it feel like God wins?
Couple of chapters after this, Stephen's going to be martyred
for his faith. By the end of the book, loads of
the early apostles would have been martyred for their faith.
God wins. Really.
Yes, that is the spoiler. It is, right.
So with those two things in in mind, let's dive into the
passage bit of context as to who we're going to meet.
First of all, two groups of people, one I've mentioned
already. But firstly, and I've mentioned
them both already, firstly, we're going to find various
words, the Sanhedrin high priest and his associates, the
Sadducees, and we'll see some Pharisees.
We don't actually meet the Pharisees and the elders, but
just to explain. So the Sanhedrin is a group of
about 70 people. They're the religious elite of
Israelite of the Israelites and Jerusalem.
If you know what's happened a few books before, a few chapters
before the beginning of Acts, we will have heard of these guys
persecuting Jesus and wanting to kill him off.
The Romans might have done it, but they were led there by the
high priest, by the Sadducees and the Pharisees who opposed
Jesus throughout his earthly ministry and wanted to get rid
of him. So one part of this story is
it's, it's the, it's the Sadducees, it's the Pharisees,
it's the scribes and elders, it's the high priest that make
up this group, this, this the gathering of the Sanhedrin.
They're strong, they look mighty.
They have all the power with them.
On the other side, we see the apostles featuring Peter here,
the only one named. And they, as we kind of know, if
you've been with us in the rest of Acts and through the Gospels,
they're pretty ordinary people. They've mess up.
They've abandoned Jesus already when he died, and yet they've
been transformed by his resurrection.
And here they are having the courage to stand up for Jesus
and his message. We started our reading in verse
17 today. But if you just glance back to
verse 12, Richard covered this briefly at the end of last week,
you can see all sorts of things going on there from verse 12
through to verse 16. Apostles performing signs and
wonders. People even being healed by the
shadow of the apostles, a shadow of Peter as they walk past.
Incredible things going on. And then from verse 17, we start
to see more about how these, the Sanhedrin specifically, first
the Sadducees and the high priest, how they feel about
what's going on. Do you see that in verse 17?
Then the high priest and all his associates who are members of
this party, the Sadducees were filled with jealousy.
They want the power, they want the control, they want the
attention. And instead these apostles are
getting it. They've already killed off
Jesus. Now his apostles are coming and
taking away attention as well. So what do they do?
They say let's put them in jail. So they locked them away in the
public jail, verse 18. And then there's this amazing
thing that happens that's just sort of, it's just a line in the
story, isn't it? But then during the night, an
Angel of the Lord opened the door to the jail and brought
them out. Hang on, what?
There they are locked away in prison by the powerhouse of
Jerusalem. And an Angel of the Lord just
goes in and he opens the door and he takes them out.
And he doesn't just leave it there.
He says to them, go to the temple courts and tell the
people all about this new life. Out you come, but don't go into
hiding. Go to the temple courts and tell
all the people all the message about Jesus.
And what do they do? Verse 21 at Daybreak.
In other words, as soon as they could, they enter the temple
courts as they've been told and they began to teach the people
they go and do it. They're not shield into to
hiding by how they're being dealt with.
They're rescued and immediately they carry on teaching this
message about Jesus, which is the very thing that put them in
jail in the 1st place. We then get what I think is
quite a funny, I'm not sure how witty it's meant to be, but it's
quite a comedy kind of episode that follows next.
Because the high priests and their associates that they get
together, all this group of the Sanhedrin 70 plus of them and
they send to the jail go and bring us the apostles.
And off some of them go and they discover that the jail is locked
but empty. There's no one there.
So they think, oh, what's going on?
They've been jealous before. Then we see more of their
emotion. 1st 24. They were at a loss wondering
what this might lead to. You imagine these powerful
rulers and suddenly they're like, I've got no idea what's
going on. Where have they gone?
No one, no one, no one knows what's happening.
But then someone says, don't we look those men, they're now in
the temple courts and they're keeping teaching about Jesus.
They're not hiding, but there they are in public teaching
about Jesus doing exactly as they have been told.
So again, I think this is, this is fascinating.
They go off, the captain went with his officers and brought
the apostles. 1st 26 Do you notice they didn't use force?
Well, partly because the apostles have obviously come
willingly, but also because they feared the people, the
powerhouse of Jerusalem. These religious leaders are
afraid that the people might stone them if they take the
apostles by force because they are listening to their message
about Jesus. You might begin to think that
they're getting the picture that they are not in control.
They do not have lots of power. In fact, I meant to put that up
on my next slide, didn't I? Where are we?
Here we go. Here's what we're trying to find
as we as we walk through the passage.
What? What do each of these characters
do and what's motivating them? They've been motivated by
jealousy. And then they're confused.
And then they bring them before them and say, we told you not to
speak, verse 28. We gave you strict orders not to
teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your
teaching. And well, this bit's amazing.
Do you remember who these guys are?
These are the guys who just chased Jesus to his death.
And then they say to the apostles, and you're determined
to make us guilty of this man's death.
Hang on. You are guilty of this man's
death. It's a bizarre thing.
And I've been watching the Traitors recently.
Traitors. I'm not going to give it away.
Don't worry. Lots of hands.
OK. If you've been busily what?
I could give you a spoiler. Couldn't I'm?
No more spoilers. God wins.
That's the only spoiler of the morning.
But if you watch the Traitors, the Traitors, they have to
murder someone each night. Not for real.
If you haven't watched it, it's OK.
It's all good fun. But every now and again, they
have to murder someone in plain sight.
So that's happened once or twice in this series.
Or has it not? If you haven't yet watched it,
who knows? But it happens, OK, murdering in
plain sight, the Sadducees, the high priest, the Pharisees, this
group of people in the Sanhedrin, they have murdered
Jesus in plain sight, but not just with a bit of a secret
thing. And maybe I'll touch his ear,
maybe I'll do. They have ganged up on Jesus and
said, this is the guy we want to kill him off.
He's a threat to us. And then they turn to the
apostles here and go, really, you want to make it as if we've
done something wrong. It's a fantastic, I mean, it's
it's kind of comedy, but it's not comedy because of how
serious it is. And then the apostles turn.
Peter is named verse 29. Peter and the other apostles
reply and say we must obey God rather than human beings.
Do you feel this funny tension in the story?
You've got, you've got the guys who seemingly have power locking
them away and saying don't speak.
And then we told you not to speak, don't speak.
And yet an Angel comes along and frees them from jail and says,
go and speak. And they go and speak.
And then they say, come on, are we going to obey you or are we
going to obey God? Of course we're going to obey
God rather than you, a mere human being.
And then what is most brilliant at the heart of this passage is
this Sanhedrin who are determined to make them not
speak the good news about Jesus. Well, then they have an audience
with Peter and the apostles to hear the good news about Jesus.
So we get this brilliant little gospel and a nutshell here from
them. They say this God of our
ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging
him on a cross. You know, if there was any doubt
that they were suggesting that they'd done it, absolutely not.
You killed him, but verse 31 God exalted him to his own right
hand as Prince and savior that he might bring Israel.
That includes these guys that includes the elders the the the
the Sanhedrin here together. God has made him Prince and
savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive
their sins. We, that's the apostles, are
witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God
has given to those who obey him. Peter and the apostles get this
opportunity in front of the Sanhedrin.
Despite the fact they're doing everything they can to quiet
them, they suddenly get this brilliant audience in front of
them and they use that moment to say precisely who Jesus is.
God sent Jesus, he lived on earth, you killed him.
But God rose him, raised him up from the dead, and he's now
sitting at God's right hand as Prince, as Saviour.
Back to Anne's thing, helpfully. First he is the perfect king,
fulfilling all that was coming with all his other kings, the
judges, and then the kings. He is far better than King
David, and he's there forever. And he's not just the king, he
is the Saviour, bringing repentance to all who will trust
in him. And again, another brilliant
twist of irony in the story. How do they react, these guys
who don't want to be considered guilty of Jesus death, they
decide, well, we're so furious now, clearly the best thing is
let's kill these guys. And it's, it's bizarre, isn't
it? These religious rulers were so
blind, the message of Jesus, so angered by it and by the
apostles that they want to kill them.
Verse 33 Then we get this guy Gamilio who comes along, he's a
Pharisee. First time a Pharisee's
mentioned in this particular story.
But we know of Pharisees, don't we, from the Gospels.
They talk to Jesus lots, they try and trick him out often.
This Pharisee who's a really respected guy, we'll see him
lots of connections to others in, in Acts, probably taught
Paul, even honoured by all the people we're turned and told in
verse 34. And he says, let me have a
moment. Can I talk to you?
I want to, I want to just explain something.
So they send the apostles out and he talks to the Sanhedrin
and he says to them, verse 35, men of Israel, consider
carefully what you intend to do to these men.
And then he talks about two recent episodes, one about a guy
called Thudus and 1A guy called Judas, not Judas Iscariot who
betrayed Jesus, but a different Judas.
And these two both rose up and they had a bit of a following
around them for a while, a few hundred men and women who
thought, oh, maybe this guy's something and they followed him.
They paid attention and then what happened?
Both of those guys were killed off.
And in the days that followed, the weeks, the months, the years
that followed, all those followers of Thudus and Judas
disappeared. They realized, well, of course
they were nothing. They've lived for a while.
They looked impressive, but they've died off.
End of story. So Camilio says this Jesus guy
is probably very similar. It's probably another moment
when a Thudus or a Judas or whoever comes along and we
think, oh, is this the next big thing?
No, he's not. Let's forget about it.
So the best thing to do probably is just leave them alone.
But actually, if he is something special, if he is from God, then
we're just going to end up fighting against God and we'll
lose. So he says verse 38.
Therefore, in the present case, I advise you leave these men
alone. Let them go, for if their
purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.
But if it's from God, you will not be able to stop these
things, these men. You will only find yourself
fighting against God. If this is a story of man versus
God, the men at this point, the people, the religious rulers,
think they are winning. Emilio says, Look, if it is man
versus God, of course we're not going to win.
And if it's only man versus man, it's going to fade out anyway.
So don't worry about it. And these religious rulers are
verse 40. They're persuaded by him.
And yet it's really interesting. They're persuaded by him.
They decide to let them go, but they think, let's a bit of a
guarantee back up here. They call them in, they flog
them. That's 39 brutal lashes, beaten
and battered. They flog them and then once
again order them to be silent. So yes, they're persuaded.
Let's leave it and see what happens.
But they are still trying to be in control.
They flog them. They want to beat them into fear
and submission and they want to force their silence.
And then isn't the response in verse 41, isn't it just amazing?
I don't know how you, I mean, it's we can't even picture
ourselves there. Can we picture ourselves in
those countries and in those situations that we're watching
on screen? Everyone.
But if your imagination can take you there at all, you've just
been beaten 39 lashes, having previously been locked up in
prison because of the message of Jesus that you're proclaiming.
They leave rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of
suffering disgrace for the name, the name of Jesus that they've
been told. You must not speak this name.
They rejoice because they've been counted worthy of suffering
disgrace for him. And then verse 42, day after day
after day after day after day in the temple courts and wherever
they go from house to house to house to house, they go about
teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the
Messiah. They never stop.
They never stop despite the beatings, despite the threats,
despite the imprisonments, despite the everything else.
They never stop. They proclaim that Jesus is the
Messiah. It's a great story, isn't it?
And I say story, it's a true story.
This really happened and it's an amazing story of God at work in
people and three people, but in the face of terrible opposition
and persecution, said at the start, opposition and
persecution is real and is painful.
Sometimes that pain is emotional, isn't it?
It might be about disconnection, it might be about hatred, it
might be about people moving away from us.
Sometimes it's very physically painful.
These guys were battered and bruised and beaten by the
Sanhedrin and opposition and persecution was true then, it's
true now. We see in this story it's
motivated by all sorts of different things, isn't it?
Ultimately, it's about a rejection of God, a rejection of
his message. And ultimately behind that
stands Satan, God's enemy, who wants to destroy God's work and
God's people. But at a human level, we see it.
It's through jealousy, it's through fear, it's through
control, it's through anger. It's a desire for power, for
autonomy. Shove off God, I'm in charge.
I want things to be as I want them to be.
Life my way. All of which drives opposition
and persecution to the real message of Jesus, because the
real message of Jesus is one of salvation and of complete
change, isn't it? Where actually now this is about
God and not about me. So the question here for the for
the apostles, the question then for us is who will we fear and
follow? It's very easy to be afraid of
people. These guys are scary.
These guys are there with all the power of the establishment
as it was. They're able to lock them up in
prison, they're able to give them 40 lashes, and they're able
to to kill them, as they will do in the coming chapters.
So will they follow people and the pressures and where the
persecution would take them, or will they follow their own
desires for comfort, for an easy life, for power, for authority,
whatever it might be? Or will they follow God?
And we see, don't we, so amazingly, they keep following
God. They obey what that Angel has
said, go and proclaim the full message about Jesus.
And we see that God is more powerful than even the strongest
opposition. But it doesn't look like it in
the in the short term or the immediate term.
And for many of them, it probably never looked like that
in their life. As they say, a couple of
chapters later, Stephen's going to be killed.
The church is scattered. Others then follow, but God is
more powerful than even the strongest opposition here,
bringing the people out of jail, just opening the door, just
taking them out, just popping them ready to go and preach the
gospel. Amazingly, the resurrection of
Jesus, when it looked like all had failed, there's Jesus dead
in the tomb. And yet Jesus, God in his power,
brings him out to life. And then amazingly, that
promise, that offer that we see right in the heart of this
passage as Peter talks to the to the religious rulers, there is
forgiveness for everybody, new life for everybody who trusts in
him. And ultimately we see that God
is more powerful. Here we are 2000 years later,
still in a world with masses of opposition, masses of terrible,
terrible persecution. What was that stat?
One in seven Christians globally, and yet the church is
bigger than ever and it's thriving.
It's growing, often most of all in those places where people
meet persecution and opposition. So through Acts and beyond, to
us and beyond, until Jesus comes again to bring all things to the
good, we see again and again and again that God is more powerful
than even the strongest opposition.
Paul and Romans puts it like this.
What then shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
God is more powerful than even the strongest opponent, the
strongest opposition, the strongest persecution.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
And yet we know, don't we? Day by day, that can be pretty
tough. It doesn't feel like it doesn't
look like God is the winner. We've got all sorts of things in
ourselves and in the world around us that pull us in a
different direction. But I hope those two truths
might be helpful for us to hold onto Opposition and persecution
is real and painful, but and God is more powerful than even the
strongest opposition. And just to pull that together
as we move towards finishing, I wanted to come back to what
Peter talks about to the Sanhedrin when he gets that
opportunity, when he explains this wonderful gospel message of
Jesus, which is that Jesus gives life to everyone who believes in
him. That's how we get on the winning
side, isn't it? If there is this, there's this
ongoing opposition between God and man, we need to make sure
that we're on the right side. So three connections to this
Jesus gives life to everyone who believes in, believes in him.
So follow him, believe in him, follow him.
That's the call for all of us in this room today.
I don't know everyone in this room.
I know the majority of us and I know that most of us are
followers of Jesus, But yet there are others here this
morning who I'm sure are a bit unsure about who this Jesus is,
a bit unsure about this message. It's brilliant to be together.
Thank you for being with us. Please keep coming.
Please come and learn more. We can be today made right with
God. We can receive the new life that
Peter spoke about to the Sanhedrin.
These are the guys who pursued Jesus to his death, and even
they could be rescued and given new life.
You might think that your past, your present is pretty bleak,
pretty black, pretty dark. You think, surely if people in
this room knew what I've done, knew where my thinking takes me,
knew what my heart longs for, then no one would tell me that
Jesus could save me. You'd be wrong.
Jesus came for those who pursued him to his death, and Jesus came
for every single one of us in this room and beyond.
No one of us is too far from that reach.
No one of us is beyond His love. If you've not yet started to
follow him, why not today if you have, if you are a follower of
Jesus, then the call for us, I think, is to keep following
Jesus. It's not kind of super new and
exciting in some ways, is it? But it's about keeping following
Jesus. We're going to meet all sorts of
opposition, all sorts of persecution.
Perhaps there'll be competing calls for our hearts, won't
there? Particularly, I wonder if we
feel that more in 21st century Britain rather than persecution.
Actually, there are so many things around us that my heart
might long for. For comfort, for power, for
attention, for money, for relationships, for things that
make me feel good and make me feel like I'm in control.
Those things will continue to compete for my heart and yours,
day by day by day. Our desires, our pleasures, our
comforts, our priorities, our worries, our values will all
potentially suck me away from following Jesus.
So will the culture that we live in and other people, maybe even
with persecution and opposition. The call for us as Christians is
will we day by day by day with his help, as we pray with the
Spirit living with us, will we continue to to follow Him, to
try and keep in step with the Spirit to keep living for God,
sacrificing my own desires and living for God and his
priorities. That's not a life of plain
sailing ease and bliss and melt money and wealth and happiness,
but it's a life of obedience. Just as we saw from the
apostles, Jesus calls us towards something far greater than the
best things this world has to offer.
The apostles could only endure what they endured because they
trusted that for the future and and we need to be the same,
don't we? So what will, what will we
pursue? Will we keep following Jesus day
by day? And then the third thing, and
this is so core to the message for the apostles, isn't it, is
that as we follow him, will we proclaim him, speak about him to
others? Will we do that lovingly and
compassionately? You know, we're not called to,
we're not meant to get opposition and persecution
because we're brash and irritating and annoying in how
we speak to people. OK, we could all go and get
opposition, couldn't we, by just being unpleasant.
That's not the point. The point is actually, we've got
an amazing message to people who we love.
It's the message that's offensive.
We're not meant to be offensive, people.
That's not what we're called to. But we are called to speak
lovingly and compassionately and boldly and clearly about this
Jesus. And here's the thing I found
really hard this week as I've prepared this, and I wonder if
it might be a challenge to all of us if I'm never opposed.
If I go through life day by day, week by week, year after year,
and I don't meet opposition. My friends know I'm a Christian.
They know I go to church, but they never kind of that doesn't
cause a worry in our relationships.
Am I being anything like clear enough about what it means to
follow Jesus? I was playing tennis with a
friend on Friday night. Pete, what are you doing this
weekend? No, I'm, I did the right thing
and I'm preaching at church on Sunday, so I'm preparing for
that tomorrow or whatever brief conversation.
We've had various conversations over the years.
But actually, if he really knew, if I was really bold enough and
loving enough towards him to try and speak the truth about Jesus,
would our relationship always be quite so comfortable?
Or might I feel a bit of opposition, a bit of
persecution, a bit of you think what you're saying?
What about me? And about really, I'm still
trying to process that one. I wonder if that connects there
for all of us. Like if we go through life day
by day by day, and it is fairly plain sailing from the point of
view of persecution that no one really thinks that we're saying
anything or believe anything that's slightly offensive.
Do I believe it enough? Am I clear enough about it or do
I really need to pray about that and hope and and pray that God
would help me to be clearer? What I do want to say is it's
not our opposition. It's not the opposition that we
receive or the persecution that we receive.
That's not what saves us. We're not going to stand on the
final day and say, Jesus, look at these bruises on my back.
Look at these cuts that I've taken.
Look at the words of abuse that I took.
I should be saved. We'll stand there on the final
day, and the only thing that will save us is if we are
trusting in the one who suffered the ultimate persecution for me
and for each of us. If we're trusting in Jesus on
that day, His suffering, his opposition, his persecution, His
death and resurrection in our place, then we with him for
eternity. Then we'll be with him in that
future that He called us to, which is better by far than all
the best things that this world has to offer today.
So maybe we should be praying that he would be bigger and
bigger and bigger in our hearts and in our minds, and that the
desires of my own heart and that the world would sell to me would
be smaller and smaller. Because that's the fight that's
going on, isn't it? But in that fight of God versus
man, God wins. Let's pray.
Father God, thank You for all the true stories that we see in
Your Word that help us see more and more about You, more and
more about how you work and how people, broken, damaged men and
women like us, can follow the example of other Christians
through the years who with the help of the Holy Spirit, have
lived for you. Lord, in many ways we wish that
opposition and persecution wasn't true.
We wish we shouldn't need to expect that and face that.
And yet we do because that's how the church has grown for
centuries. So I pray that you would help us
to believe in and follow in Jesus.
Help us day by day to keep following Him, but to know that
you, Father God, are more powerful than all opposition,
and that you would fill our vision and our our passions and
desires more and more as we go on.
In the Lord Jesus, help us, we pray, Lord, Amen.