ACTS: Telling Your Story

Acts 5:17 The Sadducees, the religious leaders from whom the high priest is appointed, became jealous. 18 They had the apostles arrested and placed in jail. 19 In the middle of the night an angel of the LORD appeared to the apostles and opened up the gates of the prison. The angel encouraged them saying, 20 "Tomorrow, go to the temple and continue to teach the people about this new Life you have in Jesus." 

 

            Peter and John have now been into the court room of the Sanhedrin a number of times since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Each time they receive a warning to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. And each time they go back to their teaching on the next day. Once again, in this passage, they are arrested and placed in the local prison awaiting trial the next day. 

 

            But this time their evening gets interrupted by an angel of the LORD who comes to their aid. He opens the gates of the prison and lets them all go free. There was only one catch, something the apostles were quite comfortable with; they needed to return to the temple the next day to continue teaching about the new life they now had because of Jesus, the Christ.

 

            Think about this for a minute. What does a person gain from being quiet about the good news of Jesus? We might gain friendship with the world; people might like us more. There might be less persecution. On the other hand, what do we have to lose? If we chose to speak up, maybe more people would know Jesus, find His comfort and peace in their lives. To Peter and John, the choice was simple; tell the whole world about Jesus. “We have to obey God’s calling to us. We cannot stop speaking about the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19,20 EBV)

 

Acts 5:21 First thing in the morning they went back to the temple and started teaching the people. The Sadducees gathered together the Council and the Senate and sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail to stand trial before them. 22 The officers found the jail empty and returned to those gathered saying, 23 "The jail was locked securely, and the guards were present, but no one was inside when they opened the doors." 24 The captain of the guards and the religious leaders were not sure what to do next. 25 Just then, someone came to them saying, "The men you arrested yesterday are back in the temple teaching again today." 26 Immediately, the captain took his officers and went to bring the apostles back to the Council once again, being careful not to incite the people.

 

What can we assume that God is doing by having the disciples go through all of these discomforts and difficulties? Why would it be necessary for the followers of Jesus to go through inconveniences in this life? I can think of a few good reasons and all of these reasons have something to do with bearing witness to the love and power of Jesus Christ. 

 

First, the frustration of the religious leaders causes them to bring the disciples back in for questioning more times than they would like, but each time they get to see the power of God in the lives of these fishermen and they get to hear the message of forgiveness and love in the words of Jesus, the Christ.

 

Second, it causes wonder in the minds and hearts of the people watching all these things happen. They see the disciples get arrested for teaching about Jesus and they notice that these men are right back at it the next day. They have to wonder about what the religious leaders think and what they might have said and done to the disciples. I would think the people also began to believe in the power of God that brought these teachers back to the temple, day after day. And I am sure there were rumors floating around the city of Jerusalem. People were growing in their trust of God to be working miracles in their midst. 

 

Third, this experience that Peter and John were going through brought strengthened faith to the other followers. They knew the power of the religious leaders; they had lived in fear of them all their lives. Now, they saw the power of God to be greater. Their confidence was growing. They were ready to share the good news with their friends and neighbors, because they could see the presence of God working in Peter and John. 

 

I remember hearing a speaker talk about the need for Christians to be shock absorbers in life. When bad things come our way, we need to accept what is happening, be resilient, and look forward to the new adventure that God has planned for us. He might be bearing witness through our words and our actions. He might be having the people who are watching us, grow in their wonder and their belief in God. And He might well be using our experience to bring confidence to our fellow believers so they too might live their life to witness of the wonders of knowing Jesus, the Christ. 

 

So, I encourage all of us to suffer for Jesus, openly and willingly. Whether it be direct persecution or an opportunity to endure some of the small inconveniences of life. People are watching the way we handle ourselves in the midst of difficult situations.  Paul says, “We are now called to be ambassadors for Jesus, where God uses us to appeal to the world on His behalf to be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20 EBV) 

 

I see an ambassador as being a person who represents their homeland when they are visiting a foreign country. When the people in that country see us, they form opinions about what life is like in our homeland. It is true of Christians as well. We are foreigners in this world since our homeland is in heaven. When people watch us, they form opinions about our homeland. Is heaven real? Is Jesus still alive? Is there a God who cares? 

 

They want to know, is our faith in Jesus making a positive difference in our lives and our relationships. In college, when we traveled to other schools to support our sports teams, we used to chant, “Everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are, so we tell them, we’re the vaqueros, mighty, mighty, vaqueros.” We stand together as followers of Jesus and we want everyone to know about our mighty, mighty, Jesus.  

 

 Acts 5:27 The high priest spoke to them, 28 "We charged you yesterday to never again speak in this name, and yet you continue to speak your stories and you keep trying to say it was our fault because we killed this man." 29 Peter and the others responded, "God is the one we take our orders from, not other men. 30 "The God of our fathers raised up this Jesus, whom you ordered to be put to death using the style of Roman crucifixion. 31 "God has exalted Him to sit at His right hand, to be the Prince and Savior of mankind, and  to encourage repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all people. 32 "We have witnessed these things take place and we are currently following the leading of the Holy Spirit whom God has given to help us.”

  

The real issue the leadership is concerned about is not the miracle done to the man begging beside the Beautiful Gate of the temple. The crux of the matter is the message about Jesus, whom the religious leaders had put to death. The leaders ordered Peter and John not to speak in the name of Jesus and the disciples continued to preach the good news and talk about the way the leaders did not recognize the Messiah when He had come. 

 

The movie “The Passion of the Christ” produced, co-=written, and directed by Mel Gibson brought both wonder to many who watched it. At the same the movie brought persecution to Mel Gibson and to many who claimed that the movie was an accurate portrayal of what the leaders of Israel at the time did to Jesus, God’s Messiah for the world. The issue is not the miracle, it is the message. It is the power of the name of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

 

The apostles are not pointing fingers at the leaders or the people. They are only stating the facts, and then quickly turning to the solution, God forgives. Peter’s message, if we were to go back and look through the three sermons we have recorded in the early chapters of the Book of Acts, is straight forward. We serve the God of Israel, the only true God. He sent Jesus to the world for our benefit and we killed Him. But God made Him our Savior, and He gives us forgiveness of sins and fullness of life. We are His witnesses, and we have the evidence of the Holy Spirit to prove for us, “that God has made this Jesu, you crucified, both LORD and Messiah. (Acts 2:36 EBV)

 

One of the difficulties we face in our society is complacence. We have lost our urgency to tell others about Jesus. The message that a person will spend eternity separated from God does not seem to matter to people who do not believe in God in the first place and if they do believe, they think all religious and good people will get to heaven anyway. Do we stop teaching because of these conditions in which we live? I hope not. But we should ask ourselves, do we suffer in any way because of our speaking in the name of Jesus? What kinds of things keep us from telling our story of the living faith we have with Jesus? 

 

Paul said, “When I preach the good news to people, I am not able to boast at all because I have to preach, I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to speak. If I do not preach this message, I will feel completely distraught.” (1 Corinthians 9:16 EBV) I wonder if each one of us could say the same thing.

 

Acts 5:33 The religious leaders were surprised by their answer and wanted to kill the apostles on the spot because of their accusation. 34 Before they could do anything, a Pharisee and a teacher of the law, Gamaliel, spoke. He was well thought of by all the people. He asked the leaders to have the apostles escorted from the room for a moment. 35 Then he said, "I think we should be careful what we do at this juncture. 36 "Do you remember when Theudas claimed to be special and almost 400 people followed him and his teaching. Then he was killed, and nothing happened because all of his followers went back to their homes. 37 "Then there was Judas of Galilee, around the time of the census, he gathered a good number to follow him. But he perished and they went back to their homes. 38 "I suggest in this present situation, we should leave these people alone. If their plan is from men, as we believe it is, then they will soon be gone, and nothing will come of it. 39 "But if it is from God, as they claim, there is nothing we can do about it. I don't want to be fighting against God."

40 The religious leaders listened to this advice and agreed. They called the apostles back into the room, whipped them, and again ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus. And they let them go.

 

Gamaliel taught a number of followers in the ways of Judaism. We could call him a professor with a school where he influenced many students. The most famous student that we know was a young man named Saul. The Book of Acts is mostly about his conversion and ministry. This gives us some background on the apostle we call Paul. His teacher had a voice in the Sanhedrin, a voice that the religious leaders listened to. 

 

This might help us understand how later in the Book of Acts, Saul, a mere teenager was given authority by this body of leaders to lead the temple guard on a crusade against the followers of Jesus. Clearly Saul did not like Gamaliel’s advice and he became zealous to destroy the movement of the apostles and the followers of Jesus. 

 

Gamaliel’s advice is something we might want to look at for our own lives. When things come our way that we do not like, we might want to ask the following questions. “What should I do it this is not from God? How can I pray to let Him take care of things? What should I do if this is from God? How can I pray to let Him take care of things? 

It seems to me, our question should always be the same, “How can I pray to let Jesus take care of things?”

 

Acts 5:41 They left the Council filled with joy realizing they had just experienced what it meant to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. 42 But they did not stop talking about Him, not in the temple, or from one house to the next. Jesus the Messiah was the center of all their teaching and preaching. 

 

Jesus was willing to suffer for me, ought I not be willing to suffer for Him. And I hope I will never stop talking about Him, everywhere I go. 

 

I bless you in the name of Jesus, with the conviction of what Jesus has done for you, with the boldness to tell your story to others, and with the patience to give the Holy Spirit time to bring lasting influence into other people’s lives.

Pastor Edd