One, the Bible needs to tell us the story about Ananias and Sapphira.
Let's go back just a couple verses though to get the context here.
It says in verse 36 of chapter 4, so just go back two verses.
Acts 4, 36, and Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas,
which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite,
and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it,
and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
So the Bible's just telling us about a man who was very generous.
He had some land, he sold it, he brought the money, he laid it at the apostles' feet.
Well, in verse number 1 of chapter 5, we start to read about this other man, Ananias,
with his wife Sapphira, who decided that they want to copy this guy.
They want to get some of the glory that this guy got,
and their heart's not in the right place here.
They're not trying to give to the church just because they're trying to give to God
and they're trying to be a blessing to the church,
but rather, they're just trying to get the glory and the accolades,
so they want to do the same thing that this other man had done,
but they decided, you know, we don't want to give all the money to God,
so let's just say that we're giving it all, we'll sell the land,
everybody will think that that's how much we sold it for,
and then everybody will think that we gave 100%, like we said we would.
So it says in verse number 1,
but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife,
sold the possession and kept back part of the prize,
his wife also being privy to it, meaning she knew about it,
and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost
and to keep back part of the price of the land?
Walls that remained, was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not of thine own power?
Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God.
So what I want you to see here, what Peter's saying in verse 4 when he says,
Walls that remained, was it not thine own?
And after it was sold, was it not of thine own power?
What he's trying to tell him is you didn't have to give anything to the church.
It's not that you had to give that money.
You know, if you sell land, it's not like you're obligated to give 100% of the money to church.
But what happened was these people had lied about it.
That was the problem.
They said that they had sold this land and were giving it all to the church
because they were trying to get the glory and praise of men,
when in reality they had kept that part and only brought part of the money.
So they could have just sold it, brought part of the money, been honest about it.
Everything would have been fine.
Or they could have just not sold it and just kept the land for themselves.
It was in their own power.
They could have done whatever they want with it.
And that's why Peter's saying, Why would you do this?
Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?
And it says in verse number 5,
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost.
And great fear came on all them that heard these things.
Now, I'll say, I mean, think about it.
A guy comes in and says, Hey, I'm bringing this money.
I want to give it to church.
And everybody's thinking, Oh man, this guy's great.
This guy's so generous.
But God revealed unto Peter somehow that this wasn't really what was happening.
The Holy Spirit showed this to Peter.
So Peter, probably to the shock of everyone,
instead of commending this guy, instead of thanking him and blessing him in the name of the Lord,
he basically just begins to chew the guy out and call him a liar
and tell him that he wasn't bringing everything.
And then the guy just falls over dead before he can even answer anything.
That'd be pretty scary.
And that's why it says, Great fear came upon all them that heard these things.
Look at verse 6.
And the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him.
And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
She said, Why did she arrive three hours after?
Because it takes women three hours longer to get ready than men.
So they were getting ready for church.
He's down there three hours in advance.
She's still doing her makeup and primping and everything like that.
So she gets there three hours later, not knowing what was done.
She doesn't know what has happened.
And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.
So he's given her a chance to tell the truth, or to lie here.
And she lied. She said, Yea, for so much.
Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost.
And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
Now, just in case anybody thought it was coincidental,
or that maybe Adonias just had a really weak heart or weak stomach,
if somebody starts yelling at him, he just falls over dead.
You know, the exact same thing happened with his wife.
Now nobody can deny that God had stricken these people dead.
Here's what I find funny about this story.
Don't we have this misconception today in America,
that somehow the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament?
Isn't that what people think?
Oh man, in the Old Testament, God's just striking people dead and raining down fire.
But look, isn't that exactly what happened here?
Didn't God strike someone down dead here who had lied about the money that they gave?
Now this story is kind of similar to the Old Testament story of Achan, the son of Carmi,
who in the book of Joshua, when they went into Jericho,
they were not supposed to touch any of the spoils.
It was all to be holy unto the Lord.
They came in and were winning the battle,
but Achan saw that Babylonish garment, that wedge of gold, the town of silver,
he saw, he took, he saw, he coveted, he took, he hid it under his tent,
and again, God's wrath fell.
Now it was different though, because in that story,
God just caused the children of Israel to lose a battle,
which caused, I believe, 32 people to be killed.
But Achan was actually killed by human justice
because Achan and his family were brought to trial and found guilty.
He confessed the whole thing. He was stoned with stones and killed.
And so you can study the Old Testament, you can study the New Testament.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
It's not that God of the New Testament is a Santa Claus
and the Old Testament God was a God filled with wrath.
The Old Testament God was a loving God.
He's always been a loving God. He's always been a gracious God.
How many verses of the Old Testament tell us, you know,
praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever.
The Lord is longsuffering, slow to anger and of great mercy.
I mean, there are hundreds, there are more verses like that in the Old Testament
than there are in the New.
Mainly just because the Old Testament is three or four times as long as the New Testament.
So you've got all kinds of images in the Old Testament of God's love, his mercy, his grace.
And then in the New Testament, you've got God's wrath.
You've got God striking people down dead.
You've got God pouring out his wrath.
Really the most wrathful book in the whole Bible is the book of Revelation.
Found where? In the New Testament.
In fact, the last book in the New Testament.
I mean, you can go as far to the right in your Bible as you want to go
and God is still going to be pouring out his wrath.
I mean, he pours out his wrath from beginning to end in this book
and he's a loving, gracious, merciful God in this book.
It just depends on which side of him you're on.
That's all it is.
Because look at Peter here.
Peter here, who is an apostle or messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Peter here pronounced death upon these people.
I mean, he basically put a curse on her.
Look what he says right here in verse number 9, halfway through.
Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out.
So he prophesies her death and she falls over dead and is carried out.
A little later in the chapter, he's healing all kinds of people.
He's doing all kinds of good deeds. He's helping.
So Peter, much like the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the apostle of Jesus Christ,
basically Peter here has been given power by God to perform a miracle of healing,
to be a blessing to people, to help people.
Or here, he's pretty much the instrument of God's wrath,
carrying out God's sentence of wrath on Ananias and Sapphira.
You see, God is an extremely loving God.
God is love, but we can't just think that God is only love.
You know, there's positive in the Bible and there's negative,
and we see both in the Old Testament and both in the New Testament.
And so here we see a perfect picture with Peter, you know,
pronouncing death upon people who were lying, phony, hypocrites.
And then later on, he's healing and helping people,
and people are trying to get around him, but other people are afraid of him.
Who do you think was afraid of him and who do you think wanted to get around him?
People with a clear conscience wanted to get around Peter.
They're trying to just let the shadow of Peter fall on them.
They're just thinking, man, we got to get close to Peter.
We can get some blessing from him or some healing.
Turn to John chapter 3. We'll come back here to Acts 5.
But go to John 3.
But yet other people are scared to death.
They don't want to.
I forget where it is in the chapter.
It says that, oh yeah, there it is.
Verse number 13.
You're going to John 3. Let me just read for you from Acts 5, 12, 13.
It says,
By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people,
and they were all with one accord in Solomon's ports.
And of the rest, Durst no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified him.
Durst not is the past tense of dared not, would be our modern word there,
for Durst is just an old way of saying it.
There were a lot of people that didn't even dare join that church.
I mean, they dared not join themselves unto them because great fear fell on them
because they didn't want to end up like Ananias.
Other people are pushing and shoving to get in the shadow of Peter.
What's the difference?
Those with a clear conscience.
Those who loved God.
Those who wanted to do the right thing.
They wanted to get there.
Other people who had a bad conscience.
They didn't want the secrets of their hearts to be exposed.
Much like Ananias and Sapphira's evil secret was exposed.
Look at John 3. You pretty much see the same concept.
It says in verse number 19,
And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light.
Did you see that?
Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved,
but neither doeth truth cometh to the light,
that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God.
Bible preaching, the word of God and Bible preaching,
shines a light on sin.
It shines a light on everything.
God's word is a light.
The Bible says the entrance of thy word giveth light.
The Bible says whatsoever maketh manifest is light.
God's word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
And when you go to a church where the Bible is faithfully preached,
some people just want to get away from it
because they don't want to be exposed.
Now I'm not an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I'm not Peter.
I'm not going to call you down and say you're a liar.
You've lied about what you've done.
You've lied about your soul.
You've lied about the offerings.
I'm not an apostle, but you know what?
Bible preaching always exposes.
He said, hey, they don't want to come to the light.
They don't want their sins to be exposed.
You see, there are a lot of things that I did growing up
that I didn't even realize were sins
until I got in a good church and heard some solid preaching,
and until I started reading my Bible,
until I started bathing in the light of God's word,
I said, oh, man, you know, there's all these things in my life
that need to change I didn't even think of.
You see, a lot of people don't like that feeling
because they don't want to change.
They want to continue living in sin.
They want to continue doing wrong, continue doing evil,
and you wonder why they go to these boring, stupid churches
that are just over and over the same thing, repetitive, redundant.
They're not preaching the Bible.
They're not even entertaining to listen to
because it's just the same boring drone every week.
Why do they go there?
Because they go there because they don't want to learn anything new,
because they don't want to hear anything new preached,
because they don't want to find out
that there's something in their life that needs to change.
They want to stay the same,
and they can just get comfortable in a boring, lame, watered-down church
and just go there once a week, put on a smile, sit through it,
do their time, but this church, Faithful Word Baptist Church,
is shining a light because we want you to change.
I need to change. You need to change.
We're not perfect. None of us have a right,
and we need God's Word to shine the light on our lives
so that we can clean up our lives,
and so we should be the type that gravitates toward the light.
We should be like a moth that flies toward that light
and not shunning the light,
and there are two kinds of people in this world.
Those who want to be in the light, they're not afraid to be exposed.
They want to grow.
They want to learn what faults they have so that they can improve and do better,
and then there are the phony hypocrites
who want to just pretend that they have everything right,
and so they're afraid. They're scared to come to the light,
and that's what we see in Acts 2.5. Go back there.
We saw a lot of people that are not even daring to go to that church
when they hear that story.
Other people are saying,
Wow, look at the power of God. Let's get down there.
Let's get in the front row.
Let's let the shadow of Peter fall upon us.
So you see just a really stark contrast here
both in what God is doing.
God's killing people, and then a few minutes later,
God's healing people,
and then we see people scared to go there,
other people begging to go there.
That's the division that always comes
when God's Word is there being preached in mighty power.
There are those who want to hear it.
There are those who don't.
There are those who want to go to that church.
There are those who don't,
and that's what we see in Acts 2.5 here.
So all these signs and wonders are being wrought by the apostles.
You say, Pastor, why do you not do...
I don't know what the present tense of wrought is.
Does anybody know?
I don't even know if there is a present tense for that,
but why don't you work all these miracles and signs,
Pastor Anderson,
or I want to work all these miracles and signs.
Hold on a second.
Think about this now.
Who does it say did the miracles?
Look at verse 12.
Who's doing the miracles?
Call it out to me.
The apostles.
The apostles, right?
Now, do you remember how Jesus,
He called unto them, 12.
Later, He called unto them, 70.
He called them apostles.
He laid His hands on them,
and He gave them power against unclean spirits.
He gave them power over sickness and disease.
It was a special anointing that He only gave them.
I mean, He laid hands on them and gave them a special power,
and before that, they didn't have that power.
They went out and preached.
They came back shocked.
Even the devils are subject to that.
Even the spirits are subject.
And they've done all these miracles,
and they've done all these signs,
and it was an amazing thing.
Now, can God still do miracles today?
Absolutely.
But hold on a second.
Who was the greatest man that was ever born of a woman,
according to the Bible?
John the Baptist.
And how many miracles did John the Baptist do?
None.
The Bible actually says that this is what they said of John
after he was beheaded.
John did no miracle.
Remember that scripture in the book of John?
It said John did no miracle,
yet all things that he said of this man were true.
So not everyone has the same calling here.
God used the apostles at that time in a special way
where He gave them this power
where they could lay hands on the sick
and cause them to recover,
much as Jesus Himself did.
Did He give that power to everybody?
No, He didn't give it to John the Baptist.
And really, you read through the Old Testament,
you see a lot of miracles,
but you're really reading stories
of hundreds and hundreds of years of lapsing.
You know, there are hundreds,
you know, every few hundred years,
there's a miracle every hundred years.
So if you break it down,
it's not like miracles will just happen.
Every day, every day,
healing lines all throughout the Old Testament.
It's just a few people that Elisha healed miraculously
because I don't believe that Elisha had this power
that the apostles had.
Did Elisha heal someone?
Yes.
Did Elisha raise a dead body back to life?
Yes, he did.
But did he have this power that the apostles had
where they could continually just lay hands on people
and do all these signs and whatnot?
These were people who were given a special ability,
a special calling, a special name
where Jesus Himself laid hands on them
and gave them this power.
You say, are there apostles today?
No, there are not.
According to 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul was the last apostle.
As one born out of due time,
he said that he was the Johnny-come-lately apostle
because he was the final apostle.
And that's clear.
And so, no, I do not believe that there are apostles today
because the apostles were those who had been with them
from the resurrection of John.
If you read Acts 1,
when they were choosing a replacement apostle
for Judas Iscariot,
he said he had to have been with them
from the baptism of John
and with Jesus throughout
and been there when Jesus rose from the dead
and seen Him resurrected.
There's nobody alive today, obviously,
that was baptized by John and saw Jesus Christ
after He'd risen from the dead.
So, no, there are not any apostles today.
Can God perform miracles?
Yes, but is He just performing them every day
down at the Assemblies of God church
where they teach that you can lose your salvation
and speak in tongues and roll on the floor?
No, He's not.
If He's going to perform anywhere,
it's going to be,
He's going to use a saved person
to perform that miracle.
He's not going to use some phony heretic false speech.
That would be lying signs and wonders
empowered by the devil,
if you see that.
If it's coming from a false prophet,
it's Satan working in him.
Only if the doctrines are scriptural and biblical
can you say,
hey, this is the power of God.
This is the Spirit of God.
And so we saw those signs and wonders.
Verse 13, a lot of people were afraid
to even be around these Christians
because they heard these stories.
But then it says in verse 14,
and believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes of both men and women.
So a lot of people are getting saved.
A lot of people are believing.
Notice the emphasis there.
They're believers.
They're getting saved.
And so much that they brought forth
the sick into the streets
and laid them on beds and couches, verse 15,
that at least the shadow of Peter passing by
might overshadow some of them.
There came also a multitude
out of the cities round about under Jerusalem
bringing sick folks,
and them which were vexed with unclean spirits
and they were healed to every one.
Then the high priest rose up,
and all they that were with them,
which is the sect of the satuocese,
and were filled with indignation
and laid their hands on the apostles
and put them in the common prison.
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 light.
So they're thrown in jail.
They're arrested
because of the fact that the satuocese,
who were a total false religion in Judaism,
religion that rejected Christ,
did not believe in heaven and hell,
did not believe in resurrection of the dead,
they didn't like the fact that
these guys are doing all these miracles,
these mighty works, preaching the word of God,
preaching in the name of Jesus.
So they think they're going to stop them
by putting them in jail.
So they throw them into jail.
Well, God sends his angel in the middle of the night,
just opens the jail door and lets him out.
That's pretty cool.
There are so many jail breaks in the book of Acts.
It's amazing.
But he just lets them out.
And he tells them,
Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people
all the words of this light.
And when they heard that,
they entered into the temple early in the morning,
you know, first thing, and taught.
But the high priest came and they were with them
and called the council together
and all the senate of the children of Israel
and sent to the prison to have them by.
You know, this is so funny.
They get their courtroom all together,
they bring in the whole senate,
they bring in all the leaders,
all the people, they get it all set up,
you know, all right, let's bring in these prisoners,
you know, and then they're just gone.
And then they're trying to figure out,
where are they?
They're like, well, the door's shut,
the door's locked, we don't know where they went.
You know, they're looking at the jailer,
thinking that he's done something.
And they're just in doubt of what this is.
And it says in verse number 24,
Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple
and the chief priests heard these things,
they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.
Then came one and told them, saying,
Behold, the men whom he put into prison
are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
Then went the captain with the officers
and brought them without violence,
for they feared the people lest they should have been stoned.
Because the people are really magnifying them
because of the thing about Ananias and Sapphira,
some of the other miracles that they've seen.
They're afraid to do anything vile with these guys,
so they just kind of go in there
and just usher them away.
They don't, you know, put the handcuffs on too tight
or anything like that.
And so it says in verse number 27,
When they brought them, they sent them before the council,
and the high priest asked them, saying,
Did not we straightly command you
that you should not teach them this name?
And behold, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine
and intended to bring this man's blood upon us.
Now, first of all, isn't it amazing
how they just assume they're going to be obeyed?
Like they're God or something, you know, just,
Oh, what are you doing?
Didn't we tell you not to?
I mean, maybe before we tell you
why we were preaching after you told us not to,
you can explain to us how we got out of that jail.
You know what I mean?
And then decide who we should obey.
You know, the guy who let us out of jail
or the guy who put us in jail, okay?
And notice what else he said.
He said, Did not we straightly command you
that you should not teach in this name?
What name? Jesus.
You know what?
There are so many people today who avoid the name of Jesus
in public affairs in the world.
And it's amazing.
Sometimes we as Christians are so stupid
that we'll hear a quote that just says God
and we think, Oh, wow, this person's really exalting
Jesus Christ and the Bible and the Word of God,
really Christianity.
Let me give you the first few letters of Christianity.
Christ.
It's not Godianity.
It's Christianity.
And you know, just because somebody believed
that there's one God,
that does not make them Christian.
And a lot of times you'll hear all kinds of quotes
even whether it's presidents of the past
or presidents of the present.
And they'll get up and say,
Oh, God bless America and God this
and the Almighty and the Creator.
But isn't it amazing how often they avoid that word Jesus?
Because they want to keep it open-ended.
They want the Muslims to be able to feel like
they're part of that.
They want anybody who just has a vague, disrespectful,
whatever, vague reference to a supreme.
I'm so sick of this term.
A supreme being.
What a supreme being?
How about the Lord Jesus Christ?
How about mentioning the name that's above every name
that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things on earth and things on the earth
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord of the glory of God.
You know, I'll be impressed when I hear
our political leaders get up and quote the King James Bible
and pray and say,
In Jesus' name, amen, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the creator of this world
instead of just a vague the creator.
You know, just a vague God.
A vague the Almighty.
You know, those are all great terms.
I'm all for the term God, the Almighty, the Lord.
But you know what? There's a name that's above every name.
There's a name that they didn't want.
Now, let me ask you this.
Would these same people have been offended
if they would have been teaching just about God?
No.
Would they have been offended
if they would have just taught about the Lord?
Would these people have been offended
if they were just preaching Jehovah?
Not at all.
Those are all great names, and those all need to be taught.
You say, why would you be against a person
preaching just by God, the Lord's hope?
Because what's wrong with most preaching today, my friend,
it's not what preachers say that's wrong.
It's what they won't say.
And you can't omit things from the message
and call yourself a real spirit-filled preacher.
These guys are not going to tone down their preaching.
And they've already been arrested multiple times.
They keep assaulting them on a few points.
They say, number one, quit using the name of Jesus.
No more preaching in Jesus' name.
It needs to be just more generalized.
And number two, here's their big thing
that they didn't like about it.
They said, we command you not to teach in this name.
He says, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine.
That should be a challenge to us.
We need to fill Phoenix and fill Tempe
with the Bible's doctrines.
And yes, we can do that today.
That's the Holy Spirit of God that they had.
He said, you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine
and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
Here's the other thing that they hate.
Peter keeps preaching.
He preached in chapter 2 that they killed Jesus.
He preached in chapter 3 that they killed Jesus.
He preached in chapter 4.
You killed Jesus.
Three chapters in a row.
Chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4.
That's what these guys are upset about.
Well, they didn't really need to preach that.
They could have just preached on love
and just preached the positive side of it,
faith in Christ, being saved.
But you know what?
They needed to hear the truth
and the people needed to hear spelled out
who was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.
It's something that the Bible emphasizes
over and over again
that they were the murderers of Jesus.
And so it says here,
you intend to bring this man's blood upon us,
then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,
we ought to obey God rather than man.
Now, it's interesting because back in chapter 4,
they said this,
whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you
more than unto God, judge ye.
You know, they said, hey, should we obey you or obey God?
But by chapter 4, they're sick of it.
And they just say, you know what?
We ought to obey God rather than man.
And then look at the next thing they say.
Tell me if these guys were the preachers of today,
afraid to preach what needs to be preached.
They could have preached anything.
They could have said anything.
They could have just shared a loving message.
But instead of sharing a loving message, my friend,
here's what they say.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus
whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
Do you see how they preached exactly what they were told not to preach?
Do you see that?
Did they change their message at all?
They were told, don't preach in the name of Jesus.
They were told, don't bring this man's blood on us.
Quit bringing up the fact that we were the ones that put him to death,
but that was going to haunt them and haunt them.
And today as they're burning in hell, it's still haunting them
that they are the ones who shouted out, crucify him,
and said, his blood be on us and on our children.
And they're trying to get away from that curse.
They're trying to not be reminded of God's judgment
that's hanging over their head.
Hey, they're only one breath from hell,
only one heartbeat from hell.
They're in hell today, the Sadducees.
They're rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they're afraid of that.
They don't want to hear that.
They don't want to be reminded of that.
But you know what?
Peter and the other apostles just stood up and said,
you know what, we're not afraid of you.
We're going to preach what God told us to preach.
And by the way, did I mention that you killed Jesus?
Did I mention that you slew and hanged on a tree?
Did I mention that his name is Jesus Christ,
the God of our fathers, verse 30,
raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree,
him that God exalted with his right hand
to be a prince and a savior, and to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins.
And we are his witnesses of these things.
And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God
had given to them that obey him, verse 33.
When they heard that, they were cut to the heart
and took counsel to slay them.
Today we have preachers that are much better than this.
The early church really had it bad with Peter and John
preaching to them.
I mean, these guys are idiots, aren't they?
I mean, look at them.
This mean-spirited message, this negative preaching,
not obeying the government.
I mean, thank God today we have independent fundamental Baptist
preachers that are so much better than Peter and John.
They have so much more wisdom.
They're so much more loving and kind.
But yet, these are the men who turned the world upside down.
Now, were they perfect?
No.
But at least they had a backbone.
Amen.
You know what I mean?
No preacher is perfect.
You know what I mean?
Nobody in the Bible is perfect except the Lord Jesus Christ.
But hey, at least these guys had a backbone.
At least these guys could take the heat.
At least these guys could sound.
You've got to put yourself in their shoes.
Don't just read over this.
Picture yourself in the United States Senate.
You know, this is the Senate of all the children of Israel.
Put yourself in the Senate.
Put yourself with all the top people.
Put yourself with all the head government.
Put yourself in handcuffs.
Put yourself in this position.
Put yourself on trial where they're
taking counsel to slay them.
I mean, this isn't just going to be a misdemeanor.
This is, we're going to put you to death.
And these men, hands behind their back handcuffs
or however they were, stood up there and said,
you know what?
Let me say it again.
You killed Jesus.
And Jesus Christ is the Lord.
He's the Savior.
He was raised from the dead.
You're the liar.
And we'll stand up and boldly proclaim that
and have no fear of it.
Because the Bible says, guys, not giving us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound life.
These guys had the backbone.
You know, did they do everything perfect?
I don't know.
I'm not going to sit here and worry about that
or judge what they did.
I like the story.
I like the way they handled it.
You know what I mean?
And I know they had a backbone.
I know these are the guys that God handpicked
to be his apostles and to be his disciples for a reason.
He had multitudes following him.
He picked certain people.
He picked certain people that he liked.
Just like he picked David.
David said he liked me.
He actually used the word.
He liked me.
He chose me to sit on his throne
because I was a man after his own heart.
And he was a bold man.
He was a powerful man.
And so God used these men mightily
because they had the backbone to preach today
what needed to be preached.
But where do we have that?
We need to have a generation of preachers rise up
with more of a backbone.
That's right.
That's what we need today.
But he says here at the end of this preaching, he says,
when they heard that, they were cut to the heart
and took counsel to slay them.
Verse 34, then stood there up one in the council,
a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law
and in reputation among all the people
and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space.
So here's the guy who is the most respected preacher.
I mean, this is the guy.
You remember Gamaliel is the guy
who Paul is later going to be bragging.
Hey, I was taught by Gamaliel.
You remember that?
It brings that up a lot.
I was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel.
Gamaliel is the one who taught me the Bible.
Talking about when he was in the Jews, false religion.
He said, I profited in the Jews religion
above bending my equals in my own nation.
But then he got saved.
Then he started serving Jesus Christ.
But this was Paul's teacher, Gamaliel.
This man Gamaliel was a very popular preacher.
It says he was a doctor of the law.
So this guy's got all kinds of great titles behind his name.
Is he saved?
No, he's not saved.
This guy does not believe that Jesus Christ
was the son of God.
He does not believe that Jesus died for his sins.
He's teaching Paul everything that's false
and false doctrine that Paul
ignorantly followed until he got saved.
So this guy Gamaliel has got all the titles.
He's got the reputation among all the people.
And he's a doctor and a lawyer.
And he's got everything.
And he commanded to put the apostles forth
a little space.
Always everything to be done and seek
right behind closed doors.
We don't want them to know what we're saying.
The apostles don't care who's listening.
They just tell the truth and whatever.
Let the chips fall where they may.
But this guy says, let's have them go out of the room here.
And listen to the wisdom of man.
This is man's wisdom.
This is not a man of God speaking.
This is not God's word that he's speaking.
This is an unsaved man giving his wisdom.
And he's going to compare Jesus to some guy
named Theudas that nobody's ever even heard of.
Who's ever heard of Theudas?
Who's ever known of someone who named their child Theudas?
You know, it's just an unknown name, an unknown guy.
He says, and said unto them,
You men of Israel, take heed to yourselves
what ye intend to do is touching these men.
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 up.
This is like when people today try to compare
Christianity to other religions.
Well, the Muslims think they're right.
They're following Mohammed Theudas or whatever.
You know, maybe they're not a Buddhist,
but they're a Theudas, Buddhist.
And the Buddhists, they think they're right.
The Muslims, they think they're right.
I mean, how can you compare Christianity
to these other religions?
But that's what this guy's doing.
Oh yeah, Jesus, that's kind of like this guy Theudas.
Okay, look how many people Theudas has following him.
About four hundred guys.
How many people did Jesus have following him?
Like tens of thousands of people?
Multitudes of other men.
He did all these miracles.
He died, was buried, and rose again.
This guy Theudas just took a bunch,
he took four hundred guys out
and formed some militia out in the wilderness.
He takes them out in the wilderness,
and he's doing like a survival thing with them.
And he dies, and then everybody scatters.
So this guy Gamaliel is just comparing it
like people would compare it to.
Oh, you know, the Muslims think they're right.
You know, Christianity's in every country in the world.
Did you know that?
The Bible is translated into all languages,
all over the world, all nations, all countries, all continents.
I mean, if somebody's a Muslim, you know where they're from.
They're either from the Middle East or they're from Indonesia.
That's a pretty safe bet right there.
There are little pockets here and there,
but you know that ninety-nine percent of them
are coming from one part of the world.
You know that the Hindus are all coming from India.
You know that the Buddhists are going to be in Southeast Asia.
You know that the Jews are Asian.
Christianity is a religion that is all over the world, okay?
It's funny, you can go places where you'll never find a Mormon.
I mean, I lived outside Chicago for years,
went soul-willing for several hours a week, and never,
not even once did I ever remember running into a Mormon.
And I would try to tell other soul leaders,
yeah, I knocked on this Mormon's door.
And they're like, huh?
You know, because I'm talking about back when I was in California.
People literally are saying, what's a Mormon?
Because it's just unknown.
And I was just talking to somebody from New York
that said the same thing, unknown.
And that's where it started.
But there's a part of New York you say never even heard of, never seen it.
Christianity is everywhere.
You find safe people everywhere, every nation, every tongue, every language.
It's the best-selling book in the world, the Holy Bible,
the most known book, the most recognizable name in the world, Jesus Christ.
Everyone has heard that name.
Everyone knows that name if they know any famous name.
That is the name that's above all names.
And they'll try to compare it to some guy who was married to a nine-year-old
named Mohammed when he was 40 years old, okay?
And they're going to compare that pedophile, Thuddus,
you know, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's unbelievable, but this is the wisdom of the world,
the scholarship of this Dr. Gamaliel.
He knows everything, right?
You know, remember through this?
He boasted himself to be somebody.
Jesus wasn't boasting himself to be somebody.
Jesus was somebody.
It says, all that obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught.
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.
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 even to fight against God.
Now, is that really true?
Is that really true that if it were not of God, it would come to naught?
Because I can tell you of some cult leaders that died,
and look at the Latter-day Saints, right?
I mean, Joseph Smith died.
Was that of God?
Did it come to naught?
No.
The founders of the Jehovah's false witnesses, they died.
Their religion didn't come to naught,
because Satan loves to use people like that to start these damnable religions.
You've got to be careful when you're reading the Bible.
When some unsaved guy is preaching against God's people,
standing up in an assembly, condemning God's people,
because next thing, they're going to follow Damaliel's advice,
but they're also going to beat them and threaten them not to preach in that name.
This guy's not of God.
This guy's not trying to step in and save these people.
He's trying to cover for his own reputation.
He said, hey, we don't want to, you know, we've got to be careful how we handle this.
Not like, what's right?
What's the right thing to do?
Just, oh, we better be careful how we handle this.
He says, you know, I say to you, refrain from these men and let them alone.
For if this council or this work be of men, it will come to naught.
That's not true.
You know, that's not God talking.
That's Damaliel talking, who's a false teacher, who's an unsaved man.
And it says, but if it be of God, he cannot overthrow it.
Lest happily he be found even if I...
So he's just like, maybe these people are right.
You know, maybe Christianity is right.
Well, I thought you're Mr. Doctor of the Law.
Tell us whether it's right or not.
He's just trying to kind of have it both ways, though, isn't he?
He's kind of just trying to stand there and just ride the fence.
Hey, I'm not saying, you know, maybe it'll turn out it's right, maybe it's not, you know,
but let's just beat him up and just see what happens.
Let's beat him for a while and see if it turns out to be another Theudas, Judas, or Buddhas, or whatever, you know, whatever it is.
And so, you know, he names all these rhyming false teachers.
And he says in verse 40, and to him they agreed.
Oh, wow, you're so smart, Damaliel.
So they agreed with them, and when they called the apostles and beaten them,
they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
Okay, so it sounds like they're agreeing with him,
yet they're telling people don't preach in Jesus' name and we'll beat you.
Now, it's easy to read over, they beat them.
But when they beat these guys, they beat them pretty bad, you know.
If you look at the Bible, and I don't go to history books and try to figure out what some Bible dictionary says this was,
but when I look at the Bible, you know, the maximum they would beat people was 40 times with stripes.
And so usually they would give people 40 stripes, save one,
because Paul said, you know, that he had received that exact punishment multiple times.
So this was not something that was rare.
A guy who preached the Gospel, like the Apostle Paul, listed off multiple times where he received 39 stripes.
So they probably got beaten with a whip 39 times.
And the reason that it was stripes is because this is leaving a mark.
We're talking about a bloody stripe.
And so these guys were beaten very badly, very painfully.
They were whipped, probably much like Jesus was whipped when he was scourged.
Probably the same thing, 39 stripes.
And so it says here that they had called the apostles and beaten them.
They commanded them.
They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing.
Now, I mean, they experienced pain.
But they rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
So what the Bible is teaching, and then, of course, the great verse, verse 42.
And daily, daily, in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
So they're threatened with beatings.
They're threatened with death.
And yet they will not stop.
They will not stop knocking doors.
So what if the government makes it illegal for us to knock doors?
Are we going to cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ in the temple and in every house?
Are we going to cease?
You know, well, we've got to obey the law.
We'll just pray them in.
We'll just find another way.
You know, we'll just, oh, you know, the government doesn't want us to preach on these certain passages.
Well, you know, there's 1189 chapters.
We'll find something else to preach.
I didn't feel like preaching at it anyway.
I was starting a big series on grace anyway, you know.
The point is, we need to get this down.
God doesn't expect us to stop when we meet opposition.
And sometimes when people run into opposition, they say, oh, I'm out of God's will.
God closed the door.
Sometimes it's Satan that's hindering you.
Paul talked about a lot of things that he wanted to do for God, a lot of people that he wanted to preach to.
He said, I was trying to do it, but Satan hindered us.
It's not always God that's closing the door.
Sometimes it's the devil trying to fight against you.
Sometimes it's just testing and trials that you have to go through.
And so it says here, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
You see, we have it backwards sometimes.
We want to have the accolades.
We want the glory of men.
We want to be Gamaliel.
We want everybody to look up to us and respect us.
And, oh, he's a really respected minister in his community.
Well, it just means that he's a opponent, is all that means.
He's a Gamaliel.
That's all that means.
These guys said, I'd rather be shamed.
And here's the thing.
Shame because they're being publicly beaten.
Think about how embarrassing that would be, right?
To be put on display and you're being publicly beaten.
That's humiliating, isn't it?
I mean, you're in a very weak position.
You're being humiliated.
You're publicly mocked.
But you know what?
They thought that was a blessing because they said, you know what?
We know we're going to be rewarded for this.
We know that God, he said, blessed are ye.
Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
For there's the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye what men shall revile you and persecute you
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad.
He said, so did they to the prophets which were before you.
He said, it just means that you're one of my prophets.
That's all it means.
And so we need to get our priorities right here.
Are we trying to please men or are we trying to please God?
And here they said, hey, I'd rather be shamed.
I'd rather look like a fool.
Paul said, hey, we're fools for Christ.
You know, is that your attitude on the job or at school?
You want to be popular and liked, so maybe you'll tone down your Christian beliefs.
Or maybe you won't get out the Bible or bring the Bible out in the lunchbox.
Or you won't talk about things of God because you want to fit in.
But you know what?
If you're mocked for the name of Christ, happier ye, the Bible says.
Who's ever been mocked?
Have you ever had somebody mock you or make fun of you on the job or at school for being a Christian?
Probably almost everybody at one time or another.
You know, I can remember being a kid on the playground, being mocked for being a Christian
and called names and, you know, called, you know, saint and Christian brother
and, you know, picked on and called all these names.
But you know what?
I think God just blessed me for it.
You know what I mean?
Because so what?
So what if I didn't fit in with the crowd?
So what?
I mean, do you think I'm the most popular preacher in America right now?
Yep.
You're wrong.
I think I'm probably wrong.
Do you think, I mean, do you think that all the preachers around Phoenix just love to be associated with me?
They want to run screaming the other direction.
Why?
Not all of them.
I mean, you know, there are great preachers out there and I have friends and everything.
I promise.
But anyway, but the point is though, you know what though?
They're afraid to be lumped in with somebody who's really telling the truth.
Amen.
Because then they're going to have to suffer a little shame for the cause of the price.
Or they might have somebody say something bad about them or make fun of them.
Because let me tell you, there are a lot of people who say a lot of bad things about this church.
There are a lot of people who don't like this church.
There's a lot of people who quit this church because they can't handle the truth
because there's nothing that I'm preaching that's not straight out of the Bible.
I mean, if there's something that I'm not, that I'm preaching that I didn't put out in this book,
then tell me what it is.
Preaching it straight out of this book and people are just afraid that they want to play it safe.
You know?
It's like when you turn on your computer in safe mode.
Have you ever seen that?
I never do that.
You know at the beginning it says like, do you want to run safe mode?
What is that?
I don't even know what that is.
They're like, it's like safe mode Baptist.
You know, we just got to be safe.
You know, we got to be careful.
It's the Gamaliel.
It's Gamaliel Baptist.
Let's be careful, guys, while we handle this.
Let's be safe about this.
Let's not go one way or the other.
Let's just see how it turns out.
Maybe this will turn out to be another Judas or Judas.
Let's just see what happens.
That's what he's basically saying.
I don't have to wait and see what turns out.
If I listen to a preacher and he preaches something that says, I'm going to say, Amen.
I don't care, you know, what other people think about that.
You know, if I'm sitting in church and I hear the pastor and he preaches something that people don't like,
that's controversial, that doesn't fit in with the crowd or that's not put on the ground,
if I'm looking at my Bible in my lap in front of me and that's what it says, I'm just going to say, Amen.
I don't have to wait and see how it turns out.
You know, safe mode.
Let's play it safe.
Let's be careful.
Let's be Gamaliel.
You know, we need to step out of faith.
Was Peter playing it safe when he stepped down and walked on the water?
You know, were they playing it safe when they stood in the Senate and could have just been killed right there?
Could have just been slain?
You know, sure, God used Gamaliel's dumb statement to probably get them off the hook.
But you know what the bottom line is, they could have just voted and said, let's just kill these guys and see what happens.
But you know, it was really God that was holding their faith and saying, it wasn't stupid Gamaliel.
It was God that kept him alive.
Because God can protect us and keep us safe,
or he can cause us to go to prison or be punished like he did with John the Baptist.
You know, you don't know what's going to happen.
But you just have to trust God.
Don't play it safe.
Just preach the word.
Just do what's right.
Live right.
Live for God and stand up for the truth.
Let's pray our hands and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God, in this great chapter about some great men.
Men, it's hard to live up to the men in this chapter, dear God.
These are the real prophets of God.
These are the real men.
Peter and John are the names that people named their children today, dear God.
Peter and John are the names that go down in history as the great preachers and apostles of our Lord.
And we can see why they were chosen.
Because they had the boldness.
They had the power of God in their lives.
And I pray that we would also have their spirit, dear God.
And that we would have the fullness of the Holy Spirit as they had.
So that we could be used mightily as they did.
You protected them.
You kept them safe.
You kept them out of harm's way.
And I know you can do the same for us, dear God.
Help us to win the souls that they won.
Help us to knock the doors that they won.
They knocked every door, dear God.
Help us to knock every door and to fill our city with your doctrine.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.