The Council Brings the Apostles to Trial - 4:1-(7)22

Acts 4:1-7

1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

So far, what we have is that Luke makes it obvious that both waves of persecution were initiated by the Sadducees. They were the ruling class, who were politically in bed with the Romans, but theologically they believed that the Messianic age had begun in the Maccabean period, so they were not looking for this Messiah, and therefore the Apostles were causing fractures throughout their popularity and control. Due to this, they saw the apostles as both instigators and heretics and enemies. Therefore, led by the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, they arrested them and put them in custody, however what we see is that even though the aposltes circumstances were not perfect, even though they were being wrongly accused, they were more concerned with the mission of God than they were their security, safety, and circumstances, as it says, "...many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand..."

What does this have to do with us, I mean this is hard to relate: 5,000 men saved in one day; having your life threatened by the leading authorities of the day; confronting the culture and popular beliefs of the day...Dang, how do we even begin to relate?

I think the first thing we must do is to allow it to shine a spot light on our lives. In a nutshell the apostles were hunted down for boldly preaching and living the gospel of Jesus; not only were they already poor, but they end up graduating from poor to middle-eastern prison; instead of griping out God, getting mad and overwhelmed by their circumstances, they see it as a new platform given to the by God to continue serving the lost int he name of Jesus!

Now let me compare that to my life:

1. Preaching the gospel, well if you want to hear a somewhat close rendition of that, you'll have to show up on a Sunday, I'm too concerned with popularity and acceptance.
2. Choosing my negative change of circumstances as a platform to minister to different people, what are you crazy?! I begin to doubt God when I don't know how I'm gonna buy $11 pounds of coffee eac month, I mean c'mon God, you've heard of the prosperity deal, I will go to church, be moral, pray a lot, speak uber positive, and you have to bless me, in fact, I'll remind you of your word if you don't just to prove you haven't been keeping up with your end of the deal.
3. Confronting the culture of idolatry, are you kidding me, I've already said I care way to much about being accepted, and by the way, you may have heard of it, S-E-E-K-E-R S-E-N-S-I-T-I-V-E, isn't that the trick, try to be just like the culture so they will fall in love with the one who came to change their culture - that makes sense, no, not really.

So, I guess, to even begin to get this text, I'm gonna confront what I don't understand by being transparent:

• I don't want to give up my security, my comfort, and my way of doing things...
• I really don't want to confront the popular and accepted culture of my day...
• I kind of thing God owes me comfort for following him...
• I'm a bit scared of what may be required of me if I jump in feet first...
• What if I don't say the right things and fumble all over my words...

So, first, lets hit pause and rest a bit, and unload the pressure, remember these same apostles are the same disciples who ditched Jesus at a time of crisis, lied about their association with him, and cared more about places of honor, than the sacrifice of thier savior. I get that, and can relate to that. So, instead of reading this passage and getting overwhelmed with a sermon that convicts over 5,000 people, is it possible that you and I can begin to intentionally, in the little lives we live right now, begin to care more about the mission of God than we do about acceptance, comfort, culture or my circumstances?

I think the answer is, "Yes!" BUT, I think we have to be intentional about it or else our normal mode of western living will naturally creep back in...So how do we do this:

• Preaching the Gospel - This one scares the heck out of most of us, but what if we began to read the Bible looking for the story of Jesus, rather than our self-help remedies all the time? What if we began to feed our spirits daily with scirpture? What if it began to be apart of our daily life, and we began to trust that God would actually guide us when we were presented with the opportunity to message the very truth that has so changed us? I think it starts as we make Jesus the reason for everything, and His glory the focus of everything, when we begin to live certain lives, have victory over certain issues, and simply fall in love with the gospel of God, then it will saturate the way we live and what we say. So let me challenge you to first begin to live it out loud, live your life as if you really believe the gospel, and then ask God to give you the opportunity to message it, and I promise, there is no better feeling than this...
• See God in Control of my Circumstances - It's easy let this one get us off track from the mission of God. But here is the deal, nothing happens that God isn't aware of, you are his child, and like Job he may allow negative circumstances to come against you, but like Job, if we continually see God as the one in control, even if we don't understand the result in our lives will be two things: (1) Through Job's hard time he was being purified and sanctified to be more like God and learn more of his great ways. (2) When we see God as the one who is in control, and get our eyes off of us then we may just realize that God is giving you a new platform, environment, or culture to live and proclaim the greatness of who he is. We see this in the life of the apostles. When they ran in fear during the arrest and crucifixion of Christ, they did it because they were worried about self, but here we see them go into prison, convincingly and confidently proclaiming the Jesus they had once ran from. Why? Because their eyes were off of self, and now on Jesus, this is what happens when we daily saturate our lives with the gospel of Jesus!
• Confronting Culture - We live in a culture that values self, materialism, success by numbers, zip codes, etc, etc...The reason the Sadduccees didn't like the apostles were because the confronted the culture that supported and valued their way of life. When you begin to live out truth in the face of deceit and lies, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out justice in a culture of injustice, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out love in a culture so steered by lust, you will be challenged. When you begin to live out hope in a culture so controlled by fatalism you will be challenged. When you live out generosity, in a culture that is all about selfish ambition, you will be challenged. In fact, I would dare say, if you want to put in situations in which you will talk about the gospel of Jesus, then begin to live a counter cultural life, and the platform will be given to to proclaim the gospel of Jesus!