I hope that by now, the cycle of Pure Church, Powerful Church, Growing Church, and Persecuted Church is quite apparent.  Last week, we saw the Church survive a possible split or being thrown off task into tackling endless divisions and disputes, temptations to overlook some and overwork others, and a bit of temptation to cultivate some leadership pride.  Small sins, little bits of nothing, one might think, but in the words of the C.S. Lewis character the senior demon Screwtape, in writing to his apprentice and nephew Wormwood about how to keep Christians from the devil’s “Enemy” (God):

“Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them,…You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts”

Distract the Christian into not being a Christian but just a complacent consumer, is the idea.

The leaders in our early Church would have none of that!  They found a prompt solution, and the Church survived.  Even some of the priests took notice and began to believe among a large number of other people!

Especially because of the witness of Stephen who our Bibles recount as the first martyr of the Church.  We meet him today in Acts 6:8 and following.

Our author of Acts, the Gospel-writer Luke, devotes more than 1 ½ chapters out of 28 to Stephen.  For some perspective, in Luke’s Gospel, 1 ½ chapters out of 24 was Jesus’ sentencing, Crucifixion, death, burial, and Resurrection.  So in terms of verbal real estate, Luke gives a lot to Stephen. Why?  Well, he was not only the first martyr of the Church, but he is also a hinge on which the Gospel takes a sharp turn, away from just an outflow and fulfillment of Judaism, but transcends it and extends it to the entire Gentile world.  This critical moment was important to Luke and forms a transition as the Church moves from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and to the very ends of the earth.

So what do we know about Stephen?  Not much about his birth, etc. but we do know a lot about his character and his knowledge of the Scriptures.  Let’s look at Stephen, chosen to be one of the Seven to wait tables from last week:

Acts 6:8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

Stephen had character.  He walked in the grace and power of God.  He even performed signs among the people.  So what do you think happened next?  Pure Church, Powerful Church, Growing Church…yup, Persecution.

Acts 6:9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Stephen was a competent evangelist and apologist for the Christian faith.  You see, Stephen was a Jew completed in Christ.  He understood the Jewish history and mindset, but he had something extra: the Spirit of God who gave him words to say.  That is why arguments failed against Stephen’s wisdom.  The opposition wasn’t opposing Stephen in reality, they were opposing God…just as Gamaliel had talked about a few weeks back.  And going against God is always a losing proposition.

If you can’t beat’em, join‘em is one approach that some of the priests took last week.

Another approach is if you can’t beat’em honestly, beat’em by lying about them.  Our present culture is good at that one.  Lies are everywhere, especially about people who hold to Christian values.  So, since these men in our passage couldn’t win the argument fairly, they’d introduce a little lie or two to undermine Stephen.

Acts 6:11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”

Rewind:  Stephen was chosen as a man full of the Spirit and wisdom (v 3) a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (v 5).  He was a man full of God’s grace and power, doing great wonders and miraculous signs (v 8).  He was a man with wisdom and whose arguments were flawless (v 10).  Why would such a man blaspheme?  But they tried it with Jesus, so they’ll try the same technique with His followers.

Acts 6:12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.

Doesn’t this sound a lot like Jesus’ meeting before Herod and the high priest Caiaphas before His Crucifixion?  Only the ruling wouldn’t be crucify because in the Judean province, they only had power to stone to death, and even that, only for blasphemy (speaking against God, against the Law, and against the temple).  Any crime other than word or deed against the sanctity of the temple required the criminal to appear before the Roman governor, like Pontius Pilate.

So the false witnesses knew exactly what to say:

Acts 6:13 They produced false witnesses, who testified,   “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

That ought to do it, the witnesses and the Sanhedrin must have thought!  Word and deed against the temple, and against the Law and customs of Moses.  But there was one problem: what about Stephen and what about who he was?

Acts 6:15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

I wonder sometimes about what his face looked like.  When you think of an angelic face, what do you think of?  People, in general, I’m guessing might view a face of an angel as sweet and cherubic, like on a Valentine or something.  Pretty.  Peaceful.  Sweet like a child.

I’m not sure Stephen was like that at all.  When I think of angels, I think of powerful beings so pure that their countenance, their faces, glow in awesome power and beauty.  It’s frightening to behold.  That’s why when people see angels, they fall like dead men, they fall down to worship them, and they are greatly afraid. Like how Mary was, or the shepherds in the fields, or John in the book of Revelation.  You don’t mess with angels.

Stephen’s face maybe glowed a lot like Moses’ did in our OT reading from this morning.  He radiated the power of God.  The Sanhedrin looked intently at that.

So what’s going to happen to Stephen?  Well, tune in next week for part 1 of his great speech because far from sweet, peaceful, and Valentines-y, what about Stephen?  He was a powerful apologist for Christianity.  He knew his Bible.  He knew Judaism inside and out.  He knew the Law.  He knew about Moses. And more than anything, he knew the power of a changed life, sold out for Christ.  He’s going to give the Sanhedrin a defense of Messianic fulfillment in Jesus like they didn’t even see from Christ who was silent as a lamb before shearers.  Stephen will give them rock solid Christianity straight to the heart.

So that’s what about Stephen.  What about you and me?

Well, there are a few take home lessons:

1.  Character matters.
   • We’re living in a day and age in which a person’s character is often paper-thin and culture says that’s A-ok.  Well, it’s not.  My character matters.  Your character matters.  We need to be people of integrity.
   • There once was a man who wanted to bring something precious into heaven, so St. Peter at the TSA booth in heaven checked it out with God.  Finally he said, “You’re right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I’m supposed to check its contents before letting it through.” But when St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind, all he saw were gold bars and St. Peter looked confused, exclaiming, “I don’t get it.  You brought pavement?”
   • Gold, silver, an office, a title on a business card.  These things won’t last.  We need to know what truly matters and pavement isn’t it.  When we are godly people, the world can insult us, persecute us, and even kill us, but they can’t take our integrity which is one of 2 things we can bring with us to heaven.  We bring our character and other people by our sharing the Gospel and their having faith in Christ.
   • Make your character so precious that you’re not ashamed to present before the Lord.
2. Second take home lesson is inevitable opposition.
   • You see, if our integrity matters, there will be people out there who will try to strip it from us.  They may falsely accuse us like they did to Stephen.  They may lie about us, gossip about us, and worse, tempt us to give it up out of peer pressure.
   • Culture is against godliness.  It screams at us, “You idiot.  You’re giving up all these pleasures for what?  Life’s short.  Eat dessert first.”  But as the saying goes, sin will always make you go farther than you want to go, want to stay longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.  Sin is deceptive in its allure and our culture loves its sin.  Hollywood and our newspapers thrive off it.
   • God doesn’t, so hold onto your integrity and your character even under the inevitability of opposition and the ridicule the world throws against us.
3. Third take home lesson is to know your Bible.
   • Christianity cannot be a simple veneer over a worldly life.  Because when opposition comes, we need for it to scratch us and still find Christianity there.  We need to be solid wood, not a veneer, in a sense.  Dig deeper and deeper into us and you know what you’ll find?  Rock solid Christian. Not filled with air like those hollow bunnies at Easter that crumble when pressed.
   • There are few things the world cannot stand more than a Christian who speaks with grace and power and will not be shaken.  We get that confidence from knowing our Scriptures.  That’s what Stephen did.
4. And finally, being full of both grace and wisdom is a lovely balance.  The world can’t stand that.
   • Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.  Even smaller people beat up on people discussing ideas.
   • The culture wants to beat up on Christians they see as idiots—especially those who believe in Creation and God–and the culture will take advantage of error when Christians, whether out of naiveté or carelessness, say stupid stuff in the press.  The world will pounce on hypocrisy, poor wording and ignorant thought. Then proceed to rip even nice people to shreds by publicizing it.  Embarrassing actions become the definition of Christian hypocrisy as if that’s the only flavor hypocrisy comes in.  Embarrassing statements get attributed to every Christian, even using the f-word: fundamentalist.  For small minds, talking heads, and vapid reporters, controversial statements somehow require comment from every Christian.  But I am not Todd Akin.  I am not Jim or even Tammy Fae Bakker.  I am not Ted Haggard.  I had nothing to do with anything Rudy Giuliani did or did not say.  I am not responsible for what any other Christian says.  Unless those words are quotes coming straight out of my Bible in which case, yes, I’ll own those.  Being nice alone doesn’t cut it.  Grace and wisdom belong together.
   • We must also check our behavior.  As Christians, we cannot get in the ditch with our adversaries for angry hand to hand combat.  We cannot go out with both barrels blazing to attack non-Christians or rip other people to shreds in the newspapers or on TV.  We are gracious truth seekers armed with a Bible as our only offensive weapon.  The rest of the time we just stand firm and let our angel-faces do the talking in Spirit-given words.  Our actions and God’s Word will speak loud enough.  So, let’s have both grace and wisdom.

That’s what we’ll see with Stephen, the first martyr of the Church.  His speech is a primer on how to deal with opposition and how to be a gracious yet powerful Christian radical.   Next week we’ll look at his speech in detail to learn how to stand for something truly important, something truly earth changing, and something absolutely radical in an unassailable way.  Character matters, opposition happens, and we must know our Bibles because Grace and Wisdom go together.  That’s what we learn when we look at Stephen and live lives that—like his–honor God.

The audio link to the message “What About Stephen?” on Acts 6:8-15 can be found at http://youtu.be/riyuXTmIy_A .  This message was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on March 1, 2015 by Barbara Shafer.

The cycle we’ve seen before continues in the Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles: Pure Church, Powerful Church, Growing Church, then Persecuted Church, repeat.  The enemy on the outside of the Church is always easier to deal with than ones arising as division on the inside of the Church.

Persecution and pressure from outside strengthen, build, and purify the Church.  Problems within the church divide us.

So in today’s passage (Acts 6:1-7), as we begin to pick up the pace in our familiar pattern, we see an attack upon the unity and purity of the Church.

It doesn’t always happen as something intentional and insidious.

It can sometimes take the form of being passed over, ignored, marginalized, or having their feelings hurt.

The last time we saw an assault from within the Church, it was Ananias and Sapphira who were exhibiting a lack of integrity, but this time the enemy within is something as ostensibly benign as hurt feelings and a lack of attention to their welfare.  Unequal treatment of widows along ethnic backgrounds was threatening division in the Church .  Today, we’re going to see 6 simple steps for coping with divisions that threaten the Church from within so that united we stand, instead of divided we fall.  Church splits are as common as hurt feelings within the Church and therefore, we’re wise to see how we can avoid division by handing threats properly.

Here’s the problem:  Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

The Church was getting bigger (and that’s good, right?) but the larger an organization gets the more people are there to feel overlooked and the easier it is to lose track of everyone.  There’s greater diversity of background, opinion, and even philosophy of ministry.

Without something unifying us, many groups and churches discover that diversity becomes division.

Not everyone likes the same thing…the same style of worship, color of carpet, type of preacher, or pizza toppings.  It kind of reminds me of that old Groucho Marx line, “I sent the club a wire stating, “Please accept my resignation.  I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.”

Our first coping strategy for keeping divisions from becoming splits is to listen and correctly identify the problem:

What is the real problem?

• It was not that the number of disciples was increasing and too many people were joining their exclusive club, people with different tastes and backgrounds.
• It’s not like the situation of division that one of my Trinity professors spoke about in which the Eastern Orthodox Church doesn’t recognize the Church in the West, the Catholic Church doesn’t recognize the Protestant Church, and 2 Trinity professors don’t recognize each other coming out of a liquor store.
• It was not that there were Grecian Jews (who spoke Greek) and Hebraic Jews (who spoke Hebrew) and there were language problems.  This Church is at Jerusalem right now and while it might look like favoritism based upon ethnic origin, it could just be a practical issue of the Grecian Jews not having immediate family nearby looking out for their widows the way the Hebraic Jews did.

Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

When looking to identify the problem, we can assume the worst or assume the best in other people.  We can dwell in divisions or dwell in the whole.  We can make a mountain out of a mole hill or try to minimize real mountains by denying their existence or treating them as mole hills, ….or we can create a level path to solve the problem by listening well.

That’s what the apostles did: they listened to the problem being described to find out what might be a level path forward.  Step one in avoiding a Church split was an openness to hearing the problems aired.  Listen. Correctly Identify the Problem.

Step two in coping with division is to identify a prompt and wise solution.

In this case, the solution to the problem of disunity was organization.

Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Let’s look at how the Church organized…quickly…in order to work smarter and not harder.  The process was pretty simple:

Step 3   Leaders lead.  In case we miss this nuance, let’s notice that the Twelve leaders gathered a meeting of all the disciples, both Greek and Hebraic.  It doesn’t say that all disciples gathered the Twelve.  It doesn’t say that the disciples didn’t need a leader or could operate without one.  They brought the attention to the leaders and then surprise, Leaders lead!  But they don’t leave the congregation out of the discussion.  No one was being overlooked in identifying the problem and identifying a solution.

The leaders recognized no one person can do it all as a be-all and end-all. 

No one can—or should—do everything in a church.  It’s dangerous on a variety of levels.

Back when I was in seminary, one of my favorite professors—Dr. Hiebert—talked about two types of ministries: a banyan tree and a banana tree.  The banyan tree is filled with pride and builds big arching branches of ministry centered around one person and it spreads and sends out roots along all the branches.  It’s so massive that it kills off everything underneath it.  When that leader dies, leaves, or falls from grace, there’s nothing left to survive since it has killed off everything underneath it.

The Twelve were smart because they didn’t build a banyan tree ministry.  They had the other type, a banana tree ministry in which a mother plant sends out daughters and they send out daughters.  The mother plant may eventually die, but having sent new growth out in strength, the movement becomes bigger, stronger, and more diverse.  Why? Because each daughter sends out daughters of their own in health and strength to minister to the local surroundings.

Step 4   Leaders don’t just lead, they delegate.  The Twelve would choose Seven to do the equally important work of “waiting tables.”

There are a lot of churches that totally miss this concept: Waiting on tables is not a lesser ministry of the Word of God than teaching, it’s just another application of ministry.

The Twelve recognized that neglecting one application of ministry in favor of another is dangerous to the health of the Church.  Throwing our whole selves into serving the poor all the while neglecting biblical teaching results in a Church that resembles a philanthropic organization that any group can organize.  Even without faith in Jesus.  But these Twelve were wise.  They also saw that if you take the Spirit of Life, Christ Himself, out of any issue, it’s dead.  It leads nowhere but to satisfy an earthly need for a flash of a moment.  Having Life in the issue begins with going to the source of true Life, John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  The Church is supposed to know who Jesus is and then share Him with others in both words (teaching) and deeds (acts of service).  So the Twelve delegated, and there’s a good reason why:

When the enemy is outside, we are pressed together and derive strength from one another.  Blessed Be the Tie that Binds.  But when the enemy is on the inside, we fracture and split apart.

Step 5: When the problem is within, the solution must come from within:  Acts 6:3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

So the ministry of the Word was important and the ministry of practical application was important too.  Not a case of spiritual elitism, of the notion that doing spiritual stuff is better, but only that delegation to each’s gifts and strengths is godly.  Furthermore, by giving the group a say in the matter, they each felt like they had a part in creating a solution.  Involving the whole group in tackling the problem makes it more likely they’ll want to be part of the solution instead of resisting it and dwelling in the division.  Which if you’ve ever put a wedge on the end of a log and applied pressure you know it splits.  Same thing happens in a church if the wedge is not removed.  These widows were just an important symptom of a wedge being present and the Twelve quickly recognized disunity–the true wedge– as the problem and moved to a wise solution.

Therefore, Step 6 is choose the right people to lead the process of implementing the solution in the successful application of the Word by tangible acts of service.  What are the qualifications?  Seniority?  Nope.  Money?  Nope.  Political schmoozing?  .  Aggressive use of force or the ability to be an enforcer?  Nope, nope, nope.  Pouting?  .  Emotional manipulation, salesmanship, random selection, sign-up sheets, or drawing a name out of a hat?  Nope to all that!

It’s not success at the expense of godliness like the old idea that “The secret of success is sincerity.  Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

Here are the qualifications:  People are chosen based upon spiritual qualification, not things man looks at, and on spiritual gifts given by God.  Remember our puzzle pieces and where we fit in?  Aside from how God gifts us, there are important character qualifications: full of the Spirit and wisdom. In selecting people to oversee and to lead in practical areas, their qualifications must be the same as that of teachers!  They must be full of faith (reputation), full of Spirit (godly), and full of wisdom (fear of the Lord and knowledge of the Scriptures with practical outworking).  

The Twelve could have overwhelmed and overworked themselves, but they recognized that Pride has no place in ministry.  They chose others.

Acts 6:5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

Let’s look at the wisdom of who they selected among all the godly ministers to the poor.  They chose Greeks like Stephen and Nicolas and put them in positions of authority to be sure it would be viewed as their being advocates for the widows in question, calming their fears of ongoing discrimination.  It might not be something the English does for us, but in the Greek, it’s significant that a Greek is the first name, Stephen, and Nicholas, a Greek convert to Judaism was the last name.  They bracket the Seven.

Acts 6:6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

They were commissioned for this important work by prayer.  The result when we deal with problems without delay is that the Church doesn’t get distracted from its mission by living in the division instead of dwelling in the whole.  And the outcome gets even better:

Acts 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

The Jewish priests even began to join with the Christians because of what they witnessed.

In A Tramp Abroad, the author Mark Twain writes,

The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.”

His humor aside, he makes an excellent point.  The Church’s example says much about what it believes.  So, combatting division and organizing ourselves for success is as simple as following these 6 Steps:

1. Listen and correctly identify the problem
2. Identify a prompt and wise solution.
3. Leaders lead.
4. Leaders don’t just lead, they delegate.
5. When the problem is within, the solution must come from within
6. Choose the right people to lead the process of implementing the solution.

Yes organizing for success is a general principle, but here at Plymouth, we can follow these same 6 Steps.  That’s what GROW Plymouth is for.  By being a place where you can share ideas and concerns, we can listen to the collective wisdom of the congregation and identify any potential divisions and problems.  Our leaders can prayerfully develop prompt and wise solutions in which each of us can be part of the solution.  We can do more than talk about ideas.  We can implement them before division gets the better of us.

Arguably the greater enemy of the Church is us.

We, by acting in opposition to one another, by displaying a lack of unity, by imagining, maintaining, fostering, and reinforcing divisions, and by unwillingness to partner together toward a solution, we can cause the Church to be divided against itself.  And it will not stand! Conflict avoidance does no good.  It simply gives time for division that could be resolved to instead corrode away at the very fabric of any church and this will lead, inevitably, to its death if we do not employ helpful coping strategies.

Yet, this is all easily preventable by doing what the Twelve, the Seven, and the rest of the disciples did to benefit the Church and its future.  God blessed their actions by continuing to grow the Church which I propose is exactly what we want too!  Let’s pray.

Coping with Divisions in the Church (a message on Acts 6:1-7) was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on February 22, 2015 by Barbara Shafer.

You can listen to the audio on YouTube at this link.

Dear Church, let’s take our cue from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We must not look at the circumstances of our world through the eyes of evil or ISIS.  Rather we look up to God our Father and we live victorious in life and in death because of Jesus Christ.  I see orange as a warning to evil–their days are numbered– and as encouragement to people of the Cross to press on to certain Victory!  ‪#‎seeorange

When we last encountered the adventures of the earliest Church, we saw the apostles thrown in prison as we moved from Pure Church to Powerful Church to Growing Church to the Persecuted Church.  Yes, the disciples have been in prison, were broken out of jail by an angel and then dragged back into court, essentially, by the religious officials.

Last week, in the climax of testimony instead of pleading the 5^th, the disciples cry out,

“We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead– whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

That went over like a lead balloon among the religious leaders who had earlier said they didn’t like being made to feel guilty over their role in crucifying Jesus.

Which brings us to today’s passage in the adventures of the apostles known as Acts.   Today we’ll look at Acts 5:33-42

Acts 5:33 When they [the religious officials] heard this [i.e. that whole obeying God rather than men thing] they were furious and wanted to put them to death.

Ironic isn’t it that they didn’t want Jesus’ blood on their hands and now they’re looking to add the disciples’ blood to it?   Anger makes people do bad stuff.  Conniving stuff.  Irrational stuff.

• An elderly lady was well known for her faith and for her boldness and talking about it. She would stand on her front porch and shout, “Praise the Lord!”
• Next door to her lived an atheist who would get so angry at her proclamations he would shout, “There ain’t no Lord!!”
• Hard times set in on the elderly lady and she prayed for God to send her some assistance. She stood on her porch and shouted, “Praise the Lord!! God, I need FOOD!! I am having a hard time. Please, Lord, send me some groceries!!”
• The next morning, the lady went out on her porch and saw a large bag of groceries and shouted, “Praise the Lord!!”
• The neighbor jumped from behind a bush and said, “Aha! I told you there was no Lord. I bought those groceries. God didn’t.”
• The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands and saying, “PRAISE THE LORD!!! He not only sent me groceries, but He made the devil pay for them!!”

Yes, anger seldom accomplishes what we intend.  Or in the words of Jane Austen, “angry people are rarely wise.”

To keep the religious officials from adding more blood—that of the disciples—to the blood they’d already shed—that of Jesus—a religious leader steps in and offers wise advice.  Gamaliel’s advice might be summarized

Keep Calm and Learn from History.”

I love this section with Gamaliel because I believe it offers a very effective key to understanding Jewish evangelism.  It’s all about Messianic expectations.  These religious officials weren’t to be faulted for expecting the Messiah.  That’s what they were told to do!  They just weren’t expecting what God was doing in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  They didn’t see, therefore, that Jesus was the Messiah.

So here’s where Gamaliel enters the scene.  Who is he?  Well, he was a prominent teacher of the law known in both present-day Jewish circles as well as Christian circles.  He was the son of the teacher Simon and the grandson of great teacher Hillel, both of whom were regarded highly with respect to the law. Gamaliel is among the “heads of the schools” and was the first president of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, according to Jewish sources.  Because of Gamaliel, we have external evidence (outside our Bibles) that what we are about to hear actually occurred. We see Gamaliel surface one more time in Acts 22:3 where Paul identifies himself as a student of Gamaliel (which was a source of considerable pride for Paul since Gamaliel was the greatest teacher of his era and embodied the best of Pharisaical thought).  So Gamaliel is an important guy…and hinge on which evangelism can turn and a bridge to our Jewish brothers and sisters.  Here’s why.

Let’s pick up in verse 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed them:

“Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 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. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

Gamaliel’s wisdom was evident.  He was a great teacher and also clearly a student of history.

• Even better than the Sunday School teacher teaching a bunch of 4^th graders.  The lesson had just finished and the teacher asked if the children had any questions. Little David quickly raised his hand.
• “Yes, David? What question would you like to ask me?”
• “I have four questions to ask you, Teacher. Is it true that after the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, they then received the Ten Commandments?”
• “Yes, David.”
• “And the children of Israel also defeated the Philistines?”
• “Yes, David, that’s also true.”
• “And the children of Israel also fought the Romans and fought the Egyptians and built the Temple?”
• “Again you are correct, David.”
• “So my real question I guess is, Teacher, what were the grown-ups doing all this time?”

Gamaliel’s teaching showed he knew his theology and he knew his history.  He urged those who were angry to Keep Calm and Learn from History.  Patience is often a very good thing.  Gamaliel brought up two cases from history to demonstrate that God’s will triumphs even if men are free to disobey.  That is a perfectly consistent idea within Pharisaical thought: man is free to disobey, but God’s will prevails in the end.

1. The first guy is Theudas, about whom we know nothing other than his mention here.  Although I always find things like this interesting.  There is someone whose life was purposeful in God’s plan in some way to be mentioned in Scripture even if history overlooks his role.  Scripture says nothing except verse 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing
2. But there’s also a guy named Judas the Galilean who was written about by the Jewish historian Josephus.  37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

Both men initially looked like they might be “somebody” (i.e. the Messiah) because they led revolt.  But there was a problem:  they died.  Thought to be somebody, but they turned out as not anybody other than a regular Joe or Theudas or Judas the Galilean. Death was the ultimate disqualifier.  And that’s why Jews—then and now—have such a problem with Jesus.  Jews from the various theological traditions (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform) disagree on just about everything except that Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah.  And behind that belief is the fact of Jesus’ death.

So Gamaliel says, Keep Calm and Learn from History.  Theudas (somebody) died: nobody.  Judas the Galilean (somebody) died:nobody.  Jesus somebody died….and He’s either a nobody like all the others or He’s a somebody…a real Somebody like the Messiah…and

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. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

One of the historical points of reference was what we heard about in our Old Testament reading (2 Chronicles 13:10-12) from this morning, fighting against God is always a losing battle.

Wait it out.  See what happens.  God won’t let a false messiah stand.  Eventually they will crumble from the weight of their own lies.  They die and it all goes away.  So, Keep Calm and Learn from History.

40 His speech persuaded them.

He persuaded them not to kill the apostles, but these religious officials still felt like there had to be some kind of punishment so the officials…

They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

The apostles, too, kept calm and learned from history.  They looked at Jesus who died but whom they knew was raised from the dead.  They firmly believed because they had seen the Risen Lord in real time and recent history who commanded them to proclaim the Good News.  Remember all the way back in Acts 1 before Jesus left, He told them that this is what they were supposed to do: bring the Gospel to all the nations?  They’re obeying orders.

So, for a moment put yourself in the shoes of Gamaliel:  How do you deal with situations when anger is boiling up around you or within you?  Do you urge patience?  To Keep Calm and Learn from History?  Do you react without thinking through the consequences?  Had the Sanhedrin killed the disciples, they would have been fighting against God who was certainly able to raise up others.  Doesn’t Scripture say that if we’re silent, even the stones would cry out?  Fighting against God is a losing battle.

Perhaps this is a good time for a second group of questions.  Are there any ways you are fighting God on something?  Perhaps something He wants you to do?  Something He wants you to say?  Maybe you’re still squirming in His hand and not wanting to believe that Jesus is who He says He is?  Jesus of Nazareth has been the Messiah for almost 2,000 years.  The movement has does anything but die out.  The world has thrown Christians to the lions, crucified them, shot them, and burned them alive.  The world has beheaded them, tortured them, and imprisoned them.  The world has laughed at them, ridiculed them, shamed them, enslaved them, and economically targeted them.  The irony is the more persecuted the Church becomes, the more it grows.  It’s like one of those puffball mushrooms.  You can stomp on it, kick it, dig it out and throw it away, but the spores scatter and it multiplies.  So it is with the Church….for 2000 years, it has been growing, advancing and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it!

Ash Wednesday is this week.  The beginning of Lent.  If there are ways you’ve been fighting a losing battle against God for ownership of your life, this is a good time to lay that aside and trust Him.  Be ready to take Him at His Word.

Put yourself in the shoes of the apostles who spoke boldly that they’d obey God rather than men.

The death of Jesus is the turning point, the hinge on which Jewish evangelism (and all evangelism) turns because of His resurrection.  It’s why the apostles brought it up time and again.  Because unlike Theudas and Judas the Galilean, Jesus did not remain dead.

Mohammed?  Still dead.  Karl Marx?  Still dead.  Friedrich Nietzsche?  Yup. He’s dead.   Joseph Smith?  Still dead. Confuscious, Socrates, Plato, dead, dead, dead.  Jesus is not!  He rose from the dead and is very much alive.  He had to die in order for us to be saved.  Our sin and God’s holiness required this intermediary step between Jewish expectation of the Messiah and the Return of the vindicating King.  If there had not been this intermediary step of dealing with our sin problem, there’d be no one righteous when the powerful Messiah came to bring His holy ones to heaven.  It’d be a quick trip with nothing to see and He’d go home alone…if He hadn’t dealt with our sin.

So finally, as a thought for today, still in the shoes of the apostles:  Keep Calm and Learn from History.  That’s how they could rejoice even after having been beaten 40 lashes minus one.  For the 21 Coptic Christians (from Egypt) who were captured and taken by ISIS, they knew they may end up beheaded, or in a cage and burned alive…simply because they are Christians.  The latest that I heard is that the Libyan parliament confirmed their deaths and that they were kidnapped because of their Christian faith.  That’s bad news, awful news, tragic news for sure, but here’s their hope, their calm, and their peace.  It comes from the fact that History is God’s history. It’s His Story.  It’s Jesus’ story of redemption and rescue and God’s great love.  And to those who captured innocents and have been doing the killings, they cannot rest easy.  Why?  Because fighting against God is always a losing battle.  That’s how these 21 captives could rejoice in prison, even in martyrdom.  God is on their side.  No one can snatch them out of God’s hands.  And nothing, nothing, nothing! could separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus!  The Pure Church, the Powerful Church, the Growing Church becomes the Persecuted Church and yet, they can do, we can do, the very same thing that the disciples did.

42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Keep Calm. Carry On.  Learn from History.  God will not be mocked.  Fighting against God is always a losing proposition.  We have the end of the book and it tells us God wins.  So, Keep Calm. Carry On.  And Learn from His Story.

Let’s pray.

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By way of reminder, the 2015 Lenten Devotionals entitled With Christ in the Upper Room will begin on Ash Wednesday (February 18th).  If you’ve signed up to receive them on the Seminary Gal Home Page side bar,  you will be receiving those automatically via email on Monday through Saturday, as well as the Sunday preaching messages during the Lent time frame.

Gamaliel’s Advice might be stated “Keep Calm. Carry On.  Learn from History.  God will not be mocked.  Fighting against God is always a losing proposition.”  Of course, we have not only History, but know that History is His Story, God’s story of redemption and love.   This message from Acts 5:33-42 was first preached by Barbara Shafer at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on February 15, 2015.  You can listen to the full message at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eoub1_ASKQ

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By way of reminder, the 2015 Lenten Devotionals entitled With Christ in the Upper Room will begin on Ash Wednesday (February 18th).  If you’ve signed up to receive them on the Seminary Gal Home Page side bar,  you will be receiving those automatically via email on Monday through Saturday, as well as the Sunday preaching messages during the Lent time frame.

Last week, we had a snow day with the big blizzard in the Midwest.  So today we resume our Sunday preaching series on Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles.  As long as I am in announcement mode, by way of reminder, the 2015 Lenten Devotionals entitled With Christ in the Upper Room will begin on Ash Wednesday (February 18th).  If you’ve signed up to receive them on the Seminary Gal Home Page side bar,  you will be receiving those automatically on Monday through Saturday, as well as the Sunday messages during the Lent time frame.  Now to our message for today which comes from Acts 5: 27-32.

There are some movies our family has watched enough times for memorization.  One of them is A Few Good Men.  Our son Eric can recite easily half the movie from memory.  We all get particularly animated in a couple of scenes.

One is from Gitmo:

Col. Jessep: I run my unit how I run my unit. You want to investigate me, roll the dice and take your chances. I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4000 Cubans who are trained to kill me, so don’t think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous.

And the other two are from the courtroom.  Defense attorney Kaffee’s opening statement:

When Dawson and Downey went into Santiago’s room that night, it wasn’t because of vengeance or hatred, it wasn’t to kill or harm, and it wasn’t because they were looking for kicks on a Friday night. It’s because it was what they were ordered to do.

Let me say that again: It’s because it was what they were ordered to do. Now, out in the real world, that means nothing. And here at the Washington Navy Yard, it doesn’t mean a whole lot more. But if you’re a marine assigned to Rifle Security Company Windward, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and you’re given an order, you follow it or you pack your bags.

Col. Jessep later proves the point about orders by asking the defense attorney Kaffee questions, as if to emphasize his authority.

• Col. Jessep: Have you ever spent time in an infantry unit, son?
• Kaffee: No sir.
• Col. Jessep: Ever served in a forward area?
• Kaffee: No sir.
• Col. Jessep: Ever put your life in another man’s hands, ask him to put his life in yours?
• Kaffee: No sir.
• Col. Jessep: We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It’s that simple. Are we clear?
• Kaffee: Yes sir.
• Col. Jessep: Are we clear?
• Kaffee: Crystal.

The issues of following orders and of obedience in the chain of command were front and center in the courtroom scene as they were also central to the accidental death of Santiago.  Hold that thought of orders, obedience, and crimes…

In our passage of Scripture today, the high priest had given strict orders and yet Peter and the other apostles disobeyed a strict order from the Jewish religious leader, an order he gave to stop this teaching.  Stop.  Stop.

Stop sharing the Gospel!

Why?  Because the religious leaders felt like it was making them guilty of crucifying Jesus, the Messiah.  Which of course, they were…guilty, that is.  As are we all.

From the moment we take our first breath, we’re living, breathing sinners.  We come from a long line of sinners going back to Adam and Eve.  Of course, none of us wants to view ourselves as guilty.  But the truth is that since we sin, Jesus had to die or God’s image bearers would be lost forever.

Let’s look at our passage.  So far, there’s been a divine jail break with an angel getting the apostles out of prison so they could resume teaching in defiance of the high priest’s orders…orders given during the last time they were teaching and were imprisoned.  Right now, the apostles have been doing the very thing they were told not to do and are brought by the officials to the Sanhedrin.

Acts 5:27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.  28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said.  “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

The special guilt that the religious leaders had (that the rest of us do not) was in the plotting to get rid of Jesus because He was making their religious lives harder.  People were no longer seeing the leaders as authoritative, as if their behavior was worth imitating.

Why did the leaders’ orders have to be followed differently by the people than by the leaders themselves?  Good question.

Jesus taught with God’s authority.  God was calling them to live differently than the hypocritical religious leaders were living, especially noticeable when Jesus was saying things like the 7 Woes found in Matthew 23:1-39.

 Matthew 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

The religious leaders liked their positions of power and authority.  It made them feel pretty proud of themselves.  But they didn’t obey orders.  They only gave them for others to obey.  Then Jesus comes along.  He’s a very humble guy, seeks no adoration whatsoever, and yet the crowds of people hang on His every word.  He does what He preaches.  He lives it.  And in doing so, He pointed out that the religious leaders did not do what God told them to do, along with everyone else.  They were hypocrites.

He didn’t mince words about it either.  Jesus said, Matthew 23:33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

Ouch.  No wonder they didn’t like Jesus very much.  All of this was in the mind of the high priest when he told the apostles to stop teaching in the name of Jesus.  The religious leaders remembered the events leading up to the moment Jesus died.

John 19:5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

It was the religious leaders who would initiate the cry to crucify Him.  It was the religious leaders who appealed to Roman law because they had no power to crucify (John 18:31-32), only to stone to death (Leviticus 24:16).

We see here a chain of command, just like in A Few Good Men.  Jesus tells Pilate that he has no power other than that given by God and therefore, the worse crime was done by those who handed Jesus over.  The religious leaders tried to wash the blood from their hands, figuratively speaking.  They tried to forget that this is what they had done!  And then here come these apostles.  Teaching about Jesus.  It’s like He never died!  It’s like He’s back!  It didn’t stop with His death, it only scattered the teaching authority over a wider group of disciples who find their courage in obeying God’s orders.  The ones Jesus gave them to take the Gospel to the very ends of the earth.

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!  30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.  31 God exalted him to his own right hand  as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.  32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The apostles state very clearly that their chain of command rests with God.  The guilt Jesus had paid to atone for was true guilt upon all the people of Israel and the people of the world.  It’s why it took both the religious leaders of the Jews and the legal system of the Gentile world to crucify Him.  There was plenty of guilt to go around.  And we’re all responsible.  In a sense, we were all there shouting “Crucify!”

Fortunately, the forgiveness of God is greater.  He commutes our sentence and pronounces us Not Guilty when we come to Him, when we come acknowledging our sins and asking His forgiveness.  When we make obeying God, obeying Christ, our first and only priority.  That’s when we go from being many sinful and guilty men and women to being a few good men and women who are good only because we are forgiven by the blood of Christ so that we might obey God in all we do.  Let’s pray.

Last Sunday and next, I am away from my responsibilities at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine and arranged for my friend Rev. Bill Slater, a former missionary to Liberia and a blogger with an apologetics ministry, to preach in the interim.

I do like to keep up with the sermon series we began back in August entitled Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles so that those of you who like to read my messages won’t have any gaps.  Today, I will do a short devotional on the preaching passage (Acts 5:25-26) and there will be no audio of this message.

Acts 5: 25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

In the flow of the book of Acts, we’ve seen this new institution, the Church, be formed and become the Pure Church, the Powerful Church, the Growing Church and yes, also the Persecuted Church.  We find the disciples Peter and John freed from prison in a divine jailbreak involving an angel’s letting them out so they could resume preaching the Good News.

So there they are, in the temple courts and what are they doing?  Teaching the people–what they were told not to do!  Most people after a jailbreak would probably go into hiding, like in Home Alone 2 when Harry and Marv appear for the first time after escaping out of prison.  They’re in the back of a fish truck.

• Harry: Here we are, Marv. New York City, the Land of Opportunity. [Takes a deep breath] Smell that?
• Marv: [Takes a deep breath] Yeah.
• Harry: Know what that is?
• Marv: Fish.
• Harry: It’s freedom.
• Marv: No, it’s fish.
• Harry: It’s freedom, and it’s money.
• Marv: Okay, okay, it’s freedom.
• Harry:: Come on, let’s get out of here before someone sees us.
• Marv: And it’s fish.

They didn’t want anyone to see them because they’d done wrong things to end up in prison and their escape from prison was criminal too.

The apostles experienced something totally different.  Jailed for merely preaching the Good News, freed by angel so they could get back to work, they did not go into hiding.  They went public!

Here is the distinction between civil disobedience and criminal activity: civil disobedience involves disobeying authority without violence to do what was never morally wrong in the first place.

I cannot help but think back over all the protests and looting that occurred in Ferguson, MO in the weeks that followed the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager who robbed a convenience store and resisted arrest with intimidation/force and consequently ended up being shot to death by Officer Darren Wilson.  This event sparked weeks of riots, looting, and protests.

The key to distinguishing civil disobedience and plain old disobedience/criminal activity is this: Moral authority.  Those engaging in civil disobedience may not have the power, but they have the moral standing with God and with the moral code which undergirds our laws.  Everyone else disobeying is just a lawbreaker.

Without the moral authority, the only thing one has is brute force, what King George the VI described as the “primitive doctrine that might is right.”

Ironically in our passage today, in verse 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

The same people who wouldn’t dare to join the apostles back in verse 13, those who feared the authorities …were now feared BY the authorities… who worried these same people would stone them.  People lacking courage to join the apostles were perceived to have enough courage that they’d use force against the authorities.

Policing with a moral code is different than policing in a mob world where the doctrine is “might is right.”

Believing somehow that IF you’ve got the raw power, THEN you can claim the moral high ground–that’s the mob world!.  This notion submits us all to terror, to violence, and to brutality.  There is no moral high ground in any of this mob world.

Moral high ground does not steal, loot, riot, or intentionally use physical means to justify or prove one’s cause.  Moral high ground comes from God.

This is why the apostles willingly went back into custody to stand before the Sanhedrin.  They had the moral high ground and knew that Jesus had said this would happen to those who follow Him.

Mark 13:9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

So where are you today?  Are you standing on moral high ground?  Are you afraid of the mob?  Are you afraid of authorities?  Do you not want to share the Gospel out of fear of what people might say about you?  Are you willing to claim the moral high ground by following Christ or do you still hold to the primitive doctrine of “might is right?”  Jesus promised to give words to say through His Holy Spirit (Mark 13:11).  Are you prepared to stand firm until the end and be saved?