Matt:
Well, good morning church and happy last weekend of fall break and enjoy the parking today because everybody is back next week. Everybody is back, man. I'm glad you're here today, but I want you to do something. We got a lot of work to do in scripture today. Go ahead and take your Bible out. All right, take it out. Let's get to Acts chapter 5. We're going to start in verse 12 today. But before we get there, and as you are finding it, let me just walk you through where we have come in this series looking at God's power, looking at His spirit and looking at the church. We've been walking through the Book of Acts and we're going to keep doing that until sometime in February if my math is right, but in that we've already seen that God has promised through Jesus that His spirit would come.
We saw the spirit actually did fall in Acts 2:42. We see that the churches formed and we actually see one of my favorite verses in all of Acts where it just said that they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. That means that not only the spirit fell on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 were saved, but the church was started. This oneness of them began and this movement of God from the first century to where we are sitting today started in the name of Jesus being led by the spirit, and now it will continue until Christ returns. We saw the Acts 2, these 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost that gave their life to Jesus. In Acts 3, we pulled up to the gate called beautiful with Peter and John. This man that was lame was healed at this gate.
He stood up in that very moment and began to proclaim Jesus to begin to teach the love of Jesus. Later on in that chapter, Peter stands up and preaches again. In chapter 4, we see Peter and John, they were seized. They went to jail, but that's okay because 5,000 more people met Jesus on that day. Not only did they meet Jesus that day, but the church was exploding. We taught this principle that day that every time God has a movement, Satan wants to counter with a counterfeit movement. We see this in Peter and John that day, they were thrown into prison. We said that for ourselves that day, that anytime we stand that Satan will come against us. Last week, we pulled up into Acts chapter 5, and we saw that if Satan can't get to us from the outside of the church in, he will try from the inside of the church moving out.
We saw last week the contrast between Barnabas, the encourager and the generous man that he was and this couple named Ananias and Sapphira. We saw that last week that they had promised that they sold this piece of property and brought all the money to the Apostles, but they really lied about it. They didn't bring all the money. And God to protect his church, to purify his church actually disciplined them and took their lives, took their lives on the spot. Now, from the beginning of Acts to where we landed last week, there's been one thing that has stood out over and over and over again, and that is that this model of the Christian life, this model of the church that is spirit led and following Jesus has come up every single week. We have seen that they're moving in oneness. They're studying the word together.
They're meeting together. They are praying bold prayers together. They're being generous together. Every week. We're seeing them give us as a church this example as well as give all of us as individuals this example. Well, today we're going to continue in that mode because today where we pick up in Acts chapter 5, we actually get to see what I'm just kind of calling a master class on Evangelism. Now, we're not going to get a master class on how to do Evangelism, the ins and outs of that. You'll have to come on a Wednesday to get that, but we're going to get a master class on what it looks like to live a life in Jesus that so that when we do speak about Jesus, we can actually back it up with our lives. So the church is exploding here in Acts chapter 5, people are meeting Jesus all over the place in Acts chapter 5 and listen to me.
It's a good thing. It's a good thing that this is happening. Now, I know that some of you, you grew up in churches and when that church down the road was just seeing a mighty movement of God, there was some of those people in your church. We always have those people, and not in this church, but in their churches that were like, "Well, they must just not be preaching the gospel. They must not be. They must be watering down the gospel." Well, listen, if that's their thoughts for this book of Acts, they've got a problem with this church in the first century Acts because these brothers and sisters were standing on the word. They were preaching the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and it seems like every week more and more and more and more people are coming to know Jesus and entering into the fellowship.
Why? It's really simple, really. It's because this, at the core of Christianity, here's the deal, Evangelism is the mission. It's the mission above all the other missions of the church. Evangelism is the mission. And here's what Acts 1:5, 1 through 5 has already showed us and what the rest of the book is going to show us over these next months. Not only is Evangelism the mission, Christianity is not a passive, private and secret faith. It's not. It's not. It is always a public faith, here's the deal, that not only launches in our heart, but it launches out into our community and it points them to Jesus as well. So Acts chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5 is really pointing us towards one principle, and I'm going to give it to you today as a launching principle before we get into our message, and here it is. I'll put it in your notes for you.
The principle is this, when the spirit filled, Evangelism is added to a collective, all right? There's a main word there. Collective commitment to oneness, devotion, and generosity. Here's what happens. Always. God moves mightily. He moves mightily. You say, well, Matt, what about? There is no what about. Every single time when Evangelism is married to the oneness, to the generosity, and to the commitment that we're seeing out of this book of Acts, every time, here's what happens. God moves mightily. So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to use Acts chapter 5, all right? As our launching point, and we're going to see this principle at work today, and here's my prayer. My prayer today is that not only did we just see a really cool event that happens in the book of Acts, my prayer, my prayer is that me and you, that we are all challenged today in what it looks like to be led by the spirit in what I'm just looking at as spirit-led Evangelism.
So here's what I want to do. I want to give you five, all right? Five, what I'm calling non-negotiable spirit-led Evangelism priorities for our lives. All right? Now, this is not an Evangelism course. This is not going to tell you all the little transitions and all that stuff. This is things that need to be a part of our lives so that when we do stand, that God can move. All right? Here's the first one and then we'll back our way into it because it actually comes from the first 11 verses that we looked at last week with Ananias and Sapphira. The first non-negotiable of spirit-led Evangelism. This might surprise you, is what I'm just calling personal purity. Personal purity, because here's what I know. When I mention the word Evangelism, every single one of us, we automatically look to other people, all right? I want to bring it back into our lives for a minute because personal purity is the first place that we should stand when we start thinking about Evangelism.
Now, here's what God has done for us in verses 1 through 11. He's already given us an account of a husband and wife, Ananias and Sapphira, that did not live this out, and he's given us in the last chapter of chapter 4, the last verses, he's given us, Barnabas, who did live this out. Here's what I know about God. Before the church or before the gospel could spread any further, because next week it begins to move outside of Jerusalem, actually a little bit today, God knew that He needed to teach them a lesson and that purity matters. Purity matters. Here's what that means. That means that we can't just go and live our lives however we want to and call down a spirit-filled life when I need to speak Jesus into someone else's life. It always starts with me living my life for the kingdom of God.
Really, it's our likeness to Jesus that matters most to Jesus. This is what we saw last week. One of the phrases that has stuck out in my mind when it comes to this so much, and I don't know who this phrase it is, so I couldn't give them credit, is that we should always examine our hearts, my heart twice as much as I should examine someone else's heart. That's the start of Evangelism. In fact, Paul says it like this in Ephesians 5, and then we'll get to Acts, in Ephesians 5:8. Paul says, "For you are once in darkness, but now you're in the light of the Lord. Live as children of the light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord." Verse 11, watch this, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."
You know what that means? That means exactly what we saw last week. It was exposed in front of them, and now here in Acts chapter 5, this has happened. God has dealt with sin. All right. Why? Because there's nothing worse than a hypocritical church. There's nothing worse than a hypocritical person that claims that Jesus is their Lord and goes and lives how they want to. Why? Because it tears down the gospel, it waters down the faith, it steals the power away from God. So now in our texts, the church has been purified. You know that these brothers and sisters, after what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, you know that they're doing some heart checks. You know that they're doing some soul-searching. You know they're like, "Hey, if I'm going to speak up, if I'm going to say anything, my heart better be in the right place." And watch what happens in Acts 5, starting in verse 12, here's right where we left off last week.
Here's what it says. It says, "The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade for no one else dared to join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number." Now, I can see you're already scratching your heads because I already feel the tension here because you're like, Matt, wait a minute. Verse 12 or verse 13 just told us that no one joined them. I thought today was all about effective Evangelism, not like Evangelism that scares everybody away. But wait a minute, but then verse 14 though, turns around and said that even though nobody joined them, more and more believed, so what's up with that? Let me see if I can reconcile this. Because you really got to use some context here to know what's going on.
Here's what this means. It really means from this point, moving forward in the book of Acts, it means that if you were with the disciples, you were with the disciples, it means that you just didn't casually associate up until this point. You had people who were halfway in and halfway out. You had people that would just come in when they want to and not when they didn't want to, but from this point on, because of what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, really, from this point on, if people were with the disciples, it meant that they were all in, that they were right and heart, right and motive, and they were seeking God. And in verse 14, it literally says, "And as a result of that, many people did follow." Now, it doesn't mean that these people were perfect.
No, it means that when they did sin, when something did creep into their lives that they would confess it. They would ask God to forgive it. It meant that they were honest before God. They loved on other people, and it literally meant that they lived opposite of what Ananias and Sapphira did. This lifestyle of, look at me and it's all about me. And what happened? Many, verse 14, "Many people followed." Listen, [inaudible 00:13:28]. Listen. Listen. There is something about a life and there is something about a church that looks like Jesus. There is something about a life. There's something about a church that acts like Jesus and that absolutely withhold a holds up the idea that purity matters. It matters. In fact, you say, well, where do you get that from, Matt? Well, look at verse 13 with me. The last part of it. It says that the apostles were what? They were highly regarded by the people. You know what that means? That means they weren't sports stars, they weren't pop stars, they weren't influencers, they weren't the cool kid in the class.
It meant that they were so devoted to who God was, that other people saw their purity, saw how they stood, and they were attracted to them. That's what it means right there. Listen to me, there is an attraction to the pure, non-watered down gospel. There's an attraction and we're seeing it all across our nation. Are we not? There is an attraction, listen, to pure believers that love people. There's an attraction to that. And on top of the attraction, God blesses it. God sustains it. God legitimizes it and it explodes. In fact, we see it in verse 14. Let me read you the verse again. It says, nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. Now, if you've been studying Acts, you notice that that statement looks different than the statement in Acts 3, in Acts 5.
In Acts 3, we see 3,000 people. In Acts 5, we saw 5,000 people. Now, I mean in Acts 4, we saw 5,000 people. And now in Acts 5, it seems that so many people were being added to the church. It's almost like they just quit counting. It's almost like they're like, "Hey, there's so many people here. This is kind of out of control at this point." So I want you to feel what's happening in the event. The crowds are beginning to notice, are they not? They're beginning to notice not only just the crowds in Jerusalem, but now all of the crowds and even some other surrounding towns are beginning to notice. Listen, church, the gospel is not more attractive when we compromise it. It is more attractive when believers actually begin to live it in life's purity. That's what we're seeing right here. The gospel is not more attractive when we just tell half of it.
The gospel is more attractive when we back it up with the lives that we live standing in Jesus. That's what we're seeing right here. People see the difference and people want to be a part of the difference. It's what're seeing. Keep reading. We'll see number two non-negotiable in a second. Look at verse 15. Watch what happened. It says, "As a result..." There, you're seeing it. "As a result of how they were living, as a result of what was happening..." Watch this. People brought their sick into the streets and they laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by and crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem bringing their sick and those that were tormented by impure spirits and all of them were what? Healed. They're healed. Here's the second non-negotiable when I think of spirit-led Evangelism.
Number one is that I need a life of personal purity, but number two, I need to live a life that has a distinguishing power about it. I need to live a life that it displays a distinguishing power of who Jesus is because it legitimizes who Jesus is in my life. It's not something I just talk about. It's something I live about. Let's live in the text. Watch what it's saying right here in Jerusalem. Let's get in our minds what's happening in Jerusalem right here. So people are now, what are they doing? From all over the area, not just from Jerusalem proper, but from all of the other little surrounding towns, they're beginning to bring their sick and bring their tormented to the feet of the disciples. This message is spreading.
It is beginning to move out. Why? Because there's an attractiveness when believers live it and when the power of God comes into people's lives. And what's happening? Not only do people notice, they begin to bring their friends that are sick on their beds, and what do the text say? And their mats. I love how the physician, Luke describes this. He's always pretty specific, but what he says here is he's like, "Hey, they're bringing them out in their beds." You know what that means? That means the rich people, the people that had proper beds, the people that had the four corners and the big sleigh bed and the big old whatever, they got friends that are bringing them all the way out and putting them in the road, but also on the other side of it, those that just had mats, the common people, the poor people that just had a pallet to lie on, they're bringing those brothers and sisters out into the streets.
You know what Luke is showing us? He's showing us that the gospel is not just for poor people. It's not just for rich people. It's not just for rich people or poor people. It's for everybody, and these people are bringing them to the apostles. Now, in this moment, the apostles had been given this gift of being able to heal people, of being able to verify the gospel, to point to the deity and prove who Jesus is, and so now these people were bringing their friends out into the streets just hoping, get this in your mind, just hoping Peter would walk by and that somehow his shadow would cover them. Are you seeing this in your mind? Like thousands of sick people in the streets, the disciples are walking. It's crammed full of the sick and the possessed and the hurting. Most of us would just kind of want to leave that place because it got a little uncomfortable for us.
What are they doing it for? Just to get into Peter's shadow. Now, this is a little bit weird to us, I might add. Why? Because we're Western, okay? We're Western thinkers. Now in eastern thinking, all right? In eastern thinking, there was this thought if you could just get into the shadow of the master or the teacher, that you could become like them or receive some of their power. That's what Luke is doing here. He's leaning into that idea, but here's the problem with it. The Bible never tells us here that everywhere Peter walked that his shadow just healed people. It's just not in the text here. He's just making the point here saying that these brothers were living with such power and such presence about them that people would literally just want to be in their presence to get some of what they have.
Are you feeling that? In fact, the question popped into my mind as I was just contextualizing this for myself this week. I put it in your notes this morning, and here's the question I asked myself, do others see so much of what Jesus is doing in me that they just want to get close to me? They just want to get close. Am I going to heal somebody with my shadow? Probably not, although if it does, you're going to hear about it next week. I promise you that. But here's what I know about people. Do other people see the power of God being lived out in my relationships? Do they see the power of God being lived out in my workplace? Do they see the power of God being lived out in my family and how I love people, how I carry myself, how I speak and what I'm devoted to?
You see, the text says here, it doesn't say that it's shadow healed, but it does say that, hey, they were all being healed somehow. How? I don't know. We're going to have to ask Peter one day. Hey, did it work? I don't know. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I'm just saying, but here's what I do know. Everything is good. God is showing up. He's showing out the purity, the believers, the power that's in the believers life, but also here's what I know about living a life of purity and power, that it always causes waves. It always causes people to stand up against us. It always causes people to want to push back against us, so I want you to write this third one down. Here's the third non-negotiable for our life when it comes to Evangelism is that we should live a life of what I'm just calling relentless persistence.
Just relentless persistence. I'm talking about a three-year-old toddler persistence. Amen. You know what I'm talking about in that. In other words, are we living a life that is speaking the gospel everywhere we go. Listen, the gospel is not a one-and-done activity. It's not like this week you're going to be like, "Hey, tomorrow morning, let just get it out of the way at 8:00 AM, and then I can go live my life the rest of the week, however I want to live it." No. Living out the gospel, we should do it in a spirit-filled way that it is a lifestyle and it's everywhere I go and as I go. Why? Well, first of all, because we'll never speak the name of Jesus over everyone at one time. Second of all, we don't ever know who God is going to move into our paths during the day or put in front of us.
That literally is asking the question, what do I need to do to be saved? And third of all, here's what I thought about this week until Jesus comes back, this is our primary calling as followers of Jesus. It's what He's left us here to do. We're ambassadors for Him, but here's also what I know. We've said this in a couple of weeks. Every time we stand up for God, there is another force that stands up against us. You see, Satan hates losing influence. That's why our role is to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. Why? Because he's going to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting until Jesus finally puts him in his place and he's never to leave again. Our role is to be relentless in our pursuit. In fact, keep watching. Watch what happens when we do this. Verse 17, it says this, "Then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees..." What were they? "They were filled with jealousy."
You knew it was coming. You knew it was coming. Why? Because they're losing power. They're losing control. They're losing influence, and Satan hates this. Why? Because this Jesus thing, this way, it wasn't called Christian yet, that's coming up later, this way, it was actually getting out of control. It was actually blowing up and exploding so fast that they thought they had their arms around it for a little while, but now they're like, "Hey, we can't deny the miracles anymore because they're just happening everywhere. We can't deny these brothers and sisters will give their lives for this thing anymore, so what do we do?" Well, I'm glad you asked because verse 18 tells us what they did. It's the same thing that they did a couple chapters ago. Watch what it says in verse 18. It says so, "They arrested the apostles and they put them in jail."
Now, look, that'll do it. Amen? That always does it. Here's the thing about this. Jail has never been a problem for God all over the Bible. God, listen to me closely. God, if you're in jail for Him, I feel like I need to add the caveat in this service, all right? God. All right? God, if you're there for Him, not something you did last week, He will always use it. He'll always use it. He used it in Joseph and Paul and Silas. He used it in disciples life, always. And so watch what happens there here in verse 19. Jail's nothing for God. Watch what He does. Verse 19, "But during the night an angel of the Lord open the doors of the jail and brought them out." Now, I don't know what this looks like. I don't know what this feels like. I don't know how the angel did it. Doesn't matter to me. I just see that it happened.
God looks over at an angel and He's like, "Hey, go get the boys. They did it again. Go get the boys. Let's get them out of here. We need to get them back into the square." Again, this is a direct shot at the leaders. These Sadducees that don't believe in angels, which is awesome because God sends one, they don't believe in miracles, which is awesome because they're seeing them everywhere and He's doing it again. They don't believe in Jesus or the resurrection, and so now an angel comes and does this for them, but more importantly, look at the charge that was given to them. Look at this relentless persistence that he was given them and he's given us. Look at verse 20. Watch what it says. This could be a theme verse for our lives.
Watch what the angel says to them, and He really says to us. He says, "Go stand in the temple courts." He said, "And tell the people about this new life." Did you see it? That's our life mission right there. Look at the words with me. Go. What does he say? Go where? Where's the angels telling these apostles to go? Well, he's telling the apostles to go back to the temple square. Why? That's where all the people were. That's where all the stuff was. That's where God was already moving. Now to us, he's not telling us to go to the temple necessarily, but he's telling us to go wherever we are going. Stand in the name of Jesus. That's the second word there, right? To stand. Now, to stand here in the Greek doesn't literally mean just to get up out of a chair and look around aimlessly.
No, no, no. To stand here literally means to take a stance and to prove a point. That's what this word here, when it says stand. It means to not just be on your feet, but to uphold a command and don't waver. Are you seeing what our command is? It's to go wherever we're going. It's to stand and uphold the name of Jesus. And what's the third part? This is the one many of us miss. It's to tell. It's to tell. That means it's to open our mouths and explain the what? Tell of what? He answered it in the last three words, the or this new life. Believers, listen to me. This is our calling. You ever wonder, man, God, what's your will for my life? This, if you're a follower of Jesus, this is God's will. Do I have to pray about Evangelism? No, you don't.
It's there. Do I have to pray about what I'm supposed to do for God? No. What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to go. You're supposed to stand and resoluteness. And you're supposed to tell. Tell of what? Tell of your fables. Tell of your life. Tell of your goodness. No, no, no. Tell of the goodness of Jesus, tell of His what? His life, His death, His resurrection. It's what we're seeing in the text. So what did they do? What did they do? Watch what they did. This is what we should do. Verse 21, "At daybreak..." Remember the angel got them out. I don't know what they did during the night. Did they hang out with the angel? Did they go get some food? Did they give each other high-fives? I got lots of questions about it, right? Here it is. "At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had been told..." And they began to do what?
"To teach the people." Now, this seems like, well, who would be there at daybreak? A lot of people would be there at daybreak. Why? Because remember, we said a couple of weeks ago, the Jews prayed three times a day, and now they're back in the middle of the madness, the middle of the temple square, the middle of where God has been doing all this. But wait a minute, Matt, that's risky. Why would they do that? Because this is what God told them to do. It's exactly how God told them to do it. I want you to notice what the angel did not say here. The angel did not say, "Hey, leave Jerusalem. Go hide in a cave somewhere and let's just let this thing blow over for a little while until it gets easier." No, no, no, no. He's saying, "Hey, listen, God's moving. God is on the move. God's power is on display, and we are here to give the message of new life."
You see, Matt, what new life are we given? Remember when Jesus looked at Martha at Lazarus death in John 11? Remember what Jesus said to her? Jesus said this. This is what we're preaching. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me..." I love it, "Will never die." That's what they're preaching. So what do they do? They go right back at it. Let me ask you something, believer, have you gone right back at it? Or the moment you get shut down, you're like, ah. See, Matt, I tried in 1984, I tried to share my faith and it did not work out for me, and so I just must not be gifted.
No, no, no, no, no. Watch the apostles. Watch what they do in verse 21. It said, "At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had been told, and they began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived..." They're coming for their little conference that morning, they don't know what's going on. "They called together the Sanhedrin." That's the 70-plus members of this ruling people. "The full assembly of the elders of Israel, and they sent to the jail for the apostles." There's about to be a problem. Amen? Watch this. "But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there, so they went back and reported, we found the jail securely locked with the guards standing at the door." Can you imagine? These guards are like, I don't know. Where'd they go? "But when they opened them, they found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the Temple Guard and the chief priests were at a loss."
Now, look, I love the NIV translation here, but I don't think that's strong enough. If you look in a lot of other translations, it literally says they were greatly perplexed, and if I was writing it, they were peeved off. That's what's happening right here. They were at a loss wondering what this might lead to. Are you noticing the trend? Are you noticing the trend in the disciples life that every time they get pushed down, they just pop back up? Are you noticing the trend in these religious leaders' life that no matter how many displays of God's power, no matter how much of God's goodness, no matter how much of God's love is shown, that these religious leaders still will not let their pride be broken down? Listen to me closely believers, listen, even the disciples did not bat a thousand in their Evangelism. Neither will we because that's not our calling.
Our calling is just to be relentless and persistent and to keep moving and keep speaking. That's our calling. Back in the story. Watch what happens. The leaders are like, man, if we could just get our hands on them. Look at verse 25. "Then someone came and said, look, the men that you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." Now, pause right there because I want to give you the next principle here, because not only should we have a purity about us, not only should we display a power and have just a persistence about us, look at this next P. This is preacher mode right here. We should also have just what I'm just calling a divine priority about us. We should have a divine priority that no matter what life throws at us, our priority is God first and everything else second, but listen to me, no matter the consequence.
Look at verse 26 and watch them live this out in front of us. It says this in verse 26. It says, "At that, the captain went with his officers and he brought the apostles. They didn't use force because they feared that the people would stone them." Now, pause there for a minute. I got to comment on this because I guess the fact of the matter is you just don't mess with 20,000 plus sold out believers for Jesus. All right? I think that is the message here, but you know who you can mess with? 20,000 plus half in and half out Christians, because none of them are going to do anything, but these brothers and sisters would have caused a revolt. So what do they do? They walk over. They just grab them by the arm and they pull them over here.
These leaders are no fool. They're scared of the crowd. Man, can I tell you what? If we live with a priority of the divine like they did, I'm going to tell you this, our government, our culture, our community would begin to give us the credence that we deserve, but the fact is that most of us, we might live it out for a couple of hours on Sunday, but then it goes on the back shelf for the rest of the week. I love this idea here. I love this. What if we live with this passion and priority? Let me show you what happens in verse 27, to them. It says, "The Apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name." We've heard this before.
He said, oh, underline this next phrase. "Yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching." You know what happens when we live a divine priority? We fill West Cobb, we fill Palden County, we fill Atlanta, we fill Georgia, we fill the world with what? Our teaching of Jesus. But watch this. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you were determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. No, they did that on their own. Verse 29. "But Peter and the other Apostles replied..." Oh, highlight this. "We must obey God rather than human beings." Did you catch this? The commitment to God that they had was so strong that no matter what it was that got in the way of that, they simply said, we're His first. Man. Let me ask you this, do you live like this? Is this your lifestyle right here? The Apostles did, and we see what happened.
They filled Jerusalem. If we live like this, we would fill our offices. We would fill our family. We would fill our community. We'll fill our sports teams when we live with this priority. The Apostles knew that God had a plan. The Apostles knew that God had got them out of this situation, that He opened the prison doors. The Apostles knew when they repented and they trusted in Jesus that He was all that they needed. They knew that God got them this far, but now they're having to decide, do we follow the law of the land or do we follow God? Man, I got news for you. We answer this question all the time. We answer this question when we decide to follow after culture or when we follow after friends or when we follow after God. So here's the question that I've just been asking myself all week.
When we're dealing with this idea of government versus God, what do we do when they collide? What do we do? Because listen, man, there's going to be a time and a lot of our lifetimes where this might be a deal right here. What do we do? Let me give you a little teaching really quickly, and then we're going to get back into the event here. Here's a principle I just want to lay out before, when it comes to government clashing with God, here it is. Here's what Peter would say. He would say, "Obey the law unless it explicitly contradicts God's commands." That's what Peter would say to you. In other words, yes, it is God who sets up authority. It is God who sets up government. It is God who sets up the law. That is clear in scripture. In fact, Peter, later on in 1 Peter 2:17, he says, "Show proper respect to everyone. Love the family believers."
We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fear God. We're like, yeah. And then here's what Peter pulls out. He says, "Now, honor the emperor." Now, this emperor that he's talking about honoring was way raw. He was killing Christians left and right, but he says honor him. In fact, Paul said it like this in Titus 3:1, "Remind the people to be subject to the rulers and authorities to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good." All right? He says that. So here's the deal. We should honor the government. In other words, drive the speed limit-ish. Drive the speed limit-ish. There it is. I mean, pay your taxes. Pay your taxes. Be a good citizen. Get a hunting license, whatever that means for you. But, but, but, but, if there comes a moment, if there comes a moment, Peter says, not just out of dislike, not just out of comfort, not just because you don't like the leader, but if there comes a moment when God's law is at opposition to man's law.
Peter says, "Always follow God first." That's a good point for an amen right there. Always. Always follow God first. Why? Because there's nothing that government can do for you for eternity. But God is the creator. He's the sustainer. He's the savior. He's the one that has given you life, and we are to submit to Him first, and if there is a consequence when it comes to the government, so be it. Why? Because it's temporary and because God gets glory from it. So what's happening? The disciples are living this life. They're standing in the name of Jesus. Now, notice they're not ranting. They're not having any hate speech. There's no violence. There's no Facebook rants. No, no, no. They are just standing. They're simply doing what they've already been doing. Now, notice that it doesn't mean they turn this thing up because there was a little bit of problems over here, and their key issue was being talked about.
That's not what it means. It means they simply are just doing what they've always done. In other words, don't miss your Sanhedrin moments and don't miss every single day life moments to stand in the name of Jesus. Every time these brothers got shut down, they just rose back up again. Every time they tried to move them down, it was like a beach ball in the swimming pool when you were a kid. Remember trying to sink a beach ball in the pool when you were a kid? You just couldn't do it right? It would always escape. That's what the disciples are doing. They had the heart of a lion. In fact, I love Proverbs 28:1 where it says, "The wicked flee, though no one perish pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." And let me ask you something. Does that describe you? Because that's God's power moving in them.
It's says, power moving. Now, back to the text, back to the text. Now, we don't have time to look at verse 33 through 40. You got to read that this weekend, but there's this one man that stands up and actually saves the apostles lives, all right? Saves their lives. You'll have to read that. He's like, hey, listen. Just let this thing go. Let's flog them a little bit. All right? On the side, and this thing will fizzle out. So the apostles, they got flogged and watch what they said about it, sets up our last one for the morning. "The apostles, the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of the suffering disgrace for the Name." Now, I want you to write this down. Number five. Here's the last non-negotiable. It's that we should live a life that just has kingdom perspective, that we should live a life that has kingdom perspective.
Here's what that means. That means where is my focus and when other things begin to collide into it, which one is it that I'm going to give my life to? Here's the perspective of the disciples. They knew that if they were walking in Jesus and walking in the spirit, that no matter what came their way, here's the key in it, they could still have joy. They could still have life, and they still had Jesus. They knew that no matter what fell down on them, here's the key, that they could walk in His fullness. They knew that they would never be more like Jesus than when they stood when other people were trying to drag them down. In fact, they knew Matthew 5:10, where it says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted..." Jesus says this, "Because of their righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of God."
Now, skip down to verse 12. Here's what He says. He says, "Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven from the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." It's almost like the disciples here after being flogged, we're walking out, smiling, fist, bumping each other and saying, "Hey, boys, listen, we did it. We stood, and as a result of us standing, people will meet Jesus." In fact, watch this last verse and then we're done. Here's what he says. It says, "Day after day..." Oh, here's our example. "Day after day in the temple courts..." Here's the perspective. "And from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah." Do you see what's happening right here? They simply had a perspective in life that no matter what happened, no matter who came against them, no matter what someone did to them, that they were living for eternity.
They simply put the offer of salvation on the table, lived out the life that God had called them to live and said, spirit, it is your role to convict and people to respond, and you know what happened? There were some. There were some this day and our day that were violently opposed to the gospel. Listen, it's no new thing that people oppose to the gospel. It was happening right here too. There were some that were just wishy washy and halfway committed, maybe had some indecision in this day and in our day. And there were some, there were some that were radically saved. There were some, because these brothers stood in the priorities of the kingdom. There were some that accepted the salvation offer that gave their life to Jesus, that repented, that trusted in Jesus as their savior. Believer, listen to me. When you share the gospel, when you share the gospel with purity and power and His presence with a kingdom perspective, the result, the result is not on you. The result is on God.
Our role is verse 20. To go, to stand and to tell. That's our role. Our role is not to win people. Our role is to stand faithful as those that have been redeemed standing in a life that is pointing towards our King. Now, here's what I know about us. There's some of us in this room that are very good at this. Man, I watch you. You're machines for the gospel and hallelujah that you're there. But there's some of us that were just not really sure about it. Can I tell you the cool thing about these five that I've listed this morning? Is that I can almost guarantee that one out of these five things that I've mentioned this morning is the thing that is keeping you from sharing the gospel. I can almost guarantee it. For some of you, it's a purity issue.
You're like, "No, man, I can't speak the gospel. If I speak the gospel, I'm just a big old hypocrite." Can I tell you your prayer for these next couple of minutes? Hey, Lord, purify me and make me yours. That's some of you in the room. For some of you, you're number two. You don't share the gospel because you don't feel like you have God's power in your life. You know what's so cool about God? When you're His son, when you're His daughter, when you need Him, all you have to do is with a repentant heart that open your hands and say, God, put your power in me and He'll do it. That needs to be some of your prayers in just a minute.
For some of you, you are number three. You don't have a bone of persistence in you. You are so passive. They call you Switzerland. Young people, they don't get that one right. Can I tell you your prayer today? Lord, move me from passive to persistent. For some of you today, it's all about your priorities. Whew. There's probably a lot of us, to be honest. We're so stuck in my stuff. God's stuff isn't even on the radar. You know what our prayer is today? God, redirect my priorities to you. Here's the last one. For some of you, it's just kingdom perspective, kingdom perspective. Everything is about today and not about eternity, so here's your prayer today. Here's your walkout. Lord, put my gaze on you and you alone, and no matter what tries to steal that attention, Lord Jesus, I'm yours.