Apostles Again Before the Council

Apostles Before the Council and the Irony of Their Release

Well, let's get to it then, as quickly as possible. Let's turn to Acts chapter 5, Acts chapter 5. We will leave how far we get in the Lord's hands. Acts chapter 5. We began this morning, of course, looking at this encounter between the apostles and shall we say, sacral, religious, political authority.

And this morning we saw that the Lord was doing great things through the apostles, the miracles that were being performed and the healings that were being performed. And then this, of course, brought about resistance from the high priest and from the Sadducees.

The high priest would be from the sect of the Sadducees. And the fact that they had the apostles arrested and put in the public jail. Then we saw the deliverance of the apostles by an angel. And the command that was given to the angel, by the angel to the apostles, go stand and speak to the people, verse 20, in the temple, the whole message or literally all the words of this life.

And so we see in verse 21 that they obeyed this. Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach. And so they did not delay their obedience to the angelic messenger. But they started preaching well before Sunday school was supposed to begin.

I can assure you of that. There at the very rising of the sun about daybreak, they enter into the temple and they begin to teach. Now what happens after this is somewhat humorous, to be honest with you.

There is a level of irony and maybe even a little bit of a level of sarcasm in Luke's recording of what takes place, beginning in verse 21. Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the council together, even all the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought.

But the officers who came did not find them in the prison, and they returned and reported back saying, we found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors. But when we had opened up, we found no one inside.

The Council Finds an Empty Prison

Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this. But someone came, reported them, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence, for they were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned. When they had brought them, they stood them before the council.

The high priest questioned them saying, we gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. And so here we have this amazing story, and of course this morning we briefly thought about exactly how it was that the apostles had left the prison, and how the guards had not been aware of this, and how do angels lock doors, or unlock doors?

Well these are all questions that the scriptures are not interested in answering for us. All we know is a supernatural event takes place, a miraculous event takes place, deliverance of the apostles, and they go and do what they have been commanded by the angel.

They go into the temple and begin to teach the people at daybreak itself. But this is not something that is in the knowledge of the high priest. It's interesting that the high priest and his associates, they weren't in the temple early in the morning.

They weren't up doing prayers and quoting from the Psalter or anything like that. They had no idea what was going on. They come in and they call the council together, and they're doing their political, religious thing, and they gather together even all the senate of the sons of Israel.

They're going to make this a large meeting. It's not a small meeting of the Sanhedrin. And so they send out orders to the prison house for them to be brought. So they just figure, well, we'll bring them before us.

We're all set up now. We've done this at our leisure, and so we have the authority to do this. But the officers who came did not find them in the prison. Now you can just imagine what this looked like.

They returned and reported back saying, we found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors. But when we had opened up, we found no one inside. Now, of course, on a naturalistic level, you can start thinking about all the excuses that have been offered over the years for, for example, for the resurrection of Christ, bribing the guards or this, that, or the other thing.

But they come back and they are quite perplexed as to what has gone on because the doors are locked quite securely and the guards are standing at the doors. So this is the public prison house. This isn't, these aren't necessarily people that would have been on the payroll of the Sadducees, so to speak.

And so where in the world had they gone? How, what, what had happened? Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this.

So the, the captain of the temple guard, he, he assumed that everything was, was kosher. I suppose that's the proper word to use in this context. That it was appropriate, that the people who had been chosen to guard them were the right people and did not suspect that they would be involved in trying to help these people to get out.

And so they are greatly perplexed as to what would come of this. They had no explanation. And so while undoubtedly they're sitting around looking at one another, maybe discussing what some of the possibilities are, you can just sort of see someone come in and first they talk to one person and then they, they talk to another person and they, you know, well you better, okay, all right.

And we don't know who it is, but someone came and reported to them, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Now they must have found that pretty odd. Maybe it's someone who had some knowledge of the fact that, that they were gathering that morning specifically to pass judgment on these men and, and how did they end up teaching the same doctrine and proclaiming in the same name the resurrection from the dead in the temple while the, while the council was in fact meeting.

This didn't make any sense. And so they come and they make the report. And so when they hear this, then the captain went along with the officers and I can just imagine as they came upon probably Solomon's portico, I would assume that this is in light of what happened at the beginning of the chapter where it was taking place.

Here they are and I wonder what was said because it's very, very clear. The captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence for they greatly feared the people lest they be stoned.

And so they recognize that these individuals are teaching in such a way that the people find them to be tremendously authoritative in what they're saying. And it's impossible for them to deny the existence of the, those who have been healed and, and changed by the message that they are proclaiming.

And so when they came up, did they have to interrupt? I mean, it would not, it just does not look like it was one of those situations where they just come busting in and grab them and drag them out. I think probably that the captain and the officers come along and, and sort of wait for a natural break in what is being said by the apostles and, excuse us, sirs, but we need to bring you to the council.

They have some questions they'd like to ask of you. Could you come please? I have a feeling it was probably a less raucous encounter than maybe had happened the day before. And so, and it, once again, you know, if the disciples, I mentioned this morning, if the, if the apostles had wanted to be militaristic or something like that, they could have called for help from their followers and none of that, none of that takes place.

They come along voluntarily recognizing, I'm sure that the men who are taking them are themselves in fear. When they had brought them, they stood them before the council. And so here we are again, this is not the first time this has happened, though I get the feeling if you compare the description that Luke gives here in chapter five from that which he gave in chapter four, I think this was a much larger meeting.

This was, I think the original, because remember in the original encounter in chapter four, then they began to realize that these are the men who had been with Jesus. They really, there wasn't a real connection yet.

And so I, I would doubt that the council was in full strength at that particular point in time, but, but now it is. Now you would think, what would be the first thing that the high priest is going to ask them once they stand before him?

Doesn't even mention, doesn't even mention, um, how did you guys get out of the prison? What, um, what, uh, and, and then having gotten out of the prison, why did you come right back to the temple? I mean, none of this makes a whole lot of sense from their perspective, but that is not what is said to them.

Instead, you have clear insight into the mindset of sacral power. I keep using that term because sacralism really, you know, we've, we've been talking about it in the church history series, the, the melding of religious and political power.

Sacral Power, Aramaic Repetition, and the Meaning of “This Name”

Um, and that's what you see in this context, not, not on the same level as what you're going to have in the sacralism of, of the Roman Catholic system in, in the late medieval period or something like that.

Uh, but you still have this, this always uncomfortable, evolving, changing relationship between state and religion. Uh, and it has been recognized by the Romans there in Jerusalem that there's just nothing they can do about this.

They, these, these Jews are unlike anybody else that they've encountered and they, they have to, um, work with the system in, in some fashion. And so these people have a limited authority and, um, the Romans simply have to work with them.

And so the first question is not, how did you get out of prison? Why did you go back to the temple? The first question is, we gave you strict orders. Now what's interesting here, and, and some of you might not find this interesting, but I, I found it interesting, um, when you, when you look at this, um, in, well, we'll think about it for a moment.

What language would the high priest be speaking? Um, in all probability, he would have been speaking what we would call Aramaic. Uh, it's, uh, it's obviously closely related to Hebrew, uh, but it was, had become the language of the land after the, um, uh, captivity.

And so he probably was speaking Aramaic, which bears many, many, many resemblances to Hebrew in form and, and, and so on and so forth. And there is a, a way to emphasize something by repetition of a term.

Um, for example, we've talked about it before, the holy of holies is how the English translation renders the Hebrew phrase, which is a literal rendering, but that's not how they would have understood it.

That would have been the holiest place. So the holy of holies just means the holiest place. And so you can, you can double up and, uh, there, you know, when we go through the, uh, the Psalter on Wednesday evenings, um, as the pastor is reading, uh, it's just, it's just one of my disciplines to try to read in the Hebrew, uh, just to try to keep it fresh.

I don't do as much with Hebrew as I do with, uh, with New Testament Greek, obviously. And you will see many times, especially in poetry, uh, the use of this basically repeating the same word twice. Sometimes there's a change in the form that gives it some extra meaning, but this type of repetition, uh, that emphasizes something in poetic language.

Well, what's interesting is the beginning of verse 28, um, it's not really good Greek, but it's certainly representative of the fact that what Luke is recording for us was originally spoken in another language.

Uh, you can see those of you who read the language, the repetition of the same root in the, uh, in the Greek language, which represents that, uh, the fact that Luke is really giving us a, a rather accurate, it's not really good Greek, but it, it is good transcription of Aramaic, um, recording of what exactly was said, uh, to the apostles in that particular incidence.

And, and the reason I raise that is if this was just, um, something being made up decades later, uh, the whole story is fictitious, as there are a lot of people who like try to say. This wouldn't be something they would think to do, uh, especially if they didn't actually know the Aramaic or Hebrew languages either.

So it's just one of those telltale signs of the, uh, authority and originality and, and truthfulness of, uh, of the text. But, uh, anyway, saying we gave you strict orders. We, uh, we commanded you in commanding, we commanded you, it would be sort of one way of putting it, uh, but we gave you strict orders, uh, not to teach.

And then notice again, in this name, in this name, it's almost like it's, uh, I don't, I don't want to utilize that word. I don't want to repeat, uh, that, that name. And what's interesting is at the end of the verse, the blood of this man, um, I could be reading something into it, but I think that there is a hesitation.

Uh, there is a desire not, uh, to say the name that, uh, the apostles are proclaiming all through Jerusalem, uh, we commanded you, gave you strong orders not to teach in, uh, this name and behold, uh, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you desire, you intend to bring upon us the blood of this man.

So they have obviously, uh, been hearing at least some report of the content of the preaching and teaching, uh, that the apostles have delivered. And we can go back to chapter four and remember that in that brief encounter, the, the apostles had immediately raised old Testament texts and had emphasized the centrality of Christ and his resurrection.

And so this was clearly the primary message that was being, uh, delivered even there in the temple itself. But now the religious leaders are offended and they say, you intend it's, it's literally you desire, it is, it is your wish to bring upon us the blood of this man.

And I just think back to Matthew's gospel, uh, his blood be upon us and upon our children. Uh, remember that's that, that phrase. And remember, uh, I remember, I don't remember now what year, um, the, um, that film came out, uh, that Mel Gibson did the, the passion movie.

Um, but I remember I did a sermon about it before it came out on a Sunday evening and, uh, talked a little bit about, you know, Mel Gibson's Roman Catholicism and so on and so forth. And of course I did have to go see it cause I had to report on it.

And what I found fascinating, I've mentioned this to you before, what I found fascinating is they had to edit it before it came out because there was a huge hue and cry, I don't know if you remember, from Jewish groups that it was anti-Semitic.

And what they changed was in the trial scene, um, they had given credit, they, they actually had the actors speaking Aramaic and then they had subtitles in English. So what they did, uh, is to, for the theater release, is they removed the English subtitles to the place where the crowd answered back and said, his blood be upon us and upon our children.

But they still had the actors say it in Aramaic, if you know, if you know at least enough Hebrew, you could figure out what they were saying in, in Aramaic, they're so closely related. And so, so they didn't change that, they didn't pull the audio out, uh, figuring how many people in the United States or the world are going to know what's being said in Aramaic.

And so they left that and they just removed the, uh, the English subtitles. But there you have the situation. And was, was the, was the high priest not there? Well, I think he probably was. Uh, did not the people in this council know, uh, the complicity that they had, uh, with Pontius Pilate in delivering Jesus over to death?

Well, of course they did. And so we should not be shocked or surprised. This is not the first time in history when political power and riches and authority will corrupt the very core of the honesty of an individual.

And here they are actually pretending to be offended. You want to bring this man's blood upon us. How could they not know that his blood was already upon them? How could they not know, uh, that they had been absolutely complicit in bringing about the death of Christ?

And, and remember, remember the prayer that the early church prayed back in chapter four, right at the end of the chapter, uh, these men, and they included the Jews, did what your hand and your will predestined to occur.

So the church was already convinced of the divine sovereignty that overruled the events of man. But likewise, they already had a deep theology that recognized the responsibility of man within the sovereignty of God.

And so there is a accusation in these words, you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus.

You may not want to say his name, but we will, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. Now, um, this is, uh, this is not politically correct speech. This is not how to win friends and influence people.

Uh, this is not how to deescalate, uh, a, a difficult situation. Uh, this is a bowl in the China shop, a style of rebuttal, but it is very direct and it, uh, there's, there's no, no, no place to hide.

Uh, first of all, the very first phrase, we must obey God rather than men, um, reminds them that their authority, any authority they have is derived from God. What they were just doing, they were doing in obedience to God, not only to, uh, Jesus's own commands to them post resurrection, but through the angelic messenger that had delivered them from these guys prison without their knowledge.

And so you can say that you had commanded us, you had given us strict rules, uh, but your rules are contradicting God's rules. And therefore we must obey God rather than men. So your commandment to us is a human commandment.

It does not go any higher than the human realm. And our obedience is based upon what God has commanded us to do. Then you have the God of our fathers raised up Jesus. And so the God that these men claim to represent, claim to worship, the high priest claims to hold his office in fulfillment of this very God's authority.

And probably by saying the God of our fathers, uh, the apostles are identifying themselves as, uh, the children of Moses as well. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross.

Now, or actually it's literally hanging him upon a tree. Uh, now just one technical thing in, in passing, um, it is interesting. The new King James has, uh, has corrected this. Uh, but, uh, it is interesting down through the years, uh, when, when people have said, well, well, show me a mistranslation of the King James version.

Okay. How about Acts 5 .30? Uh, because if you look at the King James, uh, as I recall, it says, whom you put to death and hung on a tree, um, actually that last phrase is descriptive of how it took place.

Jesus wasn't killed and then put on a tree. Uh, it was being hung upon the tree was the mechanism by which, and you would not believe the, uh, the responses and excuses and everything else that I've heard about that, uh, which none of the, uh, King James translators themselves would have, uh, would have, uh, agreed with.

They would have accepted, I think, the correction of that rather, uh, stilted rendering that they provided. But the point is, uh, that the means of death was crucifixion and it is not the term cross that is used here.

It is the technical term for a tree, uh, wood, literally. And is this, uh, maybe possibly indicative of a very early understanding of what Paul would make explicit about the curse, cursed is he who's hung upon a tree, uh, and that's the same terminology it's used going back to the Old Testament.

I sort of think it probably is, even though they don't make that specific application here. Uh, something tells me that that probably is what the, the background of this, uh, actually is. But the point is, can you imagine, can you imagine, uh, what this sounded like in the ears of the religious leaders before whom these men are standing?

Uh, the God of our fathers. So we are in the same covenant community as you. We are the children of Abraham, but that God raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging him on a tree. No, uh, no place to hide here.

Uh, no, no gentle way of allowing them to, to, to skip the responsibility that was theirs. And what about the Romans? Now, don't get me wrong, uh, we saw in the early churches prayer, they recognize the, the complexity of all the things that God used to bring about the crucifixion.

They didn't, they didn't say Pontius Pilate was, was guiltless. They didn't say Herod was guiltless. They didn't say that the Romans were guiltless, but by putting all of them together with the Jewish people, they all had responsibility.

And it was very plain that it was the intention. It was the desire, the deep heartfelt desire of the Jewish leadership that Jesus be put to death. And they certainly in their illegal mock trial of Jesus had condemned him to death.

Remember Mark chapter 14 and, and you've, you've heard, you've heard the blasphemy. This man's worthy of death, crucify him. And so when you are looking at the very murderers of Jesus and you identify them as such, and then you say the God of our fathers raised from the dead, the one that you had killed, you are saying to those individuals that they are standing in absolute opposition to God.

And any pretended authority that they claim to have is just that, pretended because God has undone what they attempted to do. He is the one, the one hung upon the tree, but raised from the dead. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand, which immediately every single one in that room would immediately start thinking of Psalm 110, one that was a highly messianic text.

Everybody knew it exalted to his right hand as a prince and savior. And so those terms there, a savior, we, we certainly understand a prince is, is one who exercises authority. Maybe there's a connection here going back into Isaiah chapter nine, just some of the various titles that were used of Jesus.

One having, having a Royal authority, one who saves and then fascinating to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Now the apostles, and it is interesting, it says the apostles answered and said, but we have only just this one summary of what was stated.

Obviously much more was said than this, but exalted to the right hand of God, it is his and it is the intention of, of God through him to grant repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. Now when you see that phrase repentance to Israel, that raises questions, well, what about repentance to others?

And we know that, for example, when Paul writes to the Romans, he specifically talks about the fact of the giving, the granting of repentance. And now he's talking to a primarily Gentile audience. And so is this Israel as in just ethnic Israel, or is this more like what Paul's going to be saying that we are the true circumcision who worship God in spirit and truth, so on and so forth.

We certainly know that both repentance and forgiveness of sins is provided for all people, but that proclamation has not yet really begun. Again, we're in a very unusual situation in the early church.

The Gentile mission has not yet commenced. And so at this particular point in time, this message is still being proclaimed primarily in that Jewish context. And so utilizing Old Testament language and categories, Jesus has been exalted to God's right hand.

He has royal power. He is a savior. He grants repentance to Israel. And through him, there is forgiveness of sins, which also, though not developed, would have a huge impact upon what goes on in the temple.

Forgiveness of sins is now in Christ because of the resurrection, not through the offering of animal sacrifices, so on and so forth. And so you have this brief but rather fascinating summary of some of the primary elements of what the apostles were preaching to the people.

And we are martyrs of these things. Literally, it's the term for martyr. And as you probably know, martyred, you don't have to die to be a martyr. It is a witness. We are witnesses of literally these words.

These things, these matters, but it's literally these words, just as it was all the words of this life earlier on. But it's these things, these realities, these teachings, these historical events that God has brought about.

We are witnesses of these things and the Holy Spirit is witness of these things whom God has given to the ones obeying him. Now, do you step back long enough to hear the application that is being made there?

If you deny these things, if you have not believed these things, then not only are you going against our testimony, but the spirit that God has given to those who obey him testify of these things. So if you stand against this, if you stand, if you pretend your own innocence, then you are fighting against the very Holy Spirit of God whom God has given to those who obey him.

Now, this is early on in the history of the church in regards to their teaching and preaching on the person of the Holy Spirit. There's going to be a whole lot more that's going to come after this. But the Holy Spirit is described as a gift given to those who obey him, not to all people, but only to those who obey him.

And the implicit charge here is that they are in disobedience. And we will see, obviously, we're not going to continue into this, because Gamaliel's counsel coming up beginning in verse 33 is far too long a section to get into this evening.

And I want to hold that for another time. But what is very clear is the apostles did not hold back from bringing words of direct and strong condemnation of those who were guilty of having brought about the very death of the Messiah.

And it's hard for us to imagine how these men, in the intervening weeks, had been able to, shall we say, look at themselves in the mirror. Obviously, that's somewhat of an anachronistic statement. But we need to recognize how searing upon the conscience is the power of religio-political control of other people.

Church history has shown it. The history of Israel has shown it. Here we see it again. We see it in the hard-heartedness of so many of the scribes and Pharisees and the Sadducees. They're able to say and do things from a religious perspective that truly cause us to be stunned.

But we need to be very, very careful. It's so easy for us to wrap our evangelical robes around us and condemn those who wrap their Pharisaical robes around them. But I can't tell you how many times I have warned from this pulpit, we must be very careful.

The strongest words of Lord's condemnation are always against those who have great light and sin against that light, who have great knowledge of the Word of God. God has great mercy upon individuals who are ignorant of His ways.

But my, those who have His words coming forth from their mouth and then do not seek to partake in the spirit of those words are the ones who receive the hardest and harshest condemnation from Him. And here, those same men are receiving that same kind of condemnation from the Apostles.

And so, when we have opportunity, here's the opportunity. They've been brought before the very leaders of their people. What are they going to do? Most of us would have been greatly impacted by the sight of these men that we had been raised to view as the very leaders of God's people.

And they do not act in an unbecoming fashion. They speak the truth and they speak it boldly. And they speak it in a very pointed fashion that brings conviction. In fact, as you see, we're not going to get into it, but the translation of verse 33 when it says, cut to the quick, that's, you know, I don't know that that's really a good modern translation of that.

But when they heard this, they were furious and they wanted to murder them. Not because anything they had said was untrue, but because what they said was true. And it went straight to their pride and their sin and their arrogance.

And when men have been given over, as very often is the case in these situations, and you bring a word of conviction that the Spirit of God uses, history will tell us over and over again. Many of, more than one of God's saints has met their end, faced with the fury of a religious person, a religious person who has had their hypocrisy exposed.

We saw that when Jesus exposed it in the Pharisees. We see the same thing taking place here as well. And certainly our prayer always is, Lord, deliver us. May we never become hard-hearted in such a fashion that we begin to engage in the attitudes of the Pharisees.

So when given the opportunity, what did the apostles do? They gave clear testimony, even though they knew that by what they said, they would probably bring great offense to those to whom they were speaking.

We have to have wisdom in our day. Why? We have opportunity to speak to so many things. You may have opportunity tomorrow in your community, school, work, whatever it might be. You may be put in a position that you do not want to be put in, to where you have to give an answer.

How do you do so? Well, there's always the two sides. There is a side of compromise, fearing the face of men. I don't want to hurt somebody's feelings. The other side, God's glory, God's truth, God's command.

And we have to find how to be wise as serpents, gentle as doves, speaking always in love, seasoned with grace, and yet speaking everything that God has commanded us to do. That is not always an easy thing to do.

That is not always an easy thing to do. What we need to pray for is, Lord, remove any type of arrogance, any type of combativeness on my part. May it not be my ego, or may I have nothing to do with this.

May my greatest desire be your honor and glory and the salvation of any person to whom I'm bringing this message. And may that guide me, may that be the guiding principle as I give a response, but Lord, may I not fear the face of men.

Whatever the outcome of that conversation, whatever the outcome of that situation, even if it's something that is detrimental to me, may I be able to honestly see that you have been glorified in what has taken place and that I have proven to be your disciple.

May that be our desire for the coming week. Let's pray together. Indeed, Father, we ask that even now you would prepare our hearts, you would help us to remember the bravery and obedience of the apostles as they stood before the Sanhedrin.

And Lord, as we have opportunity, may we with them speak all the words of this life. May we do so with clarity, may we do so as individuals knowing that we likewise have needed your grace and your mercy, your forgiveness of our sins, that we are redeemed people.

May we as redeemed people seek to see others come to know redemption as well, in the name of Christ, for it is in his name we pray, amen.