26
Acts 5:34-40 THE APOSTLES DEFENDED BY A MEMBER OF THE
SANHEDRIN
Introduction:
The
apostles had been arrested and released by an angel. They had been
arrested again and are on trial before the
Sanhedrin Council. The Council sets
about to kill them, but one of their own
group arises to defend them.
I.
Gamaliel’s caution
V.
34, “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named
Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in
reputation among all the people, and
commanded to put the apostles forth a
little space.” Gamaliel was a member of
the council. He was a doctor of the law. That is, he was a specialist in what
the Mosaic law said. He was a distinguished teacher of the law and
was
considered to have a superior understanding
of how the meaning of the law and
how it applied to the lives of the people
of
respected by the other members of the
council.
Note
also that Gamaliel was a Pharisee. He
believed in a resurrection of
the dead.
Unlike the Pharisees who were angry at the apostles for teaching a
resurrection of the dead by declaring that
Jesus had arisen, Gamaliel was not at
all offended by their teaching that one
could arise from the grave.
He
did not believe what the apostles said about Jesus arising from the
grave, but he was a fair minded man and
seems to be willing to give
consideration of their story.
Gamaliel
ordered that the apostles be moved out of earshot while he sought
to persuade the other council members to
give up their notion of putting these
men to death. V. 35, “And said unto them, Ye men of
yourselves what ye intend to do as
touching these men.” Gamaliel advised
the
counsel members to think the matter over
before doing anything rash toward the
apostles.
II.
Gamaliel’s line of reasoning
V.
36, “For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be
somebody; to whom a number of men, about
four hundred, joined themselves: who
was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him,
were scattered, and brought to
nought.”
He called their attention Theudas, who had a large following. He had
about 400 followers and that was a sizable
number of followers. Gamaliel points
out that the Sanhedrin Council had not
taken any action against Theudas. Their
action was not needed. Somebody outside the council had killed
Theudas and
nothing ever came of this movement after
the death of their leader. The group
just dwindled away.
Gamaliel
also called attention to Judas of
man rose up Judas of
people after him: he also perished; and
all, [even] as many as obeyed him, were
dispersed.” This was not the Judas who had betrayed
Jesus. It was a man of
himself.
But he, too, died and his movement died out with him. Soon after his
death his followers scattered and the
movement was no more.
V.
38a, “And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them
alone...”
Gamaliel counseled the Sanhedrin to leave the apostles alone. If
they took action against them and put them
to death, they stood in danger of
getting into trouble with the Roman
authorities.
But
there was more involved than just the danger of getting in trouble
with the Romans. There was the danger of getting into trouble
with God.
Gamaliel reasoned that if the followers of
Jesus met with God’s disapproval,
then they should let God deal with them.
(V. 38b), “... for if this counsel or
this work be of men, it will come to
nought.” In this statement Gamaliel was
right in a sense. It is true that all who oppose God will
eventually meet with
defeat.
No man can work against God and win.
But
Gamaliel was wrong in thinking that God always moves quickly to put
down His opponents. In fact some of the false religions that
exist in the world
today have a long history. Some of them date back to the days of the
Babylonian
empire.
We cannot say that just because a group has been around a long time
that it has the approval of God. Never-the-less, God used the persuasion of
Gamaliel to get His apostles
released.
Gamaliel
most certainly spoke words of wisdom to the group in verse 39.
V. 39, “But if it be of God, ye cannot
overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even
to fight against God.” It is most certainly true that the members of
the
Sanhedrin nor anybody else in this world
could destroy Christianity from off the
earth.
God was promoting Christianity.
The Scripture says, “If God be for us,
who can be against us?” The enemies of Christianity can kill
Christians, but
they cannot kill out Christianity. They cannot win in the battle against
Christianity.
III.
The Council concedes and the apostles freed
V.
40, “And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and
beaten [them], they commanded that they
should not speak in the name of Jesus,
and let them go.” The Council agreed with Gamaliel --- at least
in part. They
did agree not to make no further effort
--- at least for now --- to kill the
apostles.
They agreed to set them free rather than kill them. And this is what
they did.
But
they did not totally agree. They did not
agree that the Christian
movement might be of God. They would never agree to that. They did not agree
not to hurt the apostles. They beat them before they let them go. In doing so
they were still fighting against God. Even to speak against God’s people is to
fight against God.
IV.
Some things which we should observe
Gamaliel
was not at this time a Christian and yet he defended the apostles
and, in a
sense, defended Christianity. He
did so on the basis of right and
fairness.
He was not trying to save Christianity, but was just trying to get
people to do what is right.
It
is not the world’s place to judge Christianity and to decide whether or
not it should exist. It is God’s business to decide whether or not
it should
stop or to continue to exist.
Yet
the world continues to persecute Christianity.
Jesus warned His
disciples that they would be
persecuted. In effect He said, “They
have
persecuted me. They will persecute you.” Down through the ages the world has
persecuted Christians. They have fed them to the lions, burned them
at the
stake, and left them to rot in
dungeons. Even today Christians are
still
persecuted. They are persecuted by atheists, Moslems,
Buddhists, and by many
individuals in the news media and
entertainment industry. On television
Christians are persecuted by Kevin Cline,
by Jerry Springer and others.
But
the greatest time of persecution of Christians is yet to come. It
will come under the leadership of the
Anti-Christ, the man of sin. The Anti-
Christ will be the greatest enemy of
Christ and Christianity ever to live in
human flesh. He will shed the blood of many
Christians.
Yet
Christianity cannot be destroyed. To
fight against Christianity is to
fight against God. God is the One who sent Jesus Christ to the
world. The Jews
tried to stamp out Christianity in its
early stages. They crucified the Christ,
but that did not stop Him. He arose from the dead and Christianity
spread like
wild fire.
The Jews, under the leadership of Saul of Tarsus, tried to wipe out
the church at Jerusalem. Instead, the Christians were scattered and
churches
sprung up everywhere they went. The Romans tried to wipe them out. But the
more they were persecuted, the more they
grew in number. So it was in the Dark
Ages when they were slaughtered by the
thousands, but the multiplied by the tens
of thousands.
One
who fights against Christianity only hurts himself. It is like the
hammer beating against the anvil. The hammer wears out, but the anvil still
remains.
Each individual must make up his own mind whether he is for it or
against it. But whether one favors Christianity or fights
against it,
Christianity is going to win. Christ is going to return to earth and He
will
conquer the Anti-Christ and his army. Christ is going to establish Himself on
the throne to rule during the
millennium. After His millennial reign,
Christ
will sit upon the throne of God in the New
Earth and only the saved will dwell
in the New Earth. All others will be in The Lake of Fire and
Brimstone.
Conclusion:
Will
you be on the winning side? Are you on
the winning side now?