Missions Paul

Speak up
Acts 5: 41
“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.”

They never stopped. They didn’t grow tired. They didn’t lose focus. They didn’t become afraid and begin to water down what they were proclaiming. They were not distracted. They didn’t become soft. They didn’t introduce new ideas of showing love in ways that don’t involve communication. This was not a season of mission. This was not a sign up for an event. They didn’t do this on the special calendar moments for best effect. They didn’t begin well and taper off. They began and continued. This was constant. Day after day. These were unstoppable people. They never stopped. They were telling people about Jesus. They were teaching people how to be a disciple. For me, this is the crux of missions. All the humanitarian relief work in the world is wonderful and greatly used of God. But the simple but firm commitment of proclaiming Christ continually is what the Great Commission is about. Speak up. Continue. Don’t be afraid.

Rejoice
Acts 5:41
“The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”

I’ve been in church services where the members have affluent lifestyles and whose problems are based around what they thought they should have but didn’t get. I’ve been there with them and their problems have so overwhelmed them that they have struggled to rejoice in any way.

I’ve been in church services where the members have lost what appears to be everything. The women have been brutalised, their children taken, their men have been maimed. They have lost it all. I have been there with them and I have been overwhelmed at their joy in praising Jesus.

Those who appear to have it all sometimes don’t have anything.

Flogging
Acts 5:40
“His speech persuaded them. 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.”

They were flogged.
A flogging was a specialised discipline. The Jewish law called for 40 lashes but this was then later reduced to 39.
During this flogging, repeatedly the words of Deuteronomy 28:58-63 were read. “If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name-the LORD your God- the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.”
The religious were using their Scriptures so that they could carry out their religious law of hurting others.
Nothing much has changed. The church is often guilty of using Scripture during its hurt of others.
Wanting to hide behind the fact that it is God carrying out this action not them.
But we know the truth of this flogging.

Unstoppable
Acts 5:39
“But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

Are you receiving from Him then who can stop Him giving?
Are you walking with Him then who can stop your walking?
Are you speaking His words then who can silence you?
Are you giving His love to others then who can steal that from you?
No action of God, no movement from God, nor His message or his acts of love can be stopped by man.
We have an unstoppable God.
If He has decided to bless you then who can stop Him?
He has the name higher than any other authority so who can come against Him?
The unstoppable God is within you.
Today you maybe facing a life of uncertainty, you may wonder if you will get through, friend, you will get through!
So step out today into what seems so very difficult knowing anything that comes against you, comes against your God.

All for Him
Acts 5:38
“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.”

Gamaliel using the examples of Theudas and Judas advises not to harm the disciples because he feels that their campaign will not amount to anything if what they are doing is of man.

However, there has been much done in the name of man that has succeeded. History shows a trail of success and destruction by the works of man. Gamaliel you are wrong surely.

There are doctrines of man, campaigns publicised by man with the ideas of man, self-seeking, self-promoting views that are only about man that actually have grown into successful ideologies and people follow in droves.
There are many religions and cults that have survived and appear successful.

So in this life maybe we would disagree.
But what we do know is there will come a day when everything will be weighed in the balance.
When we die or when Jesus comes He will look at all we have done, He will judge the hidden purposes and the activity of our life. It will be then that we know what has failed and what has succeeded.
We can live today with the aim to do everything for the glory of God and not for our gain. That’s the point and Gamaliels wisdom helps us today. Check your motives and your plans. Do it all for Him!

Judas the Galilean!
Acts 4:37
“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.”

Gamaliel continues to show that if Jesus was a phoney then the disciples would all scatter and so he quotes the story of Judas the Galilean.
This Judas was actually living at the time of Jesus. He came as a Messiah. The Jews believed that when the Messiah came then the Jewish people would overthrow the Gentiles and especially the Roman rule. Judas gathered a band of brothers to rise up in rebellion. They bought into a cause, the cause of Judas the Messiah, but when he was killed the story ended.
Jesus the Messiah came to earth during a time of a revival of Messiahs, there were many. There still are.
The Messiah-complex people:
They are always meddling into something, fighting, objecting, wanting justice for this and that, revolting, arguing, wanting to change the world to be the world they want it to be. They can gather like-minded people. They can draw support. But when they lose then the story is over.
Jesus the Messiah fought a different way. He saw a different type of wrong. His focus was not flesh and blood but the spiritual powers. When he was put to death he defeated those powers. When he rose again he publicly triumphed over them. When he ascended into heaven he announced the story never ends! That’s the Messiah we follow. He is the only Messiah the world needs.

Theudas!
Acts 5:36
“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.”

It is hardly surprising that there are debates as to who Theudas actually was. Josephus writes of a Theudas but his character isn’t the one that Gamaliel mentions here. I don’t think it matters as Theudas still exists today.

The Theudas people always claim to be somebody:
Through the social media revolution we see every day all kinds of claims to be the next best thing. Someone needs to create new superlatives for the next Theudas is running out of words to trump the previous claim. The fact is Theudas is not as good as he/she is made out to be.

The Theudas people can gather but it doesn’t prove anything:
People are fickle. One week they are praising with palm branches the next week they are cursing and calling for death. People are fickle. They gather in the city and town squares to watch somebody juggle only because the crowd are gathered. Crowd gathering is relatively easy. Attracting people is an art and many have mastered it. But it doesn’t prove it is genuine.

When Theudas dies that is the test:
What is being built these days? If everything is about here and if everything is about now then it will naturally fizzle out. Great leaders create movements and use momentum, they begin small and multiply. Great leaders invest in the next generation. Great leaders are always thinking, planning, strategising and building so that when they are not there, they still are.
Jesus was not Theudas!

Consider
Acts 5:35
Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.

Consider carefully. Do not be hasty nor rash. Be careful what you decide to do.

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Aaron created a golden calf for worship to please people.
Koran, Dathan and Abiram slandered Moses and died.
Samson found Delilah and lost his eyesight.
Eli kept silent with his sinful sons and lost God’s presence.
Uzziah became proud of his achievements and became leprous.
Moses struck the rock twice and missed the Promised Land.

None of these people needed to have ended how they did. If only they had considered before they acted.
Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin to consider. He was their conscience. He was their accountability partner.
I find myself continually across the world listening to people saying how accountability is so important and yet I only find true accountability in a few areas.

Here are a few questions I have learnt that can be asked of yourself when considering actions with people:
1. Who really knows everything there is to know about me, not just my history but my present thoughts and desires?
2. Do I pretend when I am with certain people? Why?
3. Do I find apologising difficult? When did I last say sorry?
4. How important am I in a given situation?
5. Do I talk about people when I have a problem with them or do I talk to them?
6. What is my gain in making this decision?
7. How can I give some gain to the person that I am giving loss to by my decision?

Consider. Think again. Think better. Think wiser. Think slower.

But Gamaliel
Acts 5:34
“But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honoured by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.”

But Gamaliel.
This man was known as the greatest teacher within Judaism and highly respected. He was the teacher for the Apostle Paul in his younger days.
Even after his death (of which many thought that God’s presence lifted from the earth) further teachers would quote him for his views ranging from divorce to the practices of the Sabbath.
This man had risen within Pharisaism and become a major voice on the Sanhedrin. So much so that when he ordered for the apostles to be placed outside so that he could speak to the Sanhedrin they obeyed.
Gamaliel spent his entire life maybe even for this one moment. Perhaps God was promoting Gamaliel through his life so that at this moment it could be said … But Gamaliel.
What is certainly true is that all of your life experience, your knowledge, skills and character can be used by God for the ‘But’ moment.
Some situations call for someone to interject. To say the opposite or suggest a solution, to offer wisdom and think outside the box. Everyone may think the same and circumstance calls for you to be that different voice. Will you do it today?

Witness
Acts 5:33
“When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death.”

Do you really want to be known as one of Jesus’ witnesses?
Today our brothers and sisters in the family of God are facing threats of death more than ever before simply because Satan wants to silence the gospel. An Al-Qaeda group working in West Africa are targeting ‘the slaves of the cross’. But right across the world in every continent no Christian witness is safe. The cross is not just offensive, that would be mildly put. The cross and the bearer of it have become an abomination to many.
When Jesus said “you will be my witnesses … To the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) He was speaking of the level of sacrifice needed as a witness. Total. Your very life.
We have to face it that our faith calls for death. Death not for anyone else but that of the cross-bearer.
So maybe on a much lesser scale today you will face some scorn for being a Christian. If so, then you will be part of an army of witnesses who are experiencing exactly the same thing and more.