Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share “The Failure of Fighting Against God” (Acts 5:17-42)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
“The Failure of Fighting Against God” (Acts 5:17-42)
Anyone who has served in a leadership position in an organization knows that sometimes you can meeting something to death.
Sometimes, people have meeting upon meeting upon meeting, only to end up not really getting something accomplished.
Other times, they may have tons of meetings that end with a terrible decision being made.
Well, one thing that the Jewish leaders in Acts did a lot was have meetings. A lot of those meetings centered on trying to stop the apostles and the early church from having any success.
Today’s passage is no exception. However, as you can probably guess, since we’re here in this room today, they were unable to stop the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s sermon is entitled “The Failure of Fighting Against God.”
Before we go any further, let’s pray and ask the Lord to speak to us.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at this passage and discover four activities that took place in this time and place.
First, . . .
I. The leaders were meeting.
Let’s look at Acts 5:17-18:
17 Then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with him, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
The leaders in Jerusalem were tired of all the success the church was having.
Luke (the author of Acts) describes them as “filled with jealousy.”
So, they decided to have another meeting of some of the leaders of Israel. This is what they do; they meet.
It seems as if this meeting was an impromptu meeting. It seems that they were out and about, and saw the apostles ministering, then they were filled with jealousy.
So, what do they do? They have a quick meeting and decide to arrest the apostles.
Notice that the passage says they arrested the “apostles.” It doesn’t single out Peter and John in this passage. So, it is likely more than just Peter and John who are arrested.
So, what resulted from this meeting was that they arrested the apostles and put them in jail.
There’s another meeting we’ll read about in just a moment with even more important leaders, but let’s see what happens next.
Next, . . .
II. The apostles were missing.
Look at verses 19-24:
19 But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this life.” 21 Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full council of the Israelites—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. 22 But when the servants got there, they did not find them in the jail; so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 As the captain of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, wondering what would come of this.
We can gather that the first meeting was not an official full meeting.
However, it resulted in the apostles being jailed overnight until the entire Sanhedrin could gather.
The first meeting was simply the high priest and some Sadducees. This second meeting involves all the important leaders. This is the big meeting.
However, there is one major problem now: the apostles were missing.
You can’t have a big questioning of suspects without any suspects.
Can you imagine being the person who had to tell the leaders that the apostles were gone?
The guards probably looked at each other and said, “Uh oh.” “You know those guys that
View all episodes
By First Baptist Church Bartow
5
22 ratings
Anyone who has served in a leadership position in an organization knows that sometimes you can meeting something to death.
Sometimes, people have meeting upon meeting upon meeting, only to end up not really getting something accomplished.
Other times, they may have tons of meetings that end with a terrible decision being made.
Well, one thing that the Jewish leaders in Acts did a lot was have meetings. A lot of those meetings centered on trying to stop the apostles and the early church from having any success.
Today’s passage is no exception. However, as you can probably guess, since we’re here in this room today, they were unable to stop the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s sermon is entitled “The Failure of Fighting Against God.”
Before we go any further, let’s pray and ask the Lord to speak to us.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at this passage and discover four activities that took place in this time and place.
First, . . .
I. The leaders were meeting.
Let’s look at Acts 5:17-18:
17 Then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with him, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
The leaders in Jerusalem were tired of all the success the church was having.
Luke (the author of Acts) describes them as “filled with jealousy.”
So, they decided to have another meeting of some of the leaders of Israel. This is what they do; they meet.
It seems as if this meeting was an impromptu meeting. It seems that they were out and about, and saw the apostles ministering, then they were filled with jealousy.
So, what do they do? They have a quick meeting and decide to arrest the apostles.
Notice that the passage says they arrested the “apostles.” It doesn’t single out Peter and John in this passage. So, it is likely more than just Peter and John who are arrested.
So, what resulted from this meeting was that they arrested the apostles and put them in jail.
There’s another meeting we’ll read about in just a moment with even more important leaders, but let’s see what happens next.
Next, . . .
II. The apostles were missing.
Look at verses 19-24:
19 But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this life.” 21 Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full council of the Israelites—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. 22 But when the servants got there, they did not find them in the jail; so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 As the captain of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, wondering what would come of this.
We can gather that the first meeting was not an official full meeting.
However, it resulted in the apostles being jailed overnight until the entire Sanhedrin could gather.
The first meeting was simply the high priest and some Sadducees. This second meeting involves all the important leaders. This is the big meeting.
However, there is one major problem now: the apostles were missing.
You can’t have a big questioning of suspects without any suspects.
Can you imagine being the person who had to tell the leaders that the apostles were gone?
The guards probably looked at each other and said, “Uh oh.” “You know those guys that