Who would fight against God?

Acts Chapter 4:32-5-end

- 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. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38

This passage shouts out to me in so many ways that all attempts to hinder the message of God being spoken were failing.

Inside problems did not weaken the fellowship which supported and encouraged the message to be lived out.
Persecution and fear of going to jail did not stop the message being spoken.
Human authority and powers did not stop the message being spoken.

Acts 4:32-5:11
Lets first think about the lesson we might learn from Ananias and Sapphira:
Fellowship; this is such a powerful word; it is unity, generosity, love and honesty. The believers were of one heart and mind; this must have been such a powerful witness in itself. I remember being in Aberdeen - living in a community which had grown from a small fishing village to a commuter village. In the local community centre I asked one of the older members of the community why people did not visit each others houses for coffee etc. ‘Why would you do that?’ she asked. That community had never been a strong foundation to build a community of fellowship on. It was hard to make friends in and it had a very high depression rate.

God taught the early church members a lesson through Ananias and Sapphira – God loves His Church and is jealous over it. It was purchased by the blood of his Son and has been enabled on earth to glorify God and do his work, nothing less.

Acts 5:12-32
Lets secondly think about preaching the message and persecution.
Fear is natural and important. It tells us when to beware. It helps us to tread the right path and be safe. When your whole community turn against you it should be natural that fear would help you to determine what to do. These disciples were definitely bold and not stupid. They were not ignoring God because it was God who directed them in what to say and when to say it. The miracles no doubt helped their faith and conviction. They were convinced – and from what we read their conviction was infectious!

Acts 5:33-end
Lets think about human authority and power
Theudas and Judas the Galilean obviously had much charisma, power and authority, they were characters that had attracted much attention and following, but they did not have Gods power or authority and their work failed.

Who would fight against God? God will bless and enable his work to continue while other efforts may thrive for a while but will eventually dwindle to nothing.

Whats in a Name?

Acts Chapter 3 -4:31
Whats in a name?
- If I said to you ‘Blair has sent me’, its no guarantee you would entertain me, but you would know I came with a ‘name’ behind me... enough said – let’s see!

The Name - Peter uses many different names and titles in this address as he reminds the Jews of their act in crucifying Jesus: Ch3: v14 The Holy and Righteous One, 15 The Author of life, 17 His (God’s) Christ, 22 Prophet, 26 His Servant, Ch4: 11 The Capstone, 12 Saviour. He was clarifying who Jesus was. Obviously these names had a meaning and deep culture surrounding them. Listeners knew the scriptures and the teaching surrounding them.

The Miracles- were physical signs and certainly drew attention. We read of Peter and John reaching the masses through helping one individual. Jesus also helped individuals in his ministry and we see that again it is often helping the individual that masses were reached. Yes people came to be healed both with Jesus and with Peter but it was the message that changed lives – a lesson for us perhaps?

The message is vital with both Jesus and Peter – why?
It is the message which equates to the real life changing power and truth;

It is the reality of the message which is the wonder and authority of God;

It is the message which meets with his people. God calling them again to repent and turn back to God.

So with both the miracles and the blessing of the Holy Spirit and the new message from God the last days certainly seemed to have come, just as the prophets had foretold.

The miracles provided an opportunity for Peter to turn attention from his works (the miracles) to the name of Jesus and the message Jesus enabled to be pronounced.

A bit more for those who want it:
The Jewish people knew that God worked through people, they also knew the power of God was too awesome to comprehend. These witnesses were not saying ‘we are prophets, this is God’s message to you’, this was different. God had raised Jesus from the dead; now witnesses were telling that Jesus had ascended to heaven and that God’s Holy Spirit was working though his people. This was a powerful witness to the reality and truth of what was being said.

The Jewish people knew Gods covenant demanded that they listen afresh and continually seek Him with all their heart, mind and strength (Deut 6:5). He asks nothing less of us all these years later. Wiesbe has written ‘Calvary may have been man’s last word, but the empty tomb was God’s last word’ (p412*1) and that also still stands all these years later!

Peter addresses the crowd and 1. announces the crime, 2. gives the evidence and 3. offers a pardon.

In the crime they acted in ignorance
The evidence shows that this was God’s will and they knew not what they were doing.

The pardon began long back,
a quick scan through Lev. 4-5 and Num. 15:22-31 will show that an offering should be made for those sins done in ignorance, but, what about deliberate sin Numbers 15:30-31 states: 'But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him. This is an important point for later on in Acts when we find the pardon being left off the end of the message.

So what is in the name of Jesus? Actually just as with the name of Blair, it’s the person and the character. As we learn about Jesus we should be able to put our trust and loyalty wholeheartedly in him.