Consider these questions as you dwell in Acts 5:12-42:

1. How do signs and wonders play a role in the early church's ministry, and what is the significance of Peter's actions in healing the sick? How does this demonstrate the authority of the apostles?

2. What is Gamaliel's advice to the council regarding the apostles, and what wisdom does he offer in assessing whether this movement is from God or from men? How does this advice impact the council's decision?

3. How do the disciples react to the persecution and beating they face from the council? What perspective do they have on suffering for the sake of Christ, and why do they consider it an honor? How can this perspective shape our own response to challenges and persecution?

Transcript:

 And so we find ourselves in another passage talking about signs and wonders and then we see the proclamation of the of the gospel And we see how the apostles are being persecuted Well, we start out here and we see all these signs and wonders being regularly done and people are seeing this and people have trust in this so much so that they're carrying the sick out into the streets and people Are being healed even just having peter's shadow fall upon them.

Now again, this isn't about the power of Peter. This is about the power of Jesus. It's about the message being proclaimed. It is about the authority that the apostles have to proclaim this message. This new thing that God is doing through the resurrected and ascended Christ. And so, we see that all this is happening and the high priest is upset.

He's like, hey, we told you to knock this off. But Peter says, you know, we have a choice. We can either obey you, obey man, or We can obey God and given the choice we're going to proclaim what we have We have seen and what god is blessing through our ministry, right? People are being brought to faith, people are being healed, why would they stop?

There's no motivation for them here Not only do they need to be obedient to God, but they're seeing the fruit of their ministry and so we see that peter proclaims what the apostles have been saying that that god raised Jesus whom was He's killed by being hung on a tree and he's now been exalted and ascended to the right hand of the Father.

He is a savior. Uh, he's giving repentance to people. He's giving forgiveness of sins. And then verse 32, we see there are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit. That's the idea here. This healing that is coming is because the Holy Spirit, God himself, is a witness to what has happened. And we're seeing this in the manifestation of all these signs and wonders that are happening.

So, the Holy Spirit has been given to those who obey him. And so, more and more people coming to faith. More and more people are being seen to be a part of this faith. And, and the healing and the, and the proclamation of the gospel continues. Well, they’re not sure what they want to do. They, looks like they want to kill him, right?

You know, and you can sort of understand, you know. Hey, we killed Jesus. Now this is starting. Let's, let's do one more. What, what would this possibly hurt, right? That, that, if we killed Jesus and this started, let's kill the next messenger. That this can't be anything that, uh, would, would be a problem. We've done one.

Why not do a second? Well, what happens? Well, Gamaliel is a teacher of the law, and he's rather wise. He talks about all these past things that have happened with people claiming to be the Messiah or claiming to be a revolutionary, and what happens? They die, things happen,  it dies out. They weren't the Messiah.

It obviously wasn't a work of God. Well, then something else. He shares something else that happened. Another person who was claiming to be the Messiah, who was raised up and tried to overthrow things, but he was killed and nothing happened. So, verse 38. So in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. Because if this is from men, it's going to fail. But if it's from God, you're not going to be able to stop it. And he even says, if it is from God, then you are going against God. And there is a problem with that. Here you you're going to be opposing God. That's not what you want to do. Right? So Gamaliel shows wisdom here Hey, if this is a movement of God, let it go.

You're not going to stop it Anyway, if it's not let it let it die off, you know You probably have some things like that with your kids, right? Well, you're not sure how into something they are and you're not too wild about it But you know that if you were to stop it, they'd probably want to pursue it even more So let's see if this sticks right? Gamaliel showed some wisdom here.

Hey, if it's a good thing If it's, if it's good for you, just let it go.  If not, uh, if it's not meant to be, it's going to, it's going to die out like the other people who have risen up over the years. And so, we see then that the apostles are beaten, and they're told to stop.  But what, what did the disciples do?

This is so counter to the way you and I think, right? They are beaten, and it says in verse 41, Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.  Wow, you know that they understand that their Persecution means they're proclaiming the truth.

They understand that if they had a savior and a lord and master who suffered Why should they think that they are above suffering and so they see this as a great

And so, as we think about what this passage means for us, we need to remember the truth of the gospel that through all of this, it has come down to us. Why? Because it was the truth. It lasted through the ages and has come to us.  And so many times we may see difficulties as we encounter situations where things might not go very well, or we may even be persecuted someday for the cause of Christ.

Well, as we see with the apostles here, it is an honor to suffer for his name. Why? Because he is our Lord and Savior. He is the one that we adore, and he suffered for us. And so, if we have to suffer. For him, we shouldn't be surprised. We should be seeing it as an honor because if our Lord suffered, we shouldn't expect any less.

And so may we look for opportunities to serve and may we not worry about what people think or how people treat us, but instead if we are treated poorly, may we remember that we are honoring the will of God, we are honoring the work of our Savior for us over the things of man.