Acts Chapter 5
By Pastor Chris
LOUDER THAN WORDS
The first followers of Christ quickly found themselves in hot water. Their teaching about a man the Romans and Jews had executed and who had risen from the grave was causing problems for the religious authorities. For those in power, finding hope in something foreign to their understanding and receiving teaching and healing from under-educated fishermen was troubling. In response they took the only action they could, they arrested these men and began discussions about how they would contain their influence.
After a miraculous midnight jailbreak, the Apostles found themselves again in the temple courts teaching. The authorities were baffled as to how they escaped, and even more stunned that after a stern warning and a night in jail they had returned that morning to teach the people. The Apostles response was simple and to the point, “We must obey God rather than men.”
The advice of one Pharisee was, “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.” The High Priest warned them to no longer speak about Jesus, and after a beating they are sent on their way.
After the Apostles are released from custody, they count themselves lucky to have suffered for such a cause as Christ. They ignored the warning they had received and continued to preach the good news of Jesus.
There will be times in our lives when the message of Christ will be unwelcome and our living it out will be uncomfortable to those around us. We will be asked to stop stirring things up and go with the flow. We might be asked to look the other way on questionable business practices. We might be encouraged to be rude to someone so they will go away. We might be questioned for our stance on showing grace and kindness where it is undeserved.
From the small, seemingly harmless to the large, potentially illegal we are surrounded by choices to go along with man or to obey God. When we obey God rather than men in our everyday lives, we preach the gospel in ways much louder than our voices are able. When we suffer (and we will suffer), we can rejoice in the knowledge that our obedience to God is an unstoppable force that helps spread the Gospel to all those in our sphere of influence.
