[Darris McNeely]: All right. We're in the Book of Acts here this morning. We've got a bit of ground to cover with Chapter 5 and 6 is where we left off. And just a bit of a recap regarding this, we started into Chapter 5 with the sudden tragic death of Ananias and Sapphira, two individuals who had lied to the church, lied to God, presented themselves as something that they were not, and they both fell dead in a very dramatic scene that opened up Chapter 5. We talked about that. Keep in mind that where we are at this particular points in the development of Acts is Luke is talking to us, showing us some of the developments of persecution that took place within the church as they heal the lame man. They were arrested. They were brought before the Sanhedrin. They were let go, and the church continued to grow and God's spirit was very evident. They were developing there. Now we had...they had a little bit of a bump here in Chapter 5 with an internal problem.

First of all, we had some external persecution from the Jews that has begun now to develop, and that's going to continue and it will grow through the remainder of the story. And we also have then this internal issue. So, note that Luke as a historian and a chronicler of the story of the early church is giving us a full picture. It's a multi-dimensional picture of what's taking place in the church, showing us all things that take place in the Church of God. Let's just, kind of, look at it that way, both then and now and in the modern setting, I should say. And as the church develops, as people are involved, as Satan mounts his efforts to thwart the work of preaching the gospel, the unity and the harmony of the membership, these things develop.

And we got to the point here in Chapter 5 where the continuing signs and wonders and miracles that were being done by the apostles, even to the point of where it said of Peter's shadow passing over people brought about dramatic healings as well, that brought, again, attention from the Jewish authorities. They didn't like what was taking place and then they arrested them again. They threw them back into prison and there they were let out in a dramatic fashion by an angel of God. And they were told to go and stand in the temple and to proclaim these words of life. And that is a very interesting thing to consider, “words of this life.” And that's where they're found the next morning.

They go into an early setting in the temple, I explained at that time that in the ancient world without electricity, soon as the daylight came, the activity started bustling throughout the city. And that's where they found themselves. And as a result, they were discovered there by the captain of the officers, in verse 26.

Acts 5:26-28 “...Who brought them without violence.” It said. “and because they feared the people lest they should be stoned. And when they brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, saying, ‘Did not we strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us.’”

And so, they said, basically, "you've got your teaching, your doctrine, your set of interpretations of the scriptures," which they did. And we've talked about that in the earlier classes, how God's spirit was leading the church to look at the scriptures, whether it was the Psalms or anything from the books of the law, and understand them in a new setting with what had happened with the life and ministry and resurrection of Christ, His death and resurrection especially, and what was happening now within the church.

And so, they were putting, in a sense, a new interpretation or an added dimension of understanding upon many of the scriptures. And that's why the Jews were upset. The Jews were saying basically, "Hey, these are our scriptures, this is our Bible, if you will. We studied this. We have traditions of understanding and teaching. We have a script. You're off-script. It's your doctrine." And that's really upsetting them as they do this. People, you know, we get into habits and we have to...a script is nice. I do a television program every month from a script. It's word for word and I don't get off-script usually. If I do, then we add more time to it. And the guys up in the post-production, they have all kinds of fits, trying to fit everything in.

That's one setting here. I teach a class generally from notes and outlines, not a word-for-word script, but the script, you know, it refers to, "This is what we say, this is how we say it sometimes." Or "I didn't understand it that way." And, you know, as we grow in grace and knowledge, we should understand that, you know, your narrative, your story, your understanding of certain scriptures changes, and in a sense, I'm not saying that it becomes your doctrine and your pet understanding necessarily. But there are many things about the Psalms and the Proverbs and the Gospels and the accounts in the Bible as we read it, that it will apply to your life in unique ways.

And because you're older, you've gone through experiences, you will deepen your understanding. That's one level of a personal growth in our understanding of scriptures. What was happening with the church here when they said, "Look, you're filling the streets with your doctrine. We've taught you to not do this." They were showing Christ in the Old Testament, they were showing Christ in the Psalms. And these are the men who had engineered the death of Jesus Christ. And that's why Peter responds the way he does.

Acts 5:29 “Peter and the other apostles answered and said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’”

Now, this was an extreme statement of courage for Peter to stand and say that, he was not intimidated by this August Jewish Council that he was now arraigned before. He'd already been there once and he'd learned his lesson in terms of how they were. And he learned a lot about that. And he's now there a second time and he says, "We are going to obey God rather than men." Just understand the courage that statement represents because it comes from a depth of conviction.

Peter was convicted by the message, the gospel, the Spirit of God, what had happened. He was an eyewitness to the resurrection. And he had a very deep conviction that was moving him. It was the basis of his life. He had been exhorted, he had been taught, he had been moved by the teaching of Christ for the three and a half years that Christ was with them, and then the subsequent events of His death and resurrection, further teaching by Jesus, and then His ascension and what is taking place. Peter now has a very strong conviction about what has happened and what he believes and who he is and what he is supposed to say.

Now, we develop those as well in our own lives to a degree as we do the same thing and are convicted by the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and led to have a conviction to then do something. When we read the word to repent, Mr. Creech was with you earlier this week teaching you about the doctrine of repentance. And when you understand what the Bible tells us about repentance, that's an exhortation, repent, believe, be baptized, understand. And it brings a level of engagement for us on our own level that then gives us a conviction to commit to God. Conviction leads to a commitment to God and to His word. And Peter's expressing that. Peter is showing that right now by what he says, "We ought to obey God rather than men." In other words, we're not going to be intimidated by your admonitions, your edicts.

Acts 5:30-32 He said, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him, God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things. And so, also is the Holy Spirit to whom God has given to those who obey Him."

And so, they were, again, showing this conviction very, very deeply. Notice that in verse 31, Peter makes an interesting statement here as to how he looked at the Word of God.

Acts 5:31 He says, "God has given repentance to Israel."

Now, Israel speaks to the entire nation that once was a united grouping of the tribes of Israel, the descendants of the sons of Joseph, though that 12-tribe nation that had the name of Israel had long since ceased to exist with the captivity of the northern nation of Israel to the Assyrians and then the southern nation of Judah to the Babylonians, now having come back together several hundred years since the time of Cyrus and the Persians.

And yet here though, he is speaking to primarily a group of the predominant tribe that was in the land was that of Judah, along with Benjamin that composed the nation of Judah. And there were other descendants of some of the other tribes that had migrated down long before, during all the troubles in the nation of Israel. That's recognized by historians that, you know, some from Ephraim and Manasseh and some of the other northern tribes no doubt migrated down and avoided the captivity of the Assyrian period. But that would have been perhaps probably a negligible amount. But the primary tribe is Judah. Peter's led to address the fact that this repentance is now to all Israel and the ability for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, other epistles of Paul show us when that ultimate ability for Israel to repent and have their sins forgiven will ultimately take place. It didn't happen in the first century. That they are going to be grafted back on is what Paul shows in the Book of Romans, Chapters 9, 10, and 11, where he, kind of, lays out here that God has not cast off His people, Israel, and that they will all be grafted back on, but that is for a future time. And so, you see that part...understanding that helps you to appreciate what he is saying here.

Acts 5:32 He says, "We're witness of these things. So, also is the Holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey Him."

The end of verse 32, that statement is, kind of, another one of these markers that tells us what is, if you will, a part of the spirit, repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands, what the Scriptures show here in Acts being, let's say, the process to repent, believe, be baptized, and then with receiving the Holy Spirit.

This adds a little more understanding in that obedience is a part of what is required to receive God's spirit and to be using God's Holy Spirit. God gives His spirit to those who obey Him. So, obedience to the Word of God, to the Law of God is a very important part of the whole process. And so, that helps us to...you know, that defines what repentance has brought a person to. Sometimes, people think that they come to the church, they begin to learn about the Sabbath, the holy days, and the fullness of the Word of God and the law and what it means. Yet they have been a part of another church. They've been baptized maybe when they were 12 years old or sprinkled as an infant or baptized even as an adult in some other church organization. But they didn't fully understand repentance. They didn't understand fully what baptism was about. They were not fully obeying God because they didn't have the knowledge at that time. Sincere, yes.

And yet this Scripture helps people to understand that obedience is a part of repentance in order to receive God's spirit. And I've shown this a number of people through the years and counseling with people to help them understand, you do need to be baptized no matter how old you are, you know, to be baptized again, to become ultimately a member of the body of Christ and to receive the Spirit of God. That's the key thing there. And so, moving on then in verse 33, we move here to a new part of the scene here that shows up with the introduction of a gentleman by the name of Gamaliel.

Acts 5:33 It says, "When they heard this, they were furious," the collected Sanhedrin, "and they plotted to kill them."

Now, this is pretty extreme. They began talking among themselves. They'd already killed Jesus. They'd already given this group one warning. Now, they were not beyond moving to death. They plotted, figuring it out, "How can we do this?" Part of their plotting was not necessarily just what to do, but how to do it, because technically they didn't have a capital authority in the Jewish body here.

They had violated that, you know, they did have to go to the... They certainly didn't give Jesus a fair hearing. They trumped up the charges against Him at His arrest. But they did have to take Him to the Roman authorities. But here they are plotting and... somehow were they plotting how to take it to the Romans? We don't know. Later, in Chapter 7, we're going to see the martyrdom of Stephen. And that goes completely off the wagon. I mean, they go off the charts there because they take that into their own hands. But something happens in verse 34.

Acts 5:34 "One in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while."

Very interesting development. So, he said basically, "Gentlemen, let's go into executive session. Let's clear the room and just the counsel here. Let's talk." And so, the apostles are put out, and maybe a few others. They close the doors, and he begins to talk. Now, let's pause for a moment, let's look at this man, Gamaliel, and let's remind ourselves something about what we're told about him here. We're told he's a Pharisee. We've talked a little bit about the Pharisees being one of the political religious groupings of the Jewish leadership in this period of the first century. The other major one being the Sadducees. Primarily, the Pharisees and the Sadducees are the two here. The Pharisees are the minority party, if you will, in the Sanhedrin or the ruling bloc. The Sadducees held more of the power and were there. We've talked about the Pharisees, and it's an interesting name. It basically comes from a word means to separate.

They had separated out and that's, kind of, what it means. And the separation wasn't a total physical separation where they moved off into a commune or anything like that, but they separated themselves in terms of piety, holiness, their approach to the study of the law, and as well as even their individual teaching. They were not a politically minded group. They were very zealous for the law. As a body, they spent their time in scholarly pursuits of the study of the law and held their distinctive views from the other Sanhedrin. The Pharisees, for instance, believed in a resurrection. Now, the Sadducees did not, we will see this come into play later when Paul is arrested in the temple and he plays that off in the crowd, basically to protect himself.

But the Pharisees believed in a resurrection. Now, they also believed in, kind of, the idea of an immortal soul. And so, when we say that they believed in a resurrection, I'm not saying that they believed in it completely as we read about it, let's say, in 1 Corinthians 15 or 1 Thessalonians 4, particularly 1 Corinthians 15, where it talks about being changed from mortal to immortality in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the sounding of the trumpet. That's not necessarily how the Pharisees looked at it. They believed in...obviously, they didn't accept Christ. They weren't looking for Him to return. They did look for a messiah. They did believe the scriptures that David was going to rule over, again, a reunited Israel from the prophecies of Ezekiel.

And they had some understanding of that vision of the valley of dry bones in some way. But they looked more towards some type of a bodily resurrection that would not necessarily be exactly as we would understand a glorified body as we become a part of the family of God. They certainly would not have understood the truth of resurrection to glory, to immortality bringing us into the divine status fully as the part of the family of God, which is what the Bible teaches and what we believe.

So, they didn't have that full understanding when it comes to the resurrection. And so...but they were certainly closer to the Sadducees who rejected the idea of a resurrection. The Pharisees did look for a messianic age and even a personal messiah. They believed in angels and demons. They also believed in the free will of man, and they sought to live a life, in a sense, apart from a lot of the trappings of the normal, let's say, upper-class pursuits, which the Sadducees were fully bought...fully appreciative of and seeking in terms of their political associations there. And so, the Pharisees still had their problems, Jesus clashed with them.

But we have here this man, Gamaliel, who was of that group, their minority group within the Sanhedrin. The arrangement there was essentially the Sadducees had to accommodate the Pharisees into, if you will, a political arrangement because the Pharisees had a larger following among the common people while the Sadducees looked at themselves as more elite. And so, they had to listen to them. They had to include them in the ruling body here. And they have at this point in time, a leading individual named Gamaliel, who is called a teacher of the law, held in respect by all the people. And that speaks a great deal. We do know about this man from other writings of the time.

He was a grandson of a man named Hillel, a previous teacher who had high standing within the Jews because of his devotion, his piety, and appreciation, and teaching of the law. Gamaliel descended from him. We know from Paul that Paul was a disciple of this particular Gamaliel. Paul tells us that later in his writings, Paul had studied in his school. So, Gamaliel is, in a sense, a revered, exalted teacher, rabbi if you would want to call it in a sense of a respected teacher. But he had a school and students sat at his feet, which is, kind of, what we do when we go to classes. You're sitting at our feet in a sense that you sitting in a class and you learn from the instructors here at ABC. That's what people did, and Paul was his most famous disciple.

Now, Gamaliel has a high standing among the people at this time, as it says, as a teacher of the law. From the other writings, he's referred to...even he had a nickname called "The Beauty of the Law." In other words, his teaching, his style, his character, his personality drew people, in a sense, he had a way of teaching and explaining things that was attractive. And so, he was called the “Beauty of the Law.” And he was given the title of Rabban, which is an exalted teacher, not given to everybody and very highly esteemed. And again, we find later in Acts 22:3 that Paul was taught by him.

And that's interesting from just a perspective of not only getting a bit more information about Paul and his background but also because of what Gamaliel is about to say. Gamaliel is about to counsel tolerance, caution, wisdom is what he's going to lay down here. And one of his prominent disciples, Saul, who we will be introduced to later, is not...at this point in time, doesn't have that tolerance. He doesn't have that wisdom, if you will, because our first introduction to Saul, which is going to come at the end of Chapter 7, is as a persecutor. He doesn't like these people and he's out to destroy, if you will, the Church of God. But Gamaliel has a different point of view. So, look at verse 35 as to what he says.

Acts 5:35 He says, "Men of Israel..."

And again, note what Gamaliel says. He's addressing this body of leaders and he too, uses the collective term, the inclusive term of Israel, meaning all of Israel. We sometimes overlook these things and what that tells us about what God is telling us, I think, as God drops in, Israel is not forgotten. Israel is still a part of God's plan, a plan that began with the promises that were first given to Abraham back in Genesis 12 and then passed along to Isaac and then to Jacob and Ephraim, and Manasseh. The fullness of these promises are still on the table. And I think sometimes we just need to recognize what is being said in such a common phrase here. Anyway.

Acts 5:35 He said, "Take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men."

Let's pause here, let's think this through. "For some time ago..." he said, let's have a little bit of a history lesson.

Acts 5:36 “Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody.” All right. He makes a historical reference to someone named Theudas, who we don't have any other reference in the Bible about this man. "And a number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing."

Now, we have some references to such an insurrectionist named Theudas in at least more than one occasion. There's a reference to a Theudas... Now, keep in mind, this episode is happening in the early '30s, let's say 32 A.D. We have a reference to a Theudas back in the year 4...get my quote here, right? I believe it was 4 B.C. at the death of Herod the Great. Let's see. Yes, 4 B.C. There was an insurrection at that particular time and this was at the time of the death of Herod the Great.

Herod the Great, remember is a great king, rebuilt Jerusalem. He's the one who engineered the death of the firstborn at the time of Jesus's birth in an attempt to destroy this future prophesied king, which he feared. Now, we have from the Jewish writer Josephus, a focus upon another man named Theudas about 10, 12 years later from the time here of Acts in the year 44 A.D. And because we have this, scholars look at this and they think Luke gets it wrong because Josephus talks about a specific Theudas in 44 A.D. They know that there was a major insurrection and there are individuals named Theudas at that time back in 4 B.C., and they think Luke is mixed up or he didn't read his Josephus write or whatever. And they use this as a kind of sense Luke, the historian, making a mistake.

Then there's another school of thought among historians that we just don't have all the information of all that was taking place prior to this in Galilee or Judea regarding Jewish insurrections. And there are a number of commentators who lean toward that as well. And so, they don't dismiss Luke as making a historical mistake here. I would side with those commentators and then just back away and realize we probably don't have all the information, give Luke the benefit of the doubt for at least two major reasons. First of all, the inspiration of God's spirit involved here. Secondly, so much of the other references, historical, geographical otherwise in the Book of Acts is accurate. As we see as we go along here the descriptions of the temple, we'll see geographic references that are precise and spot-on. And so, for Luke to make a mistake here by recording something that would have happened 10 or 12 years after the event and does not read as Josephus correct, I don't think is right. He mentions another person here. There is a reference to another man, Gamaliel does in verse 37.

Acts 5:37  "After this man, Judas of Galilee, rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed."

So, here's a reference to someone, again, we know from history of an insurrection that took place in the Galilee, the northern region of Judea, there are, north of Jerusalem, several miles. I don't have that map up to point to it, but I think hopefully all of you have it in your mind's eye, the Israel geography. But Gamaliel's point is, look, there have been rabble-rousers, there have been insurrections. We historically know them and we can take them off that they all came to nothing. They didn't throw off the yoke of Rome. They didn't set up any messianic kingdom. Their message, their actions led to nothing except destruction and death. And so, this is his setup. Look at verse 38.

Acts 5:38 "Now, I say to you, keep away from these men. Let them alone. For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing."

That is wise advice. He has the ability to distance himself from the politics of the entire group from the moment and to have a historical perspective. History is a great thing. Now, one reason I love history and a reason why you should love history as well, it gives you a perspective that the here now is not the only time something's happened, that there's a reason for the way things are to this point within the church, within a nation's history, or the development of an organization.

There's a reason why other things have been tried and found not suitable, etc. And Gamaliel is doing this and he's saying, "Look, we've seen all these things happen before." And he's also implying they're not leading an army, they're not taking up arms, and they're not calling for the overthrow of Rome. That's implied here. It's not implicit, but this is what's implied. What's happening? People are being healed. People are happy. There is a movement. Yes. And is it eating into the following of the Jews? Well, yes. Do they perceive it as a threat? Yes, but that's their problem. And again, Gamaliel just has the patience to let it go. He says in verse 39.

Acts 5:39 "But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God."

Brilliant. Let it alone, of its own weight, I'll collapse. If it's of God, though, you don't want to be fighting against God. It's almost like, what if they're right? What if their interpretation of Scripture is right? And we may have been wrong. What if this body killed an innocent man, killed God in the flesh? What if, is what he's laying out there. And so, they agreed.

Acts 5:40 “They agreed with him...”

It brought a lot of calm. Sometimes it's that one voice in a group where people are getting stirred up to go jump off the cliff or to do something unwise. Sometimes it's just one person, you know, for each of us, look at the advice of Gamaliel. And though he is...let's say he's not, a "church member." He had read the law. He was schooled in the law, which is the holy word of God, as he had it at that time. And that would have been all the books of the Bible that we're studying. And he had wisdom. You know, someone who may not have God's spirit, may not be a first fruit, may not be as we would say in the church, we have all these terms, converted, can still read the Bible, study history, and be moved and influenced in a positive way just by studying the Bible.

And letting that, in a sense, rub off on him, which I think Gamaliel did, to where at least he was not rushing to judgment. He was not getting caught up in anger of the crowd. He was not moved by jealousy or envy. But he had been schooled in the Word of God, and that was a part of his life. And to that degree, he benefited from it. It benefits the church and it calmed down the crowd of the Sanhedrin.

Acts 5:40 “...And so, they called for the apostles.”

My point is before I leave it, read this and benefit from it. Be a Gamaliel at times. Let yourself be one who cannot get caught up in the emotion of a situation, or your friends or a family, or a grouping that might be bent on doing something that's not quite wise or right. And step aside and see it all. And with the working of the Bible and your knowledge of God in you help you to understand something. But then you've got to have the courage to say it.

Gamaliel could have gone along with the crowd and said, "Well, you know, these guys, you know, who are they? They're just fishermen from Galilee. And I'm not going to jeopardize my standing here with the group." But he too has courage. Peter had his courage in standing up and saying we ought to obey God rather than men. It took Gamaliel amount of courage to stand up in his peer group here and know that he was going against the wishes and maybe the mood of the moment, and by cautioning patience and leniency on this group. And so, don't discount that, be a Gamaliel in that sense and learn from this. So, what did they do?

Acts 5:40 Well, they called the apostles “and they beat them and they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus. And then they let them go.”

All right. You guys come back in, bring out the rods, bring out the whips. And they beat them, probably right there in front of everyone and punish them. And they had to do something. And that vented their fury for the moment.

Acts 5:41 "They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name."

And so, again, almost like they did before, although it's not said, they probably went back and reported what was done. But they were...there was a joy here. You know, and this is the fruit of the joy. Joy is listed as the second fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. They rejoiced, but they rejoiced that they had been called before the council and even rejoice that they had a few lashes put on them. That takes courage and commitment as well. And so, they reported it. That goes on in verse 42.

Acts 5:42 "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

So, they continued to do what they were to do, and in every house. And again, we can probably see implied here that they were... The church was benefiting from this. So, that brings us to the end of Chapter 5. As we look at the beginning of Chapter 6, Luke, kind of, has a transition by the word now.

Acts 6:1 “So, in those days,” So some days, maybe a few weeks, maybe even a few months pass on the scene here. “When the number of the disciples was multiplying,”

So, the church continues to grow, even though the Jews are reaching out and seeking to disrupt the work of the church that is taking place here. And there's growth and with growth sometimes comes hiccups and problems. We've talked about certain problems, Ananias and Sapphira persecution. Now, here's another challenge or issue, it's not quite like the other two. It's an internal organizational matter, but it reflects a bit of tension among some of the groupings of people within the church and the need to address it and to come up with a solution because it says…

Acts 6:2 “There arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenist’s because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.”

All right. A lot told or is said here in verse 1. So, let's, kind of, break it down and look at what we're seeing here. First of all, there's a complaint. Okay. I have something against you. The complaint box is filling up in the church hall. In this case, there were widows neglected in a daily distribution. I understand something, first of all, about the daily distribution. The Jews had a system of welfare taking care of people, food and clothing, and stuff among those who were indigent, in need, or the poor. And the church was a part of that too, in the community. But also, it seems by this time because of the growth of the church, they were developing their own systems to provide for a daily distribution of needs, of food and clothing, and maybe even shelter there.

And so, this was a part of the life of the church. And it marks the hospitality and the love and the sharing that we've already read about where they shared and had all things in common. Remember Luke has brought that out. And so, they're taking care of each other and particularly the widows. Now, there's a lot of instruction from the Old Testament to take care of the widow, the orphanless, the fatherless, even the stranger in your midst. A lot of the law talks about that, but widows seem to have a very particular spot within God's heart that you take care of them and you provide for them.

And they were doing that, but some were being neglected. It is the widows of the Hellenists. Now, what's a Hellenist? All right. Let's look at that for a moment. A Hellenist... The word comes from the word Hellenism or Hellene, which basically refers to the Greek world. All right. Now, what these were, were Greek-speaking Jews who had been living in the Greek world. Remember, with the fall of Jerusalem at the time of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, there's a captivity. And with that captivity came a dispersal, ultimately, in the subsequent generations, even after the Jews or a portion of them returned to Jerusalem. I've already said in that return, remember, not all the Jews left Babylon and went back to Jerusalem. Many stayed there, but also many began to migrate. And ultimately, the Greek world under Alexander succeeded the Persian world and the Greek culture spread out of Greece throughout all of this part of the world and further to the east.

And commerce and trade developed, even before the time of Alexander, the Greeks were seafaring people. And they were over here in the Western Mediterranean. The cities on the Mediterranean edge of Asia Minor were initially Greek cities. Miletus is down here, which is mentioned, we'll see that in the Book of Acts, and Ephesus. These were Greek city-states, which is why the Persians were interested in them. And the Greeks were interested in all of this because the Greeks had gone around. The Jews became a part of that mix and through economic needs, and they had migrated through this. And so, at a certain point, they were still Jews, even though they were Greek-speaking, and they didn't speak Hebrew quite as...not as their first language, but in the subsequent generations, by the time we come down here to the first century, many Greek-speaking Jews, Hellenists, they had been Hellenized, they came back to Jerusalem and they settled there and maybe their husband died. And maybe their children remained over here in Asia Minor.

And so, you have a woman in Jerusalem who's a widow, but she becomes a part of the church, but she's a Hellenist. And there's a distinction within the community between a Jew or a Hebrew who had stayed in the land and had roots in the land, as opposed to someone who immigrated in from, let's say, Tarsus up here in Cilicia, and they spoke Greek. Now, just, again, keep in mind and understand this, when we come to later this week in class, we're going to go through Daniel 11 in more detail. And I'll talk a little bit more about the influence on the Greek world, the Greek empire of that period on the Jews in Jerusalem, which is the part of the story, the abomination of desolation, Antiochus Epiphanies, and that part of the latter verses of the book of Daniel Chapter 11.

What had happened was the Greek world of Alexander and his successor generals, especially with the episode of Antiochus Epiphanies, the abomination of desolation, his effort to stamp out the Jews, forbidding them to keep the Sabbath, circumcise their children, sacrificing a pig on the altar in the temple, which led to the Maccabean rebellion, that created historically an aversion to Greek within the Jews in Jerusalem, which led to them throwing that off, but the Greeks stayed. And if you use the term and think of the Greek world, the Greek influence as the world, as opposed to the righteousness, let's say, of Judaism, you've got a conflict.

And that's what's working historically in part of the story of Daniel 11, but now pops up here in Acts 6 with this group of widows who are Hellenistic in the sense that they speak Greek. They grew up and spent the majority of their life as a Jew in the Greek world. They come back to Jerusalem, but the Jewish culture here looks at them with a little bit, eh, you're too close to the Greek. You've spent time there. And if you think about this, it created a tension because some of their widows were being neglected. In other words, some of this even still rubbed off into the church, even though the church is sharing things among themselves at this point in time.

And so, the Hellenistic group say, "Hey, we didn't get enough for our group this week." Or they got shortchanged or something was said. And there's a little bit of prejudice here working. And that worldly mix within the Jewish community of Jerusalem is still a part of what's happening in in the church now. And so, it's not a division in terms of a full-blown separation, but it's creating a situation where the widows are being neglected. And so, you've got a problem and it's an organizational problem.

And so, what happens here between verses 2 and 7 is the solution to that problem. And so, we'll wait till the next class to get into the solution to that problem because it really sets up a lot of instruction for us in the church today to help us understand how and why we do what we do in terms of taking care of one another in the church and some of the church structure. So, we'll talk about that in the next class because these first seven verses of Act 6 really gives us a basis of understanding how to address organizationally some of the challenges that come up so that they don't become bigger problems, and that will help us understand some of the matters that we do in the church today. So, let's cover that next class.

All right, we are at Chapter 4 in the book of Acts. And we have covered the two sermons that Peter has given in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. And in the last class, we talked about the keys that Peter was bringing out regarding the resurrection of Christ, and the implications of the Jews and their part in that, a lot of that was repeated in Chapter 3. And keep in mind now that what began in Chapter 3 was when Peter and John went into the temple at the hour prayer, the evening sacrifice, the ninth hour, which is 3:00 in the afternoon. And that's when the lame man who was there, Peter healed him and that created a great sensation among the people as he got up and leaped and walked. Everybody knew him, he was probably one of those fixtures at the temple of one who was begging.

And then Peter, they all kind of move and gravitate over to this area of the temple right here on the eastern end of it called Solomon's Porch, z large portico area, huge columns that were in there. And in that is where the events of Chapter 3 took place. I did show you some pictures on that, anybody that is watching this online and maybe want to refer to it earlier, a class on this when we showed some pictures of how that probably looked. But we're still in the temple area, and what's important to realize is we now move into Chapter 4 is that we are still at about on that same timeframe. It's past 3:00 and it's moving toward the evening hours. And so, a lot has happened, with the healing, with the commotion, with the sermon, and it has attracted the attention of the Jewish authorities. And so, we're still on that particular day, late in the afternoon, and that's important to remember as we see what happens here. As we open up in Chapter 4, then in verse 1.

Acts 4:1 It says, "As they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them."

This is the power structure of the temple and the first-century community of Jews or Judaism in Jerusalem at this time. We have a captain of the temple, we have the Sadducees, and at this particular point, it'd be good just to kind of review a little bit about the different political parties that we're dealing with. We've got a mention here, a captain of the temple. This guy is kind of like the police commissioner. The Jews were allowed to run their own affairs in Jerusalem, and especially in the temple, a very sensitive area. And they had their own kind of police force, if you will, among the Jews. And this individual, the captain of the temple would've been a priest. And he had, let's say, the highest policing authority to keep the order among the people there so that the Roman authorities, the Roman government, and the legions wouldn't have to interfere.

Now, you should understand something, again, I'll just point in on the map here. The Romans did keep a garrison of soldiers in the temple. That is why you have right here, the Antonia Fortress. There's no remains of that. There's actually a wall that was probably a part of that fortress that you can see if you ever go to the Temple Mount, but there's otherwise no other remains of it. But it was an elevated garrison that allowed the Roman soldiers to look down over the temple area. And if there was a disturbance, a riot, then they could come down and break it up. And we will find that they do that later in the Book of Acts when Paul is there giving an offering and the Jews all gang up on the Apostle Paul at that time, and the Roman soldiers come down. But at this point with the apostles, with Peter and John and the preaching that they're doing, the Romans don't get involved, but it is, let's say, a lesser force of the Jews allowed to police their own affairs until it would get out of order and then the Romans would step in.

The one thing you should remember and know about the Roman Empire and the Roman legions is that order was paramount. They didn't like riots, they didn't like insurrections, rebellions at any point, place, or time within the empire. I'm talking about the whole Roman Empire of the day. They met it with full force. That's why the image of Daniel, of the Roman Empire, first in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in Chapter 2 where the Roman Empire is portrayed as that portion of that figure, which is iron, remember? And then in Chapter 7 of Daniel, the fourth beast that Daniel sees, identified as the Roman Empire, is a great and dreadful and terrible beast with teeth of iron who rips and snorts and stomps. And it's a perfect illustration of the Roman Empire and the legions and their interest on keeping order. And that's how they became an empire and endured so long is they met with the full iron force of their power, any threat to them. And so, that's kind of operating a part of the background here.

And so, when we see the captain of the temple and the Sadducees come upon them, we've got now the beginning of the power structure, at least within the Jewish community, that is beginning to come against the Church. And that's what's happening here and this is our first indication of that. Now, later, the Romans will be involved and Paul will be a prisoner. And as he goes out in preaching, then he will interact or encounter Rome and it's powered its government, and he'll have to deal with that, we'll talk about that. But for now, it is in Jerusalem, it's in the confines of the temple, and it's the Jewish authority. And we find identified here, this kind of this police captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees come upon them. All right.

So, the captain of the temple is a chief official. He has an authority over most of the priests, but under the high priest, he was probably second in terms of rank to the high priest of the time. And usually, the people that were a part of this were a part of the Sadducees as well, the cast of the Sadducees, the political party that is the dominant upper-class party of the time, the Sadducees, and they're mentioned here. Now, you will also encounter, and we know from the gospels, we have another group of people, we'll see these in Acts called the Pharisees. All right? And they are not explicitly mentioned at this point, but the Sadducees are. Now, verse 2 says.

Acts 4:2  "Being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead."

So, "they" are the authorities. They're upset, they're disturbed, and what is it they're disturbed? Because the apostles are preaching. They've got a crowd around them, and they are preaching Jesus and the resurrection from the dead. This is a core to their preaching. This is the core of the gospel. Again, this is why we have in our mission statement of the United Church of God, that we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. And there is one gospel, it is the Gospel of God called by Paul and Romans, but it includes the very truth of Christ's life, death, and His resurrection, as well as His position as king, and the coming king, and the king of the Kingdom of God that will be brought to this earth. We will see all of this develop as we go through the Book of Acts and the preaching of the Church.

But here in these sermons in the early part of the book, it's very clear the focus that is there, and this is what is upsetting them because this is the power group that engineered the death of Christ. They thought then that that would do away with the problem and the impact Jesus was having among the Jews, not only in Jerusalem but in Galilee throughout Judea. And as we see in the gospels, they engineered His death. And now, his followers, the disciples haven't given up. They haven't gone away, you know, they didn't go back fishing or collecting taxes or whatever their previous employment was. They've stayed at the job. And we have a viable church that we have been witnessing here and the Sadducees are very upset about that.

Now, a little bit about the Sadducees. Most of the priests that were in Jerusalem working in the temple, descendants of Levi and the Levitical priesthood that were all a part of the entire temple worship structure, most of those priests were of the Sadducee persuasion, let's say the party of the Sadducees. And the Sadducees had certain inherent beliefs that they had developed over a long period of time, several generations during this period leading up to where we are now in the first part of the third-century A.D., the life of Christ now into the life of the Apostles. The Jews have gone through a few hundred years of being back in the land after the Babylonian captivity when they were allowed to go back during the time of Cyrus and then with the work of Ezra, Nehemiah that we read about in scripture. And as we are beginning now to get into in the Book of Daniel with the Jews there, Daniel 11 talks a great deal about the impact of the Greeks upon the Jews in the land. And so, they are developing an inherent culture and have over a period of several years.

Other groups will develop that are not mentioned in the Bible. We've talked about this, the Zealots and the Essenes. The Zealots were more militant, they led to the rebellion beginning in 65, 66 A.D. against Rome. The Essenes were the Dead Sea people. We talked about this the other day. They thought everybody else was pretty liberal. Up here, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and they said, "A pox on your house we're going down to the Dead Sea," and they established their commune down there. We know about them because of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the remnants of that community that archeology has developed.

But back to the Sadducees. They had certain beliefs that they had developed by this time. They did not believe in a bodily resurrection, that's one very key. All right? They didn't believe in a resurrection. So, with the Church preaching about the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, that they engineered the death of, this is a major clash. They obviously don't even want any mention of that, but it counters even their inherent belief of not believing in a resurrection. Now, the Pharisees did believe in a resurrection, and we will see this come into play again later in the Book of Acts when Paul is arrested in the temple because Paul's a Pharisee, but he knows that his crowd is mixed between Pharisees and Sadducees. And he throws like a little bomblet into the discussion what he was preaching, which was the resurrection of Christ. And that got the Pharisees and the Sadducees arguing among themselves and he kind of skated out of that, but we'll talk about that story later.

So, the Sadducees are kind of the dominating class. They also did not believe in the coming age of the Messiah. They were not looking even in their day for the prophecies of the Messiah to be fulfilled. Why? Because they thought that that had already been fulfilled beginning with the Maccabees and the revolt against the Greeks back in the second-century. This is the timing of Antiochus Epiphanes and the abomination of desolation that we've begun to talk about in the Book of Daniel. And they then developed a belief that that was the age that began the Messianic Age, and has continued under their descendants.

Now, in the first-century A.D. here, they with their dominant position claim to represent the orthodoxy, the dominant teaching of the Jewish community at the time. And so, the idea that as the Church preaches Christ resurrected, and that He is king and He is going to come again and reign, this runs flat into the face of the aristocratic group. And they can't abide that because people are now believing in a resurrected Messiah who will look to come and reestablish the kingdom of Israel and they've got to put this out.

So, the Sadducees who hold some prime seats in what is called the Sanhedrin...The governing body among the Jewish groupings at this time is called the Sanhedrin. It's kind of like their congress, their council, got to make sure I get this spelled right, Sanhedrin. And this is what Peter and John are going to be brought before right now. They're going to be brought before the council, the ruling body of the Jewish authority at this time. And they, again, want to squash all of this because they want to keep the order and not have it spill over, and the Romans come in. And so, this is what they are afraid of. And, you know, the work of the apostles, Peter and John is quite annoying to the Sadducees because of what they are teaching. So, we look at verse 3.

Acts 4:3 And it says, "Then they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening."

So, as I opened up by saying, we're still in the same day as the beginning of Chapter 3 in terms of the time sequence. And so, it's getting toward dark and twilight and, you know, they don't want to deal with it when night comes. You have to understand, put yourself into a first-century ancient world setting, when darkness came, the streetlights didn't come on. Why? Well, obviously, there were no streetlights, no electricity at that time. Oil lamps would start to burn, but that was nowhere near enough to illuminate the city or any neighborhood and even the temple with enough light to carry on the business. And so, it created a whole different atmosphere and structure than what we might be used to today when, you know, our lights automatically come on and we move into nighttime, but in most cases, you know, we can carry on a lot. We play football and baseball and carry on our business because we've got an electrified world today.

But because it was evening and it was time to kind of just shut things down, they said, "Let's just put them in custody." Now, let me say a word about what being put in custody meant in the ancient world. They're put in jail, and they had holding rooms probably close by the temple. We know, again, from the story with Paul, that up in the Antonia Fortress, that Paul was held there. I doubt that they took Peter and John there, that would've turned them over to the Roman authorities. They probably had somewhere in the precincts of the temple area holding cells where they could keep the apostles in custody until the next day.

Understand something about a prison in the ancient world. A prison in the ancient world and the idea of a penal system, nowhere near what we have today. People were not sentenced to 20 years, 10 years, probation after 5, or something like that. If you were arrested, if you were convicted of something, and you were either released and it was a quicker trial than what we would be used to today, or if you were to be...and you were sentenced to condemnation, or you found yourself in custody and in jail, your case was going to be adjudicated. It was going to be tried pretty quickly. And if you were found guilty, judgment was going to be carried out pretty quickly. In other words, you were not going to be hanging around for 5 years with appeals, 10 years for appeals in the Roman world. If you were sentenced to death, right away, that's carried out.

And we'll see when we come again to Paul's arrest at the end of the Book of Acts, he's left in Rome in a house arrest and he stays there for some time. He's not been tried. When Paul was then arrested a second time, brought back to Rome, he was put into a different prison, today it's called the Mamertine Prison in Rome. And it was from there that he was taken to be very likely beheaded according to the traditions. So, the apostles being put in custody here would've been very rudimentary, crude custody. Maybe in chains, it doesn't say, but that could have been possible. Now, verse 4 goes on.

Acts 4:4 "However, many of those who heard the word, they'd heard their preaching, they believe." They were excited, they wanted to hear more. They probably continued talking amongst themselves. "And the number of the men came to be about 5,000."

So, it's quite a large grouping here who have responded, and you can see why the Sadducees, the temple guard all now were called in and aroused by what was taking place. So, it's a very large gathering that happens. Now, in verse 5.

Acts 4:5-6 “It came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes came together there, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander and as many as were of the family of the high priests were gathered together at Jerusalem."

So, the next day dawns, and we have a convening of a grouping of rulers, elders, and scribes. This would be what would be generally called then the Sanhedrin and what they know now. The best that I've read and determined as to where they were meeting would've not been here in Solomon's Porch, but down in this area, which is the southern area of the Temple Mount. There was another portico here, the map shows it as a royal portico. It would've been colonated. it was not as long as Solomon's Porch, but it was an open portico in there.

And archeologists and scholars think that at this southeast corner, there was an area where the Sanhedrin met, and it was kind of a circular room with benches, stone benches, and room for this small group to meet and conduct their business, and watchers and observers would've been, you know, piled up back in through there. And this would've been kind of high up over the whole area looking out over the southern end of the Temple Mount. And it's a grouping of people that are identified here, the high priest Annas is mentioned. We know of him from the gospels. He is the one along with Caiaphas who engineered the death of Christ. Annas was kind of the ringleader. He was the patriarch of a family and the power behind the power at this particular point. Caiaphas, who was mentioned here by name, we know was his son-in-law, his son-in-law.

And so, this structure of the high priests were passed and kept within the family. it was a family business, right? Thank Jewish mafia, if you will. And frankly, the way they conducted themselves was like a Jewish mafia of the day. They engineered Christ's death, and they're going to be responsible for the death of Stephen later in the book. And now they've arrested Peter and John, and any affront to their authority, they don't like. And so, this is kind of the council, the senate, the supreme court of the people at this particular time. The high priest, who in this case would be Caiaphas, will be the one presiding over this at this particular time. And so, it's a combination of other priests, former high priests, elders, teachers of the law, scribes, that's what the word scribes means, they were teachers of the law. And all of these are the ones who come together and they are the ruling family, and again, the power structure that was involved in putting Christ to death.

Now, in verse 6, there are two other names here, John and Alexander, and we don't seem to know who they are. No one seems to know who they are, no commentary that I have read on Acts has any indication of who these two might be, but we do know about Annas and Caiaphas who are referenced in other works as well as in the gospel there. So, this is the grouping that has John and Peter before them. Verse 7 says.

Acts 4:7 "When they had set them in the midst." So, they're convened in court, probably a semi-circular lecture hall-type situation, tiered seats. And John and Peter are standing in the midst of them, they've been brought in. And they ask, "By what power or what name have you done this?"

By this, they're referring to the healing of that lame man, and then the subsequent preaching that they do. So, they're called out of the lockup, and they are probably not given a decent breakfast and allowed to shower and shave in any way, and probably haven't spent a very restful night, I'm sure as well. So, they're brought in and they immediately have to be put before an intimidating group of people. Think about that. You know, even if, you know, any of us are ever called before into somebody's office, you get called to your supervisor's office, you get called to the principal's office at school or whatever, that's intimidating. You're called before the authorities and, you know, generally you might have a little bit of time to understand what it is and what that you're being called for, but I'm thinking here that Peter and John didn't have a lot of time to prepare, and they probably did some praying and talking amongst themselves through the night.

But what they then respond with indicates that they probably recalled something. This is how I imagine it. If you turn back over to Luke 21, hold your place here. And Luke 21, Jesus encouraged his disciples with something, telling them what to expect when they would deal with opposition and persecution, Luke 21. And verse 14, Jesus tells them, "Therefore settle it." He's talking here of a period of...it's within His Olivet prophecy. And He's talking about a time of trial and trouble and persecution upon the Church. Therefore, He says in verse 14.

Luke 21:14 "Settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all of your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist."

So, here's a promise from Christ. "Look, I will be with you through the spirit, through the power of the Spirit, and I will give you a mouth, in other words, the ability to speak, reason, and to defend, and I will give you wisdom that no one will be able to resist or contradict." We're at that moment right here. I could well imagine Peter and John, in a sense, praying about that, talking about this in the hours leading up to being called before and sat in the midst of this group of people. And what we are going to see then is fearless defense given by Peter because in verse 8 it says.

Acts 4:8 "Peter filled with the Holy Spirit,"

And, you know, underline that, you know, whatever you're doing to mark your Bible and understand that, it is God's spirit working with Peter, he's filled with it. Remember, one of our purposes for the Book of Acts that we talked about at the beginning, and what we're looking through as we see is the work of the resurrected Christ in His Church, in His disciples as we go through the Book of Acts. And this is the Holy Spirit empowering them.

Acts 4:8-10 “...And they said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel.’” And so, they acknowledged their authority, they understood that they were subject to that. "If we this day are judged to a good deed done to a helpless man by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole."

They go over to the attack very quickly. This is their defense. And God is empowering them, giving them the words that it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And he says, "Whom you crucified." And he's looking at the very men who engineered it. This is boldness, this is fearlessness. This is not being diplomatic if you want to look at it that way. They're not diplomatic in speaking truth to power here. They push all the hot buttons. You killed this man by whom this man is raised in His name. God raised Him from the dead. God did that. The Father raised Christ from the dead, and it's by His name that we are saved, he says as he goes on. In verse 12, what he says is…

Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

This is pretty powerful. And of course, Acts 4:12 here is a very key scripture that there is no other name under heaven, that of Jesus Christ, given among men by which we must be saved. That's why we baptize in His name. And we call upon His name in faith for repentance and faith. And when we're baptized, we are baptized in that name. There is no other name under heaven. And so, this is his opening defense that it comes down to at the end of verse 12. And as I say, he's punched all the proper buttons to get them agitated. Nothing has been watered down. And he is… I skipped over verse 11, let me read verse 11. Peter's quoting from Psalm 118:22 here at verse 11.

Acts 4:11 He said, speaking of Christ, "This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone."

And he's applying that verse, Psalm 118:22 to Christ, the stone rejected by the builders having become the chief cornerstone. Now, scholars will debate, is this, let's say, a cornerstone that is put into the foundation of a large building that anchors it there, or is it, let's say, what is called a keystone? If you understand certain principles of architecture, and you see this a lot in the ancient world, you still see it today, but where an arch might be built like this right at this particular point in order to hold together the two sides and the pressures there, is put what is called a keystone, a keystone. And engineering-wise, that particular keystone, and you will see this in buildings, holds that structure together.

Now, a cornerstone would be in the foundation of a building, and it would be a very, you know, large cornerstone that ties together the corner and the walls that go out from it. You can see pictures of the corners of the Temple Mount area today. And there are foundational cornerstones there that are quite huge, large, that have been exposed through the archeology through the recent years that held up this entire Temple Mount platform on which the temple building was built and all the other buildings around there. I could have brought some pictures to show you that, but graphically, this is quite a picture that Peter is painting here from Psalm 118. But he said, "You've rejected that."

And so, your building, he's saying, is crumbling. There's no support, no structure for you. This is a very serious charge that he's making. You've rejected Christ, put Him to death. God's raised Him from the dead. We're preaching in His name, healing in His name, and you're bringing us and charging us and examining us as a result of that. Your structure, he's saying, is going to crumble, and it did. But the structure built by the spiritual building of the Church is intact because Christ is at the head of the Church. He is either the keystone, the cornerstone, you know, it is His body. He is the head of that body and it is being built.

Now, I want to make another point about the direct boldness that he's saying here. As I said, this is not a polite introduction. This is not ecumenical. This is not trying to be inclusive. This is not trying to be all things to all men. He's basically laid out, you're responsible for His death. You killed Him, God raised Him. You're bringing us here and we're having to answer, you know, in His name, we're doing our work there. And then he says, "There's no other name under heaven among men by which salvation comes, and it's Christ." It's almost a drop-the-mic moment and walk away. What else is there to say?

In reading this, this morning, I was doing some reading yesterday in preparation for some writing I've got to be doing about England, the crown and the throne, and queen Elizabeth who died here just a few weeks ago, but I've referenced her funeral before. And I would hope that you would go out and, you know, you would watch...if you haven't seen the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, it's well worth the time. She designed it herself as people of that stature do, a king, or even presidents in the United States. They read scripture that was pretty strong. They read from John 11 where Christ says, "If you believe in me, you shall be saved." And they read from John 14 that "He is the way and the truth." Christ is the way and the truth. And in that audience were Muslims, atheists, agnostics, unbelievers of all different stripes and sorts, and people who didn't care, and she knew they would be there, you have to kind of get into your thinking when she designed what would be read from the Bible at her funeral. And she gave them a pretty powerful witness. And I remember as I was watching, I didn't watch it live, I watched the replay of it later that day, and it was stunning. It was not an ecumenical modern-type religious service meant to appeal to all faiths, and it's an object lesson for us all to think about today. Well, Peter's was not like that at all. Let's go to verse 13.

Acts 4:13 "When they, the Sanhedrin, saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus."

Now, this is kind of a commentary on Peter and John, the other disciples, and those 120 or so that were part of the original founding of the Church on Pentecost that survived everything from Christ's arrest and death and the weeks after that. And as they look at Peter and John, they said, "These are..." They perceived they were uneducated and untrained. Now, this does not mean that they were illiterate and ignorant, you know, hicks from Galilee. That's not what it means. It just means that they were not schooled in the rabbinical school and processes of the day. They hadn't gone to the Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford of the day, but Peter and John were literate and they were educated. They knew the Torah, or the Old Testament, all of that because there was a high degree of literacy within the Jewish community in the first-century. All of this is documented by historians and modern archeology.

And so, Peter is going to later write two epistles in Greek. And so, he had a working knowledge of that as well as Hebrew, probably Aramaic as well at the time. But he was a fisherman and he was not a scholar and a teacher. But among the Jewish community, there were schools and there were expectations for everyone, even the smallest village of Galilee. All of this is a matter of record. And so, understand that, in a sense, Peter and John had an advantage by not having gone through the rabbinical schools, let's say the theological or divinity schools of the day, the equivalent of that, because they were not then tainted by the philosophical ideological approach of the Sadducees who didn't believe in a resurrection or a coming Messiah, or the Pharisees who had a skewed view of the law. And Christ will have a lot to say about that, and we will touch on that when we come to Chapter 15 of Acts.

And so, they were not schooled all of this, and the slants that they were putting on scripture and truth. Understand something, Judaism in the first-century was not the religion of Moses, it was not what God gave to Moses. Judaism then, and certainly Judaism today, was and is built on layers and layers of human tradition and interpretation and application of the law, the Word, the Old Testament. And this is what, in Matthew 23, Jesus really gives a scathing rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees about, how they put yolks and burdens upon people. And we'll see this in the dispute about and the discussion about circumcision that the Church had to settle in Acts 15. So, Peter and John had an advantage.

I look at it as an advantage that I haven't gone through the divinity schools that are available out there. They wouldn't let me in anyway because I don't believe in the Trinity. And I mentioned that if you go into it, apply to a divinity school of any major denomination, their code is that, do you believe in the Trinity? Check this box. And I couldn't get in, you couldn't get in, unless you said otherwise, I guess, or whatever, or talked your way in. But, you know, we can study their books, we can study the commentaries, and should to learn a lot, but not to learn about, you know, becoming the Sunday keeper, you know, doing away with the law or anything else, but there is information there.

But Peter and John, coming at it from the background that they had, working men, salt of the earth, honest people, people of the land, they are demonstrating something here that is really like an Amos. Back in...I don't know, have you've gone through...you have gone through Amos. Remember Amos said, "Look, I'm a sheep herder. I wasn't raised in a king's house," and yet he stood before the king and gave him what for in the name of God. And he had the advantage of having not been trained or brought up in the elite structure of his day. That doesn't limit God from using anyone. When Paul writes later in 1 Corinthians 1 about, you know, the fact that our calling is not, you know, from the mighty and the powerful, the noble, he says, "Not many of those are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty." That's who we are.

So, what Peter and John are doing here are demonstrating a great deal of conviction, commitment, and courage. What Don Ward, one of our elder statesmen in the church, calls his three Cs of commitment, conviction, and courage. We even used that in a GCE theme a few years ago, commitment, conviction, and courage. That's what they're doing. They're convicted of Christ's resurrection, and by the spirit, they're certainly committed to what they believe, and they have the courage to stand up in front of this august group of people, a very intimidating group of people, and speak, as I said, truth to power. And they do it, and they do it convincingly at this point.

Acts 4:14 Goes on to say, "Seeing a man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it."

Too many witnesses, too many knew that this was a legitimate situation. This was not some fake miracle of somebody who had faked some psychosomatic-type condition for any period of time, and then suddenly was healed or felt that they were cured or whatever it might be. This was something they couldn't say anything against.

Acts 4:15-16 Says, "When they had commanded them to go outside of the council, they conferred among themselves saying, ‘What should we do with these men? For indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it.’”

They couldn't deny it, but they were not going to let it change their heart. Their heart was pretty hard. They didn't want this, as is said in verse 17.

Acts 4:17 "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in this name."

So, this is their judgment, arrived at in secret because it says that they put them out. Verse 15, they commanded them, Peter and John, to go outside out of the council, and so they had an executive session. And they said, "Let's command that they speak no more in this man's name." Now, at this point, the logical question arises, how did Luke know what happened in a private session when he wasn't there, Peter and John were not there? Think about that. How did this get out?

Well, we're not told, but we could guess because there was probably a man there by the name of Gamaliel, who we're going to be introduced to a little bit later, who is a wise man and a member of this Sanhedrin. And he later is going to utter a favorable comment about the Church that gets him off the hook again. Could be that Gamaliel told one of his students, whose name was Saul, what had happened. This is who is going to be the Apostle Paul. And we know that Saul had gone to the rabbinical school or the philosophical Pharisaical school of Gamaliel, whom we know from history as well as the scripture, was a very highly esteemed teacher at this period in Jerusalem. And Gamaliel would've been a member of the Sanhedrin, and were he there that day, it could be that he tells Paul. Paul tells Luke as they become companions later on. That's one possibility as to how this information from an executive session gets out so that Luke can record it. So, verse 18 then goes on.

Acts 4:18-20 “They called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’”

And this is kind of...it's not an echo because they're saying it later, but in Acts 5:29, later on, they're going to basically say the same thing, we have to obey God, not man, when they're brought again. And that's when we'll see what Gamaliel has to say. But they threaten them. They say, "Don't speak anymore in this name or teach in the name of Jesus." And basically they say, "We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard."

Acts 4:21-23 Says, “That they further threatened them.” It doesn't record what that threat was. “Then they were released finding no way of punishing them because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done, for the man was 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.”

So, they're released with a threat, and this sets up any future action that they could take legally. And they will arrest them again, but they still take no action at that time. We'll read though where they will take plenty of action later on, but that's another part of the story.

So, we'll end here at verse 23 because I want to take the full time to be able to go into the report to the Church and what happens here in the next few verses. It's pretty powerful, and we'll talk about that next time, next class. But this is the first effort of the power structure of the Jews to shut down what is being done in the Church, and as we know from the story, it just doesn't happen. So, with that, we're done. How's that for timing?

[Darris McNeely]: In this class, then we're going to finish up Acts 14 and the story of Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary evangelistic journey through Southern Asia Minor. We left Paul in Derbe, and they were beginning to retrace their steps. And we will pick up the story beginning in verse 21 and repeat where they were in the city of Derbe, where they preached the gospel and made many disciples, then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. And in the last class, I mentioned that they could just as easily...easier, shorter, gone through the mountains around Tarsus and then down to Antioch. But they chose to turn around and go back to where he had been beaten in Lystra and where they had been run out of Iconium and Pisidian Antioch.

Now, this is where we get into a bit of the story that talks about Paul's, really his care for the congregations. It would've been easier just to kind of leave it all and gone on back to Antioch, given a report. But they were stoned. They had to leave quickly, there was unrest. And they had people, disciples who had responded to their message. And Paul, and no doubt Barnabas, knew the same thing, that they needed to go back to encourage them.

Remember, Barnabas is the son of encouragement. And so, they had to go back and do that. But as we're going to see, there is something else to what they are doing. And let's look at what the text tells us. I think that in verse 22 as they went back through these cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, “they were strengthening the souls of the disciples,” strengthening the souls of the disciples. Think about that term. In other words, they were encouraging them, they were bolstering them. How does a minister, or how does a Church, a pastoral heart like Paul had do this? How does he strengthen the disciples? Think about that.

Well, you know, one of the ways we get strengthened today is we go to Church. We fellowship with one another. We enjoy one another's company in the Church with like minds, shared faith, and duties. And we love one another. We care for one another. And by doing so, you're strengthened, aren't you? I hope you are, when you go to Church. I mean, you know, a Church congregation needs to create the environment of peace and fellowship based on love to where people are strengthened when they go to Church. They're strengthened by the fellowship, they're strengthened by the sermon, the messages that are given by the life of the congregation. And a healthy congregation will provide that for people.

And so, the very presence of Paul and Barnabas back in these cities, for at least the Sabbath or maybe more, we're not...we don't know the length of time that they spent in each place, but their presence spoke volumes that they were not just out for their money or their numbers, they loved these people. And their lives were on the line. In Lystra, they saw that, Paul being beaten. And now he's back there in the same city where they had beaten him, walking through the same gate, probably walking by at the same spot where he lay when he walked back into the city. And, you know, do you think he was traumatized by that spot? I don't think so.

But you could...you know, you could imagine him maybe a shudder or, you know, "Hey, well, that's a...I remember what happened there just a few weeks ago." And the people saw this man of courage there. And so, that gave them courage to go back to Church, to go back and to be a part of things. Same up in Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. They hadn't been beaten there, but remember in Iconium, there was going to be...they were going to be stoned. That's why they left. There was a plot, there was talk about that.

Exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, “We must, through many tribulations, enter the Kingdom of God.” And so, they exhorted them to continue in the faith, continue their faith, their belief, Gentiles keeping the Sabbath, Gentiles learning about Christ, learning about the true God, and no longer worshiping idols, Zeus, Hermes, and all the others.

And so, they were learning the commandments. They were learning the law and the word of God. And what Paul had told them to...you know, if he had said to them, "You know, turn from these gods that are nothing, these useless things," he had to be teaching them about the true God and that idolatry and imagery and having all of these other ideas were nothing, and they were violating the commandments. So, Paul was giving them sound doctrine. If you're going to teach a group of people to continue in the faith, you're going to have to have, you know, let's say we would call it doctrine, and it's going to have to be well spelled out, which we have a fundamentals of belief, don't we? And our class, we go through all of those here at United. We have 20 fundamentals, and we have many other teachings and aspects that define our faith.

But I'm not saying that Paul had 20 in his repertoire at that time, but certainly, he was teaching them the Sabbath and the...you know, the festivals and not to get caught up in their pagan festivals. And they had plenty of pagan festivals, Dionysius, you know, festivals to all the different gods and goddesses that would've been a part of their annual calendar that they would've had to turn from and stop keeping and that would've segregated them from their towns folk.

So, they needed to be bolstered in that by an additional message and just strengthened to stay with what they were learning. And he tells them that entering into the Kingdom of God is not without trial, challenges. And Paul was a living example of it. He had survived a stoning. Now, this is our first recording of a stoning. And remember, Paul held the cloaks and the coats of those who stoned Stephen, back in the story there. It's where we were introduced to Saul. And now he's experiencing a bit of his own medicine. But they see him doing that. So, he probably had some lessons to draw from that. And so, they're strengthening the disciples, and they are continuing into faith. Now, look at verse 23.

Acts 14:23 “So, when they had appointed them elders in every Church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

So, they appointed elders in these congregations in Lystra, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch with prayer and with fasting. So, even in verse 23, we have a kind of a method, if you will, to how such selections should be done. We've already seen that in the appointment of Barnabas and Paul to go out in Acts 13:1 by the Church, and then earlier in Acts 6, where we had seven deacons chosen, and certainly back in Acts 1 when they chose Mathias. This is all done with prayer, fasting, beseeching God's will, His guidance, the mind of God discerning that in the process by which then they commend them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

So, really, we have three different things here that we can look at, the strengthening of the disciples, you know, showing up, being present. You know, we don't...I mentioned this before, never underestimate your presence at Church. I mean, don't go to Church when you're sick and, you know, spread contagion. But make it a point to go to Church when, you know, you're in a bad attitude, or you may think, “Oh, I don't want to hear that person speak. I've heard 'em speak, and whatever,” or, “It's too long today. I'm tired. Long week.” You cannot get to that. We are all subject to it. And the weeks can be long and grinding and stressful, classes, work, family issues, and you just want to sleep or you want to stay...you don't want to get dressed up, you don't want to drive 30 miles, 50 miles. And yeah, I get it. And, you know, maybe your congregation's a little bit quirky, troubled, or you got quirky people, or you got troubled people. And everybody does. They probably think you're quirky. They might think you're troubled. Well, you need to be there too.

You know, we can grind on each other. And I will say all of us at times ought to do a check on ourselves just to make sure we don't, by our conversations, our complaints, our moaning, our complaining even about the minister, the Church or this or that, that we just grind on people in our congregation. Yeah, we're all human. Yeah, there are problems. Yes, all that happens.

But let me tell you something. You start talking about that in your congregation every week, week in and week out, it is going to put a negative pall upon your congregation. You'll get a reputation. And you don't want that. And you don't want to be one of those that are creating that for new people, for older people. You'll find yourself, in a sense, isolated. And you have to...you've got to watch that.

You've got to realize that people are coming to Church for so many different reasons. But ultimately, the reason to come is because we love God, we're worshiping God, we're obeying God by not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together. But we're going there to be strengthened because we know that that's where we get the spiritual strength through a message, sometimes just through the fellowship. But if we pray and we believe as we ask in an opening prayer for God and Christ to be there, then if we believe what we pray and we say amen to in a congregational setting, no matter how small or whatever, then we must act as if we believe that in our words, in our conduct, must then bear on that. And we create, and we become a committee of one, we create a place where the disciples are strengthened.

If we would all do that and take it upon ourselves to get to know the ones that are sitting off in a corner by themselves who come in late that you don't know that are not part of your group, your circle of friends, they haven't been there for 40 years like you have or your family has. And, you know, sometimes I know we do not understand today what it takes for a brand new person to walk through the door of any of our congregations. Our growth has not been that strong in recent years. We've had challenges that have diminished our congregations. People have gotten older. COVID has decimated some of our congregations. And when new people come to a place on the Sabbath for the first time, keeping the Sabbath with a different group of people that they don't know, that's a challenge, that's hard. Think about it.

Think about you walking into a classroom of...you know, in a university or college that you don't know anybody. Think about going into a workplace where you don't know anybody. You're transferred someplace, you get a new job, you don't know anybody. Think about how difficult that might be. I mean, I don't... You know, I come in here, this building, I know everybody. I come in here, we know each other. But, you know, we've got to stretch ourselves.

But when people come into the Church and they're new, we have to show love. We have to show that, “Yeah, what's your name? I'm so-and-so, welcome. You know, would you like a hymnal?” And then take them to somebody. If you have to go and get your job finished setting up for Church, make sure that you don't leave them standing. Take them to somebody. All of that serves to strengthen our congregations. And when we do those things, we're helping to build the Church. I can go on and on and on about that, but the sound teaching has got to be there as well void of, you know, personal speculation and vein talk that can detract or even false teaching. That has to be, you know, good solid sermon instruction.

And then third in all of this is the appointment of elders, the appointment of elders, a pastor. We go to great lengths in the United Church of God to make sure that our congregations have pastors. And some men have three congregations, some have four, maybe there's somebody out there that's got even five. And that's the challenge to keep up with. No matter what the size of the group is, or spread out over long distances, but the appointment of elders is important, a designated spiritual leader.

Paul knew that. He knew that someone had to be in charge and responsible and helping them to continue in them faith and strengthening them in a role as an elder. We're watching, we're seeing here a beginnings of organization within the Church. It's centered on the local congregation. Scholars debate all of this and then as they see with what happened in later Church history as the Church changed doctrinally and took on more of a Roman approach, the structure of the Church, the hierarchy grew and things changed certainly as a result of false teaching that came in, but even the structure.

You know, when we study the Passover controversy of Polycarp in the second century, and remember that Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna, one of the Churches, seven Churches, and he went to Rome over here to consult with I believe it was an Anicetus or Victor, one of those two, I get 'em mixed up, over the issue of Easter because the Roman Church was keeping Easter, but the Churches in Asia Minor were still keeping the Passover and unleavened bread in the Holy Days.

And so, this is the middle of the second century A.D. But the attitude that you discern in the history from the bishop of Rome, you're beginning to see this hierarchical orthodox approach where the bishop at Rome wanted all of the Churches in a doctrinal agreement, but it was false doctrine. He wanted them all to go to Sunday and all to keep Easter and no longer keep this Jewish Sabbath and Passover. And in doing so, that Church then grew and grew, and it becomes a problem...becomes the way by which the Trinity teaching is ultimately enforced in Orthodox teaching later on. That is in contrast to what we see developing here in Acts with Paul and the Church, at least in the story in Acts.

And while today we have an organization that is unified, it's administered under, let's say, a home office situation in the Church and we have a structure of ministers and regional pastors, senior pastors, we have bylaws in constitution to ensure continuity, order, and even protection of assets as well as doctrine in the Church, we are very conscious that we continue to look at Acts, Christ's teachings, Paul's pastoral epistles to make sure that how we treat one another, minister to member, member to member, minister to minister is on Godly principles. It has to be. And so, you know, all of these kind of work in that, the strengthening of the Church, the body, the ministry, faithful teaching, proper appointment, all meant to help keep the Church together. In the first century, they had a lot of forces working at it to pull it apart and we do today in the 21st century.

And so, these things that we're looking at here and primarily out of Acts, I think is just...there's a first century stability there where we can peel away the centuries of certainly Catholic, Protestant Church tradition, and sometimes even our own tradition. There's no secret that in United, we set up a different organizational structure of the Church than we had in our past. We don't have a pastor general. We have a council of elders, a ministry, a president, people rotate around. We have appeals processes if there is abuse to keep the relationships strong, to strengthen the disciples.

And so, we have learned and gone to the new testament to learn that. So, what we're seeing here is Paul doing something in a sense from scratch, but with a knowledge of how their...you know, an organization has to have certain structure. He had been a pharisee. He understood certain things about the synagogue and the Judaism and the word of God, even from the old testament. So, he knew there had to be some type of structure, and that's what he's doing here. But it's, you know, time, tradition and other problems created a whole different structure for false Christianity. And you know, it's just a continual challenge for us to learn. But when we take it upon ourselves, then we can come closer to some of these things that we are seeing. So, let's look at verse 24 then.

Acts 14:24-25 “After they had passed through Pisidia, they came down to Pamphylia.” And what it's describing here is Paul's travels back through this yellow line back to Pisidian Antioch, and then to Pamphylia. And then it says, “They came down to Perga.” I'm going to zip ahead here in my slides to show this here. “They came back down to Perga, and then they went to Attalia.”

All right? This particular map doesn't show it, so we don't have it on the map here. But Perga, remember, was where they came in when they started this, and they went up to Antioch. Now they come back to Attalia, which is just a stones throw from Perga. So, they're in the same neighborhood.

This is the harbor today in Attalia, Turkey. And it looks much the same as it did in the first century when it says here, they came and they preached in Perga, and they went Attalia. Attalia is the ancient name. Today, it's called Antalya. But it's the same place. Nice, beautiful seaside village and city. Actually, it's a city there in Southern Turkey.

I spent a couple of nights there, got on a boat, one of these little boats here, and took a tour of the harbor, and actually, we drove down near where they would've gotten off the boat as they came in on their...at the beginning of this entire journey. And it's quite a lovely area. So, this is where Antalya is, and a view of this little picturesque harbor. And they go from here.

This is another view of it here with the mountains, Southern Taurus Mountains there in the background. A lot of Russians live there today. It's a Russian retreat, and it's a beautiful...really it's a gorgeous area there in Southern Turkey. And that's the prowl of our boat as we went out on that day, and kind of just did a little boat tour. But that's a scene that Paul and Barnabas would've seen right there as they went out of that harbor on their way back to Antioch. And so, when you look at this map here, they're right here at Attalia next to Perga. The yellow line shows them they're going to sail all the way back to Seleucia and then up to Antioch, which is what it says here.

Acts 14:25-27 “They preached the word in Perga.” So, they stayed for some time there, “went to Attalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch.” They got a boat that would've been going there, paid their passage “where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work for which they had completed.” So, they go back to Antioch where it all began, and there, “they gathered the Church together” in verse 27. “They reported all that God had done with them, and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.”

So, they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Remember, Antioch had funded this trip. So, they're giving basically a report to the people as to what happened, how they spent their money, the fruits of their labor, and all that had happened in this. And there's, you know, Paul is going to go back over this area in his second journey. He's going to go back and revisit these areas. And we'll talk about that when we come to that.

But the report to Antioch then is a...completes it, and they come back here. So, that ends the first journey of Paul. And before we get to the second journey of Paul, we have an interesting situation that takes place. And as we turn the page to chapter 15, we are introduced to that because now Paul comes back and there's a bit of a time, but now a problem comes to the fore and Luke just moves right into it, and directly without a lot of other fanfare. So, let's pick that story up beginning in chapter 15. We won't finish it all in this class, but at least let's begin here because something was happening.

Acts 15:1 It says “Certain men came down from Judea.” Now, Judea puts it back in Jerusalem. Again, and so, this map will show you what happened. “Certain men came from Jerusalem, or from Judea and came to Antioch, that's the idea, and they taught the brethren now who they are.” They're not named. We'll find out. You know, we can mold...discern a little bit about who they are and what their motive is. But let's see what they teach. “They teach the brethren that unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

So, here's the issue of circumcision, again, coming up. And the bridging of the divide between the Jews and the Gentiles, which is the great part of the story here in Acts and in the new testament setting, and what they had to surmount, what they had to overcome.

He said that unless you're circumcised according to the custom of Moses, and we know that that is a very important part of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Any male Jew was circumcised. And, you know, it was done on the eighth-day ritual, tradition going back a long period of time, and it set the Jewish people apart from the rest of the Gentile world. Gentiles didn't do that. And we talked about that and what that meant back in this time of the Seleucids and Antiochus Epiphanies and Jews wanting to become Greeks and all.

Well, now, as Gentiles are coming into the Church, this is an issue that has to be resolved. And it shows that some within the Church didn't fully yet accept what Peter had shown by his mission to Cornelius, what had already happened with the Ethiopian eunuch, the baptisms of the people in the city of Samaria, and Gentiles that would've been involved there, and all of this continuing story that was showing that God has opened the door of salvation to all of them.

Remember, we read that back in chapter 9 and 10. Some in the Church didn't yet accept that. Some called this grouping of people, they're Christian, but they've also got...they're holding on to certain Jewish ideas. Sometimes they're called Christian Pharisees. Now, remember, the Pharisees are a sect of the Jews. Paul was a Pharisee. You had the Sadducees. You had the Essenes. But we just read about the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the new testament period. And those of the circumcision then that are called, are those that appear here and they seem to pop up among Jews throughout Paul's ministry.

This is not going to be the end of it, even with this particular settlement of the issue in Acts 15, because we'll see that Paul will be hounded by people for essential reasons in terms of his teaching, what they perceive about his teaching, thinking that he teaches against the law of Moses. And it's the idea of this Judaizing aspect and part of the Church, a wing of the Church if you want to look at it that way. They're not necessarily opposed to Paul and Barnabas going out to the Gentiles and the mission to the Gentiles, but they want these Gentiles, they want circumcision to apply to them. And this is the problem. It's kind of the same... It gets back into some of the other traditions that the Jews had about eating with Gentiles, which was a tradition they added. It's not a part of the Mosaic law, but they had added that.

Remember Paul...or Peter said, you know, when he went to Cornelius, he said, “You know it's not right for a Jew to eat with a Gentile.” That was something added by tradition. And that's important to remember as we go into this particular story here, and what has to be settled in regard to this.

Now understand something else. The early Church is quite different, let's say, than the Church today. There were some in the Church who were, as I say, Christian Pharisees. They maybe even literally were Pharisees, had been still associating with that. But they had become a believer, they had accepted Christ. But they still had their habits, they still had some of their beliefs, and it was difficult to change here and to make a transition to the full understanding of the new covenant that is now in action and that is working its way, massaging its way into the Church because clearly, circumcision to them was something that they felt was still important, still valid and necessary in terms of the actual physical right.

Now, throughout all of this discussion, it's important to remember that circumcision is still a teaching of the Bible. And we still believe in circumcision, but we understand that the circumcision is that of the heart and not a part of a requirement of the Mosaic law. There are other reasons from a health standard and otherwise to continue with circumcision. And that gets into a big debate when you get out into medical fields today. And there are people who think that that is abusive and radical and teach against it in the medical profession. I've heard and read some of those debates.

You know, by tradition, we still do that within the Church, and many other people continue to do it as well. So, it's not just something that we do, it's still done in the world today, but not in all cultures, not across all. But it's not a...except outside of the...except within the Jewish community. It's still a part of the ritual there according to Judaism. But beyond that, it is still done in Christian circles and otherwise for other reasons. But it comes down to here as it says, “Uhat unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved.” And that has been settled, but it hasn't been accepted throughout the Church.

Acts 15:2 “Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.”

They wanted it solved. I did point this out earlier in a previous class to remember as an important feature of the Church at Antioch, and that was that they didn't want doctrinal unity with the rest of the Church. This group in Antioch started under unique circumstances, gave funds, they gave food during a famine earlier to the members in Jerusalem. Remember that. And they now funded Paul and Barnabas to go out. So, they are part of a Church.

They're not looking at themselves necessarily as kind of the Gentile faction or the Gentile wing. They see themselves as a part of a larger body, a spiritual body, as we would define it. I think that they certainly were beginning to understand that. And they wanted this issue solved so that they were not looked at as second-class Christians, renegades, you know, Gentiles, in that sense, and not fully a part of the Church and just like the Jew, because that's what had already been settled.

Remember when we go back to what Peter had said in Acts 11:17 when Peter gave a report to the Jews in Jerusalem. That's important to remember here, you know. You might want to make a connection to what's happening here in chapter 15 to back to chapter 11, and what Peter said because that's kind of how you connect all the dots here in the story, that they had challenged Peter in going to the home of Cornelius. And he came and explained it to them. And he said, “You know, the same thing happened to them that happened to us. The Holy Spirit is manifest through the speaking of tongues.” And at the end of verse 17.

Acts 11:17 They said, “God has granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

And the people in Antioch knew this. Now, the Book of Galatians, you're going through Galatians right now, shows that even Peter himself had certain, you know, hangups because Paul had to challenge him in Antioch because he himself separated from the Gentiles in some type of communal setting there. And, you know, he had a weak moment and Paul challenged him about it. And that was a tradition, as we're going to see, that had been put upon people. It was a yoke, and it was an unbearable burden.

Acts 15:3 “Being sent on their way by the Church, they passed through Phoenicia, Samaria describing the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy to all the brethren.”

And so, back in Samaria, remember where Philip had gone earlier. So, if you look at this yellow dotted line from Antioch and trace it down, they had swerved over toward Phoenicia, but then came on down in the northern area of the land of Israel. They had stopped in Samaria where there was a Church, where there was a body of people explaining what was...probably telling them about all their trips through Galatia, and that God was calling people, and that brought joy to the brethren.

Acts 15:4 “When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the Church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.”

And so, Barnabas, Paul, and certain others, they're not named, go up. So, there's a delegation from Antioch. No doubt Gentiles were included in this, maybe even some who had been mentioned in Acts 13 that did not...were not chosen to go out. We don't know. We can just speculate about that. And so, they reported what God had been doing and put their...you know, put another seal of proof upon it.

Acts 15:5 Tells us, “Though, that some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed.”

So this is this grouping of Pharisees who what? They believed. So, they're Christian Pharisees. Christian Pharisees is probably the best way to understand it and call it. They said it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses on this point of circumcision.

Now, it's not the law of Moses that is at question here. And when a careful reading of what ultimately is decided and written down shows that, as well as the teaching of Paul. You're going through Galatians right now, and that letter's the heart and core of the matters of the law and the covenant, how that works. But, as Luke writes it here, it's the law in regard to these ceremonial matters, these matters in this case of circumcision and where all of that fits now within the structure of the new covenant and what is carried into that new covenant, what is not carried into that new covenant, and that's what we're seeing a part of that.

Other letters of Paul, particularly Galatians, and others will, you know, flesh out some of that. Even the book of Revelation does, as we will see in a moment. So, here's this Jerusalem council. I've talked to you about all of the Church councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in the fourth century on the issue of the Trinity as we've talked about that topic in doctrines class.

But for all intents and purposes, and the biblical record, this is our first Church council. And it's a true Church council. It is the apostles and elders in Jerusalem that are still holding to the faith once delivered. They're not debating the Trinity, they're not debating the Sabbath or whatever. They're debating this issue of circumcision and the role of the Gentiles in terms of salvation within the Church.

Acts 15:6-7 “And so, they all come together to consider this matter.” And so, they had some type of a facility, a room to meet in, and they come together. Verse 7 “When there had been much dispute, Peter rose up.”

So, how was it organized? Did they just start talking 8:00 in the morning, 7:00 in the morning? Maybe. Maybe they...you know, they were talking in small groups before they came, when they came. Was there a schedule and an agenda? When we have our council of elders meetings, we have an agenda. And when we meet in our annual general conference meetings, we have a detailed agenda. I don't think necessarily they had it quite structured that way at this time, but I could be wrong. I don't want to think...give the impression that we're better at organization than they were. That's not what I'm saying.

But there are things you can look at said here by Luke, and they're, to me, a little bit humorous, you know, because we're dealing here now with the ministry, ministers coming together. And it says there's much dispute. Wow. Who would've thought? A room full of ministers come together to talk about doctrine, teaching, Church affairs, and disputes. What? What's going on here?

Some of you are smiling. You think that you know, yeah, that happens. And strong-willed men have their opinions, strong-willed women have their opinions too. And when it comes to Church issues, we all have our opinions, don't we? And when it comes to doctrine, practice, teaching, we've got it, everybody's got an opinion. And the trick is our opinions have got to be lined up with scripture and then coupled with the right approach and attitude as we work through understanding teaching and everything else. So, at some point, Peter rose up.

Acts 15:7 “And he said to them, ‘Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.’”

So, he goes right back to the earlier report that we read again. And in his recounting of that, it's a summation. And no doubt, they all did know that. That report of Peter from his trip to Cornelius and Caesarea was known. And that event was solid, it was documented. You know that God has chosen among us that the mouth of the Gentiles should hear the word and believe.

Acts 15:8-9 “God who knows the heart, acknowledge them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,” same thing that he reported on, “and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

Now, there's a lot in verse 8 and 9 to think about here. God, who knows the heart. Remember back with Cornelius. He was a devout man who gave alms to the Jews, had a good reputation. He was a Roman centurion, a Roman soldier who was thought highly by the Jews. His heart was right before he was ever...received the Holy Spirit. The account shows that. He took pleasure in giving, and he did not treat the Jews as dogs, which most Roman soldiers did.

His heart was right. God knew that, He knew who He was calling Peter to. And Cornelius wasn't the only Gentile at that time. There were other God fearers. And Peter says He acknowledged that by giving them the spirit just as He did to us. You know, conversion is of the heart. The change of mind and repentance is of the heart.

When we come together in the Church and to strengthen one another, brethren, what we have in this Church is a fellowship of the heart. Think about that. It's a fellowship of the heart or it's nothing. If it doesn't begin there with a heart toward God and a heart toward one another, we have nothing but a bunch of teachings, doctrines, yes, structure, yes, but we don't have the...we won't have the love of God, the spirit of God moving through us, producing a unity of the spirit that all of this does.

We talk about unity, and Paul talks about a unity of the Spirit in the book of Ephesians. Unity is a spiritual manner, first and foremost. Again, I'll get back on my high horse about, you know, all the Church splits. And as I said the other day, what are you going to do when it's your Church? What are you going to do when it's your Church?

Well, I hope that you will have a Church that is unified, but I hope that you will have a Church that has a heart, that your heart is right toward God because it's built on faith, right teaching, sound doctrine, which produces a healthy Church and that, you know, you want to have a Church that doesn't do like we did, split. Then you create a fellowship with the heart. You work as a committee of one, to have a heart toward God and to have your heart purified by faith, as verse 9 says. That's the distinction.

“He made no distinction between us and them,” he says. He said, “Between the Jews and the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith.” We get crossways with one another. We get crossways in so many different ways because we focus on maybe distinctives and not focus on the heart. Yes, we are different. You keep the Sabbath, you're going to be different. You go to the Feast of Tabernacles and you don't keep Christmas, that's distinctive. You're going to be different.

I was different at age 12 and have been all my life because my mom took the Christmas tree out and I didn't go to the Christmas pageant, and I didn't sing the Christmas carols, and I didn't go trick or treating, and I went to the Feast of Tabernacles every year. I had a distinction. All right? But I was learning something, as you have been.

So, there are distinctions and we have distinctive teachings, but we better be very careful that we let the heart of God, motivated by a love for God and a love for one another be stronger in our thinking toward one another and even toward the world than just focusing only on distinctives because that will divide you, that will divide us. And that will not give you the true love of God to take the gospel to the world and to recognize that people need that truth because we're only focusing on the distinctive that makes us distinctive from them and/or better than them because of who we are. We're not better because of who we are. We're only better because God's forgiven us.

Make sure you have a fellowship of the heart. That's where Peter begins this discussion about circumcision. And so, we'll hold off the remainder of this until the next class. I wanted to lay that down as a foundation to build on what Paul had been already doing as they come together as a group of ministers to consider this monumental issue in the Church. So, with that, we'll pick that up next class and what Peter really begins to talk about in verse 10.