Go and tell! - Acts 5:12-14, 17-32

The plot to silence Jesus could not have failed more fabulously than the one the Sanhedrin concocted.  They thought they could arrest Jesus in the middle of the night and hold a secret and unsanctioned trial during which they would bring trumped up charges against Him that would allow them to have Him publicly executed in such a way as to discourage anyone else from talking about the kinds of things Jesus was talking about.  On more than one occasion, a similar plan had previously proved successful.  A man by the name of “Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him.  He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it came to nothing.  After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt.  He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.”[1]  The Sanhedrin had every reason to expect a similar result from their plot to silence Jesus.  However, they failed to account for Easter. 

They tried, bless their hearts (and I mean that in the most southern of ways), they tried to account for the events which occurred on Easter morning.  That’s why there were guards posted outside Jesus’ tomb.  The Sanhedrin told Pilate, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’”[2]  They knew Jesus had claimed that He would rise from the dead, but none of them thought it would actually happen.  Which is why they were so unprepared when it did happen.  They did their best to cover it up.  They paid the soldiers some hush money, telling them ““You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’”[3] This might have worked if It weren’t for the recently resurrected Jesus appearing to people all over Jerusalem.  In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us, in addition to the Mary and the girls and Peter and the boys, Jesus “appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time.”[4]

Try as they might, there was nothing the Sanhedrin could do to silence Jesus, so they turned their attention to His followers.  In our lesson from Acts 5:17-32 the Sanhedrin is seeking to silence the followers of Jesus, but, as we are about to see, that plot failed as fabulously as the first.

In the first five chapters of Acts saint Luke describes how the message of the resurrected Jesus spread throughout Jerusalem.  The resurrected Jesus told His followers, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Sameria, and to the ends of the earth.”[5] So, Peter preached, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witness of the fact… Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”[6] and about 3,000 people were added to the number of people who followed Jesus that day.  Peter kept preaching, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this... Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.”[7] and the number of people who followed Jesus grew to 5,000.  Luke tells us, “12 The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”

The followers of Jesus would not stop telling people to repent and believe in Jesus as their risen Savior.  As a result of their preaching, more and more people were putting their faith in Jesus as their Savior.  The Sanhedrin decided something had to be done to silence the followers of Jesus. They decided to have them arrested and held in the public jail until they could deal with them the next day.  Sound familiar?  They had done something similar to Jesus; they arrested Jesus and dealt with Him the next day.  I got to believe the apostles noticed these were the same people who arrested, convicted, and killed Jesus.  No doubt the Sanhedrin wanted the followers of Jesus to spend the night in fearful expectation of things to come and perhaps they would have but, Luke tells us, “19 during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”  Is there anything about that that strikes you as odd, I mean beside the appearance of an angel and the miraculous escape from prison?  The followers of Jesus were arrested in the temple courts for telling people about Jesus.  The angel springs them from prison not so that they could escape to safety but so that they might return to the very temple courts in which they had been arrested and continue to tell people the very same message that caused them to be arrested in the first place.  God did not deliver the followers of Jesus so that they could be spared persecution, he delivered them so that they could keep telling people about Jesus.  The followers of Jesus didn’t think this to be at all odd.  Luke tells us, “21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.”

You can’t help but smile when you imagine the look on the high priest’s face when he discovered the followers of Jesus had been set free.  The plan was to intimidate the followers of Jesus into silence.  They were supposed to have spent the night trembling in a jail cell then cower before the full power of the Sanhedrin, but that plan backfired.  Not only were the followers of Jesus not intimidated into silence they were proclaiming salvation in the name of Jesus even more boldly now than they had been the day before.  It was not the followers of Jesus who were intimidated by the Sanhedrin, it was the Sanhedrin that was intimidated by the followers of Jesus.  Luke tells us, “26 the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.”

The high priest, speaking for the entire Sanhedrin, doesn’t ask how the followers of Jesus escaped from the still securely locked and guarded prison.  He was, no doubt, afraid he wouldn’t like the answer.  Instead, he doubles down on the intimidation tactic.  “28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”” I am going to tell you how the followers of Jesus responded but first, the irony of that statement is too rich to pass without pointing out that is exactly what the Sanhedrin asked for.  When Pilate washed his hands and told the Sanhedrin that he was innocent of Jesus’ blood, they answered “let his blood be on us and on our children!”[8] 

The followers of Jesus could have pointed out the members of the Sanhedrin were getting exactly what they asked for but instead “29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.”  In other words, the followers of Jesus told the persecutors of Jesus that though they hung Him on a tree, God raised Him from the dead and if they repented of their sins and believed in Jesus as their savior, they too would be forgiven and saved.  Not only did the Sanhedrin’s attempts to silence the followers of Jesus fail, but, because of their efforts, repentance for the forgiveness of sins was proclaimed in the most unlikely of places and to a people who needed to hear it the most.

2,000 years ago, the Sanhedrin fabulously failed to silence the followers of Jesus.  I wonder if they would be as unsuccessful today.  As I was studying this text I got a phone call from my son Jacob.  He was working on his own sermon text for next week and was looking for a little guidance as to how he might apply the law and gospel to his people.  I encouraged him to see himself in the text, to think about how we sin as the people in the text sin and how Jesus forgives us as He forgives the people in the text.  After talking for a few minutes Jacob had a good idea of how to apply the law and the gospel of his text to his people and I am eager to hear him preach it.  But after I hung up the phone, I struggled to take my own advice; I struggled to see myself in this text and I struggled to see you in this text.  I may not be the best pastor in the world, but I am no high priest.  You may not be perfect members of Messiah, but you are not members of the Sanhedrin.  None of us is actively, intentionally, violently trying to suppress the preaching of the gospel. I really struggled to see any of us in this text… and that perhaps is the problem.  We may not see ourselves as members of the Sanhedrin who tried to suppress the preaching of the gospel, but can any of us see ourselves as the fearless followers of Jesus who refused to be silenced?  If you ever found yourself imprisoned for your beliefs and put on trial for your faith, what do you think you would say?  That’s, God willing, never going to happen to you.  Let’s consider some less intimidating and more likely scenarios.  When people are celebrating alternative lifestyles, what do you say?  When a person tells you ‘my body my choice!’, what do you say?  When an unmarried couple decide to move in together, what do you say?  Those are still hard ones let’s imagine something even less intimidating.  When a friend has too much to drink, what do you say?  When a family member gossips, what do you say?  When your fellow Christian hasn’t been in church in months, what do you say?  I’m ashamed to admit it but I have been silenced by people far less intimidating than the Sanhedrin. I think the people we most often resemble are the cowards mentioned back in verse 13; the ones who didn’t dare to say anything to anyone.  

Sadly, sinfully I struggle to see myself in this text, how about you?  Thankfully, for you and for me, it is not difficult to see Jesus in this text.  Jesus literally stood in the Sanhedrin where His followers stood, and the high priest tried to intimidate Jesus just as he tried to intimidate Jesus’ followers.  But Jesus refused to be silenced.  Jesus announced to the high priest and the assembled Sanhedrin, “I am” the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[9]  Jesus proclaimed the message we are often too afraid to proclaim and then Jesus allowed the Sanhedrin to nail Him to a cross so that we could be forgiven for our silence.  Then three days later Jesus rose from the dead to assure His followers that nothing could prevent the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins from being proclaimed. 

There is still time for you to see yourself in this text.  You know what those fearless followers of Jesus were doing on Easter Sunday?  They were hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews.[10] The followers of Jesus were not as fearless in Acts chapter 1 as they were in Acts chapter 5. But as they learned more and more about the empty tomb and what it meant for them and for all people they grew increasingly fearless.  As they came to understand how fabulously the plot to silence Jesus had failed, they became increasingly determined that the plots to silence them would fail just as fabulously.  If you want to see yourself in this text, if you want to learn how you too can be a fearless follower of Jesus then learn more and more about the empty tomb and what it means for you and for all people. 

Knowing that the Crucifixion could not silence Jesus how could we allow persecution to silence us?  The answer is it can’t, and it won’t.  Whether we are surrounded by our fellow believers or out in public or even facing persecution we will not be intimidated into silence.  May the plots to silence us fail as fabulously as the plots to silence Jesus and His followers.  In the name of our risen savior Jesus, may our God of grace grant you the courage to go and tell.  Amen

[1] Acts 5:36-37

[2] Matthew 27:63

[3] Matthew 28:13

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:6

[5] Acts 1:8

[6] Acts 2:32&38

[7] Acts 3:15&19-20

[8] Matthew 27:25

[9] Mark 14:61-62

[10] John 20:19