No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

       I’m sure the statute of limitations has expired.  I am free to share with you my brush with the law when I was in college. 

       There was a tradition in my dorm at Whitworth to take graduating seniors on what was called a senior ride.  The goals were creativity for the kidnappers and embarrassment for the victims. 

        There was a guy from Montana named Lanny.  He had a girlfriend at Fort Wright College , which is a Catholic girl’s school.  In those sexist days there was a curfew for girls at Whitworth which was 10 p.m. on a school night.  There was no curfew for guys.  I feel just terrible about this but that’s the way it was back in the day.  So some of the Whitworth guys used to go out after hours to Ft. Wright where they didn’t have a curfew.    And that’s how Lanny ended up with a girlfriend from Fort Wright .

        That’s where we took Lanny for his senior ride.  Since he was from Montana we left him, in addition to his underwear, his cowboy hat and boots.  We tied him up, took him over to Fort Wright at 1a.m. and dumped him on the front porch of the main dorm.  Then we ran back to the car and blasted on the horn to wake up the girls.

       The only girl who woke up was the nun in charge.  She came out and saw Lanny lying there all hogtied.  She started kicking him and yelling ‘Get out of here! ‘Get out of here!”  Lanny replied, “Who do you think I am lady, Houdini?”

       Fortunately we had car trouble on our way back to campus so we were delayed.  The police had been called by the sister.  They had gone to Whitworth to get us.  They finally got tired of waiting.  So they left a stern warning for us never to be seen driving a tied up guy in underwear and a cowboy hat and boots in the vicinity of Ft. Wright College again.

       We never did.  It was a once in a lifetime thing – too beautiful to repeat.  But I have to tell you that I wasn’t nearly as afraid of the police as I was of the Nun.  That was one tough sister.

       Peter and John are about to discover just how tough religious leaders can be.

       In Acts 3, Peter and John heal a man lame from birth by the beautiful gate of the temple.  We looked at this on August 20.  That was dramatic. Peter’s sermon to the large crowd is very effective.  I suspect that the presence of Exhibit A – the healed man -- doing jumping jacks, deep knee bends and side thrust brings great credibility to what Peter says.

       As Peter preaches, the opposition shows up.  The man our text calls the captain of the temple was an official called the Sagan.  He is the High Priest’s right-hand man.  He is probably the one who led the group that arrested Jesus in the Garden.  If a crowd gathers, he and his temple police will show up. 

       With him come some of the Sadducees.  They are part of the wealthy, aristocratic class.  There are not many of them but they are rich and have great influence. 

       This whole Jesus thing disturbs them for two reasons.  First, the Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection from the dead.  And resurrection is what Peter is proclaiming to the crowd.   Second, they are deathly afraid of even the hint of rebellion. The ruling Roman government is very tolerant on many things.  But the Romans are merciless on public disorder. 

       The Sadducees are collaborationists.  They suck up to the Romans so they can hold on to their wealth, comfort, prestige and power. They are afraid that, if the apostles are allowed to go on talking, civil disorder will follow, with disastrous consequences to their own status.  That’s one reason they plotted the death of Jesus.  They were afraid that if Jesus became a focus of civil unrest the Romans would come and “take away their place and the nation.” 

       With the crucifixion they think the Jesus danger is safely past.  But now, maybe just twelve weeks later it is starting again. They want to stop the Jesus talk cold.  Peter and John are arrested.

       The Sadducees can arrest the apostles, but not the gospel.  Luke assures us that the opposition of people does not hinder the Word of God.  Many who hear the message believe.  Luke says the number of men was about five thousand – not counting the women and children. 

       Peter and John are left all night in the slammer.  They are then brought before the 71 member Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin.  At least this will not be an illegal midnight trial like the one they gave Jesus.

       All the big guns are there.

       Annas is there.  Luke calls him the high priest because, even though the Romans had deposed him in 15 A.D., he kept his prestige, influence and titles among the Jews.  Caiaphas is there too.  He is Annas’ son-in-law.  Both men had taken lead roles in the trial and condemnation of Jesus.  Caiaphas had called for Jesus’ death with the words that it was “better for one man to die that the whole people should perish.”

       Luke also mentions John and Alexander.  We don’t know anything about them.  There are other men of the high priest’s family. 

       As they sit in their customary semi-circle, Peter and John are brought in.  The memories of the recent trial of Jesus must have flooded their minds.  Will history be repeated?  They can hardly expect justice from the same court that had listened to false witnesses and unjustly condemned their Lord.  Are they going to suffer the same fate?  Will they be crucified?

        Probably not more than three months before this,  Jesus had stood on trial before these same officials.  Peter in the courtyard outside had blasphemed and cursed and said, “I never knew Him!” 

       Look at Peter now! He and John are two apparent rubes in a room full of robes.  But they speak with grace and power -- proof of the resurrection of Jesus.  Even the officials are impressed with the boldness of Peter and John.

       They are asked how people like them could presume to do such a thing.  The way the question is phrased – “people like you” – is an insult.  They don’t know the kind of people Pete and John have become through the power of the Holy Spirit.

       Peter responds, “The only thing you can possibly have arrested us for is this miracle – for doing good to that poor lame man.  Doing good is not a crime.  But if you also want to know by what power or in what name we healed him,” (that is the question they had asked in verse 7), “then you need to know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”

      In your Bible you will find a comma at that point.  It is a significant comma.  As far as the accusation is concerned, Peter has given a perfectly good answer.  There could be a period.  He doesn’t need to go further.  They’ve asked, “By what power or what name did you do this?” Peter has replied, “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” 

       But Peter is not just trying to defend himself.  Jesus had told His disciples, “On account of  Me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.”  Peter may have remembered those words and thought to himself, “Game on!”

       He thinks to himself, “I may never have a chance like this again.  Look at this audience: the priests, the captain of the temple guard, the Sadducees, rulers, elders, teachers of the law, Annas, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the other members of the high priest’s family.  I will never do better than this. If we had put on a great advertising campaign, we could never get  all these important people to come.  But here they are.  So let’s preach Jesus.

       Who is Jesus?

       Peter says, “He is the one you crucified.  He is the one God raised from the dead.”

       “Here’s the proof – the resurrection.  Here’s the name – Jesus.  Here’s your role – the ones who crucified Him. 

        “Here’s your opportunity – repent and believe. For there is no other name given by which we must be saved than the name of Jesus.”

       The court is astonished by the courage of Peter and John, particularly because they are unschooled.  They are not necessarily illiterate, but they have  not received proper training in Rabbinic theology.  They are ordinary men.  But, Luke notes, they recognize that Peter and John had been with Jesus.

       What the Sanhedrin does not recognize is that the apostles are still with Jesus.  They are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of  Christ.  Their Lord is saturating their emotions, compelling their wills, energizing their bodies.  The Sanhedrin is not only seeing them, but also Christ. Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, are in constant communication with their Lord.  Now being with Jesus had not made them bold before Pentecost.  But now they were with Him in a new way – and they are empowered.

       Sometimes you can be bold in a scary situation -- if you see something your enemies don’t see. 

       Suppose, for example, you are broken down on a lonely stretch of highway.  Suddenly a group of Hell’s Angels pull up on their choppers and act in a threatening way.  Now if you are standing there smiling, they’d better look over their shoulders to see what you see – five Highway Patrol cars coming over the hill.

       The Sanhedrin should look over their shoulders.  They think they hold all the power cards.  But Peter and John are standing there smiling.  And they can also see  the evidence of the healed cripple.  He is standing there too -- boy is he standing.  Although it was well known in the city that he had never walked in his life, there he was standing. So there is nothing they can say.  They can’t deny it.  They don’t want to acknowledge it.  They order Peter, John and the healed man out of court, so that they can confer in private.

       Liberal critics of the Bible have enjoyed themselves asking how Luke could have known what went on in the Sanhedrin’s confidential discussion.  But Paul may have been there.  More likely, Gamaliel was, and he could have told Paul what happened. 

       In any case, the Council is in a real mess.  On the one hand, an outstanding miracle has been performed.  They can’t deny it.  On the other hand, they must stop this Jesus movement thing from spreading.

       Now it is very telling that neither at this time or at any later time does the Sanhedrin take any serious action to disprove the Apostles’ central claim which is the resurrection of Jesus.  If it had been possible disprove the resurrection, the Sanhedrin would have been all over it.    It is plain that the apostles mean a physical resurrection when they say that Jesus is risen – not some spiritual resurrection mish mash but a bodily event.  The rulers know that.  So all they have to do is produce the body.  They can’t.   Now the apostles’ claim that Jesus is alive again has received public confirmation by the miracle of healing performed in His name.

       All the Sanhedrin can think of is to warn Peter and John, as a legal admonition before witnesses, to speak no longer to anyone in this name -- the powerful name by which the cripple has been healed, which Peter has preached, and which they are reluctant even to pronounce.

       So they called the Apostles in again and solemnly forbid them to speak or teach at all in the name.  To this prohibition, Peter and John make the spirited reply that the court must judge whether it is right to obey them or God, for, they add: ‘we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard’.  The court threatens them further.  “You saw what happened to Jesus.  That could happen to you too.”

       But they have to let them go.  It’s not possible to punish them.  All the people are praising God for what had happened, especially because the cripple who had been miraculously cured was over forty years old.  The all know it is a miracle.

       Now Peter and John don’t go back to the church and start a seminar on how to deal with persecution.  They start a meeting of praise and prayer.

       The theme is God’s ruling power – God’s sovereignty.  He is the God of creation, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.  He is the God of revelation, who spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David in Psalm 2.   He is the God of history, who caused even His enemies to do what His power and will had decided beforehand should happen.  God’s actions are summarized by the three verbs ‘you made’, ‘you spoke’ and ‘you decided’.  Even the cross is part of the plan of God. 

       Weren’t Pilate and Herod and the priests free? Yes they were and they were therefore guilty.  But God is still in charge.  God is sovereign.

      An illustration might help.  Let me use one from A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy.  He writes: “Man’s will is free because God is sovereign…. An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool .  Its destination has been determined by proper authorities.  Nothing can change it.  This is at least a faint picture of sovereignty.

       “On board the liner are several scores of passengers.  These are not in chains, neither are their activities determined for them by decree.  They are completely free to move about as they will.  They eat, sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please; but all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port.

       Tozer notes, “Both freedom and sovereignty are present here and they do not contradict each other.  So it is, I believe, with man’s freedom and the sovereignty of God.  The mighty liner of God’s sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history.  God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began.  We do not know all that is included in those purposes, but enough has been disclosed to furnish us with a broad outline of things to come and to give us good hope and firm assurance of future well-being.”

       Peter is aware that he is firmly on the winning side of a sovereign God.  That gives him courage.

       Some years ago, back in the 1950s, Billy Graham published a powerful letter written by a young Communist to his fiancée, breaking off their engagement.  The young woman’s pastor had sent the letter to Billy Graham.  Think about his words in relation to your own Christian walk – substitute Christian for Communist as see what it says. 

       The young man wrote: “We Communists have a high casualty rate.  We are the ones who get shot and hung and ridiculed and fired from our jobs and in every other way made as uncomfortable as possible.  A certain percentage of us get killed or imprisoned.  We live in virtual poverty.  We turn back to the party every penny we make above what is absolutely necessary to keep us alive.  We Communists do not have the time or the money for many movies or concerts or T-bone steaks or decent homes or new cars. 

       “We have been described as fanatics.  We are fanatics.  Our lives are dominated by one great overshadowing factor: the struggle for world Communism.  We Communists have a philosophy of life which no amount of money can buy.  We have a cause to fight for, a definite purpose in life.  We subordinate our petty personal selves into a great movement of humanity; and if our personal lives seem hard and our egos appear to suffer through subordination to the party, then we are adequately compensated by the thought that each of us in his small way is contributing to something new and true and better for mankind. 

       “There is one thing which I am dead earnest about, and this is the Communist cause.  It is my life, my business, my religion, my hobby, my sweethearts, my wife and my mistress, my bread and meat.  I work at it in the daytime and dream of it at night.  Its hold on me grows, not lessens, as time goes on; therefore, I cannot carry on a friendship, a love affair, or even a conversation without relating it to this force which both drives and guides my life.

       “I evaluate people, books, ideas, and actions according to how they affect the Communist cause, and by their attitudes toward it.  I’ve already been in jail because of my ideals, and if necessary, I’m ready to go before a firing squad.”

       You have to admire such total dedication even though history has firmly tossed his beliefs on the scrap heap.  Even Communists aren’t communist anymore.

       But we can truly say that we are the future.  God is sovereign.  We serve a God who beings all things to past.  We are the future.  Are we focused? Are we bold?  Are we sold out?  Can people look at us and see that we have also been with Jesus?