Lechem Panim #144 ”The Crisis Men” (Acts 5:27-33) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome again to Lechem Panim. As you know, we are in the season of Lent, which is a time for us to seek the Lord in repentance from any and all sin and (especially as we approach Good Friday in the coming weeks) to reflect in a special way upon the sufferings of Jesus Christ. And I love one of the songs we tend to sing during this time: How Deep The Father’s Love For Us, which is a beautiful song that talks in a very moving and powerful way about the sufferings of Jesus Christ. But what I love about the song is that it doesn’t allow us to remain passive as we remember Christ’s death and suffering. The most memorable lines in the song read:

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

We’re Complicit— One of the things this song reminds us of is the fact that all of us have be complicit in the death of Jesus Christ; because (as Romans 3:23 says) all of us have sinned and therefore fall short of the glory of God; and all of us are therefore in need of a Savior. And in the book of Acts we see very early on a reckoning; people having to face the reality that they killed their Messiah. Peter and the apostles don’t hold back on this accusation, which they keep making it again and again; they don’t try to brush over what the people of God did to their Messiah; they don’t rush to the empty tomb and the resurrection so they can simply focus on the forgiveness of God made available to them in Jesus. No, there is a process. Just like us, the people first have to come to terms with their own personal sin and therefore their need of a Savior. Now the religious leaders have at this point in our study of Acts chapter 5 seized the apostles and thrown them into the public jail. But remember God sends an angel to set them free; and the angel tells them to go right back where they were arrested from and to continue to preach the Good News of the Gospel of Christ. And so they do. And when the Jewish leaders sent to have them brought, the jail is found empty, and then they of course hear that the apostles have gone right back to preaching; and so they have them brought (though not by force, for fear of the people; who are now standing is support of the apostles) and it says in…

Acts 5:27-28 (ESV)— 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.”

“you intend”— Now notice how the High Priest says to the apostles: “…you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.”

Did He Forget?— You see, the High Priest doesn’t want to accept the guilt of having killed the Messiah. Now this is so important, because we have to remember back to what the High Priest had said along with the rest of the Jewish people to Pilate back in…

Matthew 27:25 (ESV)— 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

Bloodguilt— Isn’t it interesting how quickly the Jewish leaders are now trying to distance themselves from Jesus and what they did to Him? They had freely accepted His blood upon them. But now the High Priest recognizes the full weight of what that would mean if the people accepted that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. And so he and the rest of the Jewish leaders feign innocence. But what is so remarkable about this “trial” is that as it progresses, the apostles become the judges and the council becomes the accused. The council wants them to be silent, but it says in…

Acts 5:29-32 (ESV)— 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Accusing Testimony— Now this testimony of Peter is so powerful for a number of reasons. First of all (once again) he is insisting that they must obey God rather than men. To be in alignment with God was to be at odds with the Sanhedrin. Now this was a very gutsy thing to say, because he was basically saying that the Sanhedrin had set themselves against God Himself and God was in fact working against them, not with them. And Peter highlights this in his pointing out how God raised Jesus from the dead despite their having killed Him by hanging him on a tree, which was a bad enough way for anyone to die, as it was associated with being accursed of God. But the Sanhedrin had done this not just to anyone, but to their Messiah! And the word Peter here uses that we translate “you killed” (Diacheirizō) appears only here and in Acts 26:21; and it actually means “to put to death with one’s own hands.” And so Peter is far from backing off here. No, he is intensifying the accusation. [He had previously charged the Jewish authorities with responsibility for Jesus’ death (2:23–24, 36; 3:13–15; 4:10). {But} Now he insists they are as guilty as if they had killed Him with their own hands.] And in the most shameful way possible. And yet despite that, God raised Jesus from the dead (cf. 2:23–24, 36; 3:13–15; 4:10) and lifted Him out of the shame to which they had subjected Him. Now when the Jewish leaders hear Peter’s accusation, they are livid. It says…

Acts 5:33 (ESV)— 33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

Cut In Two— And that word “enraged” in the original Greek literally refers to the cutting of something in two. But what is being cut? Well, they are!  Remember what it says in…

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)— 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Deep Down— Well here the Jewish leaders are being convicted; yet instead of embracing the repentance Peter is calling them to, coming to grips with their sin and humbling themselves before God and seeking forgiveness, they choose to harden their hearts and treat the apostles (despite the evidence of the signs that proved otherwise) as blasphemers. And what this says to us is that whenever we share the Gospel, there will always be the possibility that the person we are sharing the Gospel with will reject us. And that’s people don’t typically like to be told that they are sinful; and that’s because most people have been raised on the philosophy that deep down inside all of us are basically good; and all we need to do to change society and become better people is to tap into our inner goodness. But that is not what the Bible says. What the Bible reveals is that that deep down all of us are sinful; full of sin. That’s what the word “sinful” means. Apart from the goodness shed abroad in our hearts by the mercy and grace of God, we are completely and utterly depraved. And the cross is the ultimate picture of that. No matter how good we think we are, we all have been bad enough so as to warrant the death of the Son of God. And until we come to recognize that for ourselves and also communicate that faithfully to others, we (and they) will never fully understand the grace and forgiveness of God. And that’s because we have to recognize we are sick before we will then be willing to accept the cure. And that’s Peter’s point. He isn’t interested in just making the people and the Jewish leaders feel bad, but wants them to go through the process through which they can come to repentance and embrace Jesus for who He truly is and the fullness of what He has done for them. And similarly with us, our Easter celebrations are made all the more meaningful when we allow ourselves to go through our own Lenten and Good Friday seasons; when we examine ourselves and freely confess to God our own personal sins and the part that each of us had to play in the death of His son. We grow downwards in order to experience the hand of God lifting us up, raising us unto new life as we participate in the resurrection of Jesus.

​Crisis Men— Now one more thing needs to be said about the apostles in this passage; and that is that they were crisis men. What do I mean by that? I mean that they were men whose lives and message forced those around them to make a decision.

[JIM ELLIOT’S PRAYER— {One great hero of the Christian faith was a man by the name of Jim Elliot.} Jim Elliot was one of the martyred missionaries {killed by the Auca tribe back} in 1956. He was a passionate Christian who journaled many of his thoughts and prayers. One such entry addressed his concern about impact. {Listen to what He wrote.} He wrote, “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” His impact continues on even though he died over sixty-five years ago at the age of twenty-nine.] All of these apostles were crisis men. They were forks in the road. You could not encounter them and simply go on your way. No, people had to make a decision regarding Jesus after facing them. And you know, that is how it is supposed to be with you and I as well. We are to be crisis men and women in the lives of others; men and women who cause people (after encountering us) to have to make a decision about Jesus Christ. And so let us commit today in a special way to be those crisis people in the lives of others.

Closing Prayer— Dear heavenly Father, we want to thank you today for the gift of your Son Jesus, who died on our behalf to take away the sins of the world. Help us never to forget the power of the sacrifice made on our behalf; and let us be faithful to share the good news of that sacrifice with the world. And let us, Lord, be crisis people, who through our message of Your love and forgiveness, might draw others into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It’s in His name we pray, Amen.