SUFFERING FOR HIS NAME
Acts 5:41 “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”
Jesus had told his disciples in John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep your’s also.”
The disciples no doubt remembered this saying of Jesus. They had been brought before the authorities of their day. They were upset because of the evident blessings of God upon them (4:4). They were upset because the apostles were teaching that Jesus was the only way to be saved: Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” You know when you teach that Jesus is the only way to be saved you get the Moslems, the Buddhists, all the cults, and all the other religions of the world. A man doesn’t like for you to kick his dog nor criticize his religion. When you tell a man that the only way to go to heaven is through Jesus and the man’s religion does not include that statement of faith, what do you think he figures you are saying? It does not take him long to figure the thing out.
So the council sent them out of the room and had a little private meeting: “verses 15-16 “But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.” These Christians were hard to handle. God had by their hands worked a miracle that no one could deny. Their behavior was so above reproach that they could find nothing with which to accuse them.
So what did they do? Verse 17-18 says, “But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” This was an attempt to stop the spread of the gospel. The Apostles were not preaching healing, they just healed as they preached the gospel. It was the message that the council wanted to stop. The message was being received: verse 4 of this chapter says, “Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.” You would think that the general public would not object to what they would call a religion that made people better neighbors. But it did make them a difference. They could not stand the message of the cross. They commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
How did the servants of Jesus respond to these threats? “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (verse 19). The apostles claimed to be under God’s orders. Man was trying to give them his orders. These orders were contradicting. When you run into contradicting orders you have to decide who you are going to obey. As you know, they went with the Lord. The Lord continued to bless. Miracles continued to accompany the message they preached and souls continued to be added to the fellowship (5:14). The high priest (5:17) was incensed that these men would not obey him. So he went after them again this time throwing them into prison (5:18). But the Lord send an angel to get them out (5:19) and to make matters worse the angel had a message from the Lord to them, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life” (5:20). He told them what to preach and where to preach it and to whom to preach it.
It might be objected. “But Lord you just turned us out of prison. If we obey you, they will just throw us back in prison. In fact Lord, if you don’t mind, I’ll just go back through these doors and go back to my cell.
