In Acts chapter 4, let's begin
in verse 13 and read through verse 22, then flipping over
to chapter 5 and reading a few verses from that place. And they
have to do with criminalizing the preaching of Jesus Christ
and of the gospel against the apostle. So chapter 4, verse
13, through verse 22. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. That is, they'd been seen with
him. They'd followed him. They'd been
in his company. And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. And 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. But that it spread no
further among the people, let us straightly 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. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than God, you be the judge. We cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they
had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing
how they might punish them, because of the people, for all men glorified
God for that which was done. for the man was above forty years
old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. Now jump to chapter
5 and verse 25 through verse 28. Then came one and told them,
saying, Behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing
in the temple and teaching the people. Then went the captain
with the officers and brought them without violence, for they
feared the people lest they should have been stoned. When they had
brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest
asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that you
should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem
with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon
us. Now there's our text to begin
us. Now, I would that you not misunderstand
when I say that we're speaking about the criminalization of
Christianity. It might seem strange to use
the word criminal and the word Christianity in one and the same
sentence or in the same breath. It is not that Christianity or
the gospel of Christ or the practice of the Christian faith is a crime,
especially not so in the eyes of God, nor from the standpoint
of the blessed and holy scripture. It is not a crime against heaven
or against God or against the scripture, nor is it a crime
in the judgment of any true and sanctified Christian. Now, the term, the criminalization
of Christianity, refers to the action of the enemies, and the
haters of God and of Christ and of the scripture and of Christianity. Haters, whether they be individuals,
whether they be other and alien religion, or whether they be
the government that it is practiced under. And often we find that
the first two, individuals and religion, often seek to suppress
and destroy Christianity by enlisting a corrupt government and to criminalize
the public expression of the Christian faith and the preaching
of the Word of God and of Jesus Christ. I will give you some
example that you certainly are familiar with. How often have
we heard of one professing atheist claiming to be, quote, offended,
unquote, by a meeting being opened with prayer or calling upon the
name of the Lord. and run down and file suit against
those that had practiced that, and one judge declare that it
is to be stopped and not done? Or have they heard a prayer at
school, the school day beginning with prayer, and someone files
suit, and one judge give an injunction against that practice? Or how
often have we heard of one Jew or one Muslim hearing the name
of Jesus in a prayer at an athletic event, perhaps a ball game on
Friday night, run down and file suit claiming that they are offended
and that it is an illegal practice of religion. And again, one judge
decree that it is unconstitutional and that it must be stopped. We know that our government has
been passing laws criminalizing certain aspects of our Christian
belief, of our scripture, and of our faith. So, with that,
let's get to our subject of the morning, beginning with the early
experience of the apostle of our Lord. Again, let me single
out some of the verses that we read that we might notice the
intent of them, and that is the stopping and the criminalizing
of Christianity. In chapter 4 again, let's look
again at verse 17 and verse 18. but that it spread no further
among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak
henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and
commanded them not to speak at all, not at all, or to teach
in the name of Jesus." Over in chapter 5 and verse 28. Did not we straightly or strictly
command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold,
you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine or your teaching,
and you have the intention to bring this man's blood upon us. Chapter 5 and verse 40, when
they had called the apostle, and beaten them, they commanded
that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and they let
them go. They released them to go back
unto their company. Now, me, I believe very strongly
in context. in dealing with any passage of
the scripture that it is important to note the surrounding context,
what is happening, who is speaking, who is being spoken to, and such
like. Someone once said that context
is nearly half of the interpretation of the scripture. And this is
a Jewish context, in that all that were involved in this were
Jew. It was not what we might call
today anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism. It was Jew against Jew in this
particular play, basically out of one and the same religion. It was the Jewish establishment,
the high priest, the council, the scribes, and such like against
the Christian Jews who believed in and were preaching the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was the leaders of Judaism
against the Apostle and the Christian Jew. And so I believe nowadays
that would have been called the Christian community. The first
persecution that we read about came not from the government. It was not the government that
cracked down upon the gospel and the apostle and the preaching
of the scripture, the gospel, and the word of God. But the
first persecution came from their fellow Jew. not from the heathen,
but from their fellow Jew. The leaders, the scribe, the
rulers, the high priest, were gathered together against the
holy child, Jesus. Now, it was an outgrowth of the
incident back in chapter 3. What caused all this uproar was
what occurred in chapter 3. Peter and John were going to
the temple at the hour of prayer, and there at the gate they spied
a crippled man there set and begging for alms of those that
came and went in the temple. And they healed that man and
he stood upright and leaped and he walked and they saw him all
that were there. Now it caused quite a commotion
among them and a lot of astonishment in the mind of many. but it brought
the wrath of the ruling, quote, community down upon the apostle
Peter and John. Now there are several factors
that are met together here that move the rulers against the apostle
and against the Christian and against the Christian message.
And they even were moved to the point of killing Peter and John,
Acts chapter five. and verse 33 is where you will
find it. Here are some of the factors.
Number one, the miracle greatly impressed many of the people
that saw it, and many of them believed on account of that miracle. Acts chapter 4 and verse 4. Secondly, Peter attributed the
miracle not to themself or to their power or ability, but they
attributed the miracle to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 3, verse 12-16, they
said, By Him Is this man made whole and standing
before you today? And then, in the mix of all of
this, thirdly, Peter charges the Jew with the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 3, 13-15, chapter 4,
verse 10, chapter 5, and verse 30, Peter charges upon them the
murder and the death of our Lord. Number 4, Peter strongly emphasize
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 315, whom
God has raised from the dead. You killed him, you put him in
a grave, you put a seal and a watch before that grave, but God has
raised him up again. Now concerning the resurrection
of Christ, there are two things here I think that actually shape
them, the leaders of Israel. A, the one that they had murdered. They led the charge to have our
Lord killed and put to death. God had raised up. The one you killed, God has reversed
your decision and have raised him up. What a testimony against
them. The one they killed, calling
him a blasphemer, had been raised up by God and exalted to the
highest glory at the right hand of God. He had been made Lord
and Christ, Acts 2 and 36, put at the right hand of God and
given sovereign power. But then be There was a strong
Sadducee presence in this company as well on the Sanhedrin and
among some of the leaders. Acts 4 verse 1, Acts 5 and 17. Sadducees were involved in this. You remember their position.
They deny any resurrection from the dead. They say there is no
such thing as a resurrection or as a spirit or as an angel. And you'll find that again in
Acts 23 and verse 8 and in Luke chapter 20 and verse 27. Sadducees say there is no such
thing as a resurrection. Here's what we read back in Acts
chapter 4, 1 and 2. And they spake unto the people,
the priests and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees
came upon them. It was the Sadducee that made
the first move against them. Watch verse 2. Being grieved
that they taught the people and that they preached through Jesus
the resurrection from the dead. Now, the Sadducees were very
vexed to hear the apostle publishing and preaching Christianity right
in the temple and preaching a resurrection from the dead, a doctrine that
they held in great contempt. And what added to their agitation
that they would go further? Well, number one, these men who
were preaching this were known to be uneducated, unlearned,
untrained. Acts 4 and verse 13, they were
unlettered. They were not scholars. They
were not doctors. They had not been to the seminary. They had been followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom they preached and they had been seen
again and again in his company. Number two, they preached the
resurrection in connection with Jesus, who the Sadducees lately
had declared unfit to live and insisted that the Lord be crucified. So they moved to shut down the
preaching of Jesus, of the Word of God, of the Resurrection,
and the Gospel. They moved to shut down any preaching,
any doctrine, any teaching as offensive and contrary to their
belief and their religion. Now, let's concede a point here,
if we would. It was the duty of the captain
of the temple. Notice him in chapter 4, his
mission. It was his duty to keep order
in the temple and the manner of worship there. It was the
duty of the rulers and of the priests and of the overseers
to root out any heresy and to maintain the words of truth from
the law, the psalm, and the prophet. That was their position. And as Calvin put it, and I quote,
to prevent all new doctrine, unquote. Had they been faithful
to God, that was their position, their calling, and their duty. And to uphold the truth, these
are they who sit in Moses' seat, as our Lord mentioned in Matthew
23 and verse 2. They sit in Moses' seat as teachers,
as guides, as instructors of the Scripture and the things
of God. Now, the question becomes this. What happens when these who are
the builders and who are charged with the oversight, what happens
when these become corrupt and ignorant? What happens when that
occurs, when the leaders are ignorant and are corrupt? and
care not for truth, and stand not upon the scripture, but bring
in the tradition of men as well. What happens when it comes down
to the blind leading the blind? When the leaders and the teachers
exchange the word of God, for the traditions of men and they
set aside the truth of the scripture. What happens when the leaders
have become apostates from the faith? They're blind guides who
exchange the truth for a lie. They are sunken in sickening
formalism instead of reality. Their religion has become nothing
but formalism and hypocrisy. Now, let it be noted again that
it was the leaders that first took up arms against the apostles
and the followers of the Lord, and that even insisted that they
ought to be put to death. And the same ones persecuted
the apostles when the mantle of Christ fell down upon them,
for they had set aside the stone which the Lord had provided,
which is Christ, Acts 411, Psalm 118, and verse 22. The builder set aside the stone
that had been provided by God. And then we notice, the more
persecution, the more grew the word of God in that day. For the apostle answered back,
we must obey God rather than men. And the more the word of
God advanced, the more it chafed. the enemies of the gospel, the
more it chased, I'll call them, the religious establishment. And if we can peek again at chapter
5 and verse 28, saying, did not we straightly or strictly command
you that you should not teach in this name and you have filled
Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's
blood upon us." These words are from the high priest of Israel
and the council. Please catch it. Did we not strictly
command you not to teach in this name? We strictly made it clear
unto you the name of Jesus. Let's turn aside and look closer,
if we might, at the verses here, this verse, rather, verse 28,
from the leaders of Israel. We straightly commanded you,
strictly to cease teaching, all teaching, in this name, the name
of Jesus. They were under charge. And I noticed one version added,
we gave you strict orders. not to preach or to teach in
this name. We charged it upon you. It is a charge for you to keep. In other words, we prohibited
you from preaching in this city in the name of Jesus, and they
stress the charge to them. We strictly, expressly, absolutely,
in no uncertain term, forbid you to preach in this name. Caiaphas, the priest, doubles
the emphasis. With an oath, we gave orders
in no way for you to ever be teaching in this name. And what
have you done? Number one, in defiance of our
charge, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine or with your
teaching. In all places, you have preached
this name and this person. Now, I want to pardon a digression. I want to give you an actual
experience. It was just out of Houston in
a small town, I forget the name, just a few months ago. I believe
last football season in a high school game. Now, the cheerleaders
and the pep squad, we used to call them the pep squad, We're
accustomed to write banners with scripture on them and hang them
around the rail of the stadium. And then you know that big old
piece of paper with two poles on it and the team comes busting
through. They want to see if the running
back is able to break through that. But anyway, it had written
on it, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And the team burst out to the
roar and the applause of the crowd. Someone went down and
filed a charge against that school district and one judge said,
stop it. It can't be done anymore. You
know what the fans did? At the appropriate time, they
all stood in unison, and they began to say the Lord's Prayer
out loud. You can't arrest all of them.
So they defied that order. But secondly, we notice here
the offense of the apostle. You intend to bring this man's
blood upon us. People hate to hear that they
are guilty before the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But in this
case, they portray these leaders of Israel as guilty of the death
of, quote, this man. as they refer to Him. Not just
before God, but before the people you intend to portray us as guilty
of the blood and the murder and the death of Christ. That turned
out to be a very ruinous act against their nation and against
their religion and against their people. That's a fact of Scripture. that the Scriptures fix the blame
and the guilt of Christ's death upon the Jews of that generation,
especially upon their leaders. Let me give you some Scripture
to back that up. Luke 24, 20. The two on Emmaus
Road. Talking to Jesus said our chief
priests and rulers Delivered him to be condemned to death
and have crucified him our leaders in Acts 2 and 36 the house of
Israel crucified Jesus Acts 3 14 and 15 they denied the Holy One
and killed the Prince of life Acts 2 and 23, him you have taken
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Acts 5 and 30, whom
you slew and hanged on a tree. And Acts 4 and 11, the stone
set aside by you builders. Now, this, the immediate generation
that crucified our Lord. Before them, their fathers had
killed the prophets and digged up God's altars. Romans 11 and 3, Matthew 23,
31, Luke 11, 47, and 13, 34. And after that generation, they
crucified the Prince of Light. Now Paul writes, in 1 Thessalonians
2, 15 and 16, quote, who both kill the Lord Jesus Christ and
their own prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and
are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentile that
they might be saved, to fill up their wrath all way, for the
wrath is come upon them unto the uttermost," unquote, Paul
in Thessalonian. Now here's Calvin's summation
of Paul's word to the Thessalonian saints. Quote, they kill their
very own prophet, and finally the son of God, and they have
persecuted me, his servant. They wage war against God. They
are hated by the world. They oppose the salvation of
the Gentile. In short, they rush toward their
ruin. Quote, the words of Calvin. Now in Acts chapter 5, 33 through
40, too long to read at this particular time. But early on,
when the priest and the Sanhedrin were planning to kill the apostles,
that's in chapter 5, verse 33, they took counsel to kill them. This will stop it. This will
blot it out. This will put an end to it. Now
stop the movement. Stop it in its tracks. At that
time, we read a man, a Pharisee, by the name of Gamaliel. And the scripture defines him
as a doctor of the law and very well thought of and respected
and highly esteemed by the people. And this man stood up and won
the floor, and he cautioned them against their intention of murder. That, verse 38 and 39, if this
movement be of men, it will come to nothing. If it's a man-made
movement, it'll die out. It'll come to nothing. But if
it is of God, you cannot hope to overthrow it. And in opposing
it, you will be found to be fighting against God. You will be a God
fighter, fighters of God, opposers of God, if this movement is of
God. There's another like council
in Acts chapter 23 and verse 9. It finds Paul again before
the council and again there's a mixture of Pharisee and of
Sadducee and you find the Pharisees actually taken up for Paul, they're
forced to, on account of the resurrection. And they said this,
if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against
God. Acts chapter, what did I say,
23 and verse 9. Now the Jews, the council, and
the priests criminalized the preaching of the person of Christ
and the public teaching of the gospel. They made it illegal. as far as they had authority,
to preach through Jesus the resurrection of the dead, and it is illegal
to use the name of Jesus among the people. Now let me ask you
a question, and I want you to think long and hard about it. Why do those who are in authority
criminalize something? Why do those in authority decide
to criminalize something and to make it against the law? Why
make something unlawful? Now, I know if you talk to them,
they would say, well, it's because It is a bad thing, and it is
against the public good and welfare. If you don't know by now, politicians
lie when they say that their laws are only intended for the
public good, when many of them are to provide a source of revenue
for the government, and that's their only cause. And I'll give
you an example. We had it in Houston, red light
cameras. Now, why criminalize something? Because they can then move to
stop it or eradicate it, whatever it might be, even if it is not
evil. even if it is no harm unto the
public, and even if it is biblical. But if you make it a crime, then
you can persecute and prosecute those that transgress it. Why then criminalize parts of
Christianity? To make it a crime. If you make
it illegal, then it is a crime. Then you can prosecute and you
can punish the transgressor in some way. They whip Paul. They whipped Peter and John,
gave them a good beating. So you can find them, you can
whip them and possibly even cast them in the prison. when the lame man was healed,
and they said, this is in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, if I might transition a
little bit, having said all of that and seeing the action of
these men and of these people, I declare unto you that there's
becoming a full-fledged war waged against biblical Christianity
in our day. Now, notice, I specify biblical
Christianity. Biblical Christianity. Christianity
based upon the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son
of God and the only Savior. Because there are many that roost
in the branches of Christendom that are apostates. Apostates from the faith. They're
enemies of the cross. They're enemies of righteousness. They are apostate and traitors
and Judas goats and useful idiots to be used in this war against
biblical Christianity, making war against God and against Christ
and against the church, taking sides with the barbarian that
are within the gate. finding common ground with Islam
but not with biblical Christianity. There are many of these old apostate
preachers and churches who walk arm in arm with Islam and yet
are enemies of biblical Christianity, embracing Christ-hating Muslim
while berating the Bible position, calling it hateful, bigotry,
homophobic, and Islamic for our position, and supporting the
passing of hate crime laws and hate speech against Christianity,
making it a crime to not like a pagan religion and to speak
ill against it. Now this business in our country
of hate crime laws and hate speech is nothing more than political
correct hypocrisy and foolishness. A hate crime, as you very well
know in our day, depends on the race, the nationality of the
persecuted and of the victim. And if these don't match, then
it is not considered as a hate crime, and you know that to be
true. Now we raise a couple of questions
along the way. What do you mean by speaking
of the criminalization of Christianity? How? Where in? In what way has
it been criminalized? Well, you can't know unless you
know a little bit about our history and about scripture of the founding
of our nation. I'll give you an example. Once
sodomy was against the law and punishable, against the law,
no doubt because of the influence of scripture and Christianity
upon our culture. But now we have homosexual marriage. We have spousal benefit. And
of course, we had to have homosexual divorce. And now they can adopt
children and call themselves a family. But two of the same
gender cannot procreate themselves. But two homosexuals can legally
adopt a child. Though for the most part, they
don't have any interest in children, and there's no way for those
of the same gender to make a child. Surely you've heard here in Texas
of the so-called bathroom bill that caused such a stir in the
country. And this is when a biological
male, someone who was born a male with high heels and a dress and
a padded bra and lipstick can go in the women's bathroom and
nothing be done about it. And it's all right. It's all
right to do that. That's the great fuss in our
state. And if you think this is wrong,
You're labeled a homophobic and unfit to speak. You're a hater
and a bigot. Because progressives, which is
synonymous in my mind with communists, they say they want to end hate. They want to put a bridle on
us. They want to shut us up. They want to end hate. Now, let's
examine that a minute. How do they hate the things of
God and of Christ? It's brought out into the open
like never before. How they spew against the Christian
position, if you think about it. They hate the Bible view,
and so who is it that is the hater? They hate conservative
position. They hate the America that has
been passed down under them, and they even hate Columbus for
coming over here and discovering it. And who can deny that the
last election brought that hatred out in the open like never before? They hate the Old South and the
Bible Belt. They've torn down our monuments
and our statues. They have ripped the Ten Commandments
from the public building. They hate Jesus Christ. They
hate the true gospel and true Christianity. They hate the National
Anthem. And they most of all hate truth. They hate the truth of God. They suppress it. They now call
it hate and bigotry when the truth is spoken. And they love
lies. And everything they're about
is based upon a lie. Those who have engaged in the
war against Christianity have engaged some very powerful allies
on their side. Now we know them as progressives,
and you might call them liberals or socialists, but they have
one goal, for both government and Christianity, to remove the
ancient landmarks Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 28, and block the
old paths wherein is the good way, Jeremiah 616, to lay out
new paths. But there were two great barriers
that stood between them and that. Number one, the Constitution,
which has been now trampled underfoot and counted obsolete by these
kind of people. Number two, the Christian experience
stood in their way. The Christian influence still
standing. To dilute the Christian influence,
two things had to happen. A religious progressive seized
control of the seminaries and the denominational college, just
as political progressive did seize control of the secular
colleges and of the school to change Christianity, to train
preachers in their seminary who are liberal in their thinking
and put them out in their churches and bring about, therefore, a
liberal denomination. like the Jewish leaders did as
they put the stop on Christianity. And then B, to make a direct
attack on hardline Christianity, assisted by the media, television,
Hollywood, even our own government and many of those who say that
they are Christian. Take note of something, if you
will. Which of these two parts of Christendom are given the
pass by the progressive media in our day? It's the liberal
side. You won't ever hear them condemning Judaism or Islam or
black liberation theology or black supremacism. You won't
hear them criticize that. And the media gets a tingle up
their spine when they see apostates from Christendom have an interfaith
meeting where all cast aside their belief and their doctrine
and come together. On the other hand, Just let them
hear of some Christian leader or of some traditional minister
who criticizes some other religion, and they come down on them like
a ton of bricks and consider it a hate crime and hate speech. We have something that will be
detrimental to Christianity in our world, in our nation, and
that is the filling it with all kinds of religions that are not
Christian. And I fear they will unite against
Christianity and they will use our Constitution to put us under
foot. Now I want to say something to
you. You say, well, I heard this. Let's be tolerant. Let it go.
Let bygones be bygones. Then I want you to know this.
They're never going to stop. They're never going to be satisfied.
They're never going to say, it's OK, it's fair. They're never
going to stop pushing their agenda. They're never going to let up. And you can count on it. Not
these wild college kids in the street riding who wanted the
communists to be elected president in the last election. Not the
homosexual. They don't just want tolerance.
They want full acceptance and affirmation of their diversity. That's where it's headed. We're
not used to persecution, we Christians in America, for the sake of the
Word of God. It's been easy over our lifetime,
and thank God for it in a way, but it also can make us tolerant
of heresy and put us at ease in Zion. May I quote Spurgeon? This quote is attributed to him,
though I never found it in his writing. Quote, the time will
come when the churches will not have shepherds to feed them,
but clowns to entertain them, unquote. Was he not a prophet
in his day? We need leaders who know the
times and the season, who can discern the time, who know what
will result from certain action, and will sound the alarm like
a watchman on the wall to sound out the warning. The scriptures
are clear. They're our guide and our only
guide. May God give us the courage to
stand upon them.