Acts 5:12-42: Why the Early Church Was Unstoppable

Acts 5:12-42: Why the Early Church Was Unstoppable

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 5:12-42 as the passage upon which today’s message will be based. So I’ll be reading a selection of verses that come from this passage:

12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. 17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. 25 And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” 26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people…. 40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. 

 We’ve been going through the book of Acts passage by passage, and this morning we find ourselves in Acts 5:12-42. And I’m excited to dig in, but before we do that, let’s pray. [Prayer]

One thing that seems rather undeniable about the church in America is that it’s in a state of decline. Many of you may have seen the news stories just a few months ago that for the first time in recorded history, less than 50 percent of people in America are members of a church, according to Gallup. As you can see on this chart here, attendance hovered for a very long time around 70 percent, but beginning in 2005 or so, we began to see a very steep decline, with the result that in 2020 only 47% of adults report being members of a church. And, of course, this just confirms what we all knew to be the case anyway—that Christianity is declining in a very significant way in our country. 

And the natural question to ask is, why? What’s causing this decline? Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s probably not that we don’t have enough resources. America is the most prosperous nation in the world, and the American church has an extraordinary amount of wealth. Also, in addition to having such remarkable financial resources, we have a staggering array of Bible-related resources. We have ten times as many tools to help us read and understand the Bible at our fingertips than previous generations could even dream of. So it’s not that we don’t have enough resources. 

In addition, the reason for Christianity’s decline in America isn’t that we don’t have enough talented leaders or that those leaders don’t spend enough time honing their leadership skills or studying leadership techniques. There’s undoubtedly way more focus on mission statements and vision statements and strategic planning and other elements of organizational leadership in the church than there’s ever been. I mean, Christian leaders of previous generations had no idea what a vision statement was. That phrase would have been completely foreign to them—as would most of the latest elements that leadership experts these days tell us we just have to have. But now, there’s an entire industry dedicated to helping pastors craft inspiring vision statements and learn other principles for effective leadership. And yet, despite all of this, we’re still in a state of decline. Why is that? 

And the question becomes even more intriguing when we consider the early church, both during the New Testament era and during the first few centuries afterward. The early Christians didn’t have anything close to the wealth that we have—most of them were from the lower classes of society. And neither did they have the biblical resources we now enjoy. For most of the first century, the Bible was still in the process of being written. And even after that, most churches were lucky to even have access to a single copy of the Scriptures. Then add to all of this the fact that they were severely persecuted. This meant that their best and brightest leaders were routinely executed and that they couldn’t own any church buildings but instead were forced to meet in homes or occasionally in public halls. 

So they had all of this working against them, and yet, against all odds, they grew. And they didn’t just grow a little bit—they grew exponentially. Why was that? What in the world was their secret? So to sum it up, why did the early church see such explosive growth despite all of their disadvantages, while the church in America today is in a state of decline despite all of our advantages? What was it about these early Christians that enabled them to be so effective in reaching their society with the gospel? That’s the question we’re going to seek to answer as we work our way through this passage of Acts 5:12-42. 

Now, as we can observe right at the outset here, one thing these Christians had going for them was credibility. That was one factor that contributed to their growth and was a very important factor. We saw last week in the previous passage that God made sure that hypocrisy in this church was dealt with in a very decisive way. Ananias and Sapphira, you may recall, were actually struck dead for lying about the gift they were giving. And God did that because he knew how important it was for the church to be pure and to be free from hypocrisy. So now, look what’s recorded right after that, in verses 12-14 of our main passage. Acts 5:12-14: 12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. So even though a lot of people were understandably a little standoffish because of the severe judgment that had just come down on Ananias and Sapphira, it still says in verse 14 that “more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” 

Does that surprise you at all? Even after two people were struck dead while the church was gathered, believers were added to the Lord “more than ever,” it says—“multitudes of both men and women.” Not quite what you’d expect, perhaps. Yet I don’t believe this growth is accidental or a mere coincidence. There’s a clear connection between hypocrisy being dealt with in the previous passage and the growth of the church in this passage. We see that connection confirmed in verse 13, where it records that even the people who didn’t join the early Christians still “held them in high esteem.” So the early church had a moral credibility that, unfortunately, the church in America just doesn’t have. And I’m convinced the reason we don’t have it is because most churches today aren’t faithful to practice church membership or the church discipline that naturally goes along with church membership. We talked a lot about that last week, so I won’t explain it all again this morning. If you want to know more about church membership and church discipline, just go online and listen to last week’s sermon. And don’t worry, it doesn’t involve anybody getting struck dead, alright? 

So the fact is that, despite the crucial role of membership and discipline in preserving the church’s credibility, most churches and church leaders just aren’t that interested. You know, I’ve yet to see any books entitled, for example, Church Discipline: The Secret to Rapid Church Growth or How to Increase the Size of Your Church by Dealing with Sin. For some reason, those are two titles I haven’t yet seen. Even in the midst of all the books written about church growth, none of them even come close to approaching things from that perspective. They just talk about slick marketing techniques and clever innovations and things like that. And maybe that’s why the church in America is experiencing the decline it’s experiencing. Maybe if we paid a little more attention to making sure our lives are consistent with our message, people would be more inclined to embrace that message. Here in Acts 5, the early Christians possessed a credibility that no one could deny. “The people held them in high esteem,” it says. And that was undoubtedly one very important factor that contributed to their growth. 

And yet, there was more—a lot more. As we look at this passage, we see that another factor that contributed to the growth of the church was miraculous healings and deliverances. Look with me again at verse 12 and then at verses 15-16: 12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles….15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. So people were being healed left and right. And, as is always the case in the book of Acts, these healings meant something. Verse 12 refers to them as “signs.” As you know, the purpose of a sign is to point to something. Think of an exit sign on a highway. The exit sign itself isn’t the exit but rather points to the exit. The sign points beyond itself to something else. And it’s the same with these miracles. These miracles were “signs” that pointed to the truth of the message that the apostles were proclaiming. 

Yet there was something even beyond these miracles that caused the early church to grow. Everything that we’ve discussed so far was helpful for the church’s growth, but there’s still something else that I believe was decisive. And it’s going to become clear what that was as we continue going through this chapter. 

In the rest of the chapter, we see the early Christians—and specifically the apostles—facing more opposition from the Jewish leaders. We saw them facing opposition for the first time back in chapter 4, and now we see them facing a lot more opposition. And that opposition comes to them in three waves, if you will. Picture a series of three large ocean waves crashing down on the apostles throughout the rest of the chapter. And yet, through it all, the apostles were undeterred in their witness. Kind of like a trick candle. I’m sure you’ve seen a trick candle at a birthday party before—probably many times. The person blows it out, and what happens? It lights right back up, doesn’t it? So the person might blow it out again, and of course, it lights right back up again. And that’s what we see with the apostles. No matter what the authorities did to them, the apostles were undeterred and kept right on preaching about Jesus. 

And as we’re going to see, something was motivating them to do that. I’m sure they wanted to give up sometimes, but something motivated them to continue speaking about Jesus. What was it? 

Well, let’s find out. Look first at Acts 5:17-21a: 17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. So the Jewish leaders put the apostles in prison, but, during the night, an angel opens the prison doors and lets them out. And I believe one reason God brings that about is in order to mess with the Jewish leaders a little bit on a couple of different levels. Not only does God spring the apostles out of jail, but he uses angels to do it. And you may remember from a few weeks ago that most of the Jewish leaders were part of a group of people called Sadducees, who didn’t believe in angels. But the joke’s on them, because God uses an angel to get the apostles out of jail. You’ve got to appreciate the humor there. And God did this not just to pull a fast one on the Sadducees but even more to encourage the apostles. He wanted them to know that he was able to deliver them at any time and in any situation. 

And, looking at the text, what did the apostles do as soon as they got out of jail? Well, of course, they kept on preaching! They marched right back to the temple at daybreak and picked up where they had left off the day before. I imagine they found their place in their notes and figured out what PowerPoint slide they had left off on and kept right on going with their sermon. What do you think was motivating them to do that? Well, let’s read on. 

Look at the next portion of the passage—the next “wave” of opposition, if you will—in verses 21b-32: 21 …Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. 25 And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” 26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. 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.” 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.”

So despite the apostles’ miraculous escape from prison, the Jewish leaders are determined to put a stop to their preaching. And it’s interesting to observe that, in his accusations, the high priest can’t even bring himself to mention the name of Jesus. He simply says that “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name” and then says that “you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” Perhaps the high priest’s reluctance to speak Jesus’ name is an indication that he knew he himself was guilty. Contrary to his assertion, he knew that Jesus’ blood really was on his hands. And, in fact, that’s actually the very thing he had asked for originally, right? Back in Matthew 27:25, he and the rest of the Jews who were demanding that Jesus be crucified said, “His blood be on us and on our children!” And so it was—as Peter’s preaching has brought to everyone’s attention. 

Yet even after being blasted by the high priest in this way, Peter doesn’t give an inch. He and the rest of the apostles respond to the high priest with remarkable boldness. They plainly state in verse 29, “We must obey God rather than men.” And this is in line with several other verses in the Bible as well. The Bible consistently teaches that Christians should be good citizens—model citizens, even—until the governing authorities mandate something that contradicts what God says. And when that happens, we only have one choice—“We must obey God rather than men.” If the government tells us to stop preaching the gospel, well, “we must obey God rather than men.” If the government tells us to stop gathering as a church for any reason—even if it involves COVID—we assess the situation and then do what we believe God would have us do. Obedience to God always transcends submission to any governing authority. 

And just in case the Jewish leaders missed the point, Peter then shows them exactly what he’s talking about by preaching the gospel to the Jewish leaders themselves. So they tell him to stop preaching, and so he keeps right on preaching to them. He tells them in verses 30-31, 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.
So Jesus was crucified—“hung on a tree”—so that God could give to his people “forgiveness of sins.” You see, God can’t just sweep our sins under the rug. He refuses to do that because he’s holy and righteous and requires that sin receive its just judgment. Yet, in his love, God the Father sent his own Son Jesus to come to this earth and suffer that judgment in our place. That’s what happened on the cross. That’s why the cross is so central to the Christian message. It’s the center of everything. Jesus suffered God’s judgment so that we wouldn’t have to. And we know that Jesus came from God and taught what was true because he rose from the dead three days later. As Peter says in verse 30, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus” and then in verse 31, “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior.”

And the way people can experience Jesus as their personal Leader and Savior is through, as Peter says, repentance. Instead of living their way, they need to repent and purpose to live God’s way. And instead of trusting in themselves and in their own efforts to get right with God, they need to repent and put their trust in Jesus to save them. And, if you read the text closely, you can see that this repentance is actually a gift of God. It’s something that God has to give people and put in people’s hearts to do. 

Yet, we’re still left with the nagging question, what was motivating Peter and the other apostles to continue to preach this message even in the face of such heavy opposition and at the risk of their lives? 

We see the answer finally in verses 33-42—the third wave of opposition that’s recorded. Look what it says: 33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, 40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

So even the revered teacher Gamaliel points out that if the Christian movement has its origin in man, it’s gonna fail. But if it comes from God, nothing can stop it. And of course, knowing what we now know about the way the church continued to experience remarkable growth, the implication’s clear: Christianity has its origin in God. 

Yet what’s most remarkable in this passage is how the apostles respond to the harsh treatment they receive. They receive not only a stern rebuke from the Jewish leaders but even receive a very public and shameful beating. Remember, this was an “honor/shame” culture, so the shame of this beating would have even more painful than the lashings themselves. Yet, amazingly, we read in verse 41 that the apostles “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name”—and that would be the name of Jesus, of course. And it’s here in this verse that we finally discover the answer to our question of what was motivating the apostles to preach the gospel without being deterred and also why the early church grew the way it did. It all flows out of this. They believed that Jesus is supremely worthy. That’s the main idea of this whole passage. The apostles were undeterred in their witness because they believed that Jesus is supremely worthy. 

This is what led them to keep preaching the gospel literally to their dying breath—if you know church history—and why the early church experienced such remarkable growth. They believed that Jesus is supremely worthy—worthy of our deepest devotion, worthy of our highest allegiance, worthy of it all—even of our very lives. And it’s this conviction that drove the early church to keep talking about Jesus regardless of what consequences they faced. And that’s why the church grew so much during those first few centuries. They didn’t have money, they didn’t have buildings, and most of them didn’t even have complete copies of the Bible. Yet they grew because they had a burning passion to tell the world about the one who had redeemed them from their sin. 

I mean, just look at how the apostles respond here. Even after receiving a public beating—39 lashes with a whip—they “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” Think about that: “worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” In other words, they were suffering because they preached the name of Jesus and were therefore identified with him. And they regarded being identified with Jesus in that way as an unspeakable privilege. And guys, it is a privilege any time we get to suffer to any degree for Jesus. After all, he suffered so much for us. What a privilege to suffer for him! Again, Jesus is supremely worthy. That’s the conviction behind it all. Why should we witness? Because Jesus is supremely worthy. Why should we sacrifice for the gospel? Because Jesus is supremely worthy. Why should we remain faithful even as Christianity becomes increasingly unpopular in our society? Because Jesus is supremely worthy. He deserves our highest devotion. 

I love the way Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.  The point is pretty clear: Jesus died for us, so it’s our joy to live for him. I love how Paul says that “the love of Christ controls us.” The NIV says, “compels us”—almost as if we’re forced to respond in this way. I mean, how else is there to respond to the one who loves us so dearly? What other conceivable response is there to the one who gave us his everything except to give him our everything? 

Guys, this is the kind of thinking that made the early church what it was and what drove them to turn the world upside down—to borrow language from Acts 17:6. And if we want to see something similar in our day, we have to recover this kind of thinking—and the depth of devotion and joy in sacrifice that goes along with it. 

To be candid with you, if Christianity in America continues to be oriented around a bunch of motivational speakers peddling a message of "three steps to a better life," there's virtually no hope for making an impact. If it continues to be oriented around a bunch of leaders who are more captivated by the latest leadership and marketing strategies than they are by Jesus himself and the breathtaking beauty of his sacrifice, there's virtually no hope for making an impact. And if Christianity in our country continues to rely on entertainment to draw people in rather than on the glories and wonders of the gospel, there’s virtually no hope for impacting anybody in any significant way. 

But if we’ll return to the mentality of the early church and be captivated once again by Jesus, we’ll be just as unstoppable as they were. It won't matter if churches in our country manage to maintain their tax exempt status, it won't matter if religious liberty is upheld in the courts, it won't matter if we're allowed to own church buildings, it won't matter if we’re scorned and mocked even more than we are now. If we’re captivated by Jesus to the extent that, like these early Christians, we rejoice at being counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name, we too can expect the world to be turned upside down by our witness. If there was ever a need for God to do a work of revival in the church, it’s now.