1Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 5. If you don’t have a

Bible with you, we’d love for you to use one from the pew rack

in front of you. In those pew Bibles, Acts 5 is on page 781.

We’re continuing our study in the Book of Acts, but before we

jump into our text, I want to remind you of an illustration from

Martin Lloyd-Jones that I mentioned at the end of last week’s

sermon, “A man and his little child [are] walking down the road

and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is

the child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him,

and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no

uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some

impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, (holds) him in

his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him,

and then he puts him down again and they go on walking

together.” We were comparing the difference between steady,

every day Christianity where the Spirit lives in us and is changing

our hearts – which is like walking contentedly, hand-in-hand with

our heavenly Father… We were comparing that to extraordinarily

powerful, Spirit-filled Christianity where the Spirit comes on us

and fills us in an unusual way – which is like our Father

sweeping us up in His arms and overwhelming us with His love.

Today, I want us to build on that illustration with an idea

that I read from John Piper. You’re walking hand-in-hand with

your father, and you look up at his face. You see a kind, caring

smile. You see love in his eyes. You feel a gentleness as he

2holds your hand in his. You’re enjoying the warmth and the

tenderness of your father’s love.

But now I want you to imagine that as you’re walking

home together, it’s starting to get late. The sun is going down,

and it’s getting darker. And all of a sudden, a very scary-looking

man comes walking toward you on the sidewalk. He’s glaring at

you, and his face is red, and his eyes look wild and out-of-

control. He stops just a couple feet away from you, and he

shouts, “What are you looking at, you little punk? How bout I

slap you in the face?”

You’re frightened by this big angry man. And in your

fear, you look up at your father’s face. Now, I want you to think

about this: In that moment, what do you want to see when you

look at your father’s face? If I answer that question, I don’t want

to see the same look I saw just a few minutes earlier. I don’t

want to see gentleness and tenderness and warmth. Instead, now

I want to see strength and firmness and intensity. Instead of a

kind smile and loving eyes, I want to see a clenched jaw and fire

in his eyes. Instead of him holding my hand gently, I want him

gripping my hand so tightly that it would usually hurt a little bit,

but in this moment his grip is saying, “Don’t worry. I have you.

I’ll take care of you.”

And then your father steps between you and the man and

pulls you behind him. And your dad tells the man, “You better

keep walking. This is my son, and I’m not going to let you touch

him.”

3And here’s what I want you to think about: Do you see

how good it is for your Father to have both of these sides? It’s

good to enjoy God’s love and warmth and gentleness. And it’s

also good to trust and rest in God’s strength and firmness and

protection.

And today we’re going to tackle a big chunk of Acts.

We’re going to try to make it all the way from chapter 5 to the

first verses of chapter 8. And the reason we’re taking such a big

chunk at once is because I want us to connect four straight stories

in Acts by seeing in each of them how God protects His church

from the threats she faces and how God guarantees by His own

power that His church will not be stopped. Start in the first 11

verses of chapter 5 with me, “But a man named Ananias, with his

wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,  and with his wife's

knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and

brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.  But

Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the

Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of

the land?  While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that

you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to

man but to God.’  When Ananias heard these words, he fell down

and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard

of it.  The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him

out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his

wife came in, not knowing what had happened.  And Peter said to

4her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.’ And she

said, ‘Yes, for so much.’  But Peter said to her, ‘How is it that

you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold,

the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door,

and they will carry you out.’  Immediately she fell down at his

feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they

found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside

her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and

upon all who heard of these things.”

So the first threat to the church we see in our text is

corruption within the church. You’ve got two church members

who are lying hypocrites. They fake generosity to make

themselves look good. They pretend that the Spirit has changed

their hearts and moved them to give generously when, in reality,

they’re still in love with money and aren’t giving nearly as much

as they act like they are.

And make sure you see how seriously our strong, firm,

protective Father takes this hypocrisy and corruption within His

church. He kills both of them to protect the church from the

poison of their corruption. Now I pointed out last week that this

story does not mean that God always strikes hypocrites dead on

the spot. But this story does show us what ultimately happens to

hypocrites. If there’s never a true work of the Spirit in our

hearts… if all of our religious is just external and superficial and

fake… then there’s no true faith in us and there’s no true

repentance in us, and we are not true followers of Jesus. And if

5that never changes, then sooner or later we will die in our sin. So

even though God doesn’t always strike hypocrites dead on the

spot, this story warns us that God takes corruption within His

church very seriously. God will do whatever He knows is best to

protect His church from being destroyed by corruption within.

And in verses 12-16, we see that God was successful in

protecting His church. Read those verses with me, “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. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held

them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added

to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 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. The people also gathered from the towns around

Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean

spirits, and they were all healed.”

After the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, God keeps

building His church. In fact, verse 14 tells us, “More than ever

believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and

women…” The church is growing faster than ever. The church

has already grown from 120 followers of Jesus in chapter 1 to

probably 20,000 in chapter 4. But now, in chapter 5, the church

is growing even faster! This is a great picture of God’s sovereign

power to protect His church and build His church.

6But in the rest of chapter 5, we see a second threat to the

church. Start reading in verse 17 with me, “But the high priest

rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the

Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles

and put them in the public prison.” So the second threat to the

church in our text is persecution from the outside. The religious

leaders arrest the apostles and throw them in jail to try to silence

them and stop the church. How does our strong, protective

Father respond this time? Look at verses 19-21, “But during the

night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought

them out, and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the

people all the words of this Life.’ And when they heard this, they

entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.”

God sends an angel to break the apostles out of prison,

and first thing in the morning, they go back into the temple and

start teaching again. The religious leaders and their prison are no

match for God’s power. Keep reading with me in verse 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. But when the

officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they

returned and reported, ‘We found the prison securely locked and

the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we

found no one inside.’ 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. And someone

7came and told them, ‘Look! The men whom you put in prison are

standing in the temple and teaching the people.’ Then the

captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force,

for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when

they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the

high priest questioned them, 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.’

But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather

than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed

by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as

Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness

of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy

Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.’

“When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to

kill them. 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. And he said

to them, ‘Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with

these men. 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. 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. So in

the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let

8them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will

fail; 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, 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. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they

were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every

day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease

teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

The religious leaders find out that the apostles aren’t in

jail anymore – they’re back in the temple teaching – so the

leaders have them brought back in. And the high priest accuses

them, “We told you to stop teaching about Jesus, but you’ve

filled the whole city with your teaching.” Wouldn’t it be great if

that’s what somebody accused you of? Wouldn’t it be great if

somebody’s accusation against you was, “You’ve filled the

whole city with teaching about Jesus”? The apostles don’t deny

it. They basically say, “You’re right. We have. You killed

Jesus, but God raised Him from the dead. And we’ve got to obey

God instead of you.”

The religious leaders are so angry that they want to kill

the apostles. But instead they decide to try to beat them into

silence. So they beat them, tell them to stop talking about Jesus,

and let them go. It doesn’t have the effect the religious leaders

hoped. Instead of being scared, verses 41-42 tell us the apostles

9rejoice that they had been found worthy to suffer for Jesus, and

every day they keep teaching about Jesus.

And there’s something very important I want you to

notice with this part of the story. If you think about it for very

long, you may start wondering, “Did God really protect His

church here? He allowed them to get arrested and beaten. He

didn’t stop the persecution.” And you’re right, God didn’t stop

the persecution. Instead, God did something even better: He

made sure the persecution couldn’t stop the church. Make sure

you hear that: God didn’t stop the persecution; God made sure

the persecution couldn’t stop the church.

And if you’re wondering why I say that’s even better, let

me try to give you an illustration. A couple years from now

Sydney will start school. And one of the things she will learn is

how to read. Now imagine she brings me a book one day and

wants to read it to me. And she does really well for the first

couple of pages, but then we get to a page with several big words

on it, and she’s having trouble reading those words. What if I say

to her, “Those words are too hard. Let’s just stop reading this

page,” and I turn her back to a page she can read easily? And

what if every time she comes to a page she can’t read, I just take

her back to a page she can read? Is that the best thing I can do

for her? No. Wouldn’t it be better if I helped her learn how to

sound out those big hard words? Wouldn’t it be better if I helped

her grow in her ability to read? And it would be accurate to say it

this way: Instead of stopping her exposure to hard words, it’s

10better if I make sure the hard words don’t stop her from reading.

I don’t want to just do what’s easiest for her; I want to do what’s

best for her.

Do you see how that’s similar to what God does with the

early church when it comes to persecution? Remember, the

apostles are the same guys who fled in fear when Jesus was

arrested. They were cowards who abandoned their friend and

their leader at His time of greatest need. But God’s solution isn’t,

“Well, I guess I better keep you away from the hard stuff from

now on.” Why isn’t that a solution? Because then you still have

a bunch of guys who are cowards. They don’t ever grow in their

character. They don’t ever become courageous. You’ve got a

bunch of weak leaders leading a weak church. And God wants

more than that for His church. So what does He do? He fills His

people with His Spirit and gives them so much power and

courage and boldness that they can rejoice in the face of

persecution and keep preaching Jesus anyway. In other words, in

this instance, God doesn’t show His power by changing the

circumstances; God shows His power by changing His people.

God takes cowards who abandoned Jesus, and by the power of

His Spirit, He makes them stronger and bolder and more like

Jesus. And His church is better because of it. It’s not the easiest

thing, but it is the best thing. God makes it clear that persecution

will never be able to stop His church, because His Spirit who

lives inside His people is more powerful than the persecution that

comes from the outside.

11In chapter 6, we see a third threat to the church. Read the

first six verses with me, “Now in these days when the disciples

were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose

against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected

in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full

number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should

give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore,

brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full

of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the

word.’ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they

chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and

Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas,

and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the

apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”

You might say the third threat to the church is division

within the church. That’s the third blank on your sermon notes:

division. And that’s the first thing to see in this text, but there’s

also more that we need to see. The church in Jerusalem is

growing rapidly. For all we know, there are 50,000 members by

now. And within the church, there are Jews who have become

Christians – verse 1 calls them “Hebrews.” And there are

Greeks, or non-Jews, who have become Christians – verse 1 calls

them “Hellenists.” And the church had developed a ministry

where they were giving food to widows in the church who were

in need. But evidently there was some favoritism, and even

12racism, taking place in that ministry, so that the Jewish widows

were receiving better treatment than the non-Jews. This causes

the non-Jews to start complaining. And there’s a danger that both

the favoritism and the complaining are going to divide the

church. It’s a real threat to the church. But it’s not the biggest

threat. Look at how the apostles respond in verses 2-4, “It is not

right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve

tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men

of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will

appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and

to the ministry of the word.” According to the apostles, the

biggest threat to the church is not the favoritism and complaining

and division. The biggest threat is that the favoritism and

complaining and division will distract from the preaching of

God’s Word. In other words, the apostles might spend all their

time feeding widows, and they’ll fail to feed God’s Word to the

church. And listen, that doesn’t mean that feeding widows isn’t

important. It clearly is, because the apostles tell the church to

pick seven men to make sure that ministry gets done. They’re

not saying it’s not an important ministry. But they are saying it’s

not the most important ministry. The most important thing for

the church is for her to grow strong on God’s Word. All other

ministry grows out of that. If ministry isn’t built on God’s Word

and nourished by God’s Word, I don’t care how good it is, it will

eventually wither and die, or it will get off track and turn into a

perversion of what God intends. God’s Word is foundational for

13everything we do. God’s Word is the priority. And that means a

huge threat to the church is the possibility of allowing anything to

distract us from the preaching of God’s Word.

And Church, I want to thank you right here. I want to

thank all of you who serve in ministry, because the more ministry

you do, the more I and the rest of our pastors can focus on

preaching and teaching God’s Word. I also want to thank our

deacons. A lot of people say that the seven men who are selected

to lead this widow ministry in Acts 6 could be called the first

deacons in the church. Biblically speaking, deacons exist to

serve in ministry… to lead the church in ministry. And a major

significance of the role of deacons is that they do ministry so the

pastors can focus on the ministry of the Word. And I am so

thankful that our deacons here at First Baptist Mount Juliet have

embraced their biblical role. Our deacons have organized

themselves into three ministry teams, and their goal is to get our

whole church involved in ministry. That’s exactly what should

be happening in the church. So if you’re serving in ministry,

thank you. Thank you for making God’s Word the priority. If

you’re not serving yet, I hope you see how much the church

needs you. And I hope you’ll step up and serve because you

want God’s Word to be the priority.

Now, back to our text: How does God protect His church

from this threat? In verse 3, the apostles tell the church to pick

seven men who are full of the Spirit and wisdom. And we know

the only way anyone is filled with the Spirit is if God pours His

14Spirit out on them. So when these Spirit-filled men start serving,

what has happened is that God has raised up ministry leaders for

His church. God has poured out His power and equipped people

in the church to do ministry, so that the apostles won’t be

distracted from preaching the Word, and the church will keep

growing stronger on the Word. God protects His church from

distraction by raising up Spirit-filled ministry leaders. And look

at the result in verse 7, “And the word of God continued to

increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in

Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to

the faith.” The church keeps growing, even to the point of many

Jewish priests who are becoming Christians. This is another

great picture of God’s sovereign power to protect His church and

keep building His church.

That brings us to the last example I want us to see today.

Read the rest of chapter 6 with me, “And Stephen, full of grace

and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the

people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of

the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the

Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and

disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom

and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly

instigated men who said, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous

words against Moses and God.’ And they stirred up the people

and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and

seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up

15false witnesses who said, ‘This man never ceases to speak words

against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say

that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change

the customs that Moses delivered to us.’ And gazing at him, all

who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an

angel.”

This is not a new threat to the church. It’s just another

instance of the second threat we saw today: persecution from the

outside. Stephen is one of the seven Spirit-filled men who were

selected to lead the widow ministry. And these verses tell us that

the Spirit gave Stephen tremendous grace and power and wisdom

to speak about Jesus and perform miracles. Finally, the Jews

have him arrested and bring in false witnesses to testify against

him. And just by the way, make sure you notice the charge they

bring against him in verse 14. They say, “He’s teaching that

Jesus is going to change our customs.” Some things never

change, do they? There’s always a danger for religious people

that we will love our customs and traditions more than we love

Jesus. There’s a danger that we’ll cling more tightly to the way

we do things than we’ll cling to Jesus.

Back to our text. They’ve got Stephen on trial. They

bring these charges against him. Do you know how he responds?

He starts preaching to them. All of Acts 7 is Stephen’s sermon.

And we’re not going to read it all right now, but I want you to

know that Stephen summarizes the story of the entire Old

Testament in this one chapter. This chapter is like the Cliff’s

16Notes version of the Old Testament. But right now, I want us to

jump down to verse 51 and look at how Stephen ends this

sermon. And as we read this, remember, Stephen is standing

before the Sanhedrin in danger of being imprisoned, tortured,

maybe even executed. Look at what he says in Acts 7:51, “You

stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always

resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of

the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed

those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous

One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who

received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Bold, fearless preaching. Why? Because he was filled with the

Holy Spirit. The religious leaders hate it, though. Pick up in

verse 54 with me, “Now when they heard these things they were

enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the

Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and

Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I

see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right

hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped

their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of

the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their

garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they

were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my

spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice,

‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said

this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution.”

17They drag Stephen outside and throw rocks at him until

he dies. Stephen is the first follower of Jesus who is killed for his

faith (that we know of). Up to this point, Jesus’ followers have

known, “If we keep preaching Jesus, we may be arrested, we may

be interrogated, we may be beaten, we may be abused…” But on

this day, it becomes clear, if you follow Jesus and make Him

known, it may cost you your life. How will that affect the

church? Will the reality of martyrdom be enough to stop God’s

church? Keep reading in Acts 8:1 with me, “And there arose on

that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem,

and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and

Samaria, except the apostles.” Following Stephen’s murder, the

first wide scale persecution against the church breaks out. And

the Jews drive all the Christians except for the apostles out of

Jerusalem. That doesn’t sound too promising for the growth of

the church, does it? All your members have been run off, and

now everybody knows if they become a member, they’ll be

persecuted. You might think this will finally stop the church.

You’d be wrong. Look at Acts 8:4, “Now those who were

scattered went about preaching the word.” What happened when

the Jews persecuted the early Christians and drove them out of

Jerusalem? Did this stop them from talking about Jesus? No!

They took Jesus with them and kept talking about Him wherever

they went. And make sure you notice exactly where they went.

Look back at verse 1 again: “They were all scattered throughout

the regions of Judea and Samaria.” Do you remember what

18Jesus told them in the very first chapter of Acts? “You will

receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you

will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and…” Where does Jesus say

next? “…in all Judea and Samaria.” Acts 8 is the very first time

the gospel spreads outside Jerusalem, and where does it go? To

all Judea and Samaria, just like Jesus said it would. The

persecution of the church doesn’t stop the church. The

persecution of the church spreads the church exactly the way God

intended. That’s how big and strong and powerful God is. He

fills His people with the power of His Spirit, and then even the

persecution of the church serves His purpose of building His

church, because His Spirit-filled people take the gospel wherever

persecution scatters them.

And Church, I pray you are very encouraged by this. If

God is so big and so strong that not even persecution can stop His

church… not even the death of leaders can stop His church… but

God is actually able to take those terrible things and redeem them

and use them for His purposes… if that’s the case, then listen to

me: Nothing can stop God’s church. God will accomplish all His

purposes. God will claim for Himself worshippers from every

tongue, tribe, nation, and language. God is doing this work, and

nothing can stop Him.

So do you see your Father’s face this morning? Do you

see the love in His eyes… and then also the fire? Do you see the

tenderness on His face… and then also the toughness? Do you

see the gentleness… and then also the strength? I pray that you

19see Him and know Him and worship Him. I pray that your heart

ignites with a passion to pour your life into God’s great work…

to pour your life into a work so great that nothing – not even

death – can stop it.