Break It up! Move along!

 As Peter wraps up his second sermon, the cops show up (v1).  There in the Court of the Gentiles under Solomon's Porch, the religious police roll up with blue lights flashing.  It was "the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees."  

"Break it up.  Move along.  Nothing to see here."  Or so they thought.

In just a few short days, the Gospel of Jesus had turned Jerusalem upside down.  The Sadducees thought they had put an end to all of this when they crucified the Carpenter/Rabbi.  

But something very strange was happening.  Instead of crushing this rebellion, they had stoked its fire.  

There are several things happening in this short passage.  There's the Sadducees and their lack of belief in the resurrection.  There's the fact of Jesus' resurrection and it's impact on the lives of His followers.  

And there's God's hand in what's happening, as He begins not-so-gently nudge the early church to take the Gospel beyond the city walls of Jerusalem.

First, the Sadducees were extremely ticked off at Pete's preaching on Jesus' resurrection.  The Sadducees were a small religious sect made up of the most wealthy.  

They were actually rivals to the Pharisees.  The Sadducees controlled the temple while the Pharisees controlled the synagogues.  

The Sadducees were the compromising liberals and the Pharisees conservative legalists.  The comparisons to the 21st century American church are quite rich.

The Sadducees accepted only the Pentateuch (the first five books of the OT).  They didn't believe in anything supernatural.  No angels.  And no resurrection of the dead.  

So for the Sadducees, it’s rather sad, you see.  I guess that’s the First Century version of a Dad Joke.  Whatever the case, the apostles had jumped all over their pet peeve.  Resurrection.

Second, Peter and the rest of the early church knew that the resurrection was a critical and essential fact of their faith.  

Christians who see no need to not only accept and believe but celebrate the empty tomb are really no different than the Sadducees.  

As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul went so far as to say to say that if God didn't raise Jesus, we're still dead in our sins.  

If there is no resurrection, "we are of all people most to be pitied" (1Cor 15:17-19).  A careful reading and study of 1 Corinthians 15 is important in understanding the importance of the resurrection.

We can't underestimate the impact seeing the risen Jesus had on His followers.  For 40 days, He lived with them, ate with them and taught them.  

He didn't just appear to His closest apostles but to several hundred followers (1Cor 15:3-8).  This fact could not be denied or disputed.

While the cross of Christ must not be ignored, the early church proclaimed a Gospel centered on a resurrected Jesus (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15, 26; 4:10; 10:40; 13:18).  

We must remember that the cross and the resurrection come as a package deal.  These two events are essential to each other.  Like peanut butter and jelly.

Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn't live.  He died the death we should have died.  And He was raised to a heaven we don't deserve.  (The first two sentences belong to Mark Driscoll.  I’ve added the third.)  

We need both the cross and the empty tomb.  They are a package deal.  Peter and the early church clearly understood this.

Third, we can't ignore God's hand in what's happening here.  Certainly, Peter and the apostles preached with Spirit-filled boldness.  They were clearly unafraid of the consequences.  

But Jesus had commanded them to be His "witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" after His Spirit gave them the power to do so (Acts 1:8).

To this point, they were obedient to Step One.  They were incredible witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem.  

And it had gone quite well for them in those very early days.  Luke tells us that they had the "favor with all the people" (Acts 2:47).  

But God had bigger plans for His Gospel message.  They were to take it beyond the city walls.

As God so often does, He uses sinful people as tools in His hand for divine purposes.  In the OT, He used sinful nations such as Assyria and Babylon to execute His will.  

He used Judas Iscariot, the religious establishment and the Roman government to carry out the sacrifice of His Son.  

And here, He is using first the sinful Sadducees and later Saul the Pharisee to get the message of the Gospel beyond Jerusalem.

Luke goes on to tell us that the Sadducees tossed Pete and John in jail that day (v3).  But bars can't contain the Gospel of grace.  People were coming to faith in Jesus.  

The good doctor tells us that "the number of the men came to about 5,000" (v4).  Now this probably is a cumulative total of saved men in the early church to this point, not just those repenting as the result of Pete's second sermon (but it could be argued either way).  

Don't miss the fact that Dr. Luke tells us this number was simply the men.  The number was clearly larger.  When God changes men, He changes families.  

The larger number impacted for Christ is more likely closer to 15,000-20,000.  Grace was flowing freely through the streets of the city! 

In the end, the Sadducees thought they were putting an end to this annoying movement by arresting these men and breaking up the crowd.  But they were only being used by God to get the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

"Break it up.  Move along."  That's EXACTLY what God had in mind!

©2011

Jay Jennings