The Jesus Church: Finding the Church of Jesus in the Book of Acts | Donovan Rillion | The Obedient Church

Do you ever think about how sometimes silly it

is that on things like motor oil bottles and

bleach, there's warning signs that say do not

consume, not for bodily consumption? Or like

you go to the roller coaster at Six Flags or

Dollywood and there's a sign that says keep harness

fastened or keep seatbelt on. As if I was actually

going to not have myself harnessed in when I'm

going upside down at 75 miles per hour. Or the

lion enclosure at the zoo that says, keep out.

Who's going in there? The only people, like these

feel like such duh statements, but the only people

that need those are toddlers and dogs, which

are basically the same thing. they're the only

people and they can't read. So for us, we look

at those and we're like, well, duh. Yeah, I'm

not going to do something that is actually harmful

for my body. Well, at least if it's obvious.

I'm not going to do something that definitely

leads to death. But what about the things, what

about being obedient to the things that are not

as easy or convenient to be obedient to? Like,

don't party. But everybody else is going to the

party. So I need to go, right? Like this is one

of those areas where I can maybe do what I want

to do. Or don't drive fast. But all my friends

are drag racing down the strip. So I need to

do it too. Or things like, you know, don't sleep

with someone you're not married to. But man,

she is so attractive. And we have these things,

and I could keep going, and you know the list,

and you know the items that could go on the list

of things that we need to be obedient to because

they're there for our safety, they're there for

our well -being. But it's not as easy to be obedient

to those things. It's easy to be obedient when

it's easy, like when it's obvious or when it's

convenient. But when it inconveniences me or

when it costs me something, it's not as easy

to be obedient then. So this morning we're continuing

along in our series, The Jesus Church, where

we're exploring the book of Acts and we're seeing

the church that Jesus established that started

and spread like a wildfire throughout the ancient

world in the first century. And we've talked

about how bold they were. We've talked about

how committed and generous to each other they

were and how they were only able to do this by

the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. But this

morning I want us to sit on just how threatened

they were. Because you only need boldness when

there's danger, right? And you only need to take

care of each other when people are going without.

And those are threats to our well -being. And

there's more threat to the early church than

I think sometimes we realize. And there's definitely

more threat to the early church than we have

ever experienced. Unless you come from a foreign

country or you've done some mission work where

you've really had to be top secret. Like we in

America don't really face... these types of threats.

So this morning, I want us to put in perspective

what it looks like to truly be obedient to God

when it is inconvenient, what it means to be

obedient to the rules that are there for our

well -being when it is not easy. And so we're

going to look at Acts chapter 5. We'll start

Acts 5 · chapter mention

in verse 17. And so while you turn there, I want

to give you a little bit of context for where

we are in the scripture this morning. So what

we've seen in Acts chapter 5, we've just seen

Acts 5 · chapter mention

the members of the church, they start selling

off their possessions. They start giving up items

and property that they have so that the kingdom

can advance the mission of God. And then what

we see is because of their generosity and the

power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel is being

proclaimed boldly to everybody, all creation

in all of the world. And because of this, there

is work being done in the surrounding area. The

apostles, they're going around, they're performing

miracles, they're preaching the gospel, they're

helping people in not so ideal circumstances.

And what happens is when they are doing this

in these public spaces, people start to come

to know Jesus. Verse 14 tells us, more than ever,

believers were added to the Lord, multitudes

of both men and women. You see, all of this work

that the church was doing led in the community

to people being transformed, people being converted

to the kingdom of God. And what you see then

is this overflow of people out into the streets.

Like people are seeing the miracles performed

by the apostles. They're seeing the good deeds

done by the church. And so what they're doing,

they're bringing the sick people, instead of

taking them to a hospital, instead of taking

the orphan to an orphanage or a widow to like

a retirement home, they're bringing these people

out into the street so that they can hear the

gospel, so that they can have miracles performed

on them, so that their lives can be changed and

now they can live in a new community. That's

what's happening in the first parts of Acts.

The church was genuinely changing the world around

them. They weren't just talking about Jesus.

They weren't just casually including him in their

life. He wasn't just a part of their life. Jesus

was changing and taking over the world. They

were making a point. To make him the point. And

this was leading to lives being saved and changed.

And that's cool. Things are going well for them.

They're having success. Like in our context,

we would look at it and say the seats in the

church are full. They must be doing something

right. And that's great. But what about when

things really get sticky? So if you remember,

if you've read the book of Acts or if you've

been with us earlier in the book. The Peter and

John, they get arrested. They go before the religious

leaders. They judge them. They say, hey, stop

talking about Jesus and we'll leave you alone.

Very simple. Shut up. That's it. Shut up and

you'll be okay. Well, here, what we'll see happen

in verses 17 through 18 is the same thing. Except

the church. gets a little bit more pressure put

on them. So I want you to look with me at verses

17 through 18. 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 last time it was Peter and John by themselves.

This time it doesn't tell us which apostles,

but it says the apostles. So I'm going to assume,

forgive me for assuming here, that it was all

of them. Now, it may not have been all of them,

but we definitely know that it wasn't just one.

So multiple apostles, they get arrested. They

go before these judges and they're told, well,

they're not told anything yet. They're thrown

in prison. So they get thrown in prison and you

can imagine like you just get handcuffed. You

get drug into prison for talking about Jesus,

for just telling people this good news. Have

you ever been threatened to tell somebody good

news? Like, hey, did you hear who won the Super

Bowl? I mean, like if it's the Chiefs, maybe

if we're talking to a Broncos fan, they don't

want to hear who won the Super Bowl. If it's

the Falcons and you're talking to a Saints fan,

well, that'll never happen, so we're not going

to go there. Thank you. You don't feel pressure

for telling somebody good news. Hey, there's

a half -off special on steaks at Ingalls. Like,

that's not hard to do. But they get arrested

for the second time after being warned and threatened

that if they don't stop talking about this good

news of Jesus, they are going to die. But if

you remember earlier, they prayed for boldness.

And they prayed for boldness so hard and so emphatically

that it shook the room around them and the spirit

moved and they were filled with the spirit. They

went out, they kept proclaiming the good news

with boldness, unafraid and unashamed of what

might happen to them. And here it lands them

in jail again. And they're sitting in jail. And

I can imagine that they're probably a little

scared. I mean, even though they're full of boldness,

there still has to be a fear that comes over

them. of this could really be the end. This could

be the moment that they finally take us out.

And as they're sitting there, verse 19 says,

an angel of the Lord comes and breaks them out.

The angel comes and releases them, and so they

walk out of jail unscathed. Now I want you to

think about what you would do if you escaped

jail. And now remember, for at least Peter and

John, this is the second time that they've escaped.

And so you have now escaped death twice. What

are you going to do? Because this shows how weak

I am. I would probably try to get as far away

from the people that just threw me in jail as

possible. I might go hide in a cave somewhere.

I could imagine that I might steer clear of the

same crowd that I was running around with that

got me in jail. I mean, I think about all these

different things that I would do, but what the

angel of the Lord immediately, like doesn't give

them any time to question what they need to do.

The angel of the Lord immediately gives them

instructions. And this is what he says to do.

He says, go and stand in the temple and speak

to the people all the words of this life. And

I want it to be noted that life there is capital

L. It's this new life, this abundant life. The

Greek word there is zoe. And so go and tell people

about this abundant life that you now have. We

talk so much about the eternal life. What this

scripture says is go tell them about the good

life, the full life. And I love how scripture

continues to expose my weakness because I think,

now I would hope that I had a little bit more

maturity. I would hope that I had a little bit

more respect. But if this angel just let me out

of jail and then immediately says, hey, go do

the thing that just got you thrown in jail, I

might look at the angel and say, are you kidding

me? I may say something a little more colorful

like, are you dumb? Are you crazy? Are you insane?

I just got put in prison. They've already threatened

me once. I can only imagine what they were going

to do to me this time. I just got threatened

with death for preaching about Jesus, and you

want me to go continue preaching about Jesus?

The angel's like, yeah, that's exactly what I

want you to do. I don't understand where the

confusion is. And because they're obedient, because

they understand what... is at stake here. Because

they understand who is in control of all of this

life. They are obedient. They continue doing

what they were supposed to. These guys are a

lot better than me. Look at verse 21. When they

heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak

and began to teach. Okay, I need to remind my

people that are here every Sunday that if it's

underlined, I want you to read with me because

I don't like reading by myself and I want to

make sure you're not asleep. So let's try this

again. When they heard this, they entered the

temple at daybreak and began to teach. They didn't

even wait for the dew to dry on the ground. They

just got. going and they went and started teaching.

As soon as people came in, they're proclaiming

the good news. And I want you to sit with that

for a second, because I think we might be tempted

to just look at that and like, oh man, that's

so cool. But this is like some serious stuff.

They didn't get to see how this was going to

end for them. For all they knew, there was a

prison guard waiting in the temple. And as soon

as they started talking about Jesus, it was off

with their head. For all they knew, there were

spies. There were people there ready to arrest

them and to do what they did to Jesus. to them,

and they saw what Jesus went through. They felt

the wounds in his hands. They felt him dead,

lifeless, and they did not care. They went to

the temple. They preached and proclaimed this

full, abundant, good life, and what am I doing

when I don't face that persecution near enough,

but I'm scared to go and tell people about Jesus

because they might think I'm weird. I'm scared

to tell people about Jesus because they might

think I'm a goody two -shoes or whatever. I don't.

I need to stop caring about that because my life

isn't being threatened. Theirs was and they didn't

care. They preached Jesus anyways. Because they

knew what they'd been told to do and they trusted

the one who told them. And that's what obedience

looks like. It's regardless of what this is going

to cost me, regardless of what this is going

to do to me, regardless of how people will see

me, how they will view me, how they will treat

me, I'm going to preach Jesus obediently. Not

after God proves it'll work out, not after God

protects me, but before. See, we talked about

boldness a few weeks ago. Well, this is exactly

that. Staring down the consequences and you simply

don't care. You just do what you're told. You

just do what you need to do. And of course, the

consequences do come. In verses 21 through 26,

we won't read it all, but we see the religious

leaders, they find out about the escape. And

they're trying to figure out what happened, and

they figure, they're like, we can't figure it

out, there's no telling, because there's no,

like, this isn't like on, you know, prison break

movies where there's a hole in the wall, and

they're like, man, somehow they got a chisel,

and they were just slowly chiseling away at the

wall. Or it's not like this little air vent that

they, like, bubble gum the vent onto the wall

to make it look like it was there. Like, this

isn't that. They have no explanation. for how

these men got out. And so what they don't want

to admit is the only way this happened was by

God. And they're mad. Earlier they were filled

with jealousy. Now they're angry. And so they

go and they arrest all of the apostles again.

And in verse 28, they sound like every parent

ever disciplining their child saying, didn't

we strictly tell you to stop doing that? See,

when I was a kid, I would get in trouble, and

my big mama, she'd send me out into the backyard

to pick out my own switch. If you are younger

than the age of maybe, let's say, 20, you know

what a switch is. I'm not going to explain that

for the kids in the room. But I'd go, and I'd

have to pick out my own switch. And as she is

tearing up my rear end, this was like 20 years

ago, so statute of limitations, nobody's going

to arrest big mama. As she is tearing up my rear...

end, she is just yelling, didn't I tell you to

stop? That's what the high priest here, that's

what the Sadducees are doing. They're saying,

didn't we tell you to stop doing that? Stop talking

about Jesus. Are you crazy? We will kill you.

And they don't care. They don't care because

they know that what Jesus has commanded them

and called them to do is far greater. And they

also know that if you kill me, so be it. I guess

I'll just have to go live in heaven with God.

How horrible. But I love the response of the

apostles here after being told, didn't we tell

you to stop? I want you to read this with me.

We must obey God rather than men. We must. Not

we should. Not we ought to. Not it would be good

for us to. Not we recommend. We must obey God

rather than men. And obviously this enraged the

Sadducees even more to the point where they wanted

to just go ahead right then and there, kill these

guys. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, he speaks

up and he cautions them. And verses 33 through

39, he goes through these different accounts

of these religious movements, these cult followings

that happened in Jewish history. And what he

says is, hey, remember all of those times when

these different leaders and these different rabbis,

they tried to start movements and they claimed

to be the Messiah? You remember those times?

Well, all of those movements failed. We just,

we killed their leaders and they failed. But

this Jesus movement, it hasn't ended. Like their

leader got killed, but they're still doing it.

They've got thrown in jail multiple times. They're

still doing it. So maybe we need to consider

that there's something more to this than just

some random guy who thinks he's a cool preacher.

And so what he tells them is basically, if it's

a man's movement, it will fail. But if it's a

God movement, nothing can stop it. Can you read

that last part with me? If it's a God movement,

nothing can stop it. If it's a God movement,

nothing can stop it. Nothing. No political leaders

can stop it. No riots can stop it. No other religious

groups can stop it. No poverty can stop it. No

harm can stop it. No threats can stop it. If

it is of God, nothing can stop it. And I think

that's true because look at us now 2 ,000 years

later after all of the leaders of our movement

have gotten killed, have died, have been in prison,

have been scorned. All of those men have gone

before us and yet we are still here today worshiping

God and preaching the good news. If it's of God,

nothing can stop it. And so they listen to Gamaliel's

advice and they beat the apostles. They don't

kill them, they just beat them. You know, they

go get the switch, they tear them up. We told

you to stop, we'll tell you again, cut it out.

And the apostles, they're thick -skinned. At

least that's what I got called when I'd keep

doing things after getting tore up, thick -skinned

or dumb. The apostles, they just keep going and

look at verse 42 with me. And every day in the

temple and from house to house, they did not

cease teaching and preaching that the Christ

is Jesus. They kept proclaiming the good news.

They just don't quit, do they? And the reason

why is what Peter says. He says, we're witnesses

of Jesus Christ and we answer to God alone. Nobody

else. I don't answer to man. I don't answer to

my boss. I don't answer to my, well, we answer

to our spouse's men. They don't answer to us.

They answer to God alone. We don't answer to

anyone else but God. And I think it's hard for

us to really understand that. It's incredibly

hard. And next week, my brother Truman is going

to preach on some like legitimate example of

persecution and what that looks like. I don't

think we can really understand because we are

blessed to live in a nation with the freedom

of religion. We are blessed to be in a nation

where we can gather here. And the only fear of

persecution we have is some cuckoos that get

a hold of a gun. We don't have to worry about

our leaders persecuting us. And so this is hard

for us to understand, but what we can really

understand is the temptation to be disobedient,

the temptation to not... proclaim and not live

the good news when things get tougher and convenient,

which is why I started with the ideas of, you

know, the bleach bottle and the motor oil. Like

nobody's drinking that, but we are absolutely

going to have one too many on a Saturday game

day because that's convenient. And we are absolutely.

going to say those words because we're just so

mad. And it doesn't matter what anybody thinks.

I'm angry. I have my right to say this. And we

are absolutely going to miss church on a Sunday

because, well, I just had so much going on and

it's been a really busy week and we had to get

to the ball game. And we absolutely will align

ourselves with political figures, even though

they act nothing like Jesus, because it's what's

best for our economy. And my pocketbook is really

hurting. So I need to do this because it's what

is good for the economy. and God will understand.

We will absolutely make those decisions of disobedience

because it's convenient, because it gets us out

of danger, because it makes life easy for us.

We become disobedient when life becomes inconvenient.

And here's the thing, the cost of obedience is

something that we really have to consider. In

our Jesus Way series, we talked about the cost

of discipleship. And that's what we're talking

about. To live a life that looks like and proclaims

the goodness of God requires us to give something

up of ourselves. And I'm not going to stand up

here and pretend like it's not going to cost

us. It'll cost us our relationships. It'll cost

us reputations. It might cost us our financial

comforts. It might cost us the status that we

once knew. But that's life. That is life in the

kingdom. But here's what I've come to believe.

The cost of being obedient is never higher than

the consequences of our disobedience. Because

when I'm disobedient to God, I lose heaven. When

I'm disobedient to God, I lose that abundant,

full life. When I'm disobedient to God, I lose

access to the Holy Spirit that gives me love,

joy, and peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

When I am disobedient, I lose this, this family

of believers that are full of the Holy Spirit,

not full of man's promises and not full of man's

goodness, but full of God's. When I'm disobedient,

that's what I lose. When I'm obedient, man. Darn,

I didn't get drunk tonight. When I'm obedient,

man, I'm not stuck on the side of the road. Man,

when we're obedient, we suffer these little inconveniences

and we suffer these little losses here. But I

promise you, I'll take inconvenience here over

suffering in heaven. Well, I won't be in heaven.

Suffering in eternity. I'll take that every time.

So we've spent this time together watching these

men walk out of jail, go straight back to what

got them thrown in jail. We've actually seen

them get arrested twice. They've been beaten.

They've been threatened with death. And every

single time, every time, they did the same thing.

They obeyed. They trusted God, and they obeyed.

And it would be really easy for us to walk out

of here inspired by that to think, man, those

guys, they were awesome. I just love the apostles,

man. It'd be nice if I could be like them. It

would be really easy to walk out of here feeling

good about this sermon. And we're all going to

feel good about the sermon. Yes. Nobody agreed.

And we're going to go get lunch. But the truth

is, is that's not application. That's just admiration.

And I want you to hear this clearly. And I hope

you will make a mental note of this in your head.

Admiration without application is just polite

disobedience. It's saying, that's really cool,

God. I love that idea for someone else. That's

really cool. That's a great idea. Maybe you should

do that. We can admire it. We can say, that's

awesome. But if all we do is sit here and admire

it, but we never do it, we never live it, we

never act on it, we're being disobedient. We're

just doing it kindly. So let me ask you something

before we sing our song of invitation. Is there

something that God has been telling you to do

or has been prompting you to do? Something that's

on your heart, it's been on your mind that you

haven't done, that maybe you know exactly what

it is, but you're just kind of negotiating with

it. Maybe it's a conversation you've been avoiding

with someone. Maybe it's an action that you need

to take. Maybe it's a habit that you need to

break. but you've been excusing it because, well,

the stress of life is real and this helps me

in this instance. Maybe it's a relationship that

you know just isn't right, but you keep renegotiating

the terms because it feels like if you walk away,

you'll be the one who loses. Maybe it's this

right now, the call to repent, the call to be

baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, the

gift of eternal life. Maybe that like you've

been nodding like, yeah, that's cool. That's

awesome. I'm really proud of that person that

gave their life to Christ. Maybe it's that. And

you've been sitting there with this thought of

that's cool, but you haven't applied it. Here's

what I want you to hear. The apostles didn't

have the outcome before they had obedience. They

walked into that temple. Not knowing how it was

going to go down. Not knowing if the words that

they would preach in that temple would be the

last words they ever said. They just knew what

they were told to do and who told them to go

do it. And that was enough. And I want you to

know that that is still enough today. That nothing

in this life that could threaten you, that could

harm you, that could take anything away from

you is worth more than what God is giving those

who are obedient to Him. Obedience is not the

thing you do after you feel ready. It's not the

thing you do after you understand and you have

all the answers. I mean, when I was in youth

ministry, I would hear so often with kids, I

want to get baptized, but I just don't know enough.

Or I want to be a leader, but I just don't feel

like I'm smart enough. Or I don't feel like I'm

capable enough or qualified enough. Or I want

to come to church, but I don't feel good enough.

That's not what obedience is. Like when I'm telling

my four -year -old why he should do something,

he has no clue why he should do it. Like telling

him he needs to wear a collared shirt on Sundays

when we come to church. He doesn't understand

that. But this morning, praise God, he wore a

collared shirt. He actually picked it out. I

wasn't going to press the issue, but he did it.

He was obedient. He doesn't understand why it's

important to dress a little bit. Now, I don't

care what you wear to church, but my kids, we're

going to look at least decent. He doesn't understand

why that's important. And sometimes neither do

I. But we do it. Obedience isn't what you do

after you understand everything and after you've

got all the answers. Obedience is how you find

out that God was faithful all along. That he

had your best interest in mind all along. It's

like you hear those stories about people that,

you know, they'll say they felt... you know,

a calling. Like they felt like the Holy Spirit

was telling them to go do something. You know,

I heard a story about a guy who was driving down

the road and he felt the Holy Spirit tell him

to go back to the gas station because there was

somebody there that needed some help, that needed

some money for food. They were hungry. They were

without. And so the guy, he listens and he goes

back and he gives this homeless person some food.

And then as he's going back on his way to work,

he pulls up and there's... police lights and

there's a fire truck and there's an ambulance

and there had been a wreck. That had happened

right when he would have been passing through

that area. Now I'm not telling you that I believe

that that's how God always works, but what I

am going to say is I do believe that God has

our best interests in mind. And when he gives

us a command, when he tells us something, when

he gives us instruction, he's doing it for our

good. God works all things together for those.

all things together for good for those who love

him. That is absolutely true. And he does that

in one way by us being obedient to the teachings

he's given us. So whatever it is, that thing

that is sitting with you right now, I want to

invite you to make today the day that you stop

negotiating with disobedience, that you will

just listen, not to pressure you, but because

God, the same God who sent an angel to break

his apostles out of prison, the same God who

has been actively working throughout history

to bring us here today, the same God that put

his son on this earth to give us a chance at

full, abundant, eternal life. that same God is

just asking you to take a step in obedience.

So I want us to pray together today. I want you

to take that step to be obedient to whatever

it is that God is calling you to do. If you just

need someone to sit with you and pray with you,

if you need to be baptized for the forgiveness

of your sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit in

this new full life, if you need the church to

walk with you through a struggle, whatever it

is you need, we ask you. to step out of the cell,

to go into the temple. It's daybreak. Come now

as we stand and sing.