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Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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I could come to the Lord with my feeble ways and my corrupt mind and say, Lord, if you just do it this way, because I trust you, you can do it. And the Lord just smiles and he does what we ask him to do. But not so that he can be that genie that just does things the way we think he should do them, but that we would grow in our faith in him, that we would get to know him more, that we would seek him more in his word, and that we would be changed and become more like him.

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Have you ever noticed that when you pray to God for something, it sometimes actually comes to fruition? How happy do you feel right then and there? But does God really grant your desires just to bring you joy? In today's message, Pastor Carl shares how God meets your desires and answers your prayers all to nurture your faith and deepen your reliance on him. All he wants is for you to trust him completely and deepen your relationship with him. By doing this, God builds you up spiritually. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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All right, let's get into a study of God's Word. Here at Calvary Chapel, we simply teach the word, which means that's basically what we do and why and how we do it. I'm a simple guy, and so I'm just sharing with you the things that the Lord has shown me, and hopefully something sticks. So let's get into the word of God. We'll be in the book of Acts today. Acts chapter 5, beginning at about verse 12. Last we got into the first part of the chapter, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. And uh the believers there were so convicted that uh their lives have been changed and everything belongs to God, so they wanted to share everything they had with each other. And Ananias and Sapphira, though, they wanted it to look good, but they loved their stuff too. And it wasn't that you couldn't have any stuff, you had to give all your stuff. It wasn't required. This was a will, you know, open will of the people. But they said that they gave everything when they only gave part of it. It was about the image that they were portraying. They were trying to make themselves look more holy than they were, and they really didn't have that fellowship with the Lord. And so the Lord came down hard, and and uh Peter told them, you know, why are you lying to the Holy Spirit? And they ended up dead and buried out back. So we're gonna move away from that story into another story. On verse 12, we we we see that uh through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. And that's that's good. We like that. We like to see healing happening instead of death deaths happening, right? And as we go and we trust in the Lord, he works in our lives and he changes us and he makes us new. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Again, Solomon's porch was that place inside the temple. Uh, as he went through the gate called Beautiful, the the Eastern Gate, the Golden Gate, and he'd made a sharp turn to the left. There was this area where you could gather and have times of uh with big crowds and be able to share messages, and and they were they would gather them. And yet, none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. This is an interesting verse, and I and I tried to figure out, okay, who's who's the rest of them, and who's the them that you know that didn't join them? So the group was there, and Solomon's porch, and and Peter and John and others were speaking, and then the word of God was going forward, and people were being saved, and and they were excited to be there. They had given their whole lives to this because God has given them a new life, and they they're just they're all in and they're doing this. And is any good Calvary chap a preacher that doesn't figure out what this means? I go back to Chuck. I went to Chuck Smith and I had, and I didn't ask him because I can't ask him anymore. But I went back to his tapes, and uh how he teaches on this is that this deal with Anathanias and Sapphira freaked so many people out that uh they're happy to come to the Lord, but I'm not so sure I'm gonna dive in so deep like that because that's kind of scary. So you have like these people that are like sold out for the Lord, and and they're they're together, and they're people coming to the Lord, but they're not coming and joining in completely like the rest were. Does that make sense? And does that not feel like we are today? You know, we we love the Lord and we want to get in, but we don't jump in completely. There are things that hold us back. There, you know, what is he gonna take from me? Or or what are people gonna think of me, or what is that gonna do to my job, or whatever it is? What holds us back from diving in completely and saying, Lord, you got my everything, and I'm gonna do whatever you say, and I'm gonna be involved in the church. Where you plant me, I'm gonna be involved, and I'm gonna be, you know, giving of myself to change lives, to let you work in and through me. But even if they were afraid of these people, they were esteemed highly. They recognized that these people were with with Jesus and recognized that they were changed by God Himself. And and that, you know, these were honest people, and they took the truth very serious. And so they were esteemed by the public very well. Now, if those a lot of those people that esteem them eventually they come to know the Lord, but a lot of them just stand back and and they recognize that something's different, but they just don't want to jump in. I I think that's what we're seeing here, and then that's the the opening scene in this next section. And in verse 14, and believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes, both of men and women. So people were coming to the Lord, and it was obvious that God was moving. And because God was moving, the next verse, many people brought their sick out to the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on them. Now, is that how you get healed by Peter's shadow passing past you? I mean, that's getting kind of mystical and stuff. And it's true, don't we get kind of mystical in our faith when we don't fully understand how God operates, when we we really haven't made ourselves a student of the word and let it change us, and and we recognize what we're doing. We have this faith and we know God is working here. Jesus is at work here. And it and just like you know, you think about the lady that uh had that issue of blood for 20 years, and she came and she was just, if I could just touch the hem of Jesus, I'll be changed. Jesus didn't even ever say, You come to me and you touch my hem and you'll be healed, but you come to him in faith and ask him to heal you. So somehow the Lord recognized her faith, and God healed her by touching his hem, but that wasn't the prescription. And somehow here too, the people that the Lord recognized the people's faith that even if the the the shadow of Peter would pass by them, they would be healed. And the Lord allowed healing to happen in that situation, which is encouraging to me because I could come to the Lord with my feeble ways and my corrupt mind and say, Lord, if you just do it this way, because I trust you, you can do it. And the Lord just smiles and he does what we ask him to do. But not so that he can be that genie that just does things the way we think he should do them, but that we would grow in our faith in him, that we would get to know him more, that we would seek him more in his word, and that we would be changed and become more like him. So all sorts of great things were happening here, and a multitude gathered from surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. This was in a miraculous time in the early church where God moved in great grace and power and wonders to bring people healing and to point people to the gospel of Jesus Christ to give us the healing we really need, our souls, our eternal self. We need to be changed by Jesus, we need to be healed by him. However, that caused a lot of trouble. Verse 17. Then the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees. Now, we kind of touched on this a little bit that the high priest was actually appointed by Rome at this point, and and then it kind of switched off between him and his father-in-law, and and he was married into the priesthood, which you're supposed to be born into the priesthood as the line of Aaron and the Levites and all that. It just seemed like it was a corrupt system to begin with now. That they were appointed by Rome and they weren't really representing God, they were just representing authority, and they were representing Rome and they were representing, you know, the Jewish leadership. And they really weren't seeking God because they were not playing by the rules. And a lot of those were part of the Sadducees, which that wasn't a group of people that were that leadership board of the Sadducees kind of came into being in the time of the Maccabees, and you could do a little bit of study in there. So it they were added to the Pharisees, and the Pharisees were the governing, ruling party that uh that that taught what the Bible meant. The Sadducees, a lot of times, they were they were kind of spiritual and religious, but they didn't believe in the afterlife. They didn't believe that that after you you died there's a heaven or hell. You just end existence. And and and forgive me if you've heard this joke before, but so how you could tell the difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees they believed in an afterlife, the Sadducees did not, and this is why they were sad, you see. Okay. We'll go on from there. And so this was the high priest along with some of the Sadducees, which the Sadducees and the Pharisees make up the Sanhedrin, which is the governing council, which uh put Jesus to death, and which also started to try uh Peter and John as well, and they're they're getting ready to put them on trial again. But right now it's just the Sadducees part that don't believe in an afterlife, that just see these people as troublemakers. They're getting together and they were filled with indignation, and they laid their hands on the apostles and they put them in common prison. So once again, they they take, and it looks like it's more than just Peter and John this time, but a few of them and put them into a common prison until they get ready to put them on trial. But, verse 19, at night an angel of the Lord appeared to the prison, opened the prison doors, and brought them out and said, Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. Speak to them about this new life in Jesus Christ, because this is the message that brings life, this is the message that people need to hear. This is why we've been called, this is why we've been filled with the Holy Spirit. Now go forth and do it. And so, what do they do? When they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. So they were they got in trouble, the authorities put them in prison. The angel opens up the prison that says, Go preach the gospel. And so they go preach the gospel, but the high priest and those with him who came and called the council together with all the elders and the children of Israel, they sent to the prison to have them brought in. So the disciples were out and preaching in the temple again. They were supposed to be in jail, and now you've got the Sanhedrin being gathered together, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and the high priest as the president of the council, getting together to try these disciples again. And they were going to call for the prisoners to be brought to the trial. All right. And now, verse 22, but when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, saying, Indeed, we found the prison shut securely and the guards standing outside before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now, when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. Now what? What is going on? How is this going to end up? Well, I know how I want it to end up, that's what they're thinking. I want it squashed. I want this ended. This is they're making a mockery out of us. This has got to stop. So verse 25. So one came and told them, saying, Look, the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain of uh the captain went to the officers and and brought them out without violence, for they feared the people lest they should be stoned. Now there's a lot of different things going on here, but the captain went and they got the disciples. The disciples went willingly because we're to submit to governing authorities. And we're not about pounding down on people, but we're about showing the words and living and declaring the words of life, sharing the gospel. And uh so they they went with them because they feared the people. They feared the people. Now, what what strikes you when you hear that? They feared the people. They're more concerned about what the people were going to do. In fact, they were afraid that they would become insurrectionists and they would come and stone them all. That the people would stone the leadership. Now, it's it's usually the leadership that prescribes the stoning on the people, right? People that have um been, that have gone against the rules of the government, and and now they need to be taken care of. But now the governing officials are actually afraid of the people, that the people would stone them. Who ought they be afraid of? We should all have the fear of the Lord, right? And the Lord is at work and he's proclaiming himself, he's showing himself, he's proving himself to be the one who he said he was throughout the Word of God. The scriptures declare a Messiah coming, and this is the Messiah that we've been waiting for. And then he's proven himself through signs and wonders. Not to mention Jesus rose again on the third day and he ascended into heaven, and all these people saw it happen. So it was it was fact, and yet the leadership, the Jewish leadership, are still afraid of what people think. Are you afraid of what people think? Are you are what motivates you? The fear of men or the fear of God? May I say we live in times that we don't have much time left, and our we our fear, our motivations need to be of the Lord. We want to see the Lord's work done in and through us. And so we need to get out there, no matter what would happen to us, and get the gospel out. Declare the truth, show the love of the Lord, and declare his judgment that is coming soon. And not be afraid of what people think of us. Because that'll that'll corrupt our thinking, that'll cause us to think these strange things. And as we get into this uh this trial, you'll see some of the thinking of the leadership and and how off it really is. Verse 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? Yeah, you did. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. Well, thank you. That's great, but it's God's work. God is filling Jerusalem with the gospel work. He is doing the work, and we're just vessels, but but thanks for acknowledging that, you know. And indeed, you you intend to bring this man's blood on us all. This is really it comes to the heart of it. They don't care about the doctrine, they don't care about, you know, not proclaiming the name of Jesus or not, they can care about their position. You want to come and take us down. You want to come and destroy us in our position. And you want to make it all be that we put Jesus on the cross. And the truth is they did put Jesus on the cross. The truth is, and we we touched this on this, each of us put Jesus on the cross. Jesus went willingly, but it was our sin that put him on the cross. That was his whole purpose, to take the sin of the world upon himself so that we could have new life in him, so that we could have freedom from sin and be alive to Christ. But you know, they twisted into saying, all you're after is destroying us. No, we're not after destroying you. We're after declaring the gospel. And by the way, if you want to accept the gospel too, that'd be great. Just think of it. The religious leaders of Jerusalem have come to faith in the Messiah. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be great? So in verse 29, Peter and the other apostles answered and said, you know, we ought to obey God rather than men. Now we have to be careful when we say something like that, because I think often today we'll use that as a license to do what we want to do in the name of Jesus when God really didn't tell us to do it. We really have to back up and say, you know, the things I do are not motivated by my own desires, by my own flesh, by my own kingdom that I'm trying to build. I have surrendered myself to Christ. I am a slave of Christ. I am his. And what he says, I'm going to do. Now he says to honor the governing authorities, and I will as long as you don't violate what God is telling me to do. If you start telling us to do things that are against his word, we cannot do that. And we'll be polite about it and say, no, I can't do that. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to obey God rather than man. Verse 30 says, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, who you murdered by hanging on a tree. See, there's those those words again. He's just starting a fight, but he's not starting a fight, is he? This is our God. This is Peter the Jew speaking to the Jewish leaders and saying, This is our God, declared through the Old Testament. Our God raised up Jesus. Because Jesus is the holy and anointed one. Jesus is the Messiah we've been waiting for. And we know it because He's changed us. Can't you see it? We say these things because we love you and we want you to be changed too. We're not trying to start a fight. But the truth is, in the decisions you made, you hung them on a tree. In him, God is exalted to the right hand to be prince and savior. You crucified him, but God raised him from the dead. He's sitting at the right hand of God the Father. In fact, he is deity. He's the second person of the Trinity. He's our prince, he's our savior, the prince of peace, the savior of the world to anyone who would believe, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. He's the one that will make us right with God again. If you just believe, if you just accept what what's going on all around you, do you not see the evidence that this is who he says he is? God is is working through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he rose again, and we're witnesses of it. And he ascended into heaven, and we watched him go. And the angel said he's coming back the same way. He's the one who sent the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father to empower us. And boy, are we different now? And if you knew Peter from the Gospels, you know Peter has been changed, hasn't he? Empowered, elegant, powerful. He's not denying his Savior, no matter what will come his way. He's declaring the truth of the gospel. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. It's a whole new thing. This church deal. The church has been born, the Holy Spirit has been given, and don't you see it? Do you hear the passion in Peter's voice? Don't you see it? He's not trying to defend himself, he's in the midst of declaring the gospel to the Jewish leaders. And they think they're coming to go and attack them and bring them down. They're coming to bring them life. But verse 33, when they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. Didn't Jesus say if they hated me, they'll hate you too. And if the world hates us, that's probably a good sign that we're we are we are doing the things that God has called us to do. We are being filled and walking in the grace of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and they're treating us the same way that they treated Jesus. That's a good sign. So when we see all these things happening in the world today and coming against the church, instead of complaining about, we ought to be rejoicing. That's not a natural thing, is it? That's a supernatural thing. Lord, would you give us that heart? Would you give us that vision, that understanding that when they come against us, they're really coming against you, and that's a privilege. Give us that heart. Well, verse 34 says, and one of the councils stood up a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Now, this Pharisee believed in life after death, and he was looking for the coming Messiah. He was a teacher of the Lord and held in respect to by all the people and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. Guys, calm down. Could you put the guys out for a little while? Let's have a little talk. Because I want to give my two cents worth. Now, Gamaliel is the grandson of Heleliel or something like that. Pretty prominent uh Pharisee and teacher of the law. And so he continues that that tradition. But this was a respected man. And in verse 35 he said to the men of Israel, take heed to yourselves that you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Thutius rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400, joined him, and he was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.

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You've been listening to Come On Up with Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross. We're going through the book of Acts, which documents the life of the apostles and believers after Jesus Christ had died and was resurrected. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? He came to earth to live a sinless life, to be the blood sacrifice needed to save all of mankind. Jesus died, but more than that, he rose again and has given us a hope and a future. We are no longer under the law of Moses, and instead we have the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! If you'd like to learn more about Jesus, visit our website, themountaincross.com, and click on how to know God. Again, that's themountaincross.com. Another great and fun resource we have is Faith Film Night, featuring great Christian movies from yesterday and today at the Smoky Mountain Cinema. Join us on the first Monday of every month. Learn more at themountaincross.com or Faith Film Night on Facebook. Come on up is the radio outreach of the Mountain Cross, a ministry out of Waynesville, North Carolina, and we would love to meet you in person. We meet at the Smoky Mountain Cinema Sunday mornings at 10 in order to grow in our faith by simply going through the Word of God verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Learn more about us at themountaincross.com. Thanks for listening, and we hope you come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by The Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.