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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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They loved God and they were fighting for God, and yet somehow in our zealousy, is that a word, we lose sight of what God is doing. I mean, we could get all excited about the Bible, about Jesus, and miss Jesus completely sometimes. Because we make it say what we want it to say, and we're stirred up by certain things that take us off track, and with the condition of the world today, too, we need to be careful in that regard.

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Some people turn to the Bible as a way to back up their arguments, often sidelining others and their perspectives in the process. They totally ignore God in the whole picture. Did you know that the Pharisees were into that too? It's pretty interesting, right? In today's message, Pastor Carl encourages you to keep an eye out for those kinds of people. What truly counts is nurturing a relationship with God through his word and spreading the love of Jesus to everyone around you. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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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 usually the leadership that prescribes the stoning on the people, right? People that have 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 man or the fear of God? May I say we live in times that we don't have much time left. And 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 it to 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 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 to say, 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's going on all around you, do you not see the evidence that this is who he says he is? That God 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 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 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 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 four hundred, joined him, and he was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. So Gamelia is coming and using some common sense and using some history and saying, you know, you remember this guy who came to fight against us, to fight against Israel, to fight against, you know, the establishment. He got a few people going after him, 400 people. That was pretty significant, but nothing came of it. It kind of fuzzled out, right? Because he wasn't of God. He was just mad and doing his thing and and and people it resonated with people and they joined him, but but it wasn't God calling them to do it. So if it's God not calling them to do it, it'll fizzle out eventually. That's some good advice, isn't it? Then he brings up another example. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and he drew many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. Judas of Galilee was not Judas Iscariot, not Judas of the other Judas of the disciples. He was a zealot. And the zealots, you know, they were they loved God and they were fighting for God, and yet somehow in our zealousy, is that a word, we lose sight of what God is doing. I mean, we could get all excited about the Bible, about Jesus, and miss Jesus completely sometimes. Because we make it say what we want it to say, and we're stirred up by certain things that take us off track. And with the condition of the world today, too, we need to be careful in that regard. Because there are a lot of people that represent the Lord and have said a lot of things that you know are concerning that we need to, you know, speak about, but they've also said it in ways that uh just don't glorify God. We we use language that's not glorifying to God, we we insult people, which is not glorifying to God, and and that doesn't work either. And for this fellow Judas of Galilee, everybody that followed him, the zealots, uh, it didn't work out either. So he also perished, and all who obeyed with him were dispersed as well. And then verse 38. And now I say to you, keep away from these men, let them alone. For if this plan or work of his is of men, it will come to nothing. Look, you don't need to force this thing. If it's not of God, it's gonna fizzle out again. Does this not make sense, guys? But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. That's a powerful, wise word, isn't it? That's a humble word, too. Camellio being willing to say I might be wrong, to humble himself before the Lord. As far as I could figure, Lord, this is a mess, and this is not of God, and and it's just working against the traditions of the fathers throughout, you know, generations, and and yet I could be wrong about this. What if Jesus is the Messiah? What if these men really are doing this because their lives have been changed? What if the Holy Spirit is real and has filled these people and all these healings that we're seeing are real? And people are coming to faith in the Lord, they're they're being changed. What if our hearts are deceitfully wicked? The Bible declares it. And even as Christians, as we're being conformed to the image of Christ, we have this battle between our flesh and the spirit. And our flesh has a way of talking us into things and justifying things that get us off track. Our flesh is not the word of God, our flesh is not God's voice. Our flesh is our corrupted self that should be dead on the cross, and yet somehow it comes back to life again and again. That's why we need to reckon ourselves dead to sin. That's why we need to continually go back to the cross and remember I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And when I see myself coming back, I need to push myself down and say, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, fill me with your grace and your mercy to overpower my flesh. But it's so subtle sometimes, isn't it? Where we fool ourselves into things and we think that we're right, and we won't admit that we're wrong because we're right, because God has shown us we're right when maybe it wasn't God that showed us it was that we were right, and it was ourselves that showed us masquerading as God. Even with our own lives, we need to see God. And as God is working, we're not to resist it. Paul says, don't resist the Holy Spirit, don't grieve the Holy Spirit by coming up with excuses why this isn't the Holy Spirit. But let God work in your life, let him change you because you can't fight against him. And he's telling the council here: if this is actually a move of God, you can't stop it. Just because you are representatives of God does not make you more powerful than God. And we all realize that we need God, we need the power to change us, or at least we should know that. If we're religious leaders of Israel, we should recognize our potential to mess up and that we need God to work. So if God is working, don't get in the way. Just stand back and let God do what he's gonna do. So in verse 40, they agreed with him. And when they called for the apostles and had beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. I'm not sure they fully agreed or got what Galeliel was saying. Because in their minds, it's like, yeah, okay, we're gonna let them go and they're gonna fall apart. They didn't even get close to considering what if God is working? What if this is true? Because if they would, they just said, okay, you say you want to obey God instead of man. You better make sure you're hearing from God. And we'll be watching. And if God is not with you, we'll see the thing fall apart soon. But if God is with you, we'll repent and join you. That would have been a wise answer, wouldn't it? Instead, they continued with their threats. They beat them and they commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus. The name that's above all names, the name that through the name of Jesus changes lives and restores relationship with God. He is the Messiah that we've been waiting for, but don't you dare name Jesus. How can they obey that? Unless Jesus wasn't the Messiah, unless Jesus really is dead. If this isn't true, we're wasting our time being here. Paul even says something along those lines. But the truth is, it's real. The truth is Jesus really did rise from the dead. He really is God in the flesh. And he really did send the Holy Spirit, and he really did birth the church, and things happened and it grew no matter how hard the governing authorities came against them. And the church is alive today. Even though it seems like it's dwindling, it's alive and God is at work. Do we see it? Do we seek Him? Do we want to be part of what He's doing? So in verse 41, they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Again, I'm not so sure I'm there yet, but I know this is what God is calling me to be. And I and I know if I really grab a hold of the gospel and understand what it means, if I really allow the Holy Spirit to fill me to overflowing, I sense it, I feel it, I say, I get it, Lord. I'm persecuted for your name. That's a privilege, that's an honor. That means you're using me, that means the gospel's going out, that means people's lives are being changed. But there's still times where the flesh says, I don't know if I want all that. May the Lord draw us near so that we could have that boldness to say, Lord, praise you that we're getting persecuted. Praise you, who knows, that I'm not able to buy any groceries because I'm not doing the things that the government tells me to do. Wow. This is tough. This is hard, but it's it's big, it's it's it's life-changing, isn't it? And I think we really do need to get ready. We really do need to realize that that God is at work and things are happening in this world at breakneck speed. The end of time is coming soon. In our time to proclaim the gospel and to suffer along with Jesus is running out. So may the Lord give us that strength, may the Lord give us that vision, may the Lord give us that that that boldness. Verse 42. And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Jesus is Messiah, Jesus is the one promised to um Eve in the book of uh Genesis, chapter 3. Jesus is the seed of the woman that would trample on the head of the Serpent from then and throughout the Old Testament, all these pictures and prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ Himself. And the church, the early church, was proclaiming it, and God was empowering them, and lives were being changed. And here we stand. And what is our job? What is our purpose? To be filled with the Spirit and to declare that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Messiah. Nothing's changed in the church. That's our same message. And it's the only message that brings life, hope, forgiveness, healing. And an eternal relationship, intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe. What a glorious message He's given us. Let's go forward and proclaim it. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the word. We thank you for the example of Peter and the early disciples who were changed by you and did not resist the work of the Holy Spirit, but allowed him to work in and through them, not only to bring healing and deliverance from demons, but to have a proclamation of the word, to share the gospel with boldness, and to see lives being changed. People coming to faith in Jesus and leaving their past behind and entering into this new adventure with you. Lord, renew our zeal to proclaim your truth, to see you at work, to be changed by you, by your love, by your grace, by your mercy. Lord, speak to our hearts even now. Fill us anew even now. Bring healing in our hearts and in our bodies, our minds, even now. Change us and make us more like you. We pray this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. You've been listening to Come On Up, featuring the teaching of Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross. We're currently in the book of Acts, which chronicles the miracles and ministries of believers after Jesus had died and was resurrected. It documents the growth of the early church and how the apostles shared the gospel far and wide. There was significant persecution, and 10 of the 12 disciples, other than John and Judas, were martyred. Would you be willing to die for your faith? That's a tough question. But many believers through the centuries have laid down their lives for Christ. What does Jesus mean to you? Has he changed your life? That's our prayer for you, and we hope our simple teaching through the Word of God encourages you to grow strong in the Lord and His grace. If this radio ministry has blessed you, would you consider helping us reach others? Your gift of any size helps keep this radio ministry on the air. Simply visit themountaincross.com slash donate and give what you can. That's themountaincross.comslash donate and thanks in advance. Come on up comes to you from the Mountain Cross, a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet Sundays at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville beginning at 10. If you're in the area, we'd love to have you worship with us. Hope to see you soon. Thanks for listening and join 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.