Acts 5:33-39<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0When they heard this, they were furious\u00a0and wanted to put them to death.\u00a034\u00a0But a Pharisee named Gamaliel,\u00a0a teacher of the law,\u00a0who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.\u00a035\u00a0Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: \u201cMen of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.\u00a036\u00a0Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.\u00a037\u00a0After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census\u00a0and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.\u00a038\u00a0Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.\u00a039\u00a0But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they heard this, they were furious\u00a0and wanted to put them to death.<\/i>\u201d Peter and the rest of the Apostles had just said of the Sanhedrin that they were the ones who killed Jesus.\u00a0 They had put the blame on them that Jesus was killed by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans at the insistence of the Jewish leaders.\u00a0 Jesus was not some unknown that had been killed.\u00a0 People knew Him, they had heard and seen Him and they knew of the mock trial, the cruel beatings and the how He was murdered.\u00a0 Although the religious leaders vehemently denied their culpability, the people knew the true story.\u00a0 They knew that what the Apostles were teaching was true.\u00a0 The resurrection of Jesus was also widely known and the many miracles He had performed had been the talk of the city.\u00a0 The Sanhedrin were furious as they denied the charges laid against them.\u00a0 How dare the apostles accuse them of being killers!\u00a0 They were so mad that they wanted to murder the Apostles.\u00a0 Hmmm.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut a Pharisee named Gamaliel,\u00a0a teacher of the law,\u00a0who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 These Jewish leaders were worked into a lather.\u00a0 Have you ever seen a liar called out as a liar?\u00a0 Oh the indignation and anger that gets worked up and the threats that can follow!\u00a0 The guilty don\u2019t like to be called guilty, no matter their station in life.\u00a0 Gamaliel was a great scholar and teacher.\u00a0 In fact, he was known to have been the Apostle Paul\u2019s teacher.\u00a0 This august man stood up to restore calm.\u00a0 He had the room cleared and the accused removed so that the leaders could talk amongst themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he addressed the Sanhedrin: \u201cMen of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Can you hear Gamaliel \u201cOkay guys, we\u2019re alone now.\u00a0 It\u2019s just us.\u00a0 Let\u2019s calm down and consider what is the best road to choose.\u201d\u00a0 The wisdom of Gamaliel is already being revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201c36\u00a0Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.\u00a037\u00a0After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census\u00a0and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Gamaliel states that this rising up is nothing new to the Jews.\u00a0 They have before seen people rise up and claim to be a messiah and have a group of people follow them.\u00a0 Then, when the leaders were disposed of (killed) the group would become discouraged and go back to their previous lives. \u201cCalm down folks, these fake messiahs, we\u2019ve seen them before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.\u00a039\u00a0But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Gamaliel continued to reason with them that since they had before seen men claim to be messiahs, they should be wise and consider the lesson that should be noted.\u00a0 He said, if this large, and growing group is not from God, well their leader Jesus is dead, so they will become discouraged and go back to their former lives.\u00a0 After all, why will they continue to risk their lives, why would people risk their lives, for a man who obviously was not who he claimed to be, seeing as the fake was now dead and gone?\u00a0 Gamaliel soothed them \u201cthis too shall pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gamaliel continued on, the wisdom of what He was saying was growing.\u00a0 He was telling them that if what the Apostles were saying is true, if Jesus was the Messiah, if this was indeed the will of God, who can stop it?\u00a0 He rightfully expressed the futility of resisting God. If Jesus was the Messiah, then they who claim to be priests of God will be fighting against the omnipotent and undefeatable God that they teach about.\u00a0 Gamaliel told them to leave this group alone and see what happens.\u00a0 The validity of their claims would either be dashed by the hopelessness of their beliefs, or their claims would be borne out and assured by the mighty hand of God.\u00a0 We know that reasoning to be true.\u00a0 We also know that the hard of heart refuse to see (Ephesians 4:18<\/b>).<\/p>\n
What Gamaliel said came to be true.\u00a0 What was of God grew.\u00a0 It has irresistibly swept the world.\u00a0 No power of hell and no power of man can stop it.\u00a0 The Gospel is God\u2019s good news to us that there is a way from darkness to the Light.\u00a0 The way is Jesus.\u00a0 Family, let us rejoice that Jesus is the Messiah, to us and to the world, if they would receive Him.\u00a0 Let us pray for all men to come to Him and glorify Him, whoever they are, Jew or Gentile.\u00a0 Praise be to our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ!\u00a0 Praise to the Truth! (John 14:6<\/b>).\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 5:33-39\u00a0–\u00a0When they heard this, they were furious\u00a0and wanted to put them to death.\u00a034\u00a0But a Pharisee named Gamaliel,\u00a0a teacher of the law,\u00a0who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.\u00a035\u00a0Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: \u201cMen of Israel, consider carefully what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1841,100,94,17],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-ephesians","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}