Grace Chapel Bible Ministries

Worship Call 1175 You Again! - 2024/11/06

there was no great manhunt to track down the escapees. they did not run for the hills and disappear for good as would have been maybe a desirable option to get these apostles out of the religious leaders hair. As instructed the apostles were at the temple teaching the people. God's authority is supreme.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 06 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

(light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (light piano music) (music) Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Matthew 5.22 says that, and this is Jesus speaking, he said, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing shall be guilty before the Supreme Court, and whoever says you fool shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." Once again, we ask the question, who's exactly on trial here. This time before it was just Peter and James, Peter and John who came before the Sanhedrin. Now it looks like they've got all 12, and once again, these who committed murder against the one man thinking that they were going to get rid of them. Now there are problems you only escalate it where they have to deal with 12. This is the third day of the week in God's created order, the sixth day of the 11th month, 2024th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Let us turn to our Lord in prayer, Father in Heaven we thank you again. We thank Heavenly Father for your grace, your mercy, your kindness. Thank you for living and thank you for us living in the time in which we live in. And though there's trials, there's tribulations, we live in a dark world, we've been given the privilege of being light within this world. And there's a light that comes to us through our study and our teaching in the study of your Word, and I pray Heavenly Father may illuminate our hearts that we might be light of the world to bring that light and share that light throughout the world. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. And yes indeed, another fine day in the Lord. Father Mike, hope all things going well with you. Things are pressing forward with the house and everything here, and I hope all as well with terror. I know that you've started the treatment yesterday, and there's always something in it, brother. All right, and then brother Tim, same with you. We noted the continued trials there. So we have those trials, but we also have our comfort. We also have our rock that we stand on, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're coming in. So they were arrested again, they were put into prison. They were talking about the disciples for preaching. And so let's pick up where we were. Now let's just start with 17, see where we were, 5, 17. But the high priest throws up along with the associates that were a sector of senses, and they were filled with jealousy, anger, because they were preaching in the name of Jesus. This was carrying their authority. They were, for one, they've already told them not to preach in this name. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the gate of the prison and taken them out. He said, "Go, stand, speak to the people in the temple and the whole message of life." That's where we left off yesterday. This message of life, the life-given message, the gospel message, that Jesus Christ, there's no other name unto heaven by which one may be saved. And it's through the message, the response to the message that we are saved, the life-given words. And salvation comes through grace, and there is the message. Faith comes through hearing and hearing, the message of Christ. And so there has to be communication of this, the receiving of it. They laid hands on the apostles and put them in public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the gate of the prison and taken them out. He said, "Go, stand, and speak to the people in the temple and the whole message of this life." Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach. And this is where it gets funny. This is where it gets humorous, folks. There are some keystone cops going on. And it is the Lord who is in charge. It is the Lord whose hand is in this. And wickedness, even the wicked, can only do what God permits them to do. Doors are open, and the wicked will go through them. But only by God's permissive will, a door was closed. The Pharisees, these religious leaders tried to close the door on their preaching. But who is in charge? The Lord. No one had to ring their hands. "Oh, they are putting in prison. Oh, we would never hear that word again." And God is in charge. And so, if they break early in the morning, they are there. They didn't fly to the hills. They would say, "Uh-oh, maybe the Pharisees would rather have that happen rather than this confrontation." But it is coming. They stayed right there and went to the temple. As it was another day, they went to prison. They slept for a little bit until the angel woke them up and let them out. And now when the High Priest, this is where it gets funny. Now the High Priest, they don't know yet what is going on. And the associates came, and they called the council together. Even all the senate of the sons of Israel and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought. And again, I don't know how many is with them at this point. Is it just the few of them? Is it just a few of them? Is it all them? Is it all 11? But I believe it is. I believe it is all 11 disciples at this time. And we will see. So they sent, they sent, they sent for them. They called the council, but the officers who came did not find them in the prison. And they returned and reported back, locked prison, had guards there, had everything, but they weren't there. Saying we found the prison house locked quite securely. And the guards standing at the door, but when we opened up, we found no one inside. Now when the captain of the temple, see now this gets a little worrisome, the guards are nervous at this point. And maybe they're thinking maybe it's going to be us now that's going to have to be standing trial and have to give some answers. Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed. Let's, let's go. I'll tell you what, let's go to this, this pastor. I want to see what this, this perplexed this. We'll go here. All right now. There. All right, and we're going to. Act five, twenty four. Now the captain of the temple guard and chief priests heard in their words, and they were perplexed. And this word for perplexed is that to be thoroughly perplexed to be very perplexed to not know what to do. I'm very confused. Okay. All the, everything added up, this doesn't, I can hear him say it in their own language. Well, this doesn't make any sense. This doesn't make any sense. So the, about them as to what came of this. But someone came and reported to them. Okay. So now, now while things were going on and while they were trying to figure out the, the perplexity of the situation, someone came and reported to them the, on this, where are we? Okay. Now the cat, but someone came, verse twenty five, someone came and reported to them, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the, then the captain went along with the officers proceeded to bring them back into without violence for they were afraid of the people that they might be stoned. Okay. Now believers and unbelievers, it didn't matter. Because these apostles were healing. I remember what we talked about yesterday. They were bringing their people out on the side, on the sidewalk, you know, that just possibly that the, the apostles could go by and just a shadow phone on them would heal them and people were being healed. And so there was the message. There was a healing. And what has, what have these, what has the Pharisees done, aside from killing Jesus? What have they offered apart from deceiving the, the people and these people now knowing that Jesus Christ is their Messiah except them by the multitudes, this crowd is growing. You see the before the Pharisees had no problem with convincing the multitudes that the number of people, they had no problem convincing them and turning them against Jesus. But now they're, they, they have been discredited. Jesus rose and many, and there were many witnesses to his resurrection. And now you have the apostles out there performing all kinds of miracles as Jesus did and casting out demons and they were recognized as being the disciples of Jesus. So they, they had, they had their credentials, they had their calling card, they had their healing, they had their chasing at them, they had the authority of God. What did the Pharisees have? They had nothing. And so this is where that jealousy comes from. Then the captain went along with the officers. So when they, when they arrested these guys, and I think it was, it wasn't an arrest, usually arrest is done violently. Those who were arrested were probably beat up a little bit by time they got the court, not this time. I'm sure that the guards just motioned them and say, come on, come on with us. And it's, or maybe even ask, please, could you please accompany us? Whatever it was, just to keep the crowds from, from, they knew that they were on shaky ground here. And verse 27, and when they brought them, they stood them before the council, the high priest questioned them, saying, we gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name. And yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Look at the pronouns here. Okay, this name. And this man, this man, this name, back in, if you look back in, I believe, 417. Same conversation. And 417, but so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name. They can't even bring their, their selves to bring their selves to name Jesus. And this concerns me in the time in which we live. There are those people, those good people that I've often said this, they have no problem with saying, God, God this and God that and God is so good. But there is such a reluctance to say the name Jesus. I was listening to Chuck Messler the other day. He was, he was a couple lessons on Halloween. And Chuck was, Chuck was speaking about the unbeliever cannot pronounce the name Jesus. And, and I don't know about that, but in this case, when you do hear that someone speak of Jesus, and if he's an unbeliever, it's more of a mocking. It's more of a, a slur. In that case, I've certainly heard unbelievers pronounce Jesus as a, in a cuss word and, and, and profanity in a sense. So they, but nonetheless, it's, I'll, I'll talk to people that they have, they have a hard time, even saying, and I have to question them. And again, I'll say, I'll, I'll mention Jesus myself, and it's kind of like a closed door. But anyway, these Pharisees could not even mention his name was that because of their, it could, it could be very well because of their pure hatred for the man. They're receiving hatred. They just did not want to hear the name or, or give, give the name any dignity at all. Once again, in a trial, in a trial, you have to bring up the name and, and in a sense, it kind of demonstrates who they're really up against. So I, I think it's humorous how it brings up that they, this man, and this name, they, they just themselves cannot bring themselves to say. We give you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have built Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. These are murderers. What, what's the indictment? What's bringing them in? Not just teaching the name of Jesus, but they are, they are accusing this religious establishment of murder. Of killing Jesus. And this word is getting out. Um, and there is certainly an indictment against them. But Peter, in the apostles answered, you see, so there it is. Um, I'm thinking all, all 12 may be here. But Peter in the apostles answered. We must obey God rather than men. And this is not, and their hearts right now, this is not persecution. And their heart right now, this is a privilege. This is an opportunity. This is a time on which they can stand, and they can face their accusers, and they can face those that seek to persecute them. And they can make a declaration because this is not, this is not just the defiance against the religious establishment. This is an opportunity to say, God, um, as Job said, though he slay me, I will continue to trust and be. And I'm trusting in you, Lord, I'm, I am laying it out upon you. I'm your authority supersedes the authority of the ones I'm standing in. Again, the Sanhedrin stand there. They're seeking to counter. They're seeking to strong arm. They're seeking to, to make these apostles fall down and say, we're sorry. We're sorry. We won't ever do this again and all that. But it's, um, it's not going to work. They go on. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you have put to death by hanging him on the cross. The word here for cross is wood, hanging him on the wood. Again indictment. Again, here is Peter. You know, we say so much about Peter, that Peter denied Jesus three times. How come we don't go to acts? How come we don't say, you know, look at this and say, look at the boldness that the spirit in that the spirit has given to Peter. And he's shoulders low back. I mean, he wasn't defined in a sense. He wasn't adequately defined. But he knew whom he trusted. And that's where we come with the gospel. How many Christians gets so beat up with people who are lesser than the Sanhedrin? The world is prepared with their unbelief and their mocking and their running down of Christians and Christians run with the many Christians run with the little leg between their legs and they'll tail between their legs and they're running off. We should be praying for this boldness in order to, first of all, that boldness comes with our confidence in the Lord and that confidence in the Lord comes with the word of God that's circulating within our hearts. And this is what Peter talks about later on and he says that to sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready to give an answer for the hope that's found in them. It is a reward, not a persecution, but a reward when you stand before those who are foes of God and foes of his Christ. And they seek to run you down and seek to run you off and seek to see you cow tail like a little coward and you're him in harm and it's shutting you up. And yet no way you stand up and you boldly profess the name of the Lord. In eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose and it's not arrogant, it's not defiant, but it's your opportunity to profess. And remember you may not be, and a good testimony may not be for the one you stand before. But they've got buddies around them or you've got other people standing around there and they're listening to the argument. They're listening to the confrontation and they're listening to the testimony that you give. So your testimony isn't to win battles, but it is to get the name of the Lord out. So when you're confronted with hostility because of the name of Jesus, say amen and present a good witness. And this is Peter. Again, we remember Peter for the nine Christ three times, how often have I heard people talk about Peter standing within the Sanhedrin and given the good witness. And so this is the second time there. Is there going to be a third time? But there's going to be other opportunities for Peter. All right, here we go. He is the one who God exalted to his right hand as a prince and the Savior to grant repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. He is the Savior, not you all, boys, but Jesus is the Savior of Israel. He is the Redeemer of Israel. And here's that word repentance again. And repentance means change your mind. And to change your mind on your allegiance, whom shall you serve? It's a Joshua moment. Repentance is the Joshua moment that Joshua says, choose this day whom you will serve. Repentance is not about being sorry for your sins as we discussed this earlier, but it is about changing your allegiance. If they have walked in darkness, yes, and when we're walking in darkness, we're denying Christ. Regardless of sins that you're committing, you are walking in the darkness and therefore you're walking under the authority of your flesh, your carnal nature, under dictates of your carnal nature, the authority of Satan and the powers and the principalities of this dark world. Repentance is changing your mind, changing your perspective back to light. And then as far as naming your sins, you name those sins. Those sins have been judged upon the cross. You name them. And as a result, you move back into light back into your allegiance. That's a spiritual patriotism. All right. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. So you have two witnesses. You have not only the witnesses of the apostles, but you have the Holy Spirit for any matter is solved. Or any matter, any dispute of matter is resolved by the testimony of two witnesses. So you have the apostles and you have the Holy Spirit that stands for this truth. Catholics, when it comes to Catholicism or priestly functions throughout history, they had sought to change the message. You see, it's kind of like if you can't be enjoying them. Okay. So they're looking for repentance. They're looking for a way to handle their sin rather than changing allegiance. Here it is. Look at this when I was thinking about this. You have the Catholic Church or you have the truth. And what is the truth? Repentance to turn back, to change your allegiance back to Jesus, naming your sins for forgiveness and moving on. Okay. This message went out. And this message was a solid church doctrine. And a doctrine that could no longer be fought. But how did the Church see? How did the pseudo... I'll call it the pseudo church. How did the pseudo church seek to counter this message? Well, indulgences came up. And we can do some church history on this and look for this if we wanted to. But a church history, at some point, the church began to sell indulgences. They said, "Okay. Okay. If it's the forgiveness of sins that they're looking for, let's give them forgiveness of sins. And we can benefit from this. We'll sell indulgences that they can pay for these, that they can give to the church or whatever they need to do. We'll write out these things and these slips of paper and that will resolve them from their sins. And not only that, we can even do even one better than that. That there's purgatory that our loved ones are in. And they didn't go to heaven, but they went to purgatory. And if you pay this much, then the church even has the power to free them out of that. And it became a racket. They took the truth and they made it a racket. Then you have going to the priest, going to the priest and your local church and from time to time and having these little boots that you go into and sit there. And last time I have, it's been so long since I've come and confess my sins to you. And then you have this guy on the other end saying, "Well, okay. This is what you need to do to be resolved of your sins." No. No. All of this is a distractor away from Jesus Christ. And by the way, when you go into such a church and you look up in the church and you see, you don't see an empty cross, you see a cross where Jesus is still hanging upon it. And taking away from the message that there is a resurrection, and it's this resurrection of Christ in whom we go to. And Jesus is no longer on the cross. He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. So Camillel's counsel. But when they heard this, okay, Camillel is the most noted man there, most respected. Even the others, even the leaders, even the high priests, let's bring that up for a minute. We're going to do a little work. I think we're going to do a little work on Camillel when we get there. That'll be a good break. That we'll start up tomorrow with five, because now you're going to get counsel from a great man, from a great man. And he's a wise man. And he's going to give them some counsel about how to deal with this. So what they do is they will, but when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and they intended to kill them. Okay, so you killed one. It was easy enough to kill one. Let's go ahead and look to kill another. But a Pharisee named Camillel, a teacher of the law, respected by all people, stood by the counsel and gave orders to put these men outside for a time. And so Camillel, and when he speaks, this wise man, when he listened, he took all this in, he understood what was going on. And rather than lose it, you see, these others were freaked out with their anger, with their hatred toward these men. And they're looking to murder them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, they dismissed the apostles and they sent them out. They had a recess on court so that they could counsel together. And now this man is going to give them some counsel and a direction by which they can head from this point. Let's close that in prayer. Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity, once again, a bell-shipping new word. We pray, Heavenly Father, that God the Holy Spirit will open our hearts to these things. I pray, Heavenly Father, that our first and foremost responsibility is to the Word, is to learn. Is to bring Him within our hearts as we continue to grow and to grow and grace in an knowledge. Let's share that light with others. And when we are persecuted, when there are the enemy that stands before us, I pray, Heavenly Father, that we be ready to give an answer for the hope that's found in us. Thank you for this word. Thank you, Heavenly Father, living in a time of the availability of your word that we can study it. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, another fine day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord, will the Spirit guide and wrap depending and we'll be back here in the A.M. Love you all. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. www.gchapel.org. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]