Two Roads (Acts 5)
Messenger Dox
Call to worship:
PASTOR ZACHARY MCGUIRE
GenESIS 2.15-17; 3.1-7
song:
New again
Historical reading:
pastor brett eckel
Apostles' Creed
SONG:
Lord have mercy
Confession & Pardon:
PASTOR ANDREW LOGINOW
Doxology
SONG:
All I have is Christ
Sermon: Acts 5 {Al}
two roads (Acts 5)
Introduction
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
These are the words of one of the most famous poems ever written in the English language – “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. What you may not know is that the work was originally entitled, “Two Roads.” Much ink has been spilled debating the meaning behind the poem but what we can say for sure is that Frost presents two choices: the traveller comes to a fork in the road and he can only travel one. The road he choses will take him down one path in life and the other road he will not travel. He must make a choice and then live with the consequences of that choice.
Our lives are comprised of the choices we make. Decisions both great and small tell the story of each of our lives. With each of our choices we cannot go backward. We can only ever live the moment we’re in; we cannot revisit the past and the future remains down the road.
Acts 5 is about the most important choice we ever make; the most important fork in the road each of us must face. Either choice has consequences. And if we are going to travel one road then we cannot travel the other. One road leads to death and the other road leads to life.
The Road of Sin Leads To Death (Acts 5.1-11)
As we stand at this fork in the road one road leads to death: the road of sin leads to death. Acts 5.1-11 tells us the story of Ananias and Sapphira, the couple that lied about an offering they gave in the early church at the expense of their lives. Some have debated whether or not Ananias and Sapphira were believers. Obviously we don’t know for sure but it seems like they may have been. In verse 3 Peter says the couple lied to the Holy Spirit; verse 4 says they lied to God and verse 9 says they agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord. This seems to hint that Ananias and Sapphira had a relationship with God and sinned against God.
Two weeks ago Pastor Kevin showed us from 1st Corinthians 11 how sometimes God disciplines his children with death. It happened in Corinth to those abusing the Eucharist and it very well may have happened with Ananias and Sapphira. Though whether someone is a believer or not God is always right to require a sinner’s life because of sin. We must be grateful that our God is patient and overwhelmingly more often than not God does not execute the judgment of death every time we sin, but he would be just to do so.
That’s because the God of Scripture is the one true God and our holy creator. God created us male and female, in his own image to glorify him. Pastor Zack led us in our call to worship from Genesis 2-3 where God gave Adam his law and our father Adam broke God’s law. God told Adam the day he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Adam would surely die (Gen 2.17). Adam rebelled against God and creation fell. Romans 5.12 says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Romans 3.10 says, none are righteous. Romans 3.23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6.23 says, the wages of sin is death. Here in Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira are recapitulations of Adam and Eve and Ananias and Sapphira sin and they die. Like Ananias and Sapphira we are sinners who deserve death. Because we have sinned, because we broke God’s law we deserve eternal conscious punishment in hell.
There are only two roads any person can travel. The first road is the road we’re born on – it’s the road of sin that leads to death. If you are not a Christian this is the road you’re traveling Scripture says that you are at enmity with God – you are at war with God. Ephesians 2 says that you are dead in your trespasses and sins. 1st John 1.8 tells us if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you reject Christ you are on a road that leads to hell.
This is true for those who do not believe. For those of you who do confess Christ, do not pursue sin because it leads to death. Are you living in unrepentant sin? Are you planning sin?
Are you lying to the Holy Spirit? Are you testing the Spirit of the Lord? If you do not repent, God will discipline you maybe even unto death. If you persist in unrepentant sin and there is no discipline it may reveal that you never believed to begin with. The road of sin leads to death.
The Road of the Gospel Leads to Life (Acts 5.12-42)
But there is another road that leads to life: the road of the gospel leads to life. Acts 5.12-42 expounds on how the road of the gospel leads to life. Verses 12-16 pictures the spiritual healing that is the gospel road. Then verses 17-42 reveals to us that the gospel road is filled with suffering but also that suffering for Jesus is worth it.
The Gospel Road is Healing (Acts 5.12-16)
In verses 12-16 tell the Apostles continued to heal many in Jerusalem who were sick or demon possessed. When reading the New Testament, especially the Gospels, Acts, and the early epistles, it’s important to remember that this period of redemptive history was unique and the miraculous gifts and healing described are descriptive and not prescriptive – these early texts are describing what happened at a unique moment in the history of redemption, not prescribing how the church will practice miraculous gifts for all time. Jesus and the apostles were unique in their miraculous work because they were announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of Christ. In the rest of the Scripture (OT and later NT) miraculous healing and this level of overt demonic activity is not the norm. The time of Jesus and the apostles mark the climax of redemptive history and the transition from the old covenant to the new covenant and the miraculous signs were verification.
There are several passages in the Old Testament where God promises that healing will accompany the arrival of the Messiah’s kingdom. Listen to Isaiah 35.5-6, which is simply one text among a plethora:
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy (Isa 35.5-6).
Jesus and the apostles do these miraculous works to announce that the Kingdom of the Messiah has arrived! But miraculous physical healing was never the norm in Scripture. It is always rare and always pointing us to a deeper healing we need. The miraculous physical healing performed by Christ in the Gospels and the apostles here in Acts is a sign pointing us to the healing we need for our great spiritual sickness – sin and death. The physical healings and exorcisms in the early New Testament always point us to the medicine for the great spiritual wound of sin.
And that healing is exclusively in the gospel. And as we have seen consistently thus far in Acts, Peter preaches the gospel again here in verses 30-32:
30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him (Acts 5.30-32).”
It was for our sin that the sinless Jesus died hanging on a tree. In ancient Israel a man hanged on a tree was cursed by God (Deut 21.22-23). Jesus took the curse of God in our place. It was by his wounds that we are healed (Isa 53.5).
But 3 days later God raised Jesus up because the Father accepted Christ’s righteous life and substitutionary death on behalf of all of the elect. And then God exalted Christ to his right hand as leader and savior of God’s church. And Peter says that Christ gives repentance to those who obey him. How are we to obey him? We must repent and believe this good news.
You must repent which means you must confess your guilt before God and you must turn from your sin. You must believe in Jesus, which means to place your faith in Christ alone. Faith begins with the knowledge that God is holy, you are a sinner, and Jesus is the only way to be made right with God. You must assent to this good news; you must affirm and not deny it. And finally, you must transfer your trust to Jesus alone. The gospel road is the only road that leads to life.
The Gospel Road is Filled with Suffering but Suffering for Jesus is Worth It (Acts 5.17-42)
But that doesn’t mean the gospel road will be easy. It wasn’t for the apostles. They get arrested again for preaching Jesus after the Jewish leaders warned them not to last week in Acts 4. But in verse 29 Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”
We wont belabor this point because we spent much time on it last week, but church, we have no choice in this matter – we must obey God rather than men. When the whole world is telling us that something wrong is something right, we must obey God rather than men. And when we fail, when we sin by fearing man rather than God, we must repent. But keep in mind this will not be easy. The world, the flesh, and the devil do not like when we obey God.
The gospel road is filled with suffering. Here in Acts 5 the apostles are imprisoned and beaten because they were preaching the gospel of Jesus. This should not have surprised them because on the night Jesus was betrayed he told them:
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. (John 15.18-20).
The world hated Jesus so obviously the world hated the apostles. So the world put the apostles in prison and beat them. But verses 41-42 say that the apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name and they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Church, the gospel road is filled with suffering but suffering for Jesus is worth it. None of us want to suffer but when we do suffer on behalf of Jesus and the gospel we should rejoice that God would give us the gift of walking in the steps of Christ; we can rejoice knowing that we have been counted worthy to suffer for the name – the name that is above every name (Phil 2.9).
The pattern of Jesus is that of death and resurrection. We experience that spiritually when we believe the gospel: our spiritually dead hearts are resurrected through faith. We experience the patter of Jesus sacramentally when we are baptized picturing death and burial with Christ into the water and resurrection from the water. We hope in the promise that one day we will experience the pattern of Jesus after we die, that when Christ returns we will be physically resurrected.
But what Acts 5 reveals to us is that we must experience the patter of Jesus – the pattern of death and resurrection – all throughout our lives. We may experience relational death if we lose relationships because people hate that we obey Jesus. We may experience reputational death if we’re slandered for obeying Jesus. We may experience occupational or financial death if obedience to Jesus costs you your job or other financial opportunities. We may someday experience death of personal autonomy if we are beaten or imprisoned or even martyred for obedience to Jesus.
But if we do face that kind of ostracism and persecution we are in good company. We would stand with the prophets and the apostles, with countless Christians throughout the history of the church, with the church triumphant in heaven. It is through this pattern of death and resurrection that the victory of God spreads. In verse 28 the Jewish leaders bemoan that the apostles have filled Jerusalem with the gospel – this is exactly what Christ said would happen in Acts 1.8!
And Gamaliel warns the Sanhedrin to leave the apostles alone. There have been other zealous leaders that gathered a crowd in Israel’s history (Theudas and Judas the Galilean) but those movements died with them. Gamaliel says, if God is not with the apostles the movement will die, but if God is with the apostles then the Jews will be found opposing God. And that’s exactly what happened.
The gospel movement didn’t die with Jesus because he resurrected. And his church has persevered and spread to the ends of the earth, just like Christ said it would in Acts 1.8. And even to this day Israel opposes God because anyone who rejects Jesus Christ rejects God. But church we are the validation of the message of the apostles; we are proof that the gospel is real. And that’s why suffering for Jesus is worth it.
Regardless of what kind of suffering or what kind of death we experience, remember, the patter of Jesus is not merely death; it is death and resurrection. When Christ returns he will make all things new; he will make everything sad untrue. Regardless of how we suffer for Jesus in this life we know that this too shall be made right. And in the meantime we can rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.
Conclusion
Acts 5 presents a fork in the road where two roads diverge. The road of sin leads to death. The road of the gospel leads to life. There will be suffering on this gospel road, but suffering for Jesus is worth it. Which road will you take? The road you take will make all the difference.