On a Mission from God

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark opened Acts 5:12-42 by tracing a pattern he sees repeated across the early chapters of Acts: God moves with power, His word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and the witness advances. He used the Blues Brothers as a lighthearted illustration of that same basic shape, men convinced they are on a mission, facing absurd obstacles, and seeing it through, before grounding the...

Read together

1. Acts 5:12-42 the primary passage read and expounded throughout the sermon
2. Acts 1:8 Jesus' promise that the disciples would be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts
3. Joel (unspecified verses) Peter cited it at Pentecost to explain that God would pour out His Spirit
4. Psalms 106 listed as one of the oblique references behind Peter's speech to the council
5. Psalms 118 listed as one of the oblique references behind Peter's speech to the council
6. Isaiah 63 listed as one of the oblique references behind Peter's speech to the council
7. Jeremiah (unspecified verses) listed as one of the oblique references behind Peter's speech to the council
8. Judges (unspecified verses) listed as one of the oblique references behind Peter's speech to the council
9. John 16 (unspecified verses) Jesus guarantees that believers will encounter opposition

Talk about it

1. The pastor described a repeating pattern in Acts where God moves with power, His word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and then the witness advances. Where have you seen that pattern play out, either in your own life or in the life of the church?
2. Peter told the high council 'we must obey God rather than any human authority.' John Stott is quoted as saying that when an authority commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands, the Christian's duty is to disobey the human authority in order to obey God. How do you think about that tension in your own life, and how do you know when you have reached that line?
3. The people around the temple had high regard for the apostles but were too afraid to join them after Ananias and Sapphira died, yet more and more people believed anyway. What does it tell us about how God's kingdom grows that fear and faith were both present at the same time?
4. Gamaliel gave practical advice that protected the apostles, but the pastor said he did not go far enough because if Gamaliel truly believed it was from God, he should have said 'we should join.' What keeps people today in that same halfway position of respecting what God is doing without committing to it?
5. Acts 5:42 says the apostles continually taught and preached that Jesus is the Messiah, and they did so rejoicing even after being flogged. The pastor called this sustained obedience. What does sustained obedience look like in ordinary, day-to-day life for someone in this congregation?