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I want us to think about freedom. And to do so, we'll get back to the Fourth of July. We'll get back to our nation in a few moments. I want us to think about a game that probably most of us have played in which we can kind of consider freedom themes. This game, we've probably all played it, or at least have all heard of it, and probably to one extent or another have all had a damaging relational moment while we've played it.
And that game is Monopoly. Has anyone played Monopoly? Show of hands. Keep your hands raised if you've had a bad experience playing Monopoly. And if you have put your hand down, we know the bad experience list from you. So, Monopoly. It's a game where the premise is simple. You hop around the board, there's different spaces. Try to acquire the most property, therefore try to acquire the most money.
And you're free to go around this board as you roll two dice, right? You're rolling the dice and you're hopping around the board and you're acquiring and you're exchanging money. Now there's a bunch of different spaces on the board. Most notable are like park place and boardwalk and go to jail. He said it. And that's what I'm gonna talk about, go to jail. So the jail, there is a corner of the board where multiple things could happen.
You could land on chance, you flip a chance card and it says go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect. - \$200. - You've been in jail. So jail, you go, you do not pass go, you do not collect 200, you go straight to jail and you remain in jail until a couple of things. Either you have a get out of jail free card You pay, I think it's like a \$50 fine, and then you lose your turn, and then you can go.
Or you take your chance and try to roll doubles, right? We're my chance people, trying to roll doubles. Oh, yeah. 50, I get it. I was the same way. So you try to roll doubles, you try to get out of jail, but the thing is, when you're in jail, you are not free to play. You lose your turn. You lose the purpose of the game. You cannot go from space to space. Other people are free your own. They pass you.
They land with you. And it just says just visiting. And you're like, come on. I want to get out there. I want to be free. You know, we all have probably understood what this is like because most of us have played Monopoly. At least we can understand the concept. You know, in the game of life, not the board game, but actual life, it is more frustrating when we are restricted in our freedoms. Am I wrong?
When we are restricted from using our freedoms, from exercising our freedoms, from freely moving around, saying what we need to say, that's frustrating to us. Spiritually, I also believe that this is true. I believe, as Pastor Austin mentioned in Galatians 5.1, Scripture talks at length about freedom. And I believe we're going to stumble upon a passage which says, Has those themes as well. To prime our time, I just have a verse that I want to read for you all.
It's 1 Peter 2.16, which says this. Live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. So live as people who are free. We live as people who are free. In the United States of America, we live as people who are free. But as I was thinking about this verse, it struck me. We live and exercise our freedom here. But if somebody was reading that verse in North Korea, they would also be told to live as people who are free.
If you've been in a monopoly jail, you were to live as people who are free. It doesn't matter our circumstances. We live in the... I don't have the statistics. Maybe historians can help me. Probably the freest place ever. But at the same time, are we really living in biblical freedom? I think we're going to see some apostles here in this narrative that we're going to unpack together who did not share the freedoms that we shared and celebrated yesterday here in our country, but yet lived with such a freedom that
to preach and proclaim the name of Jesus. And that's what I'm hoping to encourage us all with this morning. This morning, as we go through our passage, we're going to be asking ourselves the question, how do we use this freedom? How do we live in light of this freedom? And that's why I've called this message Living in Freedom. And I hope to discover that with you all as we engage with our time together.
But before we dive into the text, let's just pray once more and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, thank you for What we did get to celebrate yesterday, as Pastor Austin mentioned, thank you for the freedom to gather in this place and to worship you. Lord, I pray that as we go through this narrative, that we would see a group of men who are sold out for you, to live in freedom even though the world around them tried to restrict them.
So Lord, as we read this text, when we apply it to our lives today, we find freedom in your name. So Lord, we thank you for this time. In Jesus' name. Amen. So as we get into our text here this morning, the United States Constitution has the First Amendment, and that First Amendment gives us five basic freedoms. I'm going to try to rattle them off on memory. If I miss one, please don't throw something.
So we have the freedom of speech, right? We have the freedom of assembly. We have the freedom of of the press, we have the freedom of petition, and the freedom of religion. I think I got them all. Those are spelled out in the First Amendment. Now, as we look at our text today, I'm taking those known entities from our United States government and connecting them to the unknown of this passage, trying to help us live in light of freedom.
Those five freedoms that I just presented to you were not all given to the apostles. And yet, as 1 Peter 2 says, they were to live in freedom. And so we're going to kind of unpack this because God's word is transcultural, right? So wherever people read this passage, it is true for them to apply as well. Let's dive into the passage. We'll read verse 17 through 21 and we'll take a pause. It says this,
rose up and all who are with them, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles, restricted their freedom, right? They arrested them and put them in the public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said this key line in verse 20, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
And when they heard this, that's the apostles, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Let's talk about the context really quickly. First of all, what we just read is conflict, right? In Acts chapter 4, you see this conflict begin. The apostles were thrown in prison, but then they were released, I believe, the next day because they couldn't charge them with anything. So they were put in prison and then just released.
In Acts chapter 6, Stephen, who we'll learn about a little bit next week, was seized. Was seized and was taken in question. And then in Acts chapter 7, ultimately Stephen was martyred for his faith. Right now we're in Acts chapter 5, so we're between this put in prison and just freely released and this martyrdom. And we're seeing the conflict escalate over time. So these people were put in prison. The apostles were put in prison.
Someone was seeking to restrict their freedom. So back to our question. How are we to live in freedom? How are we to use our freedoms? Well, we'll just parrot what the angel told them. Use your freedom to speak life. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says, Congress shall make no law, dot, dot, dot, abridging the freedom law. of speech. And while I do not wish to comment on what governmental free speech is, I'm again connecting the known to the unknown.
This angel told them to freely speak words of this life. Let's talk about speech here for a moment. What is speech? I was thinking about this this week as I was putting this together and I was thinking, man, what is speech? And really speech is taking the intangibles of our hearts, of our minds, and externalizing them. You can't see the words as they come out of my mouth, but what you're starting to get a picture of is how I think and what's deep down.
Luke 6 45, one of my favorite verses says, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure of his heart produces Evil for? Out of the abundance, right? The overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Speech is simply bringing what's inside of you outside of you. So when we think about the words of this life, it was deep within the apostles and they were just told to speak it, to proclaim it.
You know, I was thinking about speech again because... Speaking is something that we all do on a day-to-day basis, right? We'll go to lunch after and we'll have a conversation. We'll have a conversation with our kids. There might be a moment of conflict, but how those things are handled will reveal some things about us. Now, think with me. I kind of was thinking back, what are some of the key maybe speech topics over the last 26 years, maybe since like the year 2000?
And I kind of punched that in online and here are some of the themes that I came up. You ready? Some of the key speech topics that our nation has been thinking about. Right. Homeland security and protection. Finances. The economy. Inflation. Right. Politics and elections. We've been thinking about global pandemics and medical related topics a lot lately. There are so many things that our nation is thinking
embroiled in thinking about at a macro level. What about a personal level? Because we talk about things nationally, but we also talk about things personally. What do you talk about? What are the things that come from your mouth often? Or the questions you ask? Or the things you say? Like, man, I really did not get a good night's sleep last night, right? Or for me, personally, if we're talking about baseball or something, I could say how bad the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are.
What else is new? I could talk about my favorite burrito spot. I could talk about how running is not boring but exhilarating. That one's a hard sell, but I try. We talk about the things which are inside of our hearts, right? What's at the heart of our hearts, what's at the top of our minds, we talk about. And in our nation, we have the freedom of speech. But for us, as Christians, Perhaps we use our freedom of speech to really talk about whatever we want.
Talk about where the wind's blowing. Talk about the weather. Talk about how your team's doing. Talk about your favorite food spot. But the apostles were released from prison to speak the words about this life. What is the life? You know, Jesus in John chapter 14, verse 6, proclaimed and said this, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, but through me.
When we speak the words of this life, we speak the name of Jesus. I confess to you all, I do not say the name of Jesus as much as I should. I talk about my gripes with the angels and their organization. I talk about how hungry I am. I talk about... how I didn't get sleep. I talk about the things that are really top of mind and yeah, those things I care about. However, Jesus is at the core of my life and I don't often speak his name or as much as I should.
Speaking those things revealed what's in our hearts. My wife and I were on a plane recently and we got onto the gangway to get into the plane. You know how kind of back, you're like, cruising down the runway and then you, not the runway, but gangway, jetway, help me, someone. - Jetway. - Jetway, I'll take that. Jetway, you're cruising down and then it comes to a screeching halt as you're getting into the plane, right?
Now, it really slowed up because I saw something that I'd never seen before and frankly don't anticipate seeing since or seeing after this. But there was a really tall individual and he was standing outside of the plane and he shook everybody's hand and looked them directly in the eye. And I'm like, what's going on? And this guy was wearing the captain's hat. In fact, he was the captain, and he was outside of this plane shaking everyone's hand.
Took me by surprise. Took me so much by surprise, I think I was in the same boat with other people. The person in front of me shook his hand and said, wow, I've never shaken the hand of a captain before. He said what I was thinking. I shook his hand. And as I was doing so, he was finishing up his conversation with the guy in front of me. And the captain said, you know what? We're all just designed for fellowship with one another.
And I'm like, oh, all right. This is going to be a fun plane ride. He says this, and my wife asks him, well, you know, what church do you go to? And he says the name of the church. He asked what church we go to, and we say Living Oaks Church, Thousand Oaks, California. And all God's people said? Amen. All right, so we said that. We had this moment. We go in through, right, storing the luggage, sit down in the seat.
I had an aisle seat, but I was bumped from that aisle seat by my wife, who made me sit in the middle. And so I'm sitting in the middle, and we're strapping in and getting all geared up, and Over the loudspeaker, what do you expect to hear? This is your captain speaking. We're going to be cruising at an altitude of such and such, and we're going to be in the air for such and such a time. Weather on the ground is such and such.
You know what I heard? I kid you not. I heard him say, goodness. I heard him say, joy. And I heard him say something about the Holy Spirit, which is in us and flows through us. And I'm like... We're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. That captain was speaking on the job. You know, I guess I'm speaking on the job right now, but at the same time, there is such a fear that we all have in speaking the words of
This life, speaking the words of Jesus to our friends, our family members, our co-workers. And this pilot I've never seen before, probably will never see again, shook his hand. He was talking about fellowship and goodness and joy and the Holy Spirit over an intercom. Praise the Lord. His speech revealed his values. Our speech reveals our values. If we're angry, we're going to speak anger. We're joyful.
We're going to speak joyfully. Jesus is in us. Guess what we're going to speak about? Jesus. And you know, we need that. I need that. My wife needs that. My kids need that. Your grandkids need that. Our neighborhoods and our communities need the words of this life, the words of Jesus. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father. but through me. This isn't rocket science.
You've heard this before. This isn't anything new, but what I'm hoping to share and show you is we have the freedom of speech in our nation, which is beautiful. I'm free to speak about a great deal, many things, but we often limit ourselves. We should go deeper. Speak the words of Jesus. Amen? All right, let's continue on. So conflict is arising, right? So people are being detained. They're released.
They're on the Temple Mount at daybreak. They begin to teach. And now we're going to see what happens after that as the tension arises. So now in verse 21, mid-verse 21, when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council. all the Senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison.
So they returned and reported. We found the prison securely locked with guards standing at the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside, which brings the whole lot of questions to me, but we don't have time to go into all that. So verse 24, now when the captain of the temple, the chief priest heard these words, he said, They were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.
Pause here just for a moment. You can leave that up on the screen. So what's going on here is the angel transported them out, right? Opened the prison doors, got them out, told them what to do. They're doing it. Apparently this angel came back and locked up and locked up the doors or something happened. I have no idea. And now the prison guards have no idea. They're aloof. guarding an empty jail cell i feel like there's something to be considered there in a unique way so there's this confusion now like almost this awe and wonder that's kind of happening in this scene we'll continue on in verse 25 and someone came and told them look the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people then the captain with the officers went and brought them but not by force clock that we'll come back to it but not by force
For they were afraid of being stoned by the people, that is, the people who were going to bring them. Verse 27, And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charge you to not teach in this name, yet here you are filled with Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men.
Amen. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. A long stretch of verses, but back to the question, how are we to live in freedom? How are we to use it?
Speak now. Of course, the words of life speak life, but use your freedoms to engage peacefully. First Amendment of the United States Constitution says, Congress shall make no law about respecting the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Peacefully assemble. A couple things were going on here. First of all, they were on the Temple Mount. They were speaking the words of this life. It doesn't look like there was any riots.
It doesn't look like there was any violence. They were speaking the words of life. And for all intents and purposes, it seemed like they were doing it very peacefully. Now remember I told you to clock it. The officers came, and what did they do? They went to bring them, but not by force, right? Which got me thinking, the apostles just went with them peacefully. Right? It doesn't look like there's any struggle.
It doesn't look like there's any issue. So these guys who were coming to them were like, uh-oh, we've got to bring these guys to the box. We've got to bring these guys to the council. And you know what the apostles didn't do? At least the text doesn't say, I dare you, you're going to get stoned today. They decided to walk with them, to go with them peacefully. I was shocked by that as I was considering it.
They were gathered peacefully and they engaged peacefully. Now, that doesn't mean that there's not conflict because there is. That doesn't mean that there's not disagreement because we'll get there in just a moment. But it reminded me, wow, we have the ability to speak words of life but also show up peacefully. Pastor Austin, over the last four weeks, has really ingrained to each and every one of us that we have a circle.
Have you guys heard this? Okay, very good. We all have a circle. We have a circle. We might have more circles, and that's about our sphere of influence. It's about the people that we come into contact with. Could be our family, could be our neighborhood, could be our city, could be our place of work. There's some overlapping circles, but we all have circles. And Pastor Austin has been diligent and faithful to remind us, identify what that is.
Today, I hope that you've identified it. If you haven't, please do. I'm sure you'll hear more about this in the season to come. However, my purpose right now is saying, how do you show up in your circle? It's one thing to have your circle. It's one thing to identify your circle, but it's another thing entirely to say, you know what? I'm going to show up with a peace mindset. I'm going to show up with intentionality.
I'm going to engage, but I'm going to do it in a respectful way. I'm going to do it in a peaceful way. I'm not going to throw a fit. I'm not going to throw a fight. I'm not going to resort to violence. You're asking me to come with you? You know what? Maybe I need to talk to some people and do it peacefully. They were engaging in such a unique way here because they were at the temple doing what the council told them not to do.
Little civil disobedience here or religious disobedience here. And you can see it. They say, well, we have to obey God rather than them. The angel told us, go to the temple now, speak the words of this life. We're going to do it peacefully, though. And we're going to come with you and we're going to discuss this peacefully. So they're pressed, right? They're now pressed by what's going on. Oh, I'm sorry.
One more thing about the temple. You know, I think sometimes we think to some degree or another, it's like, oh yeah, like what's our, our, our temple now? You know, like how would we apply this? It wouldn't be like they would just went to the street corner and started preaching and proclaiming. The temple was a part of their circle, right? Ultimately speaking, Christianity was born out of Judaism, right?
In fact, early on, it was called the sect of the Nazarenes. It was just a part of this whole. And so the temple was an environment that they were wholly familiar with, that probably people knew them and that they began to know as well. So the temple was a part of their circle. And we already discussed how they showed up. So again, my challenge is not just identify your circle, but how are you showing up in your circle?
I'm reminded of how I've shown up negatively in my circles before. Has anyone ever done this? Has anyone ever shown up judgmentally? Has anyone ever shown up critically? Has anyone ever shown up more to teach, proclaim, and preach rather than to listen? You know what? I think it's so important for us how we show up. Now the people, again, the council brought them not by force and the people all gather here.
And then there's a little bit of that disagreement that goes on. If you look at 28 through 32, you see the disagreement. The council said, we told you not to do this. The apostle said, well, we can't not do this. We must do this. And what are they, what are the words that they're using? Verse 30 and 31, they talk about Jesus or God, the father in verse 30 and 31 as well. They talk about Jesus, the leader and
Jesus is Savior. And then in verse 32, they talk about the Holy Spirit. They brought it back to this Trinitarian gospel. They brought it back to what is most important to be speaking about. They spoke the words of life and they engaged peacefully, both on the Temple Mount in public and then when they were brought before the council as well. I'm reminded that sometimes we love to use our wisdom, right?
A group of verses that I hope to memorize is James 3, which talks about the wisdom from above. It's pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. I think the apostles were doing that, and I think we should do that with our words and with our use of freedom as well. Well, there's a little bit more.
We have one little section to conclude on as we kind of conclude our time together, thinking about the freedoms in our nation, but also how to apply the freedoms given to us in God's word. And so we're going to look at the last stretch, 33 through 42, another good chunk, and we'll conclude it up here. And it goes on to say this. When they heard this, that's the council, when they were talking about this trinity, I mean, it doesn't say trinity, but they talked about God the Father, Jesus the Savior, and the Holy Spirit.
When they heard this, they were enraged and what? Wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. Seems like he's kind of cooling the situation off a little bit, right? to put them outside. And he said to the men, men of Israel, take care of what you're about to do with these men.
For before these days, Theudas rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men, about 400, joined him. Well, he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. Case study number two, verse 37, after him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. Well, He too perished and all that who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.
For if this plan or this undertaking is from man, guess what? It's going to fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice and when they called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
And then verse 42. And every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. It's good. How are we to live out our freedoms? How are we to use our freedoms? Use our freedoms to speak life. Use our freedom to engage peacefully. And use our freedom to worship Jesus. United States Constitution. It says, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
This, to me, seems like the quintessential freedom of religion passage because you have this guy named Gamaliel. Gamaliel is a man held in honor by all the people. In fact, it was said that Gamaliel was the instructor of Saul who, you know, was and became Paul. Gamaliel was a wise man. Gamaliel was an influential man. And what does he say? What's his point? Well, he gives three case studies. One, in verse 36, he talks about this guy named Theudas who came and went, and when he went, everybody went.
Then he talks about, in verse 37, Judas the Galilean, and well, when he came and went, everyone went too. And then he talks in verse 38 about this present case, and who is that? Jesus of Nazareth. That was a case study yet to be reconciled. A couple things, I see that there's a slide up there. So with the first one, using our freedom of speech, you can put that back up, I can talk about it. I've skipped over it.
So expressions reveal our essences, right, with our words. Actions reveal our attitudes with how we engage peacefully. And then of course, when we're talking about religion, worship reveals our worldviews. It just simply does. What we engage with, what we put on a pedestal, reveals what's at the core of our identity and our heart. So Gamaliel says, verse 36, verse 37, two case studies, let's apply it to Jesus of Nazareth.
But you know what he's saying? He's saying, hey, let these men go. Let them have freedom to worship whoever. But you know what he does say? He does have this idea. Is there still a right and there's still... wrong. He said you can actually be opposing God. So what his understanding is, is yeah, people are going to worship different things. People are going to pursue different objects of worship. And if they are of men, they will fail.
However, if it's from God, you will fail. You know, we see that in the United States again, right? We probably know David Koresh and Branch Davidians, right? We probably have the concept of what that might look like. We probably have the concept, although it happened in Guyana, Jim Jones and Jonestown, right? Like it's a part of kind of the American fabric. We understand that cults and cult leaders have come and they have gone.
And it would be easy for us to be like, yeah, I'm never going to fall into a trap like that. But you know what? Our society doesn't well, does do a little bit more, is maybe not follow the cult leaders, but follow maybe like the cult of celebrity to some degree. Like Hugh Hefner, for instance. He was not a religious man, but I would say that he probably promoted a form of worship. Right? It wasn't a religion, but it was the pursuit of an object of worship.
Stephen Hawking, if you know who this is. Astrophysicist. Very brilliant. Promoted living in a godless world. There's nothing after us. This is kind of meaningless and let's just discover it as much as we can. I don't know his full worldview. However, I don't believe that God was in the middle of it. You see, we can talk about David Koresh, talk about Jim Jones, but we have so many celebrities which drive us to the fringes because ultimately our worship reveals our worldview.
We have the freedom to worship. We have the freedom to, you know, worship a great deal of many things. We can worship silly things. We can worship sacred things. This text proclaims Christ is Jesus. Christ is Messiah, anointed one, the object of our worship. You know, we live in a unique world. World a unique nation where there is religious freedom and we can come into contact with so many different types of people You might have on your block someone who doesn't think like you That person might go and get coffee from somebody who doesn't think like them that person gets their taxes done by somebody who practices X Y or Z We live in a unique environment where there is freedom.
However, it doesn't mean that there's not a right or and not a wrong. For if we are pursuing God, if we are worshiping Jesus, we're not in opposition to him, we're in line with him. So the reminder for us is for us, not as Americans, or gathering here in the United States of America, to just use our freedoms for the sake of freedom. We're to use our freedoms to obey God, to use our speech to speak life, to engage peacefully in
Yes, we have the freedom to worship, but worshiping Jesus is in line with how God has created the world. For us, as we conclude here this morning, I want us to think about Acts 5.42, the very last verse that we just read. It will be up on the screen as a reminder. But it says this, And every day in the temple and house to house, they had the freedom to gather together. Freedom to engage peacefully.
They did not cease teaching and preaching. Freedom to speak. Freedom to speak words of life. And what were they speaking? That the Christ is Jesus. They freely worshipped him. For us, let us use our freedom. We're instructed by 1 Peter to live in freedom. We want a people who live in freedom as well. You know, one of the other main themes I feel like in this passage is the idea of obedience, right?
Because the angel told them in verse 20, go out and speak. Go out and speak the words of this life. Then later on, they're in front of the council and they're told, we charge you not to do this. But what did they say? We must obey God rather than men. And then in the very last verse, 42 is what we just read. Every day in the temple and house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
Let us use our freedom to obey. To obey God. What he calls us to do. What he calls us to think about. What he calls us to speak about. What he calls us to worship. And we worship Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much once again.