The days of our text were very exciting. It’s not that our days are not exciting — they are – we’re on the brink of the Second Coming. But the days of the Book of Acts were days of persecution and greater power and accomplishment. Our’s are days of potential persecution and potentially the translation of the saints. Following Pentecost the whole city of Jerusalem was in turmoil over the Apostles of Christ. The disciples were performing fantastic miracles, such as the healing of man at the Beautiful gate. Peter and John were arrested shortly after that; they were threatened but then released. Then there were the mysterious deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and great fear came upon the church. But this didn’t keep hundreds of souls coming to know Christ. Sinners were being turned from their sins; they were sanctified and set on road to the Celestial City. If you’ve never experienced the salvation of souls other than yourself, you can’t imagine the excitement. But then Peter and some others were arrested again. During that night in prison, an angel opened the prison doors and told them to get back to work. Perhaps you can imagine the surprise as their jailers walked to work in morning only to see their captives at liberty, preaching the gospel of Christ.
At that point the Apostles were INVITED to meet with the parliament of Israel — the Sanhedrin. They were firmly invited, but, out of fear, the authorities chose not to arrest them at this time. Of course, the leaders of Israel were ready to send these servants of Christ to same reward as their Master. That is, until Gamaliel arose to speak.
As we consider this man Gamaliel, we see the 21st century written all over the page. He could have been wearing Axe cologne, a Brookes Brothers robe, Fruit Loom socks and Reebok joggers. I think that there are lessons we can learn by examining this man.
Let’s start with some miscellaneous things.
Gamaliel was a Jewish fundamentalist, the way the news media uses the word “fundamentalist.” When the media talks about “Muslim fundamentalists,” they mean the lunatic fringe of Islam. When they talk about “Hindu fundamentalists,” they’re talking about Far Eastern Terrorists. Then they talk about “Christian Fundamentalists.” Those are the people who home school their kids and win all the national spelling and geography bees. Those are the people who go to church three times a week and give more to the Lord than their taxes. Those are people who believe in creation and the Creator. Those are people who believe that souls are more important than silver. Gamaliel was a fundamentalist, but he was of the Jewish variety – a Pharisee. And being sort of related to us, he believed many of the things that you and I believe. For example, he believed in angels — we believe in angels. He believed in resurrection — we believe in a physical bodily resurrection. He believed in Heaven and Hell — we believe in a literal Heaven and Hell. He believed in judgment — we believe that God will sit upon a Huge White Throne to judge all mankind. Unfortunately, the devils also believe such things – and tremble.
The historian and chronicler of Jewish life, Alfred Edershiem was not too kind when he described the Pharisees. He said, “On meeting a Pharisee face to face, his identity couldn’t be doubted.” His self-satisfied, or else mock-modest, or ostentatiously meek bearing betrayed him. He’d refuse to save a woman from drowning for fear of touching a female. Or if it was little boy, he’d have take off his phylacteries before reaching into the water. He tithed on grains of salt and leaves of mint. Those people were nasty and terribly hard to get along with by anyone except another Pharisee. One Jewish authority, a Jew himself, said there were seven classes of Pharisees. He called some “Shoulder” Pharisees – they wore their good deeds on their sleeve for all to see. The “Wait-a-little” Pharisees wanted everything to wait so he could say one more prayer. The “Bleeding” Pharisees avoided looking on sin, so they closed their eyes and bumped into things. “Painted” Pharisees advertised their holiness like the painted sepulchers. The “Reckoning” Pharisees — asked “What must I do to offset any duty I’ve neglected?” “Fearing” Pharisees — cowered in fear when they thought of God. And the “Loving” Pharisees — were the only half way decent ones of the bunch. Likely, Gamaliel was of the last class, because history says he was better than most of his peers. But that didn’t change the fact that he was a Christ-rejecting, self-righteous, hypocrite.
Gamaliel was a member of the council – that is, a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a part of the ruling body of Jewry. In this council were some Pharisees, but the real leaders were the liberal Sadducees. These Sadducees were Bible deniers from the words “Holy Bible” to last “Amen.” Just about everything the Pharisees believed, the Sadducees ridiculed. Oh, but Gamaliel saw little wrong with yoking up with them in their council. Our church has almost nothing to do with the Kootenai Council of Christian Churches. It’s not because we are anti-social or that we don’t want to help our community. It’s because we cannot afford to be associated with the theological heresies of the membership churches and denominations. They would all likely call us narrow-minded, critical, separatist and divisive, and to some extent we are. But as the Apostles said to this Sanhedrin, “we must obey God rather than men.”
Gamaliel had an earned doctor’s degree. The guy had been highly educated by a corrupt Bible seminary. And, oh, how important that is today in the religious community. But it holds no weight with the Lord at all.
Gamaliel was a respected man in the community; “we MUST listen to him.” He pastors the largest church in town, therefore he must be close to God. He may have been President of the Mooses, past-president of mice and a seventh level Mason. These are despite the fact the Bible tells him not to be unequally yoked to the unbelievers. He attends all the functions, has his name in paper constantly and kisses all the babies– if they are boys. But Gamaliel made a couple of mistakes – in fact he missed the boat entirely.
For example, he totally misjudged the Apostles.
“Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.” The man called “Theudas” was an early day false Christ. He claimed to be the Messiah, gathered an army and marched from the east toward the Jordan River. He expected the Jordan to dry up the way it did with Joshua……. but he miscalculated. He didn’t drown, but he was later killed by the Romans. And this Judas of led a political revolt in 7 AD in rebellion to yet another Roman census and taxation. Gamaliel implied that these disciples of the new Christ are just like the disciples of the last two.
Please realize that no matter what we do, especially if it’s for the Lord, we are going to be misjudged. The enemy did it with our Master and His disciples, and they shall do it with us. The only way you will avoid it is by sitting on your hands and taping our mouths shut. If you try to lead souls to Christ they will call you a proselytizer and uncharitable towards other religions. If you condemn homosexual marriages, then you are a homophobic moron. If you try to live a life filled with the spirit of Christ, they will say that your head is in the clouds. If you try to live above sin, they’ll call you a “Puritan, holier-thou, hypocrite.” If you try point out differences between Bible Christianity and modern Christianity, they’ll call trouble-maker. We have to expect that sort of reaction toward obedience and the service of Christ.
In addition to misjudging the Apostles, Gamaliel also miscalculated the outcome of Lord’s work.
“And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” What the man said was absolutely right – the house built on the sand will fall. However, what is done for Christ will endure for His glory through out eternity. What is man’s will fail; what is God’s will prevail.
That means that every man-founded religious denomination will one day be forgotten. Luther’s, Calvin’s, Henry’s, Knox, Wesley, Campbells and all the rest. That means that every fellowship and association that gets bigger than the local church will one day be dust. That means we should expect that non-church sponsored Bible schools will succumb to heresy.
What Gamaliel said was right, but in how he said it we know he miscalculated the Truth. Indeed, “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” And the god of this world hath blinded his eyes, lest the light of the glorious truth should shine unto men. Gamaliel was sure that this was the work of men.
And in that blindness he mis-managed his duty.
First of all, there is the common duty of us all to thoroughly investigate the facts. I wonder if Gamaliel was ever there sitting with Nicodemus at the feet of the Lord Jesus. We wonder how much time he spent in searching the scriptures to investigate the Saviour there. Jesus had said, “Search the scriptures, for… they are they which testify of me.” The word “search” means, search like a miner digging for gold or a hunter looking for illusive game. But I’m sure that Gamaliel thought that he’d already found all the gold, and didn’t need to search. How diligent was he in comparing the prophecies of Christ with the person of Christ? He may have been one of the men to send the Magi to Bethlehem in search of the Babe. But if so, did he follow them to worship the Christ Child? No, he mismanaged his duties.
And Gamaliel, despite all his fancy theorems, theology, thinking and theatrics, was not a servant of Jehovah. Like so many others, he had corrupted the image of the invisible God into a Pharisee like himself. His biggest mistake was that he had a “zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” In his ignorance of God’s righteousness, he was going about to establish his own righteousness and had not submitted himself to the righteousness of God. He preferred his version of Adam’s fig leaves, to the seamless robe of God’s righteousness. The man held a copy of the Old Testament scriptures in his hands, and he did so all the way to Hell. He looks like thousands of modern day preachers’s of self-righteousness – and like their followers.
Don’t you make the same mistakes as Gamaliel, and we need to help others not to make them either.