Not This Time

Introduction

You never knew my dad. And you missed out. I want to tell you four things about my dad as we begin the lesson this morning. Number one, he was a hard worker. Most of my life I remember him working two jobs to support our family on his meager salary. Second thing I want you to know about my dad is that he was funny. He always had a joke, usually one I had heard before, or a prank to pull on someone. There was one time he took a rubber band and wrapped it around the sink sprayer in the kitchen so that when my mom came to turn on the kitchen faucet, it would spray her.

And it sprayed himself. And he loved telling that joke on himself.

That’s just the best way to describe him. He would give and do for anybody, and he often did. And the fourth thing I want you to know about my dad is that he served in the Air Force. He successfully protected the state of Oklahoma. And like many people in the Air Force, he was integral to the aeronautics. He painted the stripes on the runway. When he wasn’t doing that, he painted the barracks. But Dad told a story about when he was in the Air Force, and no surprise, it was a funny story. He talked about the man whose job it was to hand out parachutes. As the airmen, some of them rather new green recruits would line up to get their parachutes. Those guys that jump out of airplane, what do you call it?

Oh yeah, crazy. But as they would get their parachute, this man whose job it was to pack, inspect, and hand them out, would tell, particularly some of the newer airmen, if this doesn’t work, bring it back and I’ll give you another one. You know, there’s some things in life you don’t get a second chance. Jumping out of an airplane is one of those.

And we can try again. And the wise among us don’t just pick ourselves up and try again, but we try harder the next time. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. We want to look at the continuing lesson in our series that fits our family focus for this year. We do not lose heart. And most of our lessons and attention on that theme has been just the idea of not becoming overly discouraged and giving up. But it also fits with that theme that when we do become discouraged and give up and fail, we don’t lose heart because we can pick ourselves up and start over.

1. The Apostles Say, Not This Time

I want you to turn with me to a story that you’ll probably be familiar with that we read about in the book of Acts, chapter 5. In Acts chapter 5. The apostles had begun from that day of Pentecost to preach the gospel with mixed results. Thousands of people, by the time we get to Acts chapter 5, literally thousands of people have responded positively to the preaching of the gospel, to believe and repent and confess and been baptized for the remission of their sins, having their sins washed away. But literally, thousands of others had chosen not to do that. And others had chosen to violently try to stop these men from doing what they were doing and saying what they were saying. And so maybe, even though Jesus had warned them, maybe a surprise to these and threatened.

And we read of such occasion in Acts chapter 5. And they’re thrown in prison. And in verse 27, they’re brought out of that prison cell before the officials to whom their lives and their future is going to be in their hands. And it says in Acts, that’s the imprisoned apostles. They set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in his name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.

Him God exalted to his right hand to be the prince and Savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to threat, this warning, don’t preach this man’s name anymore. At our first reading of this, we might make a prediction about what these men would do based upon what we’ve seen them do in the past. We’ve seen them during the earthly ministry of Jesus just completely misunderstand what our Lord was talking about. We’ve seen them have a worldly mindset instead of a heavenly mindset about the kingdom that was to come. We’ve seen them disappoint our Lord over and over again. And as we contemplated in our communion thoughts this morning, we saw them run away and betray and deny.

And so if we’re reading this for the first time in Acts chapter 5, we’re like, uh oh. I know how this is going to turn out. Because I know these men. I know what they’ve done in the past. I know their failures. I know their fear. I know their shortcomings. I know what they’re going to do. Because they’ve done it before. They’re going to fail Jesus again. It’s time for them to run. And it’s time for them to quit. And that’s what they’ll do because they’ve done it before.

But through the pages of history, these twelve men are yelling back at us, saying, Not this time. Not this time. The council is trying to decide what are we going to do with these men, these followers of Jesus. And do you remember the one who spoke up and offered some sage advice? A man by the name of Gamaliel. We’ll run into his name later when we are introduced to this man named Saul of Tarsus, who was a disciple of this Gamaliel. And Gamaliel offers some advice. Let’s read what he says. Verse 33 says, When they heard this, they were furious, that’s the council, and plotted to kill them. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while.

And he said to them, Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Thodas rose up, claiming to be somebody.

And he also perished. And all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or if this work is of men, it’ll come to nothing. But if it’s of God, you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God. And they agreed with him. And when they called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Gamaliel gives this advice. We’ve seen this before, guys. Thuta, and then after him Judas, these men that gain some notoriety, some great following. The people are all excited and they want to follow them. But when the leader dies, they just quit.

They give up and quit. And so now he says, We’ve seen this pattern. It’s being repeated again. We had Thodas and we had Judas, and now we have a man named Jesus, who, like those before him, get this great following, but like those before him, he’s put down and killed. Same song, third verse. We know what’s going to happen. His followers are just going to give up. Because we’ve killed the leader. We’ve cut off the head. And it’s just going to die. But again, we hear the voices of those apostles saying, not this time. Not this time. Our leader has been killed. But this isn’t going to go away. We failed and fled in the past. But not this time. And when we see this, what we might call noble defiance in these men, I hope that we’re encouraged and we’re heartened ourselves to borrow just a little bit of their moxie and do what they did in the face of trials and opposition.

2. When Satan and Temptation Say, Give Up

Let’s see if we can learn at least two lessons from these noble men. And that is when Satan and temptation say to you, give up.

Not this time. It’s happened before. Go through the pages of history, the pages of even biblical history, and see time after time after time that Satan has been successful, but not this time. And I can look through my own diary and see time after time when he’s won the battle, and I lost. But maybe it’s time for me to stand up and say, not this time. Turn with me to Matthew chapter four. We have the wonderful example of our Savior. Matthew chapter four, we see his temptation. When Jesus was tempted by Satan. And those three occasions, Satan dangles something before our Savior, to hit him at a vulnerable time when he had been fasting, and maybe in vulnerable places. He says, I’ll give you a shortcut, I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world.

And so he tempts our Lord. But look in Matthew chapter four at how this trio of temptations ends. When our Lord says, Matthew chapter 4, verse 10, Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, the angels came and ministered to him. Jesus not only endures these temptations, he defiantly endures these temptations. He answers Satan back with a measure of defiance, and then finally just says, get out.

We talk about what would Jesus do. Well, here’s what Jesus did. And we need to borrow some of that strength and that courage and that defiance. And we can say to Satan, I know you’ve seen me fail. I know that this has worked in the past, but not this time.

There in the book of James, chapter 4, where James gives us this promise. Turn over there again, James chapter 4 and verse 7. With a promise that we, if we’re honest, that sometimes may doubt. But it’s a promise nonetheless. And James chapter 4, verse 7 says, Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We made the observations Wednesday night. I don’t think that means forever. He’s going to come back. He came back in a more opportune time to tempt our Lord again and again. But that promise has to mean something. He will flee from me. If I resist him. And maybe it’s time that I just get in his face. And as we used to say in Alabama, just get ugly with him.

And say, not this time. Paul’s warning in Ephesians chapter 4 maybe has some bearing to this. In this list, Ephesians chapter 4, where he’s just saying, don’t do this, don’t do this anymore, and do better at doing this. And he comes along these words. Ephesians 4, verse 26, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. And then verse 27 just says, Neither give place to the devil. Some translations say, Don’t give the devil a foothold. Be angry and do not sin. Now I recognize at least what I think Paul is saying there, what the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul is that don’t let your anger rise to the level of don’t let it cause you to do something that results in sinning.

3. When the World Tells You to Shut Up

I think that’s his main point. But if the Holy Spirit and Paul would let me borrow that verse for just a minute, I’ll give it back. Be angry and do not sin. Maybe I need to be angry with the devil and temptation and not give him a foothold. And don’t let him and that temptation hang around and entice me, but just get mad and say, not this time. Let’s make another application. It may be closer to home than what the apostles were dealing with in Acts chapter 5. That when the world and ridicule and slander and humiliation and intolerance tell you to shut up, you defiantly say, not this time. It’s worked in the past. Man has cowered in the face of opposition. We won’t turn back there, but you remember in the Old Testament story of King Saul, where Saul is confronted on the road back from that victory, and he’s bringing back some of the people and things that he was supposed to destroy.

And the prophet tells him, You sinned in doing this. And Saul says, Well, I feared the people. Now that may be a coward’s way out, that may be an excuse, but there may be some truth to that. I feared the people. They wanted to do this. So I kind of back down. As their spiritual leader.

The man has been born blind is healed by Jesus. And as they often did, the Pharisees stepped in. And they questioned the blind man about what had happened and who had done it and to whom the glory was to be given. Certainly not to this man Jesus. And then they called his parents in.

Let’s pause there. That was ridiculous from the face. Everybody knew that this beggar who stood there every day was blind. They attested to that. But they didn’t want to believe it until, finished verse 18, until they called the parents of him who received his sight. Now I want you to think about these parents. Your son has been born blind. He’s now an adult. We don’t know how old, but they’ll say he’s old enough, he’s of age, so he’s an adult. For years he’s been blind. With all the difficulties. And don’t apply our 21st century accommodations to the first century world of handicap. And don’t apply our 21st century acceptance to the first century mindset. What was this man’s profession? He was a beggar. You’re going to be proud of your son who’s now a beggar.

Because that’s all he can do. And remember the exchange with the disciples and Jesus early. They thought this blindness was the result of some horrible sin, those parents had committed. They were just as wrong as they could be, but that was still the mindset. And so here you are, with a son who’s been blind his whole life. The stigma that’s attached with that, he’s a beggar, and the stigma that’s attached to that, the stigma that’s attached to the fact that you must have done something bad for God to punish you by giving you a blind child. But now his eyes have been opened. Should have been the happiest day of their life. They should have been praising the name of the one who healed him. But they asked them, verse 19, saying, Is this your son whom you say was born blind?

How then does he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our Son, and that he was born blind, but by what means he now sees, we don’t know. And who opened his eyes? We don’t know. He’s of age, ask him. He’ll speak for himself. And then John, by answering, adds this commentary. His parents said these things because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if one confessed Jesus as the Christ, he’d be put out of the synagogue. How sad. And so the world knows it works. The world knows that with their threat and intimidation, they can cause the king to back down and not do what’s right. The world knows that through thread and intolerance that they can make the parents of a man who’s just been healed.

Cower in shame. And if I’m honest, the world knows that it’s worked with me. Like the apostles, I haven’t always stood up. Like these parents, I haven’t always stood up for my Lord. Like the king, I haven’t always been the spiritual leader I should be in my family and in the church and in my own life. And I’ve cowered in fear. And so they know it works. But maybe it’s time for me to say, not this time. Not this time.

We talked about that cliched phrase, what would Jesus do. When you contemplate what would Jesus do, remember that turning over tables and whipping people is a possibility. Now, let me clarify. I’m not advocating a violent revolt. I’m not advocating violence at all. I want to remind you, our Lord said, turn the other cheek. Give them your cloak also. Walk two miles instead of one. But I also want to remind you that this same man stood up to the intimidation of his day. That his followers thankfully finally found their backbone and said, not this time. Go back to Acts chapter 5. Let’s look at that one more time. I want you to notice something. You’ve probably noticed it before, but go back to Acts chapter 5, verse 28.

The instructions of these leaders who are telling the apostles to quit, who are trying to intimidate them, who have the intolerance of their message. And he tells they tell them two things. Verse 28, number one, did we not strictly command you not to teach in his name? Remember this list. It’s a short list, it’s two items. Don’t teach in his name is item number one. Item number two is, and um, and look, you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us. Don’t teach in his name, and don’t blame us. Pretty clear instructions of what not to do. And it was delivered with the force of intimidation. We will kill you. If you do those two things, preach in his name and blame us.

But what’s Peter’s response? Peter, who had backed down before, who had been intimidated enough to deny our Lord three times, cursing and swearing the last time. Peter says we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. There’s number two already violated. Don’t blame us. And Peter says, Don’t blame you for what? For murdering him. Don’t you love it? Peter doesn’t say, well, we better die. Let things. Maybe we need to tone it down a bit. Maybe we need to be a little quieter, maybe a little bit more private. Right after they just said, don’t blame us, and he says, You murdered him. That’s kind of blaming them, isn’t it? And the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging him on a tree.

Him, God is exalted to the right hand to be the prince and savior and to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things.

And daily, last verse of Acts 5, daily in the temple in every house, they did not cease. Teaching and preaching Jesus is Christ. Don’t preach in his name and don’t blame us. And what does Peter say? One last thing before we go.

Conclusion

And the second you let us out, we’re going to preach it. Peter, who failed before, so publicly, so miserably, stands up and puts his toe in the sand and draws the line and says, Not this time. Lord help me to be like Peter. Help me to find my backbone. Help me to stand up to Satan in temptation. Help me not to be intimidated. But to stand up lovingly, meekly. But to stand up and say, not this time. Song that Sean led just before our lesson had a line in there that I love that says, as I’m paraphrasing, as long as I’m living, he’ll have a friend. Will you be a friend to Jesus this morning? Will you not be ashamed or intimidated or pushed around anymore?

Or will you do what you need to do in order to be his friend and to stand up and say, not this time. I will follow Jesus. Would you come and follow him? Would you come defiantly obeying him this morning as together we stand and as we sing?