The Heart of Spiritual Leadership | Acts 5:17-42
Luke identifies four contrasts between the Jewish authorities and the apostles that help us understand the heart of healthy spiritual leadership: (1) jealousy vs. life; 2) perplexity vs. teaching; (3) fear vs. obedience; and (4) anger vs. joy. This sermon is part 9 of “Building the Church,” Bryan Craddock’s verse-by-verse sermon series on Acts 1-7.
I was with my father several years ago, when a doctor told him that he was suffering from heart failure. To our uninformed ears, this diagnosis sounded dire. Aren’t you dead, if your heart fails? In medical terminology that just meant that his heart was getting weak and not pumping blood as it should. Thankfully, he lived over ten years with his failing heart before the Lord took him home.
The heart is even more important in spiritual life. But when the Bible refers to the heart, it is not normally talking about the organ pumping blood in your chest. It is speaking of the motivation center that directs your choices. We find this concept in Hebrews 4:12, which says,
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We have already seen from our study of Acts 5 that it is possible to do good things with a wrong heart. A couple named Ananias and Sapphira sells a field and donates part of the money to the apostles. But to impress people, they lie and say that they are giving it all. The Lord punishes their spiritual heart failure with complete physical heart failure. They both die, and as frightening as that is, it reminds believers to be sincere and confirms the reality of the apostolic message to outsiders. Consequently, more people come to believe in Jesus.
So, in Acts 5:17-42, we learn that the growing popularity of the church provokes another round of opposition from the Jewish authorities. Now our inclination is to focus on how the apostles respond. They’re the heroes of the story. But Luke actually devotes more attention to the authorities--twice as much as he does to the apostles. Somehow he is even able to give us a glimpse into their hearts to reveal their motives. Why? I think he wants us to see the difference. He identifies four contrasts between the Jewish authorities and the apostles that help us understand the heart of healthy spiritual leadership.
Why do you need to know about healthy spiritual leadership? We will see in Acts 6 that church members are involved in selecting leaders. In 1 Timothy 5:19, Paul also speaks of church members holding their leaders accountable. So, for both responsibilities, we need to use the right criteria.
Furthermore, every believer exercises some degree of spiritual leadership. We are called to lead lost people to faith in Jesus and then to build one another up within the church. We also influence our children, grandchildren, family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. So, we all need the right heart to fulfill Christ’s mission well. As we walk through this passage, I challenge you to consider what motives are directing you.
Jealousy vs. Life
One way to see into the heart is to look at the hand. Are we grasping or giving? The open hand can do a lot more than the closed one. The tighter your grasp, the less you can hold onto. That closed fist also sets you up for throwing a punch.
The grasping hand is triggered by jealousy in the heart. In Acts 5, Luke diagnoses this problem in the Jewish authorities and contrasts it with the life-giving focus of the apostles. He begins in verses 17-18 and says,
But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.
Jealousy fills them in the same way that Satan filled the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira. They allow it to take control. But what are they jealous of? Was it the power to heal and cast out unclean spirits that the apostles had? Were they grasping at the people who were following them? Perhaps not the people themselves but the popularity and the political leverage that they could gain with it.
Human jealousy is always self-exalting, and that is what sets it at odds with the righteous jealousy of God. As our Creator, he alone deserves to be exalted. In fact, his design is for us to find life and blessing in a devoted relationship with him. But when we refuse to do so, it provokes his jealousy.
He reveals this attribute of his character in the Ten Commandments. He forbids his people from having other gods and making for themselves a carved image to worship. Then Exodus 20:5-6 tells us that he says,
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The priests and Sadducees in Acts 5 undoubtedly knew this passage well and quoted it often, but the exaltation of God was not their motivation. They were jealous for themselves. They were their own idol, and that heart stands in stark contrast to what we see in the apostles. Acts 5:19 through the first part of verse 21 says,
But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life." And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
Worldly wisdom would tell you to run away and hide out somewhere after a jail break. But the Lord commands the apostles to trust him and hold their lives with an open hand. They must go right back to the Temple, Sadducee territory, and accept the risk of provoking even more hostile opposition. Why? Because people need to hear “the words of this Life,” the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
The grasping mindset of the Jewish authorities focused on jealously controlling people. But the heart of the gospel is about imparting life and freedom. Through faith in Christ, people can be set free from bondage to sin to receive forgiveness and a relationship with God that will lead to eternal blessing in his presence forever. Since Jesus sacrificed his life to bring that about, we should be willing to accept personal sacrifice to proclaim his message.
Sadly, this heart is often lost in the church. Some Christians become more like the Sadducees than the apostles. Paul exposes this problem as he writes to the Philippians from prison. Yet even as he does so, he reflects an open-handed, sacrificial, life-giving faith. In Philippians 1:15-18a, he says,
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
So, what is your heart as you influence people around you? Are you jealously grasping for control that will make you comfortable or help you look good? Or do you come with an open hand trusting God and offering the life and freedom of the gospel no matter the cost? That leads us to another contrast.
Perplexity vs. Teaching
Tangles are part of life. They occur in hair, thread, yarn, rope, chain, necklaces, wiring, cords, and cables. How do you react to them? Legend says that a king named Gordius of Phrygia created an intricate knot and said that whoever disentangled it would rule Asia. Alexander the Great supposedly found it in the Fourth Century B.C. and tried to untie it. But after a while, he gave up, pulled his sword, and cut it in half.
For some reason, God has chosen to reveal his Word to us in a way that often seems tangled. The Bible does not present truth in a tidy, systematic way. It was given over 15 centuries through at least forty different authors who lived in different cultural settings and wrote in different genres. Perhaps God took this approach to keep our hearts humble, because it requires us to keep searching through Scripture to trace its vibrant threads and see their powerful connections to life.
A lot of people don’t have the patience for that process. They are like Alexander. They slice through the Word, leaving some pieces out and tying others together in suspect ways. Many just accept systems like that without questioning it. So, when they encounter something that doesn’t fit, they don’t know what to do with it. Their narrow-mindedness leaves them stumped.
In Acts, the Sadducees, the priestly party, are guilty of this. According to Acts 23:8, they reject the existence of angels. But we just read in Acts 5:19 that the apostles were released from prison by an angel. So, in Acts 5:21b-25, Luke identifies a contrast between the perplexity of the Sadducees and the teaching of the apostles. He tells us,
Now 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 and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside." Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, "Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people."
So, what happened with the guards? The apostles did not just disappear or walk through walls. Verse 19 says that an angel opened the doors. Were the guards asleep when that happened? Perhaps they saw the angel, and were afraid to say so, knowing that the priests would not believe them. So, the priests were perplexed. Some translations speak of wonder, but I think that translation is probably too neutral. They were stunned, doubtful, and frustrated.
Situations like that often happen with authoritative leaders. They don’t like to be questioned or contradicted. They aren’t willing to engage and patiently reason with people. They just expect them to submit to their pronouncements. If they resist, they bully them into conformity. So, for these leaders “teaching” is an indoctrination process.
How did the apostles teach? Luke does not tell us here. He has given us examples of Peter’s teaching in Acts 2 and 3. But Peter himself captures the right heart for teaching people in 1 Peter 3:15. There he says,
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
In that context, Peter is speaking of dealing with hostile opponents who might revile us or slander us. If we must respond to them with reason, gentleness, and respect, shouldn’t we treat everyone else that way? It flows from a heart that honors Christ as our holy Lord, and that applies far beyond formal teaching roles to all our relationships. We must seek to influence people with gentle reasoning that patiently explains the truth of God’s Word. That’s healthy spiritual leadership. But how do we maintain that heart? We find out in the third contrast.
Fear vs. Obedience
Most gas stations sell two types of fuel—gasoline and diesel. As I’ve shared before, I once had the embarrassing experience of choosing the wrong one. I rented the biggest truck available through U-Haul and assumed that it must use diesel. I failed to notice a label above the tank. Diesel nozzles are also larger than gasoline ones, so it did not even fit the opening. But I still managed to fill it up. Surprisingly, the engine started up, and I drove for about an hour before everything finally clogged up and conked out.
The fuel for spiritual life is fear, and there are two types—the fear of God and the fear of man. We have seen the power of a healthy fear of God in the story of Ananias and Sapphira earlier in Acts 5. It drives sincere, holy obedience. It is surprisingly easy, however—particularly for leaders—to shift over to the fear of man and still maintain the appearance of spirituality. But that does not work forever. Sooner or later, it conks out.
In Acts 5, Luke shows us the contrast between the fear of man that drove the Jewish authorities and the sincere obedience of the apostles. He begins in verse 26, by saying,
Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
The authorities probably feel a strong impulse to rough the apostles up. Everyone knows that they had been arrested the day before. Now here they are teaching openly. It makes the authorities look ridiculous, and they fear what people think. They want to maintain their image of power and control. But that concern is offset by their fear of physical violence.
The fear of man inevitably leads to conflicts like this, and it gets worse in verses 27-28. Luke tells us,
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."
They will not even say his name. They just call him, “this man.” They don’t want to be associated with him or held responsible for what happened to him. It’s not that they fear God. He knows what happened. It’s all about managing people’s perceptions, but the fear of man has completely ensnared them.
One of their reasons for having Jesus crucified was their fear of the Romans. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, John 11:47-48 says,
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
After they arrested him, they brought him to Pilate, the Roman governor, and they whipped up the crowd to demand his execution. But Pilate feared people too. Matthew 27:24-25 tells us,
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!"
So, they had already accepted responsibility for Jesus’ death on that occasion, and there is an irony to what they said. Their greatest need was to have the blood of Jesus on them to cover their sins. He alone could reconcile them to God. But none of these leaders would confess their sin. They feared man more than God.
Keep this heart issue in mind as you consider Peter’s response to the authorities. In Acts 5:29-32, Luke says,
But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. 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."
We might read his words as nothing more than a statement of defiance. He makes it clear that they cannot submit to the council’s charge. Jesus commanded them to preach and bear witness, and the angel who released them explicitly instructed them to speak in the temple. They chose to fear God more than the council, no matter what consequences they might inflict upon them.
But Peter’s statement here is also an appeal to the council. They could obey God rather than being caught up in the fear of man. They could repent and receive forgiveness for the sin of rejecting Jesus. They could receive the Holy Spirit to grow in true obedience, and the same freedom is offered to us all. But the council responds in a way that leads to one more contrast.
Anger vs. Joy
We have talked about seeing the heart through the hand that’s either grasping or giving. But there is also a connection with someone’s eyes and outlook. It seems contradictory, but even as many leaders are controlled by a fear of man, they also look down on people and consider themselves superior. A healthy spiritual leader, however, keeps looking up to the Lord.
That difference in outlook helps explain a contrast in emotions that Luke identifies between the Jewish authorities and the apostles: anger and joy. He describes how the authorities respond to the apostles in Acts 5:33, by saying,
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
That may seem like an extreme reaction, but it should not surprise us. It is consistent with how they treated Jesus. Of course, they found ways to justify it and make it seem legal. But with both Jesus and the apostles, their actions are guided by this deep-seated anger.
The glimpse into their hearts that Luke gives us demonstrates a point that Jesus made in his Sermon on the Mount. Anger violates the spirit of the Sixth Commandment. Matthew 5:21-22 tells us that he said,
You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.
We like to think that our anger is righteous and holy. We may never contemplate murder, but anger is the path that leads in that direction. We might justify it as being passionate for the Lord and for his concerns. But I’m sure that the Jewish authorities would have made a similar excuse. Beneath those concerns you often find the same motives that we have been considering: an impulse to grasp and control circumstances, an impatience with people, a fear of man, and a sense of personal superiority. Plus, anger often seems to work. It’s emotionally forceful. It intimidates people. But that is manipulation not spiritual leadership.
Thankfully, the Lord restrains the Jewish authorities through one reasonable voice, a rabbi named Gamaliel. He is probably the original source for information about this event. One of his disciples is Saul of Tarsus (Acts 22:3), whom we will meet in Acts 8. He is an angry young man who persecutes the church but ends up being saved and becoming the great apostle that we know as Paul. So, Luke’s knowledge of what happened here probably came from Paul who heard it from Gamaliel. Acts 5:34-40 tells us,
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. And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all 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 of man, it will 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 had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Is Gamaliel’s advice good? Yes and no. Patience is a godly characteristic, and in this case, it keeps the apostles from being murdered. But his passive wait and see approach does not engage with the claims that the apostles are making. It just sweeps them under the carpet. Furthermore, the continued existence of a movement does not prove that it is genuinely from God. There are cults and false religions that have been around for centuries, even millennia. On the other hand, it is true that the authorities are opposing God through their rejection of Jesus and his apostles.
So, their anger of the authorities is restrained but not quenched. They order the apostles beaten and reiterate the same restriction. The apostles, however, respond in a way that shows an incredible contrast. Verses 41 and 42 say,
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
They found joy in suffering dishonor for Christ. I’m sure that they did not want to experience a public beating. It was probably painful and humiliating, but they were willing to accept it. They do not respond with a defiant condescension that screams, “I can take anything that you dish out!” They look up and keep their eyes on Jesus. Their joy in him is what enables them to persevere in ministry.
They demonstrate the outlook that is later expressed in Hebrews 12:2-3.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
What do your eyes say about your heart? Do you look down on people or are you looking to Jesus? Are you characterized by flashes of anger or a joy that perseveres? To influence people for Jesus, we must follow his example.
__________
Jesus is building his church through us. But what kind of influence are we having? Are we jealous and grasping or life-giving? Are we narrow-minded and easily perplexed, or do we patiently engage with God’s Word to understand it and teach it? Are we caught up in the fear of man, or does the fear of God lead us into true obedience? Are we characterized by anger or joy? Is your heart spiritually healthy or failing?
You may not realize it, but you need a new heart. We cannot even begin to change until we receive life in Christ. Through faith in him we receive forgiveness and are born again to become new creations. If you have never done so, I invite you to place your faith in him. If you would like to learn more about spiritual life and leadership, I encourage you to read the second chapter of 2 Timothy.
Even if you have been a believer for a long time, it is still a battle to overcome the sinful habits and thought patterns that we acquire through life. Do you need to change how you influence people? Healthy spiritual leadership flows from a godly heart. Keep putting off those sinful attitudes and outlooks to put on the character of Christ. Perhaps you also need to seek someone’s forgiveness for those times when you have had the wrong heart.
May we fix our eyes on Jesus!
Reflect
What are some effects or repercussions of unhealthy spiritual leadership?
What are some healthy examples of spiritual leadership that you have experienced?
What could you do to have a healthier spiritual influence upon those around you?