J. Paterson Smyth

LESSON XXII

Fighting against God

Acts V. 17, VI. 18.

"The rulers take counsel together against the Lord."

Think of the wonderful power and courage that comes from feeling oneself in the right! Here were, on the one hand, rulers and priests of high position, backed up by their bands of soldiers and police; and on the other hand a few unarmed, uneducated common men. Which conquered? Why? Obedience to God and Duty and Righteousness is the great secret of power over others. If you are sure that you are in the right and have the approval of God, you have an inward feeling of courage and strength that enables you to dare all things. Not peculiar to Peter and Apostles. All brave, true men, living for God and Right, have such courage and strength.

(1) Men opposed to religion. Some wilfully, because they hate goodness. Many not wilfully—men brought up from childhood in unbelief, and with wrong thoughts of religion and of Christ. Will God blame both equally? (2) Neutrals—like Gamaliel. Cold, calculating men, not very enthusiastic for or against. He gives wise, cool advice to Sanhedrin. But he did not help religion much. Many like him. "Let it alone," they say; "don't bother about it, don't help it, and don't hinder it. If it succeed, let it succeed. If it fail, let it fail." And many add in their hearts what perhaps Gamaliel would not add—"We have something else to think of—our business and our newspapers and our amusements, etc. Let religion shift for itself without us." Is that a good attitude? (3) Friends—who are they? All who go to church and Sunday-school? No. What verse describes them? (v.  41). Those who are so determined on the side of the Kingdom of God that they will do or bear anything for Christ's sake, "rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." Our Lord tells who are his friends. "Ye are my friends if ye"? (John xv. 14).

The Apostles of course were at the head of all, and responsible for all. Think of them longing to keep their souls fitted for their highest work—Preaching, and Prayer, and Sacraments, and yet worried continually by this wretched grumbling about bread and money and clothing, and such like. What did they propose? (v.  3). Were they wise in this? Yes. Why? Is there such need in our day? Yes, very often. Sometimes the clergyman has not sufficient time for close thought and study to prepare good sermons because parish charities and building and all sorts of secular cares are put on him, which the lay people ought to look after. Think of that when you grow up.

But God wrought good out of the evil. How many orders of clergy are there in the church to-day? Yes. Bishops, priests, and deacons. So they were in the early Church. The Apostles were the bishops; the clergy ordained by them were the priests or presbyters. And here we have the deacons, originally, you see, appointed to "serve tables," look after poor, etc. So now, at ordination of a deacon, the bishop tells him that his duty is "to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people in the parish," etc. (See Ordination Service.) Who chose the deacons? But who ordained them? (vv.  5, 6). Yes. The choice lay with the people. But the ordaining them and sending them forth to minister lay with the Apostles, to whom the power was committed by our Lord. Ever since there have been these three orders of ministers in the Church. Our own old Church gives to the laity a great deal of power and choice in the selecting of their parish clergy and in the choosing even of their bishops. But the right of commissioning  those chosen ones rests entirely with the bishops. They only have the power of making a deacon, ordaining a priest, or consecrating a bishop; so that the constitution of our Church today is as nearly as can be the same as that of the early Church.

Ever watched tide coming in? Could you stop it? Build a wall of sand to stop it—what happens? Soon it meets a rock and beats against it. Does this stop it? No; in a few minutes the rock is under water, and the tide sweeps on. Its waves rush in on the strand, but they seem to go back all the way every time. Do they? Sometimes three or four waves don't quite reach as far as the one before them. It seems as if tide were getting tired, going to give up defeated. Does it do so? No. In a moment more it sweeps on again with renewed power, and never fails to fulfil its course. 

So with Church of Christ—the kingdom of God on earth. Think of its tide coming in through all the ages—has it had hindrances? Here is one in this chapter. Chapter after chapter we find them in this early history. Did they stop its progress? No. First, only 120 disciples. Then opposition. Then we find number in a few weeks 3,000. More opposition. Then number raised to 5,000. (Here again see vi. 7.) So through all the ages, hindrances—unbelief—false religions—persecutions—coldness and deadness of Christians—schisms and sects splitting up the Church, all seem to be checking the tide and delaying it. Are they? Yes. But can they finally put back the tide? No. Like the tide sweeping in from the ocean, so the great tide of God's purposes sweeps on till "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."