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The Counsel of Gamaliel

The counsel of Gamaliel—in Acts 5:35-39—is my focus tonight. His words hit me right between the eyes the first time I read it in the process of serious bible study. That advice—I said to myself—comes from a Pharisee . . . yet it shows such strong belief in God’s plan that we Christians should listen. Gamaliel says:

And—sure enough—Gamaliel was right. Two thousand years later, the message preached by "these men" has swept the world . . . and despite much anti-Christian persecution—the seeds of which are sown in today’s lesson. So let’s start at the beginning and work forward to the counsel of Gamaliel..

Peter and John have been threatened with dire consequences by the Sanhedrin—the Jewish religious high court—if they continue to preach in the name of Jesus. But they defy the Sanhedrin . . . both in word and in deed. First they tell the Sanhedrin they must "obey . . . God, (for they) cannot help speaking about what (they) have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20). Then they go right back to the temple and pick up where they left off: they perform miracles in Jesus’ name; they testify boldly that Jesus is the Messiah; and they bring more converts to Jesus. This makes the Sanhedrin really mad. They throw the apostles into prison again.

Now, it seems, God gets directly involved. Late at night an angel opens the door and lets the apostles out of jail. This is the first time God has released the apostles from prison as a way to send a message . . . but it isn’t the last. We will learn about other examples as we study Acts 12 and 16.

What must be going through the apostles’ minds as they leave the jail? Get ready for Jesus return? . . . time to flee for the hills? No! God apparently just wants to send a message about who’s in charge. The angel tells the apostles: "Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people the full message of this new life" (Acts 5:20).

Gutsy. Escape from jail and get right in the face of the police. But I guess if an angel lets you out of jail, you do what he says! So they go back to the temple, and continue to preach.

The next morning, the temple police go to get the apostles to bring them up for their trial . . . but the jail is empty. The story reads like a "Keystone Cops" routine: the doors of the jail are securely locked . . . the guards are in place . . . but the jail is empty . . . and the police run around in circles, wondering what happened.

Then someone solves the mystery: "Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people" (Acts 5:25). The apostles—escaped from jail—are in the most unlikely place the police can imagine . . . right under their noses, continuing to teach the people about Jesus.

The high priest—Caiaphas—is pretty ticked off now. He has never experienced this kind of "in-your-face" defiance, and it’s getting pretty hard to take. So when the apostles are brought into the Sanhedrin, he really lets them have it: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said, "yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching" (Acts 5:28a).

And Caiaphas says one other thing, too, that displays his real concern: "And (you) are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood" (Acts 5:28b).

I imagine all of us know people who think they can fool everyone else . . . people who think they are so slick and clever they can pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. What’s the worst thing you can do to such people? Let them know they haven’t fooled you . . . let them know you recognize their hidden agenda. That will make them really mad; they may never forgive you. And that’s what has happened here. Caiaphas realizes the apostles "have his number"; they understand his hidden agenda.

Do you remember the price Pilate extracted from the Sanhedrin’s representatives before he agreed to crucify Jesus? Quoting Matt 27:24b-25:

Caiaphas hoped no one would find out the Sanhedrin had accepted responsibility for the death of Jesus. But now everyone knows! And that—most of all—is what makes him so mad!

Emboldened by an visit from an angel as well as by the Holy Spirit, Peter and the apostles lay it right on their line; indeed, their response seems calculated to push Caiaphas over the brink: "We must obey God rather than men!" (Acts 5:29b) they proclaim. And they go on to say: "You are so right, Caiaphas. We have been telling the people the Sanhedrin killed Jesus . . . who is the Messiah sent by God for the salvation of Israel. We have been telling them God raised Jesus from the dead to his proper place on the throne of heaven . . . and we and the Holy Spirit are witnesses to this."

It’s not hard to see why Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin are—quoting Acts (5:33)—"furious and wanted to put (the apostles) to death."

That’s when Gamaliel steps in as a voice of reason. Who is this man Gamaliel? From a Christian point of view, we know him as the tutor of the apostle Paul. From a Jewish point of view, Gamaliel was probably the most learned living expert in the oral law of the Pharisees . . . the "go to guy" in the Sanhedrin, who could answer the most difficult points of Jewish law, quoting a litany of rabbinic decisions as precedent. We don’t know if Gamaliel participated in the trial of Jesus. But we do know that as a Pharisee, he believes in the resurrection, whereas Caiaphas, as a Sadducee, does not. There may be some animosity here—even though Gamaliel’s intellect seems to rise above partisanship.

Gamaliel recalls two messianic pretenders within the memory of most Sanhedrin members. The first is Theudas, whom many scholars believe is the man Josephus calls—perhaps incorrectly—Judas son of Ezekias, who stormed the Roman garrison at Sepphoris, capital of Galilee, shortly after the death of Herod.

The other is Judas the Galilean of Gamla, whom both Luke and Josephus report led an anti-tax revolt in the time of the census of 6 AD. (Gamla is an interesting little place. Photos are posted on the web site, and we will say more about it in the last lesson: "The Rest of the Story.")

Much as I might like to, I can’t give details about Theudas and Judas; each receives only a short mention in Josephus. But I like the fact that Luke and Josephus are in sync on a little detail like this; it reinforces our belief that Acts is an accurate story. Nevertheless, that is one reason anti-Christian scholars date the books of Luke and Acts much later than 60 AD; it is literally an issue of unbelief: they don’t believe Luke could be independently correct on this, and therefore they believe he must have copied Josephus, who wrote 30 or so years later.

But, of course, Gamaliel’s point is this: the Jews know God promised a deliverer—a Messiah—but God didn’t promise he would have a big red "M" on his forehead. This is a time of high Messianic expectations among the Jews, and a number of leaders have risen up, trying to overthrow the Romans. Many called them Messiah . . . but all were killed, their followers scattered, and their movements collapsed.

But not so the Jesus movement. Jesus was crucified, and his followers also scattered. But only 2 months later, His followers are boldly—articulately—claiming He is alive, and that He is the Messiah. They are defying rulers and claiming to speak from God . . . in a manner reminiscent of the Jewish prophets. Gamaliel suggests the Sanhedrin step back and let God speak about these Jesus people. Persecution might just make them more popular; but if left alone, they may just collapse like the followers of Theudas and Judas. But if the movement does not collapse . . . it is probably part of God’s plan, and anyone trying to stop it will be standing in God’s way! To quote Gamaliel’s words again:

And Gamaliel was right: 2000 years later, the Jesus movement is still around . . . expanded throughout the world. Last week we talked about communism . . . which we might call a "religion of atheism"; although it outlived Marx and Engels and Lenin, recently it fell under its own weight as a failed economic system. We can think of many other empires which have come and gone in the last 2000 years . . . and many other leaders which have risen up—only to have their movements collapse when they died. Christianity, indeed, is a special movement. If we want to get in sync with God . . . here it is.

Gamaliel’s logic convinced them . . . not to kill the apostles. But remember just how mad Caiaphas is—and why he’s so mad. He has the apostles flogged.

We usually skip right by this event as we read Acts 5 . . . but we shouldn’t. When men were flogged, they were stripped to the waist, tied to a post, and beaten with a leather whip—often with imbedded metal or glass. According to Jewish law, no more than 39 lashes could be applied—but the Romans had no such limit. People died from being flogged, but after the apostles were flogged, they "rejoic(ed) because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (of Jesus)" (Acts 5:41).

Despite what must be excruciating physical pain, the apostles return to the temple—and go from house to house—"teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah" (Acts 5:42). Their empowerment by the Holy Spirit seems beyond comprehension. Already Gamaliel is being proven correct.

That brings us to the last part of the lesson: the selection of the deacons in Acts 6. To understand it properly, we first need to define our terms. "Hebraic Jews" were the Jews living in the land we now call Israel (or Palestine). Their common language was Aramaic, and the population was large enough that many of them could live in faithful, "Jews only" villages within the provincial Roman government. All the apostles are "Hebraic Jews."

"Grecian Jews" were Jews of the dispersion, living in the Greco-Roman areas of Turkey, Greece, Italy, Egypt, etc. Their common language was Greek, and—like Jews in modern America—they were not a large percentage of the population, and hence most of them were in constant contact with their Gentile neighbors. Also like Jews in America, some of these "Grecian Jews" were extremely devout—like Paul and Apollos—but most had adopted at least some of the Greco-Roman culture of their Gentile neighbors. The "Hebraic Jews" looked down on the "Grecian Jews" as being, in general, "less Jewish."

What’s going on with the food distribution problem? The apostles—the leaders of the church—were spending their time teaching about Jesus. Food was shared in common among believers; yet, as the numbers of believers grew, the mechanics of food distribution became a problem . . . and the Grecian Jewish widows were not getting fed.

There are two theories why this happened. One is that it was just an oversight. That’s the most loving and charitable explanation.

But the other theory is that the attitudes of Ananias and Sapphira—which we discussed last week—were symptomatic of a deeper problem within the church. Acts 15 shows that a lot of Pharisees joined the church in Jerusalem, and they had trouble getting rid of their traditions of exclusionism and legalism. These Pharisee-Christians may have thought of the Grecian Jewish members as 2^nd class citizens. Hence when the food was passed around, the Hebraic Jews—a majority in the Jerusalem church—made sure "their people" received food, and made no special effort to take care of the Grecian Jews. I tend to subscribe to this theory, believing that if this matter were a simple oversight, it would not have written about or been dealt with so dramatically.

Nevertheless, when confronted with this problem, the apostles show the godliness and sincerity we would expect of them . . . and also good organizational skills. They set up a formal food distribution system, led by six Grecian Jews and one Gentile convert to Judaism—all men of good character and great sincerity.

And the apostles also do the most important thing: they pray to God—asking Him to bless these men for this task. And we never again hear of discrimination in food distribution problem within the Jerusalem church.

These seven are considered the first deacons of the church. Although the office of lay deacon is not part of the Methodist church, it exists in most other churches—from Catholic to Baptist. Usually the role of deacons is just what we see here: oversight of the physical welfare of church members, so the teachers can focus on the spiritual welfare of the church.

Next week we will meet Stephen—who might be considered the "chief deacon"—and learn of his profound ability to teach the word. In fact, he argued so convincingly for Jesus that false witnesses accused him of blasphemy before the Sanhedrin—just as had done with Jesus some weeks before. We will study some of Stephen’s arguments.

Stephen is stoned to death in next week’s lesson. This week the Sanhedrin was on the verge of killing the apostles—but did not. Purists among us might question whether the Sanhedrin had the right to execute a death sentence under Roman rule . . . but we will see Caiaphas is clever enough to find a way to around that. In the case of Stephen, the Sanhedrin just stands aside as an angry mob drags him outside the city wall and to stone him. This is another illustration of the fact—as we learned from Jesus’ trial before Pilate with an angry mob in the courtyard outside—that the Sanhedrin knows how to use an angry mob as an instrument of political policy. Thus having rejected the counsel of Gamaliel by killing Stephen, the Sanhedrin now orchestrates the first outright persecution of the church.

We will also meet—for the first time—Gamaliel’s student Saul . . . not in a very favorable light this time, but we will see him in a much more favorable light when he later changes his name to Paul.