April 8, 2010

Acts 5:27-29: Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!

'We must obey God rather than men!' This became a part of the apostles' mission statement. This mission statement didn't serve as some goal on paper that would just be nice to achieve. No, the apostles, these missionaries, actually executed this mission statement. And because they did, nearly all 12 of them were executed for it, as they died martyr's deaths. We will be remembering more about the Acts of the Apostles and how they carried out this mission statement as this passage from Acts not only serves as our First Lesson for this upcoming Sunday, but it is also a first in a series of Lessons that will be read on Sundays from the book of Acts.

In the strictest sense, not many of us have probably been in a position where we have had to choose between obeying authorities or obeying God. Many of us have been blessed with Christian parents, Christian teachers, Christian elders, and have lived in a society where there is still a decent separation between Church and State. In this era of 'change,' we would do well to pray that we would be able to continue to have the opportunity to simultaneously obey both God and our civil authorities.

This isn't to say however that we aren't going to find ourselves in plenty of situations, where we will have to choose between God and man. In fact, on a daily basis we are faced with the choice between obeying God and obeying man - between obeying God and obeying the conventional wisdom of man which is also known as the 2nd component of our trinity of enemies: the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. Sadly we often find ourselves deciding to obey man at the expense of obeying God.

Rewind, from the time of the Apostles back to the Old Testament, all the way back to Daniel, to one of the classic Old Testament examples of obeying God rather than men. Daniel 6: 11-13: "(the administrators and satraps) found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: "Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions' den?" The king answered, "The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed." Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." Daniel, like Peter and the Apostles, obeyed God rather than men!

There is no fine print with exceptions or caveats attached to obeying God rather than men. We are not to obey God rather than men, except when... (fill in the blank). Even when it means we might be fed to salivating carnivores. Daniel knew this. And because he not only knew it, but he also carried it out, he was forced into the den filled with lions. Remember what the king did when he sentenced Daniel to the lion's den: Daniel 6:17: "A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed." Fast forward, not quite as far forward as our Lesson for this Sunday - there's another stone that was placed over an entrance. A stone that was protected by armed guards so that the 'situation might not be changed.' But thanks to God and His miraculous touch, in both scenarios the situation was in fact changed. Daniel in the first story and our Savior Jesus in the second, were both spared from having this spot behind the stone seal be their final destination! In the first scene Daniel's life was spared. In the second scene our eternal lives are spared. Because Jesus lives, we too will live eternally!

The empty tomb and what it represents gives us all the reason to thank and praise God by obeying God rather than men. To say thanks to the one who throughout His life as our substitute, always obeyed God rather than men. To say thanks to the one who died on the cross for us, to pay for the times when we failed to obey God rather than men. To say thanks to the one who like Daniel, spent time behind a rolled stone which wasn't His final resting place. When we take time to ponder what men have done for us, and compare that with what God has done for us - we must agree with Daniel and with Peter and the Apostles, we must add to our own personal mission statements, and we must say for ourselves: 'We must obey God rather than men!' Even more than just saying and agreeing to it - we, like Daniel and Peter and the Apostles, must do it! 'We must obey God rather than men!'