October 13, 2025 –  This Is How I Fight My Battles — Acts #16
Acts 5:33-42

Today, we will conclude our story in Acts 5.  Remember that the apostles are all placed in prison overnight for disobeying a specific order from the highest court in Israel.   But God decided that they didn’t need to stay there overnight.  He sent an angel to release them so they could return to the temple and resume preaching that same message.  As the choir just sang, “If you need freedom or saving, He’s a prison-shaking Savior.  If you got chains, He’s a chain breaker.”

Acts 5:33-42  When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 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. 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.

First, let’s discuss the principal players in this section of the story.  They are meeting in the council of the highest court, the Sanhedrin.  Remember that the high court of priests was composed of two religious groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  These two groups differed in their religious beliefs, their social standing, and the focus of their religious practice.   

Social/Political Standing- 
Sadducees were the aristocrats; they were generally wealthy.  They were politically involved and often allied with the Romans.  Pharisees were a lay movement popular among the ordinary people and the middle class. 

Religious Beliefs
Sadducees accepted the first five books of the Torah.  They rejected the Oral Torah (the laws added by the Pharisees).  They did not believe in supernatural beings (angels or demons) and dismissed the idea of an afterlife and the resurrection of the dead.

Pharisees accepted the authority of the entire written Torah (our whole OT) and the Oral Torah (the laws they believed were handed down to Moses but not written in the Scriptures.  Laws that their predecessors continued to refine over time.  They believed in angels, demons, and other spiritual beings as well as in the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead.  

Religious focus
The Sadducees’ religious focus was on the temple and the rituals there (and of course, the collection of temple taxes, contributions, and other sources of revenue).  The Pharisees focused on righteousness, as defined by keeping all of the commandments (written and oral).

The Sadducees were against Jesus from the beginning.  His teaching emphasized the resurrection that they completely rejected.  And Jesus threatened their political power, and then he threatened their authority and their pocketbooks when he cleansed the temple of the money changers.

We often overemphasize the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus.  Initially, they were curious about Jesus and his beliefs, and their debate with him was not aggressive but rather their usual learning style.  Jesus certainly had more in common with the Pharisees than the Sadducees.  He often ate in their homes.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee, as was Paul.  At one point, Pharisees warned him of a plot on his life.  Later, as his rejection of the Oral Law became clearer, some of them (not all) joined the Sadducees in their opposition to Jesus.

In the days of Jesus and Acts, the Sadducees had a greater representation on the Sanhedrin, and they controlled the high priesthood.  But they needed the support of the Pharisees there to maintain social stability.

Knowing this, let’s look back at the story we have been working through in Acts.  The apostles are continuing to preach their primary story of Jesus being the Messiah and God raising him from the dead.  You can now understand why the Sadducees on the court are particularly angry about this, for they say resurrection is impossible.  That is why 

Acts 5:33  When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

We looked at this word translated here, “enraged,” back in July.   The Greek is diaprio, which literally means “sawn in half.”  This is an abbreviated version of what we see in Acts 7:54, which in Greek is “diapriō kardia autos” and is translated in the ESV “enraged,” but in the King James Version more literally “cut to the heart.”  This is extreme anger, bordering on rage or madness.  These apostles have, according to the Sadducees, “filled Jerusalem with your doctrine [of resurrection from the dead]” and they are thus way beyond just angry to the point of planning how to kill them.

These religious leaders think they stand on righteous ground when they desire to kill the apostles.  They feel like they are defending the true religion against some new heresy.  They believe these apostles are deceiving people and leading them astray.  They must be stopped to protect the true faith. They feel that it is their duty to defend the faith.  They are defending God himself.  

Enter Gamaliel.  
Gamaliel was no obscure figure. He was the most respected Pharisee of his day, later known as “Gamaliel the Elder.” According to Acts 22:3, the apostle Paul himself studied under him. Jewish tradition holds Gamaliel in high esteem—wise, balanced, and respected by all. Here, in Acts 5, Gamaliel demonstrates that wisdom. He commands the council to pause and consider what they are doing (always good advice).:

Acts 5:35  “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men.”

He reminds them of two failed movements—Theudas and Judas the Galilean—both of which at first received considerable support but fizzled out after their leaders died. Then comes his key insight:

Acts 5:38-39  “If this plan or 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!”

In other words, you don’t need to defend God. If this movement isn’t from Him, it will collapse. If it is from Him, nothing can stop it. That’s faith. That’s confidence in the sovereignty of God. And it stands in stark contrast to the anxious defensiveness that we see in the Sadducees and that so often characterizes religious people—even today.

Let’s be honest: most of us are more like the Sanhedrin than Gamaliel. When Christianity is criticized, when society moves away from biblical values, or when our beliefs are mocked, we feel a surge of indignation. We want to “strike back”—with words, with politics, sometimes even with hostility.

The church has a long history of poorly reacting to perceived threats against religion.  Let me give you just a few examples:

The Crusades (11th–13th centuries): After centuries of Islamic military expansion and the conquest of the Holy Land by the muslims, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in 1095, asking knights to come to the aid of the church to defend it’s honor, to expell the Muslims from the Holy land, and in doing so, to get remission of all their sins.  They did liberate Jerusalem, but along the way, crusading armies responded with violent sieges and massacres of thousands of people, including entire Jewish communities in the Rhineland, seeing the Jewish “enemies of God” as a more immediate threat than Muslims in the Holy Land.  Many Jews were given the option of forcibly converting or dying.  This established a violent pattern that was repeated in later crusades and pogroms. The Crusades are part of our sad history, reflecting an aggressive and militarized response to a perceived religious threat.

The Counter-Reformation (16th–17th centuries): The Catholic Church responded to the rise of Protestantism with a Counter-Reformation. This involved theological reforms, but also violent persecution in Catholic-dominated territories. Protestants were labeled heretics and subjected to torture, as in the Spanish Inquisition. Many were hanged or burned at the stake for their views. The French Wars of Religion involved decades of brutal civil war and included the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, in which Catholics slaughtered thousands of Protestants.  All in the name of “defending the faith.”

Lest you think it was only the Catholic Church responding with violence, John Calvin participated in the trial of a theologian, Michael Servetus, who was burned at the stake; Martin Luther endorsed the brutal drowning of Anabaptists and the burning of heretics.  He wrote pamphlets that encouraged the violent suppression of a revolt in Germany, and also wrote a pamphlet supporting the persecution of the Jews, including burning their homes and synagogues.  Again, all in the name of defending true religion.

Witch hunts (15th–18th centuries): In both Protestant and Catholic areas of Europe and in the US, hysteria and fear of witchcraft led to the persecution and execution of tens of thousands of people, most of them women. Theologians often conflated magic with heresy, justifying the punishment of witches as a way to defend Christianity against perceived Satanic threats.

How about in our times?   
One morning in December 1994, my wife was in a grocery store just across the street in Brookline, Massachusetts, when John Salvi opened fire in an abortion clinic on Beacon Street, killing two people and wounding five others.  This, Salvi said, in defense of the Catholic Church.

And you know of the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church that have held protests at military funerals as well as at the funerals of gay victims of crimes.  On May 14, 2008, two days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people, WBC issued a press release thanking God for the heavy loss of life in China, and praying “for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese.”

And you know of Jerry Falwell, who in 1980 proclaimed that the AIDS epidemic was a divine punishment for homosexuality.  John Hagee commented on Hurricane Katrina in 2005, stating he believed New Orleans was being punished for its “level of sin.”  The day after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, televangelist Pat Robertson claimed the disaster was the result of a “pact with the devil.”  And then, after the events of 9/11, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other conservative figures suggested that the attacks were divine judgment for America’s supposed moral failings, including the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality. 

And this is just a tiny sample of centuries of hostility and hate, all in the name of protecting religion, defending the church, or standing up for God.  This is the same attitude driving this Jewish court in our story. 

So how are we to respond?  How do you react when you feel someone is attacking your religion or your church, or Jesus himself?   Aren’t you responsible for speaking up when people are berating your God and your faith?  You can’t just sit back and let it go on, can you?  Someone has to fight that battle, don’t they?

Seven years ago, a song came out of Overcomers Church in Dallas, Texas, with a great message, though I have to admit that I initially found it annoyingly repetitive. The lyrics are:  “This is how  I fight my battles.  It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you.  This is how I fight my battles, right here at your table. Your blood and your body have overcome.  Grace, Grace, Grace.  This is how I fight my battles.”   

There is a great story in 2 Chronicles 20:19-23.  The armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir have come to attack Judah.  King Jehoshaphat set up his army to stand against them.  And who did he put on the front lines?  Who did he put right at the front of his army?  Not his infantry.  He appointed Levites and singers to go out before the army, praising God with loud voices.  And God defeated those armies, with the soldiers of Judah never having to fight.   This is how we fight our battles.  We fight our battles with praise to the Lord.   

In Second Kings 6, the prophet Elisha and his servant are under attack by the armies of Aram, and the servant is scared because they are surrounded.  

2 Kings 6:15-17  When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Yehovah, please open his eyes that he may see.” So Yehovah opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.  It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you.   This is how we fight our battles.

The Israelites are escaping Egypt.  They have a body of water in front of them that they cannot cross, with the Egyptian army coming toward them.

Exodus 14:10-14  When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to Yehovah. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of Yehovah, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. Yehovah will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.

And the Israelites pass through the water on dry land and the Egyptians drown. Stand firm, be silent, Yehovah will fight for you. This is how we fight our battles.

And one night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is taken prisoner by the temple guards.  And Peter takes a sword and attacks those arresting Jesus. 

Matthew 26:52-54  Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

A few hours later, Jesus stands before those who can sentence him to death.

Matthew 27:12-14  But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Silence before those who berate and accuse you.   This is how I fight my battles.

Why was Jesus silent?  Because He knew the truth didn’t need to win an argument. He didn’t need to win a court trial or a debate.  He was there to win a battle with sin and death.  A battle that he would win not by winning, but by dying on a cross, and by lying 3 days in a grave, and then by rising from the dead.  This is how I fight my battles: in silence before my accusers, then with the thundering power of an almighty God who can conquer death.  God’s truth does not need a verbal defense.  His truth will be evident in His will being done despite any opposition.

And the entire story of Scripture shows this: God’s truth has never needed human defense. It only needs faithful witnesses.

We need to study scripture and learn the lessons there.  When we feel attacked, we don’t act in fear and panic.  We don’t rush to the offensive or the defensive.  We stand still in silence and see Yehovah fight for us.  We don’t need to win debates on Facebook or in public.  We don’t need to win arguments; we need to win hearts.  And that comes through the body and the blood of Jesus, the love and mercy and grace of the Father, not through our words or our swords.  This is how we fight our battles.

If we feel like we need to defend God, then we don’t understand who God is.   Ancient people believed that their gods needed human support in the form of sacrifices — animal or even human—to live. We saw in Egypt how they felt they needed to bring their Gods food to eat and people to serve them.  Yehovah, however, makes abundantly clear in the Bible that He is not like that. He does not need our sacrifices or offerings, and He doesn’t need us to defend His honor.  He is self-sufficient.

And we do not need to defend the gospel message.  Charles Spurgeon said it best: “The Gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended. It just needs to be let out of its cage.”If you look up every use of the word “defend” in the Bible, you will see that it is God who is our defender.  We are not to defend ourselves, and we are not to defend Him.   This is an essential message to a world where Christians are constantly talking about defending “our” rights.  

But the Scripture does call us to defend somebody.  Not God and not our rights or ourselves.  We are called to defend the fatherless, widows, oppressed, afflicted, poor, and foreigners.

Proverbs 31:9  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Isaiah 1:17  Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Deuteronomy 10:18  He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

What if Christians focused their energy on these things and defended the purity of the gospel message? The faith that Jesus initiated would suddenly become much more attractive. And remember, God doesn’t need us to defend Him. He wants us to represent Him!  There’s a big difference.

These apostles were sentenced by this court and flogged, chained to a post, and beaten with whips.  Then they were released, and how did they respond? 

Acts 5:41  Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Their backs are bleeding with deep wounds, and in intense pain, they rejoice.  They had seen their Lord just months ago, punished in this same manner.   They celebrate they they are worthy to suffer like him.   This is how we fight our battles.  Did this stop the spreading of God’s message?  No, because as Gamaliel said, “if it is of God, you will not be able to stop it. Chapter 5 ends with this verse:

Acts 5:42 “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

This is how we fight our battles.