Conflicts of Authority. Acts 4:4-21

In Acts chapter four we have the reaction that has set in from the Jewish governing authorities in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin. It is now deciding how it is going to handle the fact that of this known sign. They recognize that in Jerusalem everybody is fully aware of what has happened and the legitimacy of this miracle, and that it is a sign; it signifies something in relation to God’s plan. Acts 4:16 ^NASB “saying, “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.” They have lost face, and if this continues they are really going to lose face. At the end of this episode we will discover that one of the wisest rabbis of all time, Gamaliel, said: “Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men.… if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.” But what has happened here is that they were more concerned about saving face than about seeking the truth. So they are going to threaten Peter and John so that they will no longer proclaim the gospel and teach. Acts 4:17 ^NASB “But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name. [18] “And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.”

How would we respond to that if we were told that we were no longer to do any teaching in the name of Jesus, not to tell anybody else about Jesus, and we were prohibited about ever talking about our beliefs in the Bible by a judge? How would we to respond to that? We see their response in the next verse. Acts 4:19 ^NASB “But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; [20] for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. [21] When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened.” Notice the masses were now on the side of Peter and John. Only a few weeks before they were calling for Jesus to be crucified, so never trust in popular opinion, it can be swayed very easily from one day to the next.

The issue here that is raised is an issue that is becoming a more and more significant one in our culture, especially in the United States but to some degree in other countries in western civilization, because of a number of shifts that have taken place. This is the question of obedience to government authority. Does the believer have the right to disobey government authority at any point? If so, what are the parameters for determining when it is right for the individual believer to disobey a legitimate governing authority? This applies not only to civil government but also to any authority established by God, so it has a broad range of applications.

Basic introduction:

We must recognize that human government is a divine institution. A divine institution is not something that has been developed by human beings for their own benefit. It is different from a tradition; it has been designed and established by God for the benefit of the human race. A divine institution applies to every human being, it is not limited only to Christians, and it is designed for the stability, protection and preservation of the human race. The first three divine institutions were established by God prior to the Adam’s fall and they are a) individual responsibility and accountability to God for the choices and decisions made; b) marriage, which is between one man and one woman; c) family. As part of the mandate given by God to Adam and Eve prior to the fall they were mandated to multiply and fill the earth, and to subdue it. This indicates the family, and in this initial era from the creation of Adam and Eve until the Noahic flood the core authority framework in society was the family. And the highest human authority that we can discern was the head of the family, or later maybe the head of the clan, the patriarch. There is no sense of the delegation of authority in terms of human government until we get to the Noahic covenant in Genesis chapter nine.

Genesis 9:2 ^NASB “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.” This is the first mention of a relationship based on fear or terror between the human race and the animals. In Genesis 1:26, 27 when God said “and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” there is no sense of terror in the animal kingdom toward man, it was a relationship where there was peace and harmony. But now that relationship between the animals and the human race changes. In addition, 9:3, there is a dietary modification: “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as {I gave} the green plant. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as {I gave} the green plant.” In Genesis chapter one God gave the grass of the fields, the herb of the fields, the fruit of the trees for food, and man was not to eat meat—there was no death and they would need to kill something. Now in Genesis chapter nine God said: “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.” As yet there were no dietary restrictions, except one: “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, {that is,} its blood.” Then in verse 5: “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from {every} man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.” There is this issue of blood, because blood is evidence of life; the shedding of blood is the opposite, it is the taking of life. The point here is that there is now going to be a delegation of authority to supervise the decision-making that develops when somebody has taken the life of somebody else, there needs to be a system to evaluate the evidence to determine if it was justified or not. If it is not justified then there needs to be the determination and assignment of a penalty, and that penalty is stated in verse 6 ^NASB “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.” This is to reinforce the principle that because the human being is created in the image and likeness of God taking that life is so egregious that it demands the forfeiture of the life of the one who commits the crime. Notice that God doesn’t say that the reason for this is to prevent others from doing it. This is not talking about taking life is self-defense or in warfare.

This covenant is what establishes the basis for government, because now God is delegating to man judicial responsibility which was not there before. Man is going to govern over his own affairs and when there is criminal activity if man is given the authority to adjudicate in the greatest of crimes then he would also have the authority to adjudicate in lesser crimes. So this establishes the fourth divine institution which is human government.

The fifth divine institution doesn’t come into place until Genesis chapter eleven where we have the tower of Babel and the disobedience of the human race. At that point God separated the human race by confusing the languages and there is the basis for national distinctions and national entities.

Once this authority was established and delegated to man it wasn’t long before man began to pervert that authority. This is what happened at Babel. There was Nimrod who was called a great hunter before God, which is an idiom meaning that he was operating independently from God and was hostile to God, and he is the one who initiates the building of the tower of Babel and establishing the civilization there in Babel. So there is a perversion of government, but government is perverted because those who are in the positions of authority are fallen human beings who have sin nature, and sometimes they will fail in government positions egregiously and pervert government. Government in and of itself is not evil, it is neutral, but it is going to be carried out by sinners.

As things developed after the tower of Babel and the development of different nations what we see as they reject God is that once God is not the ultimate source of authority then they are going to replace God with something else. If there is no God who is the source of meaning and purpose and destiny, if there is no God who is the ultimate source of right and wrong, moral absolutes; if there is no God who is the source of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then who gives us our rights? The state. The state moves into that vacuum, and in the ancient world this was seen in many different instances. For example, in Egypt the Pharaoh became god. In Mesopotamian empires the king is simply a son of the gods or an incarnation of the god, not fully god as the Pharaoh. So this idea of the state becoming the ultimate authority and determiner of right and wrong has its origins going all the way back to the breakup of the nations at the tower of Babel. In modern times there was Frederick Gaylord Hegel, and early 19^th century philosopher, who said that the state was God walking on the earth. In his view the state was absolute. He was extremely influential in the thinking of Karl Marx and the development of Marxist political philosophy.

What we learn from this is that while some governments and some people in government are evil, government itself was instituted and established by God and God is the source of that authority. From what Scripture says, because it is a divine institution it is designed for the protection, the preservation and the stability of the human race; but it often becomes perverted by sinful people. So since we live in the devil’s world and since we ourselves are sinners, how are we to relate to authority in government or any other authority that is also dominated by sinful people and those sinful people pervert the institution itself?

What is the underlying issue in obedience to government? Think about the Scriptures. We think all the way through the Scriptures and we recognize that again and again and again there is this emphasis on obedience to authority. There is this emphasis that we cannot for almost any reason violate authority. The original sin of the universe was violation of authority—Satan rejecting the authority of God. It was that revolt against divine authority that set everything else in motion in terms of the angelic conflict, the creation of man and the human race, and sin within human history. God stresses this because to violate authority in a wrong way is to follow in Satan’s sin; it is based in arrogance and not in humility.

There are different spheres of authority mentioned in Scripture. It is not a strict hierarchy, although in some areas it is hierarchical; there are certain authorities over other authorities. The ultimate authority in the universe is God. God is the one, the Scripture says, who establishes all other authorities. Psalm 22:28 ^NASB “For the kingdom is the LORD’S And He rules over the nations.” This stresses God as the sovereign ruler of His creation. He allows sin for a time, allows the human race to go through this period when we can disobey and rebel, and yet God still rules in the affairs of men and still brings discipline and judgment even within human history. Psalm 103:19 ^NASB “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.” Psalm 47:8 ^NASB “God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.” The Hebrew Scriptures clearly affirm divine authority.

Another sphere of authority that exists is the family. Ephesians 5:22 ^NASB “Wives, {be subject} to your own husbands, as to the Lord”; 6:1 ^NASB “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Both of these are simply reiterations of Old Testament principles.

There is also an authority structure within the church. Ephesians 5:23 ^NASB “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself {being} the Savior of the body.” Christ is the head of the church, but there are other authorities under Christ. 1 Timothy 5:17 ^NASB “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” This relates to pastoral authority in the local church. Hebrews 13:17 ^NASB “Obey your leaders and submit {to them,} for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account…”

There is also an authority structure within the realm of employment. Colossians 3:22 ^NASB “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who {merely} please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” What does “all things” mean? Does that mean all things no matter what, or does it mean something else?

There is also the authority of the pedagogue in Galatians. That would be analogous to the authority of the school teacher today, the authority of the coach, the trainer, the authority of commanding officers in the military. In fact, there is no area of life that we can engage in where there is not an authority. One of the greatest ways to determine that you will destroy your ability to enjoy life is to be arrogant toward authority and not learn to submit to authority.

There are all of these authorities established by God but God also limits every authority. No human authority has unlimited authority, an unlimited ability to dictate to others: Ephesians 6:4, fathers; 1 Peter 3:7, husbands; 2 Corinthians 1:24, apostolic authority. In Matthew 20:25-28 Jesus talks about the difference between the way He is teaching authority and the way the non-Christian world viewed authority. ^NASB “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and {their} great men exercise authority over them. [26] It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, [27] and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; [28] just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” So the style of leadership in the church is to be different from what is seen as abuse of authority outside of the church in the world. 1 Peter 5:2, 3 ^NASB “shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to {the will of} God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”

Conclusion:

1. Authority in every human realm is established by God and delegated by God.

2. There is a hierarchy of authority, or greater authorities and lesser authorities.

3. All human authority is limited.

4. All human in authority are sinners and will be unjust at times in their decisions.

The question is: When and under what conditions does the believer have the right to disobey a legitimate authority?

Today we live in a world where there is increasing tensions between Christians and non-Christians in our culture. This tension has been there for centuries in any culture but they have been exacerbated in our culture over the last thirty or forty years. There is the example of “hate speech” and homosexuality. There is legislation on the books related to hate speech that can be used against pastors. In the US this hasn’t gone as far as it has in other nations. In Canada, Britain and Sweden there have been pastors who have been arrested simply because they have taught what Christianity has always taught, that homosexuality is a sin. So the question is going to come up at some point for Christians: Are you going to avoid saying what the Scripture teaches because the government has threatened you with prison because they are defining that as hate speech? Another example in the realm of religious beliefs and mandates from the state: New York passed a law validating same-sex marriage and as a result of that same-sex marriage is going to become legal. With this new definition of marriage that came into effect it will cause personal conflicts for certain country clerks in New York. If it is their belief that same-sex marriage is wrong, should they be forced to give marriage certificates for same-sex marriage? The issue here is: If you are a Christian, are you going to stand up for what you believe in or are you going to succumb to the pressure of the state? There are ways around this and the suggestion that has been put out by the Alliance Defense Fund is: If you are a clerk just delegate it to someone who can do it, don’t put yourself in that position where you have to personally violate that. There are other case like that coming up but Christians have to understand that they are going to be put by legislation in these kinds of positions.

In Romans chapter thirteen we have our foundational passage in the New Testament on government authority. Romans 13:1 ^NASB “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” When we get into this passage one of the things we should recognize is that there are basically three views that are out there in the Christian community as to how this passage relates to the individual Christian. The first view is that the government has an unlimited authority and this demands unrestricted submission. Whatever the government tells you to do you need to do it because this is the government. Unfortunately many of the people who are on various web sites take the third position and try to act like the people who take the second position are really in the first position. That is a logical fallacy; it is called a straw man argument—constantly misrepresenting what the options are. The second option which is the historically traditional way of understanding Romans 13 is that the authority of government is limited and that believers are responsible to submit to all areas of government legislation except that which directly contradicts God’s specific revelation. The third view also holds to a limited authority of government, but that the believer is not required to submit to a tyrannical or unjust law. The question is who is determining a tyrannical or unjust law. Who is making that decision? If you put yourself as an individual in that place you are just like Satan; you are making yourself the ultimate authority. It is very important to understand that. The example we have to deal with is that of David thinking it was wrong and even disrespectful for him to cut the hem of the garment that Saul wore when they were in the cave and Saul was out to kill him. That is foundational.

What is going on in Romans chapter thirteen? To understand it we have to get the context in chapter twelve. Romans 12 and following is talking about a series of very practical examples of obedience in the life of the believer’s in Rome. Paul starts with 12:1, 2 where he gives the overriding command that governs everything in the next two chapters. ^NASB “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, {which is} your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [spirit of the age; thinking of the culture], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” So Paul starts this section by saying the correct attitude of the believer is to recognize that his life is a life in service to God, and that that begins by not thinking like the world thinks—he is going to think differently about the world. The believer is going to have a different attitude about life, about government, about authority than the non-Christian world. That means at the very least his attitude about government will be different from the spirit of the age.

Romans 2:17 ^NASB “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.” If somebody has done evil to you it is not your personal responsibility to take that in hand and seek your personal vengeance against that individual. Our focus is on that which is good, not being vindictive. [18] If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. [19] Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath {of God,} for it is written, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,’ says the Lord.” The idea of “vengeance” in the Old Testament was a word for justice, it was not a personal vindictiveness. It was the idea of seeking justice. If was not the individual’s responsibility to seek justice, he was to go through the authority that God has established. This is the lead-in to Romans 13.

Question: Do I let him get off Scott free? No, there are proper authorities for handling injustice. Romans 13:1 ^NASB “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.” There must be order in dealing with injustice in society and that order comes from the governing authorities. This is why God has established government, going back to Genesis chapter nine; it is for order in society and to deal with evil. [2] “Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.” He is not just disobeying the law; he is disobeying God because God is the one who put that authority in place.

What if it is an unjust authority? Paul is writing this early in the reign of Nero when Nero was still a good king. Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 2:13, 17 but he is writing at the end of Nero’s reign when Nero was trying to kill all the Christians. One is under a good authority and one is under a bad authority because the principle is not relevant to the nature of the authority. The principle is part of the authority structure that God has built into the whole universe.

Romans 13:3 ^NASB “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil...” This is their role. What if they fail? That is another issue. Paul is not talking every point, he is laying the groundwork for the foundational role of government here. “… Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same.” His focus is on the individual. You just do the right thing and you are not going to have to worry about the government.

The issue is that God established these authorities. It is the office and the position of the authority, not the quality of the individual in that office that is important.