Civil Disobedience

“And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” —Acts 4:18–20

Here is a story with a very current subject. In our passage today, we read of Peter and John being jailed for unauthorized preaching. It followed closely the healing of the lame man in chapter three. The lame man was completely healed and the people were naturally very excited. But the religious leaders were disturbed. Peter and John had been attributing this miracle to Jesus Christ and the resurrection.

Furthermore, Peter had been boldly accusing the religious leaders of being responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They therefore tried desperately to silence Peter and John. Their only recourse was to throw them in jail. But Peter and John refused to be silent in the face of the order. So here we have a case of what today might be called civil disobedience.

This is nothing new. John Bunyan, author of that classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, was arrested three times and spent thirteen years in jail, all for the crime of preaching without proper credentials. His crime was said to be not attending the church of England, and preaching without their approval.

The warrant for his arrest stated that because he persisted in this, he was breaking the king’s good laws and therefore he was to be apprehended. So John Bunyan was guilty of civil disobedience. And the Jerusalem hierarchy of AD 30 was no more in favor of the unauthorized preaching of Peter and John. The first preachers of the Gospel had received their authority from Jesus Christ Himself, but because they lacked the necessary papers and approval from the authorities of their day, the Jerusalem leaders were determined to stop them.

You see, Peter and John were too irregular. They didn’t march to the beat of the established order of the day. They were transformed nonconformists.

Now there is a tendency for the established order to drift from its original purity. Important truths are forgotten. False emphasis creeps in. And then God often raises up a witness outside the regular channels. Several of the prophets are examples of this. The ranks of unauthorized preachers include men like Savonarola, Zinzendorf, Luther, Bunyan, Whitefield, Wesley, Finney, Moody, and a host of others.

The priests in charge of the temple were disturbed because they had come to desire things done in a certain way. Money changers selling their doves were allowed, but children of God lifting their voices in unrehearsed praise was out of order. Then too, the Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection and they were determined to stop anyone preaching about the subject. And miracles—these were stirring people up and all this was dreadfully irregular.

So let us look at what happens. According to verse 3, the apostles were arrested late at night. The authorities knew that if they were to do this during daylight hours, there might be public outcry against it.

But the Word of God cannot be bound.

During World War II, a German pastor, Martin Niemöller, stood before Hitler and said, “God is my Führer,” and for that he was removed from his pulpit and placed in a concentration camp. Martin Niemöller felt forced to engage in civil disobedience for the sake of Christ. But the Word of God still could not be bound.

Supernatural Power

I would like you to note another thing about the apostles. They had unquestionable power behind them. And this dismayed the authorities, because the evidence was so incontrovertible. The lame man stood before them whole and they could not deny it.

What made the disobedience of the apostles legitimate? It was the evidence of supernatural power which caused them to speak.

And this should be true of every Christian. The work of the church is that of helping and saving people. We are out to find people lying at the gate, excluded from our worship, lifting them up and making them worshipers of Jesus Christ. The church will convince none of her right to speak unless she can point to changed lives in men and women. The world wants to see miracles.

But there was one more thing that upset the authorities, and that was the persistence of the apostles. The hierarchy was used to seeing people melt in their presence. These priests were even used to bending the Roman officials to their wills. But this unabashed boldness of the apostles was shocking. There was only one way to stop them. Forbid them by law to preach. Then, if they persisted, they could be jailed.

But they forgot that these men lived by a higher authority. Said Peter, “We will do right in the sight of God.”

Yes, there are times when it is right to disobey the laws of men. But remember, there are also times when it is wrong to disobey.

Let me give you a few examples from the Scripture.

Exodus 1 tells of a Egyptian ruler who ordered the death of every Hebrew male child. But Exodus 1:17 says, “But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them.”

Jochebed, the mother of Moses, engaged in civil disobedience when she hid the child in a basket among the weeds in the river.

Consider Daniel 6:7 and the law of Darius that “whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days…he shall be cast into the den of lions.”

Daniel, fully aware of this law, disobeyed it. Chapter 6 tells us that Daniel, “went into his house…and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (v. 10).

Daniel disobeyed the king’s law. Daniel was involved in civil disobedience. Jeremiah, too, criticized the government of his time so severely that he was jailed and called a traitor to his nation.

However, there is another side to the question in the Scriptures. It speaks clearly concerning the Christian’s responsibility to obey his government.

Romans 13:1 says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

The apostle Paul is saying that no civil power exists except by God’s permission. Therefore, whoever resists civil power, resists God’s ordinance.

An example of this is found in Numbers 16, in the story of the rebellion of Korah and a band of Israelites. The government of the day was a theocracy and Moses was God’s chosen civil leader. And when the people rebelled against the authority of Moses, God judged them with sudden death. Jude 11 includes this kind of insurrection in a catalog of the evils of the last days.

Obedience To God

First Peter 2:13 tells us, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme.”

Now of course, the problem is to reconcile these two examples of Scripture. This is a very difficult problem to many Christians today. Here are a few questions to consider:

1. What would you do if you lived in Red China today. Civil law forbids you to gather for religious services. Yet the Bible says, “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.”
2. If you lived in Germany during Hitler’s time, would you have turned over a Jewish neighbor to the SS troops or would you have defied the government and hidden them?
3. If you were a pastor in Russia, would you preach against the atheistic doctrines of communism or merely teach the sections of Scripture that would not conflict?
4. If you were a believer in Christ and you lived in Cuba, would you join a revolutionary movement to overthrow Fidel Castro?
5. If the U.S. were involved in an unjust war, what would you do as a citizen?
6. All Americans affirm their beliefs in human equality. The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence confirm these principles. Yet, how are people who have been deprived of their rights to gain them? Christ died for all mankind. There are no inferior human beings because every man is made in the image of God.

So the ultimate test concerns the will of God in these matters. Peter was determined to obey God. He demonstrated that there are times when we must obey God rather than men.

Let me suggest some guidelines in this area which should help us.

Rule 1. Disobedience, if necessary, must be without violence. To be violent and to hurt someone is contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. The riots which shake our country are violent and they are evil. The violence which was done to Dr. King was also evil. These things are perpetrated by extremists who have no use for the laws of God.

Rule 2. The law being disobeyed must be clearly one contrary to the Word of God. This was Peter and John’s situation. They were commanded by their Lord to bear witness to the things they had seen and heard. The command of the authorities to be silent was clearly in conflict with God’s Word to them.

Many young men who are dodging the draft today are disobeying simply because they are self-centered and feel no obligation to serve their country. But there are others who feel that God’s Word “thou shalt not kill” or “they take that sword shall perish with the sword” is reason enough for them to resist military service. These are matters which each must decide in light of the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God, and the laws of the United States provide for honest, conscientious objectors.

Rule 3. As a general principle, disobedience must not be against civil rulers because these rulers (both good ones and bad ones) fall within God’s permissive and directive will.

Rule 4. Disobedience to civil authority involves consequences which the Christian must be willing to bear. Peter and John were so committed to Jesus Christ that they were willing to suffer ridicule, jail, [and] death to get the Gospel out.

The Scriptures imply that ordinarily the commandments of God and the commandments of men will be in unison. But it also establishes flatly that God is the Lord of the Christian’s conscience as well. If we are forbidden to bear witness to salvation in Christ, we must disobey that command. If we are ordered by authorities to do evil in the sight of God, we must disobey.

What Must Be Done

But there is so much which can be done without disobeying! We must ask, what is the church willing to do today to get the Gospel out? Can we be complacent when the world is in such great need?

Every day this week 10,000 people will die of malnutrition or starvation. More than half the world’s population lives in perpetual hunger. Millions more are diseased. The World Health Organization tells us that the number of malaria cases annually exceeds 200 million, with 2 million dying of it each year.

At the same time, millions of people are racially resentful today. Rev. Max Warren, secretary of a missionary society in Africa writes, “The revulsion of Africa against the money-motivated white man, unless checked, will fill our papers with horror items beside which the Mau Mau crimes will seem like Sunday schools tales.”

The Christ of the churches is saying to us today, “because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” There came a time in the life of the Laodicean church when they ceased to be a missionary force and they became a mission field.

Has this happened to the land we love, the United States of America?

A cozy, friendly church is an incredible contradiction in the face of Watts, Detroit, Newark, and Chicago!

Peter and John represented men on fire for the sake of the Gospel. They preached in the face of every difficulty. They also healed the lame. They fed the hungry. They cared for the widows. All this for the sake of Christ and the Gospel.

I ask you today, are we willing to be involved in these things for the Gospel’s sake?

May God revive us in these times and make us true soldiers of the cross.