You’d think that the fact that the guys they had locked up in prison and put under a guard’s watch were gone (Acts 5:17-19) — though the prison was still locked and the guards never moved (Acts 5:23) — would have been enough for them to pause, take stock, and at least wonder to themselves, “Hey, maybe this is of God.” But nope! Instead, the high priest and his party of Sadducees doubled down. They went from being “filled with jealousy” (Acts 5:17) to being filled with murderous rage (Acts 5:33). If a prison couldn’t stop these followers of Jesus from talking about His resurrection, they reasoned, then death would. Crazy!

But a cooler head prevailed. A Pharisee named Gamaliel speaks up. Hey guys, he says (kinda), this isn’t our first rodeo — there have been others who had a Messiah complex, who’ve tried to sell a Messiah conspiracy, and they’ve vanished. If this is that, then there’s nothing to get wound up about.

But this wasn’t that. This was not of man.

“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!” ~ Gamaliel

(Acts 5:38-39 ESV)

If this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

If this program is merely human, it will fall apart (MSG). It will collapse of its own accord (Philips). It will come to nothing (NKJV). Literally, it will “dissolve,” it will “disunite.”

If this Christianity thing is just a fad, it’ll fade. If it’s of man, it’ll never make it.

Guess what? Not of man!

Two-thousand years later and still, the resurrection stands. Millennia have passed and yet the testimony continues. In this modern age, unlike any age before, still a people testifies that God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever and that He has sent His Son to redeem for Himself a people. His living Son. His ruling Son. His returning Son. His saving Son.

If this plan is of man, it will fail . . But it ain’t and it hasn’t. It is of God.

“The Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42). That’s what was proclaimed then, it’s still being proclaimed now. There is “forgiveness of sins” through Jesus (Acts 5:31). The witness of the apostles long ago, the continuing testimony of the Spirit today (Acts 5:32).

The gospel — the power for salvation — has not failed, faltered, or faded. For it is not of man, it is the power of God (Rom. 1:16).

Just sit in that. Far from failing, the good news of the kingdom come continues to flourish through lives lived that transcend the world’s skepticism, cynicism, jealousy, and rage.

Whatever tempest about us, whatever turmoil within us, we know that what has secured us is not of man, but of God. It is our anchor. It is our refuge. It is our hope.

You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart! (“I Serve a Risen Savior”, Alfred Henry Ackley)

Not of man.

But by God’s unfailing grace and for God’s all-deserving glory.