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Maybe the Apostles were Insane…have you ever thought about that?

Maybe the Apostles were Insane…have you ever thought about that? Acts 5.38-42
Were they suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Had they endured one too many floggings?
What was wrong with them, that they narrowly escape death, and go right back to defying what the authorities had required—STOP TEACHING ABOUT JESUS!
Respected Gamaliel, leader of the Sanhedrin—cast of 71—had just rescued the apostles, saying: “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
40 His speech persuaded them. They (the Jewish leaders) called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”
What gives? Did the apostles have no regard for authority or life and limb? Of course they respected both, but . . . they had passionate fervor to share with others what they had been given: new life in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. ‘Okay, okay,’ you say, ‘but even after being imprisoned and then severely beaten—why didn’t they have sense enough to keep their mouths shut?’
Peter announced the reason, “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”1
What someone has personally seen or experienced cannot be taken from him. No one can tell him it was not real or did not happen. These apostles had been with Jesus; heck, they were with him when he ascended into Heaven from where they were standing together on the Mt. of Olives! Who could tell them to be quiet about it, or that who Jesus was did not matter? No one.
And what gave the men the strength to keep on telling others, keep on giving away the new life they had been given,
keep on going though they were flogged—right up
to the point of death?
The Holy Spirit within them.
Are you up against it? Does there seem to be no answer to your woes? Are you fearful or lonely, desperate or worried? You may have every reason to feel as though there is no hope . . . except … you have the Spirit of the living God within you!
You, on your own … you, by yourself … you, in the natural … just might fall.
But when you have entrusted yourself to the living God and the work that Jesus did for you on the cross—which he did once and for all—then you are not alone. Because
He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.2
Get this—Paul captured this power that we have within us:
“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you…”3
And look how Jesus described it:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing,
and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”4
And that is because of the Holy Spirit he promised who would come, who did come …
That Holy Spirit equipped the apostles and early believers to keep on giving away the passionate truth they bore within themselves, no matter what anyone said or did to them. They were not crazy, they were not insane, they were sold out. If they had not been, there would be no Christ followers today, for those simple men shared the truth of what they had seen and experienced as eye witnesses of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God that no one could shut them up.