Gamaliel's Ethics - Not Enough to Save

We see in these verses the sinful, unreasonable anger of the council against the Apostles. That anger was quelled by the very powerful words of a man named Gamaliel. He certainly was a very great man to be able to undertake this task. What shall we say of him? Was he a true and faithful Christian man, or was he compromised in his convictions? Was he for Christ and for the Apostles, or was he speaking in simply a selfish way? It is important for us to determine this, because our answer to that question may well determine what kind of a response that we will give under somewhat similar circumstances. We ourselves may be brought before the authorities someday for preaching or sharing Jesus, or we ourselves might be present in situations where it will be determined what is to be done about people who have been preaching the gospel. What will we say? What will we do? Gamaliel was a master of words and therefore we do have some things to learn from him. And yet, we shall also see that even though he was great in this way, in a human sense, that Christ was not his Savior, or his Master, or His King. And so let us think together this morning of how Gamaliel used his words to influence the decisions of the men around him, and how we ourselves can and should use our words to influence and change people around us.