going to be no surprises anymore. Uh going back will be the surprise we've been waiting for. Alright, it's today. That'd be great. That'd be great. Alright. Acts chapter number three is where we are at in our study. The Adventures in Acts. Um today, we are going to cover a lot of ground. We're going to be doing a lot of reading of the Bible which of course is a good thing but mainly because there's just a lot a lot of story here. A lot to a lot to get study Acts line by line like we do on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, because I'll do that again some other time, but to just give an overview of the book of Acts in, you know, 10 or 20 weeks. And so we've been in Genesis for over a hundred messages now, and I don't want to do that with the book of Acts, so we're trying to just do an overview here, so we're going to read a lot of passages uh this morning and we're gonna preach out a few things and and hopefully it'll be a blessing to you. Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you. We thank you for all you do for us. Pray you please be with my family now and also be with us here at this church as we seek to open your word and learn from it. We love you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, Acts chapter number three and starting in verse number one. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple, at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour. And a certain man, laden from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple." Just pause for a moment here and say, this just reminds me so much of some religions today where the temple itself is called Beautiful. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's nice to have a beautiful building. I'm thankful that we have...somebody was telling me this week that this is one of the most beautiful church buildings they've ever been in. And they said it's signed from the Catholic Church. That's a whole different ballgame there. We don't have millions of dollars to waste, I mean, spend on buildings. We're too busy spending on things like missionaries and tracts and things like that. But we have here a temple that's called Beautiful, and you can see the capital B there. That's the name of that temple. And it just reminds me of some churches where, even today, the focus is more on the exterior and more on the building than on the actual church, which is the people. So I'm glad that you and I are the church, not this building. I am glad to have the building, though, and I am glad it's beautiful. But the name of this church is not Beautiful Baptist Church. That'd be something. Beautiful Baptist Church in Silver Rock, Michigan. No, we'll go with Crossroads. So, verse number three, who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asking all, and Peter fastening his eyes upon him, and John said, look on us, and he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. That's pretty bold. That's pretty cool. This is the first, the first we hear of something like this happening and so, so Peter, sometimes you need that guy that sticks his foot in his mouth a bunch because other people are too timid to try anything and so Peter, who often would say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing all throughout Christ's ministry, here, he's stepping out on a limb and he's the first one that we read of that actually says, In the name of Christ, you're healed. And I mean, it's not like this guy had a broken leg. This guy's been been lame, unable to walk since birth. So so pretty bold, pretty full of faith here. And sure enough, we see in verse number seven, and he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. and he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And now we're celebrating again this morning. We're going to prove what we always say about getting different things out of a passage every time we look at it. This morning, Lord willing, the Sunday sermon is going to be on this first eight verses of this chapter. Um so, we won't dive into a lot of detail right now with it but I want you to see the people's reaction. Verse number nine, all the people saw him walking and praising god and they knew that it was he which sat for an hour for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at them at that which had happened unto him and as the lame man which was healed, healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Solomon's greatly wondering. So, you see the the contrast here is is so clear when Christ comes into somebody's life, there's enough of a change that people notice. People say that's not the same person that he was this morning. That's not the same person that he was yesterday. And now I know that you get saved and it's immediate, but that doesn't mean that your sins are all, that you're going to have complete mastery over your sins and temptations day one. I know people that they've been saved and they pour all their alcohol down the sink first day, never touched it again. I know people that were saved and struggled with it for years until they finally got rid of it. And so, you know, it may not be an instant transformation of every single thing in your life, but there ought to be something that people can see that say, hey, there's something different about you today than there was yesterday. What happened? and uh in my own life, I'm thankful that I can I can say that I have that example of I was a I was a rock kid. Uh when I was younger, I would pick fights for just for fun because it's fun to fight and um you know, do things like that and I'd I'd be the one getting the mischief and and by senior year, I was known as the preacher. I was the Bible Thumper. I was the kid that had my Bible in school all the time. and they gave me the Mock Award for Most Changed Person. And I was like, praise the Lord, that's great. I wasn't going, I didn't know that even existed, but they made one up for me and one of the kids, and I was thankful for that, because that's what happens when Christ comes into the life. He changes the life to the point where everybody around notices, and they're curious, like, what happened to this guy? And so it's neat to see the reaction of those people. And you say, you know, if you're one who says, well, I don't know if I'm truly saved or not. I made a profession of faith when I was young or whatever it may be, but I just never really felt saved. One thing that I can tell people is, did anybody else notice a difference in your life? If you didn't notice a difference in your life, and nobody else noticed a difference in your life, and the Bible says that somebody who is saved is a new creature, and old things pass away and old things become new, that might be a pretty good indicator that there's something that needs to be done. Now, some people get saved at a very young age. I was saved when I was very young. My pastor was saved at seven, my wife was saved at four, I think and so, you know, there may not be a massive change. You know, you got don't got four-year-olds walking around drinking and smoking and giving all those up when they get saved but but there should be a difference in the life. Even just an attitude, whatever it may be. Uh our daughter Adeline even, you know, she's still in that training process of being raised and you know, she she made her a profession of faith, and we believe she got saved, and we've interrogated her several times about it, but it just, you know, right away there was this difference in her, and you can't even explain it, you can't point to one particular behavior, but you just see it. And so, their reaction is good testimony to that man that there was a change. Of course, his change was very visible, went from being a lame man sitting on the ground asking for alms, being carried everywhere he had to go, to the guy jumping and leaping and praising God and walking around. And so, verse 12, this is a very important point we need to get. When God does something like this, we can't let it go to waste, verse 12. And when Peter saw it, When he saw everybody rushing together to see what had happened, he answered unto the people he met of Israel, Why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses." Now, he continues the message, but I gotta stop here and say, again, bold, straightforward preaching. He is not sugarcoating anything, he's not dressing it up, he's saying, this happened because of, and through the name of, and the power of, the man that you killed. You killed the Prince of Life. God raised him from the dead. What did we talk about last week? What's the gospel? The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so, in this message again, in Peter's second message, after the Day of Pentecost, we see him preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ again. That's the message. The message isn't politics. The message isn't Every little doctrine in the book, the first and foremost message the lost need to hear is the gospel, is salvation. Once they've got that message, then you can go on to other things, but this is the most important thing. So he calls them out, he tells them exactly what's going on. And then verse 16, And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So again, he gives God the glory, he gives Christ particularly, and faith in Christ, the glory for what has happened. Verse 17, And now, brethren, I want that through ignorance ye did it. as did also your rulers." So, he gives them the out, he says, you know, you killed the Prince of Light, but I'm gonna say you did it ignorantly. You did it ignorantly, you didn't know any better, you didn't know what you were doing, verse 18, but those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. He says, you know what, you did this, you did it ignorantly, but by doing it, you fulfilled prophecy. lots of prophecy, where Christ had to suffer. And so it's nice, because it's like he's preaching to them, and he's telling them, you're murderers, but he's also saying, because of that, some prophecy has been fulfilled, and God's plan has been fulfilled, and so it's like pointing out how terrible somebody is, and then turning it around and saying, but God used it. And so, I can relate that to my life, because I know, you know, how terrible I have been in my life and things I've done, and yet, God can still use me. And you know in your life what sins you've committed or what things you struggle with, what temptations take hold on you, and yet God can use you. And so, it's kind of a nice message here, where he starts off by saying, you're a bunch of murderers, but then he says, even though you did that, God used it, to bring forth, to make this prophecy be fulfilled and to bring forth this wonderful thing, salvation. Verse 19, repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And ye shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. I want you to notice it says that God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets. I've told you before and I'll say it again, you can find Christ referred to in every book of the Old Testament. If you look hard enough, you can find Christ in just about every page. I mean, it's just, he's all throughout the Bible. Prophecies, shadows, foretellings, images of Christ and of salvation and of his resurrection, all that, it's all throughout there. There's no Old Testament prophet that didn't prophesize Christ. And so, it's very interesting. I was tempted to go through and make a big ol' huge list and say, this prophet said this, and this prophet said this, but I had to remind myself, this is an overview. This is an overview. This is not an in-depth study. It's an overview. So, otherwise, we would be in Acts for the next couple of years, which we will do eventually. All right, so he sees this preaching opportunity. He's continuing. Where are we at in the verse? What? Twenty. Twenty. Alright. That's exactly the one I was looking at. And he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. So here, he's given the example of Moses being the prophet and talking about another prophet, which was Christ, and saying, you know, if you don't hear him, if you refuse his words and his message, your soul will be destroyed. Verse 24, yea, all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as various have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our father, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquity. So, first of all, all the way back to verse 12, Peter notices a preaching opportunity. Now, hold your place in Acts chapter 2 and turn with me to 1 Peter chapter number 3 and 2 Timothy chapter number 4. 1 Peter 3, 2 Timothy 4. Half the battle in witnessing is training ourselves to notice the opportunities that are given to us. There are plenty of times when you have a conversation with somebody, an interaction with somebody, when there really isn't a good opening to bring up the gospel, to bring up Christ. But there are definitely times if we'll train ourselves to look for them, or to try to create them on our own, opportunities where it is very sensible, very reasonable to bring up Christ, and so it's not don't don't get me wrong. You can bring up Christ at the drop of a hat. That's wonderful but but to seamlessly integrate Christ into a conversation without making the person feel like you're just just throwing this this random topic on them that helps with witnessing and you just walk up to somebody and start talking about Christ. Odds are in today's day and age in our culture, they're just going to think you're nuts and and and you say, well, I'm That's good and I agree with you but they don't and so to be able to notice openings in a conversation or create openings in a conversation where you can seamlessly integrate the gospel into whatever you have been talking about, that is a skill that every Christian can have and can refine in their lives. We would do with the youth group in Michigan, we did it once with our youth group here, the witnessing practice where we would create false identities and we would take turns witnessing to each other's false identity and you can have a lot of fun with that, but it also gives us opportunities to uh to help each other out and say, okay, what what could they have brought up? What verse could they have used? What topic could they have used? And uh and everything in the past, we've we've gone from everything from video games to food and and all of them, we figured out ways to just seamlessly work in the gospel and it just, it's one of those things where Christians can get better at it if we try, if we try. It's a skill that is that is learn. Some people are just automatically good at it. Not everybody is, but we're all commanded to be witnesses. So, we ought to try. So, he notices a preaching opportunity. First Peter chapter 3 and verse 15, the Bible says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So, in this verse we see if we are living the way we ought to be living, if we are living for the Lord and we have hope and people can see that, we need to be ready when they ask us, hey, why are you so happy all the time? Hey, what is it in your life that makes you not so worried about all this that's going on? What is different about you? We need to be ready to answer that question. and and not say, well, I, you know, why I'm a, I'm a democrat or a republican but to be able to say, I'm a Christian and and I have the word of god and I have Christ and and I can show you exactly how you can have peace through troubled times as well. And so, being ready to answer that question when it comes and also, in second Peter four two, the Bible says, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, recruit, rebuke, exhort with all There are times and seasons where preaching is expected, like a Sunday morning service. There are times and seasons where preaching is not expected, like what we were just talking about, where you can preach the word even when it's an unexpected time or when it's not really what the time that people would think is for preaching. We've had people before tell us, when we're out on the streets handing out gospel tracts and trying to talk to people about the Lord, that we've had people say, keep it in the church. And my answer to them is, I've had self-proclaimed Christians, more people that have said that to me, have said that and then told me what church they're from, than people who don't believe in God. That's a shame. That person should be ashamed of themselves, because they're telling me that God isn't important enough to them to take them with them on Sunday afternoon when they leave church. And I tell them, when they tell me that, my Savior can't be restricted to a church. My God is bigger than that, and I want to take Him with me everywhere. And so, you know, people say, keep Him in the church, but we need to be ready always. Whether it's in season, whether it's an expected opportunity, or whether it's out of season, and all of a sudden, the plumber's at your house fixing something, and something comes up, and you say, you know what? here's an opportunity. He just said something. I can interject my faith right into this and and it happens a lot and and you know, the more that you take advantage of those opportunities, the more the opportunities will come and it's it's like it's like when you trust a kid with chores, if if you trust a kid with chores and they do the chores and do them well, you're more likely to give them different things to do and more things to do just like with an employer. You got some employees I'm sure that you know you can give them more work than other employees because they can handle it and because they've proven that because the last job you gave them to do they did. But if you have two people and one of them does the job and one doesn't, who are you going to give the next job to? The one that did the work, not the one that didn't accomplish the first task. So the more that we obey the call to witness, the more that we obey the call to preach and teach and get the gospel to people, the more opportunities the Lord will give us. I firmly believe that in my own life. I've every uh I lately, I've I've been trying every year to to make some goals, some personal goals that only I know of um about my ministry and even about the church and and things that I'd like to see happen uh and then just some of them are really out there and if they happen, they happen. Some of them are pretty simple. One of the goals that that I've that I've had the last couple of years was that um by such and such a date, I will have preached in X uh whether it be a different church or the rally or whatever it may be and uh that was and and since then god has far exceeded that number and and i've been able to i've been given opportunities to share the gospel in places i would have never expected And so, it's just one of those things where if you want God to use you, he'll use you. But he knows your heart's desire. If you're not really in it, if you really don't care, if you're not gonna take advantage of opportunities that he gives you to share the gospel, why would he send those opportunities your way? So, we need to train ourselves to be ready and to notice those opportunities and to take advantage of those opportunities. Then we saw his sermon, you killed Christ, Christ the one that healed this man. All the prophets spoke of him and and that last part that we saw in the sermon is god raised him up for you. So, you know what? You may have killed him but god raised him up for you and so that's a good reminder to all of us that you know, we we are the ones that put Christ on a cross. We are the ones that sinned and and required our sin debts to be paid for and and so essentially, we He didn't do it for himself. He didn't do it for one or two people he really liked. He did it for us, for all of us, for the world. So then we come to Acts chapter 4 verse 1. And so this is a continuation. Just keep in mind, the Word of God is perfect. The Word of God is inspired. The chapter divisions are not Holy Spirit of God inspired. They're put there to help us. If we had no chapter divisions and no verse numbers, it'd be a whole lot harder to preach. I'd be like, all right guys, go to Acts, the 17th page and about halfway down the page and catch up with me. When you think about how much more difficult it would be if there was no chapter numbers or verse numbers, it'd be a lot harder to preach and teach. So they're there and they're helpful, but they're not Holy Spirit inspired, so here we have this passage into chapter four but it's the exact same story. It's the exact same message. Nothing has changed and you know that especially because it starts with the word and you know, like tenth grade English or or even earlier, we know, you know, and is not typically how you start a sentence unless you're connecting to a previous thought. So, so just a reminder there that, you know, if you sometimes it's a hindrance to just say, I'll read a chapter a day. because there's some stories, some thoughts, some sermons in the Bible that cover several chapters, and if you stop at one spot, you're not gonna get the whole message. So it's good to keep that in mind during your Bible reading. Chapter four, verse one, and as they speak unto the people, so what's happening here? Christ has healed this man, the power of Christ has healed this man, and Peter and John are talking to the people about it, and they're preaching, and they're teaching, And so verse 4, chapter 4, verse 1, And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And I remember those Sadducees, they were sad, you see, because they didn't believe the resurrection. We find that out later on in the book of Acts. The Pharisees did, the Sadducees didn't, but here this group, they come out and they say they're preaching in Jesus' name, the resurrection of the dead, we gotta stop this. Verse three, and they laid hands on them, and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now even tide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. You think about when persecution comes when persecution comes, the thing is in a place where the gospel has not been when the gospel comes into that place and it's persecuted, it seems like the persecution just adds fuel to the fire. Everything from the first churches under Rome, where Nero would capture Christians and impale them on stakes in his garden and light them on fire to light his garden at night. Persecution like that, to persecution today in China. It seems like any time the Gospel comes into a place where it hasn't been or has been suppressed, and there's persecution, it just makes the Gospel spread like wildfire, because it weeds out, that persecution means that only those who are fully dedicated to the Lord are even involved in the church. We've seen a little bit of that with this whole virus thing. We've seen, I've cited studies that say over 30% of people don't attend church anymore just because of what's happened. And you think about when real persecution hits, yes, we will lose a lot of church folk, But what's left, it's like a refining fire. What's left is gonna be the people that are full on, dedicated to God, and that persecution just fires people up. And they're like, all right, well, if they're gonna try and silence me about my savior, I'm just gonna be even louder. And it's almost like a rebellious streak in all of us, but it's a good one. And so the persecution hits, and here we have more people believing than believed at Pentecost. The Pentecost 3000 were added to the church. Here, we have 5,000 men that are that are listening and hearing this message and and the indication is that those 5,000 men believe. And so, I would say that persecution is is not always a bad thing. We may not enjoy it but uh the lord can sure use it in in the lives of people. Uh crazy day for these guys though. Peter and Maybe they're going there with the intent to preach Christ, maybe they're just going there to mingle, I don't know, probably to preach Christ, but they get there, they see this man before they even get in the doors, they power the Lord through beer, they heal the man, and it turns into a sermon, turns into a massive repentance of people, and then turns into jail. Quite a day, quite a day. I want to point out, though, who these people particularly were that came out and grabbed the disciples here. Let's read verses 5 through 7. And it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem, And when they had sent them in the midst, they asked them, by what power, by what name have you done this? So hold your place in Acts chapter four. We saw some names there. I want to take you to another place where these men are found. John chapter 18. John chapter number 18. Talk about the Lord giving you unique opportunities to witness. This is about as unique as it gets. John chapter 18 and verse number Let's start in verse 13. Christ has been taken out of the Garden of Gethsemane, and verse 13, and led him, that is Christ, away to Annas first, for he was fathered along Caiaphas, which was a high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. So Caiaphas and Annas are key figures in orchestrating the crucifixion of Christ. Verse 24 of the same chapter. Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. Verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment. And it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. This high priest, Caiaphas, and Annas, his father-in-law, These men are the men that led Christ to Pilate. These are the men that interrogated him at first. They're the men that took him out of the garden. These are the men. If you were gonna put somebody's name as the author of the crucifixion, we know that the crucifixion of Christ was the plan of God. We know that Christ came for that purpose. But if you're gonna put a human name under the category of responsible, it's these men, Annas and Caiaphas, and the family name. And so now in in Acts chapter four, not long after the the resurrection and ascension of Christ, we have not long after the day of Pentecost. Now, Peter and John are are faced with being arrested by and now interrogated by the same exact people who interrogated Christ. That's pretty neat to me because first of all, how amazing would it be to, you know, you talk about, you look at verses like, you know, they persecuted me, they'll persecute you, and we look at that today and say, okay, people are mean to me, it's because they hate the Lord, we understand that, but this is, you know, this is that, this is the exact people that persecuted Christ, and now John and Peter are being interrogated by them, and they get a chance to witness to the very people that essentially put Christ on that cross. You talk about witnessing opportunities. That's quite an opportunity there, to stand before those men and preach, essentially, the gospel to them. So, let's see what he says to those people. Verse 7 of Acts chapter 4, he said, And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, that's Caiaphas, Annas, and all the others, they asked, By what power, by what name had he done this? Talk about walking into something. I mean, could they have not, I mean, did they not know what they were gonna say? They knew who Peter and John were. They'd gone after them before. They'd seen them with Christ. And it's like they're setting the stage for the answer. It's like they're helping Peter and John out here by asking this, because it just opens the door wide open for them to preach the gospel to them. If they had said, if they had, you know, if they had skipped the questioning and just thrown them in jail, They did a pretty good job of silencing the message, but here they just opened the door wide open for the message to be proclaimed. By what power or by what name have you done this? Verse 8, Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. That's a pretty good response. Especially considering these are also the men that paid off the guards of the tomb to say he didn't raise from the dead. These men know that Christ rose from the dead because the guards came and told them what happened. And so, Peter, he he stands here and stands face to face with the men that that put Christ on that cross, the men that could do the same to Peter and then he said, it's Jesus Christ. It's the one that you put on that cross and it's the one God raised from the dead. He's the one that did this. The one that you kill. I I have hope to have the boldness of Peter uh in my preaching. Uh it's it's easy It's easy to be bold when you're preaching to a bunch of believers and maybe a few lost people in the crowd because Lord willing, essentially, we all agree on the topics at hand. We all agree on the word of God. But when you're preaching the message to a bunch of people that aren't saved, a bunch of people that maybe even hate God, it's a different circumstance. You don't have home field advantage anymore. And so here, Peter and John, they're the trailblazers of the church. there is no home field advantage yet for them. Uh there is no church gathering yet for them. They're they're just starting this thing off and now here they stand face to face with the high ups that that put Christ on a cross and they just tell them exactly what they need to hear. It's Jesus Christ that you killed and put on that cross and god raised him from the dead. He's the one that did this. Uh so that's that's pretty good. Let's uh let's see. Again, again, death, grail, resurrection of Christ, all in that message to those men, every single message we've seen Peter speak, he's included the death and resurrection of Christ, that's the gospel, he uses the trial to preach Christ, and then you notice the very next verse, he says, this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So, he goes from, it's Christ that you crucified and put on the cross and God resurrected him. Now, he goes all the way back to the Old Testament and says, this is the stone which is set out of you builders. He's like, you're fulfilling prophecy right here. He says, and then he goes on to make that statement that so many of the people in the world today hate, that there is no, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given by men, whereby we must be saved. That's not a popular message. We understand it, we believe it, we know it to be true, but even some of the most well-known preachers of our day and even of past years, some of you would know them if I named them, by the end of their ministry, they were saying, all roads lead to heaven. By the end of their ministry, they were saying, it's not just Christ, and they were doing that because it's a constant battle to tell the world there's one way. this world that wants it wants anything to get you to happen to constantly to happen and so so we need to keep with it and remember that there is one way and that is Jesus Christ. Acts four fourteen is a very good verse to use for witnessing to remind people that it's not your works. It's not your baptism. It's not your church membership. It's not any other religion. It's Jesus Christ alone. This is great. We'll look at this again in the next hour. But when they had commanded them to go aside, verse 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, I'm sorry, I skipped way ahead here, verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, You say, how how did how did they know? Well, I don't know. Maybe they had a southern drawl. I I don't know. But whatever they're doing, whatever they're saying, these guys realize these are unlearned men. They're not schooled men but they're so bold in their speaking. So, as they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Such a wonderful verse to remind us that you don't have to be the best orator, the best Just being with Christ, just Christ in you, will help you to be whatever you need to be to get the gospel message out. Verse 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against him. So even the enemies of God, when faced with this opportunity to imprison or hurt the disciples, they couldn't do anything. And the reason they couldn't do anything is because the evidence of God moving on a life was just standing right in front of them. And so they couldn't do a thing about it. Verse 15, but when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves. So they said, okay, okay, you guys go outside. Me and I have a little secret powwow here. Now, this is a pretty empty thread. I mean, they've arrested him. If they were going to kill him, if they were going to imprison him, this is their chance. And yet, all they do is say, don't do this again. Peter and John know that they can't touch us. We're doing the will of God. The Lord is with us. Everybody has seen this miracle that was done. And all they can do is level empty threats because they can't touch us. And that's exactly what the devil does to Christians today. If you're saved, he can't take your salvation away, he can't take your soul away, but what he can do is intimidate you and threaten you and try to scare you into not witnessing and not living for the Lord. Sadly, that's all that it takes for a lot of Christians, is for the devil to threaten a little bit and intimidate a little bit, and they just shut right down. But not Peter and John. verse nineteen, 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. So when they further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people. For all men glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shown. So then this You know, when you know that God is on your side, you don't have to cower in fear to the enemy. Romans 8 31 says, what shall we then say to these things that God before us who can be against us? Now, we're out of time, but if you would read verses 23 through 31, these disciples, they go back to other disciples and they just spend the rest of the chapter singing and praising God and sharing testimony about what happened and just having a good old time. The reason I titled this Adventures in Acts because that's really what it is. You look at these stories and any one of these stories would be what we talk about the rest of our lives. You have something happen to you and you think it's a cool thing or an exciting thing, that's your go-to story when you talk to somebody. When you're sharing your war stories or your life stories, you know, you have that. Any one story from the Book of Acts would probably be that for all of us. you know, any any one thing. Paul's shipwreck. If one of us had been through that, that would probably be the topic of every conversation. Wouldn't even be connected and we we try to fit it in there. Like, pass the butter. You know, there was this time I was on a boat. I mean, it just be, that would be our life would be telling that story but that's all that just acts as just full of these stories, these these adventures, these things that happen with I guess the last thing I'll tell you before we close out the Sunday school lesson is, people have this idea, especially young people have this idea that the Christian life is boring. And clearly they've never read the Levitics. The life that is boring is a person who claims to be a Christian but does nothing for God. That's a boring life because you're trying to live for the world and for Christ and you just, it's just a constant struggle to do that so you can't go on doing anything else. But a Christian that will sell out and live for God and do whatever God wants him to do That's an exciting life. That's an exciting life. Whether you be a missionary or a pastor or a layperson, if you're sold out for God, you will not lack for adventurous things in your life. And so, I'm thankful that the Lord uses us, thankful for the messages that we have from Acts chapter three and Acts chapter four, and we'll continue on with this study next week. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word and for all that we can learn from it. Pray, please help us to Help us to seek out those opportunities and witness Lord. Help us to have the courage and boldness to do such. And Lord, help us to make a difference in this world for you. Lord, we love you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.