Let me ask you a question. Will you ever be stopped? Will you ever be stopped? What would stop you? Well, what I'd like to do today is suggest that we learn from those in the early church and never allow insults or threats to stop us from serving the Lord. I was speaking to a wonderful man, but he was a little bit belligerent because he believed in a flat earth. And we were debating, and it got a little heated, and finally he stormed off. And he said that he's gonna walk to the edge of the earth and prove me wrong. But I'm really not that worried because he'll come around eventually. And just to make a quick comment on that, I don't really know where that gets started and how it keeps going, but I interviewed a man that walked on the moon. Yeah, we really did go to the moon. And how do I know that? Well, you can, they left a reflector up there. You can point a laser at it and it comes back. So, I mean, and then the man I interviewed told me about it. Charlie Duke, Apollo 16, walked on the moon. And you're talking about hundreds and thousands of people that were part of the Gemini and Apollo programs, and they all would have to lie? You know, it's just, I don't know. I don't know where that stuff gets started. But on the shape of the Earth, or the spherical nature of the Earth, astronomically, it's for sure a sphere, because if you go in the Southern Hemisphere, at a certain point, you can't see the North Star anymore. which if the earth was flat, you could always see the North Star, right? So, and there's a lot, there's a lot of things like that. But anyways, to me, that's not the big deal. The big deal are people that hate Jesus. They hate God, they hate the things of God, they hate the people of God. And we're in a series called To the Ends of the Earth, and we're studying the book of Acts, Verse by verse, and I think that is the best way to study the word of God. Expository, verse by verse. We're not skipping anything, we're going through everything. And just to remind you a little bit about our series, in chapter one, Jesus ascends into heaven. It's the end of the Gospels. It picks up right where the Gospels end. Jesus had risen from the dead. He had appeared to many people, and he had ascended into heaven. They were told to wait, wait for the Holy Spirit to come, the Comforter. And so in chapter two, the Holy Spirit arrives in a powerful way, and they spoke in tongues. Now you say, Pastor Scudder, how come you, or how come Quentin Road, you don't ever speak in tongues? I would love to. I only know a few words of Spanish, a few words of Tagalog, a few words of a couple more languages, and that's it. And that's because I've had to learn them. They were speaking known languages fluently. And those that are so-called speaking in tongues today certainly aren't speaking in known languages. And that's just one reason I believe that that was a real sign, a real spiritual gift at that time. But as the scripture was completed, the church was established, that was done away with, the sign gifts, like healing and other things. But a powerful, incredible, they were talking to people that were from all over the world, Jewish people that had returned to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, in the language that they didn't know. And these were so-called ignorant fishermen, ignorant Galileans. Now, that comes up in our text as we're in chapter four of Acts today. Again, these ignorant, unlearned people, right? And I wanna tell you this. I'll just say this up front. I don't care about the piece of paper on your wall from whatever school, university, or seminary. I don't care that much about that. What I care about is, Have you been with Jesus? Okay, that's what's gonna change your life. That's what's gonna change the world. So chapter two, the Holy Spirit arrives on the scene. They're speaking in tongues. Peter preaches this powerful sermon about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. We can never take away the name of Jesus, about his death, and resurrection, which had just happened some days before. And at the end of that sermon, the Bible says 3,000 people were saved. And by the way, these were probably most or all Jews. The church, and I would even say Christianity, is actually Jewish. I'm not saying it's just for the Jew, certainly not. It's for the world, it's for everybody. But Jesus, Jewish, the disciples are Jewish, the scriptures are from Jewish people, and all these early Christians, by the thousands, 3,000 there and then 5,000 in this story that we're in right now, 8,000 people. are now saved mostly Jewish because we're gonna see the gospel going up to the Gentiles soon in this study of Acts, but it's a Jewish for sure foundation and the church in Jerusalem was the church. And so we have this incredible thing going on. We turn the chapter to chapter three, and we find a real simple little narrative, Peter and John going to the temple to pray. You think, okay, they go to the temple to pray, they pray, they come home, they have lunch, they take a nap, right? No, that's not how it went, because they came across, and isn't it crazy some of the things that happened that you weren't planning on? I sometimes really love that. It's just because you can only plan so much and then God just does so many things and your mind is blown by the end of the day. You're thinking, wow, I did not see that coming. And they were just walking by a guy that was lame from birth. And later in the text, we're going to see today he was 40 years old. 40 years he was laying there. And in that day, they didn't have the safety nets. They didn't have the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. They didn't have ramps and wheelchairs and lifts and, you know, all of these things that we have today to make life a little easier for those with physical handicaps. He had to have someone carry him around. He had to beg. And so he said to Peter and John, you know, is there anything you can give me? And they said, we don't have any money. And I'm sure he looked forlorn, but they said, we have something better. And they used the name of Jesus. And they said, in the name of Jesus, arise and walk. And sure enough, Those muscles that had to be atrophied and small sprang to life, and he sprung to life, and he jumped, and he was praising the Lord. Well, that led to all sorts of other opportunities because now you have a living witness and testimony that God is at work right now in the temple area of Jerusalem. And that led, to an opportunity for Peter to preach again because this guy was drawing a crowd. The crowd came and Peter had another opportunity to talk about Jesus and he talked about the crucifixion, the death and the resurrection. Folks, we've gotta talk about that. We gotta keep talking about that. We can never get tired of talking about that. It's all about Jesus, death and resurrection. 5,000 people get saved. And then you have a ruckus. A ruckus because the Jewish religious leaders are now involved, they're now upset, they're trying to squash this thing, they were trying to put down this idea that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was God, and they allowed him to be put to death, and now he's resurrected, and the people are starting to see and starting to realize that this is truth. They found truth. So what do they do? They arrest Peter and John. Now we come to chapter four. The next day, they were in prison, they were in jail for the night, and the next day at the hearing, Peter, now remember Peter, sometimes we think of this mighty man of God, this main disciple of Jesus, He was a powerful man, a leader, but he also was one who denied Jesus just less than two months earlier, three times. How do you go from denying Jesus three times to preaching these powerful sermons and saying what he's about to say here? He declares in this hearing, which had these same religious people, the high priest, the Jewish religious leadership, basically the family of Annas and Caiaphas were all there. And Peter powerfully, again, said that Jesus is the only name that can save. Boy, that must have got him. Now let's look at Acts 4.12, and this is a very important passage in scripture of the exclusivity of salvation through one name. It's not many ways to heaven, there's one way to heaven. And it's through Jesus, Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That kind of closes the door to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, any other ism. Even so-called Christianity, a lot of so-called Christianity isn't Christianity at all. Because they're putting their faith in the priest, or the pastor, or they're praying to an idol, literally, within Christianity. That's why I found that a lot of Jews are very, very worried about coming to church because they think that we have all of the statues, but we don't. We don't, because I think that's unbiblical. And so they're happy to come here. But there is only one name, and we can't be afraid of saying the name of Jesus. and we're gonna see in our text that the religious leaders didn't even say Jesus' name. They avoided even saying his name. We need to be the opposite of that. So I'm gonna tell you several things that I think will apply to us, especially as times get worse and worse. We have been blessed in America for many years to have a lot of freedom. in the area of faith. I believe that that time is changing. I believe that sometime, not too far down the road, we won't be able to freely say and freely meet. And some of that is already coming our way, little by little. And we're gonna be facing threats. We're gonna be facing insults more and more and more. When I'm involved with Jewish people and Jewish settings, I can really sense how scared they are, how worried they are, because they've seen it all. They've seen it all. For centuries, people have gone against them and harmed them. And I believe that, and one of the Jewish people I was just with asked me about that. They said, are you worried that Christians are gonna get some of the same persecution that we've had all these centuries? I said, actually, I am. I really am, I think it's coming. But people that have been with Jesus, that changes everything. And we don't have to be scared, we don't have to be worried, we don't have to be shut down, okay? So let's pay attention to this. In Acts 4.13, it says this, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, so this is at the hearing, They'd been in prison for a day. What was their crime? They healed the guy. And many people believed at that time. And perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. So I'll just tell you this. If you're with Jesus, you are no longer ignorant. Even if you don't have an education, even if you're unlearned, and most of you are educated, but even if you're not, or even if you are, being with Jesus is the most important thing. Why? Because you are learning not from some teacher that learned from another fallible teacher that learned from another fallible teacher, you're with the literal creator. Right? All of scholarship is scholarship about something about the world, about language or art or mathematics or physics or something, right? That's what all scholarship is. It's something about, it's a narrow study of something in this world. But if you're with the one that created everything, you're learning, even sometimes by osmosis, you're learning from this creator. And they had been with Jesus and they were ignorant and unlearned technically, but really they weren't. They were schooling the scholars, weren't they? Because they had been with Jesus and we have that same opportunity. And that just makes you smarter, doesn't it? If you're with Jesus. I remember hearing the story of a mom who was walking with her four-year-old daughter one day, and when the daughter picked up something off the ground and started to put it into her mouth, the mother stopped her and said, don't do that, don't do that. The girl said, why? The mom said, well, because it's dirty. It's been on the ground. We don't know where it's been. It probably has germs. The little girl looked up at her mom with admiration and asked, how do you know so much? Thinking quickly, the mother said, all moms know so much. We have to, it's on the mommy test. All moms know so much. If you don't know it, you don't get to be a mommy. The little girl pondered this for a few minutes, then her face brightened, I get it. She said, if you don't pass the test, you get to be a daddy. Yep, said the mom. But these were in the world's eyes, unlearned, ignorant, that word is idiotus. It's a derogatory term of people that hadn't been to theological seminary, but they had attended something so much better. They attended the school by the creator himself. And then it talks about them being bold. This is a prominent theme in the book of Acts. When you read Acts, I hope you're impressed by how bold they were. They weren't bold at first, but the resurrection changed everything. The resurrection, salvation, changes everything, doesn't it? When you understand the power of the resurrection. Later in Acts, in verse 29, we're gonna read about their boldness. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. It was gonna get worse for the Jewish people, for the Christians. And you know what? The Bible predicts that. The Bible predicts that for the Jewish people too. And that's what I told them on Monday when I was in a gathering about 65 and an Israeli official was briefing them on the current situation in Israel and he brought to us the sad news of so many that had just perished in the IDF that day. But I told him, I said, it's gonna get worse according to how I read the scriptures. But there is hope, there is hope. Now, they had astounded the leadership, but so had Jesus. Do you remember in John 17, when the Jews marveled saying in verse 15, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned? He's like a man with a degree. He's a man with the letters that we have, but he's never gone to our schools. And I'm not saying we should be ignorant people. I'm not saying we shouldn't study. I'm not saying we shouldn't go to schools, for sure. We believe in education. That's what we do. A lot of what we do here is in education. But don't think that that's where you arrive at. Don't think that that's really anything. because being with Jesus is what makes you no longer ignorant. Now, also think of this. Somebody said it this way. The early church did not have big budgets provided by wealthy donors. Their pastors lacked credentials from the accepted schools, nor did they have endorsements of the influential political leaders of the day. Most of their ministers had jail records and would probably have a hard time today even joining our churches, let alone leading them. What really was the secret of their success? The Christians of the early church knew how to pray so that God's hand could work in mighty power. The apostles were experiencing the boldness from God because they had asked God for that boldness. But they also knew that Jesus had predicted these hard times are gonna come. They didn't, by the way, pray, later on we're gonna see this, for an end to the persecution. They didn't say, Lord, please stop having them arrest us. Please stop having them threaten us. They didn't say that. They actually said, Lord, please give us power and boldness. And they had it because these difficult times are going to continue and maybe even get worse here. In Luke 21, In verse 12, Jesus is telling them, but before all these things shall they lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. See, it's okay. If this happens, it's okay because God allowed it and it's God's will and he's gonna do something great through it. Even though it seems terrible that now you have a prison record, now it seems terrible that you had to suffer I'm not, by the way, saying any of you are going to go to prison for your faith anytime soon, but people are today in this world in different places. There's more persecution today than there ever has been in the history of the world for Christians. But this is predicted, this is what Jesus said. And it shall turn you for a testimony. Verse 13, verse 14. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer. For I shall give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. So don't be so focused on a degree. Be focused on your life. Have you been with the creator? Are you praying? Are you being prayed for? If we have any success here in this church, I believe it is because of prayer. That's what I believe. I called a dear friend yesterday. It was his birthday. And he said, pastor, I prayed for you today. I pray for you every day. If there's any success from this pulpit, from this church, it's because of that. It's because of you praying. It's because of me praying. It's because of prayer. So if you're praying and if you're being prayed for, I don't think threats and insults will ever stop you. Number two, people that have been with Jesus can't be ignored. They really wanted to. They couldn't. Look at Acts 4.14. And behold the man which was healed standing with them. They could say nothing against it. Why? Because there he was. They all knew him, they had all passed him. I'm sure they had hardly ever helped him. They probably just wagged their head and held their nose or turned away. But there he is standing there. It's just like you can't, he's right there, can't ignore it. They could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, so now they're trying to get into a private huddle to confer, They conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done. They couldn't deny it. They had to acknowledge there is a notable miracle by them, by these ignorant and unlearned, is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. And we can't deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them. that they speak henceforth to no man in this name." Isn't it sad? At that very moment, they could have said, okay, we've seen a miracle. They actually acknowledged the miracle. It took until the 21st century, scholars that are 6,000 miles away that deny miracles. But those that were there that didn't like Jesus, didn't like the disciples, they acknowledged that it was a miracle that had happened. Because you have to. It's standing right in your face. So they could have accepted the truth. They could have said, okay, this is true. I mean, there's power here. There's something that's happened here that we mere men cannot achieve. making a man that was lame for 40 years walk. So now we need to listen to these guys. We need to not go against them. We need to not arrest them. We need to open our hearts to what they're saying and accept this. We need to believe that Jesus is the name, above all names, the name that we can be saved and put their faith in Yeshua. They could have done that right then and there. They accepted the miracle. But they said, we still need to stop this. This is threatening our power. It's threatening our money, our income, our security. And therefore we accept the miracle. We believe it's true, but we're going to squash it and try to quell the buzz about the miracle. That was their solution. Have you ever heard someone say, if I could only see a miracle, I would believe in God. Have you ever heard someone say that? This group of religious leaders wouldn't believe even when they saw with their eyes those miracles. They had seen Jesus' miracles, or at least heard of his miracles, and then they had certainly seen or heard of Lazarus rising from the dead. They tried to kill Lazarus, poor guy. Then Jesus himself arose, and now these former uneducated fishermen had healed a lame man in Jesus' name, They knew about it, they had seen it. Unbelief, my friends, is never from a lack of facts. It's always a problem of the will and of the heart. The Bible says the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. And that is the problem for all mankind, it's the heart. They had seen the miracle, but they still did not accept the Messiah. And the third thing that I'm gonna try to note from this, people that have been with Jesus have to speak. We have to speak. We cannot stay silent. In Acts 4, verse 18, it says, and they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. I wonder how that went. Of course, we know that the book of Acts didn't end in Acts 4, did it? They didn't stay quiet. Verse 19, but Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than hearken unto God. Well, that's an interesting way of putting it. Do you think it's right for us to listen to you and not God? Judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. It's just, it's gonna come out. They were so amazed at what God had done and what God was doing. They had been with Jesus and they had to tell people about it. They could not keep silent. This wasn't them saying, we're gonna rebel against your authority and your rule in Jerusalem as religious leaders. It really wasn't that at all. They were just like, we can't help it. We're gonna talk about this because it's so impacted our life. And I hope that that's us. We are so in love with the Savior. We spend time with Him on a daily basis. We have no choice but to speak the things that He's done, what we have seen and what we have heard. Verse 21, so when they had 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 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was shown. It was so evident, it was so powerful, the Sanhedrin members were trapped. They couldn't deny the miracle. They couldn't deny it, but they also couldn't explain how these uneducated men could have performed such an amazing miracle. They were trapped. Now, they could have accepted that this was of God, but they wouldn't. If we are commanded to not speak of Jesus, think about what Peter and the other apostles said later on in Acts, in Acts 5, verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than man. I hope that is what we say. I hope that's what people say when we feel that we need to be silent instead of bold in our witness for Christ. I know that many that are in the chaplaincy and militaries and other departments are being told to not talk about Jesus. Can you imagine that? How could you be a chaplain, a Christian chaplain, and not talk about Jesus? I didn't really understand some of these rules, but I wasn't sure, no one had told me when I went to pray the opening prayer, the invocation for the Chicago City Council, as they were debating whether or not they should condemn Hamas and support Israel. And I ended my prayer in the name of Jesus, I pray, amen. And maybe it wasn't a rule, no one said it was or wasn't, but when I left, I had a police officer come up to me as soon as I walked out of the chamber. I'm like, uh-oh, she goes, I heard you pray in Jesus' name. Like, oh, yeah, I did. She says, thank you. Thank you, because nobody prays in Jesus' name. And that's sad to me. I don't think they were out trying to get arrested. I don't think they were out trying to cause trouble. Hey, let's cause trouble so that we can get some social media. Let's get some press. Let's get some follows and some likes. And let's just go out and stir up something. They were just going to go to the temple to pray. That's all they were doing. So I don't think we need to be out there trying to provoke and stir up things. But we need to be witnesses for Christ, whatever that means, come what may. Remember, in Acts 1, this is what Jesus wanted them to do in verse 8, but ye shall receive power. After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, of course, that's where they were at right at the very moment, at the very center of Jerusalem in the temple area, and in all Judea, that's the surrounding region around Jerusalem, and in Samaria, that's the area to the north, the regional area, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. That's why we called this series to the ends of the earth. Not that there's an edge to the earth, but certainly there's a further most point. And Dr. Carl Ball who brought missions, Baptist missions to Fiji. has said that Fiji is as far of a piece of land as you can get from Jerusalem. And I checked him on that, and it is true. There's another point that is equally as far, but that is to the ends of the earth, the uttermost parts of the earth from Jerusalem. And the gospel reached there, didn't it? And not to say we're done, because the gospel has reached there, but there are many people that have not heard the clear gospel of grace. So how can we get the gospel out? Well, I think we can do it by having excitement in our own lives. As a church body, we can come up with ways to reach people. Maybe, I don't know, a Christmas pageant. I don't know, a mother and daughter banquet. Maybe a preschool where we can reach the parents and the kids. And maybe we can, I don't know, how about a TV program where we can broadcast to people that will never come into the doors of this church and stream and broadcast the gospel. How can we reach people? We can send missionaries. That's why we do what we do. That's what we're all about. But we also have to be people, not to say, I'm gonna let the broadcast bring people to gospel. I'm gonna bring people to gospel. Personally, that's the best way to witness, to share the gospel with people, is one-on-one. But Satan has been trying to silence God's people from the very beginning, and sad to say, he's done well with many Christians. But the council didn't want the gospel message to spread. But what happened? Well, it had gone from 120 to 8000. And today, there are millions of people that have accepted the gospel. Even, a lot of my Jewish friends are so worried about being converted, because that's what the rabbis tell them, don't let them convert you. They'll be kind to you, and they'll stand with you and support you and promote Israel, and that's good, of course, but don't let them convert you. But here's the thing, if Jesus is the Messiah, as the Hebrew prophets pinpoint, He's going to be born in Bethlehem. He's going to be a man. He's going to be born before the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. So can we look in history and see if there was anyone born in Bethlehem before 70 A.D. that was a male, that changed the world? Can we see anybody? And then you add to that the many other prophecies, okay? There's a million Jewish people today in our world that are saved, that are believers, a million. That's a huge number, and it's growing. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. So this church has grown and expanded, even though they tried to contain it, they tried to quell it, but it has grown. And that's the fourth thing we're gonna see today. People that have been with Jesus shake the world. Acts 4.23, and being let go, they went into their own company. They went back to their group, probably in the upper room, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voices to God with one accord and said, God, why did you do this to us? Please stop our suffering. Please stop our persecution. Please make them stop threatening us. That's not what it says. Is it? You're reading it, right? Don't ever just trust me. That's why you have your Bibles. You have the Bible. That's why you don't just listen to a priest or a pastor or a teacher without checking. Check, okay? This is what they said. Lord, thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, and then there's a quote of Psalm two, verses one and two. Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The heathen here are Herod and are the Romans and the people are the Jewish people that weren't accepting Jesus. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. That's the Messiah, the anointed one. This is in their prayer after hearing what happened to Peter and John. For, in verse 27, for of a truth against the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness, it doesn't say to end the threatenings, to end the insults, to end the persecution. It says that with all boldness, they may speak thy word. This is powerful prayer, folks, by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus. Again, it's about Jesus. It's about Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken. I wish we had the effect of shaking the room right now. Shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. You say, wait a second, I thought that happened on Pentecost. Yeah, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, but this is like turning up the power. They had a little more power because of the prayer for boldness. And they spake the word of God with boldness. What an amazing prayer and praise service they had. Not saying stop the persecution, but saying in the persecution may we be bold. The Lord's answer to our prayer for boldness is to shake us, to shake the world. The answer is the power of the Spirit of God being in us and through us. Let me end by a quote from R.A. Torrey. He said, pray for great things. Expect great things. Work for great things. But above all, pray. Will threats and insults stop you? I pray that that never happens. I pray that we never stop. And we always use the name of Jesus with boldness and with power. Because he is the hope of our world. He is the way of salvation. He is the way to heaven, the only way. He came, God in the flesh, fully God, but fully man, never sinned once, different like us in every way, but different in that one way, he was not a sinner, he never sinned, but he allowed himself to die as a sacrifice for our sins. He arose the third day, he's alive, he didn't stay dead, as predicted, by the way, you read Isaiah 53, he arose the third day, and he's alive today, and he wants to save you. In John, Jesus said, in John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He's talking about himself. That whosoever, that's anybody, 2,000 years ago, today, tomorrow, whosoever believes in him. It's not about religion, it's not about doing better, it's not about doing religious things. It's about trusting in Him. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, which is hell, but have everlasting life. That's the gospel. We can never get tired of that. Let's go back to that over and over and over. The powers in the gospel, the powers in the name of Jesus. And if you've never believed that, if you've never taken the time to accept Jesus as your Savior, do it right now. Say, Lord, I'm a sinner. I accept Jesus as my only way, as my only Savior. And if you'll do that, the Bible says that you're saved right now. And that salvation is eternal.