00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Turn to our study of the Book of Acts today in Chapter 4. This is part of a larger context that we began in Chapter 3. We come to the Book of Acts, we come to a book of beginnings. It's about the beginning of the church, and we see things happening in the book of Acts for the first time in the church. In some ways, the book of Acts is similar to the book of Genesis. Genesis is the book of firsts in human history, and we see various things, the first married couple, Adam and Eve. We see the first family. We see the first workings of the soil under the curse. We see the first covenant that God makes redemptively with Abraham. We see Abraham as the first covenant man, and so on. And these set a pattern throughout the Holy Scriptures. It is the same thing in a similar setting, a different setting, but a similar way the book of Acts is the book of beginnings for the church. And we see things taking place for the first time in the New Testament form of the church, the post-resurrection exaltation of Christ church, where the full body has been brought into being through the redemptive work of the Lord and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have seen, for example, already the first choosing of an officer for the office of Matthias and how they went about that. How did they do it? They gathered in prayer. They searched the scriptures and they appointed a person according to the direction of the Holy Spirit. That's how the church should choose its leaders. For example, we've seen the first public proclamation of the gospel, the first preaching of the church in the day of Pentecost. And we look at that message, and this is what I was getting at during our Lord's Supper meditation. We look at that message, this is the message we need to preach to a lost and dying world. What we're looking at now in this chapter today is the first or the beginning of persecution. against the New Testament church, the believers in Jesus Christ who are boldly proclaiming the message of salvation. What we see in this chapter then is something that sets a pattern. We learn by considering the pattern of what's going on. Why were they persecuted? What was the basis of the persecution? Who performed the persecution? What were the methods they used? How did the church and the believers handle that persecution? and so on. And so as we look in this and we study this chapter, we come to a very important first, and we need to carefully consider what it has to say. What is portrayed before us here is the pattern that's going to follow the church and its persecutions by unbelieving men and women and how we are to face it and how we are to overcome it, how the Lord will be with us through persecution and the like. This is in chapter four, we have this persecution of Peter and John by the Jewish leadership. Now, why are they being persecuted? What was the occasion? Remember in chapter three, they performed a mighty miracle of healing a man who had been lame from his birth. And a mighty miracle took place by their hand in the temple. This created quite a stir, it gathered quite an audience, and in that context Peter saw his opportunity to preach to that audience. And so he lifted up his voice. In chapter three, verses 12 to 26, we have the account of his message where he preached to the people. He gave the kerygma of the early church to those who were gathered there in the temple courts. but such a public miracle, and then this public proclamation to a large crowd, an excited crowd over the miracle, and now an astonished crowd as Paul is, excuse me, Peter is preaching to them there, gets the attention of the authorities. And this leads us to our account here in chapter four. Now on the back of the bulletin there, we have an outline, a pretty detailed outline of this section that we're going to be considering. this morning. I'd like to read our verses first, and then we will look at the outline and then comment. Chapter 4, Acts chapter 4 verse 1, And as they spoke 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 they laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now even time. Howbeit, many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000. 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 set them in their midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you done this? 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 all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which is set at nought 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. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed, standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them. They speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. 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 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. Could you outline, please? And we look at the structure of the passage, and the symmetry here is wonderful. We begin in verse one to four with the arrest, the account of the arrest. We're told, first of all, the circumstances of their arrest, and then we are given a note of the success of their preaching, not only on that day, but as it has been developing up to this point. So we have the arrest. Secondly, in Luke's account here, we are given the arraignment of Peter and John before the Jewish Sanhedrin. We'll discuss who the Sanhedrin is in more depth, but this was the Jewish Council, the Supreme Court, the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch all rolled up into one of the Jewish It was a religious and a secular authority, the Jewish Sanhedrin. So here we have their arraignment. They were arrested by their authority and now they're arraigned or brought before them to answer for what they've done. He begins by telling us of this august constituency, august meaning notable, powerful, influential, wealthy men who were going to examine them. And then we look at the leading question. They ask him a number of questions, but it is summarized by Luke in verse seven of the basic question, the basic challenge they bring to them. Then we see after this arraignment, the response of Peter and John to this Sanhedrin hearing in verses eight to 12. We note their feeling with the Holy Spirit. We see their answer to the question of the Sanhedrin. Then they move on to rebuke the Sanhedrin and then make a memorable declaration concerning salvation in the name of Jesus. Well, how does the Sanhedrin react to that? So we see this back and forth. Arraignment, response, and now a response has a reaction. The Sanhedrin then react. And they, first of all, they marvel and they temporize concerning them. Secondly, they conspire. together and decide against them. That is the apostles, Peter and John. And then they command and threaten them. This is in verse 18. So the reaction in verses 13 to 18. How do Peter and John respond to this reaction? Well, with resolve. And we see in verses 19 to 20, their resolve in reference to the decree of the Sanhedrin And in their resolve, they ask a question. This is the fundamental question that comes to bear when we're dealing with a circumstance like this, where the civil government or any authority, even if it's a religious government, is telling us to cease to teach in the name of Jesus. They ask the question, who should we obey? I mean, we have a responsibility to obey those in authority over us, but in a circumstance like this, where you're telling us to do this, who should we obey, you or God? Again, this is the pattern. This is the paradigm of how the church responds to such tyranny. Who should we obey, you or God? And then after asking that question, which the answer cannot be evaded, even by the Sanhedrin, who claims to be ruling in the power of God under his authority, They say, we will testify of whom and we will speak of what God has given us to speak. They do not back down. And of course, the Sanhedrin resents this deeply. And they resent their boldness and their insubordination in verse 21. And they resent the fact that the people are glorifying God because of this miracle. So let's look now at some of the details of this hearing and work through it together here in the time that remains in our consideration of the Word of God given to us by the Holy Spirit through the pen of Luke, who has done diligent research and has received eyewitness testimony concerning what happened that day. from Peter and John themselves. But I think it's even interesting when we hear about what happened behind the scenes, as it were, when they dismissed John. and Peter and they had their counsel together. These details were given to Luke by someone who was at that point part of the Sanhedrin who later turned to Jesus Christ, just like a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathea who were also in the days of Jesus part of the Sanhedrin, but they believed in Christ and of course by now they would have been expelled from that body. But this is eyewitness account. Luke has carefully researched this. He's telling us what happened that day. This is history. This is what took place. And so in chapter four, verse one, we find them in the midst of a sermon, which was recorded for us in the previous chapter. And it says, and as they spoke unto the people, so they were still in the midst of their preaching, They had not yet concluded it. They had not yet come to the final words that they had to say, but they were interrupted in the message. And as they spoke to the people, there in the temple courts, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees come upon them suddenly and lay hands on them, as verse 3 says. The priests here would be those who were probably the priests who were in charge of the worship and the services of that day. There were various courses of priests and different priests had authority that day. And so they were in charge of what was taking place in the afternoon prayers and so forth there at the temple. And so they are made aware of what's going on. And it's like I'm leading a service and something's happening over there in the corner and somebody has a crowd and they're preaching to them. Hey, Bill, you better look into what's going on there. And so the priests look into it, they see the circumstance, they are alarmed, and so they go to the captain of the temple. This would be the captain of the temple guard, who was responsible for keeping order in the temple and removing disorderly people from the temple. This captain of the temple, of course, would have had his associates, the men under him. And so the priests who were in charge that day, the captain of the temple guard come, and the Sadducees, which is the ruling class among the priests, the high priestly families. We'll say more about them when we look at this august assembly that joins to judge the apostles. These three groups come upon them. They are not pleased because it says they are grieved. They are quite upset. They're indignant might be a good word to use. They're indignant that here are these two men in their territory that is controlled by the priests and Sadducees and the temple guard. Here we have these men teaching the people. They are not men who have been approved for teaching the people. They are not rabbis. They have not been recognized by us. These are merely ignorant fishermen, which they speak of later in this. They're very grieved, they're very indignant that Peter and John are preaching or declaring this message concerning Jesus to the people. And the thing that particularly galls them is they're preaching through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They're preaching through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. And this is something that's very upsetting to the priests and the Sadducees, because most of the priests were of the Sadducean party. You know, we think of the Jews of that day, that they all believed the same thing. Well, they were no different than the church today. We have all kinds of different sects in Christianity. We have the Baptists and we have the Paedo-Baptists. We have the Calvinists and we have the Arminians. And we have the Methodists and we have the Presbyterians and so forth. Well, the Jews had the same thing. and they had different religious parties. One of them was the Sadducees who held particular views. They were the skeptics of the day. They denied spirits. They denied the immortality of the soul. They denied miracles and they denied all the traditions of the Pharisees. They were the skeptics. They were the naturalists of the day. They said, when you die, not only does your body die, your soul dies. There's no life after death at all. You're gone, you're done. And so they stood firmly against the doctrine of the resurrection, which is based on the idea that the soul survives the body after death, and eventually the body is revived and soul is joined with it. They rejected that, and so here they have in their territory, they have jurisdiction, they have men, not approved by them, proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And if Jesus rose from the dead, that means the whole doctrine of the resurrection is true. Because if it is true there is no soul that survives death, Jesus' soul wouldn't have survived death. He could not have been raised from the dead. And so they are extremely upset. The center of the church's proclamation in one way is brought out in this very statement. The resurrection from the dead. Jesus' resurrection and the resurrection he brings to all who believe in him. And so they are very indignant. and they come upon them, they lay hands on them, violent hands in the sense they seize them, they command them to stop preaching, to stop speaking, and they take them away and they put them in hold, they put them in a prison-like setting for the nighttime because it is late in the day, it's eventide, and it's too late to call the Sanhedrin for a hearing, and so they put them in hold. because of the time of the day. So this is the circumstances of their arrest. The civil authorities and religious authorities, because as I said, in the Sanhedrin, they are one. And so the church throughout history has been persecuted by both forms, ecclesiastical or religious authorities and civil authorities, and often they work hand in hand. So this is what the church is going to have to face. This is the first time it happens in church history. that is New Testament church history, and they are come upon because they're preaching and teaching without the authoritative recognition and certification of them as teachers, and they're teaching things that they don't want to be taught. They stand against the truth of Christianity, and they will persecute it, and those who would dare to proclaim it in their jurisdiction. So they lay holds of them and put them in prison. Then we have this statement in verse four about the success of the preaching. And this is important to see here in this first example of persecution. Though the state, though the church, the false church moves against the true church to stop them, they can't stop them. Right here, we have them being arrested for preaching. We have a note of the success of the preaching. Paul spoke about the fact that he was bound in prison, but he said the word of God is not bound. They can bound men's bodies, they can throw the church and preachers into prison, but they cannot stop the Word of God. Notice this, "...howbeit many of them which heard the word believed." preached the gospel. Paul was in prison, yet he knew the gospel that he preached would triumph. Peter here and John are taken off the scene, but their word remains. It's working in the hearts of the hearers. And many who heard that sermon that day in the temple believed in Jesus Christ. We're not told how many believed that day. You say, well, doesn't that say that in the next line? No, it does not. The way this is structured in the original, we're talking about a total now of the effect of the ministry of preaching beginning on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, we were told that that day, 3,000 were added. This doesn't say that 5,000 are added to the previous 3,000. It just says many believed. What we're told here is how many have believed in a general estimate since the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. This gospel has been very effective. At this point, there were about 5,000 men, and this is generic, specific, in the original, 5,000 males who had believed. meaning there were many more than 5,000 Christians at that point. This would involve the women weren't counted and the young people were not counted who were old enough truly to believe and to repent of their sins and be baptized. And so there was about 5,000 men. that were going on here. It's been noted, interestingly, this was the same amount of the first feeding of the 5,000 in Jesus's ministry. We're told that the amount of people that were fed in that miraculous event of Jesus bringing food to the multitude was about 5,000 men. And so that feeding of the bread of Jesus We see here this idea that they are now feeding Jesus himself, the bread of life, to the crowd in Jerusalem. And in that desolate wilderness of spiritual deadness in Jerusalem, the bread of life has now been fed. 5,000 have received it. So a wonderful note here of the growth of the church. This is the last time that a specific figure and account is given. What we're told later on in Acts is that the church greatly grew and multiplied and so on, but this is the total at this point. And so even though persecution is coming, the gospel will prevail. You cannot bind the word of God. Now after this arrest, The circumstances being explained, and there's this wonderful note of the success of the preaching. Many believed that day, and up to this point, about 5,000 men in Jerusalem had believed, not counting women and young people. We now move to this arraignment, or this hearing, of Peter and John before the Jewish Sanhedrin. And so it says, it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes. These are the three classes of individuals of men who made up what we call the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the chief council of the Jews. It was the ruling council of the Jews and it was comprised of 70 men. 70 men made up the Sanhedrin. And their numbers were divided into three classes. There were, first of all, the rulers. The rulers would have been the executive officers. And these would have come from the priestly class. These would have come from the high priests and their fellow priests. And we see in verse six, the rulers being actually named. This was the executive council. the chairman, and so on, terms we might use. Who were they? There were Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest. This is the first group, the rulers of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council among the Jewish council. Secondly, we have the elders. The elders were not priests. They were what we might call today laymen, but they were men of, reputation. Most likely they were also men of wealth and influence and power in the community. They were called the elders. So there was a group of men taken from the ranks of the merchants and other aristocratic families, and they were chosen because of their So they were also on the council. And finally, we have the scribes. The scribes were the religious authorities. These were the doctors of the law who knew the commandments and teachings of the law. Most of the things they studied, though, were not what Moses commanded, but what the rabbis had developed over the traditions of the years. So three groups. The Sadducees were the ones who were the rulers. Almost all the rulers were Sadducees. The elders may have been Sadducees or they may have been of the other group which made up the scribes called the Pharisees. This was the other main religious sect in Israel. The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection. The Pharisees did believe in spirits, in devils and of angels and the like. They were the supernaturalists. But sadly, they were also the traditionalists who had become so enmeshed in the traditions of the scribes that had gone before them, they were those who followed the traditions of the elders, not the elders as we have it spoken in verse 5 here, but the ones of earlier times who taught and passed on the so-called traditions of Moses. And so we have a very interesting group here. We've got the Sadducees, we've got the Pharisees, the Sadducees being the rulers, the Pharisees being the scribes, and the elders probably being split between the two groups. Now this is a mighty company. This is a very powerful group of people. This is the elite of Israel. These are the ones with all power. Under Rome, of course, Rome allowed them to do this. There were certain things Rome wouldn't let them do, such as put someone to death. That's why when Jesus was crucified, this same council had to go to Pilate, because only Pilate could give that sentence of death. But they had great latitude, and the Romans were very tolerant of the peoples that they ruled, as long as they didn't challenge Rome's authority. And so these were very powerful men, the most powerful men of the nation. They held the fate of these apostles in their hand, maybe not unto death, but in every other way. And so think of this. This is the place where Jesus was himself tried in very, very early in the morning. He was brought to the very same place here to sit and to stand, I should say, before this same group of people that they are called to stand before. And the way that this was set up, the way it was arranged, we see in verse 7, when they had set them in their midst, It was in a semicircle, an elevated platform, a semicircle, and the defendants, or those being questioned, would be down in the center, all around them, except behind them, whichever way they looked, to the side or front, they saw these powerful men looking at them, whose fate was in their hands. And so this is where Jesus stood. This, by the way, was the same context, the same area in the courtyard where Peter himself, not long before this, was terrified of a servant girl and said with cursing and swearing, I never knew the man. Now here he is standing where Jesus stood against the people who killed his Lord. He knows of their hatred of Jesus. And here he is standing before this most powerful, august body of Jewish rulers. Is there a difference between how he responds here in the night in the courtyard? Night and day, there could not be a more different response. They set him here and John in the midst of them. In verse seven, we have, the leading question that was asked them. By the way, when it says, and when they had set them in the midst, they asked or began asking them. In the sense they would have asked other questions. Who knows what they said? But it all boiled down to this. This is the leading question that was put to them. By what power or by what name have you done this? That brings back to remembrance what this same group of Jewish leaders said and asked of Jesus. After he had cleansed the temple in that final week of his life, he had gone in there and drove out the money changers and those who sold sacrifices and those type of things and cleansed the temple. They came and said, by what authority do you do these things? This is our jurisdiction, Jesus. How dare you come in here and do this? By what authority do you do these things? Jesus, with the wisdom of the Son of God himself, said, OK, I'll answer your question. If you answer a question for me first, John, his baptism, was it of God or men? And of course, they were put in a position there that they were extremely uncomfortable with because they didn't believe that John's baptism was of men, but they knew if they denied it in the court, in the public there, the people would hold them in contempt because as they said, all the people held John to be a prophet. So they come back to Jesus, we don't know. And so Jesus says, well, I don't answer your question either. If you can't judge rightly who John was, how can you judge rightly who I am? I'm not gonna answer you. And so this is a similar question put to Peter and John. By what power, by what name have you done this? In our temple, healing and preaching. Now they knew what name they would claim. This is a setup question. They are not seeking information. This is calculated. They knew exactly what they were asking, and the question would have been asked by the rulers, probably Annas or Caiaphas himself, the same ones who examined Jesus on his trial. They come to them, come to Peter and John and ask this question, by what power or by what name have you done? Now, it's interesting that they use this statement here, by what power. Some think this means by what authority. It could mean that. or by what name, meaning who gives you the power to do this? The question has two parts, but it's all wrapped up in where they claim their authority and power to do what they're doing, their power to heal and their authority to preach. Whose name? Who gave you this? Are you doing it in our name? Can you say Caiaphas gave me this power and authority? By the way, as we look at this, as we said, many of the ones who were involved in the Sanhedrin were Pharisees. Do you remember what they said about the power of Jesus and his healings? Where the power came from? Remember, they believe in spirits, the Sadducees don't. Jesus did mighty miracles, couldn't be denied. This was a mighty miracle here. that Peter and John had performed it, can't be denied. But what did the Pharisees say? He does it by the power of Beelzebub. Power was expressed in Jesus' ministry, in healing, but they said it was by the prince of demons that he got his power. So you can see the lead up to this question. And the Sadducees were fully aware of this, and it's been pointed out that often the Pharisees and Sadducees did make common cause, and that the Sadducees often would yield, at least in public settings, to some of the views of the Pharisees because of the people. So by what power or by what name have you done this? So if they name the name of Jesus, then what is the conclusion of this Prejudiced body. You did it by the power of demons, just like Jesus did. What was the power that you used to heal this man? And the Pharisees are thinking, well, just like Jesus, it was the power of the devil that was at work. This is how the church is often accused, when it speaks the truth, when it does good deeds and works, that we are actually serving evil in doing so, that Christians are the real evildoers in society. Not the kind of people that are examining them, but the men being examined are the ones who are being put on the spot to defend what they've done. And Peter says, you're asking us to defend a good deed? Hmm, this is interesting. Since when is it the role of the civil authorities and religious authorities to prosecute people for good deeds? This is a very bad situation we're in. He says that in the next line. But here's the question. By what power or by what name have you done this? And they know what name they're gonna claim. It's a setup. They're gonna name Jesus, and then they have him. Because Jesus is the very one who was condemned in this very spot, not much hence, of being a blasphemer. He was condemned to die as being a blasphemer because he, they said, being a mere man, said he was the son of God. He claimed to be the Messiah. That's blasphemy. He wasn't the Messiah. And so if they name Jesus, they've got him. Because precedent is that he was a blasphemer. And he did his work by the power of the devils. This is the way that the persecution works. They are very crafty. They are inspired of the devil themselves. And they don't seek truth. They don't want to hear what we have to say. They want to lead us along and condemn us. And here they craftily do that. Well, how does Peter? along with John, Peter being the spokesman, respond to this. Verses 8 through 12. Here we see the response of Peter and John to this question. The first thing that's noted by Luke here is before we actually hear the response, We're told that Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, in other words. Now this filling of the Holy Spirit is something of great importance in this setting. For here we see the fulfillment of one of the promises of Jesus in regard to this. Look with me to Luke. 21. The Gospel of Luke is the first of the two-volume work of Luke, the first volume on the life of Christ, the second volume on the early church. In Luke, we have in chapter 21, verse 12, these words of Jesus. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you. In the context of Luke 21, he's prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. But in the period of time between Christ's exaltation, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, this is what they will do to you. And so we see this now happening, what Jesus spoke about. This is now for the first time happening. But before all these things, for the destruction of Jerusalem, they shall lay their hands on you. Didn't we see that? They came and laid their hands on them. We were just told that. And persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. In other words, this will not be a time of your defeat. It'll be a time of your testifying. Actually, your persecution is a time I'm giving to you to proclaim the truth. See it as that. And of course, we'll see Peter does exactly that. It shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts. not to meditate before what you shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor to resist. And then further back in Luke 12, he said this to his followers, verse 11, And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take you no thought how or what thing you shall answer or what you shall say. For the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say." So here we have the fulfillment of this. It's taking place right now. And that's why it's mentioned here by Luke as he talked about Jesus' promise. Here it's being fulfilled. that Jesus said, I'll be with you and my Holy Spirit will come to you. And here the Holy Spirit fills Peter that he might answer. Peter did not rehearse this answer. This is the answer that was given to him by the Holy Spirit and it's majestic. It's powerful and the rulers can't gainsay it or resist it, though they try. So Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the promise that when you and I are put on the spot for our faith, The Lord Jesus Christ will give us the fullness of the Holy Spirit to answer with wisdom and power. So the church is being taught here not to fear answering authorities, not to fear the answer for the reason of the hope that lies within us when someone challenges us in family, in workplace, in community. Maybe it's not persecution in this official sense, but people can come and mock our faith. Yeah, why do you believe in Jesus? in a mocking, challenging way. We can claim this promise that the Lord will give us. the wisdom we need. We'll be ready. Church history is filled with the testimony of those who were persecuted and martyred for their faith. You can read accounts that were written down of the majestic, powerful answers that were given to their persecutors. And as here, so there, the persecutors were turned in to the audience In other words, it was an opportunity to proclaim the message. The tables were turned. We're in charge here, you're gonna listen to us. But God turns it around and he is in charge and they're going to listen to his servant. And that's what we see here as Peter responds. And so he begins, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel. He's referring to the Sanhedrin. You're the rulers of the people. You're the elders of Israel. He recognizes that they have this position, that they do hold this office. There is no denying of orders of authority and governments in the New Testament, and these were in authority over them. And they recognize that fact. They are not revolutionaries. They are men of faith who are going to use their faith to cause a great spiritual revolution. And so they begin with these respectful words, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel. He says, first of all, we're being examined today of a good deed we've done. Be examined by a good deed. that we did to this impotent man, who, as we learned, is right there in the room. He was brought there as an exhibit or a witness, as it were, of what had happened. And so he says, what we did to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole. That's really the question you're asking us, because there's no question about whether or not that he has been made whole. The question is, how did we do it? What power did we, claim, do we claim, and whose name did we do it in? Is that what you want to know? Well, I'm going to tell you right now. There's no subterfuge, no cagey way to deal with such people. We're always told to speak boldly and openly. in the midst of persecution, not to play their game, not to be deceptive, not to temporize, but to speak the truth. And so he says, okay, you want to know? I'll let you know. And the words here, be it known, are in the imperative, in the original. These are bold words, bold words. If they speak, let it be known to you. Hear what I have to say. But not only you, all the people of Israel need to hear this. It was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus, the Messiah who came from the city of Nazareth. That's the one. That's in whose name and by whose power this has been done. But before he says that in the last section, he rebukes them. Whom you crucified. whom God raised from the dead. These are bold words. Remember the Peter of the denial night, of Jesus' arrest. Here he is standing before these same ones who have all the power to crush him, and he says boldly to them, we did it in the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus, Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified. He charges them with the murder of the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. We've seen this the third time Peter has said this. On the day of Pentecost, he said it. In the sermon he just preached the day before, he said it. Whom you crucified, but God raised from the dead. Even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Now remember, they were grieved in verse two because they preached the resurrection through Jesus from the dead. So right in their midst, they preach it, right to their face. Not disrespectfully, but boldly. Jesus was raised from the dead by God, the dead do rise, and it is by him that this man stands here before you whole. You see, this miracle is the proof of the resurrection. Because we don't have the power to heal people. We never did, we never will. But Jesus did. Remember when he was among you, all the people he healed? This is him working as the resurrected Christ. You thought you were done with him. You had killed him, but he's still working. And this miracle is the proof that he is alive. It's the sign of His resurrection. That's who did it. The risen Christ's power is at work here. It is His name that has brought this to pass. It is His person and His power. That's the answer to your question. It wasn't the answer they expected. That is, it wasn't given in the way they expected. Perhaps something like, well, looking around all the authority, well, you know, is Jesus, no. Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ whom you crucified. This is the boldness because they're filled with the Holy Spirit and it's him at work now. Remember we saw in the very first words of this great book, This is the treatise, the former treatise, the Book of Luke. Gospel of Luke have I made, O Theopolis, of all that Jesus began to do and teach. He's still doing it, is the point of the Book of Acts. He's doing it from the right hand of God the Father through his people, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ lives. And then he says this, and he takes the answer now to directly rebuke them. He says this, this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Now, what is he talking about here? This is the stone, this one, this person, Jesus of Nazareth, is the stone, the stone, which was said it not of you builders. He has become the head or the chief stone of the corner. Look with me to Psalm 118.22, please. This is scripture that is being used by Peter here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he is using a scripture that Jesus himself used, Psalm 118.22. Beginning in verse 21, I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. Verse 25, save now I beseech thee, O Lord. The reason why I read those two extra verses on salvation is because verse 12 develops that Psalm and that the salvation of God that was spoken of in Psalm 118 is brought to pass, it is offered, it is effected by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. But here's what he's saying to these. This stone, by the way, the stone was an image of the Messiah and his kingdom, The first time in prophecy, I should say, not necessarily first time historically, is the great image of Daniel chapter two, where we have this image of the kingdoms of this world and the stone cut without hands that comes and strikes the image and destroys it and it grows into a mighty kingdom. So the stone was a symbol of the Messiah's kingdom in the Old Testament. But the specific instance here, the prophecy being spoken of here, this stone, Jesus is the stone that was being spoken of in Psalm 118, which has been set aside as nothing, as worthless, by you, this Sanhedrin that is before him, who are supposed to be the builders of the kingdom of God among Israel, You builders have rejected the stone. You've rejected the Messiah. What God has done is he has taken that rejected stone, and as Psalm 119 says, something marvelous has happened. He has taken the stone rejected by the leaders of Israel, the builders of Israel, and he has made it the chief stone of the corner. The cornerstone. is Christ, and everything is built upon Him, that cornerstone. Now, how did this work out? They said it not, the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejected His message, denied His power as being of God. They brought Him before in this very room. They rejected Him. called him a blasphemer, condemned him to die, right there. That was when they set him at naught in the final judicial sense. You condemned him to die. You rejected him. Here was the stone in your midst. It was right here where I'm standing. But you set him at naught. And he was cast aside into a grave, an unmarked grave. But God went to that grave. He took the stone out of that grave that you rejected. He raised him up and has now exalted him to his own right hand. He is now the head of the corner. He is the chief cornerstone. He is the one upon which the kingdom of God will be built, but you are the ones who rejected him. Now think of this, these men hearing this, what this, they must've been, stunned at the moment, they were marveling in one sense we see, stunned, but this eventually led to enraging them. They had no heart to believe, but here he's accusing them. Jesus himself during his earthly ministry referred to this passage and spoke about it concerning their rejection of himself. And so here we see Peter speaking the same way to them. They didn't hear Jesus, they're not gonna hear Peter. But then here's the, and we'll conclude on this. Here we have then, as I read in Psalm 118, one of the themes of that psalm is salvation. Salvation means to be delivered from danger, from sickness, from disease, all the effects of the curse on us, but primarily it's a salvation of the soul, the forgiveness of our sins. And so this healing of this man was a salvation of his broken down limbs, as it were. He healed them. but salvation in the broader sense of any kind of sense, any healing of body, any healing of soul, any eternal life to be brought to those who are under condemnation. Salvation from the judgment of God. Peter says to them, there is no salvation in any other name or person but Jesus, Jesus Christ. There is no salvation in the name of Moses. whom they trusted. There's no salvation ultimately in the name of Abraham, though these were two great men who had their place in preparing the way for the Christ, for the Messiah. There's no salvation in any name, in any person, but Jesus Christ. This is a very emphatic statement. Three lines to emphasize. The same thing, three times, three different ways, and this is emphatic. There's no salvation in any other but Jesus Christ. None. There's no religion. There's no other messianic figure. There's no one in all history besides this one. For there is none other name under heaven given among men. There's no other name under heaven but this name that we are proclaiming to you, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Only Him. The Christ of history. The Christ of the crucifixion. Is the Christ of the resurrection. And it is only in Him that you can have your sins forgiven. That you can have your body made new. In the ultimate salvation of the body is the resurrection. And so it's only in Christ, no other name. Under heaven, wherever there's heaven and whatever's under it, any nation of the world, any geographical spot in the world, you go. In other words, this is a universal salvation offered and provided for all mankind You see the emphasis on this? The Buddhists cannot be saved through their Buddhism because they live in the East. The Muslim cannot be saved through their Muhammadism where they live in the Middle East. The Jew cannot be saved through Judaism. The Mormon cannot be saved by their Mormonism. The Jehovah Witness cannot be saved by their Jehovah Witness religion. There was only one salvation, only one person, only one name. This is the ultimate offense of Christianity. It upholds here what Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. There's no other way. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the Savior of the world. Do you want salvation from your sin? Do you want salvation from the judgment of God for eternity? Do you want salvation in the resurrection unto life and participation in the new heavens and new earth instead of hell? Do you want salvation? Do you want your sins forgiven? This is the message of the church. This is the first response to persecution because the persecution of the church has often turned on this point. If we just said Jesus is one way, Your way's fine too. We just believe that Jesus is the way and he works for us. What works for you, that's fine. If that's the message the church took into the world, there'd be no persecution. We are persecuted because we say there's no other name. There's no other way. There's no other religion. There's no other Christ but Jesus of Nazareth. And unless you turn to Him and repent of your sins and believe in His name, you cannot be saved. That's the offense of Christianity. This is what grieves me today so much about our church. I mean, our American church. We have lost this. We don't even talk about the true church anymore. We talk about people of faith. Wherever your religion is, And we have ecumenical prayer services where we have rabbis, and imams, and Catholic priests, and whoever else knows what. And we're all praying to the same God. And it doesn't matter. Whichever way, we'll get you there. Our presidents have said that. I can't remember the exact quote, but that was basically one of the recent ones that comes to my mind was George Bush, the second one. Basically, the Muslims have their way and Christians have their way. There's no offense in that. But when we go to the Muslim and we say, we can say something, we respect your zeal for your religion, but we're sorry to say, and we say this with grief, but with love, that religion won't save you. The name of Muhammad won't save you, only Jesus. Christ of Nazareth can save you. And then we have to show them why that is the case. Because salvation is not following a religion and earning merit with God. Salvation is having your sins forgiven before God. And the only way your sins can be forgiven is through the blood of Jesus who took the penalty for you. You have to stand under that sin-bearing Savior who took your penalty and put your hope in His death and His resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins. If you do that, you will have salvation. Call upon the name of the Lord. Believe His resurrection. and you'll be saved, but if you are trusting in anything else. And by the way, this, your name won't help either. Me go to hell? You don't know who you're talking to, God, I'm a good person. I didn't do this, I didn't do that. And some people actually trust in their own name as they're, wow, they're gonna be saved. No, it's only through Jesus Christ. So this is the message of Christianity. This is the message of true biblical faith. This is what brings persecution. And so we see in this, as we began this consideration of this first persecution of the church by the authorities, it was a combo of civil and religious, so often combined, but often in history, it might be the state that persecutes us. It might be a religion that persecutes us. But it doesn't matter. The persecution will come. We see it happening here by a joint religious and civil authority. We see their tactics, we see their way, we see their methods. So far, we'll look at more of them, but we see how in that hour, the Holy Spirit will fill his people to be able to stand and to testify. Let us pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this day we've had together in your worship, in the study of your word. As we've looked and began to look at this very first incident of persecution in the history of the New Testament post-Pentecost church, there's so much to consider. But we thank you, Lord, that when it all comes down to what we've seen today, we see the people of God triumphing. In spite of persecution, the church is growing. We saw that in verse four. Many believe, thousands are coming to Christ, even though the authorities are against it. They're moving against the preachers, they're persecuting them, they're trying to silence them, and yet they can't. And these authorities turn into an audience. They didn't want it that way. Yet the Holy Spirit came upon Peter, and he spoke with power, with eloquence, and with truth. Help us today as we face persecution to take great hope and comfort from this passage and to learn from it, to be courageous, to give testimony. And Lord, we thank you too for this matchless verse, verse 12, that declares the very essence of the Christian message and the very offense of the cross, that there's not salvation in any other. There's no other way. There's no other name. There's no other sacrifice. There's no other person who can save us but Jesus Christ. And thank you that he saves us by his simple faith in his blood and his resurrection. In whose name we pray.
Persecution Arises
Series Acts
Sermon ID | 42025944416154 |
Duration | 1:02:42 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Acts 4:1-22 |
Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2025 SermonAudio.