Beloved, this is the word of God. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. And they were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they attested to them and put them into custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of high priestly family. And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you 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, By him, this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which had become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we may be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you are glorified by the words that are spoken this day. I pray that everything that is said is said for your glory and for your honor and to build up your church. Father, as you do that, build them up in such a way that they would call others to faith in you. And for those maybe who are within hearing of my voice that are not believers, Father, I pray that you would use these words to call them to faith as well. May you be glorified and honored. May you be praised and proclaimed by all that is said and done. And this I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Folks, if you ever want to make people in our culture mad, and I mean really mad, just not like a little bit ticked off, but really mad. then say to them what Peter says at the end of this text, the end of his defense, if you will, before the court that he's standing in front of. And there is salvation in no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. We'll set the context for that in a minute, but I want to make it abundantly clear that by the standards of our society today, Peter's statement is intolerant, it is bigoted, it is discriminatory, and it is small minded, yet it is true. People like to think that salvation in heaven can pretty much be achieved in any combination of forms. In the Christian church, it's in Jesus. And if you are a Jew, it's by being a good Jew. If you're a Buddhist, it's through pain and suffering. Hey, that sounds fun. If you're a Muslim, it's through Allah and the five pillars. If you're a Mormon, it's through the teachings of Joseph Smith and by good works. But if you hold to the view, which is contrary, you know, to the whole coexist thing that our society likes. Behold to the view that the Bible presents, and you will be considered intolerance by our society. But the Bible presents a view that says all of those other teachings that coexist, bumper stickers, teachings, and everybody else are in error, and are misleading. And if you hold to our society's attitude of tolerance, then you are not only denying the plain teaching of the Apostle Peter that we find here in our text, but of Jesus himself who said that no one comes to the Father except through me. John 14, six. If you would be orthodox in your beliefs, if you would be biblical in your beliefs, if you would agree with Peter and Jesus in your beliefs, then there is only one place in which you can stand. And tolerance is not that place. The only place that you can stand is that the only way to heaven is through saving faith in Jesus Christ and that all other paths lead one down a wide path to eternal hell and destruction. And that folks is the message that Peter proclaims to his audience here in our text. And we must not vary from it either to the right or to the left. This message that Peter and John, it's a message that places them in prison ultimately there. But let's put it into context. So we find ourselves back once again in the day when this lame man has been healed. Verse three tells us that it was evening, which means that Peter and John had been preaching at that point in the temple for there about three or four hours. Three one tells us that it was three o'clock when they had begun to come into the courts. That's when the preaching or shortly thereafter the preaching began. And so you can kind of do the math from there. And thus we're told in verse one, that he attracts the attention of a whole bunch of people. The captain of the temple, the Sadducees, the priests, the captain of the temple would have been the head of the liturgical guard, whose job was to keep the temple safe for worshipers. You remember when the priest turned 50, we talked about this earlier in the year, that he had to retire from his work in the temple sacrifices, and either ended up in one of two places, either as a trainer of the younger priests that were coming up into that work, or to be somebody that was on the temple guard. The priests were Levites, engaged in making sacrifices for people's sins. You can only imagine that these guys would not be happy that Peter's going on and saying, look, by repenting in this Jesus name, guy, your sins will be blotted out. Uh-oh, that means the priests don't have work anymore. It means the priests don't have purpose anymore. It means the priests don't have anything to offer anymore to the people. It's through faith in Jesus Christ, it's 319. The job of the priest was to make sacrifice to cover up your sin. Peter's saying those sins will be blotted out. No need to cover them up anymore because they will be gone from God's judicial record. They're not so happy. And then there's this group called the Sadducees. They have a little bit of a complicated history, but in short, they descended from a political class of people who were priests and kings at the same time. And unlike the Pharisees that we most often see, they rejected the rabbinic teachings. They only officially recognized the five books of Moses would be Genesis through Deuteronomy. And they rejected the idea of a resurrection. And again, Peter's preaching the resurrection of Jesus, the promise of a resurrection of the dead. So they're denying this physical resurrection, which denies the resurrection of Christ. And so we've got conflict there as well. These priest kings, you know, their livelihood was built upon the temple rituals and the temple teachings and the existence of the temple. So too were the priests, really so too was the temple guard, Levitical guard. All of these guys have everything to stake in terms of to lose. with this teaching that Peter is giving. And as a result, we're told they are greatly annoyed. They are grieved heavily, literally you could say that. You could most simply translate it as they were provoked. And so their solution is to have Peter and John and the healed man, remember he's kind of sticking to them, arrested and held over for trial until the next day, because it was already evening. For the record, Jeremiah 21-12 does state that trials are to be held in the mornings of a new day, pragmatically, that gives people a cooling down period. But the rabbinic authors also argued that this gives opportunity for evidence to be understood under the light of day, and we see everything more clearly under that light. So it's on that basis And the decision is made to let them spend the night in jail. And by the way, it's on this basis that many people will say, don't make any big decisions until you've slept on it. It's where that tradition comes from. And so as you think about this, I hope you're noticing that One very notable trial did take place at night, and that was Jesus's. In fact, the arrest took place at night too. Both were illegal, the arrest and the trial itself. We're not making quite the same mistake this time, but they're still arresting these men. These men are held over. And Luke kind of tells us what the result of this work ended here, what the result of this work was. And that is the number of those who believe, the number of men in the church swelled to 5,000. We're not told about women or children, but we're just numbered the men at this point. It's a reminder of God's promise. "'So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. "'It shall not return to me empty, "'but it shall accomplish that which I purpose it, "'and it shall succeed in the thing to which I set it.'" That's Isaiah 55, 11. How sad it is that we as Christians oftentimes don't take God up at his promises. You might say, well, those are Old Testament promises given to ancient Israel, but the Apostle Paul teaches us very, very clearly in 2 Corinthians 1.20, that all of the promises of God find their yes in him, that is Christ. And that is why through him, we utter our amen to God for his glory. So the promise of Isaiah 55 is ours in Christ. And since faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, it's Romans 10, 17. We should be quick to present the word of God faithfully, biblically to others, talking to people of the mighty works of God in and through Christ. And then trust God to use that to build his church. Even here, even here at Burry's. Question is whether you will set your faith outside of the walls. Set that faith to work outside of the walls of this church. Live by it, telling others about it. How do we live it? We live by acting in a way that's consistent with the fruit of the Spirit. Maybe do it this way. Ask yourself, Would your neighbors characterize your life as one marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If this doesn't describe you, it ought to, or at least it ought to describe what we are shooting for every day. How do we talk about the mighty works of God? Opportunities abound if you look for them. I knew an insurance agent in Mississippi who used to invite every new client to come to church with him. I know that because I was one of those clients and I ended up at Alta Woods PCA while I was in seminary because of that invitation. My first mentor As a Christian, when I came to faith in Jesus Christ, was my philosophy professor in the state university I attended, of all places. He talked to me about spiritual things, not just philosophical things. I ended up in his home that summer, doing a one-on-one Bible study in the book of Romans, and he planted the first seeds of reformed thought into my life. It's only years later that I found out that he was a ruling elder in a PCA church at the time in Baltimore. Just this week, in casual conversation, all totally unconnected with my pastoral role at the church, I had the opportunity to invite two people to come to worship with us and to talk to one person about why abortion is against God's law and to another person about how God's law supersedes the law of man. And this week wasn't unique. More often than not, just as Peter did, we are given opportunities to tell others about the mighty deeds of God. We oftentimes just don't look for them, or we get too busy that we don't take time to talk to lost souls. Peter and John did with this man and changed his life. You know, a baseball team does not win games if only one or two players take the field. Soldiers do not win battles if only a few join on the attack. Churches do not make disciples or take dominion over the culture unless the whole body engages in that work. Christianity is not a spectator sport. It's not something that you can come and warm a pew on Sunday morning and that's enough. This is for equipping. And then you're to go. You're to go out. Change the culture. One day at a time. God's word will not return void. The question is, do you really believe that? Peter did. And so he preaches and the church grows. It's funny that correlation. And so they end up in jail overnight. And the next day, Peter and John and the healed lame man, he's not getting separated very far from these guys. They're brought into court. The court here where they are tried as a whole is most likely the Great Sanhedrin, which is a body that served as the highest Jewish court centered in Jerusalem. There were lesser Sanhedrins, kind of lesser courts all about, but here centered in Jerusalem, you had the greater one. It dates back to Moses and Exodus, at least in principle. Exodus 18, that's under Jethro's advice. We see it at work during the Book of Judges with the various judges that were ruling and making decisions. And we find that it was re-established by Ezra and Nehemiah. By this time, the Sanhedrin was composed of 71 rabbinical judges, and they met every day except for the Sabbath and except for festivals. We find some familiar names here, namely Annas and Caiaphas. Now, in this spot, Annas is listed as the high priest. In other spots, Caiaphas is listed as the high priest. This is not a matter of confusion. This is not a matter of, whoops, One of the gospel writers got it wrong. In Jewish records, they keep very close records about who the high priest was. Caiaphas was the high priest at this time, but Annas was his father-in-law who had been high priest ahead of him. And Annas, in fact, was so influential as a high priest, the Romans removed him because he would manipulate everything and everyone to bring about his political gain. And so they removed him because they considered him too dangerous. And Caiaphas was put in place, but Anna still remained influential. And many people still referred to him as the high priest out of respect for who he was and who he had been. Antagonists of Christianity oftentimes look at little spots like this and claim that there are inconsistencies in the Bible. And a very short look at the records of history will demonstrate that there is no error here. Then there was John and Alexander. We don't know for sure who they were. We can speculate. We certainly know that they were prominent men in Jesus's day, or at least at this period of time. And they would have been known by Luke's audience because he doesn't tell us who they are. A lot of speculation. We just don't know for sure. And so we have to leave that there. And so they inquire this verse seven, by what power or by what name did you do this? This of course is the healing. Else they probably wouldn't have brought in the what lay man. But it also implies the preaching that takes place next because that's what gets all of these people riled up. They just gone healed the person and kind of walked away. That would have been a different things, but they go and they preach. And these guys don't like the preaching. And preaching in the temple courts requires a license. And licensure in and of itself is not a bad thing. I'm licensed to preach. Originally, I was licensed in the United Methodist Church many, many years back, and then in the PCA, and now in the RCUS. It's something that nearly every denomination does in the hopes of maintaining the purity of doctrine. But when licensure becomes a means of politics, like it was in Jesus's day, and advancing an agenda, then it becomes a sign of corruption and idolatry in the church body. that had happened in the temple, and thus they're condemned for it. And so Peter responds concisely with four points. Basically, this is his defense, if you will, before the courts. First, he says, it's in Jesus' name that this miracle was done. He makes it very, very clear. It's not his work, it's not his piety, but it's in Jesus, his name. And secondly, he goes on to say, oh, by the way, this is the Jesus that you crucified. Yeah, that's a little bit on the bold side, don't you think, Peter? You're preaching, you're saying that before the judges, who will be judging you. But aren't we supposed to be bold? We'll talk about that some more shortly. Jesus is a stone, he goes on, that the builders rejected. That's Psalm 118.22. except Peter inserts one word. He says, along with the builders, the builders rejected. He says, you, you the builders, you rejected him. In other words, you who lead the church, you have the obligation to align the blocks of the building with the cornerstone so that it's square. And you rejected the cornerstone that was sent by God and preferred a cornerstone made by human hands. What was the cornerstone that these Jewish leaders preferred? It was a temple made by Herod, a wicked and corrupt king. It was Gaudi, Gaudi, yeah, and large. It was mixed with Greek and Roman architecture. It was a mess from biblical standards. They preferred a status quo that afforded them power and reputation and status and wealth and society. A position that had them submitting to the authority of Rome rather than the authority of God. And they preferred a theology that not only rejected God's Messiah, but also rejected Moses and the scriptures, preferring legalistic rules of men. Unless you work your, you know, wag your finger at these 71 men in the Sanhedrin. I want you to know that this error is an error that is found not only in the Jewish church, but in the Christian church broadly as well. We sometimes embrace a cornerstone made with human hands. cornerstone of our own traditions, a cornerstone of our own rules that we've added to scripture, and those cornerstones may, will never remain true. First couple bricks might look like they're right, but they're off. We remember the dream and the interpretation thereof that Nebuchadnezzar had, as Daniel interpreted in Daniel 2.45. The stone cut from the mountain by no human hands. Folks, that's Christ that's being spoken of. That's Christ the cornerstone that's being spoken of. Not a cornerstone made by man or human hands, but cut out by God so that it would indeed be square upon which to build the temple, the church. The church is not to be of man's making, but it's of God's making. which is why it is responsible for throwing down empires. If it's man's making, it just is one more empire. But God has made the church and we need to submit to that. And so we could go on at length about Daniel and this connection there, and this prediction, but we're gonna save that for another time. Because the language of Zechariah 10, verses two through four, I think really even sums up the idea the best. For the household gods utter nonsense, Zechariah writes. And the diviners see lies, and they tell false dreams, and they give empty consolation. Therefore, the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted for lack of a shepherd. My anger is hot against the shepherds and I will punish the leaders for the Lord of hosts cares for his flocks and the house of Judah and will make them his majestic steed in battle. From him shall come the cornerstone." That's from God. From Him the tent peg, from Him the battle bow, and from Him every ruler, all of them together. So where does our cornerstone come from? It comes from God. From where do our doctrines come? They come from God. Those doctrines align us with the foundation that is laid by the prophets and the apostles. through the cornerstone. From where does all of that come that keeps us safe and from falling away? It's God. Where are our weapons of war, God? Where man interjects his ways, his ideas, his preferences, always ends up in idolatry. Why? Because it looks for other sources of salvation, which is exactly where we started. Because in no other name, but the name of Christ, can you be saved. And if you're relying on anything else this morning, works, family heritage, philosophies, gifts to the church that you've made, works in the church, money, status, lineage, family names, whatever it happens to be, You need to repent of it this day and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we come before you and we praise your name and we fall before you asking for your grace. And so father, I pray that you would use these words to line us into your cornerstone and that we would throw to the wayside the cornerstones of our own making. We pray this in Jesus name.