Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00007B
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00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book. We were studying here in
00:04 the book of Acts chapter 4 and we were looking at Peter's 00:07 second chance, his opportunity, actually when he came back 00:11 before the very rulers that were present when he denied 00:14 Jesus the first time. So what we're going to see here is 00:17 Peter's response. The Bible says in Acts chapter 4 and verse 7 00:22 that when these leaders met together, Annas, Caiaphas, John, 00:26 Alexander, as many as were of the family of the high priest. 00:30 It says, when they had set them in the midst they asked by what 00:34 power or by what name have you done this? And now, Jim, I think 00:37 about that when they set them in their midst. Why would you set 00:41 somebody in... I mean, how do you picture this. Intimidation. 00:46 You're surrounded by them. Yeah the nature of that whole thing 00:50 is they knew, this is the guy that denied Jesus before and 00:55 watch when we intimidate him. But watch when they intimidate 01:01 him. What happens this time with Peter. In 7 it says, When they 01:05 set them in their midst they asked by what power or by what 01:09 name have you done this. Then Peter, filled with the Holy 01:13 Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel 01:16 yet this day we are judged for a good deed done to a helpless 01:20 man and by what means he has been made well. Let it be known 01:23 to you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus 01:27 Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from 01:31 the dead this man's been healed. And he goes on to say in verse 01:35 12, nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other 01:38 name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. 01:42 And that's a powerful... I mean, first of all it's powerful that 01:47 Peter, there is not a shred of fear or intimidation in Peter 01:51 here, not a shred. He sees himself as you mentioned before 01:55 the break, there's no way out for him, but it doesn't 01:57 intimidate him in the least. He brings these guys to 02:00 accountability for what they have done to Christ and then he 02:03 basically tells them, you guys are a bunch of lost men unless 02:07 you repent and accept Jesus because he's the only name God's 02:10 given under heaven whereby anybody will be saved. We could 02:13 say a lot about that today. I mean the reality is there are 02:16 people today that want to say well there are a lot of options 02:19 for salvation. But the Bible says that there's only one way 02:22 there's only one way ever been provided and that way is through 02:25 Jesus Christ and I hope that our viewers have surrendered their 02:28 hearts to Jesus Christ and if not we see the opportunity given 02:31 in the scripture here today to give our hearts to Jesus now. 02:34 Now you were going to highlight on part of the argument there 02:37 that Peter brought out from scripture. 02:39 Yeah. When you look here in this passage the one thing that 02:43 stands out is that Peter is ready to die. He has a faith 02:47 that essentially there's nothing they can do to him now that he 02:52 has not already accepted. And that type of surrender leads him 02:56 to what he actually says in verse 11. If we go back there, 03:00 speaking of Jesus in verse 11, he says, this is the stone which 03:04 was rejected by you builders which has become the chief 03:09 corner stone. This particular reference to Psalm 118 is the 03:13 same reference that Jesus used in his own ministry and I 03:18 believe they could remember that reference. Let's go back to that 03:22 I'd like to point to that in Matthew chapter 21. In Matthew 03:26 21 Jesus tells a parable beginning in verse 33 about a 03:30 land owner who planted a vineyard and then he dug a wine 03:35 press, he built a tower and he leased it to vinedressers and 03:39 then he went away. Then when it came time to receive some of the 03:43 fruit from the vineyard he sent his servants to get the fruit. 03:47 But the vinedressers took the servants, they beat them, they 03:51 killed them, they wouldn't give them any fruit. So finally he 03:55 sends his Son. And of course, this is a reference to Jesus 03:59 being sent after the prophets had been sent seeking fruit in 04:03 the lives of the children of Israel and then at the very end 04:07 of this it says, therefore, in verse 40, when the owner of the 04:10 vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers. And of 04:14 course, they answer with indignation, he will destroy 04:18 those wicked men miserably and he'll lease his vineyard to 04:21 other vinedressers who will render to him 04:23 the fruits in their seasons. 04:25 And Jesus then quotes that same passage of scripture from Psalm 04:29 118 that Peter quoted in his sermon. He says have you never 04:33 read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected has 04:36 become the chief corner stone. This was the Lord's doing and it 04:40 is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, the 04:43 kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation 04:47 bearing the fruits of it. And the fascinating about this story 04:51 is when you look at verse 45, it says now when the chief priests 04:54 and Pharisees heard his parables they perceived that he 04:59 was speaking of them. I think that's a pretty good perception, 05:02 don't you? He was speaking of them and he was being very clear 05:06 that by rejecting himself as the Messiah that the kingdom of God 05:10 was going to be taken from them and given to someone else. 05:13 And now Peter referencing this same scripture... 05:16 No need for perception here. 05:18 No, no need for perception. He's very plain. You crucified him 05:22 and he is that stone which was rejected by you builders and has 05:26 become the chief corner stone and there is not salvation in 05:31 any other. By not accepting Jesus Christ you are lost. Whew! 05:35 That was a very plain and powerful and might I say one of 05:39 the most fearless declarations every seen and it just gives 05:43 me hope and I think that we can agree that our viewers should be 05:48 hearing in these passages a message of hope. That message is 05:52 that you may have denied Christ in your life, through your 05:56 practices you may have had many shameful experiences that you 06:00 don't know how to recover from. But if you look at the story 06:03 here of the apostle Peter it's one of the most miraculous 06:06 transformations in all of scripture and it gives evidence 06:11 that God can restore fully and take someone who is of little 06:16 depth and give them the strength of character that is actually a 06:21 reflection of the Lord Jesus himself. That's right. Now if 06:25 you look further in verse 13 it was clear that they perceived 06:29 this. In verse 13 it says, Now when they saw the boldness of 06:32 Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and 06:36 untrained men they marveled and they realized that they had been 06:41 with Jesus. You have to imagine they were looking back to and 06:45 thinking back to wow we've never heard anybody preach with such 06:50 authority, power, clear reasoning except for Jesus of 06:56 Nazareth. And they knew when they saw this. This is only from 07:00 the Lord Jesus. They must have been with Jesus. It doesn't say 07:04 that they admitted that they had been with Jesus, it doesn't say 07:08 they confessed that they had been with Jesus. They were 07:10 trying to outwardly say Jesus was dead, he's buried, but they 07:14 realized, in their hearts they knew, they recognized that they 07:18 had been with Jesus. Powerful. 07:20 Yeah absolutely. And what's interesting about that is, Jim, 07:24 it goes on to tell us that... Look at verse 14. It says, and 07:28 seeing the man who had been healed standing with them... 07:31 In other words, the Lord Jesus had provided them an evidence 07:34 so that in addition to them seeing the power and the 07:38 confidence and the change in Peter, there was that man 07:42 standing there as a living testimony that Jesus was alive. 07:46 So the Lord Jesus provided that proof. So there they stand with 07:51 Peter's direct indictment and there's the man standing with 07:56 them and it says, they could say nothing against it. And it goes 08:02 on in verse 16 to say that... Well we'll read on in verse 15. 08:06 It says when they had commanded them to go outside of the 08:09 counsel they conferred among themselves, which that's 08:12 interesting isn't it? They didn't go to scripture, they 08:15 didn't inquire of the Lord and say Lord are we doing the right 08:18 or wrong thing. You see their motive here is really not 08:21 sincerity and I want to say that sometimes we can find ourselves 08:25 in that place where we really are not sincerely wanting to 08:28 know and follow truth. We just want to sustain what we already 08:31 believe. They conferred among themselves and sometimes when 08:35 we're faced with some new truth in scripture that is different 08:39 that what we've always believed, instead of going to God and 08:42 saying Lord if this is your truth show it to me, we go to 08:45 people who think like us and we bolster ourselves and encourage 08:50 ourselves by saying well none of them believe either. And we see 08:53 that here. They conferred among themselves, what shall we do and 08:57 notice indeed that a notable miracle has been done through 09:01 them as evidence to all who dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot 09:05 deny it. But so that it spreads no further, let us severely 09:09 threaten them. Why don't they want it to spread 09:12 if it's so irrefutable? They can see they can't refute 09:17 it but they don't want this getting out. So in spite of all 09:21 that, hey in spite of the evidence, we're going to make 09:25 sure this message doesn't get out. So they called them in, 09:28 they threatened them and I love Peter's response. Verse 19 says, 09:31 Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in 09:35 the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. 09:38 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and 09:43 heard. And that is such a true statement for every one of us. 09:47 If we really had an encounter with Jesus, if he's really 09:51 changed our lives we cannot but speak of him. I mean, don't tell 09:57 any more about the thing that you're so excited about. How 10:00 many times had Jesus healed somebody and said now don't tell 10:02 anybody. I don't think it ever worked. 10:05 You know, I know there's a lot of people who say I couldn't 10:09 imagine sharing with others, that's not my gift, you know, 10:14 I'm not an evangelist, that's not me. The truth is that we're 10:18 all evangelists. We're just evangelists in what we are 10:21 confident in. I mean, I remember one dear sister in a church that 10:27 I was pastoring who was a wonderful cook and she was 10:34 always bringing the best dishes to potluck and that sort of 10:37 thing and I remember her finding out that I did not like brussel 10:42 sprouts. And I mean, who would like brussel sprouts. But she 10:46 was sure that she could get me to like brussel sprouts. 10:49 She said, you're going to love my brussel sprouts. I don't 10:52 remember what she did. I think she just dunked it a bunch of 10:55 some type of sauce. But she wanted to prove to me, and she 10:59 was convinced, that I would like her brussel sprouts. She was a 11:04 brussel sprout evangelist. She had confidence in what she could 11:08 do and she thought there's no way; I'm going to be able to do 11:12 this. When we believe in something, when we have 11:15 confidence in something which the Lord Jesus built for these 11:19 disciples when he opened the scriptures to their 11:21 understanding in Luke 24 and showed them the evidence of his 11:25 Messiahship right from scripture With that foundation they could 11:28 not but share. It was so convincing, it was so true, that 11:31 they knew that if they could just have the opportunity to 11:35 share it with others that they would believe it. And there may 11:37 be some here today who are looking at this and saying, you 11:40 know, I couldn't be an evangelist. No, you can but it 11:44 all requires studying the clear evidences of our faith and 11:47 gaining confidence in the word and with that confidence will 11:51 come a willingness to share. 11:52 That's right and you cannot but tell the things you've seen and 11:55 heard. Now wrapping up here where it says in verse 23, they 11:59 let them go and they went to their companions. Very evidently 12:02 the companions had been praying for them. They didn't know what 12:05 was going on with Peter and John They thought they were going to 12:07 crucifixion and they were praying and the Lord heard those 12:11 prayers and it's interesting; they came back and then when 12:14 they came among their companions they all lifted up their voice 12:18 to the Lord and it's interesting that as they prayed, in verse 24 12:21 it says, Lord you are God who made heaven and earth, the sea 12:24 and all that is in them who by the mouth of your servant David 12:28 have said... and then they quote from the second Psalm... Why do 12:32 the nations rage and the people plot vain things and it's 12:35 interesting that, and I'm going through this kind of quickly 12:41 here but in verse 29 they pray now Lord look on their threats 12:46 and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak 12:50 your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and 12:54 wonders may be done through the name of your Holy Servant Jesus. 12:58 And remember this was the first miracle, the first sign and 13:01 wonder that had been done... that these be done... and it 13:04 says in verse 31, when they had prayed the place where they were 13:06 assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with 13:09 the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. 13:13 Wow! You know we may wonder why the apostles needed to pray for 13:16 boldness when they seemed to speak so boldly, but oftentimes 13:20 we forget that they were just normal fisherman. They weren't 13:24 trained preachers and in many ways that makes them a lot like 13:28 us, like you and me. And just like they had to pray for 13:31 boldness, we have to pray for boldness. Well that's all the 13:34 time we have for now. We hope you'll join us next time on 13:38 Books of the Book as we study the book of Acts. |
Revised 2014-12-17