Who Should We Obey? Series

WHO SHOULD WE OBEY?

Text: Acts 4:13-22

Introduction

1. “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

2. The question I want us to ponder this morning is should we obey God or people?

3. According to Peter and John, disciples of Jesus, we should obey God rather than people.

4. Read Acts 4:13-22

Proposition: As followers of Jesus, we need to share the Gospel courageously and actively with everyone we meet.

Transition: First, we should understand that…

I. God Uses Ordinary People (13-15).

A. Ordinary Men

1. Peter’s response to the council had a major impact. Even on the council itself. In v. 13 Luke tells us, “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”

a. Luke tells us that the council was amazed at their boldness.

b. The word used here means boldness, confidence, and courage (Louw and Nidda).

c. What really amazed them is that they were ordinary men. The word ordinary means “uneducated.”

d. They were fishermen by trade, and they had not had any formal theological or rabbinical teaching. Yet here they were speaking to them with such boldness, confidence, and courage. How could this be?

e. Well one thing that isn’t necessarily mentioned in the text, but we know from reading the early part of the book, is that they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, earlier in this chapter, as Peter began to speak, Luke says he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

f. However, another aspect that is mentioned is they recognized that these two men had been with Jesus.

g. Now, we know that being with Jesus changes people. We know that spending time with Jesus every morning in prayer and bible study changes us!

h. Even these religious people recognized that being with Jesus meant something.

2. Then Luke mentions something else. “But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say.”

a. There was another thing the council couldn’t deny is that the man whom they had healed was right there among them.

b. This man who had been lamed for his entire life, whom they had seen begging for money at the Temple gate, was standing right there!

c. What were they going to say? They couldn’t deny it. They knew this was not a con job. They knew he was a cripple all his life.

d. Luke makes it clear that they were speechless.

B. Power of God

1. “All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose he has given them.”

2. God uses ordinary people, just like you and me, to take his message of salvation to the world.

a. “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.” ( 1 Cor. 2:4-5)

b. Too many Christians have the misguided idea that you must go to seminary to share the Gospel with people.

c. But Scripture tells us a very different story. Peter and join were ordinary people. They were uneducated, fishermen who spent most of their life doing menial tasks and working with their hands.

d. However, something happened to them that turned them from ordinary to extraordinary: they met Jesus! And he turned them into fishers of men.

e. He then did something that empowered them to do the task that he had given them: he filled them with the Holy Spirit.

f. How are they different from us? There not! We are ordinary people that can do the extraordinary because we’ve met Jesus!

g. We are empowered to share the Gospel with Floyd County because he has filled us with the Holy Spirit.

h. Jesus took ordinary people and turned the world upside down, and he can use us to do the same.

Transition: However, we need to understand that just like Peter and John…

II. People Will Try to Silence You (16-18).

A. Warn Them Not to Speak

1. The council had a bit of a problem. Look at what Luke tells us in v. 16, “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it.”

a. They asked the question, “what are we going to do with you?” As my mother used to say, “mildew I guess!”