Text: Acts 4:1-22, Title: You’re the President of What? Date/Place: NRBC, 8/12/07, AM
A. Opening illustration: John Kenneth Gailbraith, in his autobiography, A Life In Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family’s housekeeper. It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken Gailbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson." She replied, "He’s sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him." "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him." "No, Mr. President, I can’t do that. I work for him, not you." When Galbraith called the President later, he could scarcely believe what the President said: "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House!"
B. Background to passage: This chapter is one of the most powerful chapters of Acts yet. There are some amazing statements with deep impact on our lives in chapter four. I will not do justice to it today, so reread it, and restudy it, and allow God to use it in your life. Remember that Peter has just finished his sermon after the healing of the lame man. And as we will see today, it had great impact, not only on the people, but upon the rulers of Israel, which brings about our situation today. Mosaic law prescribed that if someone was using a miracle to teach the people, they must be examined to ensure that they were not leading people away from the God of their fathers. Note that even under their arrest many people still believed in Christ, and the church grows under persecution.
C. Main thought: In the text today, we will see three truths
A. A case for exclusivism (v. 10-12)
1. I wonder if Peter and John slept peacefully that night, or if they realized the gravity of the situation and spent the night in prayer. Because when they got up, the switched from the defensive position to the attack position. It’s almost as if Peter knew what they were going to ask and was ready. And during his explanation, he gives one of the most offensive statements to them, and even now in our culture: this Jesus whom you killed, God raised up, made Him chief cornerstone, and there is no other name whereby we must be saved! Expound on the words of the verse some. They were disturbed about the doctrine of the resurrection, but they were being accused of killing their own messiah. And they understood the implications of Peter’s statement.
2. Luke 21:13-15, John 14:6, 3:36, 1 Tim 2:5, 1 John 5:11-12, Rom 10:14-15, Acts 17:30-31
3. Illustration: Tell about Dad coming to church with us one day and hearing me teach on Acts 4:12, and realizing the implications for the first time on the way home, Charles Templeton, the world renowned agnostic and apostate evangelists said that it was an “insufferable presumption” for the Bible to claim that besides Jesus there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. “Christians are a small minority in the world. Four out of five people in the world believe in gods other than the Christian God…more than five billion people…are we to believe that only Christians are right?” Joel Osteen on Larry King live was asked about atheists, then about devout people of other nations and other faiths, on both occasions he said that he didn’t know, and tried to put some spiritual slant on it about God deciding who gets to heaven… no prayer requests for lost people or nations at the associational pastors mtg,
4. Our culture is pluralistic, relativistic, and intolerant toward those who don’t line up, and we hear it every where we go. This is one of the main beliefs that our society and culture takes aim at constantly. They tell lame illustrations like the three blind men and the elephant or climbing up different sides of the mountain. And where the point of contention is the battle lies. We must earnestly contend for the faith handed down. And it is clear in the NT that this is what was taught. This is a doctrine that we question in our own hearts from time to time because of the implications, unless we are cold and heartless. We would like for their to be another way. Because if it is true, millions, in fact, billions are in eternal danger. This is the reason that it is so important to hold fast to this doctrine. To not respond to this truth is similar to seeing smoke coming from the basement door, and quickly closing it so as to have a peaceful family dinner. It is the motivation for evangelism and missions. Churches and individuals that lose this biblical conviction will inherently move away from the conviction that being born again is the greatest need in anyone’s life, and therefore move away from evangelistic ministries and missions. Young people will fight the most difficult battle over this in our schools as our society moves further and further away. And it is offensive to some, and some will probably not come back to our church because it is proclaimed here, but we must hold fast to it. “This is the kind of truth that either makes converts or enemies.” Do you ever really consider the implications of this doctrine on your friends, neighbors, and the nations?
B. A warning against self-deceit (v. 14-17)
1. The one thing that is clear about the attitude of the Sanhedrin is that they are convinced of the authenticity of the miracle, and constrained by the popularity of the people, yet they will not believe. They have just decided that they are not leading people away from the God of their fathers enough to punish them (Jesus’ case shows that they had no problem putting people to death); but their pride kicks in and makes them realize that if they believe they must admit they were wrong about Jesus. And not only are they choosing eternal destruction for themselves to save their pride, they are choosing it for others.
2. Matt 12:41, Pro 14:12, 12:15, 12:1, 13:18,
3. Illustration: “Man’s capacity for self-deception is unlimited.” “We possess a marvelous capacity for self-deception. This capacity the enemy finds to be one of his most effective weapons for destroying the souls of men.” “The mind perceives reality selectively in order to justify what the heart desires,”
4. This demonstrates to us the depravity of the human heart. We must never underestimate the power of pride. It helps us to look very diligently to find things to justify what we already believe, even when we are faced with surmounting evidence. Lest we look so spiritual, we must acknowledge that we do the same thing. When we are faced with the evidence that we are wrong in an argument, pride tells us to find something wrong with our spouse from a bygone argument to bring up rather than apologize. When we are faced with evidence that our church or business has problems, pride tells us to look for reasons why we should keep on doing it the same comfortable way anyway. If God calls us to repentance over things, we justify why we can simply pray about it at home. If we feel conviction in our hearts that we are not really saved, although we are members of the church, pride says, “do you know what people will think of you if you get saved?” To help combat this self-deception surround yourself with godly men and women that love Christ and love you enough to confront you and tell you when you are wrong. Strive to remain teachable and retain the right to be wrong, and welcome correction, lest you miss what is right in front of your face, and like these men perish for eternity because of their error.
C. A powerful witness (v. 8, 13, 18-19)
1. Jesus promises persecution, Paul promised persecution, Peter promises persecution, and thus when it comes, let alone when it is absent, the world has need of a powerful witness. Peter was here again filled with the Holy Spirit for this testimony. And after his three sentence sermon, the Sanhedrin had a flashback, and knew why they were so bold: they had been with Jesus! They were untrained and uneducated, and yet they spoke like Jesus with authority. And when the council threatened them and warned them no longer to speak in the name of Jesus, they very boldly and clearly stated their conviction that they were bound by conscience to obey God rather than the council, and furthermore they can’t help it. This question again calls into question everything that the council had done with Jesus, and everything they were saying the disciples now. They couldn’t answer it without admitting wrong.
2. John 7:15,
3. Illustration: “the early church had to be told to stop speaking in His name, the modern church has to be told to start.” Tell about Chris almost leading a Jewish telemarketer to Christ one night, tell about Mrs. Katherine weeks working on the cleaning lady on a weekly basis, tell about the Muslim and the young woman at the motel in TX, “let us get the idea out of our head that scholarship (or education, training) makes a man or woman bold, courageous, straightforward, and clear.” -Piper
4. Being a Spirit-filled believer is crucial to you witnessing encounter. You don’t need formal training to witness, nor a canned presentation memorized, nor a how-to guide. You need the conviction that people are lost without Christ, the aid of the Spirit, and time spent with Jesus! Do people say that about you? Do you spend time with Jesus? If not, you will never be much of a effective witness. When you have been with Jesus you love what He loves, have convictions like He has, etc. We have all known and know people who powerfully impact everyone around them for Christ, and that generally flows from being with Jesus. And when we are with Jesus, we develop this radical commitment to obedience to our Master, regardless of government regulations, company policy, social politeness, political correctness, regardless of persecution, shame, consequences, etc, because we know to whom we have sold out. What an amazing testimony, we can’t help it! Is that the way that we live? Do you have a holy boldness to stand as a dying man and speak to dying men seizing every opportunity, because it may be someone’s last, and tell them about the Jesus who changed your life, and now requires all men everywhere to come to Him in repentance and faith? Remember that you don’t have to win, but simply be faithful,
A. Closing illustration: “It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.” Hugh Lattimer once preached before King Henry VIII. Henry was greatly displeased by the boldness in the sermon and ordered Lattimer to preach again on the following Sunday and apologize for the offense he had given. The next Sunday, after reading his text, he thus began his sermon: “Hugh Lattimer, dost thou know before whom thou are this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king’s most excellent majesty, who can take away thy life, if thou offendest. Therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou comest--upon Whose message thou are sent? Even by the great and mighty God, Who is all-present and Who beholdeth all thy ways and Who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully.” He then preached the same sermon he had preached the preceding Sunday--and with considerably more energy.
B. Recap
C. I was on my honeymoon in the Bahama’s when a man walked up to me and said, "Would you like to buy some cocaine? You can tell everyone how much you really enjoyed the Bahama’s."
After I said "No!" and got over the shock of that man’s boldness, I wondered how Jesus would have responded if someone came up to him selling drugs. Later that day, someone else came up to me selling drugs and that gave me another chance to share Jesus with them in a most creative way. After he told me that he had the "good-stuff", I asked him, "What have you got?" Once he said "Cocaine!", I said the following:
Is that all you have? I’m disappointed! I was hoping you would have something better than that. You see, I’ve got the real thing! What I have is all natural, pure and very powerful. And it makes me feel great all day and all night. And get this, it may be illeagal in some countries, but not in this one, so you can’t get arrested for having it!
By this time the man was very curious and asked me what is this incrediable "stuff" I was talking about. I said, "I’m talking about having Jesus in your heart! It’s awsome what he will do for you when you get him inside of you! No drug in all the world is as good as having Jesus in you."
The man stopped smiling and got this real serious look on his face and said, "I want what you have. How do I get it?"
It becomes very easy to share Jesus with someone who just asked you, "I want what you have, how do I get it?"
