Being with Jesus
Acts 4:13-22
Intro: Matthew 19:26 says, “With God all things are possible.” The disciples spent 3½ years with Jesus, the very Son of God. Jesus told them, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus had always accurately represented His Father to the disciples. So, in a very real sense, the disciples had been “with God” for 3½ years, and had seen the impossible become a reality on several occasions. So, when Peter and John found themselves in difficult situations, facing threats and opposition, the one thing that kept them going was the fact that they had been with Jesus, and now Jesus was with them, through the HS. This is a word for us today, even though we are not able to see Jesus physically in the same way the disciples did. The main truth for us today is this:
Prop: If we will spend time with Jesus, we can boldly go and do His will, facing anything that comes our way.
Interrogative: How does spending time with Jesus help us?
TS: Let’s look at four ways we can benefit from being with Jesus.
I. Being with Jesus Gives Us Courage
“They saw the courage of Peter and John…” (13).
-Peter and John had spent considerable time with Jesus and saw Him heal many sick people, raise a few people from the dead, cast out evil spirits, and perform many other miracles. They knew that Jesus had the authority to do whatever needed to be done. However, before Jesus left them, He told them that they would do even greater works than He had done, because He was returning to His Father. Jesus gave them a commission: Your assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to make disciples throughout the entire world. Jesus said, “Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you.” Let me read you something that Jesus commanded them to do: Matthew 10:7-8 "And as you go, preach, saying, ’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
-Well, Peter & John had courage, because they had been with Jesus.
-Now, how does this apply to us? We have not had the opportunity the disciples had to hang out with Jesus personally. What does it mean for us to be with Jesus? Here are a few ways we can be with Jesus:
1. We can walk with Him by reading the Gospels (and the rest of the Scriptures). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us eyewitness accounts of what Jesus did while He was here on earth. We can be with Jesus and see how He treats people and how He did the will of His Father above all else. We can see what made Him weep and what made Him angry. The Scriptures show us what is important to Jesus, so that helps us gain a sense of His values. How else can we be with Jesus?
2. We can spend time with Him through prayer. Praying should not be a one-way conversation, but involves both speaking and listening. It is talking with the Lord.
3. We can spend time w/ Him through praise & worship. God inhabits the praises of His people. When we come to the Lord with praise in our hearts & mouths, He shows up! When we worship Jesus in spirit & out of a sincere heart, we are spending time w/ Him.
4. Another way we can be with Jesus is to understand that He is with us all day long, wherever we go. You might call this “praying without ceasing.” This is where we talk to the Lord throughout the day. It is where we acknowledge Him in all of our ways, allowing Him to lead us in the right direction. We can be with Jesus throughout the day because He is with us. In fact, when Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person, He also said, “I will always be with you.” If Jesus is with us, then our lives should show that we have been with Him.
-Coming back to the idea of courage, how does being with Jesus give us courage? Just knowing that we are not alone, and that the Lord is for us should give us boldness to do His will. God told Joshua, 9”Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). Jesus Himself has promised to be with us as well, through the HS, who lives in us.
-TS: Well, not only does being with Jesus give us courage, but it makes us more than we are.
II. Being with Jesus Prepares Us for the Extraordinary
V.13 tells us that the temple leaders “realized that Peter and John were unschooled, ordinary men.”
-Apparently, Peter and John did not have doctoral degrees from the University of Jerusalem. They lacked the training required for rabbi’s to teach people in the temple. That does not mean they were ignorant. As good Jewish men, they probably had memorized large portions of the Torah, and were very familiar with the entire OT.
-As they were teaching the people in the temple after healing the lame man, the priests and Sadducees who had been trained for such things were disturbed that these ordinary men were doing what they were supposed to be doing. They were even more disturbed because they were teaching that Jesus had been raised from the dead and was now alive.
-These same religious leaders had been upset at Jesus a number of times earlier, when Jesus had taught the people. Remember, Jesus spoke as someone with authority – unlike the scribes and Pharisees. This caused them to resent Him, because people sat up and took notice when Jesus talked.
-Well, God used these ordinary men to preach the gospel that day. He used these ordinary men to work an extraordinary miracle of healing for the lame man.
-I don’t know about you, but I sure feel ordinary most days. In fact there are some days when I feel even less than ordinary. Rarely do I go all out to accomplish something extraordinary. I’m not proud of that, but I think that’s where most of us live. We really don’t expect to hit a homerun everyday. Just getting on base would be a wonderful thing. I’ll take a walk. In fact, I’m even willing to get hit by the ball every now and then.
-Guess what! God wants to prepare us to be more than we are. He wants to prepare us for some of the greater works Jesus spoke about. However, unless we invest time with Jesus, we will never rise above the ordinary. Being with Jesus is what made the difference for the disciples, and it will make the difference for us.
-TS: So, if you need courage and want to do something extraordinary by the power of the HS, spend more time with Jesus. Another benefit of being with Jesus is this:
III. Being with Jesus Teaches Us to Obey God
-In v.19, Peter and John told the Sanhedrin: “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God” (19).
-Jesus taught by example and by His words that obedience to His Father was the ultimate expression of love and faith. In John 14:23-24, Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
-I may step on some toes here (and they might be attached to my own feet), but here goes. God does not want to hear how much we love Him unless we are willing to show it by our obedience. How often do we pick and choose what we will obey from the Bible? Do we only obey the easy commands that come natural for us? I say this, recognizing that we are all growing and learning to obey God more fully- or at least I hope so. However, when God has revealed something to us in His word (whether we read it or heard it in a sermon or teaching), how many times do we just excuse ourselves and say, “Oh God will understand, as long as I am trying.” The problem might be that we are not really trying because we aren’t taking God seriously. Or, the problem could be that we are trying completely on our own power, and aren’t asking God to help us obey completely.
-In Peter and John’s case, their obedience had to do with telling others about Jesus. In fact, they were directly obeying the word of Jesus to them. They had learned obedience from Jesus Himself. Phil. 2 says that Jesus obeyed His Father to the point of death.
-What areas of obedience do you struggle with most? Is it in how you treat people? Is it in areas of honesty? Is it in the area of money? Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.” Since you don’t grow crops, does that mean you let yourself off the hook from tithing or giving to the poor?
-Let me just say that we all struggle in various areas. However, it is crucial that we learn to obey God. If we don’t obey God, Jesus said it shows that we do not love Him. Listen carefully to the value Jesus placed on obedience: “Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Without obedience, not only will we miss God’s will on this earth, we will not find entrance into heaven.
-Please understand that just doing good things is not enough to get us into heaven. However, if we refuse to do the good that we know to do, it will cost us more than we want to pay.
-Now I’ve not really addressed Peter and John’s situation in relation to obedience. They were being commanded by the Sanhedrin not to teach anymore in the name of Jesus. However, this was explicitly what Jesus had commanded them to do. Therefore, it was not even up for debate.
-I hope that we never have to face the choice between obeying the authorities over us or obeying God. But if and when we do, we need to have our mind made up that we will obey God rather than man.
-TS: Finally…
IV. Being with Jesus Gives Us Something to Say
-Peter and John said they could not keep silent, because they had seen and heard too much while they were with Jesus. “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (20).
-The more experiences we have with Jesus, the more we will see and hear Him do in and through our lives, and that gives us something to talk about. The longer you walk with Jesus, the more you should have to say about Him. But even if you’ve only been a believer for a short time, you can still have something to say. Look at the lame man. He had something to say, because Jesus had healed him. He had plenty to say about the Lord. We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. What have you seen and heard since you started walking with Jesus? As you get to know Him more and watch Him work in your life, you will be able to share that with others. In fact, if you are letting God work in your life the way He wants to, you won’t be able to shut up about Him. Being with Jesus gives us something to say, and the HS gives us the power and boldness to say it (Acts 1:8).
Conclusion: As we close, have you been with Jesus lately? How’s your courage holding up? Are you ready to let God do something extraordinary through you? How about your obedience? Are you obeying Him the best way you know how? How about your witness? Do you have something to say about Jesus? Have you been with Him long enough for something to happen that is worth talking about?
-Would you take a moment this morning and just be honest with the Lord. If you’ve not been spending time in prayer, talking with Jesus, tell Him about it. Ask Him to help you spend more time in His presence in prayer, in praise and worship, in the Bible, and by just knowing that He is with you all day long, wherever you go. Others will know when you’ve been with Jesus. They will see something different about you – even if they do not know what it is.
-I’d also like to extend an invitation to anyone who does not know Jesus. If your heart is not clean, if you are not right with God, you can ask God to forgive you and take away your sins. You can begin to spend time with Jesus starting today if you are ready to invite Him to be your forgiver and leader. If you are willing to make this decision today, would you lift your hand so I can pray with you? [Sing Draw Me Close to You]
