*Intro>The French Foreign Legion has an inspiring motto: “If I falter, push me on. If I stumble, pick me up. If I retreat, shoot me.”
-Obviously, neither Peter nor John were members of the French Foreign Legion, but they demonstrated a similar determination.
-After being used by God to heal a lame man, then preaching to a crowd at the temple, they were arrested, jailed, threatened, and warned to never again speak in Jesus’ name.
->Their response? -- “No way! We’re going to keep on keeping on!”
-We should learn from their choices, and follow their example.
--I invite you to once again open a Bible and turn to Acts, chapter 4.
-In continuing the mission God has entrusted to us as believers, we can learn from the events in the early church, and apply those lessons to our lives, in our own endeavors to continue God’s mission through us.
Today, I want us to look at...
SIX SPECIFIC LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM THE EXAMPLE OF PETER AND JOHN...
1) WE SHOULD EXPECT MIXED REVIEWS.
-We’re going to be misunderstood, mistreated, and ganged up on.
--v.3 -- "And they laid hands on them, and put them in jail until the next day..."
-SOMETIMES IT MIGHT BE SIMPLY A MATTER OF MISUNDERSTANDING.
--Misunderstandings are inherent in any attempt at communication.
--You may have heard the quote of my favorite philosopher, Anonymous, who said it this way: “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.””
--Similarly, we’ve all heard of Murphy’s Law: “If anything can go wrong, it will.”
--But we also need to know Brinkley’s Law: “If there is any way it can be misunderstood, by someone, somewhere, sometime, it will be misunderstood.”
--It’s why we need to be sure and communicate the good news in clear, unambiguous, easy-to-understand language.
---ILL>As a young boy growing up in church I heard a lot of the “language of Zion,” church phrases and lingo that other frequent church-goers understood, but others, including the youngest among them, didn’t.
---Two songs / hymns that were sung on a fairly regular basis back then especially baffled me:
---a) Often I would hear well-meaning believers stand and sing, “Let us break bread together on our knees.”
-----Years later I would come to understand the meaning was that we should, in an attitude of prayer, come together for fellowship and to observe the Lord’s Supper.
-----But, as a child, I thought they were singing about literally taking a loaf of bread and bringing it down hard over one’s knees so it would break in half!...Break bread together on our knees!
-----And, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why such a song had any place being sung on a Sunday morning in a worship service!
----b) Another was particularly troubling: “There is a balm in Gilead.”
-----To the generation just older than I, the word “balm” was well-received and understood as being a medicinal application. They were used to putting “balm” on burns or scrapes for the sake of healing.
-----However, as a child, I had no such understanding, so I did what children often do...I sang a word that sounded like the unknown word...in this case the word was BOMB.
-----So, I heard these well-meaning adults sing with smiles on their face about a poor little boy named Gilead who was walking around with a bomb inside of him! ... There is a bomb in Gilead!
-----I must confess there were nights I would lie awake and wonder what kind of bomb poor little Gilead had inside him.
------Was it a ticking bomb? Could he hear it ticking when everything got silent?
------Or, was it a bomb that might go off if Gilead got a little rowdy or moved around too much?
------It was quite confusing and disturbing to me.
-Likewise, there are going to be some who will simply misunderstand the truths of the gospel because of their background and the efforts of our enemy, Satan, the author of confusion, will be working against us.
--So, we need to be extra cautious in presenting the message clearly and plainly.
-OTHER TIMES WE’RE GOING TO BE DELIBERATELY MISTREATED BY THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP.
--v.3 -- "And they laid hands on them and put them in jail..."
--Peter and John had done only what God had directed them to do...and yet here they were being arrested, and jailed.
--Notice the group: Priests, temple guard, Sadducees...the same group instrumental in Jesus’ crucifixion.
---The priests viewed Peter’s popularity with the people as a threat to their work.
---The temple guard viewed Peter’s message as an indictment of their part in Jesus’ death.
---And the Sanhedrin viewed Peter’s message as being theologically incorrect...they didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead.
--Likewise, it’s crazy for us to think the same kinds of things won’t ever happen to US.
-SOME ARE GOING TO DISTORT WHAT WE SAY, DISTORT OUR MOTIVES, AND REJECT OUR WITNESS.
--Mt.26:60-61 -- "But later on two (false witnesses) came forward, and said, ’This man (Jesus) stated, "I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days."’”
--Only a couple months earlier these same fellows, the Sanhedrin, had hired liars, false witnesses, to distort Jesus’ own words, taking them out of context, and use them against Him in His trial which led to His crucifixion.
--The Pharisees knew what Jesus meant: He was predicting that His body would be rebuilt / risen in three days after it was killed.
---We know they knew what Jesus meant, because they hired the temple guard to stand guard at Jesus’ tomb and prevent anyone from taking Jesus’ body and then doing what they (the Sanhedrin) was really good at...lying and distorting the truth.
--There will be folks who will distort our message and mission, claiming we are bigots or narrow-minded or “holier than thou” because we will stand against that which the world many times calls political correctness or we’ll stand opposed to that which others believe should be allowed, under the banner of the false god of “tolerance.”
--Make no mistake about it, many will look for ways to twist what we say, and try to tell others we are advocating that which we are not advocating.
-STILL OTHERS, WHEN CONFRONTED WITH A MESSAGE THEY DON’T LIKE, TEND TO RESORT TO VIOLENCE OR PASSIVE AGGRESSION.
--Mt.14:10 -- "He (Herod) sent and had John (the baptist) beheaded in the prison."
--There is open and physical persecution going on right now all around the word against Christian missionaries or Christian groups.
--But there is also subtle and passive aggression going on all around us too:
---Some employers will not hire a potential employee simply because the applicant is a Christian.
----That, of course, will not be the stated reason, but many times it is the reason, none the less.
----And because the employer cannot “lash out” at Christians in other ways, he/she can be aggressive in the guise of being passive by not ever hiring the applicant in the first place.
---At other times an employee might be skipped for a promotion for the mere reason that he/she is a believer.
---And all of us have experienced not being invited to parties or events or opportunities simply because we’re believers and those throwing the party don’t want Christians present because we might not participate in all of the activities of the party.
-BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THERE ARE SOME WHO WILL ACCEPT WHAT WE SAY AND REJOICE.
--v.4 -- "But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand."
--The seventy members of the Sanhedrin objected, but thousands of folks not only welcomed what Peter and John said, they actually placed their faith in Christ...at least two thousand more folks, so that the total of believers since the day of Pentecost came to five thousand men (plus women).
2) WE SHOULD LEARN TO SEE OPPOSITION AS OPPORTUNITIES.
--v.5-7 -- "And it came about on the next day that their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high priestly descent. And when they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, ’By what power or in what name have you done this?’”
--How we view things, what we look at, in many ways determines what we deem to be reality.
--In this particular case, if you look at the event through the viewpoint of the glass being half empty, you would focus on the disciples’ discomfort and mistreatment:
---They had been arrested for doing nothing wrong, really.
---They had been mistreated simply for obeying the Lord.
---They had spent an uncomfortable night in jail...away from their families...away from the comfort of their own beds.
--And they were now face to face with the same folks who sentenced Jesus to be crucified.
---Our outlook needs to be the same attitude as that demonstrated by the early Christian, Eusebius, who, when threatened by the emperor Valens, threatened with confiscation of all his goods, torture, banishment, and even death, replied: “He needs not fear confiscation, who has nothing to lose; nor banishment, to whom heaven is his country; nor torments, when his body can be destroyed at one blow; nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty from sin and sorrow.”
-->You see, if you look at this as God opening a unique opportunity to present the good news, it is remarkable:
---They were given a one-on-one, face to face opportunity to present the good news to the very leaders who had within their man-granted authority the ability to help in opening doors for the gospel to be told to others.
---They were granted by God the unique opportunity to help these “blind leaders of the blind” to see the truth of God.
---And, remember, these were untrained, uneducated fishermen, who were now being given an audience with the elite of the land!
3) WE NEED TO LET GOD DO THE WORK THROUGH US.
--v.8 -- "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said..."
--Notice: Peter wasn’t speaking “on his own,” but was being led in what to say by the Holy Spirit.
---It was a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy spoken to these same disciples in times past.
----Mt.10:17-21 -- "But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."
--And Peter “let it happen” just as He was instructed.
--APP>It’s the same with us...God will give us the words to say if we’re available for Him to speak through us.
4) WE MUST NEVER COMPROMISE.
-Compromise is a dangerous thing.
---ILL>I’m reminded of a New York family who bought a ranch out West, where the intended to raise cattle. After a few months some of their friends from New York visited them. Upon arriving, they asked the head of the family if the ranch had a name. The would-be cattleman answered: “Well, I wanted to name it the Bar-J. My wife favored Suzy-Q. One son like the Flying-W, and the other son wanted the Lazy-Y. So, we’re calling it the Bar-J, Suzy-Q, Flying-W, Lazy-Y ranch.” The friend nodded, then, looking around, asked the man: “Where are all your cattle?” The rancher replied, “Oh, well, none of them survived the branding.”
-Our message must always be the same, but it is true that our approach may vary with the audience.
-In reading Peter’s actual message, found in verses 8-12, we discover that the basics of Peter’s message to the rulers was the same as his message to the crowd outside the temple:
-->Jesus is the Messiah you’ve been waiting for.
-->You are the reason He died.
-->God the Father, however, raised Jesus back to life.
-->We are witnesses of that fact, we’ve seen Him, our lives have been changed by Him.
-->We MUST be saved.
---Last week we discussed the urgency of our message and laughed at the seminarian who misunderstood his professor’s insistence on grabbing the attention of his audience with a gripping sermon titled. So he titled his sermon, “There’s a bomb on your bus!”
-However, the Holy Spirit led Peter to add some details, some religious references because he was talking to leaders who were interested in religious matters, and Peter responded by “tailoring” the message to the specific interests and things these leaders were involved in:
--a) Jesus is stone that you, the builders, rejected.
---The religious leaders were familiar with the story that surrounded the construction of Herod’s temple. As the stones of the temple were cut before being assembled, the initial erecting of the temple was delayed because the builders had misplaced, rejected, cast out the corner stone.
---The corner stone was a differently-shaped stone when, once put into place, fit perfectly the contours of the land and provided the sure support and foundation for the other stones to be piled upon it.
---So, somewhere along the way, the builders had mistakenly thrown away the differently-shaped stone. It wasn’t until someone noticed that the stone in the wasteland looked like the perfect fit for the corner and had the stone brought to its rightful place that the building could actually begin.
-->Now Peter is making the message personal: “Jesus,” he said, “is the stone that YOU, the builders (the leaders and elders and upon whom the others depend for their spiritual well-being) have rejected.”
---He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him.
--b) It is Jesus’ name, and Jesus’ power that brings about the needed change.
--You see, the Pharisees were especially interested in and enamored with names and lineages.
---In fact you couldn’t even be a Pharisee unless you could trace your ancestry back to Abraham.
---They even called themselves the sons of Abraham.
--And they were all enamored with Moses and the Law of Moses.
--But Peter introduced them to the name above all names...
---Not Moses’ name...not Abraham’s name...but the name / power / authority of Jesus alone.
--God buried Moses.
--Abraham was buried by his sons.
--But Jesus is alive!
--He, in essence, told them, “You thought you had put Him away for good...but...He’s BACK!
--And He’s back because He is the all powerful God in flesh!
5) WE ARE TO BE CONFIDENT IN GOD’S ABILITY TO WORK THROUGH US.
--v.13 -- "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated, untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus."
--Notice:
---In v.13 they were confident before their critics.
---In v.29 they prayed that they would continue to speak with confidence in their future encounters.
---And in v.31 God answered their prayers and they continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
--APP>We can be bold in presenting the truth because it is the truth.
--APP>We are never to back down, be silent, or be timid in presenting the good news.
--And this is true not only in presenting the message, but in every area of our lives.
---We need to live like the champions, the victors that we are in Christ.
---ILL>I have a copy taped in the front of my own Bible of the words penned by a young missionary to Africa. His parents had tried to discourage him from going to Africa because of the danger, but he knew God had called him to go and he would not do anything less than answer God’s call. Sure enough, after serving several years in Africa, he did indeed lose his life while trying to reach the lost in that distant land. As folks were working on funeral arrangements, they came across his personal log, his personal writings, in which he stated what I believe to be one of the greatest declarations ever written. It is so much a part of what I believe each of us should espouse to that I have placed it in the front of my Bible. The declaration reads as follows:
----“I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have stepped over the line. My decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ.
----“I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
----“My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure.
----“I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.
----“I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
----“I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.
----“I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.
----“My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, but my Guide is reliable, and my mission is clear.
----“I cannot be bought, deluded, or delayed.
----“I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
----“I won’t give up, shut up, or let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ.
----“I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me.
----“And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me...my eyes will be fixed on Him, and my conscience will be clear!”
6) WE NEED TO REJOICE AT THE VICTORIES GOD BRINGS.
--v.21 -- "And when they had threatened them further, they let them go...on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;"
--It is important that we stop and thank God for the victories, blessings He brings.
--It is important that we remain in an attitude of gratitude.
--In this story, let’s look at the victories:
---a) God healed a lame man, a man lame from birth, and a man who was now over 40 years old!
---b) God spoke through Peter and as many as 2,000 folks believed.
---c) God spoke through Peter and John to the Jewish leaders.
---d) They spoke truth to power, through the confidence the Lord gave these uneducated men.
---e) These “commoners” who gave allegiance to the Lord stood up and defied the instructions of the religious leaders of their day and still lived to tell about it.
---f) Then the place where they along with other believers were gathered to rejoice and pray physically shook with the power of God.
---g) And finally, the believers left that place filled with the Spirit and spoke with boldness.
--Notice: Once again, they had a difficult experience, but having come through it they were stronger than ever.
BRINGING IT HOME...
-We need to recognize:
-->Continuing God’s mission wasn’t only a first century deal...it’s our turn now.
-We need to remember:
-->God hasn’t changed.
---His power hasn’t diminished from how it healed a lame man and empowered uneducated fishermen to boldly present God’s truths to power.
-And the people God brings across our path this week need to hear the good news just as much as the folks did that He brought across the path of Peter and John.
-You see, the question is not a matter of whether or not God’s mission will continue.
-The question is WILL YOU BE A PART OF CONTINUING THE MISSION?
--Will you actively join in and be a part of allowing Him to work through you in unfolding His plan, His work, His mission?
--Or will you choose to merely sit on the sidelines as others do it?
-You see, God has called every believer to be part of keeping His mission going on.
-And, just like Peter and John and the first century believers, we must, regardless of the opposition, KEEP ON KEEPING ON.
