“The Power of a Changed Life”
Acts 4:1-12
In many advertisements in magazines especially if you’re reading a magazine on physical fitness, you will see what is refereed to as a before and after picture. Sometimes it will be a picture of someone who may have been overweight and lost a lot of weight or someone who has really been out of shape and they got into shape. Or television shows us programming where someone has a make over. They will usually take a someone, usually a woman, looks like she hasn’t brushed her hair in several days, no makeup, perhaps she is wearing the worst looking outfit she has in her closet and then they bring her out onto the stage. Then they take her back stage and they proceed with the make over-she gets a new hairstyle, some professional makeup, new outfit, just the right color and they bring here back out and everyone just says wow! Amazing. What a difference! What a change! And sometimes you can hardly believe it is the same person.
I witnesses something similar to this years ago and I have many times since that was even more dramatic. Years ago I met a man names David Phillips who came into our church looking for help. This was 25 years ago but I still remember the change that took place in his life. When I met David he was flat broke, had no food, his only transportation was a bicycle. Unshaven, frankly he was filthy. Our church reached out to him. We saw to it that he got a good meal and that he had regular meals. We bought him soap, a razor....got a haircut for him and even got him a suit and some other clothes as well. In all of this he saw our compassion and a wonderful thing happened. David Phillips gave his heart to Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior. He was completely changed.
On his 1st Sunday in church after all of this had taken place i remember our senior pastor almost didn’t recognize him and he looked at me and he said David i can’t believe it-he looks so good-there is not only a new suit on that man-there is a new man in that suit! When this kind of thing takes place, the difference is very powerful. Your testimony is obvious-people notice immediately-it is the power of a changed life.
Remember this healing of this man who had been crippled all of his life. The Bible tells us he was over 40 years of age.
V. 1-3 Peter and John were there speaking to the people- now even though the nation was under Roman rule, the Saducees held most of the power over what took place at the temple. And they are very distressed/bothered because Peter and John were preaching about the resurrection. You see it was one thing to say Jesus was born, it was acceptable to say that Jesus was crucified but when you say he arose from the dead, this changed everything.
In Rome as in most places there was a huge power struggle taking place. The (1) Pharisees were legalistic, taught the law instead of grace and as a result they were bitterly opposed to Jesus and his teachings. It is safe to say they hated Jesus and they hated his teachings. This was one of the power groups. (2) There were the Saducees; all of the Saducees were priests. 2 things to know about them. First of all they did not believe in the resurrection. And next they did not believe in an afterlife. Hell of heaven. So they were sad-u-cee? Then there were the Essenes. Very private group. Weren’t allowed to talk about their beliefs. They were a secret group. Most of the Jews were divided among these people and each one was fighting for control.
Now all of this to explain the arrest of Peter and John. Peter and John were teaching something that (1) they didn’t believe and (2) questioned their authority. So what do you do when someone questions your authority-throw them in jail. People react out of fear-it’s a control issue. Which brings me to my first point.
1. No matter what people may do to you, how much they might hurt you or what they might say or do; listen they cannot stop your witness. It is the power of a changed life that will always continue to speak. We see the results here of their preaching, of their teaching and the resurrection and the results of the changed that took place in this lame man’s life.
* the church started with 120 people.
* chpt. 2. 3000 were added. Now 3120.
* now another 2000 are added. Now about 5000.
5000 are now a part of the church. One man’s life is changed and 2000 are added to the church. This is the power of a changed life.
2. No matter what people do, no matter how many people reject Jesus as their Savior, lost people will always matter to God.
The clearest picture of thid is perhaps found in Luke 15. The entire chapter is devoted to this topic. We see s shepherd with 100 sheep and he loses 1. Yet he will not rest until he finds it-why? Because it matters! Then we see a woman with 10 silver coins and she loses one. She lights a lamp, sweeps the entire house, basically turns it upside down and searches until she finds it. And when she does she calls all of her friends and they all rejoice. Why? Because that one coin matters. Finally Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal son-how the younger son aks for his share of the state. Then he goes off and squanders all of it. Famine comes and he finds himself working on a farm feeding the pigs. Not a very glamorous job. No food. He comes to his senses and goes to his father.
Listen to what happens. Luke 15:20. And so they throw a party. Why? Because this one lost young man really does matter. Look with me at verses 5-7. Clearly this is a question of their authority. This was the issue. You see they could not deny that this man was truly healed. Look at verse 16. If the lame man had gotten carried away with his new legs and had decided to go out for a jog they might say, we don’t have any proof but look at v. 14.
So they do what is the obvious thing to do. They have a meeting. That’s what churches do. We have meetings. So the power brokers assembled. Vs. 15-16. Got together to say what do we do? They were losing power. So they had to do whatever was necessary to stop this from happening again. Listen, the need to control everything in the church or anywhere for that matter is a terrible thing. In this case these man would have been happier if this lame man wasn’t healed. They would be much happier of 2000 Jews had not converted to Christianity.
There is an interesting thing about power brokers. When changed takes place, no matter how good it is, no matter how many people benefit, if the power broker is not responsible for the changed that has taken place and they don’t get the credit/glory, then they think they are losing control.
3rd point I see here is that they way to reach the crowd is by reaching the individual. This is what I mean. Peter is called on here to account for what has taken place. (1) a man has been healed. (2) these 2000 people are there in the streets and this is causing problems. They were losing power. Peter tells them in v. 10. Peter makes it clear that this was through no power of his own, no power of theirs...this is through Jesus Christ. And through the power of Jesus in reaching this one man that is the reason for the masses who are standing here.
Billy Graham has preached to the masses now for over 60 years. He has seen 2.5 million people come forward during his crusades. In his lifetime he has preached to over 2 billion people. But know this: the Billy Graham Association will tell you that 80% of all the people who have come forward during a crusade were brought by a friend. You reach the crowd by reaching the individual. The only way we will win this community is if you bring your friends-one at a time.
INVEST AND INVITE CARD
v. 11-12. Now remember Peter is hoping to convince them that a man named Jesus the one they crucified is the very one who healed this man. Here’s the problem. They believe Jesus is still dead. If what Peter is saying is true then this proves that Jesus is alive.
We see here this image of the stone. This was not new. The rock was/is a symbol of God. On Christ the solid rock I stand. * The Lord is my rock. Psalm 18:2. * Who is the rock except our God? Psalm 18:31. * He is my mighty rock? Psalm 62:7. * The rock of my salvation. Psalm 89:26. The Bible says the Jews stumbles over the rock and they rejected him. The OT said they would. Psalm 118:22.
V. 12. The cornerstone and the capstone are the 2 most important stones in a building. The cornerstone of a foundation joins the walls together. The capstone is the crown of the building. At times the master builder would even place his signature on it. Is His signature on your life?
