Intro:
How many of you can think of a time when you did the right thing, and got in trouble for it? I can recall a few, but my stories aren’t really appropriate for a sermon here so I’m looking to you to think of some stories that illustrate a time when you did the right thing, but got in trouble for it… show of hands, how many of you can think of a time like that? Anyone willing to share the story?
Background:
In our study of Acts, we move this morning into chapter 4, which continues the story of what happened after Peter and John heal a lame man outside the temple gate, and as we’ll see they get in trouble for doing the right thing. Two weeks ago we studied the story of the actual healing at the beginning of chapter 3, last week we looked at the sermon Peter preached to the crowd that gathered in excitement at the healing miracle, and now chapter 4 continues:
Acts 4:1-22
1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
13 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. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.
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. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God 22 for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.
The Confrontation:
We imagine the scene – the lame man healed, everyone excited about the miracle, Peter taking the opportunity to explain what has happened and preach a message of repentance and forgiveness through the resurrected Jesus, and uh oh… here it comes… “they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees,” who are “very disturbed…”. Why? Because they don’t agree with the theology.
Does anything seem missing? What has happened among these officials that they miss the fact that a lame man has had his life handed back to him? It begs the question for me, are there areas in my life where I am more concerned about “being right” then recognizing God at work in some profound ways? See, there is a power dynamic at work here, and those are always dangerous. The rulers feel undermined by the power displayed by Jesus’ disciples here, a power which brings life to a lame man and a power which they don’t have, so they feel threatened and react to oppose and try to stifle that power through what power they do have – the power to arrest and throw in jail. I think there is something here for us – how often to I miss something God is trying to do because I already have some ideas of what God is supposed to do? Put in terms of this power dynamic, where do I hold on to some idea of power in my life because I refuse to see that this whole idea of me having any power or control is actually an illusion, and leads to a life of misery? God is the one with all the power, and God is the one in control, my goal needs to be the same as Jesus’, who even though He was God said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” (Jn 5:19).
Back to the story… Peter and John are hauled off and thrown in jail. Talk about getting in trouble for doing the right thing! What might they have been thinking all night long? Ideas?? And then the confrontation gets worse the next day… “5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest.”
We need to understand how serious a situation this really is. This is “THE COUNCIL” – the seventy most senior Jewish leaders, plus the High Priest who served as “president”. Annas is mentioned specifically, undoubtedly the most powerful Jew of the day: he was “officially” High Priest from AD 5-14, and the next five High Priests after him were either his sons or, in the case of Ciaphas (the current High Priest), his son-in-law. They sat in the council chambers, in a semi-circle, and then the soldiers march in two simple fisherman from the sticks up north, who have been in a nasty jail cell all night long, almost certainly hungry, smelly, un-rested, and quite possibly roughed up. Here they stand, in exactly the same place Jesus had stood not too long before, and quite reasonably expecting the same treatment as Jesus had received. Now for the real intimidation: “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
The Response:
What happens next is an incredible example of boldness, which comes entirely as a gift of the Holy Spirit in the situation. Note carefully: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit…”. My commentators pointed out that this was a different “filling” of the Spirit from the one in Acts 2, when all the disciples were “filled with the Holy Spirit” – this one is something that happens to Peter, being performed on him from the outside, almost essentially that “God takes over” and a direct result of Jesus’ promise from Luke 12:11-12, “11 And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.”
And then Peter speaks, and his words are worth re-reading: “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
This is an amazing response under the circumstances. Shocking, actually. We’ll see the council’s response in a moment, and reflect on the boldness, but two points must be made about Peter’s statement, “There is salvation in no one else.”. First, this “salvation” is probably not what you think it is. When we hear that word, most of us think it means we are “saved from our sins so we can go to heaven when we die” – that idea of being rescued from eternal punishment. That is not wrong, it is just way too small, and too “tomorrow”. Commentator William Neil counters, “Peter uses the word [salvation] in its fullest sense – deliverance, forgiveness, wholeness and health of body, mind and spirit” (Acts, “New Century Bible Commentary”, p. 90). See how much bigger it is than something for after we die? Salvation is for right now, to change the way we live now, to set us free to live right now, in wholeness and health in all areas of our lives. We are not just “going to be saved” at some point in the future, we “ARE being saved” right now from all the things that seek to make our lives anything less than what God wants them to be. We need a bigger understanding of what it means for us to be “saved”.
Second, Peter preaches an exclusivity here – “in no one else”. While this is problematic in our world, if we don’t believe that Jesus is the only way then we don’t believe what the Bible clearly teaches. I want to state that plainly, because I believe it completely. However… Jesus’ way is never one of pushiness, superiority, or smugness – and so we must have that same attitude towards others who see things differently than we do, whether it is someone of another faith (like a Muslim or a Buddhist) or someone with a more generic perspective that “all religions are essentially the same”. Jesus never modeled argument or confrontation or exerting political power, and Peter and John don’t model that either. Jesus’ way was to demonstrate a better way of living, backed with a real power, and then testified to by those whose lives were transformed, with the freedom on the part of the hear-er to respond as they so choose. This, my friends is liberating: in effect, what it means for us is simply this: we let Jesus love us, we let that love transform and heal and “save” us, and we let anyone around us who cares to listen know what we have experienced. That is where our responsibility stops – the rest is between God and them. That last step, “letting anyone around us who cares to listen know what we have experienced” is sometimes the challenge, so let’s take another cue from our text.
Shocking Boldness:
Heading back to the text, remember the situation, and the reply from Peter and John to these men of immense power, now read their response with me: “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.”
This is the note I want to end on, and lead into our time of communion with. Peter makes his proclamation as he is filled by the Holy Spirit, and the council are “amazed”. They are actually shocked, that these simple fisherman would stand before the highest court the Jews had and in response to the intimidation of the question and the night in jail and the history of the crucifixion of Jesus and the setting they are in right now, they did not back down. They spoke plainly, powerfully, and persuasively. They didn’t water it down, or try to side-step it, or try to contextualize it to save themselves, they simply said, “this man was healed in the name of Jesus, whom you crucified, but who remains the only way to salvation”.
And the council are in shock because they are “ordinary men with no special training.” Kind of like most of us, just ordinary people, with one extraordinary distinguishing characteristic: “men who had been with Jesus”.
God’s plan from the beginning is just that: not to focus on the “best”, or the “powerful”, or the “highly trained”. God’s plan from the beginning is to take ordinary people, transform their lives by them “being with Jesus”, and then to have those people share those stories so that others can be transformed as well. We see it start with Jesus Himself, becoming an ordinary person, so that ordinary people could relate to Him. And it is meant to continue with us.
So what stands in our way? It could be that we haven’t allowed Jesus to transform our lives yet – we haven’t “been with Jesus” in such a way that our lives are “saved” (especially in the “now”). If so, get with Jesus! He is ready, waiting, longing for you to make space in your life to be with Him. Do it!! But maybe something else stands in the way – maybe we lack boldness. Maybe we are afraid of consequences, of rejection, or something else. Maybe we need a greater boldness, so that others can look at us and say, “hey, aren’t you just an ordinary, normal person like me?? And this thing that has happened to you, could it happen to me also???”
As we head into communion, I ask you to reflect on the state of your current boldness. What is holding you back? As we go to the cross, take that with you. Look into the eyes of your saviour, who held nothing back because of His love for us, and allow yourself to love Him back with something far stronger than any fear, a love that
