The Powerful Name Of Jesus Series

This passage gives us a 3rd truth. Look at verses 21-28. God is in control. We aren’t. His ultimate purpose will be carried out. The politicians here were losing their influence. They had attempted to intimidate Peter and John but that didn’t work. Many times it does but not with these two. And they had no basis for punishment. Sometimes politicians feel a need to play to the crowd. In this case “all the people were praising God for what had happened.” The politicians had completely lost control of the crowds. Why? Because God’s people had moved in. God was in control here.

So Peter and John are released, they go back and report on everything that has taken place. The response from the group is immediate. They lifted their voices to God in prayer. The clear message in this passage is that they recognized that God was in control. In at least 4 places here we see evidence of this. (1) The word Sovereign is used. It means having complete control; having the power to make decisions without any outside control. It means supreme authority. That is the God we serve. He is sovereign. (2) You made the heaven, earth, sea and everything in them. My favorite chapter in all of the Bible is Isaiah 40.

Verses 12-17 speak of His power

This is the God we serve.

Now back in Acts. Vv. 29-30. This is our 4th point. God is the source of healing. Not man. Someone I spoke with this week said to me does your church believe in healing? I said yes we do however we believe it is God who does the healing, not us. You may have heard of Peter Popoff ministries. He is a self-proclaimed faith healer. At his peak in 1987 he took in over 4 million dollars a month. In 1987 Johnny Carson had a guest on his show who proved that Peter Popoff was a fraud. Here is what they proved. The man who exposed him began to follow him to his meetings. Peter would call out a name in the audience....they would stand up, not having any idea how he knew their name. Then he proceeded to give them personal information about themselves...where they were born, what kind of sickness they had, very personal information then he would place his hands on them and supposedly heal them. What this man discovered was that Peter’s wife was in a another room reading off the personal information into a microphone and he had a wireless earpiece so he could her and no one knew this. He was exposed in 1987 and he went bankrupt. But people have a short memory and he is back on the airwaves doing the same thing. Peter Popoff is popping off again. And he is clearly a fraud.

In this church we have sen the healing power of God. In this church we have seen God heal, cancer, in people who were losing hope...we have seen him at work. And for all of it we have seen we give glory to Almighty God....to the powerful, matchless, name of Jesus.

Look at verse 31. (5) God often shakes things up. Guess what? We need it. Individually. As a church. In our city. These people were shaken up. J.B. Phillips said, anyone who opens his personality to the living Spirit takes a risk of being considerably shaken. You see we cannot study the book of Acts without being stirred to action because we are seeing the church at it’s best here. Young, vibrant, committed, enthusiastic... A body of believers who believed that they could go out and change the world. Turn it upside down for Jesus. But it is also a bit disturbing because this is the church as it should be and that is not the way it is today.