To God Be The Glory

To God Be the Glory

“They realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, and they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

Intro: In the text it is the first few months after the Resurrection.

I have skipped ahead to after the return of Jesus back up into heaven for this sermon.

Preaching this sermon today is a little bit out of place because

Jesus remained on earth for 40 days and appeared multiple times and locations

In the city of Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus, by the Sea of Galilee, to as many as 500 at one time.

Between the Resurrection and Jesus returning back up into heaven

is 40 days of the Resurrected Jesus alive here on earth with his Disciples

and all the things that take place up until the Day of Ascension and Pentecost.

So I have skipped ahead in the order of chronology…,

in the timeline of when things took place with this text from Acts 4.

But I wanted to show the dramatic change…, that took place with the disciples

Who were hiding behind locked doors…, the day after Jesus was Crucified

and Peter and John risking their life to boldly give their testimony of the Gospel of the Risen Saviour.

So now that you know the timeline of how things took place

Jump ahead with me into today’s text.

Two of the apostles, Peter and John, have healed a man who could not walk.

They give all the credit to Jesus Christ.

They give all the credit to the One who conquered death and the grave.

This upsets the Leading Priest, the Captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees in that area.

What happens next is these authorities have Peter and John arrested and thrown into jail overnight.

The next morning they drag Peter and John out in front of all of the rulers and authorities

in front of Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, Alexander, and the rest of the royal family

You understand this is the same council of rulers and elders who had condemned Jesus to death.

So, when they bring Peter and John out they demanded

“By what power, or in whose name, had they done this?”

+SLIDE+

It’s in that setting in Acts 4:13 that the Bible says this: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John

and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,

they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

It is important to note that everyone had seen the evidence of this healed man.

This was a man everyone knew could not walk.

Now he can walk.

The people in the city knew this man.

They knew that he could not walk,

and they saw the transformation of this cripple healed and restored .

I want to key in on that word “transformation” for a moment.

That has been woven throughout the fabric of First Methodist here over the past 153 years.

First United has seen many signs of God’s involvement as lives have been transformed,

physical and spiritual healings have occurred,

broken families have been saved.

People Helped…., Lives Changed.

How???

Was it the because of the stained glass windows?

Was it the bell tower and pipe organ?

Was it because we have a baby grand piano and an oak altar and pulpit?

Peter and John did not have any of these things

They did not even have a church building at all.

How then were so many people helped and so many lives changed???

Some discoveries have changed the course of history—like electricity.

We take electricity for granted until the power goes out.

When the lights don’t work, the air conditioning goes off, the refrigerator and stove don’t function,

the computer is shut down —then we’re almost helpless.

Electricity is such a necessary blessing to our lives, but electricity is extremely dangerous.

In its raw form it can shock, kill or burn a house down.

Before electricity can be used in a practical way, it has to go through a transformer.

The transformer cuts the power down and channels the electricity so that the room can be changed from darkness to light, cold to warm, boredom to excitement.

Jesus is The Great Transformer.

1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

God is so holy, so powerful, that his full presence cannot be tolerated by mere human beings.

Exodus 33 says that no man can look upon the face of God and live.

Revelation 6 says that in the last day when people fully see God’s power,

they will call for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them

and to hide them from the face of the one who sits on the throne.