Care Without Caring (Part B)

Jesus, the source of life. Therefore, to Jesus, everyone owes allegiance.

That is it. If He is who He says He is, then you owe allegiance to Him. This is why when Peter saw the miracle of Christ, he says, Depart from me, and he was on his knees. I'm not worthy to show you allegiance. John the Baptist, I can't even untie his sandals, he's so righteous. I baptized with water. He's going to baptize you with fire in the Holy Spirit.

He's on a whole other level. Don't you love that truth? Today, some Christian publishers would have recognized a bestseller in this event. Over the years, I've seen so many come and go. They've had their experience, they've published their book. It's all received for a while, then in a few years, you don't even know that the book even exists. I don't know if that's just always the right thing, the right way to go. And part of the role of a pastor and a pulpit is to tell you things to spark in your thinking, something that needs to be addressed that otherwise would not have been addressed.

You might say, you know, that's a good point. Of course, if you're here this morning, you're all going to say that throughout the service. But if you were in another church, for example, listening to somebody else, I don't know why, but it is if you were, and if you're visiting, I'm kidding about that. You being in another church. Seriously, I don't want to be serious.

I want to have fun right now. Seriously, if you are, when you listen to a sermon, God is putting things out there for you to consider. You know, if it hurts, it does hurt sometimes. Do you think when the pastor's preparing his message, he's not getting hit? You think he's above everybody? That would mean you're missing a lot of important features about how ministry works. Well, anyway, coming back to this, Jesus warned about spotlight Christianity.

He warned about celebrity Christians in Matthew 23. And when you go to the marketplace, don't be looking for everybody to recognize you. Oh, there he is.

I've had a sighting. You know, this is not good for us. I'll get to a Tozer quote about that.

And just warning you, because Tozer, of course, just had a way of being very concise and dealing with our flesh in a way that we otherwise might not have allowed it. Men of Israel, he says, still a pronounced Jewish emphasis at this stage in Christianity. Look, we owe the Jews so much as Gentiles go. The structure of the church is set up by the synagogues.

That's our pattern. Not entirely, but much of it. Paul did that, and it's a good thing. Well, in verse 12 here, the Jewish men are addressed. In verse 13, the Jewish fathers are referred to. Then in verses 21 through 25, Peter will bring up Moses and Samuel and the prophets. And at verse 25, he will call them children of the prophets and the covenant.

And this is exciting. These endorsements of the Old Testament scripture, appropriately, the message goes first to the Jew, then from the Jew. And here, Peter is becoming all things to all men, taking advantage, not in an exploitive way, not exploiting them, but taking advantage of his knowledge of the Jewish culture, being a Jew, and then using that to preach Christ. Paul will come along and do it with the Gentiles. He learns the Gentile life, he lived amongst the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus, and he used that, and he even boasted, I become all things to all men. That doesn't mean he became a sinner for sinners.

It means that he identified with them in their culture and their lives as he ministered the truth and did not live above them or apart from them as far as preaching about life in the fallen world. Here in verse 12 still, why do you marvel, Peter asked them, because to Peter, what's the big deal about God doing a miracle? And you say, well, Peter, you know, are you true to that?

I think he's very true to that. I think when Peter said, Lord, if it's you, you beckon me to come out and walk on the water, I think he was saying, I have no problem with Jesus doing a miracle. And when he got on the water, it's another story, but I could just see Peter making excuses. What? I had lead in my pocket. What?

What? Anyway, continuing in verse 12, or why look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? Well, at best, we're tools of the Lord. You know, if you were drowning and someone threw you a life preserver, you'd be very grateful for the life preserver, but you wouldn't walk up to it and thank it after.

It would be the one who tossed it to you. And Peter is simply saying, God is the one that deserves the praise. It's an easy thing to understand.

At least it seems to me very easy to understand. But those days of trusting individuals to work miracles, they ended in the days of the apostles. Not the miracles. Miracles still take place from time to time, but trusting an individual. When, you know, Naaman had the leprosy, it was the little Jewish girl that said if she only knew my master, Elijah, he could go and be healed and cleansed of his leprosy. Paul the apostle, of course, you know, he and Peter were doing extraordinary miracles in the fledgling days of the church, but there came a time when Paul wrote, Trophimus, I have left in Miletus sick.

That's a pretty big statement. And so this is, of course, the days of faith and trusting in the Lord, but to think that there is somebody that is spiritually better than the rest of us that has this, you know, connection to God, that is a mistake. That is not biblical. And Peter is saying, I'm just the vessel. I'm just the instrument. Don't pick up the tool and thank it.

It's the one who uses the tool. And so he turns attention away from the lame man and himself and he exalts the Lord. Now, here's what Tozier said about the flesh. Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride or self-congratulation. See, these are the things we say and write for others to think about and work through it.

And I think that's where the growth and edification largely takes place. Verse 13, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. Christ had to die for us, but you cannot read the gospel story, I don't think, as a believer and have this wish that he would escape the cross. Thank God he didn't escape the cross.

But, you know, he was that close is kind of what Peter is saying and you messed it up. But really, of course, he died for our sins. Had Peter only said the God of Abraham, the Ishmaelites would have had a claim without the law of Moses. Had he said the God of Abraham and Isaac, the Edomites would have had a claim without the law of Moses. This is very important. There's an unbroken witness connection here to Abraham and the law of Moses and the prophets and the fulfilling of prophecy in Christ.

This is critical information. Peter narrows it down to the chosen people in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the fathers. Those of the scripture, those of the covenant. Within that covenant is the promise of a new covenant, or to say it another way, is the promise of a New Testament. That's why we call it the New Testament. It comes right out of Jeremiah. So, may children of godly parents not trade truth for sensation or the gods of Satan.

Satan won't tell you as a rule that he is killing your soul. And, you know, to be young, there's so many things going on with your life. You don't yet know really who you are.

You've not yet been tested by so many things. That's understandable. What is not understandable is to be born in a godly home and dismiss that and go trade sides for the lies of Satan.

It happens too much. It's up to you because mom and dad can't force you to love the Lord your God, but you can call on him and he'll meet you there, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. There's a lot of guilt he's laying on them. He's preaching that God visited them in the person of Jesus Christ.

That is precisely what he's saying. The terminology that he's using is right out of Isaiah. Now, in verses 13 and 14, Peter uses the pronoun that singles them out. You, you, you. We have other pronouns.

Sir, her, she, him, ma'am. For those of you who want to get rid of those pronouns, may you see that Satan has made you his little flunky. May you see that a Satan that hates your guts is destroying you by getting you to side against Christ and embrace madness in the interest of serving some carnal passion. God loves you, but that love will run out. God is not schizophrenic. He will not be loving at the time of judgment.

He will judge. There's the wrath of God. It's not the love of God at that point. You've got a lifetime to fix this. Stop listening to the world and listen to Christ.

I'm going to come back to that in a minute. But, this Peter, by saying, you did this, you did it. This is care without caring. He has got to hold them accountable if this is going to be resolved. And he cannot be bogged down with, oh, I sure hope I'm not hurting their feelings with the truth. It would be different if he was hurting their feelings with lies or being mean and vicious and saying things to them that need not be said.

That is not the case. Peter cares for their souls without caring if the guilty do not like hearing it. They could walk away. He's not jamming it down their throats. We can't convert them unless we hurt them. Guilt stings. You know, it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. That goodness is born out of recognition that I've been poisoned spiritually.

And there's an antidote. And I've got to face my sin as painful and ugly as that is. This is how we preach it to the lost. He would rather have them reject the truth than to have never faced the truth as God opens the door. Had they refused these truths, had they turned on him like they turned on Stephen, he would not hound them.

He let them go their way. Our message of the gospel is take it or leave it. It's not, well, you don't like it?

What do we need to change about it? That's so Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever because there's nothing in him that needs to be improved, modified. He is the same.

He's perfect and cannot be altered and will not be altered. Our message is not spam. We don't keep calling up people and trying to jam a sale down their throat to get that conversion. God gave his son, Peter says to them, but you sided against God. Your guilt is on you.

No one caused you to bring about his conviction. Isaiah 53, and we're going to open up some good stuff here. Isaiah 53 verse 3, he is despised and rejected by men. Well, when Isaiah was saying that, he's speaking, we did not.

Well, let me just finish. He is despised and rejected by men and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. He's saying, my people, we who are custodians of the scripture, we did not recognize our Messiah.

They're being held accountable and we have to ask this question. Why did not the Jews in Jesus' day see it and why do the Jews today not see it? Religiously speaking, not ethnically speaking. Verse 14, but you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. The essence of the world's thinking. You denied the Holy One and the just. That's how the world thinks. The world has this approach.

What's in it for me? Psalm 78, yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. What I'm establishing here is that his use of the word the Holy One is deity, that Christ is divine, that God the Son is the Son of God and the Son of God is God the Son. Proverbs 30 verse 3, I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One. Of course, there's a rebuke in that. There's a challenge in that. That's why the rebuke is given. So you read that and say, I don't want to be this guy who is ignorant, who has no wisdom or knowledge of the Holy One.

That's the objective of the proverb. Isaiah frequently describes God as the Holy One and the servant, showing God as distinct from his creation and then applying this to Christ. For the righteous Jew of that time, there was only one Holy One and that's Yahweh. This is a pretty bold move on Peter's part. He's saying Messiah is Christ and Messiah is divine and the Jews understood that in the days of Christ no longer.

We'll come to that. Applying to Jesus these exclusive titles in Psalms and Isaiah, for example, these exclusive titles are used for God. Peter applies them to Messiah Christ or Jesus, Jesus Messiah, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. Peter says, how dare you?

How dare you? This man was holy and righteous and you traded him for Barabbas? What is wrong with you?

That's what's in this. I mean, if you're listening to this, he's going to have a large conversion after this, incidentally. You demanded death for the Holy One and life for a murderer. So here we come to the stupid things that otherwise intelligent people, intelligent human beings will do when they reject Christ. You can have human beings that are compared to human beings, not compared to God, are quite impressive, quite genius as a matter of fact, and can just do all sorts of things. And yet they reject God. The fool has said in his heart, because many of them are atheists, and they both look at me, I don't believe there's a God. So what?

I believe you believe there's a God, and you just don't like what you've heard. Peter watered down nothing. He wasn't brutal in a mean way.

He's brutal in a true way. He's letting them have it. Can you imagine sharing the Bible with somebody? And they're into all sorts of sin, and you don't even bring it up? You don't even bring sin up? What are you sharing then? What part of the Bible are you sharing? When pastors look for a topical message, I think most pastors, well, I don't know, but most do. I know what I do.

I try to look for something encouraging and uplifting. And it's very difficult, because so much of the Bible is right up in your face. Like, you better fix this.

You better at least address it, but you sure better not excuse it. And there's such a lesson in that. You can cherry pick, and we're just going to take the word love from 1 Corinthians and leave out all the other stuff. But Paul says, if you don't have love, you're nothing. You see what I mean? You can't preach on love without getting up in somebody's face and saying, if you don't admire this and want this, you're nothing to God.

You're annoying. And that's how he calls it. And so Peter says here in verse 15, you killed him.

Right out like that. Even a Gentile was trying to let him go. This word, the prince, the prince of life, the word prince in the Greek, or kegos, we find it in Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 12, when it's translated also the author. It means the leader, the prince, the source, the captain of our souls. Jesus is not only the servant of God, but he is the source of life. These are big words.

I don't mean big words like anthropomorphic or something like that, but schadenfreude, there's a fun word. It's really revenge built into that one. Anyway, Jesus the source of life. Therefore, to Jesus, everyone owes allegiance.

That is it. If he is who he says he is, then you owe allegiance to him. This is why when Peter saw the miracle of Christ, he says, depart from me, and he was on his knees.

I'm not worthy to show you allegiance. John the Baptist, I can't even untie his sandals, he's so righteous. I baptized with water, but he's going to baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit.

He's on a whole other level. Don't you love that truth? Whom God raised from the dead. All the indestructible Christ. He gave up the spirit, they did not kill him.

He had total control and total suffering at the same time, which adds to his majesty that he endured such treatment. Without this part of the message, we have nothing to say as Christians. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have no gospel. We can have a religious book of conduct. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Jesus came along and put everything in the positive. You shall. You shall love your neighbor. You shall love the Lord your God. He's lifting him up now.

The timing was right for that. In Moses' day, he had to bring him down. 1 Corinthians 15. And when you share the gospel, it is again okay to open your Bible and read it to them straight out.

We're not covering up anything. We're not saying, well, you know, I don't want you to know I'm reading the Bible to you. If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep, a euphemism for died, in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Paul is saying, you know, the resurrection, it changes everything. So, back to the teens once again, because you are never forgotten. There are those in the scriptures that boast, since I was a child, I have followed the word of God.

What are you going to do? Because there are forces out there bigger and tougher than you that are trying to get you to not ever make that claim, to detour you. You are expected to prevail by simply calling on the Lord, loving on the Lord. This is true of you and it's true of the adults.

Do you want to be treated any differently? You're junior adults, you could say. You're coming up. You've got to earn it. You've got to work. You know, it's not just handed to you. You still have to work it out.

All of us do. Paul said, work out your salvation. Not that you have to earn your salvation, but you've got to live it. You've got to engage the world by faith.

He says here, of which we are witnesses. Here's a provocative thought. Three and a half years walking with Jesus and the disciples were still not equipped enough.

Isn't that not provocative? Just because you walk with Jesus, I'm good. That's not enough. How do we know that? Because of the filling of the Holy Spirit that he promised he would give.

Acts chapter one, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. How we should embrace this is good news. There's more.

There's development. There are things to look forward to as a Christian in serving Christ. And he has laid it out for us. Even back in Isaiah chapter 43, God speaking about the Messiah. You are my witnesses, says Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe and understand that I am he. Before me there is no God formed, nor shall there be after me.

Well, the Jews never lost sight of much of that, not in this stage of the game. And so for Christ to come along and say I'm the one that's being spoken of here is quite powerful. And they held him to it. That was the charge against Christ by the religious rulers. He, being a man, made himself to be God by claiming he was the Messiah. Verse 16, and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know.

Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So Peter's faith in Christ, not the beggar's faith, the beggar didn't know what was happening, but the power that empowers is the name of God, the credentials of God. You know, we watch those movies of Sherwood Forest and In the Name of the King. Well, if it's the name of our king, it's got a lot of power to it. Verse 17, yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance as did also your rulers.

Your rulers, not ours. He's already laid the conviction on them and now he's going with the grace. It's something that Satan never does. He says, you did it out of ignorance. Well, that's what Christ prayed from the cross. Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. That's what Peter learned this from. So he's got a chance now to open this up with them and he's doing exactly this. His indictment of the rulers and their guilt, that kicks the hornet's nest. That would be chapter 4 and beyond, verse 18. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.

Well, Jesus, Luke 24, we read it quite a few times, beginning at Moses and all the prophets. He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. He took a book like Obadiah and says, let me show you where Christ is in Obadiah and every other one and Zephaniah and books that we may scratch our head with Christ, he knows it all. That the Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled. Peter's impressive Old Testament knowledge. He uses Joel, he uses Psalms, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Genesis. He is truly, he once was a man of his word, now he's a man of the word and he's not going to depart.

What a, you could say, role model, but we would just say a dynamo of the faith. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's CrossReferenceRadio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at CrossReferenceRadio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts, right here on Cross Reference Radio.