Acts Chapter 4:8-12

A changed life is one of the best proofs of the Gospel. My life has been changed.

Many lives here have been changed. And those things verify and validate the power of the Gospel. And oftentimes when you're talking to somebody, you begin to share your testimony, or let's take the flip side, you begin to argue about historical facts or scriptural facts.

And you know, oftentimes that's not the thing to do. The thing to do is share your testimony. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Why is the resurrection so important? And do you realize what your impact on the world would be if you told others about it? Well, today in the studio, we have D.A. Brown, one of David McGee's associate pastors, and we're glad to have him bring us some insight right before David McGee teaches. Brother D.A., where can we get the boldness to share our faith? Bob, the testimony of a rock star is awesome, but the testimony of a normal person living life just like we are is very powerful too. And it's important that we recognize that our story is important to God and it will be a blessing to the people around us.

We don't have to fear sharing it. God's going to do amazing things through it. So brother, let's jump in as David McGee continues with part two of his teaching, No Other Name. So we're in Acts chapter four at verse eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well. Now this is cool because Peter kind of begins to turn it. He respectfully says, you guys are the leaders, but then he says, OK, you know, here we are. We're being judged for a good deed done to a helpless man. Oh, you know what's cool is this man was standing in the midst and he's saying, you know what?

Look what happened. What happened was a good thing. The thing that you have me on trial for is a good thing. And it points out the irony of it.

And in part, you know, Peter's going to turn the tide on them. And he, in reality, is not the one on trial. It's these people that are accusing them. You understand sometimes when you go to share your faith, you may feel like you're on trial.

You're not. If you know Jesus, if you've accepted Jesus, you're finished with your trial. You've been declared innocent. Jesus is now representing you. But as you share your faith, the person that's on trial is not you. It's the person you're sharing with.

So you can walk in the boldness and the assurance of that. Not that you're on trial, but that this person, in part, is on trial. Now, what part do you play? Well, you're really more of their defense attorney than anything else. Not necessarily their judge, not necessarily prosecuting attorney, but you're trying to get them to allow you and Jesus to represent them before the Lord.

It changes the dynamics of it, because sometimes we feel like we need to be the judge. We get, you know, the weird wig and the robe and the gavel, going to hit somebody, you know? And God said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not your place.

That's not your place. Verse 10, Peter continues, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man stands here before you whole. Peter continues to give God the glory.

This is so important. As God uses you, as God uses us that we keep giving God the glory and not taking bowels for ourselves and, well, you know, I studied for many years and did this and did that. And we do this so, we do this so subtly sometimes. Somebody can come up and go, oh, did you hear so-and-so God say? Oh, well, praise the Lord. I've been praying for them. Now, what did we just tell that person that just shared with us? You hear how subtle it is? Well, they got saved because I've been praying for them. Is that giving God the glory? No. See, we need to be careful in this area.

Why? Because the glory belongs to God. Notice again, Peter mentions, and he says, this man stands here before you whole. See, this is, boy, in terms of the trial, Peter's got some serious evidence, doesn't he?

Hey, here's the guy that was laying and he's standing here. Next life lesson. A changed life is one of the best proofs of the Gospel. A changed life is one of the best proofs of the Gospel. My life has been changed.

Many lives here have been changed. And those things verify and validate the power of the Gospel. And oftentimes when you're talking to somebody, you know, you begin to share your testimony or, you know, let's take the flip side.

You, you, you begin to argue about historical facts or scriptural facts and, you know, oftentimes that's not the thing to do. The thing to do is share your testimony. Now, let me share about the word testimony. Now, the Greek word used for testimony is matura. It means evidence given. That's what testimony means. And in the Greek, evidence given. It's not the way we've twisted the word.

We, we've really kind of twisted the word. Some people go, oh, he stood up and he told about what an idiot he used to be. Oh, what a beautiful testimony.

Oh, wait a minute. Your testimony is that you walk with God today. And this is so important because, you know, my testimony, I was an idiot and used drugs and alcohol and did all these things and been in jail. That's not my testimony. And why is this important? Because especially if you're a young person in this church and you hear something like that, you may think, oh, oh, I got to go out and get me a testimony. I got to go out and do some stupid things.

No, no, no. The most beautiful testimony is that somebody came to the Lord at a young age, six, seven or eight, and has been walking with the Lord and loving the Lord all their lives. That's a beautiful testimony. And often we give more glory to people that, like myself, that have done a lot of stupid things. And to me, that's just weird because I'd much rather hear a grandmother stand up who's 85 and said, yeah, I came to know the Lord at eight years old. I've been walking with him almost 80 years.

Glory to God. I mean, it's not my testimony, but I mean, that's, that's an awesome testimony. And sometimes we get that turned around, but let me encourage you as you're talking to people, you can say, you know what I, I, and whatever your situation may, maybe you have used drugs. Maybe you have used alcohol and God delivered you from those things. Tell people that, cause they can't argue that maybe, maybe you didn't struggle with those things. Maybe you struggled with religious pride and legalism. Tell people that I used to struggle with religious pride. God set me free. I used to struggle with loneliness. God set me freely. I struggle with depression. God set me free of that.

They can't argue those things. And that's why it's so important to share those things with others. Now, Peter points out, you know what you've you crucified this guy. And again, he mentions that, you know, he's not being what you would term seeker sensitive because let me remind you again, most of the audience is Sadducees who don't believe in the resurrection. So let's read verse 10 again. Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead case, you missed it the first time.

Mr. Sadducee, he says it again. The resurrection is an important element of Christianity. It's important in part because in order for somebody to die, nothing supernaturally needs to occur. People die every day involving natural events, old age, accidents, those sort of things.

But for somebody to not be dead after three days, that involves some serious supernatural power. And it's interesting because, you know, in this day and age, some of the churches are, they're moving away from this. Well, we don't talk about the resurrection.

Why? Well, it's just, it's hard to believe. It's hard for people to swallow. It's, it's, it's a supernatural event that happened and we can't back away from that. Second Timothy three, five says, having a form of godliness, but denying its power and from such people turn a way. What happens often in a church is they begin to back off of the resurrection and then they begin to back off of the inerrancy of scripture. Then they begin to back off that Jesus is the only way and pretty soon they're powerless.

They don't have anything. And they're babbling from the pulpits. They're not saying anything of any spiritual significance. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's word to him. Every day we're presenting God's word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. What an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Amen. Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 11, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Peter points out that in the Hebrew Scriptures, it was predicted and prophesied about the Messiah.

This is awesome. I mean, Peter is, man, you know, it's like it's high and moving. It's going towards the fence.

It's going, going, going, gone. Peter hits the home run. I mean, this is the Peter that denied Jesus just a couple months before. Now standing in front of these powerful men going, yep, you crucified him and you need to get saved. And here's the prophecy.

That's interesting. Tradition, historic tradition suggests that when they were building the temple, that they got ready to lay the foundation. And they couldn't find a cornerstone. And then later they found it in the valley of Gehenna, because nobody could figure out what to do with this cornerstone. And they actually rejected the cornerstone. It's a neat story.

I don't know if it's true, but it's a neat story. Why? Because they rejected Jesus, who is that rock. This is Peter. And you know, I got to give Peter some credit here.

Why? Well, because, you know, I gave him such a hard time in the Gospels. I mean, Peter, I mean, he was, you know, he was a fairly easy target to be honest.

I mean, Peter in the Gospels, I always referred to him as ready, fire, aim, Peter, you know, because he was always saying stuff that wasn't a good thing to say. You know, you remember Jesus starts talking about his crucifixion and Peter goes, and Peter took him to the side and began to rebuke him. Oh, not so Jesus. And Jesus said, you know what?

Get behind me, Satan. And then in the upper room, Jesus go, I'm going to wash your feet. And Peter says, not so Lord, can't wash my feet. And Jesus says, well then you're no part of me.

Well, that's my whole body. Don't want to wash your whole body wash your feet, Peter, you know, but now look at this, Peter, look at this, Peter, man, God changes people. Don't he? Life lesson. God can give us a boldness to share our faith. God can give us a boldness to share our faith.

And I was reading this morning, Paul talking about ministering in second Corinthians. And he said on the outside, there was fighting and the inside were fears. And I just read over that verse a couple of times, because when I think of Paul, I don't think of Paul being afraid, but yet in the Bible, Paul said, you know, there was fear inside, but see again, that fear didn't control his actions. He felt afraid, but he did it anyway. A lot of times we think, well, I'll share my faith if I'm not afraid. You know what? If you're not afraid, there's something wrong with you.

Probably. I mean, there is something about us. Oh, here it goes.

See how this goes. There's a fear. I get in some situations where that fear comes on me and I actually do this little thing where I go, no, I know I'm supposed to share. I know I'm supposed to share. I shouldn't share. I know I'm going to share. I'm going to share.

Three, two, one. Have you heard the good news? I do this little countdown thing. I know that's bizarre, but sometimes I have to, I do that. I encourage it. Share even, even if you're afraid.

Don't let that hold you back. Why? There's, I don't know if you can see them. There's trusses that are in the ceiling here. They joined together.

Why? To hold the weight. Because if there's just a single truss, it hardly holds anything at all. And as we joined together, we hold more weight. Pastor David, what in the world are you talking about? You went from sharing our faith to building construction. Here's the thing. If this is your home, we are in a partnership.

We are in a partnership. There's certain things that you can do, I can't do. There's certain things that we can do more effectively than possibly you can.

What I mean by that? Well, inviting your friends to church, I can't do that. I can't say, hey, give me a list of phone numbers, I'll call them and I'll invite them. I mean, I could, but they wouldn't listen to me. They'd be like, who are you? Who's Pastor David?

I'm not talking to you. But if you invite them, that's much more effective. Now, once you bring them here, I can assure you, they're going to hear the good news. They're going to hear the gospel in a setting that's very powerful and very effective.

They're going to hear music that talks about the Lord, that talks about the good news. See, this is how we're supposed to be partnering. You need to leverage your relationships for the kingdom of God.

I need you to do that. God desires for you to do that. And if you're sitting here this morning, you go, I'm not going to do that. I don't know.

Then you know what? I don't know if you're in the right church. If you can look around your circle of friends and think, whether they come to God or not, there's something wrong with that. I want to partner with you to reach those people.

You can even, here's a great one. If there's an unbeliever in your life, say, you know what? I'd like for you to come to church with me. I want you to point out what's wrong with the church I go to. That's bold, but you know what? It works. And some of your friends may go, well, what do you mean point out what's wrong with your church?

No, I'm just curious what you think would be wrong with our church. Just come and check it out. And then you can tell me what's wrong with it. It'll get their attention. It'll get their attention. Now I understand that you're, and maybe if you're here this morning and somebody invited you, you're sitting there going, oh great, I'm part of some spiritual experiment or something. No, understand if somebody invited you, somebody risked rejection and failure to invite you to this place. You have somebody that probably really cares about you, that invited you to this place, that was willing to be inconvenienced of you at will to invite you to this church. And Jesus was willing to be inconvenienced wasn't He?

Luke 19, 10 says, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, that which was lost. And somehow we've kind of gotten away from this, haven't we? We forget this. What if I told you right now that there was people in this room that, oh, I don't know, fill in the blank, that were out partying last night, that smoked dope last night, that were out drinking last night. What does that cause you to think? Do you think, well, I wish I knew who they were.

We'd kick them out. Or do you think that's awesome? Praise God. The latter is more the attitude of Jesus.

That's the attitude of Jesus. And I don't know how the church got to, now look, if you've been here two years and you smoked dope last night, we need to talk, okay? I mean, you are supposed to be growing, okay? You need to be letting go of those things. But if you're in a troubled place right now and you're struggling with those things, man, this is the place to be. This is the place to be. Don't run.

Let the Lord reach out to you. And you need to hear the good news. And Peter says, you know, this is the stone.

Why is that important? Well, some people have gotten fairly confused at what Peter said earlier in one of the Gospels when he's talking to Jesus. And Jesus says, upon this rock I will build my church. Some people think, well, he's building it on Peter. And some people built their church on Peter.

And it kind of shows, you know? I mean, the church is supposed to be built on Jesus. It's supposed to be built on Jesus.

Why? Jesus, this is the stone is what Peter says. Is he talking about himself? No, he's talking about Jesus. He's talking about Jesus. Now verse 12.

Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Let me remind you that Peter is speaking to the Jewish people. I respect my Jewish roots.

I love studying the Jewish roots. But we need to understand that Jewish people, if they reject the Messiah, are not saved. They're not saved. It was grievous that, you know, Jim Baker a few years ago was on Larry King and made the statement that all the Jews that died during the Holocaust are going to heaven.

I think he did more damage with that statement than he did with the fiasco in the 80s, to be honest. That's simply unbiblical. This is what Peter says. This is what the Bible teaches. The life lesson, there is no other way to be forgiven except through Jesus. And guys, it's not being politically correct when we say to people, oh, well, you know, other religions are good as long as you're sincere.

What in the world is that? You know, if you sincerely want to go to New York and you head out of Kernersville and you're heading south, you're not getting to New York. You're going to Florida.

It doesn't matter how sincere you are. You're going the wrong way. You got to go the right way to get there.

And guess what the right way is? The right way is presented in Scripture as through Jesus. And without Jesus, Jewish people are lost in their sins. Muslims are lost in their sins. Catholics are lost in their sins. Without Jesus, Christians are lost in their sins. It doesn't matter if they go to church. It doesn't matter if they're a member of the church. Without Jesus, they're lost in their sins.

And so, I mean, there's central truths here. Number one, God loves you. You have sinned. Jesus died for you. You can be forgiven through faith and He will give you the power to live for Him.

How does this happen? You ask Him. You ask Him to forgive you of your sins. You know, I've had some people say, well, you don't dwell on repentance enough. When you say that you've sinned, you're admitting that you've done something wrong. You can't admit that you've done something wrong without understanding that you don't need to do it again. God isn't interested in our frail promises that we're never going to mess up again.

Those are empty vain promises. But as you say, Lord, forgive me of my sins, you're confessing your sins and also admitting, if you will, you're sorry for your sins. God will do a work in your heart and then begin to draw you closer to Him. But see, if you accept Jesus, you're accepting that somebody else made a payment for your sins. It's in His name. Matthew chapter 1 verse 21 says, and she will bring forth a son and you shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. And Hiashua, the Hebrew name, saved from our sins. God is our salvation. So when you say, I believe in Jesus, do you? Do you believe that He will save you from your sins?

Then you are on the track to be in the same. The only thing left is for you to ask Him to be saved. Nothing else, only a belief in Jesus can save you. So the question is, do you know Him? I don't mean you know about Him. I mean, do you really know Jesus?

Do you know what His name really means and it's personal to you? And I guess the other part of that is if you do know Him, are you sharing your faith? You know, if you wake up in the morning and say, God, just give me one person, one person to share my faith with today, one person to encourage to look towards you, look to you, God will be faithful to do it. And then you'll look for those opportunities to share your faith.

And maybe you've brought some people here and maybe they have questions about what I've said and be willing and open to answer those questions without being weird or upset. But perhaps you're here this morning and you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Maybe you've been church goer all your life. And you thought that as long as you were a good person and you went to church occasionally, you're hoping that at the end of your life your good outweighs your bad. It won't ever happen. But He who is good, Jesus, can outweigh your bad if you ask Him.

And guys, there's no other way. There's no other name by what you're saved. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You've just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Click on the Donate button and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge. Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the book of Acts.