Silence!

And by the way, the state of our culture, which we are trying to win, is in the state of mind. That's kind of like a man who's drowning. And you throw a life-saving rope to that man and then he, there as he drowns, argues with you that you should have thrown him four and given him the option of choosing which one he wanted and besides he wanted a different color and then he wanted the option also to be able to swim to shore.

Should he choose? Can you speak with conviction? Do you go to work? Do you live with a conviction that either those people grasp the life-saving rope called Jesus Christ or they will perish? Because God's Word is true, you can know for certain that it contains the only hope for mankind. That's the claim the Bible makes. Any other religion or any other means of trying to approach God is false. You see, often preaching the truth of the Gospel in this culture results in resistance and sometimes outright persecution. That's not new. Today, Stephen Davey returns to our Vintage Wisdom series from the book of Acts where we see the apostles jailed for preaching the Gospel.

There's some important lessons for you. Have you been able to observe that the less people know about Jesus Christ, the more they seem to like him? You see, since Jesus Christ said that the world would hate him, if the world likes him, it means that they either do not know who he is or they have made him into someone he is not.

And quite frankly, the Lord has told us, his disciples, that the world would hate us too and if they like us all that much, perhaps we aren't very clear with where we stand and how we speak. Perhaps you've been observing in the news, at least in the religious news, maybe you've heard about the story of the fourth grade girl who came to faith in Christ and was so excited about her newfound faith that she took her Bible with her to school and during recess began telling her friends about Jesus and how they needed to accept him. One of the school children's mothers complained and it made its way to the principal, eventually the teacher and the administration told the little girl she could not talk about Jesus on the playground anymore, which created a little bit of a stir because the girl's parents didn't buy into that particular interpretation of free speech and so they decided to take it to the courts and only recently, the past few days, the courts upheld this little girl's ability to mention his name on the playground. She simply had to share the good news and by sharing it, she created quite a bit of trouble for herself and for her family.

It isn't a new story. What I want to do this morning is take you to the very first incident in the history of the New Testament church where people created a little bit of trouble for speaking about Jesus. We want to pick up our study in the book of action and we're in chapter four. Let's begin with verse one. As for the first time, trouble comes to the believers in Jerusalem. As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Now what's happening here if you've been with us in the past is that this miraculous healing has taken place. This lame beggar now walks and Peter takes the opportunity to deliver to the observing crowd upon whose power this miracle rests and he begins speaking about Jesus, the resurrected one. And verse one tells us that as he's speaking, he and John, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, that's the temple police. These were part of the Jewish system and the Sadducees came upon them. Now why special reference to the Sadducees?

Well, let me help you understand them a little bit better. The Sadducees are facing a little bit of a problem themselves. They were an influential aristocratic group of men that ruled as the majority party in the Sanhedrin.

These were the body of men from which the high priest was normally selected. The Sadducees wanted to keep peace at any price in Jerusalem and so they would collaborate with the Roman government and do whatever necessary so that at least the Jews could go about their business in the temple and in the synagogues. However, they have a little bit of a problem and it's found basically in their theology, even though they're the ruling party in the Sanhedrin, the 72 body, the Supreme Court of Israel, they denied several important things. In fact, if you want to be able to remember what the Sadducees denied and where they got their name, you might just remember that they are sad because they denied the resurrection. So they are said, you see, now you'll never forget that.

You can put it down on the test next week and get it right. Well, they denied the miraculous or the supernatural. They denied the existence of spirit beings or angels. And of course they denied resurrection from the dead. They said, when you die, that's it over finished. Well, they have then a threefold problem on their hands in the temple this particular day, don't they?

Why? Because something miraculous just happened. The lame beggar is walking and there is a spiritual dynamic that is unseen that has been unleashed in his life. And thirdly, the disciples are giving the credit to a man that they claim was dead, whom they are saying has been resurrected from the dead. So their dilemma could be stated primarily in this way that Peter and John haven't broken any law in healing through the power of Christ, this lame man, yet the power to heal is being attributed to a man they thought they were through with. He was dead and gone. And now they're bringing his name up again. And so that the limit is created.

What do they do? Well, verse three, they laid hands on them. That's another way of saying they put them in handcuffs and put them in jail until the next day for it was already evening. In other words, if we can just get these men out of the sight of the populace that's come to hear and observe, if we can get these two men in some cell, it'll kind of die down and go away.

It didn't die down and go away. Look at verse four. But many of those who had heard the message that is the Peter just preached believed and the number of the men came to be about 5000. Now the last number we were given was 3000 men, women and children.

That is those who believe the message. Now he says there are 5000 men. In other words, all through the night, the city is filled with the news of this beggars healing and the power of Christ to heal him. More and more reports are coming into probably some makeshift headquarters of this early church, somebody's home probably, and they've got some fellow there that's keeping a report and a record of the numbers of people and they've been able to say, you know what, it looks like we have about 5000 men's names here.

The roles are referenced later in the epistles. The church kept meticulous records. Now if you understand that it's just 5000 men, if many of them were married, and they were and some had children who had believed, the church at this point in time might be some 10,000 strong. There is a revolution taking place in Jerusalem and they can't stop it. It came about on the next day, verse five, that their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem and Annas the high priest was there and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, we don't know much about them, that isn't the apostle John, and all who were of high priestly descent.

Now let's try to set the scene a little bit here. There's the 72 member Sanhedrin. This is the Supreme Court of Israel. They would come into their primary courtroom and they would be seated in a semi-circle fashion. They would be on a raised platform and they would bring the prisoners, those religious heretics before them and they would interrogate them. You need to understand, these are the same men, this is the same courtroom where just a few months earlier Jesus Christ had stood.

These are the same men that condemned him to die as a heretic being one who claimed he was God in the flesh. And Luke records the names of these groups with something that we could miss as the English reader. He uses the repetition of the word Cai or and before each group. It's a grammatical technique whereby the writer wants to emphasize each group.

He wants you to kind of slow down and just get a hold of this scene as it develops. He says you won't in effect believe who was there to interrogate Peter and John. Look, there were all the rulers. Imagine what that was like with their wealthy robes and their power and their influence. They were there as members of the Sanhedrin. He says all the elders were there. These were the seminarians. These were the doctorates in Old Testament law. These were the articulate experts in Old Testament scripture.

They're there. And then he says, here comes Annas and Caiaphas. Like I just think of two serpents slithering, hissing at the light. These two men come in, these two father and son-in-law who were the primary movers that condemned Jesus Christ to the cross and so on. Talk about intimidation. Peter and John are out of their league here. They are standing before the wealthy, the powerful, the scholarly, and they are anything but articulate. They are rough, calloused fishermen. They are nobodies taking on the somebodies. These are the little guys taking on the corporate giants. If there was ever a moment when Peter and John could have gulped real hard and wondered, what did we get ourselves into? What are we doing here?

It was now. If there was ever a moment when they realized how different their message was from all of these men, it was at this moment in time when they felt so different from the crowd, it was now. And let's face it, one of our chief problems, ladies and gentlemen, is that we don't like to be all that different. We are by nature imitators. You look around the room and you just see what everybody's wearing and we're really not that much different from anybody else.

It was a good indicator of that natural trait. But if Peter and John ever felt strange, uneducated, poor, different, it was at that moment. And when they had placed them in the center, verse 7, they began to inquire by what power or in what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for the benefit done to a sick man as to how this man has been made well, would it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health. Now, by the way, if you think that Peter is speaking out of a natural, self-initiated bravery or knowledge, you ought to underline in your Bibles that phrase we just read, he was full of the Holy Spirit. One baptism, many fillings. One baptism, you received it when you came to faith in Jesus Christ.

But many dominations, you could read that. See, the question we have to ask ourselves when we read a passage like this is, what is it in our lives that demands the Holy Spirit's control of our life? What is it that we're attempting that we cannot do unless the Holy Spirit does it through us? That's where Peter is. He says in verse 11, he is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very cornerstone.

You need to understand the Sanhedrin considered themselves the builders and keepers of the temple. And he's telling them that they have discarded the chief cornerstone that is that cornerstone from which every angle and every measurement of that entire structure is related. In effect, he's saying you can't be anything other than crooked, off balance, because you've rejected the chief cornerstone. Peter's not finished.

Man, he is warming up. Verse 12, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. It is that name he referenced earlier, Jesus of Nazareth. Yeshua is the Hebrew counterpart. It simply means salvation.

Peter makes a twofold declaration that I want to give to you. Here it is, first of all, since Jesus Christ is the only savior, as he declares here, then to follow anyone else is to remain lost. Look again at verse 12, the first phrase. There is salvation in no one else. In other words, Jesus Christ is not one God among many. He is the only true God. Jesus Christ is not one path to heaven among many paths that all will eventually lead there.

Peter says he's the only path. Second, since Jesus Christ is the only truth or savior, then to believe any other message is to remain deceived. The last part of verse 12 again, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men. This is the message in this name by which we must be saved. In other words, Jesus Christ is not one source of divine truth among others.

He is the only source. You see, ladies and gentlemen, we need to be reminded of the fact that that the strategy of Satan in our culture today is not necessarily to deny that Jesus Christ is the way to heaven. The strategy is to deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. And they didn't like the sound of that. Now notice verse 13. Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling. They began to recognize, as Scripture tells us, that they had been with Jesus. They're marveling.

Why? Verse 14, because they're seeing the man who had been healed standing with them. They had nothing to say in reply. So they ordered them to go aside out of the council and they began to confer with one another. That is, fellas, we need to take a quick recess here. Let's put our heads together.

We got to figure out something. Saying, what shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them as a parent to all who live in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may not spread any further among the people, let us warn them not to speak any more to any man in this name. You see, you get the idea that this courtroom is not trying to discover the truth, but what? Suppress the truth. So after their brief recess, the Sanhedrin regathers and they call Peter and John back up there with that man kind of tagging along.

They can't get rid of him. He's standing there with them and the gavel comes down and they order these two fishermen, silence. We don't want to hear any testimony. We don't want to see the evidences. We don't want to debate the cause. We order you to be quiet. Don't say anything to anybody.

May I ask you, where is your Sanhedrin today? Who is it that intimidates you into silence? Is it that corporate setting? Is it that crew you work with? Is it that campus filled with liberals and relative thinkers? Is it that athletic club?

Is it the neighborhood gang? Where is it that you feel that that untrained ill-equipped better not say anything less they think I'm a lunatic kind of feeling? Where are your Sanhedrins? What does it take to stand in the midst of a Sanhedrin with the confidence and courage of a Peter and John? In addition to the dominating influence of the Holy Spirit to whom you yield your life and influence, you will need to be convicted of the same four convictions that these two men had.

Let me give them to you. Conviction number one, you will need to be convinced that Jesus Christ has come back to life. Do you believe that?

Do you live like that? Second, you will need a conviction that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. See, they were convinced that Jesus Christ was the only hope for salvation. Have you come to that conviction? Can you speak with a conviction that it is Jesus Christ or eternal condemnation? And by the way, the state of our culture which we are trying to win is in the state of mind of that's kind of like a man who's drowning and you throw a life-saving rope to that man and then he, there as he drowns, argues with you that you should have thrown him four and given him the option of choosing which one he wanted and besides he wanted a different color and then he wanted the option also to be able to swim to shore should he choose. Can you speak with conviction?

Do you go to work? Do you live with a conviction that either those people grasp the life-saving rope called Jesus Christ or they will perish? Third, you must have a conviction that salvation through Jesus Christ is the most important decision in life.

Have you made that decision? See, if you don't believe that's the most important decision in life, then it won't matter to you whether you speak his name or not. If we didn't believe that as a church we wouldn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on world missions.

Why trouble ourselves with getting the message around the world? Fourth, you must have a conviction that obedience to Jesus Christ is the only lifestyle worth living. Don't ever forget the fact that these men are standing in the courtroom where a few months earlier Jesus Christ had been condemned to die. They have every reason to believe that these Sanhedrinists can with a stroke of their quill condemned them to die too.

There's a cross that will fit their backs as well. What changed Peter from a few months earlier running away as that little maiden girl said, aren't you one of them? To now being willing to walk through that courtyard into that courtroom scene and say Jesus Christ is the only name and you fellas better believe them or you won't be saved.

Those four convictions. When I was in France a few weeks ago I was seated at a dinner table with a veteran missionary couple who were in their late 70s or close to the tape about to finish the race. When they retired from more than 40 years of ministry they decided to retire in France. The apartment building they live in now they claim as their mission field although they're confined for the most part to walkers and canes. We sat in their apartment having dinner.

The apartment was hardly bigger than this stage. And I knew Mr. Hazel Tyne and his wife had had an incredible ministry. And I asked them would you please tell some of the stories.

I love to hear the stories of people who have gone before us. And I asked him and he told me an unusual story among others but I'll never forget this when he was in Albania with his wife where they began their ministry before the communists kicked them out of the country. He was called into the police headquarters and the commander interrogated him about his faith. Wasn't very happy about what he was doing. Planting churches and was very glad he was being kicked out of the country. And he said before you leave this country I want the names of the Albanian Christians.

I want you to write them down. He said I won't tell you. He knew that to give that communist the names of those believers would be their death sentence.

And he knew the church needed to remain alive and flourish though underground. He said I won't tell you. The commander pulled out his pistol and he pressed it to the forehead of Mr. Hazel Tyne where he was seated. And he said if you do not tell me their names I will kill you right now. And Mr. Hazel Tyne said if you kill me I'm going straight to heaven.

I'm not telling you their names. After a few moments of awkward silence the commander put his pistol away and Mr. Hazel Tyne walked away. He said I want to do that. I like that faith. What courage. We may never be called to do that but how do we handle it in the corporate setting? Do we struggle over praying and giving thanks over a meal?

There might be somebody in the corporation looking. We'll never do that. Are we silenced on the college campus? Do we ever utter the name? Then we'll never do that. Where is it in your life where you need the Holy Spirit's domination so that you can testify for him? Well let's look at what happens in verse 18. When they summoned them they commanded them not to speak. Literally not to make a sound or teach it all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God you be the judge. For we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.

I love that. We don't have your degrees. We don't have your abilities. We don't have your talents. We don't have your training and your education. But we've seen something. We've heard something and we can't stop talking about it. And when they had threatened them further they let them go finding no basis on which they might punish them on account of the people.

That's the real reason. Because they were all glorifying God for what had happened. For the man was more than 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. False religion though impressive though wealthy though powerful though magnificent in the way that it looks and it carries out its rituals and its systems.

It is nothing more than a facade of spirituality that cannot stand even the slightest exposure to the truth. It is helpless before the simple rough crude testimony of a transformed life. And don't ever forget that for your society to be moved it will be the testimony of your transformed life as you speak to the name of Jesus Christ that will be used with great power in people's lives. Before we leave this story of the beggars remarkable transformation let me rehearse it for you.

You can close your Bibles and I want to rehearse it quickly just with a little bit of a different angle and then we'll be finished. When Jesus Christ was born in human flesh this beggar was about seven years old. He was born crippled. You can imagine the agony of his mom and dad as they watched him having to sit in the house as all the other Jewish children ran and played in the streets of Jerusalem. He was unable to go to school. He was unable to help in the home.

He couldn't go anywhere unless someone out of mercy carried him. Religion wouldn't have been much of help the Judaizers the Pharisees would have verbalized their doubting that it was because of sin in their lives that God had judged their family in that way. They would have been agonizing in their own silent pain as they watched their little boy grow up when Jesus Christ came to the temple as a 12 year old boy. You remember the story where he confounded the wise men. This beggar as a 19 or 20 year old had already begun to beg outside the gate beautiful. We're told in the Bible that he begged there until he was 40 years of age. So he had already begun which is an interesting thought to consider that as Jesus the little boy was probing the leaders with his insightful questions just a few dozen yards away this young man was begging for alms. 20 years would go by and then this man named Jesus would re-enter the city amidst all the hosannas of the people as they shouted him to be their long awaited Messiah as Jesus went around the city of Jerusalem as we read in the scripture where he entered the temple and he taught on many different occasions where he went to just sit and watch the people.

I have no doubt in my mind that he entered the temple maybe once maybe twice maybe several times through the gate called beautiful. Past this beggar and I wonder did their eyes ever meet? Did Jesus ever stop and talk to this man who was without hope?

A more troubling question with all the people that Jesus healed why didn't he heal this one? But now the miracle man was gone dead crucified and with that leaving so his hope left as well. But then a few months later two men that he perhaps recognized as being followers of Jesus came by that gate and this beggar from his daily post began to ask them for alms.

And that's kind of where we picked up the story wasn't it? And Peter said we don't have any alms to give you we're broke. We have no gold or silver but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth walk. And now it made sense why Jesus didn't heal him. His healing would be perfectly timed to validate the testimony and message of Peter and John and that man would now stand with them before the Sanhedrin. By the way he is still unnamed.

We're never told his name. He's anonymous except for one thing the same thing that that you and I have that same distinction that he carried with him is the distinction that we carry within ourselves. We also were once blind spiritually but now we see we were once spiritually crippled helpless poor. Now we are heirs with him to all his riches and we are spiritually able to leap and to walk. And here he stands with them unable and unwilling to be silenced.

Why? Because he knew the truth. It had happened to him. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. For those who've trusted him we are just like him unless we are willing and able to accept the verdict of our Sanhedrin and remain silent and never stay. Today's lesson was a challenging reminder for those of us who know the truth.

We must never be silent. I'm so glad you joined us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. We're in a series from the book of Acts called The Harvest Begins. It comes from our vintage wisdom library dated back to the 1990s but as you heard today the truth of God's Word is just as relevant and practical. We have a companion study guide that goes along with this series at a specially discounted rate. You'll find the study guide The Harvest Begins at our website which is wisdomonline.org. Tune in next time for more Wisdom for the Heart.