Welcome
Let’s pray.
How about we continue on with our tradition (established last week) of playing and singing Christmas songs about Jesus.
Because it is the week before we will sing or sit and enjoy four songs to start . . .
“Angels we have Heard on High”
“O Holy Night”
“Do you Hear what I Hear?” (and)
“We Three Kings”
And then after our VERSE BY VERSE we’ll end with four others:
“Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”
“What Child is This?”
“Away in a Manger,” and
“Silent Night”
After that we will continue with our verse by verse study of Acts four, picking it up at verse 5.
Okay last week we read where the members of the Sanhedrim and the Captain of the Guard and some Sadducees came and aggressively took Peter and John and put them in hold (a cell or tank) for preaching in the temple and teaching the resurrection.
(verse 5)
Acts 4.11
December 20th 2015
Milk
5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Alright, back to verse 5
And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Did you catch it?
Luke wrote:
And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
As if these were leaders that were not either the rulers of Luke OR that these rulers were the leaders of the Jews and Luke was writing to a Gentile world – including us.
Don’t know which it was but he does not refer to these men as, “the rulers” or “our rulers.”
Anyway he says that those who gathered together were their
“Rulers” – leading Jews on Sanhedrim –
“Elders” – written in Greek as presbyters, which as we said last week means older person –
And “Scribes.”
Quickly – scribes – (in the Greek, “GRAMMAT-YUECE” so we know they had something to do with grammar and letters, right) well, anciently they held various important offices in the public affairs of the nation.
In the Hebrew the word for scribe is (sopher) and is used to describe some type of military office where the pen was used (Judges 5:14 helps us understand this connection).
In time scribes acted as “secretaries of state” and it was their job to prepare and issue decrees in the name of the king.
(2nd Samuel 8:17; 20:25; 1st Chronicles 18:16; 24:6; 1st Kings 4:3; 2nd Kings 12:9-11; 18:18-37, etc.).
Additionally there was a subordinate class of scribes most of whom were Levites. They were engaged in various ways as writers too.
For example, Baruch, in Jeremiah 36:4 is described as one who “wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord.”
Another fancy word is amanuensis.
In later times, when the Nation of Israel lost its independence, the scribes turned their attention to the law, gaining for themselves a distinction for their intimate acquaintance with its contents.
Naturally copying and teaching the Law soon fell upon them (according to Ezra 7:6,10-12; and Nehemiah 8:1,4,9,13).
By Jesus day (and from the New Testament) we see that the scribes belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, who supplemented the ancient written law by their traditions (Mt 23:1-39), thereby obscuring it and rendering it of none effect, according to Jesus in Matthew 23:1-39).
When we read “scribes” and “lawyers” in the New Testament they are interchangeable.
Because they were the public teachers at the time of the Lord He had a number of run-ins with them. They taught in a distinct manner, ready to cite the law and their hollow interpretations of it and they collided greatly with Jesus who viewed the Law through lenses of love.
We see here (and will see in Acts chapter 6) where the scribes held great hostility toward Jesus apostles.
If we can learn any lesson from the Scribes and especially from their conflict with the Lord it would be, in my estimation, from the words of Paul who said, speaking of God:
2nd Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Actually the whole contextual presentation in 2nd Corinthians 3 is this:
2nd Corinthians 3:1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
Anyone can correct everyone using the New Testament – its like shooting fish in a barrel.
The call is to walk in faith which has been increased by the washing and hearing of the Word, and to let that faith produce love. (verse 6)
6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Where Luke add, “Also there was Annas,” this could have been the Annas that had been the high priest and retained the title even though he had retired.
We remember from our study in John that he was father-in-law to Caiaphas (the actual and acting high priest) and it seems that he was mentioned ahead of Caiahphas here out of respect.
Then Caiaphas is mentioned as being there, then “John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest.”
We don’t know much more about who this John or Alexander. It is clear that they were members of the great council, and the mention of their names shows that the men of chief authority and influence were assembled to silence the apostles.
Annas and Caiaphas had actively participated in the death of Jesus so it seems they would feel a keen interest in stopping the progress of the gospel among the people.
So John and Peter were removed from the holding cell once all were assembled and (verse 7)
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
It is quite probable that they expected to intimidate the apostles by this question. Remember, they unitedly claimed the right of regulating the religious affairs of the nation and without question they had the power.
Since all insights, preaching and teaching was to come in and through them, they appear to have believed that upon asking the apostles this question that they would fear and tremble, knowing that historically these guys were in charge.
They were about to be surprised.
We must remember that this very same question was asked of Jesus in Matthew 21:23.
I love the story as it says:
“And when he (Jesus) was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”
24 And Jesus answered and said unto them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like-wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” And they reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.”
27 And they answered Jesus, and said, “We cannot tell.” And he said unto them, “Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”
There is such a lesson here for us as believers and followers of the King.
He was questioned where He got His authority to teach. He didn’t give them a direct answer but He none-the-less showed – proved – that the authority was His. How? By the Spirit within Him and His ability to utterly confound them and stop them in their very tracks.
They had come to Him and wanted Him to prove to them that He had authority to teach – and He did – by the Spirit.
We have long lived in a religious age where men, like the scribes of old, will take New Testament scripture and use it as the law to prove themselves the ones with the authority.
They lay claim to the authority of the written word.
But here Jesus clearly shows that His authority came directly from God, by the Spirit, even to the point of confounding his questioners so badly they were shut down on the spot.
His teachings, as Matthew 7:29 reiterates, were authoritative – as it says:
“For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” And then as Mark wrote
“And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.”
We have become a nation of scribal believers – citing chapter and verse instead of appealing to the authority of the Spirit to live and teach and lead.
The Spirit will never contradict scripture, but our power lies not in ink and paper as Paul said in 1st Corinthians 4:20
“For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
Remember, remember, remember – we read and study the Word (together and then alone) to help INDIVIDUALS grow in spirit and truth, to wash away our temporal ideations, and to divide between our individual and respective souls and spirit and NOT to kill others with our knowledge or argumentation.
To do so would to be like the scribes and unlike the Lord. So here, taking Peter and John they ask them the very same question:
“By what power, or by (or in) what name, have ye done this?”
Now remember the day and age. It seems that this council knew that a lame man was miraculously healed. This does not seem to be disputed.
But it is very likely that they either knew Jesus was being preached OR they believed the healing was from magic or interaction with what the Old Testament called, familiar spirits – with all of its associated spells and charms (which were totally unlawful.)
Quite frankly if they had done this by magic they could have been put to death. So they wanted to know by what power, “en poia dunamei,” by what supernatural energy or in what name, or mode of incantation, or Spirit did you invoke this healing.
False prophets, reputed witches, wizards, and the like were to be brought before the sanhedrin, judged, acquitted, or condemned, according to the evidence put before them.
And then others think that what they were asking was:
“Who gave you authority to teach publicly! This belongs to the Sanhedrin alone. What, therefore, is your authority, and who is he who gave it to you?”
But guess what? This religious council was about to be met, for the first time in history, with an ordinary set of men who possessed the Holy Spirit internally through the grace of God by faith.
They were about to, once again, get an answer that would confound them, similar to what Jesus did to them years before. Because Peter’s words are so amazing let’s read all that he says to them in response and then we’ll go back and cover each verse(Verse 8-12)
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
You want to have a built in response to anyone who asks about you and your life in Christ? Its right here.
Shawn, can you tell us what changed in your life?
“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people in my life, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom we all crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth “this man” stand here before you whole.”
Where do you get your strength? How do you have such hope? Why are you so full of joy?
(beat)
“Be it known unto all, and to all the people in my life, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom we all crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth “this woman” stand here before you whole.”
Get it?
Later in his epistle, this same Peter who stood before these questioning men said in (1st Peter 3:15)
“Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
(hand out cards and pencils)
I want to stop for a minute. Each of you are getting a 3 x 5 card and pencil or pen.
We don’t typically do any sort of exercises here at CAMPUS but the application of this is quite important – especially in light of our message last night about sharing Him with others.
So what I want to invite all of you to do is to compose a brief summary of the hope that it in you.
In other words if you are asked by someone, “Why do you believe in Jesus?” “Why are you a Christian?” “What does your faith give you that all the others don’t?” take the time – if you want – to either write out or outline your response.
We’ll sit in silence for three minutes while we compose.
(PLAY MUSIC TO HOME AND LIVE AUDIENCE PLEASE)
Would anyone like to share what they have written with the others?
(Shared statements)
Okay. So Peter and John were asked, “By what power, or by (or in) what name, have ye done this?
What you have written on your card is your answer to the same question or any question like it.
Whether you pray for another, serve another, sacrifice for another, share or preach to another, this is your response to anyone who wonders or asks by what or whom or why.
Okay, back to verse eight where after being questioned we read:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
There is a temptation to read this passage and believe, because of the way it is written, that Peter was NOT (prior to this time) filled with the Holy Spirit; that maybe He was filled at this time.
But Young’s Literal Translation says:
“Having been filled with the Holy Spirit.”
I make mention of this because I tend to think we are mistaken when think of the Holy Spirit like a fire hydrant.
Admittedly, there can be times when it seems like the Holy Spirit is in abundance and other times when it ebbs away but I wonder if this isn’t more of a result of our getting in the way of the Spirit rather than the spirit being with us in more or less quantities.
Scripture does speak of our ability to grieve the Holy Spirit and to me this means to damper it and its affects upon us when we live by and appeal to the flesh.
Whichever it is – its presence coming in and out at different strengths or us inhibiting it from fully being in charge – it was the presence of the Holy Spirit in Peter that enabled him to say what he said:
“Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,”
Notice that they have been in jail, held against their will, and the tenor or tone Peter uses with them – he respectfully refers to them according to their titles and positions.
We can be certain that Peter remembered that these very men – this counsel – put Jesus to death.
But ever more abiding in his memory had to be the fact that Jesus overcame that death – and lived – and had ascended into the heavens to take His place at the right-hand of God Himself.
We might wonder if this gathering was in the same hall where Jesus was taken and where Peter denied Him.
I think it was. And I think this because God has a way of bringing us back round to every single place we have stumbled – in what I believe is an opportunity to relive the challenge – rightfully if possible.
I cannot tell you how many times nor how many themes God has had be revisit as a means to allow me to relive them the way He wants rather than by my flesh.
And I am personally convinced that this is exactly what Peter was facing here.
For some reason revisiting the same crimes and sins and decisions truly allows us to see if our mind have truly changed regarding the given situation.
Upon rejecting the Lord Peter went out and wept bitterly. Then upon the sea with the risen Lord He was reminded of his three denials by the Lord’s three questions.
But here Peter was allowed, by the grace of God, to actually relive the moment – and this time, with amazing victory.
Do you possess a problem or weakness or failure in your life that tends to resurface time and time and time again? And is always met with failure?
Consider Peter and his denial – and how He overcame the exact same situation – his being questioned in the hall of Judgment – by the Holy Spirit present with him.
The result this time – no fear, no anger, no disrespect – just an opportunity to preach – and preach he does, saying:
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole . . .
If you are going be questioned on how this impotent man was healed, by what means he was made whole . . .
(Verse 10) Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Straight up.
Boom.
Same hall. Same religious counsel. Same situation – a trial. Even the same danger – they obviously had it in their power to take life – they had taken the life of the LORD not that many months before.
None of it affected Peter. It could have, we suppose. He could have evaded the question and he might have resorted to excuses and outright denials.
But this was a noble vindication for Peter and a really wonderful opportunity to at least psychologically repair an evil he had done before.
Remember, it was a servant girl who caused Peter to deny the King.
Now the ultimate authority of Israel hadn’t the power to move him.
This is what the presence of the Spirit of God produces in us – fearlessness, power, the words to say, and the wisdom in how to say them.
It does NOT matter in the least what any person has done in the past – the past is gone.
What matters is the manner with which they approach the future – by their flesh and will or through His.
We’ve talked about the verbiage Peter uses in other places and so I won’t cover it all here, but recognize the key phrases he chooses to employ here in his response:
Be it known unto you all . . .
and to all the people of Israel . . .
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified,
whom God raised from the dead,
even by him
doth this man stand here
before you
whole.
Prior to this time, when he was in the temple, Peter told the people there that they had killed “the Holy and Just One” in ignorance as did their rulers.
Now he gets to tell the rulers themselves – face to face! Talk about God preparing us – then using us – to accomplish His good will. Just look at Peter here.
And then
11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Now, in Psalm 118:22 we find this passage – so the leaders of the Nation of Israel would have been very familiar with it.
Why?
Well, they knew their scripture but also they thought this Psalm referred to King David. In the Jewish Targum (which is kind of their commentary on the Old Testament) this passage is amplified to read,
“The child who was among the sons of Jesse, and was worthy to be constituted King, the builders rejected.” (speaking of the builders of the Nation).
But when Jesus was alive He assigned this passage to himself and now Peter is clarifying for these men that the rejected stone – the stone that THEY rejected – was Jesus of Nazareth!
And Peter adds a verse we will end with reading today and covering next week – one that is so very applicable to this week’s celebrations:
(verse 12)
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Other translations put the verse in this way:
(WNT) And in no other is the great salvation to be found; for, in fact, there is no second name under Heaven that has been given among men through which we are to be saved.”
(TCNT) And Salvation is in him alone; for there is no other Name in the whole world, given to men, to which we must look for our Salvation.”
(YLT) and there is not salvation in any other, for there is no other name under the heaven that hath been given among men, in which it behoveth us to be saved.’
(BBE) And in no other is there salvation: for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, through which we may have salvation.
Never more truer words have ever been said.
Questions/Comments
Let’s pray and then sing.
“Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”
“What Child is This?”
“Away in a Manger,” and
“Silent Night”
