Dr. Rodney Plunket

A man crippled from birth began his day as he had for many years.  Friends came to pick him up and carry him to a temple gate in Jerusalem.  His plans were the same as always.  He would lie there and beg for money from those who passed by.  He would lie there until he was picked up later and carried home.  It seemed like just another ordinary day, but this day would be far from ordinary.

As he lay there and begged, two men approached that gate together.  I suspect that the beggar could spot someone who was not a local from a hundred yards.  These two men who approached were not from Jerusalem, not even from the province of Judea.  These men were Galileans, and the beggar knew that outsiders tended to give more money than those who were accustomed to seeing him lying there.  I suspect that the beggar’s cries for alms grew louder as the two Galileans approached.  One thing we know; they noticed him.  But their response was not what the beggar expected.  Most people who had nothing to give looked away and made sure that their eyes and the eyes of the beggar never met.  But listen to the response of the two men named Peter and John.  It is reported in Acts (Ax) 3:4-10.

Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said,  “Look at us.”  And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said,  “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”  And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

This miracle causes many to gather around, and Peter and John use that opportun­ity to preach the message of Jesus.  In fact, Ax 3:1 indicates that the miracle took place at around 3:00 PM and Ax 4:3 puts the ending of the preaching sometime in the evening, which indicates that Peter and John preached and dialogued with the people for several hours.  The message they preach is summarized briefly in Ax 3:11-26, and it had many similarities to the message given on the day of Pentecost.  It is that the Jewish people had rejected and crucified their own Messiah, but God had raised Him from the dead.

Such a message is not popular with the leaders of the temple.  They were the ones who had engineered Jesus’ execution and most of them were Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection; they did not believe that anyone would ever be raised from the dead.  So they have Peter and John arrested and held overnight to await a trial in the morning.

In spite of the fact that Peter and John’s message is unpopular with the rulers of the temple, it is very popular with the people.  About 5,000 of them put their faith in it that very day.

The next day dawns and the trial begins.  All of the Jewish high council (the Sanhedrin) is assembled.  There are seventy-one men who serve on that elite council and there are more Sadducees than anything else.  After a night in prison, Peter and John are brought before this august body to defend their actions and their message.  Acts 4:5-22 provides us with a report of what happened.

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.  When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.  This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’  There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.  When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.  So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another.  They said, “What will we do with them?  For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it.  But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”  So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened.  For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.

This council tried to intimidate Peter and John, but Peter and John are bold.  And, I love v 21.  “After threatening them again, they let them go.”  I love that verse because the effect of the council’s threatening is to increase the boldness of these followers of Jesus.  It does that because Peter and John leave the council meeting, return to the other believers, and together they all pray a great prayer.  That prayer and its results are recorded in Ax 4:23-31.  Please listen.

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.  When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:

‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

          and the peoples imagine vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand,

          and the rulers have gathered together

          against the Lord and against his Messiah.’

For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.  And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

Feel the power of that prayer.  Feel their awareness that only God could make them bold in the face of such stout opposition.

Now look at Ax 5:12ff.  Here the Church is growing like wildfire, which makes the authorities jealous; so they again take action in an effort to stifle this movement.  In Ax 5:17-18 all of the apostles are arrested and put in prison, but during the night an angel releases the apostles from prison and they go right back to preaching in the temple as soon as it opens the next morning.  The temple police arrest the apostles again and bring them before the Sanhedrin.  Many among the Sanhedrin want to have the apostles executed, but one of the Sanhedrin members, a respected rabbi named Gamaliel, convinces them not to do that.  However, the apostles do not get off at lightly.  They are flogged, and a Jewish flogging involved being beaten thirty-nine times with a three thonged scourge.  People were known to have died from such a beating.  What was the response of the apostles?  Listen to Ax 5:41-42.

As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.  And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

With bloodied backs they left that meeting rejoicing at the honor they felt at having suffered for the name of Jesus, and they kept right on speaking the word boldly.

In chs 6-7 we read the story of Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  His martyrdom motivates a man named Saul to persecute the Church.  Turn to the second half of Ax 8:1 and follow along as I read.  Here we will see the power of these early Christians, a power which persecution could not diminish.  Follow along as I read Ax 8:1b-4.

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.  Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.  But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.

Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word.

I want us really to think about this.  You have been run out of town because of the message about Jesus.  But what do you do?  You keep preaching the very message that caused all of your problems.

These people were unstoppable.  No one could do anything that would make them quit.  They loved the message.  They could not keep from proclaiming it.  The word of Christ was alive within them.  It had won their hearts, and they were full of its power.

I am preaching this sermon this morning because I want us to long for what they had.  I want us to long for their sense of the joy of Jesus––the joy of being saved by His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God, the joy of being filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  The spirited proclamation of the message reported in these early chapters of Acts grew forth from the power of the Holy Spirit within them and the sheer joy of knowing that Jesus Christ had made them sons and daughters of God by His death.  That is what drove them.  That is why they spoke the word boldly, and that is why we should do the same.  And when the Sanhedrin sought, through intimidation and threats and persecution, to keep them from preaching, what did they do?  They met together and prayed and the place was shaken, they were filled with the Spirit, and they “spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Their preaching grew out of their relationship with God.  It grew out of prayer; it grew out of being filled with God’s Spirit.

When we are not sharing Jesus with others, it should not make us feel guilty.  It should make us hungry, hungry for God to shake us and fill us with His Spirit.  Let’s stop right now and pray.

Dear Lord,

Draw us so near to Your heart that Your love for all fills us.  Make alive within us Your dream of bringing the whole world to Yourself through Christ Jesus.  May that dream become our dream.

Father, may Your Holy Spirit live within us so powerfully that we cannot help but speak Your word boldly.  Father, shake us.  Wake us up to the wonder of your gospel, and make us an unstoppable force for the spread of the Kingdom.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you are here this morning and are not a Christian, I hope that our lesson has portrayed before you the power of the gospel.  If you want to have that power alive within you, all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus and act upon that faith by repenting of your sins, by confessing Jesus as Son of God and Lord, and by being buried with Christ through baptism into His death.  If you want to become a Christian this morning, please come to the front as we stand and sing.

Top | Sermons | Home