Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

Proclaiming God's Truth (Part 2) 10/05/08

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

Message: ‘Proclaiming God’s Truth’ pt.1         Text: Acts 4:1-31

I. Acts 4:1-4                God adds to the Church

II. Acts 4:5-22            God’s people are tested

     Acts 4:5-7              By what power/name do you do this?

     Acts 4: 8-12           By the name of Jesus…alone

Introduction:

·       Is our culture asking Christians to give up our hold on Biblical absolutes, in order to embrace ideas that are acceptable to the majority?

·       Is our culture asking Christians to give up our moral and ethical standards, in order to condone alternative lifestyles?

·       Is our culture asking Christians to give up our belief in the sanctity of life, in order to help those who take life, feel better about themselves?

·       Is our culture asking us to give up Jesus, in order to promote a safe and controllable religion?

Joseph Stowell, the President of Moody Seminary spoke at a Pastor’s Conference and told the following personal story.


 

Stowell had attended the Chicago Leadership Prayer Breakfast. The major segment of this event included a Mullah from the Muslim faith, a protestant church leader, a Roman Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi. Each of them prayed a prayer in unison, symbolizing that they were all praying to the same god in reality.

The speaker for that morning was the director of Holy Trinity Church on Wall Street, which was right next to ground zero in NYC. He said, “After 9-11, theology is back. God is back, but in this new environment, we must all be willing to give up those traditions that divide us, so we can be one.” He went on to say that God speaks to other faiths and other religious groups.

Stowell was stunned. He was being asked to give up Jesus. He hoped the man would not get a standing ovation, but he did. Joseph Stowell knew that if he stood, he would be denying Jesus. So, he remained seated and refused to clap.

There is a push to blur the distinctions of various religions and create a religious system that is non-threatening and tolerant.

Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times, “It is urgent that the different religions reinterpret their traditions, to embrace modernity and pluralism, and to create space for secularism and alternative faiths.” (Chuck Herring)

Explanation: The push to give up Jesus is nothing new. The Apostles, Peter and John, faced the very same thing in their day.

When we come to Acts 4, they are arrested by the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Peter, when questioned by the Sanhedrin, is filled  with the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaims the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ when he says ‘And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven and earth given among men, by which we must be saved.’

Today, we need to wrestle with the full force of that absolute statement. Because you and I are being asked, in many subtle and not so subtle ways, to give up Jesus for a safer, more controllable religion.  It’s that serious!

Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Acts 4:13 (pg. 833 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it is there we’ll continue to see that we enlarge our vision of God by faithfully

proclaiming His truth.

Acts 4:13            They had been with Jesus

Read: Acts 4:13

How could Peter and John stand up and boldly proclaim the truth about Jesus, when they were facing the same group that had Jesus  crucified? The text tells us…

·       They were filled with the Holy Spirit.

·       BECAUSE they had been with Jesus.

Luke tells us that the members of the Sanhedrin noticed that Peter and John were uneducated, ordinary men. But what was different about them. They recognized they had been with Jesus.

·       They saw this in the unexpected boldness in which Peter spoke.

·       They say this in their poise under pressure

·       They saw this in the authority in which they spoke about Jesus…

They noticed that Jesus had rubbed off on them. It’s as if they were thinking, ‘These guys are just like Jesus. I thought we took care of that problem when we had him crucified. And to top it off, they’re not afraid of us.’

One of the blessings of being a Christian, is that Jesus does that to us. He gives us strength to face whatever the world throws at us, when we intentionally acknowledge His presence and purposefully seek His power in our lives. Let me illustrate with a true story.

ILL: During China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, insurgents captured a mission station, blocked all the gates but one, and in front of that one gate placed a cross flat on the ground. Then the word was passed to those inside that any who trampled the cross underfoot would be permitted their freedom and life, but that any refusing would be shot. Terribly frightened, the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. But the eighth student, a young girl, refused to commit the sacrilegious act. Kneeling beside the cross in prayer for strength, she arose and moved carefully around the cross, and went out to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the remaining ninety-two students followed her to the firing squad.  Those students had been with Jesus, and possessed the courage to take a stand for Christ. (Mike Turner)


 

The questions facing all of us here this morning is…have we, you and I, been with Jesus? And, are we willing to take our stand with Him?

In Luke’s Gospel he writes ‘A disciple, when they are taught, will be like their master.’ (Lk. 6:40) Peter and John were disciples of Jesus Christ. They had been with Jesus and they were committed to Him and to His cause.

If you claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ. If you have been with Jesus in daily prayer, worship and fellowship,

·       Then you too will be committed to Him.

·       Then you too will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

·       Then you too will faithfully proclaim God’s truths without fear

·          Because Jesus has rubbed off on you. All because you have been with Jesus.

 

Transition: The religious leaders need a moment to regroup, so they send Peter, John and the man who was healed, out of the room. After much discussion they decide to order Peter and John to stop telling people about Jesus.

Acts 4:14-22                Obey God

Read: Acts 4:14-22

The Sanhedrin could not deny the facts of what happened. All they did was consider the consequences of letting this movement continue. When the decision came as to whether they would pursue the ‘truth’ and accept the ‘consequences,’ they opted instead to try to suppress the consequences and not acknowledge the truth. So they order Peter and John to stop talking about Jesus.

Peter and John were faced with the same choice we are faced with every day. Do the ‘right’ thing or do the ‘wrong’ thing. Folks, it’s that simple.

Peter and John choose to do the ‘right’ thing when they told the Sanhedrin, the very men who had Jesus killed and could do the same thing to them, that they could not obey their command.  Peter and John knew they answered to the highest authority…Jesus Christ.

We learn from this text the very important truth that no human authority can order a Christian to disobey God and expect that Christian to obey.

Read: Acts 1:8 ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

As witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

called by God, we can not be silenced!

Transition: How do we do that? The text tells us, by the power of the indwelling Holy  Spirit, and as we’ll see, by faithful and passionate prayer.

Acts 4:23-31                The power of prayer           

Read: Acts 4:23-31

Peter and John are released and they go back to the other disciples who are holding a prison release party. No they go back to their friends who are holding a prayer meeting. How’s that for a godly sense of priority?

Even in their prayers we see the priorities of these early Christians. The mention of specific Old Testament passages in their prayer was an acknowledgment of their deep belief in God’s sovereignty.

Read: Acts 4:28 ‘They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.’

These early disciples, who had every reason to be afraid, weren’t, because they understood and lived by the belief in the complete and absolute sovereignty of God, not only over their own lives but over all creation.

·       And when God is in control,

·       when we know we are His beloved Children,

·       when we know his plans for us are always for our good

·       what is there to fear?

The prayers of these early Christians were filled with adoration, praise, thanksgiving and requests. They even prayed Scripture back to God. God filled them with His Holy Spirit and shook the place they were staying.  The result, they faithfully and boldly proclaimed God’s truth.

Now, that’s a prayer meeting I want to go to. How about you? Well, we have them each Wednesday night from 7-8pm. The building may not shake, but the lives of those who attend are touched by the powerful presence of God in our midst.

Conclusion

ILL: On Feb 19 1812 Adinirom Judson, and his bride of seven days, set sail for India to be missionaries. Upon arriving in India, they were denied entrance. A short time later, they received a open door to the country of Burma, and went there instead. Burma was a country of millions of people, but not one known Christian. Judson would spend 38 years in Burma. Over these years there would be much hardship, and difficulty.

He, and his wife would have one child Roger, but would bury him when he was only 8 years old. Judson would be imprisoned as a British spy, and spend 21 months in jail. Ann became so violently ill that she had to return home for two years. The work of the ministry was extremely slow, and difficult.

·       No Christians when they arrived

·       after one year......none

·       after two years.......still no one

·       after five years.........not one Christian

·       In fact they were there 6 years before seeing one person saved.

Adonirom once wrote in his journal ‘Every time I see a ship set sail for home, I want to jump on it, and go.’ (Mike Turner)

·       Why didn’t they ?

·       Why did they stay in Burma ?

·       Why do Becky and our other Kingdom Builders go through the long support raising process and then spend the rest of their lives on the mission field?

It is because they’re committed to Jesus and His cause! It’s because they’ve been with Jesus and He’s rubbed off on them.

When the Judson’s arrived in Burma there were no Christians. It took 6 years before one person was saved. But after Judson’s death a government survey recorded that there were 210,000 Christians in Burma! (Mike Turner)

Folks, we are spending so much of our time with the world that we are beginning to look like it and accept it’s practices. Truth is, the world is rubbing off on us. So it’s no wonder we fear proclaiming God’s truth.

The answer? Spend more time with Jesus, so that when the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ choices come, and they come everyday, we will be able to choose well and faithfully proclaim God’s truth. Because we have been with Jesus.