Discerning and Dynamic but Dumb?

[0:00] All right, good morning and welcome again to faith. We're so glad that you're here together with us and we're going to be looking this morning in the book of Acts and we're going to be in Acts chapter 4 beginning with verse number 6 going to verse number 13. What is taking place here is after Peter and John had gone up to the temple and while going up to the temple they saw a man who had been lame he had apparently been carried to the temple for many years and he was hoping to get money and the Peter and John had performed a miracle by the man being raised up and walking and they're telling him he looks up at them as if they were going to give him money and they said we don't really have any any money silver and gold we don't have but here's the thing they said arise and walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Well that got the ruling leaders pretty upset and let's take a look at how they respond in starting in verse number 6. Verse 6 begins as well as Annas the high priest they had been brought before the ruling body of the Jews the Sanhedrin these were this was made up of about 70 men they were fairly rich they were powerful and they were the the leading rulers of their day it was like the Jewish supreme court and they were brought before as we're told in verse 5 the rulers the elders and the teachers of the law as well as Annas the high priest Caiaphas John and Alexander as many as were of the family of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem and when they had set them in the midst this were Peter John and they asked by what power or by what name have you done this? Now I find it very interesting that these who were in this ruling body now remember they were primarily made up of a group that we called that were called

[2:20] Sadducees. These Jews rejected the idea of the resurrection they didn't believe in a resurrection as a matter of fact there was a reason why I believe that they came down on the side of not believing in a resurrection the way things worked in Rome Rome was led obviously by the Roman rulers and the Jews were pretty well tolerated but what happened was Rome said you guys can do your religious thing and these religious leaders were allowed to hold court for religious laws if anybody broke up a religious law an Old Testament law then they could hold court over that which is basically what was being done here but what they were doing what the Sanhedrin what this ruling body was doing was they politically they came down on the side of expedience meaning if we keep Rome happy we keep our money we keep our jobs we keep our prestige the problem with the resurrection was the Jews believed that in the resurrection when the Messiah would come if there was a resurrection when the Messiah came he would upset Rome he would throw off the chains of tyranny and be the Jews would be ruling again so in the reality is if the Messiah had come and if Jesus happened to be the Messiah and he rose again then there goes our job and so they were in difficulty with that because of the way that Peter and John did this they said rise up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and then they explained to them that Jesus Christ had risen again the problem was for this these political Jews they couldn't even bring themselves to admit that they had seen a miracle the thing is I'm sure probably most of these guys had walked by the temple on their way to the temple and had seen this guy who couldn't walk begging for money and many of them may have given him some money and piously prayed for him as they walked into the temple and now they see him walking so they couldn't deny the miracle but they couldn't bring themselves to actually call it a miracle so verse 7 they asked by what power or by what name have you done this this thing then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them in verse 8 rulers of the people and elders of Israel if we this day are judged for a good deed so I you can you can see the irony dripping from this statement if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man by what means he has been made well let it be made known to you all and do you do you do you hear and do you sense the boldness in Peter as he's speaking this is the third time Peter has had the opportunity to speak up and here he is speaking up very clearly to the highest Jewish leaders of the land elders scribes which were the the leaders the the teachers of the law that by the name of Jesus

[5:55] Christ of Nazareth and then he digs a knife in a little deeper whom you crucified and then here it is whom God raised from the dead by him this man stands before you whole this is the stone which was rejected by you and again they know exactly what he's talking about because for a Jew schooled in the Old Testament they knew that the stone referred to God possibly the Jews and David upon which the the whole covenant was was based and and the the ministry and the the leadership of David would continue in the coming Messiah they knew he would come from the lineage of David so the kingdom of David would be resurrected so to speak in the Messiah the stone which was rejected by you builders which has become the chief cornerstone now imagine you reject the resurrection you are rejecting that Jesus was the

[7:09] Messiah because you want to keep your cushy job and you want to keep Rome happy with you and so now they're being told that they crucified the Messiah they're being told that God raised him from the dead and they're being being told that he is the chief cornerstone that was talked about in the Old Testament and verse 13 nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved Jesus the one that they chose that and remember this Sanhedrin is the same ruling body that put Jesus to death just a few months before they were the same ruling body that declared he's guilty and we want him to die and we sentence him to death cross a Roman cross that was reserved for the the worst criminals around the same ruling body the same one that crucified Jesus is the one that Peter is saying there's no salvation there's no way that you can be right with God except going through

[8:24] Jesus the Christ of Nazareth by which we must be saved and then the meaning of our title this morning they were bold they were daring but these religious leaders didn't think too much about these men because in the words of the Greek and scripture they considered them uneducated they considered them and the word literally means illiterate they didn't think they were very smart here's what they have to say now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated illiterate and untrained men they were fishermen standing before the highest court in the land in the at least in in Jerusalem before the Jews before the Sanhedrin how did these how did this Jewish supreme court respond we can't believe it listen to these men listen to this man speak he's illiterate or at least we think he's illiterate he hasn't been through the the leading schools of the day he didn't go to Harvard he didn't go to MIT or wherever the he didn't he didn't sit under the the these guys didn't sit praying religious Jews each of the law they mocked and there's the whole of the mess more they realized came be we said let's pray this this morning help us to understand being how having spirit how being with Jesus spending time with him will make us so different that the world has to know so we pray in Jesus name amen the world had been rocked by a portion of love at the cost and at pennant had launched a massive response to the whole person being saved by Peter's preachers chapter 2 miracles were taking place mighty answers to prayer were evident throughout the community all these things were going on right where a lame man had been healed by these men called repentance and faith thought thou or to after children churching like zei's bands religious ups and question by the peace question uh that Peter on here in verses through a look again advexas and priest Caiaphas John and sander as many as were a family of the high priest another little side note here uh when we see that the previous high priest had been deposed but his son-in-law uh takes takes place takes his place there was a lot of nepotism going around what happened was uh these religious bodies kept it and the religious leaders kept it in the family when one would get too old they would give it to a family member and on and on and on and so this sanhedrin this ruling body was it was kept in the family because there was a lot of other things besides just being part of the ruling body it came with a lot of other side gigs and so they were wealthy they were well known they were popular they were they were part of they were part of the policing so to speak because they allowed them to have their position so they were gathered here at jerusalem and when they set them in the midst they asked by what or by what name have you done this says peter filled with the holy spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders of israel he says let it be meant to you to you all the people of the israel name of the christ of the earth whom god the day by him go back to my slide him this man stands before you made whole so what we have is peter and john standing before this ruling group of the jews peter speaks to them peter pointed to god's power in the healing of the lame man how did you do this by what power by what authority notice what was the question they asked they didn't ask how did you do this they didn't question the fact that they did it this literally this really was not a legal court proceeding but they didn't really hear they because they were so upset and adamant about squashing this new and this new religious thing that was going on that they were doing their best to silence the believers so into god's power and the healing of the lame man and what does he do he reminds them he reminds his listeners like i saw in verse 10 he says remember jesus he said let it be made 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 it's by this man that stands that then stands before you whole by jesus that this man stands before you whole declared the resurrection to people by the resurrection and they believed the wreck it would it would potentially upset the power that they had so he insists as well in verse 11 that faith in jesus christ was the only way to be right with god this is the stone by which the built was rejected by you the builders which has become the chief cornerstone he says in verse number 12 nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved now that's our introduction this morning to what we're going to look at this morning what we see is these leaders were amazed at peter and john the end that they thought were not very smart were illiterate were not not schooled they were fishermen they responded with amazement upon the first thing is because number one they recognized their daring they recognized that they were bold they recognized that though they knew that they could be in danger they knew they could be put in prison that they had enough daring that even though they had previously been told not to speak about this jesus because they were in danger and they had arrested the day before think about it verse 3 and they laid hands on them put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening they had already been arrested for talking about jesus the next day the sun comes up and they're questioned they openly daringly talk about jesus and accuse this ruling body of putting the messiah to death and say there's only one way for salvation and it's through this jesus christ the reason why they were arrested and very possibly they could be beaten or stoned and put to death because of their love for christ they were daring and they recognized the leaders recognized they recognized their daring verse 3 they laid hands on them put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening they knew that preaching about the cross was dangerous teaching about jesus could have lost their lives but people were responding well as we said earlier 5 000 people had trusted christ standing firm for the gospel was a dangerous thing to do do you realize that dangerous today people may lose their job if they stand up the gospel some people may risk losing their job just by bringing a bible to work having a reading the bible at their desk on their break or on their lunch hour there are many people who have been threatened to be fired because of that that this was a a book that was not allowed in the workplace or they were not allowed to talk about jesus while they were on the clock and i understand that but you know what when there's a break time or when you're at lunch and when you have the opportunity to talk to someone and they ask you a question we should have the opportunity and i you know what whether we're told we can't or can't what do you think jesus would expect us to do do whatever it is that he calls us to do at that moment and if it's to speak up for him it means that we are to speak up for him so refuting their enemies here fueled the fire of persecution look at verse 13 and this is where we get that not only the title of our message but our main points they saw their daring verse 13 now when they saw the boldness here's the daring that we see they saw that they were bold these leaders marveled at their boldness in the face of danger here's the question do others see us boldly declaring our faith do others see us talking about christ do other people hear us talking about jesus even when it's not popular because there are groups of people where the name of jesus is really really really not popular at all with but are we bold enough to speak i there's guy that i that i know that has been worked for lake charles for some period of time retired a few years ago visited them in the hospital his wife was having surgery a few weeks ago and got a chance to talk to him and and ask if thought i could pray with his wife as well she's agnostic well but she's she's heard me pray before and not ashamed to talk about jesus now she may she may shrug her shoulders and not want to talk about him but the thing is as he said she at least respects that you believe it and so that should not keep us just because a person either denies or questions shouldn't keep us from talking to them about christ so the question is do others see us boldly declaring our faith even when it's not popular here's the second thing their research they had looked into i'm sure they had looked into these two guys who had been following jesus and they were known to have been followers of jesus so the leaders in their research indicated these men were in fact uneducated they were fishermen they were not the intellectual elite of their day they had not sat under the teaching of a famous rabbi they were simple fishermen who were probably rough around the edges probably were were not the the sharpest when it came to social graces and manners but knew what they believed and were bold about what they believed about jesus so they thought that they were not very smart and so one of the reasons they marveled was not only did they marvel at their daring but they marveled at how can these people how can this peter speak so so eloquently not being educated so how could this peter be so eloquent well think about what was peter like before he received the holy spirit he might have been bold in certain in certain places but he was the one that denied jesus christ three times while jesus was being questioned peter was the one who wanted to walk on the water but didn't have the the faith to and so he looked at the the wind and the waves and the sea he was the one that litter that that usually opened his mouth and inserted his foot but this timid or this fearful peter now becomes bold peter and he eloquently tells this ruling body that they were the ones who put the messiah to death and there was only one way to salvation and that is through jesus christ so the educational background committee came back and said they've got none let's look at verse 13 so when they saw peter and john the boldness of peter and john and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men they marveled these powerful preachers were called unlearned they were called ignorant and the word that was used literally means illiterate so they were saying how in the world can these illiterate men make such bold statements and they marveled at them their critics concluded they were ignorant but then this raised even more questions how is this

[22:16] I mean they performed this thing where this lame man of the temple walked by what power and whose authority did you do this and then they received this eloquent response how so it raised more questions than it answered so how could these ignorant men as they would consider them how could they be so dynamic how could the uneducated be so discerning well I believe it's because of this they reasoned that their resource had to be divine now they didn't admit it but I'm sure they looked among themselves and said well I guess because these guys had been around Jesus so they reasoned that their resource must have been Jesus but we know Jesus was divine we know that Jesus is God and we know that the time that these men spent with Christ we know that the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ sent made all of this possible something was going on here that transcended human ability something was going on with these unlearned untrained men that went far beyond anybody's human ability we know it is the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ sent that on the day of Pentecost when they received the

[23:40] Holy Spirit they were endued with power as Jesus said wait here tarry in Jerusalem wait in Jerusalem and you'll receive the Holy Spirit and then you will be my messengers not only to Jerusalem Judea but to the uttermost part of the earth these unprepared ones in their eyes had become great preachers these untaught ones had become effective teachers they were teaching and they somehow knew the Old Testament somehow they knew enough to teach others but there's only one answer they had been with Jesus so as we think about this these men Peter and John untrained ignorant in the eyes of the leaders could make such a difference by their daring and their powerful preaching were changing the world people were trusting Christ people were coming to

[24:45] Jesus people's lives were being changed Paul would later write in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and I'd like to close with this if we think that we don't have much to offer because having been to Bible college having been to seminary don't know a lot about the Bible then don't lose heart because here is the thing if you spent time with Jesus and you have God's Holy Spirit within you you have everything you need to make a difference in someone else's life for eternity look at verse 13 well Acts 4 13 we just we saw that but let's look at excuse me 1 Corinthians 127 to 29 verse 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise God will use some that the world will have to look at and say how can it be if he had chosen all eloquent if he had chosen all highly educated and very brilliant people then they would say well that's just that's just common because that's what brilliant people do but what about people who haven't been to

[26:14] Bible college haven't sat under or haven't sat at the feet of a great learned Bible teacher God uses the things that the wise and the educated and I use air quotes for that that the educated would consider foolish to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world the things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are and why does God to do this so that no flesh that no human being no person would be able to glory in the presence of God and say well mankind did it when we stand before

[27:14] God we have to understand and realize that it's because of him so this morning don't conclude that you don't have much to offer because if you know Christ as your savior you can be daring and you can be bold and you have all that it takes to make a difference in this world God has used and God often uses the untaught ones to bring him glory God can even use children from the mouth of babes God God can use any of us and you know what even if you have a college degree you have a college degree you and you have a old enough to speak why don't you trust Jesus how do you answer a four-year-old when they ask that question God uses the weak God can use the untaught

[28:15] God can use any of us and you know what even if you have a college degree even if you have a seminary or a graduate degree God can use you too I meant that as a joke in reality all joking aside God can use any of us at any time anywhere even though we think we're out of our element God can still use us so they figured these guys are daring how can it be that they're so daring these guys are uneducated how can it be that they're making such a bold plea and how are they making such a how are they speaking the way they are with such conviction well they reasoned that they had been with Jesus and they thought Jesus was just another lunatic but we know better we know that he is God that he was God in the flesh and he is seated at the right hand of God the Father today

[29:21] God often uses the untaught ones for his glory and he will use you and he will use me as we surrender our all to him this morning as we look at our next steps number one just simply be daring for Jesus do something daring for him second thing is spend time with him because what made the difference with Peter and John they had spent time with him they had spent time with Jesus they had spent some three three and a half years with Jesus learning from him learning life lessons traveling with him walking from place to place with him spent probably untold number of nights out under the stars with Jesus giving them life lessons and stories from his creation and then thirdly next step may be to share our faith with others spend time with someone telling him about Jesus sharing our faith with someone who needs to know know about the Messiah let's pray father this morning we are so thankful for the power that you provide we are so thankful for the ability you give us to declare your glory to share our faith and may we do it with daring may we do it with boldness may we do it in the power of your Holy

[30:54] Spirit and father may we make a difference in the lives of others may we make a difference in this city may we make a difference in this universe simply by speaking about our Savior Jesus Christ thank you again father this morning for each one who is here may we make a difference in the lives of others as we go through our daily routines this week we pray in Jesus name amen