No Other Name

Acts 4:1-22

Introduction

Our country was founded on the principle that people of all religious creeds and backgrounds are welcome.  All religions are equally tolerated under the law.  But somewhere along the way, we seem to have adopted the belief that all religions should not only be tolerated, but also that they are all equally valid.  That there are many roads to heaven, and it doesn’t really matter which one you take as long as you are sincere. And One thing that our culture unanimously agrees upon is that it was wrong for Christians to advocate their faith, especially the claim that Jesus is the only way to reach God.  They would rather take their religion like people scooping up food at a buffet.  They get to decide what they accept or reject.

But the Bible paints a different picture.  Our text this morning tells us that there is only one way to God, and that is only through Jesus Christ.  He is the stone that the builders rejected, but God made the Cornerstone.  

Acts 4:1-22

Context/Story

Tell the story, Peter has healed a cripple who had been unable to walk for 40 years.  He does this in a very public place, right in front of the temple gate.  As more and more people begin to recognize the formerly crippled beggar, Peter gets up to explain who actually did the healing.  Jesus Christ.  This morning we read that another 5000 people come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And that the opposition begins to take action.  Peter and John are imprisoned, and in the coming weeks we will begin to see this opposition escalate.  The early church was persecuted heavily, all because they refused to stop talking about Jesus.

Embrace Persecution (Vs 11-12)

• • The enemies of God did 4 things. And these are things that happened to them, but they also happen to us when we are being persecuted 

• Came Upon Them

• • • enemies came upon them.  They got into their business.  “Woah now you can’t tell people what to do.  You can’t say those things.  Only we can.”   “You can’t do that here, you aren’t with us, we don’t agree, you need a permit for that.”
      • This is a power play.  It is an act of authority.  But what they failed to realize is that they didn’t have any.  They claimed to get their authority from God. But God was backing the other team!
    • Religious leaders that had gotten so consumed with their authority, that they had failed to realize that God was moving.  And that it was actually Satan who was using these leaders to accomplish his purposes.  
      • Isn’t that so true for us today?  Usually it is not those from the outside that harm the church but those from within.  How many churches split and divide because of human ego?  We fight and divide over stuff that has nothing to do with the scriptures
        • We get so caught up with what we want church to look like, what we want church to be, that we miss what God wants to happen.  We just assume that our desires ARE God’s desires.

• Interrogated Them

• • • Peter was being questioned before the high religious court. And they begin to interrogate him, but Peter turns it back on them instead.
      • “You threw me in prison because a paralytic was healed, and I proclaimed Jesus to be the one who healed him.”
      • “But you are the ones who murdered Christ”  – The whole high religious court were the ones on trial that day, and Peter calls them out.
        • We sometimes get confused.  Sometimes we mix up what is our role, and what is God’s role.  We play judge, and jury, and we pass forth our sentence on others.  Sometimes we even try to do it with God.  
          • “God why am I here?, God how could you? God how dare you?” 
            • God is not on trial, Mankind is on trial.  We have fallen, we have sinned, we have rejected Him.

• Rejected Them

• I don’t think there was any doubt in the mind of the Pharisees that they were doing the right thing.  I think that they were fully convinced that they were faithfully representing God.  But no matter how strongly they believed it, they were wrong.  None of those Pharisees were going to follow Jesus, Their hearts were hardened by generations of self righteousness

• Luke 10:16 – The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

• • • Take great care that you don’t fall into this same trap.  Don’t just believe something because you were raised that way, or because it is easy, or because somebody told you to.  
      • Always, always, always take it back to the scriptures.  Tie every belief to a chapter and verse. Especially when it comes to your faith.  Don’t fall into the trap our culture pushes.  The ultimate question you should ask on every belief you have, every situation you are in, every word you are taught, should be WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?  

• Persecuted Them

• • In the coming weeks we are going to see this play out time and again.  This is just one imprisonment of many still to come.  This is just one threat of many still to come.  Eventually they will start murdering Christians to shut them up.  
  • They doubled down, and the questions turned to accusations, and the accusations turned to threats.
    • John 15:18-19 – If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
    • 2nd Timothy 3:12 – Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
      • Many of us are not persecuted because we have successfully been silenced.  Satan has no need to persecute those who have placed themselves on the sidelines of the battle.  Why do anything to them, they are totally useless to the battle.  No persecution comes when we refuse to be silenced. When we say, “I cannot help but speak of Christ”

They Have Nothing They Can Do To You

• Vs 16 – What shall we do with these men? – They were asking the wrong questions.
  • They should have asked, “What is God doing through these men?”
    • Vs 4 – But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
    • Thousands of people responded.  Pentecost part two!  But the Pharisees didn’t see it.  They didn’t see it as a work of the Lord. They saw Christ as a problem to be dealt with.  But they couldn’t do anything at all!  
      • The Religious leaders end up letting them go!
  • They should have asked, “What is God going to do with us?”
• What is the worst thing that could happen?  
  • Suffering – 2nd Corinthians 4:17 – For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
    • Your suffering in this life is building up for you a wonderful, glorious, magnificent future in the life to come.  God sees your rejection, your persecution, your suffering, and He is holding for you a reward for it all beyond all comparison!
  • Death – Christ conquered death!  He holds the keys to death, and we have a promise that he will one day use those keys to unlock our resurrection as well.
    • Death has been defeated, there is no sting of death for the Christian.  Only further and greater life yet to come!
      • Revelation 2:10 – Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
• Fear The Lord Not Men
  • You can live by Fear of Man, or Fear of God.  
    • The Pharisees feared the people. Not one of them was willing to come out and say, “that’s enough, stop this healing, No more Miracles!”  Why? Because that’s a bad look!  They were afraid of harming their own reputation.  They were clearly living under the fear of man.
    • But Peter and John feared God.  They were imprisoned, and brought before the most powerful people in Israel.  The same ones who had murdered Jesus less than 2 months ago. Peter responds to their threats by saying,(Acts 4:19-20) “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 
      • They appealed to the higher authority.

Speak of Jesus (conclusion)

• Vs 11-12 – This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
  • Gospel – Salvation is not found in Mohammed, not Ghandi, Not your bank account, not your retirement portfolio, not your girlfriend, or your dog, not your weekend vacation, not your sin. None of that can save you. Salvation is in Jesus Christ alone.  He had no debt to pay, but he paid yours.  He was righteous, blameless, sinless, yet he took yours. He is the cornerstone of your life and mine.  He is the cornerstone of all that exists.  Christ reigns supreme.
    • So Speak of Jesus.  Don’t let the fear of people keep you from speaking of Jesus.  
• 5000 people were added to their number
  • The best church growth strategy out there is not about lights and fog machines.  It doesn’t involve short pithy sermons given to entertain and amuse.  The greatest church growth strategy found in scripture is proclaiming the gospel to lost people.  Speak of Jesus to lost people.  It may not be popular.  It may not be entertaining. It may cause people to reject you.  But take heart. 
    • Psalm 27:10 – For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.
• Speak of Jesus.  He was rejected too.