Acts 4:1-22 - On Trial With Kids’ Songs

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, A Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you. Let's dive right in.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Tabernacle Talk.

We've been journeying through the Book of Acts, and last week, we saw Peter and John, and Peter preached an amazing sermon there in Solomon's Colonnade after they healed a lame man who had been lame for all of his life.

He could not walk, and yet through the power of Jesus, he went walking and leaping and praising God. Peter gives a sermon to everyone that was shocked at what had happened to this man, and that's where we ended last week.

But want to jump into the beginning of Chapter 4 is where we ended last week.

As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them being greatly disturbed because they were teaching and teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

And they laid hands on them and put them in prison until the next day for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5,000.

One thing I don't want to skip over, they're in verse number one, verses number one and two. The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees were the ones that arrested Peter and John.

Now the Sadducees were a little bit like kind of the theological liberals of the day. What I don't mean by that is they had certain beliefs about borders or anything like that.

Instead, what it means is that they did not believe that there would be a resurrection of the dead. They didn't believe in kind of life hereafter. They believed that there was basically just here and now and that was it.

And they didn't really believe in angels, didn't really believe in miracles. And so you can see them multiple times.

We'll see them later here in the Book of Acts, but you can see them in the life of Christ, that they had severe doubts about the supernatural. They just believed in what they could see and touch and feel here on this earth.

And so it was this group of people that were, in verse number two, greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. So what happened? They got thrown in prison.

Verse number five, On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem, and Annas, the high priest, was there, and Caiaphas, who had been the high priest, John and Alexander, and all who were of high priestly

descent. These are all the bigwigs. When they had placed them in the center, Peter and John, they began to inquire, by what power or in what name have you done this? Who gave you the right to teach the people?

This was something that was incredibly important in those days, and so only priests and scribes and those that they specifically asked, hey, you are a rabbi, can you teach? So they're saying here, who gave you authority to teach in the temple?

Then Peter, verse number eight, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the

people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became

the chief cornerstone. There he is quoting from Psalm 118 where it's talking about in prophecy, the Messiah, that the builders of this earth's kingdoms and the builders here of even the kingdom of Israel, they rejected Jesus.

They didn't want him to be a cornerstone was that first stone that was set, that would set where the building was built, that would set all of the angles of how the building was built. They didn't want Jesus to determine their religion.

They wanted their religion to determine who Jesus was.

And so he says, Jesus is the chief cornerstone, quoting from Psalm 118, a scripture, which they would have known very well, a song that they would have sung often as Jews and here as priests, as leaders, as rulers, as high priests.

He says, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved. He lays it all out for them. He says, you want to know whose authority we are speaking this in?

We are speaking in the name of Jesus. He is the one that can heal the lame.

He is the one that, though you crucified him, God raised him from the dead because he is the one by whom everything else in life, everything else in God's world is determined by Jesus, by his character, by his will. And there is no salvation.

There is no rescue from our sin. There is no rescue from the darkness of this world. There is no rescue from the punishment of hell.

There is no other name. There is no other rescue than the name of Jesus. He says, there is no other name under heaven given among mankind by which we must be saved.

I'd encourage you today, if you do not know Jesus' Savior, if maybe you are religious like these high priests, like these rulers, but you do not know Jesus. Jesus is not the one determining why you do what you do.

He is not the one determining the words that you say, the company that you keep, the type of life that you live. I'd encourage you turn to Jesus alone. Turn to his words, turn to his way, and it is so worth it.

Then in verse number 13, now as they, the priests, observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus and seen the man who had

been healed standing with them. They had nothing to say and reply. Isn't it incredible that God turns normal, everyday people into unanswerable ambassadors?

And man, I think, what an incredible thing that they noticed Peter and John's confidence and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men. Here their answer was not, this rabbi has historically said this.

The Talmud in this spot, this extra biblical thing says this, no, no, the verse that Peter gives to them is one that is a song. It would be something that children would know.

They noticed that they are uneducated and untrained men, but they were amazed because they recognize them as having been with Jesus. Man, I want that to be true of my life.

I want what's said of me and my days to be that I was with Jesus, that people would recognize, hey, Bryon knows Jesus. He spends time with him, he's praying to him. I want that to be the case in my life.

They had nothing to say in reply. Verse number 15, but when they had ordered them to leave the council, so they thought, get out of here, they began to confer with one another saying, what are we to do with these men?

For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it.

Everyone going into the temple, everyone traveling by the temple would have seen this man for years and years and years unable to walk. And now he was walking around all Jerusalem.

There was no way they could deny what God had done in this man's life. He says, but, verse number 17, so that it will not spread any further among the people, let's warn them not to speak any longer to any person in this name.

And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment.

For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. Man, what a reply. These were the people that sentenced Christ to death.

Peter and John, Peter was the one that just outside of the temple, had three different times denied that he knew Jesus.

And now to the very group of people that literally sentenced Christ to death, he's telling them, yeah, that's real nice that you want us to stop reaching in the name of Jesus. We can't stop talking about what we have seen and heard.

What made the difference? What turned scared Peter, Peter that denied, Peter that cursed and said, I do not know the man. What turned that Peter hiding in the upper room?

What turned the Peter that ran away to the shores of Galilee even after Christ's resurrection? What turned him into this bold person? The reality that Jesus really did rise from the dead.

This counters all of the excuses that are thrown out. Wow, Jesus didn't really rise from the dead. No, no, no, no.

The people that were contrary to him, the people that denied him, the people that had abandoned him, the people that were scared out of their minds now were bold in the Lord to preach Jesus. Why?

Because he really had risen, because they really had seen him go into heaven. And so there was no doubt in their mind. And so they were going to give it all for this king.

Verse number 21, when the council, when they had threatened them further, they let them go, finding no basis on which to punish them on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened.

For the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed was more than 40 years old. For the 40 years, this man had endured just some of the worst aspects of life.

And yet, in a moment with God, with the power of Jesus Christ, through the love of a couple of believers, this man now was walking, leaping, praising God, glorifying God, that caused all of the people to listen to God's word being preached, that they

were now glorifying God because of the miracle that had been done to this man, that 5,000 people believed on the name of the Lord. What an incredible difference it makes when the people of God determine, I'm going to share the gospel.

I'm going to do what God asks me to do. Man, I think today, I pretty much know for a fact, if you're here in the US., none of you today are going to be in a prison because of preaching Jesus.

Can I encourage you, if you don't have prison walls holding you back from preaching Jesus, what's stopping you today?

What's stopping you from posting on your social media saying, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, he's the Messiah, he's the promised one from God. I believe that he died for my sins, that he gave me all of his righteousness.

I believe that the Holy Spirit lives in me. I believe that he's given me a family and that one day he will return. What's stopping us from publicly declaring Jesus today?

What's stopping us from sharing Jesus, sharing something as small as a church invite with maybe today we'll go to a restaurant? What would stop you from sharing just a little something with someone else?

What would stop you today from maybe giving something to the poor, to the Salvation Army, to the Ronald McDonald House, and maybe giving it to a specific person and saying, Jesus loves you and so do I. Can I encourage us today? Let's have boldness.

Peter had boldness that once he did not have because he did not know who Jesus was and what he had come to do and we who know Jesus, we ought to have that same boldness. Can I encourage us as well with this?

Peter, he has this boldness, but he has this one verse, it's one song that he had memorized at some point, maybe as a child, maybe as a teenager, maybe as an adult, Psalm 118, the songs of the people of Israel that they would sing at various times.

Can I encourage you today? Spend some time listening to good Christian music. If you need recommendations, I would love to talk with you about some amazing Christian music that you can listen to.

At the very least, I would say this. If you look up Keith and Christine Getty, Keith Getty has some incredible music that is filled with solid doctrinal lyrics, that's really fun to listen to. I would encourage you to maybe listen to Hymns of Grace.

It has some very beautiful arrangements of some classic hymns. I would encourage you to listen to Shane and Shane, the music group. Listen to Phil Wickham.

All of these people have wonderful, amazing, doctrinally rich truths that will help encourage your hearts. Many of these also have Psalms that they sing and have written.

I can think Shane and Shane, they have at least two Psalm albums and a couple other albums that they've written some Psalms with. Same with Keith and Kristin Getty.

They've worked on singing the Psalms, which is God's Word, the Book of Psalms, put to music and would encourage you in that. Let me see. We're right about at the mark for today.

Tomorrow, we are going to see the amazing response that Peter and John have and the rest of the disciples as a result of what God has done in their imprisonment and how they were captured and how they were told not to speak in the name of Jesus.

What was their response? Were they more fearful after the event? Were they bolder?

Were they sad? Were they upset with God? Were they happy?

We will find out tomorrow on Tabernacle Talk.