All the Believers were One

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"

"Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

(Act 4:32-5:11 NIV)

We found the church praying a few verses ago in unison, and now we find that unison extended to more than just their prayer life under pressure. This church was of one heart and mind. They were all working towards one end. The change that the Gospel had effected in their lives was so great, that they didn’t even consider that any of their stuff was theirs anymore. Let’s stop for a minute and examine that.

This was a culture was radically different than ours. First, the poorest American makes you average citizen of the world seethe with jealousy. Our section 8 housing is your average upper-middle class in most other countries. Even the well-to-do in Europe don’t have what your standard American considers their right. We think that 1 bedroom per child is the minimum; most of the world would consider themselves fortunate to have a master bedroom to themselves. To give you an idea of how rich you and your friends are, they say that if you have spare change in a bowl or bucket somewhere in your house, you are in the top 8% income bracket of the world. How many people do you know that don’t have a penny jar lying around somewhere. Chances are that everyone you’ve ever met is sitting in the 92^nd percentile or above. We, in this country, do not know what poor is, we’ve never seen it.

Back then, there were no 80/20 loans, no sliding scale interest. Banks weren’t even invented yet, we can thank the Knights Templar in the middle-ages for that. There was also no reserve to issue notes. Money was worth what it was made of, and how much it weighed. Paper money would have been worthless. Land and houses were the only thing that people could hold onto. You could lose crops to the weather, the Romans could take your gold, food got eaten by vermin, family members were lost to disease. Land and houses could only be obtained by an outright purchase or by inheritance. They were your only points of stability.

In that context, when we look at what the early church considered its normal mode of operation, we see something so radical that it’s easy to miss it. These people didn’t tithe, they surrendered. The change in their lives was so complete that they didn’t consider their stability stability any more. Instead they put their trust in the Lord God and in Jesus Christ, having all things in common. Remember the Jews were commanded to make the outsides of their land available to their brethren already by the Law. These men and women were so filled with love for one another, that they didn’t even hold back the part of the land that was theirs. This wasn’t an early form of communism, either. The goods and possessions were not distributed evenly, though it was available to all. No, the Apostles gave it out on a needs basis.

So does that mean we are supposed to sell our houses and become itinerant monks? If we look carefully, we’ll see that’s not the case. First off, we see the Church at the end of chapter 5 preaching and teaching in the temple and in every house. They couldn’t all have sold their houses or it would have said at the Temple and on the street corners. Also, the context of selling the houses was so there would be none who had lack. They did consider everything they owned community property, but I don’t think they sold it unless there was a need, the same way you’d sell a car to pay for your kid’s kidney operation.

The ancient Greeks, in writing about the early church said time and again that the Church loved each other in a way that the Greek mindset couldn’t quite get their hands around. Greek culture was everyone for themselves, you only loved those who provided benefit to you. In fact the word that the Bible used to describe Christian love, agape, is only used in Christian writings. It seems that the Church had a concept that wasn’t expressed in the language, so they created a word for it. Since this agape is something distinctly Christian, we’d better take a look at it. When you start to look through the bible to find out about this concept, you might notice something distinctly missing. Nowhere will you see love being described by its emotions. You’ll not find any exhortations to “feel” for each other. In fact Jesus said:

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

(Joh 15:13 NIV)

Jesus said that the highest height of love is the action of self-sacrifice to the point of death. In 1^st John, the author would clarify a few things about this:

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

(1Jo 4:10 NIV)

John said that love is God acting in sending His Son, and notice it wasn’t conditioned on any response from us. We did not love God when God was loving us, for, as John explains:

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

(1Jo 5:3 NIV)

Yet all have fallen short of the Glory that is God. Every man has turned to his own way. There is none that is righteous, no not even one. So, therefore, no one loved God when God sent His son. God’s love was unconditional and action oriented. In 2^nd John, we see how the human component of love is defined:

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

(2Jo 1:6 NIV)

This is love, obedience. God’s love came to our stony hearts that did not love Him. In fact, the bible puts those who have not placed their faith in Christ as being enemies of God and haters of His word, regardless of what they “feel” about it. It was not until the saving love of our Savior came that our stony, unloving hearts were even capable of loving God.

This word, love, was an expression, you might even call it a state of being, that showed itself by its actions. The kind of love that they talked about in those days was agape love, which is entirely unconditional. That means it is not based on our feelings about it or one another, nor on our ability to accomplish it, because those would then be conditions and agape has none. Since this is so foreign to our sinful selves, one can quite quickly become frustrated trying to produce this ex-nihlio. Where do we even begin? I would suggest that we start here.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.

(Act 4:32 NIV)

They didn’t claim their possessions as their own, because they knew they were God’s. When we say that God is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen, we are making a statement about property rights and ownership. Our stuff is not our stuff, its God’s stuff. He made the atoms that they are composed of, and they were always His. If we have surrendered our lives to Christ, we have only given back what we took.

This is where love for one another in the Church begins. We first recognize that we are not our own, we are somebody’s creation. How deep does that go? Consider this:

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

(Psa 139:13 NIV emphasis added)

That phrase “inmost being” is the Hebrew word for kidneys. The term itself means the seat of our emotions, where our entire emotional response comes from, kind of equivalent to “deep down in my soul.” When we surrender to Christ, we give Him back that part of us, as well. Notice the text even starts with the heart and soul, then moves on to our stuff.

How can we be of one heart and one mind with the group if we cannot even name three emotions of the person sitting across the room from us? Now there is a listening aspect to this that is our responsibility, but I want us all to notice something profound. Right now, we are on the other side of the room. The reason that the person opposite cannot name three of your emotions is because you never share them. Not in any meaningful way. Oh, sure they get the surface, but what about the inmost being? Do we dare to truly share our lives with one another? Not just a meal when someone is sick or out of work, but a purposeful involving of yourselves in the lives and families and drama of the fellow members of Southstrand Community Church. Does God’s word demand any less?

So, how do we do that? Well, here in the text we have 2 examples. Joses, I believe your version says Joseph, they are the same name, was a Levite from Cyprus. Joses was called Barnabus by all of his buddies, which means Son of Encouragement. That was his name, son of encouragement. We’ll see a lot more of him later, so remember his introduction to us. He had land, probably in Cyprus, and he sold it. He brought all the money to the Apostles and said, here, do with this as you will. The words are “having land, sold it” which implies that he sold everything. I think that the fact that Barnabus is mentioned here is further evidence that not everyone was selling everything they had, why else introduce him here in this context? I think that Luke is making the specific point that Barnabus gave everything he had and that it was a special show of surrender in order to contrast it with our next example, Annanais and Saphira.

This is one of those stories that everyone knows. Husband and wife, sold A possession (again the contrast with all) and kept back part of the money, laying the rest at the Apostles feet. So what really happened? At first glance, Peter’s reaction seems a bit harsh, certainly it’s not something we would associate with the death penalty. To see what happened we need to look at the whole story. First look at what Peter said about the money:

Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal?" (Act 5:4a NIV)

It was his to do with as he pleased. In other words, holding back some of the money wasn’t a sin, it was his money. Later Peter asked his wife whether they had sold the land for so much indicating that it was the lie he was concerned with. What we’re dealing with here is, in a word, hypocrisy, spiritual hypocrisy. They wanted the acclaim of being like Baranabus, possibly hoping to be remembered by future generations. Well, if that was their goal, they did achieve it. We’re here talking about them now.

I think the key to understanding this whole story is a single line from Peter:

"Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart…”

The church had just suffered its first major attack in the form of arrests and threats from the Sanhedrin. The net effect was to cause the brothers and sisters to come closer together in prayer. Now we see Satan actively involved trying to destroy that unity from the inside. Why showcase this? Probably because Luke had heard Paul say in 2 Cor:

in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

(2Co 2:11 NIV)

Luke wanted Theophilus and others to learn of Satan’s schemes so that he might not outwit us.

Honestly guys, this shows up in this church, too. Not because we’re pawns of the devil, but because it’s endemic in our society and we don’t even realize that we’re doing it. I find that it usually shows itself most prominently in group prayers. Have you ever noticed that nobody ever has any problems? God is always blessing them and they just know that God is in control, but could you please pray for my aunt so-and-so, she’s having a bad week. Meanwhile, aunt so-and-so is over at her church telling everyone that she never has any problems, God is always blessing her and she knows that God is in control, but could you please pray for my niece or my nephew in Myrtle Beach, they’re just having an awful time down there.

The opposite of this attitude is equally hypocritical. These are the people who parade their sins around as some sort of Medal of Honor, hoping to gain accolades for being someone who is open and honest, when in reality they’re arrogant and prideful and hoping you won’t notice. This is characterized by someone who begins a prayer request with how sinful they are, and ends with nothing less than gossip, or worse, fishing for affirmation.

Pride disguises itself well. It can often masquerade as humility. It can show itself as shy. It is the root of needy, and it tears love apart at the seams. Worse is that our inner selves are actively trying to prevent honest examination of their reality:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

(Jer 17:9 NIV)

So if we can’t trust our hearts, and hypocrisy is a capital offense, then what do we do?

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

(1Co 6:19-20 NIV)

We start there. We are not our own. Jesus paid for us with His blood, we are His possessions. When you start from that position, the heart can lie to you all it wants, pride can don any mask it feels would be most effective. When we put our faith into thought, then we see that we have no rights, we have no ground for being self-possessed. We will then start to see things the Bible’s way and “esteem others more highly than ourselves.” But remember, we’re talking about hearts and minds here. The sharing of possessions was only a by-product of that first verse.

So let’s go back to the question. Can you name three emotions of the person sitting across from you? If not then there are two sins in this. First is their sin of letting their pride prevent them from being vulnerable. Second is our sin of not actively getting involved in their real life, the one they actually live, not the Christian Fantasy World™ they created for you.

This process takes time, and that is our number one excuse for not being obedient to God’s word. We don’t have the time. And in reality we don’t, but whose fault is that. We are constantly fighting the temptation to over-schedule. This is something that our culture just does, and no-one even thinks twice about it. Do any of us even have space left in our day planners to just be available to any of our fellow Southstranders outside of the context of scheduled fellowships? Do any of us have room for the flexibility required to take a younger brother or sister under our wing and teach him what walking as a Christian on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday looks like? Remember, that our time is not our own, it, too, was bought with a price.

On the other side of the coin, are any of us willing to lay aside our pride and admit that we’re drowning? There’s not shame in that, though the devil has lied and told us that there is. Christianity is hard. We are not a social club, we’re an army that’s at war. What’s worse, we fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, demons of Hell. It’s no shame to admit that we’re not doing well, because we’re not. Can you consider even your own struggles as not belonging to you, as having been bought with a price?

Tonight I want to end somewhat differently. I want to bring back prayer time, but this time, I want a few restrictions put in place. First off, I would suggest that this church needs prayer worse than any other entity in the world. People may be fighting cancer, political battles, or even fierce mother-in-laws, but this church is battling Satan and all of the arrayed forces of Hell. Because we are a bible believing and gospel preaching church, we are a target. When you look through the history of Southstrand, you can see we’ve been a fairly large target and haven’t really faired well. This church needs prayer, and I don’t know if it’s getting it. It certainly isn’t getting it in any group context. We are going to change that tonight.

Tonight’s prayers are about Southstrand, about us. Tonight I want us to pray for this church, for its preaching, and for the members to be equipped for the ministry. Since hypocrisy is something that is just taught to us as children, I’m going to help by pointing it out when I see it. You know your own hearts, not I and I don’t mean any offense… This is just something that we have got to get under control here, or we are never going to be effective.

The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is

" 'the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

" 'Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the Lord

and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

(Act 4:5-31 NIV)

Last week we left off with Peter and John being arrested by the Priest, the Captain of the Temple and some Sadducees. It was late, so they threw them in jail overnight to deal with them the next day. We also learned that the church had grown to about 5000 members in the greater Judea area. I had said last week that I didn’t think that the events described in the healing of the lame man were unique except for the fact that this time they got arrested for it. The more I study this book, the more I see that it is really a masterpiece of historical work. It’s pretty obvious that the events outlined are not exhaustive, but were selected in order to present the greater story of what happened. What a treat this must have been to Theophilus when he received that first copy, and what a gift the Holy Spirit has given us. It seems that Luke had chosen this event to detail because it was a turning point for the early church. So let’s continue to follow the train of his thoughts and get right back into our story.

The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem [all those that were entrusted with the spiritual leadership of the Jews]. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. (Act 4:5-6 NIV)

This is quite an entourage. It’s interesting to note that Annas was not the high priest. Annas was the high priest, but Pilot’s predecessor had removed him from office. His son-in-law, Caiaphas now held the office and had for years. Yet this is not the only place we find Annas at work. When Jesus was arrested he was brought to Annas’ house to be tried. Of course that trial was non-binding, partially because it was illegal to try people in private like that, but mostly because Annas wasn’t recognized by the Roman government as having any official power. Most likely, that just a ploy to give the Sanhedrin time to convene, so they could they could make it official. In fact, when you look through the gospel accounts of Jesus’ last day, you see that He had three trials. 1 which was held illegally, 1 in which insufficient evidence was presented against Him for a conviction and in which He was forced to incriminate himself on another charge, which was also illegal by both Roman and Hebrew law, and 1 in which He was declared innocent. Throughout His last day, you see the same cast of characters appearing, namely, the rulers, elders, scribes, priests, captains of the temple, Annas and Caiaphas. Peter and John have been hauled in front of that same group. For their boldness in the Temple the day before, they have found themselves in front of, no less than the Sanhedrin itself, fully convened, with Annas still in charge. Then they were asked a really profound question,

"By what power or what name did you do this?" (Act 4:7b NIV)

Having seen Peter and John’s leader in a similar position not too long ago, you gotta wonder what was going through the Council’s mind. I’m sure they had thought they had seen the last of that man, and yet here was His disciples.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is

" 'the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

(Act 4:8-12 NIV)

Does this give us an idea of how important God thinks preaching is? 4 Chapters, 4 sermons. It just seems like every time someone gets filled with the Holy Spirit, they proclaim the greatness of God and His Son Jesus. But that’s another lesson, right now we’re focusing on the actions of our spiritual ancestors.

        Peter has preached to a crowd of people who may or may not have been involved with Jesus’ death, then to a crowd that would, most likely, have been shouting “Crucify Him,” and now we see that he had an opportunity to preach to the people who arrested, tried and sentenced Jesus to death. I’m reminded of this line from the movie Luther. I can’t figure out if this was really said by him, but when the converted princes were to be brought before the emperor, they were scared and he had this to say. 

“The Emperor invites us to present our creeds, to present what we believe in. Satan invites us to preach in hell. Is that a trap? Or our greatest opportunity so far?”

Do you see a change in these two men? I honestly thought I did at first. It seemed like the tone was more respectful and laid back, but read that again… if we are to be judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, simply because of the means? They started with “Rulers and Elders of the People” so he wasn’t being completely irreverent, so let’s assume that his tone is pretty even and respectful, but in the end, he hasn’t changed his message one bit. It’s the same sermon he’s preached now 3 times. Men of Israel, the Jesus you crucified, God has raised from the dead, even to the men who killed Him and could do the same to them. To this crowd, they even make sure to state in no uncertain terms,

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Act 4:12 NIV)

This said to men who would have had enough training and education to understand the full impact of what that meant.

And as we can see, the Sanhedrin was impressed. They knew these guys were just fishermen from Galilee. They also knew they had been with Jesus. Let me say a little bit about that. There is this radio preacher that I love named Dr. J. Vernon McGee. He does a radio program called Thru the Bible in which he preaches on every verse in the bible, in order. The program takes 5 years to complete and it was the last work that Dr. McGee did while he was dying of cancer. The man sounds like a hill-billy. His speech is slow and drawling, full of country colloquialisms… but that man had been with Jesus. His radio show is now broadcasting in over 200 nations, and in over 100 different languages, and he went to be with our Lord 20 years ago. Now, he was PhD. These men had no education and no formal training, but they had been with Jesus, and so have we if we have trusted in Him. That makes all the difference in the world. When Moses told God that he was bad a public speaking, God replied:

…"Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? (Exo 4:11 NIV)

Also Jesus Himself had told them:

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, (Mat 10:19 NIV)

If the creator of the apparatus of speech has truly come to live within us, we need not be afraid of speaking. We need not worry what we’re going to tell our persecutors, because the creator of words has promised to give us some.

Plus the Council saw that the lame man at the east gate, who they had passed by every day, was standing next to them. There’s a t-shirt “The power of Jesus healed me, and that got me thrown in jail and tried before the Supreme Court.” But still, he was standing there, completely healed, and it says that they couldn’t say anything against it.

I love this next scene. They send the three out so they can talk about them.

"What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. (Act 4:16 NIV)

They cannot deny it. They recognized it was a real miracle and that it was, literally, a “remarkable sign.” These are the same people who were always asking Jesus for a sign, do you see now why Jesus said no? Such is the heart of man. They recognize that something amazing has been done, and their response is:

But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name." Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. (Act 4:17-18 NIV)

Carrie and I saw this movie called “China Cry.” It’s about a woman who became a convert after the Cultural Revolution. They had her in prison and her captor was saying that soon they would have all of the Christians in custody and they would remove them and their God from their country. Her response has stuck with me. She said “You may as well try to imprison the wind.” This council had come to the conclusion that if it got out that the power of Jesus could heal people lame from birth; people might believe that Jesus still had power. Since they had clearly killed Jesus, they had to prevent the spread of this information.

I just want to say, I’m sure that they meant well. They were trying to preserve their own political power, and all that, but I’m sure in their heads they were preserving Judaism as well. I’ve heard these guys on the radio. They know that Jesus fulfilled the Law and broke us free from its power, but they LOVE the Law. They love their tradition, and bless them for it… too many people have left their past too far behind them. But, these men loved the Law and their traditions, and their power, more than they loved God, no matter what else they said. In the end, they rejected all of Jesus’ miracles, and His disciples’ as well, and tried to control the spread of both.

When commanded not to speak the name of Jesus anymore, Peter and John give us a response that has stayed with the persecuted church now for nearly 2000 years.

But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

(Act 4:19-20 NIV)

Notice how respectful of their authority this is. These men had been appointed by various means, but ultimately by the hand of God to rule and judge the people of Judea. The Apostle’s response to them is to ask them to do their duty. They insist that they are from God and they are following His commands. They say that they are driven by that goal of speaking what they had seen and heard. They weren’t going to stop. In fact they insisted that they could not stop, and they left it up to the council to decide who it was that God felt they should listen to. Their actions at the Council really reveal their heart. They followed God, not men. This Council’s job was to judge people, and so they let them judge, but they put their trust in God and let Him decide what their fate was to be. And really, this left the Council without too many options, let them go knowing that they weren’t going to stop, or take more direct action. In the end, they knew they couldn’t punish them because the people were all glorifying God. A man lame for over 40 years had been healed, and everybody saw it and had attributed it to The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If they had imprisoned them, everyone would have known why and that would have made them look bad. So, in the end, they threatened them more and let them go.

So far in this book we have been looking almost exclusively at the actions of the Apostles. I suppose that’s OK, because the book is fully titled, “The Acts of the Apostles.” There are sections where we see what the Church is doing in and around these “acts”, and this section is one of them. We see from this next part that when the Apostles were released from jail, they went to their Church, their companions.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. (Act 4:23 NIV)

Let’s remember that we’re dealing with men, not some mystical idol we have set up in Peter and John’s place. Even the best of men are, at best, men. When your blood is going and the adrenalin kicks in, courage, while not easy… is at least appropriate. When the blood cools off, and the reality of who’s in charge and what just transpired sets in, well that’s when real courage is needed. My wife says “I know I could die for Jesus, it’s living for Him that’s hard.” These men went back to their friends, their spiritual family. They told them everything that happened. I can speak from experience, that the response of those people you’ve entrusted your heart to makes all the difference in how you move forward. This is how God’s first church responded:

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

" 'Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the Lord

and against his Anointed One.^[3]'^[4] Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people^[5] of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Act 4:24-30 NIV)

God, you have created everything. I get to make programs occasionally, Mike makes additions on houses. I’ve met people who’ve put together cars, even puzzle masters who put together insanely hard jigsaws. God made atoms, and then put them all together to form the Universe. You’re breathing the air that He made right now. God told His servant David, and a whole host of others, that the nations would stand against the Anointed One, the Messiah. Herod did. So did Pilot and the people under him. Ditto the Israelites. None of this was out of His control. All of this was planned out before time began. What was happening to the Apostles and the Church at that time, was also planned out. They prayed all of that back to God, and then they asked Him to take a part in their lives. That He would give them boldness to speak. That He would intercede with signs and miracles, and that it would all be done in the name of Jesus.

What a response from the people of God. Imagine having that support crew around you. People who trust that God is big enough to take care of His own problems, and that He’s loving enough to take care of ours. People willing to pray with you and for you that God’s work would be done in your life. And we see by this prayer that God was pleased, for the place shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then, they spoke the word of God with boldness.

You know, there are actions that are required of us. Things that Jesus has commanded that we do, that the Bible teaches will be required of us, actions that will need to be accomplished if spiritual growth is going to happen in our lives. There are things that we are supposed to be doing as a church, together to support one another, for the work of the Gospel and of Christ. On a car, the wheels need to rotate properly or the car doesn’t move correctly. Brake pads need to grip, calipers need to squeeze in order for the car to stop. Light bulbs need to resist the flow of electricity in order to shine. The question is not whether or not there is anything required of the parts of car in order to function, the question is where does the power to accomplish those things come from? Well we all know that the answer is the engine, and that without an engine, a car is a hunk of steel that only has value when melted down or stripped of parts that work to be used in other cars with engines.

We have jobs to do, too. We are to pray, witness, serve. We have lessons to teach, lives to touch, disciples to be made. We are to encourage each other, meet together and to worship and praise the Lord. We are to grow in Christ and in holiness and to wait with patient hope for the Day of Lord. We have work and its hard work. It would be hard enough if we weren’t fighting against our own hearts and its selfish desires, but we find that, constantly we are our own worst enemies. But that’s not all. We fight against an external enemy who wants to stop it all, not just our part of it. He used political and spiritual forces then, he uses them now. The tactics are the same, because they’re good tactics, they work. Attack the pride, the greed, the idolatrous nature within us. Work along with our deceitful hearts to turn zeal for God away from God’s word and towards unbiblical ends or means. He doesn’t mind taking his time, and he has no problem being subtle. Its hard and dangerous work that is required of us. Where in all the earth are we going to find the kind of power needed to accomplish this. Nowhere, if we look to the earth or to ourselves. For it is out of heaven that God stretches out His hand. It is the unbeliever who trusts in his own strength, and it is a trap that those of us who believe would do well to avoid. To the unbeliever, we say what Peter and John have said, there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, for there is no power on earth that can truly change a heart and turn it to God. Jesus has said that those who believe in Him would receive eternal life and that He would be with them to the end of the age.

Let us focus on Jesus and the message He entrusted to us. Let us look to the Father to accomplish His will and rule over our lives. Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit and let Him be the power that moves us.

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phi 1:6 NIV)

Let us pray: