The Persecution Begins

We continue our journey through the book of Acts. You all are a blessing to us and to one another, and may we never take each other for granted. David and Kathy were here first service and met most of you probably coming in second service and as you know they're moving to Dallas where they will winter and actually

City and he just started weeping and he said the hardest thing is is leaving the fellowship you know even the brothers and sisters in Christ because you know we've actually grown up in the Lord here and don't ever take each other for granted don't ever forget the blessing of the fellowship of the body of Christ this is more than just a meeting it's more than just a service it's it's the family getting together and seeing each other and hugging on each other and holding each other up and I think the closer we get to the Lord's coming things are gonna get more intense we'll see it happen more and so you got a head start you know how it's supposed to work so just keep it up and that God's doing some mighty

things through you we come to Acts chapter 4 and we're gonna look at the first 14 verses this morning in this area of the beginning of persecution for the church the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people and they were greatly disturbed because the Apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead they seized Peter and John and because it was evening they put them in jail until the next day the many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about 5,000 the next day the rulers elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem and Annas the high priest

was there and so were Caiaphas John Alexander and the other men of the high priest family they had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them by what power or what name did you do this and 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

took note that these men had been with Jesus since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them there was nothing they could say at the conference that we just went to one of the pastors that spoke was John Corson who's a pastor at Calvary Chapel in Applegate Oregon and one of the messages that he shared with us dealt with God's grace and what an appropriate song Cinda had this morning and about how God's grace

car crumpled crashed into the gate of the cemetery where both his wife and other daughter were buried and his heart just sank and he said that as he came up on the scene around from the other side of the car came his son and daughter and they were okay they were unscratched God had miraculously saved them in the midst of that wreck but as they talked as they visited later his his kids told him that it it wasn't so much that they saw the Lord and his teaching and his pastoring abilities that the Calvary there's about six or eight thousand people and it's just awesome the ministry that goes on there and he is a marvelous teacher he's a tremendous pulpiteer an excellent communicator they said it's at times like

these when the pressure is really on when you just seem to be going through the rough times that we really see the love of God and the grace of God pour out through your life and then he shared about Jacob being touched where God touched his hip after he wrestled with the Lord and from that point on in his life Jacob had to lean on the Lord and that's

to the people and they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead and they seized Peter and John and because it was evening they put them in jail until the next day but many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about five thousand the priests the captain of the guard and the Sadducees came now again whenever God's specific in his word he wants you to ponder why and ponder the who that are there he's mentioned three different

not supposed to be teaching and preaching here so they were upset about the protocol this isn't politically correct said in the way you do it they were upset about the manner of things the captain of the temple guard was himself probably a priest you remember if you go back in the Old Testament the the temple guard or the the guards around the temple were simply Levites who were appointed positions at the different gates at the different entrances to the area surrounding the tabernacle and then the very East Gate itself the only entrance into the main court were other guards and as you go through the Old Testament as they stationed different guards around the temple those were temple guards those were

the temple army and they were probably Levites themselves but they had armor and they had weapons and so the captain of the temple guard is there and he's there to enforce the rules you know no riffraff speaking this isn't the way it's done according to the priests and so we're gonna have to draw some lines here because this isn't the way that God operates much like today God speaks to his church in different ways and especially in the Calvary Chapel movement it's not just the way that tradition has it just not traditionally done that you just you know the people praising God dress the way that we dress and looking the way that we look it doesn't fit protocol we don't have a rigid liturgy we have this

music that it's different kind of music it's not organ and stuff and it just doesn't fit the protocol and people get upset they don't see how God could really be active and alive in that kind of a situation because it's not it's not politically correct it just doesn't fit the standard and there are people ready to enforce it I've had several people tell me that they've gone to fellowship at different churches and they've gone casual they've been out on vacation or whatever and they've gone to different churches and they casually walk as they walk in the door and they've had ushers just come and swoop on them and just kind of say can I help you you know like what do you want well we came to worship God oh you

know okay and they just kind of eyeball them as they come in because you just don't fit the protocol it's just not politically correct you don't worship God that way the Sadducees on the other hand the Sadducees were politically correct and they were culturally correct they were part of the ruling leadership in Israel that was a part of the spiritual ruling leadership and the Sadducees were more involved and interested in the culture the cultural aspect of their religion or their faith they had embraced the traditions of the Greeks they spoke Greek they liked the influence of Greek philosophy they understood the Greek thinkers they were very much in the in the idea of the understanding of the intelligence was where it was the key

to life the more we know the more we understand the more we are able to answer the questions of life and so theirs was a seeking of more and more understanding through just the natural learning processes like the Greek philosophers did when Rome came into power rather than seeing a real division between the Romans and the Jews the Sadducees sought to build a bridge with the Romans through this area of education and knowledge and to develop the culture and if we get to know you we can be friends you know so we won't have anything that's divisive between us we'll just see that you know we're both intelligent groups of people and really our foundation is we're one as the brotherhood of man and they didn't

like the Romans but they thought they'd keep the peace that way so they they did not hold to the supernatural because the supernatural was divisive you go talking about you know angelic realm and and resurrection and and all of that stuff that you're talking accountability you're talking a creator and all that and that's just that can be divisive between the cultures you're narrow-minded and and you're accused of being egotistical so we'll put those things aside we're religious people but we're really out for the brother brotherhood of one another and you see that today you see this sad you see an emphasis today where we want to bring everybody together in the name of God but we won't mention his name

so we will use our facility we'll open our facility up and we'll have seminars that are relevant to the community and relevant to our culture and and that will seek to help

shove it and we don't want to do that we don't want to be afraid of the word of God we don't want to be afraid of sharing Jesus with other people there needs to be a boldness where that's concerned and yet with the humility that doesn't have this arrogant piety that says I'm you know I'm right you're wrong and that's what the disciples had was this boldness yet with the humility of reverence and we'll see that in just a minute but anytime you seek to proclaim the word of God you're going to get yourself into trouble they were proclaiming

from the dead and hundreds of people having seen him now Pentecost has happened the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the believers and so this is still fresh in the people's minds and so they were proclaiming the resurrection of the dead in the fact of Jesus resurrection that Jesus has been raised from the dead they also would have included the fact of the resurrection of believers which the Sadducees didn't believe in that the resurrection was soon coming for believers remember when Jesus died on the cross as you read in Matthew's gospel that it says that there was a great earthquake and the tombs of those that had died many that had died were opened and when Jesus after Jesus was raised from the dead they came out of their tombs and went into

the town and were seen by many so many had already seen these people or heard about these instances that had happened and now Peter's saying not only did Jesus raise from the dead but there is a resurrection coming for believers those who believe in the Lord are going to be raised to life but then they would have also been talking about the resurrection of the unsaved those who didn't believe John tells us in the revelation that there are two different resurrections there's the first resurrection and he says do your diligence make every effort to make sure that you take part in the first resurrection the first resurrection comes in different stages when Jesus

comes again in first Thessalonians 4 we're told that he's coming at that time in the air there will be the trumpet and the voice of the archangel the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first there'll be a resurrection the bodies of those who have died as believers and gone to be with the Lord the bodies of those will come together whether they've been cremated or chewed up in machines or eaten and swallowed in different varieties of fish or plant food or whatever God's going to bring those together raise them from the graves and reunite them with their spirit and then we which are alive and remain when that happens are going to be caught up together

with them to meet the Lord in the air so shall we ever be with the Lord in Revelation we read and it corresponds with Zechariah that at the second coming Jesus is literally going to come to the earth and his foot's going to touch the Mount of Olives it's going to split in two he will literally come to the earth and then as he puts an end to the to the battle of Armageddon he will set up his throne in the valley of Jehoshaphat and bring the nations of the world together that those that are still alive to judge them following that judgment and the establishing of the millennial kingdom there will be the resurrection the raising of the martyrs who have died those who have come

to believe in the Lord after the rapture of the church and have had to die for their faith during that seven-year tribulation period their bodies will be raised to life and glorified along with as the church that has already been raised and will participate together in the thousand-year kingdom called the millennial reign of Christ now that's the first resurrection and to take part in that resurrection it only requires one thing faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior that you believe in him now following that thousand-year reign that millennial kingdom reign there's going to be the resurrection of the unjust and the only thing that they have looked forward

to is a great white throne at which place they'll be sentenced to the lake of fire no defense no pleading with God just you're not in the book you're out of here so there's two resurrections so they I think they would have been talking about that they've they've already in chapter three we saw where they were talking about the fact that they killed the author of life but God raised him from the dead Peter's going to tell the leaders of the church that here in chapter four he's speaking of the resurrection and that encompasses all of those things now you talk about the resurrection if you talk about the word of God sooner or later you're going to get into

trouble you even talk about creation now and you're starting to see people get into more trouble as you expound your belief in a in a creator who spontaneously created everything that there is when if you go back and read the history of how evolution was brought on the scene through the scopes trial and all and how when that was first mentioned as a theory it was seen by the church as an abomination but the Sadducees saw it as a philosophical idea which was culturally plausible and so therefore we can we can coexist with that as a theory and then down through the last several decades it's been transformed where no longer is evolution just a plausible theory it's accepted

it's in all the textbooks in school not as a theory but as a fact this is how we evolve everything you go to see in a museum now is so many millions of years old or it was it came to be down a certain line of evolution and the evolutionary stage is is accepted as fact and creation is now scoffed at as simply not only an unbelievable theory but a cause for division it's a cause for division now as you hold to the truth of the word of God in the in those areas the resurrection because when you when you talk about the resurrection it encompasses also the rapture of the church and I believe that part of that message that Peter was giving and we'll see that he talked

for a long time dealt with the fact that Jesus when he rose said that he was coming again and they expected him to come at any time and I believe the early church believed in the imminent coming of Christ and so there was an anticipation that Jesus was going to come soon and remove his church um people say that if you're if you're pre-tribulational in your rapture philosophy you tend to become escapist and I don't disagree that I want to get out of here I mean I'm ready to go but I disagree with the idea that it causes you to become escapist to the point that you remove yourself it does just the opposite in my life it spurs me on to a to a bolder witness I mean I

realize the time is short and I don't want anybody to be left behind and I find that my testimony is more uh it comes more quickly and and in a bolder light when I'm anticipating the Lord's coming at any minute rather than having an escapist idea but if you talk about these things today you're going to find yourself getting into trouble you can't um you can't share about the Lord as teachers in school unless you're asked uh in the workplace more and more you are warned against sharing your faith um you are being schooled you're having to go to different schools to be schooled on diversity and multiculturalism uh because they are now placing the what the bible calls aberrations with

homosexuality now it's simply a different lifestyle it's acceptable and so you have to be schooled on how to accept that particular lifestyle so you go into diversity training and they're seeking to move that said you see an idea upon mentality that we'll get along together as we understand one another and put aside our differences put aside the things that that seemingly divide us i.e. number the one number one thing is your religious faith so put that aside and so you're going to find this more and more often that on your job you're going to be more and more restricted from sharing your faith from these areas of proclamation of the word of God and if you do

that it's going to eventually cost you your job when you go to get a job if you if it's known that you're a christian this way that's vocal that proclaims the word of God you will chances are you will not get hired because you are a source of division of potential division because you love the Lord and that means you look at certain things as sin and you don't tolerate those things and that causes division within our corporation we can't have that within our corporation so more and more you're going to see that happen the closer we get to the Lord's coming so anticipate it now Peter and John were proclaiming the word they were proclaiming the resurrection and and the group of people was responding they had come for prayer as well they see this

lame man healed and they're they're listening now to Peter's uh presenting of the gospel and and talking about the resurrection and they're responding and if you some of you can relate to this if you remember the 60s you were getting excited about this utopia that they were proclaiming and and the authorities didn't like that the authorities you know were you were looking freaky and different and you didn't fit the protocol and so they're gathered around this disturbance to eventually haul people to jail and this is the same type of thing that was happening here these disciples are talking about this radical thing that's happened in Jesus and and the people are responding to that and the authorities don't like it because it's a it's

offending it's going against the protocol that they that they had established and and had set up and uh if you look at verse three you see that that uh they the disciples were teaching and the and they come and they seize Peter and John because it was evening and they put him in jail until the next day when they came to the temple remember it was about the ninth hour about three o'clock in the afternoon now it's evening which is about six o'clock it's dusk darkness is falling which is about six o'clock so they've been proclaiming and teaching for about three hours and now they come and and the uh the overseers here put them in jail they decide they don't want to cause a scene and

it's it's really against their law to uh to have any kind of court at night i mean they evidently took some flack for doing that with Jesus so they want to put him in jail until uh the next day and then they'll they'll hear what they have to say let me ask you a question have you determined in your own heart what you're willing to go to jail for have you determined in your own heart where your faith is concerned what you're willing to suffer for the sake of the gospel for the sake of the word of God all willing to die for Christ we say like Peter did until it comes down to dark and you're standing in the courtyard outside the place where they're talking to Jesus and you get

accused of being one of them and no no no no no don't want to upset my lifestyle now wait a minute have you come to the point in your own heart where you where you know where that line is where you won't cross it anymore not arrogantly not defiantly not like that not like the 60s they're boldly and yet humbly before the Lord but this is where I will not compromise my faith this is where I will not compromise the word of God have you have you come to that understanding have you determined in your heart what you're willing to go to jail for because that's coming and you need to get ready for it have you determined in your heart what you're not going to sacrifice where

God's word is concerned just to maintain the status quo are you holding a loose enough grip on the things of this world so that you realize that it belongs to the Lord God's in control God can take care of these things I don't know if you've thought about it or not but you look here at the end of chapter 3 where the lame man is hanging on to Peter and John and you look down in chapter 4 down in verse 14 and it says they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them there was nothing they could say he's he's apparently with them this whole time he was so he realized there you know it was it was faith in the in Jesus that they were proclaiming that gave him the ability to be healed and he didn't want to leave him so he's

hanging on to him did you ever think about the fact that it's very probable he went to jail with Peter and John because he wouldn't let him go I mean he shows up with him the next day before the court so it's I like to think it's very probable that he ended up going to jail just by association with the Lord that's coming anticipated and in your own heart come to that point where you realize that this is the Word of God I will stand on the Word of God even if it costs me my life it won't cost you your life first probably it'll just cost you some friendships it'll cost you some position in your job it'll cost you a few things first but come to the point of realizing what you're willing to sacrifice but now notice the effect of God's

Word look at verse 4 but many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about five thousand now the text is unclear you may be reading a translation that says and there are about 5,000 that were saved or 5,000 that believed or the number of men grew to about 5,000 I'm not sure whether there were 5,000 that actually believed as a result of this or the number of people that believed here as a result of Peter Peter's testimony added to the 3,000 that got saved to Pentecost now brings us to a total of 5,000 it's unclear it's a lot of people it's so many people that at least it's there were 5,000 men is what it says so if it's anything like the feeding of the 5,000 in the gospels that was 5,000 men you had women and

children there's anywhere from 12 to 16,000 people probably now either that just got saved in the temple or their numbers have grown to that amount in any case a lot of people got saved and in any case the Word of God did its work and that's the key you don't have to worry as a Christian about your eloquence and sharing your faith you don't have to worry as a Christian about making sure you got all the you know all the details right and you want to know the Lord you want to know His Word and God will take care of the rest as you're seeking Him He takes care of the rest all you got to do is just be in that relationship with Him and He will guide He'll take care of it

it's His Word that He honors and all He's called you and I to do is proclaim it and He'll take care of the rest God's Spirit will take God's Word and accomplish God's work we don't it doesn't about us okay one of the one of the other teachings at the conference I think it was John as well talked about the fact that Jesus made the statement that John the Baptist was the greatest of all the prophets that ever lived John the Baptist was the greatest and John did no miracles John didn't do any miracles all John did was proclaim the coming of the Lord he made the path straight by proclaiming God's Word that the Messiah was coming and that's all we're called to do and too often I think as Christians we feel like we've got to carry the weight for everybody

else you know we got the burden I'm a Christian I've got the burden of of this person and that person this person I feel like I've got to carry them and make sure that they see the light and I and I've got to do if you're in a ministry you've got that burden of that ministry and and it's you know I've got to make sure all of this functions and there's I'm not saying you don't have a concern for the logistics of everything of how everything functions but the responsibility belongs to God and John mentioned in this when the when the Pharisees and all came to John the Baptist and they said virtually the same thing unto unto what are you baptizing uh you know why

are you doing what you're doing the one of the first things that John the Baptist said is I am not the Christ I am not the Christ and John said that he says that to himself regularly I am not the Christ no I am not he's the Christ I am simply a mouthpiece I am simply a voice it's his responsibility he calls us to pray he calls us to be light and salt but the harvest is his responsibility see so often we we feel like well I've got family members that aren't saved and it's such a you know it's so overwhelming to me that they're not saved and and how they're going to be saved and we worry about the hows and what's God going to do that we don't even pray for them and

all he's called us to do is pray and be light and salt just to live it out before them it's his responsibility I am not the Christ I am not your salvation as a pastor it's it's real easy to get to the feeling where you feel like you know you all are my responsibility and I and I you some of you start going through these trials I take it upon myself personally to feel like I've got to fix it you know I've got that kind of personality something's wrong I fix it something's wrong in the family you know and says you know there's this problem and I well okay how can I fix it and she said I want you to fix it I just want you to know about it and just be aware of it don't try to fix

it that's my personality just to try and fix it and one of the this has really been freeing for me this week is I am not the Christ you know now I can't do it but he can and I'm just to be that mouthpiece that just shares shares his word and and that I can love love you with the grace that he gives me to love you and hopefully you'll see that love and that grace and you'll cling to him you'll hang on to him um and that's that's God's word God's word has that effect all he all he asks us to do is to share it and his spirit using his word will accomplish his work it's amazing the way God works through a lot of us who you just look at and that's you know God's moving in a

whole lot of different areas other than Calvary Chapel but when you go to the Calvary Chapel conferences and you see the people that he's using you see all of us together and you go wow there is a God you know because none of us could do this I'll tell you it's just amazing they proclaim the word of God secondly they trusted in God's word they trusted in God's word and as they trusted in God's word listen they were not afraid of men they were not afraid of men when Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet of God and I don't know how that happens you know I don't know how they did that it appears that that God spoke audibly to Jeremiah and and audibly told him he wanted him to be his prophet and Jeremiah said probably the same thing you'd

say if you were about 17 years old I'm too young I can't do it I'm afraid I'm afraid of the people and God said to Jeremiah don't look at their faces you just look at me you just look at my face and you just say what I tell you to say and I'll take care of it because if you look at their faces and I'm going to give you over to them if you're scared of them I'm going to hand you over to them and you're going to be destroyed but you look at me you keep your eyes on me and I'll bring you through it and Jeremiah trusted in the word of God and proclaimed you read through Jeremiah and all the things he had to do with the with his robe and all that stuff the different things that

he was a living example a living illustration of what God was going to do to Israel and it's really awesome and he just kept his face he kept his face on the Lord and and that's what God calls us to do to to trust his word and not be afraid of what man can do to us I know you've all been in that position where you have been in a place where you feel intimidated by other people maybe it's your job maybe you wherever you work there are times when the boss calls you into the office and you're going to discuss your raise and he don't want to give you one and you know management is taught there there was a whole concept that was taught fairly recently called management winning by intimidation and you learn all the different ways to dominate a particular

situation to dominate a conversation you learn how to dress for success you learn what particular colors are are demanding dominating type of colors and so you wear those things you learn how to they teach you how to present yourself how you walk in and how you shake a hand in such a way that there's just this air of you're in control they teach you how to set up offices if you're a manager so that the desk is a certain size it's an ominous size so you walk in and you see this humongous desk and it screams authority and power and they seat you in these chairs that are either on the other side of the room you know or you're up there and they're lower than the boss's chair

so you're sitting low so you're looking up and it just sets an air of intimidation and it's real easy to become intimidated maybe you've had to do a presentation at school and you have to get up in front of the class and not only is your teacher there but the principal walks in and sits down to listen to you I know when I was in school and I played in the band and it was I always loved the musicals that we did because they were fun to do they were fun to rehearse for and fun to put on and I enjoyed it when my folks came because I you know I felt like well I want them to see how well I do and then but then I'd say well you know your aunts and uncles and your cousins are all coming

and I'd go just kind of freeze up you know you didn't want to make any mistakes in front of them people are intimidating it's easy to be intimidated by others satan understands that and so he seeks to intimidate you and me in our proclamation of the gospel through people he wants to intimidate you and keep you afraid so that you just are afraid to share about the lord because you're afraid of what people might think or what they might do to you and so here we have court the next morning verses five through seven winning by intimidation and the next day the ruling elders the rulers and the elders and the teachers of the law met in jerusalem annis the high priest was

there and so was kaiaphus and john and alexander and the other men of the high priest family they had peter and john brought before them and they began to question them by what power or by what name do you do this now again here's names mentioned annis is the official high priest he was the one who was the successor in in the priestly line to be the high priest his son had been briefly appointed for about three years that's jonathan that's john that's there kaiaphus was kind of the political again the politically correct priest he was more the liaison between rome and and the uh the the jews and so he was appointed by the romans but the real authority was the real power in the eyes of the people was behind annis and so you go back and remember when

jesus was arrested they took him first to annis annis's house and then to kaiaphus's house so there was these are the these are the political bigwigs alexander here is probably one of the leading sadducees so you got all the higher up muckety mucks you got all the rulers elders and teachers of the law this is the sanhedrin with the pharisees and the sadducees and the attorneys all the attorneys are there hoba and they're all in their garb they're all in that garb that says authority you know intimidation and they asked peter and john this question by what power or in what name did you do this now one commentator that i read said that this is probably one of the

attorneys one of the lawyers that was asking the question seeking to trap peter and john it is a similar question that they put to jesus uh and they asked jesus by what authority or what power are you doing this are you healing and he said well let me ask you a question first you answer mine i'll answer yours john the baptist was his authority was his baptism from god or from men and they huddled together and they said if we say it's from god he'll say well why didn't you listen to him then if we say it's from men then the people will stone us because they think he's from god so they turned back to jesus and they said we don't know and jesus said well i'm not gonna tell

you then what power or my authority comes from either and so they asked peter and john the same question by by what power or in what name what authority do you do this now in deuteronomy in the law in deuteronomy uh 18 verses 19 through 22 it was in the law and every jew knew this that you could not speak or act you were prohibited from speaking or acting in any other name other than yahweh other than jehovah other than the lord and to invoke any other name or any other power was punishable by death as a violation of the law and it was punishable by death so they were seeking to entrap them to where they could point out well these guys are occultic they're

they're you know into idol worship and we've got we can stone them but verse 8 says then peter filled with the holy spirit said to them in the original language this phrase suggests that peter was freshly filled with the spirit peter had a fresh filling of the holy spirit now how did that happen well remember back in chapter 2 they devoted themselves to prayer they devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine they were in that constant communion with the lord just a constant communion you want a filling of the holy spirit it's not some magical thing you don't have to sit and chant fill me holy spirit fill me holy spirit fill me holy spirit you spend in time with the lord and

it's fresh it's new as peter and john came into the temple courts that day god's spirit spoke they reached out and god healed this lame man they began to speak now i don't know if you if you have never taken a speech class and one of the first things you have to do is put together a two minute speech now if you've never stood up before people two minutes is two days and to come up with things that you have to say for two minutes is a killer well you get to the end of the class and you have to give a speech either a demonstrative or a declarative or one of the others and it has to be between five and seven minutes well you know roll over in your grave it's just public speaking

is one of the things people fear almost more than death standing up and saying something to somebody else and peter and john have been speaking for three hours i mean they're exhausted and then they're put in jail and now it's the next morning and they're before this intimidating group i mean you need this filling the holy spirit what do you suppose peter and john did all night probably you see paul and silas in jail later and they're praying and praising singing praises to the lord god promised that not to worry if you're brought in before the magistrates are in before the court i will give you the words to say said the lord and they believed him they trusted him they trusted in

the word of god they were not only speaking the word of god they trusted it and god was faithful god gives them a fresh filling of his spirit now paul tells us in ephesians 5 18 that you and i are to be being filled with the spirit of god we're to have those fresh fillings every day again it comes back to our time with him developing that wonderful wonderful relationship with him i'm not getting on you for not spending time i'm saying you're missing out on such a beautiful a beautiful fellowship a beautiful relationship and that fresh filling that comes i know you're pressed down it's those times that god wants to demonstrate his grace through you it's those times

that he wants you to lean on him but if you're not spending time with him it's at those times that you're going to try and fix it yourself that you're going to think you're the christ you've got to fix this crisis situation and you're just going to wear yourself out peter was freshly filled with the spirit and began to speak and notice he speaks with respect to them he doesn't speak arrogantly he said to them rulers and elders of the people he's acknowledging their authority he is speaking respectfully to them if we're being called to account today for the act of kindness shown to a cripple now he does use a little bit of sarcasm and are asked how he was healed then

know this you and all the people of israel it's 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 that you builders rejected which become which has become the capstone salvation is found in no one else for there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved you are the ones he says that crucify but god raised him from the dead now he's not being arrogant there he's stating a truth i mean he's more or less saying that's not true produce the body where is it they couldn't contradict it and he says this jesus god is raised from the dead and he has become the capstone you

rejected the stone but he has become the capstone now every jew knew the story of the rejected capstone when solomon david's son came to the throne his first task was to build the temple for the war david his father had secured all the necessary stuff that he needed to use for the for the building of the articles within the temple for the lining of of the uh the curtains and and the wood that would line the inside of it but for the outside structure solomon had the stone quarried in a in a stone quarry that was several miles from the temple mount and then they would move those stones in the stones were cut to specific uh dimensions and they were shaped at the quarry

so that when they got the stones to the temple mount and they and they began to move them in there would be no sound of hammer or nail just as as prophecy talks about that the temple would be built that way no sound of hammer or nail it would just reverentially put together and so the stones were quarried and sent to the to the temple site the temple took seven years to build somewhere along the lines we don't know exactly where but into the construction of the temple the quarry master sent the capstone the cornerstone some of your translations say cornerstone some of them say capstone we think of a cornerstone of a building as the at the base of the building and it's usually

hollow and they put stuff in it you know so that 75 100 years later when they tear the building down they go dig it out and go oh you know this is what it was like when they built the building and all the people that built the building it's the cornerstone it's the marker stone but the word can be translated capstone and has more the idea of the stone that would come in towards the top of the structure that would hold the structure together i am no construction person but when we built the bliss house i noticed when they put the walls up you know they carried the walls over and the walls were like this you know and they they braced them up with the tube eyes until they

got the trusses up on top once the trusses were up and secured then that baby was solid and the cornerstone or the capstone here is like that it's like that securing stone that holds the rest of the structure together it makes that structure secure well they sent the capstone to the temple site but it came and the and the construction engineer at the temple site looked at the stone and it was a different size and a different shape from the other stones and he couldn't see where it fit and so he told him to set it off to the side he figured that they must have quarried the wrong stone and sent it to him so they threw it off of the temple mount now on the south side of the

temple mount in jerusalem on the south side of the city wall is the valley that's called the valley of gehenna on the east side is the valley of the kidron valley goes right this little small valley and then you go right up the mount of olives but on the south side is the valley of gehenna and it goes quite a ways it actually weaves around and weaves into the valley of jehoshaphat and finally into the valley of megiddo where the valley armageddon is and but right there by jerusalem it's it's the valley of gehenna and you know that name the lake of fire you know be cast into gehenna and that's exactly what it was at the time at this time it was the place of the burnings it

was their dump it's where you put all the trash and set it on fire and it burned perpetually if there was a stranger in town and he died and they had no family members they'd throw him on the pile and burn him up the animals you know roadkill or whatever went on the pile at the valley of gehenna it was and it just burned so as a perpetual burning so they threw this stone off the temple mount and down into the valley of gehenna and they forgot about it until they got the structure up and the the construction engineer at the temple mount sent word to the quarry master i need the capstone it's time to tie it all together the quarry master sent back word i already sent the capstone it's already there somewhere i sent it a long time ago now again

this could have been months or years that had gone by and the builders looked and they couldn't find the capstone then somebody remembered well remember that stone that came back however long ago it was and it wouldn't fit and we didn't see where it went we threw it off the side here somewhere and they went down in the the area off the valley of gehenna and they found it down there grown over weeds had grown over it they had to dig it out and bring it back up and secured it and it became known down as a legend down through time that the very capstone the very stone that was needed to hold the whole temple together was rejected by the builders the builders didn't

recognize it and peter says here that's jesus you crucified him but god raised him from the dead and he is the capstone that the builders rejected and just to solidify it so that they weren't misunderstanding him so that there were no mistakes he says then in verse 12 and several of your translations go on uh there's no period in the new sentence it says for salvation is found in no one for there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved jesus is the capstone of salvation you go back to genesis chapter 3 and god speaks to adam and eve about the salvation that he's going to bring the redemption that he's going to bring through the one that's coming he introduces them to the understanding of what salvation is you move to

abraham abraham expound god expounds on that through abraham through your seed will he come to whom the blessing is promised salvation is coming through your seed abraham through the people the nation that i'll build from you through your seed the one is coming to moses he expounded on it even further made moses a type of the deliverer the redeemer bringing from the bondage of sin into the new life into canaan into the promise of god's redemption and he said there's one coming like unto you that the people need to listen to you come to david and david again is a type of the messiah type of that salvation to come he writes the prophecies in the psalms concerning this salvation that god's speaking about that's going to be a never-ending kingdom

isaiah talked about him coming upon whose shoulders would rest the government and of whose kingdom there would be no end you go to hebrews chapter 11 and all of those who are mentioned in the faith chapter as as men and women of faith had faith in the promises of god trusted in his word trusted in his promise where salvation was concerned at the end of chapter 11 in hebrews it says but these all died never having seen the promise they died in faith not having seen god's fulfillment of the promise but peter says get it straight and understand this there's salvation in nobody else no other name under heaven given by which you must be saved he's the capstone of

salvation in him it all comes together in him only it all holds together there isn't salvation in buddha or krishna or muhammad or the mormons or the jehovah's witnesses it's only in jesus that makes you narrow-minded but you didn't say it god did god lined it out god gave you that and he said this is it now they looked at peter and john in verse 13 and i want you to notice the observations that they had first they saw the boldness of peter and john they saw their boldness the second they realized they were unschooled that didn't mean they were stupid it just meant that they didn't go to seminary they didn't go to rabbi university they didn't get gamaliel's instruction or hillel's instruction they just were unschooled according to the jews processes

but they took note that these men had been with jesus they had the same boldness as jesus had they had the same bold proclamation of the word as jesus did they trusted in the word just as jesus had done and it says that they were astonished because here's the guy standing next to him that they'd healed how could they argue with that but it got them into trouble they had a little persecution they had to lean on the lord but the church mushroomed the church exploded god's calling you not to be the christ just to simply believe give your heart to the lord if you haven't ever done that if you haven't ever embraced jesus as your savior that's the place to start you need him he's the only way to salvation i'm not saying that the word of god

saying that i'm just repeating what it's at i'm not laying any heavy restrictive strip on you i'm just telling you this what the word of god says you need to do that if you haven't done that you need to do that you need to take part in the first resurrection then you need to believe it then you need to trust it because god has you where he has you to be his mouthpiece and you don't have to be schooled or skilled you just have to trust the lord and he'll speak through you you are