The Cost and The Courage – Acts 4 — A Christian Growth Message

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And the young minister thinks to himself, What do I do? You know, Will I tell the truth and be killed? Or will I save myself by telling a lie and to come the day of the funeral? The place is absolutely packed with all the crime leaders of the area, and he stands up and he says, Well, we’re here today to remember a man who is basically a thief, a robber, a drunkard, a womaniser and a nasty piece of work.

But compared with his brother sitting over there, he was a saint.

And I mention that to you because every now and again you just need great wisdom from God to know how to speak and to get out of a tricky situation. And that’s what we see in our chapter today in Acts chapter four. For those of you who are visiting, we’re looking at the days of the early church in the Book of Acts in the New Testament. We have seen in the book so far how Christ has departed and the Holy Spirit has arrived.

And last week we saw the Lord Jesus at work through a miracle raising a layman and those of you who are here last week you’ll remember that, uh, Peter and John two disciples had gone to the temple to pray. And there had been this man, a beggar unable to walk, and he’d called out for money. And they said, we don’t have money, but in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. And the man stood, walked and went leaping and praising God. And this was, of course, a demonstration that the Lord Jesus Christ was still alive and well and working.

And then Peter began to preach a sermon urging the people to put their faith in this King Jesus. Now, today, in our chapter, if you heard as, uh, it was read for us so well, the disciples are in hot water and they’re in hot water from the religious authorities.

And they exercise a great deal of wisdom and courage in response to the attack that they receive and they refuse to be silenced.

It is always worth noticing in the Gospels. If you’re ever reading Matthew, Mark, Luke or John that when Jesus healed someone, the reaction was often not positive you’d expect, wouldn’t you, in the face of somebody being made well, that there would be tremendous enthusiasm. But actually, the response was often one of resentment and attack.

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And that’s what we actually see here today. And if you want to follow the reading, it’s Acts Chapter four, page 1624 in your Bibles. Now, because there is a lot of talk today about Christianity being in the firing line, either being attacked in various parts of the world or silenced in other parts of the world acts. Chapter four is a very timely chapter for us to know how to respond to hostility.

But this is the big issue, and this is the one thing that I would love you to get from this chapter and that Is that the same Jesus Christ who sits on the throne of the universe, is at work to make his people stand strong. The great thing about this chapter is not so much of this happened and this happened, and this happened or of, of course, it’s history. But it’s the fact that we see in the chapter that Jesus Christ is making his people sufficient for what he’s called them to be and do.

And so if you ever find yourself saying something like this, Oh, give me strength or if you ever find yourself saying, what am I meant to do in this situation? Know from this chapter that the same Lord Jesus who is at work in his world, sending his message out through the world is at work to make us adequate, sufficient for what he’s called us to do.

And Luke, the author of this book of acts, is keen to show that Jesus Christ, who has a message for the world, a message of pardon and peace, is also going to make sure that his messengers are helped to pass that message on.

So I want to think about two things quickly with you this morning. First is God’s people under pressure. And then the second is God’s people under Providence. First of all, God’s people under pressure, Chapter four, Verse one. We saw, of course, in Chapter three that a man was healed and a message was preached. And now we see in Chapter 41 that the authorities step in, and it’s the same group that had attacked Jesus eight weeks before.

And the apostles must have said to themselves, Here we go again. Are these authorities who actually took Jesus to the Romans for execution? Going to take us now to the Romans for execution? But you’ll notice that what angers the religious authorities is the message.

They can’t say much about the miracle, but it’s the message. The man whose lame is now well, they can’t contradict that. But in Chapter four, verse two, we read, they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people proclaiming Jesus essential for resurrection. Can you imagine that?

Imagine somebody coming and saying to you, if you want to have a future beyond this world, you’re going to need to join Jesus Christ in this world. That’s what they were saying now. The sad were a group who actually didn’t believe in the resurrection, so they would have found the whole sermon annoying.

But the other groups did believe in the resurrection. They didn’t believe the resurrection had anything to do with Jesus. In fact, they had executed him just a short time before. So how could they possibly say that Jesus was the key to the future when he’d been executed?

Our friends, if you want to understand opposition to Christianity, uh, in any decade or century, please know that it’s the message that brings opposition. Uh, the media is very happy if the church does charity work or says something of a vague feel good kind.

But if the church gives the suggestion that people need to be saved through Jesus and changed through Jesus, there is often violent opposition.

And it was so when Jesus was teaching, Jesus would often be somewhere teaching, perhaps in the temple. And as he was teaching, somebody would come in with a crazy yelling reaction.

And so it is with the apostles here as they speak for Christ. It’s then that they’re gonna be put in jail or on the mission field. It’s often the faithful servant male or female who speaks of Christ, who gets into trouble and is strangely removed from the scene.

Or the churches on Sunday that give a clear message about Christ will often get a cool reaction or a heated reaction. The flattering sermon, of course, will be left alone. The homily on some contemporary issue will be left alone.

But the sermon which, in the words of Charles Simeon, who lived many years ago, who said that a sermon should humble the sinner, exalt the Saviour and promote holiness that will often get hostility.

And so, if you’re in ministry, you need to get ready for what’s called Outback Christianity. Get the message out and then they will come back a reaction out back, and that’s what we see here in Chapter four. So in Verse three, they seize Peter and John, and they put them in jail waiting for a trial the next morning. And Luke can’t control himself in Verse four because he suddenly says, But you know, thousands believed he can’t control himself, he has to say in Verse four, the Lord added, Now, more people to the church. So there were now about 5000 men in the church, which could, of course, mean 10 or 12,000 people.

So you can stop the messenger by putting him in jail. But you can’t stop the message. The the gospel runs like a river down a mountain. It may hit an obstacle, but it’ll just move around it and keep going. The gospel runs like a a vine up a fence. It may hit a paling, but it will just keep moving.

Well, on the next morning, Verse five, they have the trial and they have the same rulers, uh, running the trial as Jesus faced. And they have the same question in verse seven. Uh, by what authority? What name? What power do you do this? It’s exactly the same question that was asked of Jesus.

If you look down to verse 13, you’ll see that Peter says it was Jesus. It was in the name of Jesus Christ, alive and well. It was in his name and by his power that this man was made well, now what can the authorities do? The lame man is well known. He’s been at the temple for years, and now he’s standing perfectly well in front of them. What can they do?

So they discuss among themselves Verse 15. What to do? What will we do? And in verse 18, they command the apostles not to speak in Jesus name anymore, and they let them go. Now you may be wondering, How did Luke who wrote this book called Acts know what took place in the headquarters of the religious leaders?

Uh, when they discussed what to do? And I think the probable answer is that inside that headquarters were certain men in the Jerusalem council who became Christians. One of them called Nicodemus, one of them called Gaia. And it’s quite possible that as Luke put his gospel record together and interviewed pretty well, everybody who’d been involved, he would have had very good information from those who were at that meeting.

God has his people, doesn’t he? In all sorts of places, God has his people in business. God has his people in schools. God has his people in hospitals. It’s wonderful how God puts his representatives. Uh, when Cathy and I lived in the UK, we were invited, once to Kensington Palace for afternoon tea. Many of you will have had this experience, of course, and, uh, we were sitting there with this member of the royal family, and, she was asking what I was doing in England, and I said, I’m working at a city church And I told her the guy who I was working with and her lady in waiting suddenly spoke up and she said, I listen to him regularly, and they planted right beside this member of the royal family was one of Christ’s disciples, and so often God puts his people into the places of quiet influence for him.

So that’s the first thing this morning I’m trying to show to you. God’s people are under pressure in acts, Chapter four, And, uh, the message which has brought the opposition is the big issue for Luke. That’s what he wants to keep moving.

So the second thing is God’s people under Providence. In other words, God knows how to provide for his people, and, uh, we must learn to see how God’s hand is at work so often over ruling difficult circumstances for his purposes. John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. He used to talk about Providence. Not coincidence, and I’ve been trying to teach myself not to talk about a coincidence as if things are random and chance.

But Providence, the hand of God providing the first Providence we see in the chapter in Verse eight, is that God provides the help of the Holy Spirit for the apostles. He causes the Holy Spirit to make them bold for speaking verse eight. Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus said to his disciples, there’ll come a time where you get dragged before rulers and you’ll have to say something. But don’t be afraid, he said. The Holy Spirit will help you to say what needs to be said.

And now Peter is being helped by the Holy Spirit to speak with great wisdom and with great courage. Are we in exactly the same position through this week? Well, we’re not apostles, and we’re probably not on trial, but we can. Can’t we ask God for wisdom to know how to live as his people through the week? And we can ask him for courage, especially when we find ourselves in situations that we were not expecting?

The second provenance from God is that, uh, Peter gives six verses of great and brilliant content Chapter four verses, 9 to 12 and Chapter 4 19 to 20 in verse nine. Peter clarifies the issue, he says. Listen, if we’re on trial because we healed somebody in brackets, you should be thrilled about this. This should make you very happy. We shouldn’t be on trial. But if we are verse 10, then please know that the miracle has taken place through Jesus, who you crucified. But God raised.

Now do you notice that Peter could easily have said it was God who did it, and he probably would have escaped a lot of trouble. To talk in general terms will often save you a lot of trouble. But the Holy Spirit you see is not interested in how we can be popular. The Holy Spirit is interested in how Christ can be properly honoured. And so, in Verse 11, Peter quotes their own Bible from Psalm 100 and 18, which spoke of a time where a stone used to build a building would be strangely neglected or rejected but turned out to be the key to the building.

No doubt when the Israelites read Psalm 118 they said to themselves something like this Oh, this must be us. We’re the key. We’re the keystone. We’re being rejected by the world. Now Peter turns around and says No. Do you realise that you are the rejecting people? Because you’ve turned your back on the Messiah, Who is Jesus?

And then in verse 12, a very, very shocking but vital verse where Peter says salvation is found in no one else but Jesus. There’s no one under heaven given to the human race. Who is the Saviour?

Uh, do you notice how keenly Peter moves from healing to salvation? I mean, the healing of the lame man was great, but that healing is just a signpost. And the signpost says on it, Jesus is king.

And what Peter is basically saying to people is, you know, you may not need physical healing, but you certainly need salvation, and Jesus is the one to go to. Now, if you’re like me, you find acts. Chapter four, verse 12. Quite a confronting verse. Salvation is found in no one else. But Jesus Christ. How do we dare to say to the world that we and you need salvation?

The answer, of course, is that we and the world. Every member of the world is guilty before God of breaking his commandments or turning their back on his son. And there’s nobody who removes sin except Jesus, and therefore we must turn to him and he is not only able to remove sin, but he’s also willing. How can we dare to say to people There’s nobody but Jesus who does this? The answer, I think, is because there’s only one person without sin. There’s only one person who stands outside the quicksand, and that’s Jesus, and he is willing to lift us out and able to lift us out.

I was travelling yesterday with a A friend, a relative, and we were discussing Buddhism that he’s doing quite a lot of reading on. And, um, I don’t know a lot about Buddhism, but I just know that, uh, there is, um, the suffering and there is the release, and there is the Nirvana and, written into the fine print of Buddhism. If you can rid yourself of evil and suffering, you have a hope of reaching Nirvana.

And I just mentioned this to my friend and he said, Well, good luck with that That’s exactly right, isn’t it? Just imagine being told, I want you to go home and I want you to rid yourself of all suffering and all evil. And then there may be some hope for you. But Jesus Christ says to us, No, no, no. I will absolutely lift you out of the pit and make sure that you stand on rock and make sure your future is safe when Jesus saves. He not only gets us to change the analogy of the sinking ship, he takes us through the choppy seas and he brings us all the way to the harbour.

Well, the shock of what Peter says to the religious leaders is that they have missed the Scriptures, their scriptures, They’ve missed the Messiah, and they’ve also missed out on salvation. They’ve turned their back on Jesus. So they’ve turned their back on hope and then being told by the authorities that they’re not to speak more about Jesus. You see what Peter says in verse 19? Well, he says to the authorities, You must decide what to do because we have decided to keep speaking.

We can’t stop speaking interesting. The religious authorities have always thought that if they spoke, that was God speaking. And now Peter says to them What you say and what God says are different and we’re gonna go with what God says.

Notice that Peter doesn’t reject the right of the authorities to punish them. He rejects the right of the authorities to silence them. Can I say that again? He doesn’t reject the right of the authorities to punish, but he rejects the right of the authorities to silence them.

And when they’re released, they go back to the church and they go back and have a prayer meeting. Yes, they do. And this beautiful prayer in verses 24 to 30 Verse 24 Lord, you’re above everything. You’re absolutely in charge. Verse 25. You’ve spoken so clearly about people who will fight your son, Verse 27 to 28. And these local powers have been attacking your son.

But you’ve used the worst of the crucifixion for the best of salvation. And then verse 29 to 31. They pray Lord, please look at what’s happening and please give us help to be bold notice. They don’t say Strike down all the enemies. Remove all the enemies. They don’t say God, please give us an easier job.

They don’t say God, please just heal and make miracles everywhere. That’ll be so much more fun. They say Help us to be brave In the telling of the message and the place we read, Verse 31 shook quite a prayer meeting that day, and one old preacher in the fifth century said the place shook. The believers did not, and that’s the point. Dear friends of this chapter acts four. That Jesus on the throne equips his people for the task he’s given them, and he will help you in the context in which you are to play your part in his service.

10 years ago, some of you may remember that there was a thing at the opera house called the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Some of you remember this and they had four speakers. Very, very different speakers. One of them was Chris. Uh, One of them was Christopher Hitchens, brother Peter Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, the great atheist Peter Hitchens, the very keen Christian and, uh, toward the end of the Q and A, a girl put her hand up at the very end and she said, here’s the last question. What is the most dangerous idea you’ve ever had? And the three people spoke their piece, and they came up with some crazy things.

And Peter Hitchen said this. He said the most dangerous thing I’ve ever heard is that Jesus Christ is the son of God and rose from the dead. And the coordinator quickly turned to him and said, why is that dangerous?

And he said, Because if that is not true, this world has no justice and no hope. And the whole conference was finished on that note. Now you and I may not have the opportunity to speak in the opera house and be broadcast around the country, but in the position where God has put us, the faith that you have in Jesus Christ is going to be used by him to bless other people, to spill over for good and acts. Chapter four says he will help you to be his person in his world.

Let’s bow heads and thank Him

We thank you our Heavenly Father, for this great, wonderful chapter showing your work, making your people courageous and faithful in a difficult context. And we thank you for this principle that you’re at work in the lives of your people and we pray that you would help us with what we have this week. To be faithful, courageous with the power that you provide for the glory you deserve. We ask it in Jesus name, Amen.