By what power Acts 3:1-12

Introduction

Peter and the other Apostles had just healed a lame man who had been lame since his birth. I believe that the fact that this man had spent many days outside the temple begging for alms and the fact that now he is walking, leaping and praising the Lord in the temple he begged outside of had drawn a large crowd of over 5000 people to a place called Solomon’s porch.

The people who had gathered were there because of a miracle, but they received the Gospel and were now at a point of decision. Would they choose to follow Jesus or would they reject him again as they had done while he was on trial in Jerusalem.

When the religious leaders heard about the miracle and that the Apostles were preaching the resurrection, the Bible says they were grieved or greatly disturbed. They were so disturbed that they threw them in jail overnight to try to silence the message they had taught. They wanted to stop the spread of the Christian faith, but they didn’t know that the persecution they were about to carry out on these Christians would cause Christianity to spread like wild fire.

While the religious leaders tried to deny the resurrection of Jesus, they would have been witnesses of it unless they were under a rock.

Instead of the crowd running and hiding when the Pastor got thrown in Jail around 5000 of the people that heard the message got saved.

This isn’t the message this morning, just a thought. If our Pastor was thrown in jail for preaching the Gospel how would we react? Would we go on preaching or would we hide?

This morning I want us to look at the apostles on trial, and the Gospel given.

The apostles on trial vs. 5-12

The religious leaders present vs. 5-6

We see that the Peter and John were put in jail for the night and now the religious leaders came out to put them on trial. The problem was they didn’t have any evidence of wrong doing and didn’t have any basis for any charges to be brought against them

The group that Peter and John were brought before was called the Sanhedrin which was composed of 72 members where the high priest was the “president”

It was mostly made up of the sadducees which were sad you see because they didn’t believe the resurrection happened

The other group that was there were the Pharisees which was a group made up mostly of the scribes which were professional expositors of the law

Annas was there, he was the previous high priest, even though he was no longer the high priest it didn’t really change the level of sway or power he had. In fact five of his sons, a grand son, and his son-in-law all held the office of high priest in there lifetime.

Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas. He became the high priest after Annas.

A couple months before this gathering Annas and Caiaphas played a leading role in trying to get rid of Jesus by sending him to the cross, now they would like nothing more than to get rid of the church. You can read about this in Matthew 27.

Not much is known about John and Alexander outside of the fact that they were part of the Sanhedrin.

The question asked vs 7

By what power or by what name have you done this?

They thought maybe they had Peter stumped, but instead they served him a sermon on a golden platter.

The Chief priest asked Jesus the same question in Matthew 21 and Jesus answered them with some parables.

The Answer Given vs. 8-12

Notice that when they asked the question the Bible tells us that Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. vs. 8

The reason Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost is because he was emptied of himself. A couple months prior to this Peter watched from the Shadows as Jesus was brought to trial before Annas and Caiaphas and now Peter is filled with the Holy Ghost and he is going to boldly proclaim the Gospel to the same men he hid from. Jesus tells them that the Holy spirit will teach them what they ought to say and that is exactly what happened here.

Luke 12:11-12 “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”

Application for Today: If we want to be filled with the spirit we must be empty of self. If we wan’t the boldness of Peter we must be filled with the spirit, therefore we must be emptied of self.

Why are we not filled with Spirit today?

we are full of self, its impossible to be filled with the spirit and full of self.

We are scared of the Holy Spirit, I think that there are religions out there filled with a strange spirit, but they call it the Holy Spirit and now we quench the spirit because of it. We ought to pray every day that the Lord would empty us of self and fill us with the Holy Spirit.

Peter asks them if they are on trial for a good deed? Was it not a good deed to make this man whole? vs. 9

If they hadn’t been preaching Jesus would they have them on trial?

Peter answers them for the whole world to hear vs. 10

Be it known unto you all - the 72 members of the Sanhedrin including Annas and Caiaphas

And to all the people of Israel - The rest of those gathered there to watch this trial, and he was proclaiming it to those who would hear through their friends.

We healed this man through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

John 1:46 “And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.”

Whom ye Crucified

Annas and Caiaphas where both there for the death of Jesus.

This would’ve offended the Pharisee and the 2 high priests.

whom God hath raised from the dead

This would of infuriated the Sadducee's because they didn’t even believe the resurrection was true.

even by him doth this man stand before thee whole

They wanted a name, so Peter gave them a name.

Peter then gave them some old testament to drive home the truth. vs.11

The quote here is from Psalm 118:22 “The stone which the builders refused Is become the head stone of the corner.” which was a recognized messianic prophecy.

Jesus used this same prophecy after he gave the parable of the vineyard where he graphically portrayed these builders.

Mark 12:10 “And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:”

The symbol of the stone for the Christ was to well known to need elaboration.

Isaiah had spoken of Christ as a stone of stumbling (Is. 8:14) over which many would fall and be broken.

Daniel had visualized Christ as the stone descended from heaven (Dan.2:35)

Peter here lets them know that they are the builder who had rejected the stone, but the stone they had rejected has become the headstone of the corner

Although these religious leaders refused to admit it, the resurrection of Christ was a proven fact through eye witness testimony. Christ ascension was witnessed by enough people for it to be well known among Jerusalem as well. If any of them had not heard about the resurrection and the ascension they had now.

The same Jesus that they had crucified was now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where there is no greater glory, the rejected stone has become the headstone of the corner also know as the chief corner stone.

Peter ends his sermon with one of the greatest gospel texts. vs 12

There wasn’t a clearer way for Peter to preach salvation to the audience that day.

He starts with the death of Jesus - “whom ye crucified”

Then he moves on to the resurrection of Jesus - “whom God raised from the dead”

He then ends it by saying there is no other way to heaven outside of Jesus.

Buddha can’t save you, Allah can’t save you, Joseph Smith can’t save you. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can’t save you. Doing your best to keep all 613 laws can’t save you.

Only in the name of Jesus is salvation found!

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Conclusion

Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and delivered the Gospel to the religious leaders who had put Jesus to death, and the amazing thing about that is that God wants to save them. Often times when someone wrongs us we don’t want anything to do with them, but these men put God’s only son to death and God was still willing to save them.

There is nothing you have dine up to this point in your life that can keep you from experiencing salvation. It is the simple belief that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and rose again winning the victory over death and hell that can save you today.

If you have never trusted Christ as your saviour come today.

Christian maybe today you lack boldness to proclaim the Gospel or the good news of Jesus, ask God to grant you boldness to do so today. The return of Jesus is imminent, lets do our best to work for him till he comes back!