They Had Been With Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Church! If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, please turn with me to Acts 4:13. Let me ask you something. Will the people who know you best be able to tell that you've been with Jesus?
I don’t mean, "would they say you go to church,” or if “you believe the right things?” Those are fair questions in a room like this one because we care about right doctrine, and we should. But that's not the question our text is going to ask us this morning. The question Acts 4:13 puts in front of us is more probing: if a hostile room studied you for five minutes, what would they say about you?
In Acts 3, Peter and John are walking into the temple for afternoon prayer when they pass a man who has been lame from birth, begging at the gate called Beautiful. Peter heals him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and a crowd gathers, Peter preaches, and by the time Acts 4 opens, five thousand men have believed in Christ, not including the women and children.
But in chapter 4 we learn that the religious leaders don't share the crowd's enthusiasm. Verse 2 tells us they were "greatly annoyed” so the priests arrest them and the next morning, Peter, John, and the guy that was healed are marched in front of the Sanhedrin which was the same council with many of the same faces, that had condemned Jesus Himself only weeks before.
This is not a friendly audience but they notice something about these men and what they note is that they had been with Jesus.
That's the Sanhedrin's own explanation of how these men were so bold. Their boldness didn’t come from their giftings or education, but through relationship. There was something about Peter and John and we're going to look at this in a few minutes but here's where we're headed this morning.
This passage gives us three marks, three pieces of evidence, that tell us whether our time with Jesus has actually left a mark on our life. Not three things to master but three evidences to measure yourself against honestly, because the Sanhedrin discovers these things about Peter and John. These men didn’t go in trying to pass a test. They were men who were changed by Christ and filled with His Holy Spirit. My question I asked myself this week and one that I ask you as well is “How would you do on this test?”
Let’s stand together in honor of God’s Word as we read Acts 4:13-22
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, 16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
Our passage begins with verse 13, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished." Two words are of particular note here, and I want you to see them, because our English translation actually softens what the council was saying.
The word translated "uneducated" is agrammatoi. It doesn't mean illiterate because Peter and John could read as businessmen in the first century. They even spoke several languages due to their trade.
What it means is they had never sat under formal rabbinic training. No Jerusalem Talmud University or Mt. Zion Seminary. No recognized credentials. John uses this exact word one other place in the New Testament of Jesus himself, in John 7:15
15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
The word translated "common men" is idiōtai which is where we get our word "idiot," but that's not the sense of the word. It is understood as amateur, a layman. Someone with no professional standing in the field.
As someone who did not come into pastoral ministry with advanced degrees, I connect with this passage. There have been moments when I felt too inexperienced or underqualified for the task. That is why Acts 4 is so encouraging to me: God often uses ordinary people whose confidence is not in their credentials, but in Christ.
Peter and John were unqualified to teach according to the men in the Sanhedrin. They were men who had no business speaking with any sort of authority in that room. Yet these men had boldness! “Parrēsia”, a word that shows up again and again in Acts, almost always tied to preaching the Gospel in a room that doesn't want to hear it. It means unguarded, unfiltered speech. Saying everything and holding nothing back, because you're not afraid of what it costs you to say it.
So here's the tension verse 13 puts in front of the council, and in front of us: how do untrained men speak with that kind of authority?
Luke already answered that question back in
15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
That promise from Christ Jesus is being kept in that room. The boldness wasn't manufactured by Peter and John, it was given by God’s grace, so the council reaches for the only explanation that fits what they're seeing: "they recognized that they had been with Jesus."
Not, "Wow! They must have studied hard,” or "someone trained them well." Their own conclusion is relational. There is something about the way these two men carried themselves could only be explained by whose company they'd been keeping for the last three and a half years. Matthew Henry, writing on this verse, put it about as well as it can be put “The courage of Christ's faithful confessors has often been the confusion of their cruel persecutors."
That's exactly what's happening. The very men who arrested Peter and John to shut them down are the ones who are shocked and ashamed to speak plainly.
Now, here's where I want to be careful, because I know this room. We are a congregation that takes doctrine seriously and we should. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you knowledge is the enemy. Paul told Timothy to study to show himself approved and that's still true. But here's the question I had to sit with this week, and I'm asking you to consider it too: is it possible to know Jesus Christ and still be quiet about Him?
That's not the Pharisees' temptation I'm describing, that's ours. We are not a church at risk of knowing too little. If anything, we're a church that could mistake knowing the right answer for actually saying it out loud when it costs us something.
I saw a graphic on social media this week from Christ Life Ministries. The title was blunt: "The Most Useless Man in the Church." It described a man who attends every service but never serves, who knows all the right answers but helps no one, who talks about the work but never does any of it. The tagline underneath was the part that actually stung: "Being present is not the same as being productive for the Kingdom."
I didn't need to preach that to you before I preached it to myself. Correct theology that never turns into courageous action isn't maturity. Jesus doesn't hand out credit for knowledge that isn’t shared.
So let me ask it plainly. If a friend sat across from you for five minutes: not in church, but at your job, or your kid's ballgame, or wherever your week takes you: would anything about you give away that you've been with Jesus or would they just find someone who happens to hold correct theological positions which just sounds exactly like everyone else in the room?
Peter and John didn't stand with boldness that morning because they were good at arguing. We haven't even gotten to their words yet, we're still just talking about how they carried themselves before they said a thing and that's the first mark, Evidence 1.
They Have A Boldness for Christ, Not Just Knowledge About Christ
They Have A Boldness for Christ, Not Just Knowledge About Christ
Boldness isn’t reserved for a special class of Christians. The Holy Spirit produces increasing courage in ordinary believers as they grow in fellowship with Christ. It's what time with Jesus does to a person, but boldness alone doesn't explain the rest of this passage because standing right next to Peter and John that morning was somebody else, a man who used to be lame. And it's what happens next, because of him, that the council really can't argue.
Look at verse 14, Acts 4:14
14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
Remember that word from a moment ago "to speak against, to contradict." Is the exact verb from Jesus's promise in Luke 21:15, "none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict." So these men are adversaries and they want to silence the disciples.
Notice what actually stops the Sanhedrin in their tracks. It isn't Peter's theology, it's a life. A man who used to beg at the temple gate, who is now standing on two working legs in front of the highest court in Israel. You can interrogate an argument, you cannot cross-examine plain evidence for healing. So follow the evidence Luke lays out for us across this passage, because he stacks it up like a court transcript.
A man was healed by Christ. Not by Peter, not by John, verse 10 already made that clear that it was “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." Peter and John aren't even the ones on trial, not really. Jesus is.
No one can deny it. Listen to the council's own private deliberation, verse 16 “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it." Read it again and understand that the highest religious court in the nation, behind closed doors, admits to itself that the miracle is real. This is not skepticism, this is a verdict on the evidence, followed by a decision to suppress it anyway.
Everyone is praising God. By the time the council finally lets Peter and John go, the crowd outside has already rendered its verdict. The people are praising God for what happened before the judges ever announce theirs. The court of public opinion had rendered its verdict.
R. Kent Hughes summed up the council's dilemma in one line, “A bona fide, undeniable miracle did not get through to them."
Think about that for a minute, because it should shake all of us who think better arguments are the missing ingredient in someone else's unbelief. This room had the best possible evidence. An eyewitness miracle, forty years in the making, standing in plain sight because of the power of Jesus Christ and it didn't produce faith. It produced a cover-up.
Verses 15 through 18 tell us what the council does with evidence they cannot refute. They don't repent and trust in Christ. They don't investigate further. Rather, they meet privately, admit the miracle is real, and then command Peter and John to never to speak the name of Jesus again. Not to anyone, ever.
17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
This isn’t confusion, it’s suppression! They saw the truth clearly enough to fear it getting out. Patrick Schreiner's comment on this moment is exactly right: “The Spirit of God must work in their hearts."
You see, undeniable evidence didn't save a single person in that room. It never does, on its own. Paul describes this same posture in Romans 1, people who "suppress the truth" they've already seen plainly, not because the evidence was unclear, but because clarity isn’t the problem. The heart is.
Have you ever assumed that if you just found the right argument, the right verse, the right apologetic move, that that person in your life would finally believe in Jesus? I mean… I've thought that. I've prepared for conversations like it was a debate for their very soul! But Acts 4 tells us the Sanhedrin lost the debate and hardened their hearts anyway! Why? Because winning the argument is not the same thing as winning the heart. That’s God’s job. He does that.
So the question for us isn't "how do I argue better." It's "does my life offer the kind of evidence that can't be waved away and dismissed by people who don't want to believe in Christ?"
James puts it this way
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Your life, changed by Jesus is this generation’s healed man. It's not the gospel. Testimony never is. It’s only the message of Christ crucified and risen that saves but it's the thing that stands next to your words and makes them very hard for someone to dismiss. This is the second evidence I would like to submit
They Have A Testimony That's Undeniable, Not An Argument To Win
They Have A Testimony That's Undeniable, Not An Argument To Win
So are there things about the way you handle money, or conflict, or suffering, or your own children, that would leave an honest observer with nothing to say in opposition? Or does your life give people an easy way to explain your faith away. Do you walk by faith in Christ or are you a decent, moral, disciplined person with no need for God and His Word?
Here's what's remarkable about this passage, though and it's where we have to go next. The Sanhedrin had the same evidence Peter and John had. They stood in the very same room, looking at the very same man. The facts didn't divide them but they chose to suppress everything.
18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
The command is total, not to "tone it down" or "be more careful." It is to never, for any reason, to anyone, whatsoever, under any circumstances, teach or speak at all in the name of Jesus. They want to scrub Jesus’ name from the record completely.
19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,
That’s not defiance for defiance’s sake, it’s appealing to a greater authority. They’re saying that the Sanhedrin isn’t the highest authority in the room and there is a Judge and King that they are accountable and He’s already spoken about their mission.
Every single person in that hearing that morning was afraid of something. The council was afraid of losing control, of a movement they couldn't contain, of the crowd outside who were already praising God for what they'd just watched with their own eyes. Peter and John were afraid too. This is the same Peter who, a few weeks earlier, denied even knowing Jesus because a servant girl asked him a question by a fire.
So the difference between this room and that fire isn't that fear disappeared. It's that Peter's fear finally hit the right target.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Everyone fears someone or something. The only real question Scripture ever asks is who or what.
25 The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
A snare doesn't announce itself. It just quietly narrows what you're willing to say, one small compromise at a time, until you don't recognize how caught you are.
This is not a new problem in verse 19. Daniel's three friends faced it in Babylon, staring at a furnace
17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Daniel himself faced it with the lions, refusing to close his window even after the law was signed. Same choice. Different century. Verse 20 tells us where this kind of courage actually comes from, and it's not raw willpower.
20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
They can’t help it! Peter and John aren't gritting their teeth and forcing themselves to be brave. They're eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Man, when you meet Jesus, you can’t help but share what He’s done in your life!
John Bunyan was a Baptist pastor in Bedford, England and was arrested in 1660 for preaching without a license from the Church of England. The magistrate offered him a straightforward deal. Stop preaching, and go free. Bunyan's answer, “If I were out of prison today, I would preach again tomorrow."
He spent twelve years in prison rather than take the deal. Pilgrim's Progress was written in that cell. Same choice Peter and John faced, a court with real power offering a real way out, on the single condition of silence and the same answer. No. So here's the question this passage is actually asking you, underneath this whole message.
Whose disapproval would actually stop you from speaking boldly about Jesus? Not hypothetically. Name it. A boss. A parent. Your spouse. A friend whose opinion of you matters more than it probably should. A comment section full of strangers you'll never meet. Peter and John had the Sanhedrin's disapproval in that room, men with the actual legal power to imprison and possibly kill them and it didn't stop them.
So whatever's currently keeping you quiet, ask yourself honestly: does it actually carry more weight than that? Or have you just been letting it?
Third and final evidence I would like to submit:
They Are Concerned With What God Thinks, Not What Others Think
They Are Concerned With What God Thinks, Not What Others Think
Fear of God doesn't make a person reckless. It makes a person free! Free from needing every single room to approve of you, because you already know the verdict of the One Judge who actually matters.
The Sanhedrin set out to interrogate Peter and John. What they got instead was an unintentional test and Peter and John passed it without even trying to. Not because they were exceptional men. Because they'd been with Jesus, and it showed.
You see it’s about boldness, not just knowledge. They spoke with an authority no diploma could account for, because the source of it wasn't education. They had been with Jesus. And that’s a testimony that's undeniable! There was a healed man that stood next to them, and the Sanhedrin, for all their training, had nothing to say in opposition. Not because Peter out-debated them, but because a changed life doesn't need to win an argument. It just needs to stand there.
And fear of God, not fear of man. When the most powerful court in Israel offered them silence in exchange for safety, they answered with the only question that actually mattered: is it right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to Him?
Three marks. One source. They had been with Jesus.
So here's the test again, the one I asked at the start, the one I've been asking myself all week: if the people who know you best were cross-examined about you, what would they say? Would they be able to explain you without mentioning Christ at all? Or would they, like the Sanhedrin, be forced to conclude that something about you only makes sense because you've been with Jesus?
Here's the thing, though. That test only makes sense to take if you actually know Him.
Peter and John weren't performing boldness that morning. They weren't executing a strategy. They were simply telling the truth about what they'd seen that Jesus of Nazareth, whom this very council had crucified, was alive, and that there is salvation in no one else, because there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
That's not a story about two brave men. That's an offer, which is still open this morning. Do you know Jesus? The Bible says you can. He came and laid down His life for His friends, and when He died on that cross, He paid the penalty you and I deserved. On the third day, He rose. And anyone, anyone who repents of their sin and trusts in what Christ accomplished on the cross can know Him, and can know the freedom from sin that only He offers. You don't have to leave this room still explainable without Him. You can trust Him right now, this morning, and begin the same life Peter and John lived — a life that bears witness to Christ because it's actually been with Him.
For those of you who already belong to Him, here's where the text leaves us.
Head: God wants you to know that people who have truly been with Jesus are unmistakably changed.
This week, children learned how God takes us from the wrong path to the right path. From darkness to light. We are changed by Jesus.
Heart: God wants you to believe that knowing Christ is worth more than the approval of people.
One gives some peace in this life, the other gives peace eternally with God.
Hand: God wants you to live so boldly for Jesus this week that the people around you can't explain your life without Him.
