Acts 4 - The Council

The Recap:

Alright, so last week, we saw something amazing happen.

The Incredibles

We saw Peter and John, in the name of Jesus Christ, heal a man who had been lame since birth.

If you look at the chapter 4:22, you’ll see that this man was 40 years old!

And all of the sudden he was walking, jumping, leaping around

Like my kids do all the time....oh to have energy

But don’t forget what we honed in on last week, the fact that the miracle was really the fact that Jesus Christ saved this man, as he put his faith in Him.

That was the real miracle

Jesus is always better than any act we do on our own.

And any thing we do for Him in the Spirit needs to be accompanied with a verbal outpouring of praise and glorification of Him.

But we’ll only do this if Christ is better and we live in the Spirit.

So we are picking up the story, literally hours after this healing happened, and Peter and John are currently speaking to the people, sharing Christ with them

That is where we find ourselves in chapter 4.

Let’s pray to God before we read that He will open our hearts and minds to the truths of His Word.

The Issue:

Paraphrase verses 1-12

Frame It Up

The Recognition:

But where I want to really focus on tonight is verse 13-20, because I know we are going to see something incredibly beneficial for us in these verse

So let’s read verse 13-20

Let’s focus in on verse 13 for a minute

“And they recognized they had been with Jesus.”

What do you think the reason was for this recognition?

Was it the fact that they were wearing matching t-shirts that said a Bible verse with a really cool picture on it?

Or maybe it was because they cut their hair and wore their beard like Jesus did?

Maybe they had a tattoo of a cross so people would look at them and see they were spiritual?

Were they just “really nice people?”

I don’t think any of these reasons are right, let’s just clear that up now.

Peter and John did not have tattoos

So let’s look at 3 things tonight that are reasons they were recognized as people who had been with Jesus, people who had met Jesus, people who were all about Jesus.

They lived in the Spirit

Over the past few weeks, we’ve already seen that the apostles had received the Holy Spirit, Peter and John included.

And we’ve seen that the gift of the Holy Spirit is extended to believers from that initial point.

But, receiving the Spirit, and living in the Spirit are two different things.

Too many of us think we can say a prayer, get saved, have the Holy Spirit, and then carry on our lives as normal.

People, Christ changes you. If you aren’t changed you don’t have Christ.

And so to live in the Spirit is to live in the shadow of the cross.

We’ve been so radically changed by the blood bought gift that Christ gave us on the tree of Calvary that we can’t do anything but express our joy in Him and glorify Him.

That’s what living in the Spirit looks like.

And that’s what we saw Peter and John do last week.

They looked at an outcast, they saw Him, they loved Him

Christ did that

How’d you do with the challenge from last week?

I’ll tell you, I didn’t do great.

Failed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Thursday, I smiled and said hey

Then Friday we talked about the weather!

Seems miniscule, but I made contact with them. I established repertoire. And now I build on that.

I hope by me being real with you guys that I struggle with this you will see that this isn’t easy, I’m not perfect, and we all struggle. But will you take these steps with me?

Verse 8 of chapter 4 tells us that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit as he addressed the council

Verse 16, “a notable sign has been performed through them”

They stood out because they lived their lives differently than the world.

So their lives were evident of being spirit filled. This is more than just being nice people.

Teens, this isn’t an optional thing for believers. We are all called to live lives in the Spirit, and to stand out.

How you doin?

But in order to stand out, it takes boldness. They were bold

They lived in the Spirit

Verse 13

Boldness comes from confidence

Confidence comes from faith

Faith comes from salvation

, “ 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Peter and John had boldness.

When the council questioned them

Set them in their midst, they surrounded them

Side note - Annas and Caiaphas, do you recognize those names? Those were two of the leading players in Jesus’ trial and death

So, you can’t tell me Peter and John didn’t have to be bold, remembering Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, and his promise to Peter that he too would face the same thing.

But they didn’t back down, in fact, they grew in their boldness

How you doin?

tells us God, in our salvation, through the Holy Spirit, gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power.

We can’t hide behind fear, insecurity, introvertedness, or anything else, because God conquered those things. Our hope is in Him.

And when we’re in the spirit, when we allow ourselves to be emboldened by the spirit, we then have the ability to do what Peter and John did.....

They proclaimed Christ

They spoke of Jesus and they were known for it.

But I think sometimes our minds think like this.....at least mine used to.

“Ill proclaim Christ when I’m older, it’ll be easier”

Or, “I’ll talk about Christ if I’m ever put on the spot”

Or what if you were in Peter and John’s shoes, do you think you’d be bold like them and stand for Christ in the face of persecution and possible death?

Let’s take a look just at these last two chapters,

Proclaimed Christ to the crowd who were in awe of them.

Proclaimed Christ to the council who surrounded them.

They didn’t wait to proclaim Christ until the council flat out asked them how they healed the guy.

They healed the guy (through Christ) with the intention always being to proclaim Christ.

And their proclaiming of Christ to the crowd led to 5,000 being saved.

Again, it comes back to, Christ is best, and He’s always central.

How you doin?

The Application:

But what do we learn from this.

Sure, we need to live in the Spirit, look for ways to love and serve others.

Sure, that is going to take boldness to do so.

And sure, we do all of this with the end goal being of proclaiming Christ.

Verse 20 sums it up nicely for us in light of what we’ve seen tonight

“for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Is this you?

We can talk about everything under the sun, but when it comes to speaking about Jesus, we act like we don’t even know how to talk

We’ll talk for hours about sports, about school, about t.v. shows, about movies. We’ll talk about other people, we’ll talk about relationships, we’ll even talk about absolutely nothing at all.

But when do we ever talk about Jesus?

Even here, in youth group, we’ll talk about anything until I ask a question about the Bible, or about Christ, and we shut up quicker than a

Why is this?

Because, honestly, I don’t think we view Christ as better. We certainly don’t view him as the most important thing in our lives.

And why don’t we do that?

Because I honestly don’t think we truly understand what Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary.

I mean, that’s what is driving Peter and John. They saw Christ sacrifice himself for their very sins, as undeserving as they were (Peter - denial, John - disappeared), and they truly understood the love that Christ had in their own lives.

Here’s the thing, Christ hung on that cross knowing that you’d be sitting here tonight, a denier of Jesus, a person who puts almost everything before Him. He hung on that cross knowing that I would be guilty of not loving my wife how I should, for treating my kids bad, for the thoughts that I think, and the things that I do.

He knew all of this, and He did it anyway.

That’s why Christ is better.....better than anything else.

He’s not just good, he’s great.

Someone can do something nice for you, and you may not like that person very much, but you feel obligated to be thankful, and so for a week or so you are, then it wears off, and you’re back to normal.

That’s why I live my life in an attempt to honor him, to glorify Him. That’s why I live my life with Christ as the root of my joy, not social media, not sports, not friends, not relationships, not family.

I don’t live my life this way because I’m trying to earn salvation, or trying to be a “good Christian”

There’s no such thing

I live my life this way out of love, out of amazement that Christ did what He did specifically for me!

So I ask again, how you doin with this?

Because you won’t be in the Spirit, you won’t be bold, and you certainly won’t proclaim Him until you believe it yourself!

I hope you’ve been challenged tonight. Challenged to stand up in your faith in Christ and make it your own. Stop riding on the coat tails of your parents faith and declare in your life that Christ is better than anything else, and then set out on a mission to make Him known.

It’s our calling, it’s our duty, and it’s done out of the deepest affection and love we will ever have.

Is Christ better? Prove it.