Untitled Sermon

Celebration of Thanksgiving

As we move into November of 2020, most of us are ready for the crazy business to end. On the Global scale, Covid and covid related government policies, for better or worse, have changed the lives of most of us with new standards for participating in public life. On a national scale, this year has been host to an incredibly divisive election cycle that has split families and friends. On the local level, people we know and care about are suffering from illness and poverty in ways that they have not before and if your workplace is like mine, there are new policies in place that provide an excellent source of stress. On a church level, we’ve been searching to find news ways to safely engage with our community online and in person. Personally, Felicity and I can speak at length of the changes, hardships, and stresses that have come and gone through this year with some lingering even still. Despite all of these struggles, God has not abandoned anyone of us. In fact, He has given us much to be thankful for.

Let’s go ahead and read Acts 4.

As we look at our text tonight in Acts 4, it is important to remember the context. These events are taking place during the first century. Getting sick often meant death. Entire groups of people were cast out of society for having the disease leprosy. The world was ruled by the Roman empire, which while being one of the most organized, tolerant governments the world had seen, was still very oppressive, controlling, corrupt, and brutal. For example, it would be considered barbaric for a public execution to occur today, but the Romans would line their streets with crucified criminals as an example. Amenities we consider basic had not been invented. The Romans had a crude form of running water in their major cities, but heating, cooling, refrigeration of foods, lighting, and the purification of water had not been introduced. The first century was a brutal time to be alive, yet believers found things to be thankful and to appreciate which I believe we today can learn from as the comforts we are used to are shift, altered, changed, and sometimes entirely removed. Looking specifically at the context of this passage, Jesus has lived His life, died, and rose again, the disciples have recieved their final instruction to go into all the world proclaiming the grace of God through Jesus in Acts 1, the disciples received the Holy Spirit and Peter started the church by proclaiming the news of Jesus’s resurrection in Acts 2, in Acts 3 we see Peter and John heal a crippled man and proclaim the gospel. Acts 3 happens on the same day as the start of Acts 4. As we seek to understand Acts 4, note that it is broken down into five scenes, Peter and John teaching, Peter and John testifying, the religious leaders threatening, Christians praying, and Christians sharing.

Scene 1 Acts 4:1-4

Looking back at the first scene in verses 1-4, we can see that this scene is very simple, but it has a lot to teach. Peter and John were teaching and preaching further form their message in Acts 3, and the temple police were not fans of the message concerning this Jesus whom they crucified. Even though the temple police arrested them, God was moving among them people. Verse four tells us “But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” I want us to see that even when government and rulers come against us, God is still in control and still saving people. We know from the scriptures and church history that God preserved and built His church in the face of wide spread opposition, suppression, and persecution. Church, I want you to know that the Gospel was spreading before the rise of America, and if it is to be, it will spread after the fall of America as well. We enjoy many liberties and freedoms that I am praying will stand, but even if America falls, God reigns. Inside America, God reigns. Outside America, God still reigns. Church, we can find peace in that and we can be thankful for that as well.

Scene 2 Acts 4:5-12

Moving to the next scene in verses 5-12, the temple leaders gather together and bring Peter and John before them. They questioned “By what power or in what name have you done this?” They wanted to know, who gave them the authority to do good? The temple leaders had not been able to heal anyone, so by who’s power did you heal someone? Peter presents the truth of the matter straight away, “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead-by him this man is standing here before you healthy. This Jesus is ‘the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” Peter’s testimony is direct, and it the single greatest message that anyone can ever hear. Jesus, who was crucified and raised again, the rejected cornerstone, provides the power to heal and save. In this message we find the greatest reason to be thankful. If you are broken, God can heal you through Jesus, and if you are a sinner, lost in your sin, Jesus can save you. Many of you could stand and proclaim testimony after testimony of how God has saved you through Jesus and healed the brokenness that circumstances, your sins, and other’s sins have caused in your life. Dwell on the things that God has done for you, and rejoice with all gratitude and thanksgiving for the great works that He has done.

Scene 3 Acts 4:13-22

After Peter proclaims his message before the religious leaders, the religious leaders were baffled as to how an uneducated fisherman could proclaim such a message, and because of the testimony of the healing of the lame man, they could lobby no charge against them. In this new scene in verses 13-22, the leaders sent them out so they could confer. The sign that had been done was so remarkably obvious, but notice, they refused to believe in the message. They did not want to deny it in the public, but they refused to trust this Jesus whom was supposedly raised from the dead. Since they could not out right dismantle the message, they decided to threaten Peter and John from sharing it. This next bit is for free, if you aren’t sharing the message of Christ and what he has done in your life, the devil is happy with you. Most of us don’t have to be threatened into submission, we’ll just stay on the sidelines because its uncomfortable to discuss Jesus with our friends. Its too heavy. Its too deep. We feel like we don’t know what to say, but if Christ has saved you from your sins, you have a testimony to share about His grace, His mercy, His redemption, and His love. Stop being silent and share the message about what God has done for you through Christ to your family, to your friends, to your neighbors, shout it from the roof, tell the sick, tell the healthy, tell the hurting, tell the guy that seems to have his life together, because the greatest secret of the human heart is that we are all sinners who have failed miserably to measure up to our creature’s standard, yet in His love he sent his son to make a way for us to be redeemed. This is no small gift. It is the greatest gift that only God was capable of giving, and he did it so that who so ever would trust in him may be saved by his grace. The testimony that God has personally saved you and redeemed you is a story that no skeptic can truly refute. No psychologist can for certain dismiss, and if it is true in your life that you have been changed, then your friends and family will not be able to deny it. The man who had been lame had been lame his entire life. He was over forty years old and Christ changed him. He healed his brokenness. If Christ has healed your heart from the heart of stone and set you free from your sin, then people around you already know something weird has happened to you. Tell them what it is. Sometimes these conversations fall into you lap. One day a friend may ask you about what makes you so happy, or why do you seem to have so much joy. Jesus saved me. He washed away my sins and for that I am eternally grateful. Look, Jesus saved me and he can save you too. In fact he wants to save you. Its as simple as trusting him to do so. The fun thing is that if your life hasn’t changed then no one is going to ask this of you. If you are still just as stuck in your sin as you were before, there is nothing you can offer a lost person. You have a testimony because Christ has set you free. He may have set you free from addiction to drugs, sex, porn, food, gambling, or any number of addictive sins; free from anger, bitterness, wrath, malice, racism; or maybe he’s set you free from laziness, apathy, self hatred, depression, or anxiety. What has knowing Christ changed about you? What is he trying to change in you now? I can tell you that from the time I was 15 or so and trusted in Christ, He has changed my life, my attitudes, and my passions about many things in varying degrees and he is not done today. In this way God has given me a personal proof that no person or spirit can take away, this is my testimony that Christ saved me from sin and that I am different today than I was before I knew him because he loves me enough to help me out of my sickness. Sin is a sickness. One that Christ does redeem us from just like he redeemed this lame man from the word lame so that he was just a man. From this position we move to the next scene. The religious leaders threatened them, but Peter and John were not subdued by their threats because they had been changed by Christ, so we move to the next scene.

Scene 4 Acts 4:23-31

In verses 23-31 we see that the experience at the temple caused them to praise God and to pray to him. They went back and reported to the others what happened. Then they lifted up their voices together in praise quoting the Psalmist “Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.” In response to the threats given to them, they ask for boldness to proclaim the message more than ever before. They ask God to reveal himself to this people, and once they finished their request, God showed up filling them and allowing them speak and proclaim the message boldly. There’s one thing that is obvious about the disciples here, these people really believe that Jesus is who is says he is. They really believe that God is in charge of the world. He can heal, provide signs, wonders, just as much as he can provide boldness to proclaim the message. In some ways, what they are not asking for is more alarming to myself as a 21st century Christian. They’ve just been threatened by the police in a time in history when people were put on public display of execution for less than these guys are doing, not just killed, but brutally tortured to death. The prayer request that so often crosses my mouth is God please keep us safe as we go, yet these people do not seem to be worried about their own safety. They seemed to be actively fighting against their safety. Give us boldness to proclaim your word despite what may happen to us based on the threats we have received. When was the last time we asked God to move in us, our neighbors, friends, family, city, or nation, despite what it might mean for our own comforts? If there has been a time in my life where I have prayed in this way it was on accident, and as I read this text I have to ask is this an issue? Are we too concerned with our own safety and protection to truly risk it in pursuit of sharing the gospel? Are we scarred that we’ll lose our jobs if we share Jesus at work? It seems like God’s work in keeping his messengers taken care of is on him, and its our courage that we have to worry about. It seems any comfort or security the disciples had was worth losing in order to proclaim the message of Christ. Is it worth losing to you? As we move into the next scene, we see a glimpse of what community looked like for these people.

Scene 5 Acts 4:32-37

We see a group of believers gathered together in community. They are in a posture of generosity. When one is in need, those who have give. I think this reinforces the idea that they saw what was theirs as God’s to be used as God saw fit. This sharing of goods was even done with property as we see from this fellow, Barnabas. There are some key things to see here. One, the people participating were not forced to participate. They participated as God led them not as government led them. If the church listened to God more, people would not be able to cry to government to save them because God is calling us to serve the needy. This scene is simple in this way. People are having compassion on one another and giving those in need what they can because they have been blessed in excess.

Closing

There is a clear picture presented in this story. God gave these people salvation in a way that they could not help themselves but to share it. As the shared with outsiders, they also shared their possessions amongst other believers who were needy. These people were responsive to what God was looking to do, and he poured out his spirit in a tremendous way. This story provokes me to ask a few questions. Have you trusted in Christ to save you? If so, what did he save you from? We each have a manifestation of sin that Christ has redeemed us from, so what was yours? Are you grateful for this salvation? Who are you going to tell? As you share with outsiders, who inside the church is hurting? How is God calling you to meet their need?