Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Children’s Ministry dismissal.

I’m Pastor Marc… Thanks for joining us!

If you would like to connect, please fill out a Welcome Card!

We are a Bible teaching church… if you don’t have a Bible… raise your hand…

We are also a praying church, so if you have prayer needs please let us know how we can pray for you.

And, if you have any anonymous prayers… there is a prayer basket.

Announcements:

Please pray for the Butcher’s.

Michelle is out of the hospital following a successful surgery, but John’s Dad (Ronnie)- looks to have had two strokes.

A meal train had been started and there are two spots remaining.

There is a link on our Faithlife App or sign up physically.

I encourage you all to download Faithlife App… which has a church directory, calendar, sermons, and much more… like info on our upcoming…

Baptism and Pool Party!

If you’ve never been baptized… get Baptized.

I love the heart of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:36 “See, here is water.

What hinders me from being baptized?”

NOTHING!

Church will provide hamburgers/hot dogs; The Kitch’s will supply paper goods and drinks

Please bring a side or dessert.

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Please open your Bible to Acts 4, as we continue verse-by-verse through the Bible observing Acts 4:1-22 today.

Over the last two weeks, we have been blessed to be in Acts 3 where we looked at the account of the man who was lame since his mother’s womb…

Daily laid at the Beautiful Gate asking alms… begging before the Temple of a religion that offered him No hope… No healing.

Likely, the man even scoffed at the name of Jesus, for even Jesus never healed this man.

But, God had a different plan… God would use Peter to proclaim… “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

And, the man was healed which led many Jews to marvel and gaze upon Peter and John as though they had the power to perform miracles.

This led to Peter’s second sermon Post Pentecost… a sermon only about 3 minutes long where Peter met the Jews where they were… preaching a sermon that would resonate in their hearts… because of the many Jewish themes.

Peter spoke of Yahweh, the Patriarchs, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Jewish Messiah, and Messianic Prophetic Scriptures.

And, Peter credited the healing of this man by faith in the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus whom God approved and sent to bless them… whom they denied and killed.

And, in this sermon that clearly lays out the wrong that these Jews did… there is a simultaneous grace filled invitation for the Jews to turn to Jesus.

Even the Jews who denied and killed Jesus… they were invited to accept Him and He would blot out their sins… obliterate their sins.

This invitation still stands today.

There is nothing “…able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But, sadly… as we look at Chapter 4… separation from Jesus is the intention of the religious leaders who try to stop Peter and John.

But, they could not stop God working through the disciples… and they could not stop the multitudes of people coming to Christ.

So, they arrest Peter and John… question them… and even threaten them to stop speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus.

But, it will not be Peter and John who are silenced...

The title of today’s message is “The Silencing of the Sanhedrin.”

Let’s Pray!

Acts 4:1-4 “Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”

Following the glorious scene of the lame man being healed by faith in Jesus’ name… and God working through Peter to heal this man… setting the stage for Peter to share the gospel with many Jews…

After the miraculous… now comes persecution… which is the first recorded persecution of the early church… and notice the origin of the persecution… they are arrested by Religious leaders.

Just as Jesus foretold in John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”

V1 lists the persecutors… the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees.

Scholar W. Graham Scroggie suggests that the priests represent religious intolerance; the captain of the temple, political enmity; and the Sadducees, rationalistic unbelief.

The priests were the religious leaders of Israel… most were Sadducees.. and they were mostly responsible for all aspects of the Temple.

All priests were from the Tribe of Levi (including the High Priest), but not all Levites served as Priests.

Some Levites had other roles.... such as Temple Police.

It’s not surprising that these priests were present… their whole Old Testament system was threatened by Jesus’ teachings which continued through the disciples.

And, the Sadduccees wanted to maintain status quo… they were living it up… ‘they were large and in charge.’

When a way of life is threatened, the human response is to put up a fight, and that’s what these priest were doing by arresting Peter and John.

But, it was a losing battle.

Jesus said in Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

These priests lost because Jesus fulfilled the law… just as He said He would.

Whatever Jesus says, you can take it to the bank.

When you go to Israel today… there is no sacrificial system because Jesus also said in Matt 24:2 “Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

And, about 40 years later (in 70 A.D.) the temple was destroyed by Rome.

Let me point out a few verses that explain why Jesus fulfilled the law…

Heb 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.”

The sacrifice of animals was a key role of the priests… but, a new day had dawned when Messiah came.

At the last supper, Jesus explained why sacrifice was ending… Matt 26:28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission [or forgiveness] of sins.”

No longer was animal sacrifice or even the Priests required… Jesus’ blood and faith in His name actually did take away sins.

We read last week in Acts 3:19 Peter said to the Jews, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...”

Anyone who turns to faith in Jesus has their sins blotted out… by def.

“obliterated.”

The priests and animal sacrifice did not have the power to obliterate sins.

Thus, the New Covenant was ushered in.

Heb 8:13 states, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Some people today still try to live under OT Jewish law… why?

Jesus said He fulfilled the Old Covenant… Heb 8:13 states the Old Covenant is obsolete and ready to vanish away.

In Acts… OT priests were becoming obsolete as well.

A new system was ushered in… and they were feeling it.

They had killed Jesus, and even that did not stop Him.

His disciples continue preaching in His name, and people are flocking to Jesus by the thousands.

And, while the OT priests were no longer needed, Jesus would not completely do away with the priesthood, but it too would be changed… it would become a calling for all His followers.

It’s a calling that stands today… I want you to grasp this, because if you claim Christ as your Savior… if He is your High Priest as the Book of Hebrews titles Jesus… then you as His follower are part of His priesthood today.

That’s what 1 Pet 2:5 proclaims “… you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… “

And, 1 Pet 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

You thought you were just coming to church today… you had no idea you were leaving with a title… you’re a Royal Priest.

The other two parties that came to arrest Peter and John, were the Captain of the Temple and the Sadducees… and I won’t be going down a rabbit trail like I did talking about the priests… but I will say this…

The Captain of the Temple maintained order in the temple.

He was Captain over the Temple Police (who were all Levites), and he was a high ranking official… a Sadducee from a prominent family… only second to the High Priest.

The Sadduccees often stood in conflict to the Pharisees (the religious rulers), as the Sadducees were the political rulers… leaned toward Rationalism… even cooperating with Rome.

The Sadduccees were the economic elite and prominent land owners.

They held only to the ancient doctrine of the Torah… the first 5 books of the Bible… the Mosaic Law… rejecting new “Oral Law”, and teachings on spirits, the angelic or demonic, and resurrection.

And, that’s why people say they were “sad u see.”

Listen, I last told that joke two years ago… and I reserve the right to tell it at least once every two years!

All this should give you insight into V2 where it states they were “greatly disturbed” by the teaching on the resurrection.

They neither wanted new teachings… especially not from unlearned fisherman…

Nor did they want the topic of resurrection being taught.

Especially they did not want to hear about Jesus’ resurrection whom they killed!

Further, Sadducees rejected a literal Messiah in the flesh, holding that the Maccabees (their Hasmonean ancestors) already ushered in the Messianic Age which they considered an ideal… not a person… and they considered themselves caretakers of the Messianic Age.

Imagine how difficult it was for them and how threatened they felt when the actual Messiah appeared.

Quite the crew… highly religious… highly political and in power… very wealthy… these were those that began persecuting the infant church.