Sermon Tone Analysis

Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.

In 1979 the tugboat Cahaba was headed down the Tombingbee River in Alabama, USA.

The current was flowing fast as the tug’s pilot approached the bridge and released his coal barges.

He then put his 1800 horsepower twin engines into reverse to get away, but when the boat moved slightly off line the current swung the boat sideways and slammed it into the bridge.

The current was so strong that it forced the boat down under the water.

To the astonishment of onlookers it passed under the bridge and popped up, upright, with the engines still going and the pilot at the wheel, on the other side.

Why did it come back to the surface in an upright position?

Because it was ballasted with a metre thick lining of cement on the bottom of the hull.

It is a vivid reminder that life can often go horribly wrong, but if we have the right “ballast” – faith in Christ – then we can get through it and emerge upright on the other side.

It is easy to live as a Christian in this world-if you never live for Jesus; never give, never sacrifice, never serve, never tell people about Christ-it is easy.

But we are not called to an easy life, we are called to courageously take the gospel into all the world.

But this type of Christian is not found in the NT.

Jesus tells us to take the gospel into the world/to follow his example/to have courage in the face of evil

Our passage today, looks at Peter & John before the Sanhedrin after they have finished preaching in the temple following the healing of the lame beggar.

From this story we will see how the gospel cannot be stopped.

While the world may try to shut the gospel down, shut you down for living for Jesus, if you stand firm for Christ the gospel will prevail, and lives will be changed because of your obedience to Jesus over the world.

I. THE WORLD WILL FIGHT THE GOSPEL BECAUSE IT REVEALS OUR BROKENNESS (1-3)

As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, 2 being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

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

To recap.

Peter and John just healed the lame beggar and people were amazed so they gathered around.

Peter took the opportunity to share the gospel and people were saved.

This took place in the busiest place in the Temple with the people exchanging money and selling sacrifices.

The priests hear about a miracle and more importantly they hear Jesus’ name, the same Jesus they just killed a few weeks ago so they go to investigate.

The priests were on duty for sacrifices, the Captain of the guard and the Sadducees (who did not believe in the resurrection and were kind of like the religion aristocracy) showed up.

Peter was preaching in the name of the guy they just killed and more than this, he is actively telling these people that while Jesus for sure did die, he absolutely rose from the dead.

They were bucking the system and the rulers and priests did not like this and would not stand for it.

So, they grabbed them up and threw them in jail, thinking jail might change them, but what they did not know is that Jesus had prepared them for just this kind of treatment and worse.

The priests and rulers didn’t like them challenging the status quo/didn’t like the Christian gospel and what it meant in their world.

If Jesus was truly resurrected, then it meant he truly was the Messiah and it then meant that their roles were no longer needed.

This treatment is really no different than today.

The baker in Colorado, Jack Phillips, is constantly taken to court by the far left for his biblical stance supporting biblical marriage and sexuality and his refusal to bake cakes that promote otherwise.

Trinity Western University has been denied its law school license due to the fact of its biblical stance on gender, marriage, and sexuality.

The College of the Ozarks has faced a lawsuit by gender activists due to its stance on gender and sexuality.

If you stand on a biblical view of manhood/womanhood, marriage, sexuality; if you hold to a biblical moral and ethic; if you believe and proclaim Jesus as the only way to a relationship with God be prepared to be attacked by the world

What do we do in these situations?

How do we respond when our faith is attacked?

What happens when there are consequences for living out our faith according to the Bible?

Do we give in?

Shrink back?

Accommodate?

No, because we know that because of the gospel, because of the name of Jesus a miracle happened in us.

We know Jesus is the only means by which the world can be changed, so we continue to stand firm and proclaim-no matter who or what comes against us.

Will this take courage?

Will there be backlash in your life?

Will you lose friends and even family?

Yes, Yes, and Yes.

But we know the cost is too great.

The miracle is undeniable.

Just like Peter & John, they had to tell; so do we.

They had courage as the world stood against them.

And do you know why?

Because the gospel still has power in a sinful world.

II.

THE GOSPEL STILL HAS POWER IN A SINFUL WORLD (4)

4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Peter and John were just harassed, shut down, and carted off to prison, but that did not matter.

The gospel message had been preached.

The people heard the saving power of Jesus.

And what was the response?

5,000 people came to faith in Jesus because of Peter and John’s faithful witness.

The world will try to do everything it can, but it can’t shut down the power of the gospel.

Despite all the adversity, the sermon was no failure.

The Sadducees tried their best to stop the witness of Peter and John, but they did not succeed.

The rulers raged, but it was all in vain for the gospel message is more powerful than any natural or supernatural opposition.

While Peter and John sat in jail the gospel still spread.

Here is the crux - you may not see the harvest or results of your witnessing, sacrificing, giving, serving, forgiving, standing for justice.

Know this though, the gospel is working through your life as you faithfully stand share and live in the world which hates you and hates Jesus.

Your testimony and gospel presentation may not seem like a big deal, but the gospel they carry has the power to change lives-to save the damned from hell.

Don’t quit because you don’t see the results.

Never stop living for Jesus because the gospel still has power in a sinful world.

III.

WE ARE CALLED TO STAND FIRM UNDER PRESSURE FROM A WORLD THAT DESIRES TO SHUT US DOWN (5-11)

5 On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; 6 and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.

7 When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by his name this man stands here before you in good health.

11 He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone.

The pressure is going to come; we know the gospel has power over the world, so what do we do?

How do we respond?

We are called to stand firm in the power of the Holy Spirit regardless of the pressure.

The next day at court in the temple they faced the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin convened as a court which sat with 70 people in a semi-circle with the accused standing in the middle before them.

Annas is there.

He was the previous high priest and he still acts like the godfather behind the scenes.

Caiaphas is the current high priest.

Sadducees and Pharisees made up the Sanhedrin.

The moderator was Gamaliel, the apostle Paul’s mentor before his conversion.

There was a lot of power in the room.

It was not long ago they had Jesus in the same room, asking similar questions.

Think of standing before a joint session of Congress and the Mafia with no lawyer.

They begin to ask the questions.

“By what name?” “Under what authority?”

“No one authorized you to preach in Jesus’ name.”

They want to know who gave these low-class fisherman, disciples of a dead religious zealot permission to preach in their Temple.

I love this next part.

It is the fulfillment of a promise Jesus made in Mt. 10:19.

Verse 8 says, “then Peter filled w/ the Spirit.”

Peter lets them know that the authority he has, comes directly from the man they killed, the man who God raised from the dead.

That man is Jesus Christ the Living God.

Will there be pressure to conform?

To slack off?