Acts 4:1

And as they spoke unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now evening. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand. — Acts 4:1-4

When the religious establishment commands the church to be silent, the only answer is: "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

Where We Left Off

It's been a few weeks since we were in Acts, but we left off in chapter 3, where Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer. There at the gate called Beautiful sat a man who had been lame his entire life, begging for alms. Peter said, "Look at me." When the man looked up expecting something, Peter said, "Silver and gold I don't have, but what I have I give to you in the name of Jesus. Rise and walk." He took him by the hand, and the man rose up walking, leaping, and praising God.

This caused a great commotion in the temple, full of people who had come to pray. They gathered around Peter and John, recognizing the man they had seen lame for years. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to preach the gospel: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

Grieved at the Gospel

As Peter preached, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees rushed in, grieved that they taught the people and "preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead." The priests and captain were concerned that they preached in the name of Jesus. The Sadducees were concerned about the resurrection, because they did not believe in the supernatural or the resurrection at all.

These were the same Sadducees who came to Jesus with the riddle about a woman married to seven brothers, asking whose wife she would be in the resurrection. Jesus answered, "You err, not knowing the scriptures." Now they see Peter and John preaching that very resurrection, and they are grieved.

That is the same message you and I are to carry. It has not changed in 2,000 years. We are to preach the resurrection from the dead through Jesus Christ, faith in His name, and the work He did. As we'll see in verse 12, "neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby men must be saved." Many in our nation say that's narrow-minded, but the Scriptures make it very clear: there is no other way.

The Lord Adds to the Church

They laid hands on Peter and John and put them in a holding place until the next day, because it was evening. Peter had clearly preached for a good length of time, since they went up at the hour of prayer, about three in the afternoon. But verse 4 says, "Many of them that heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand."

In Acts 2, when Peter preached at Pentecost, the number was about 3,000. Whether 2,000 more were now added or 5,000 came to faith here, the church was growing very quickly—and not because of Peter, John, or any man. Acts 2:47 says the Lord "added to the church daily such as should be saved." It was God working by His Holy Spirit, convicting the hearts of men.

Evangelism Begins with the Spirit

Any evangelistic work always begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 16 that the Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. God moves on the heart and breaks up the fallow ground and the hard heart.

Every one of us has family members, co-workers, and friends who don't know Christ. You may have been a good witness, but their hearts have been hard. Might I recommend that you begin to pray that God by His Spirit would convict them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and prepare their hearts. It is not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit, says the Lord. Apart from us, in our own strength, sharing the good news with people dead in their trespasses is an impossible task. But God's Word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut deep and divide soul and spirit. As Peter preached and the Spirit moved, many heard and believed.

"By What Power, by What Name?"

The next day the rulers, elders, scribes, Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the high priest's kindred, gathered in Jerusalem. The scribes were the lawyers of the day who had copied the Old Testament but never fully comprehended what it pointed to. Interestingly, Annas is now called the high priest, though when Jesus was crucified it was Caiaphas—who is still present too.

They set Peter and John in the midst and asked, "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?" They had to acknowledge a notable miracle. This man who had been lame his entire life, who sat at the gate called Beautiful every day begging, was someone they had all seen—yet the religion of their day was powerless to help him. Peter and John had no silver or gold, but in the name of Jesus they gave him strength to walk, leap, and enter the temple.

Imagine it: because of his infirmity this man had never been allowed to worship inside with the rest of the Jews. The closest he could come was that gate. Now he goes in jumping and praising God. Many of you have known that joy—not a physical infirmity, but spiritual death—and the Lord quickened you and brought you near by the blood of Jesus. The world looks at our worship as pointless, but you know God has transformed you, and your heart overflows with joy unspeakable.

Religion Has No Power

The sad thing is that these religious leaders did not know the power of God. They had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof. Religion will always be powerless to transform a person. Many of you came from a religious background where you performed formal religious acts, hoping they would cleanse you and remove the conscience of dead works—but they never did. There was always the remembrance of sin. Only in Jesus Christ is there power to completely transform.

You can go to any continent, any people group in this world, and find religious experiences and expressions everywhere. But the power of God is found only in Jesus Christ. Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1, "You shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me." Here we see them powerfully witnessing, and the establishment asks, "Where did this power come from?"

Filled with the Holy Spirit

In verse 8, Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, answered, "If this day we be examined for a good deed done to an impotent man... be it known unto you and all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole."

That's the name—and it is that name that causes such consternation in so many. Franklin Graham wrote a book called The Name outlining how the name Jesus of Nazareth causes trouble throughout the world. This world is under the sway of the wicked one, the prince of the power of the air, who hates the name of Jesus and would love nothing more than to purge it from society. We see it happening in our own nation, and I believe it will increase.

Notice that Peter "was filled with the Holy Spirit." The filling of the Spirit in Acts is a repeated thing. They were filled in chapter 2, Peter is filled here in chapter 4, the whole congregation is filled at the end of chapter 4, and again at Cornelius' house in chapter 10. That's why Paul told the Ephesians to "be being filled with the Holy Spirit"—it's something we seek from God every day. Jesus promised in Luke 11, "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks."

D.L. Moody was once asked why he constantly spoke of being filled with the Spirit, since he had already been filled. He answered, "Yes, I've been filled, but I leak." We all go through that. Throughout the day the low-fuel light comes on—someone upsets us, someone cuts us off on the freeway—and the flesh remains. The flesh wakes up first every morning. So we must ask, "Lord, would you fill me again today? Give me the right words for the people you bring me to."

The Stone the Builders Rejected

Peter draws an interesting contrast: "You crucified him... but God raised him from the dead." There again is the power of God. Some of his hearers were Sadducees who didn't believe in the resurrection, but Peter didn't care—their unbelief did not diminish its truth. Likewise today, when people speak slanderously of God and His Word, it does not mean what God has said is untrue. God's Word is a sure foundation.

This is the same Peter who, a few months earlier, denied the Lord before these very people, saying, "I do not even know the man." Now, filled with the Spirit, he boldly proclaims that name. Do you have that same testimony—that it is by the name of Jesus Christ that you stand whole and in your right mind today? That is a sufficient testimony to share boldly.

Peter then quotes Psalm 118:22: "This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner." There's an old legend among the Jews that when the temple was built, the stones were quarried at a distance so no hammer or chisel would sound on the temple mount. One stone arrived that the builders didn't recognize, so they pushed it over the side into the Kidron Valley. When it came time to lay the cornerstone, they couldn't find it—and discovered that the very stone they had rejected was the cornerstone. Peter recognizes this as an allusion to Christ: the religious establishment rejected Him, yet He remains the chief cornerstone.

No Other Name

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Highlight that. Star it. Circle it three or four times. There is no salvation outside of Christ Jesus. As Jesus said in John 14, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me." There is no back door, no side window—Christ alone.

Some say that's narrow or exclusive. I didn't make it up; God commanded it. Though there are many faiths, religions, and worldviews, and pluralists try to gather them all together and say everything leads to God, that is not true. There is a wide path, and Jesus says it leads to destruction. We must be clear: there is no other name whereby men must be saved.

The Push to Keep Religion in the Pew

We are seeing in our nation a continual shift toward secularization and a pluralistic, multicultural mindset that says everything is fine and we must tolerate everyone, especially in religious views. People say, "Don't impose your beliefs on me. I'm glad you have your view; I have mine." But we must boldly answer that their worldview will not stand on the day of Christ. There is coming a day when all of us will stand before God. Many will say, "Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name," and He will say, "Depart from me; I never knew you." Many have a form of godliness but do not know the power of God found only in Jesus.

Because of the message we bring, we will experience trouble. America has largely gone without persecution, which has given us freedom—but it has also allowed outside influences to water down the gospel, and tares grow among the wheat. There is a continued push to keep our mouths shut, to keep religion in the pew.

I want to preface this carefully: I am not against our new president, and I think his election is historic. But his election has added fuel to an anti-God, liberal mindset that pervades our modern media and is disseminated to a very large populace. People are sheep—we believe what we're told, which is why we need to be guarded about what we feed our minds and hearts, and why we need the Word of God as a light to our path.

I read a Newsweek article this week titled "Brains Are Back," in which the author celebrates the new president and writes of finally returning to "respecting logic and reason and studiousness under a president who... keeps religion in its proper place in the pew," contrasting that with "religious zealotry and anti-intellectualism." Read between the lines: what you believe as a Christian is being labeled anti-intellectual zealotry, as though you've checked your brain at the door. A Washington Post writer, Harold Meyerson, wrote of the inauguration speech, "Good words. But what made yesterday so astounding is that those words were made flesh"—echoing John's Gospel, which speaks of Jesus Christ. There are interesting things happening in our nation.

Yet consider this: had Martin Luther King and the men of his day kept religion in the pew, Barack Obama would not be president today. They believed the Word of God and stood on its convictions, and the civil rights movement followed. Wherever the Word of God has gone, it has liberated man. That is why the message of Acts 4 is so applicable. We need to notice what these men of God said when told to be quiet.

Unlearned, Ignorant Men Who Had Been with Jesus

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. They saw Peter and thought, "Who is this man? He was not trained in our universities." But beholding the healed man standing with them, they could say nothing against it. When the world sees the testimony of a transformed life, they cannot deny that something is happening. We need both the testimony of God's transforming work and the boldness of the Spirit to speak, even as the world's "ignorant and unlearned" people.

They conferred privately: "What shall we do to these men? For indeed a notable miracle has been done by them, and it is manifest to all... we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further... let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name."

We are coming to a time when that kind of decree will be given. If you read this administration's stated policies regarding hate-speech legislation—which President Bush would not sign but President Obama has said he will—you'll find that "hate speech" is not only about racial things, but about the church's stand that certain lifestyles, such as homosexuality, are sin. The desire is to keep religion within the walls of this church. "Just stay at 1675 Seven Oaks Road." But our God said, "Go and preach repentance and remission of sins unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." So we have an issue: the culture says keep it inside; God says go.

"We Cannot But Speak"

So they commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." I love that. He says, in effect, "You tell us—our God commanded us to proclaim it. Jesus said, 'Go and make disciples of all nations... and lo, I am with you always.' Now you say keep quiet. Who should we listen to? For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

I pray that mindset would invade my heart and yours. They threatened them further, then let them go, finding nothing for which to punish them, because all the people glorified God for what was done. They couldn't find anything to charge them with. In the next chapter they make something up and beat them, but here Peter and John were men of integrity.

Be People of Integrity

So I say to all of you, especially the men: be people of integrity in the society where we live. They may say we are foolish, intolerant, ignorant, unlearned. But may they never be able to say we are murderers, liars, adulterers, or fornicators. Let it be that the furthest the world can go is to call us ignorant and unlearned, so that the gospel is never slandered.

We must speak the truth with boldness in a wise way. If your employer asks you not to do that on company time, then witness instead by being a person of honesty, integrity, and self-control whom they can trust with anything, and share the gospel on your own time. I know many godly men in this church who shine in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, and we pray for you. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

The man healed was above 40 years old, lame for a very long time, and all Jerusalem was blown away. Being let go, Peter and John went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said. And when they heard it, they lifted up their voice with one accord—and you'll have to come back next week to find out.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You so much for Your word. I thank You this morning for the men and women of this church who stand strong in a dark world—for their honesty, their integrity, and the way they preach without words the truth of Your gospel. But Lord, I pray that when given an opportunity, every one of us would be bold to proclaim that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby men must be saved. We thank You that today Your power has transformed our lives and that we have this testimony.

Lord, as we go from here, pour out Your Holy Spirit once again, as You did so many times in the book of Acts, and give us boldness to stand strong and speak the truth. We know we are living in the last days, when perilous times come and men are lovers of themselves, proud, boasters, having a form of godliness but denying its power. You told us to turn away from such. So help us to stand strong, to avoid the pitfalls of this world, and to follow hard after You, to Your glory. We pray this in the mighty and precious name of Jesus. Amen.