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Several years ago, when I was kind of wrestling with my call to ministry. I was scared. The Lord had been speaking to me about about stepping into ministry and becoming a pastor, and I just was really wrestling with that. There was a lot of fear involved. My biggest fears was it just that I didn't have what it took that there was nothing really that special about me, just an ordinary guy, just a normal guy. I mean, at the time I was coaching tennis, it doesn't get too much more simple than teaching a bunch of kids how to hit a tennis ball with a racket, thinking, I'm just an ordinary guy. How are you going to use somebody like me in a position like that? I'm thinking, God, I don't really know the Bible that well. I mean, I don't know it like CS Lewis or I'm no Tim Keller or anything like that. I'm not a biblical scholar, and you're supposed to be kind of a biblical scholar, to be able to teach things about the Bible. There was nothing about me that was like a screamed natural communicator and someone who could capture the attention of an audience in any way. I mean, I had been to a number of church conferences and seen pastors like Louie Giglio and Matt Chandler command the stage and people be just listening for everything it is that they're saying. And I'm going, I'm I'm certainly not those guys. And so why are you calling me into this? There's a lot of fear that I was living under thinking about how I would be putting myself in a very public position, a position where people would take everything that is that I say every single Sunday from a stage and go talk about it over lunch, critique everything, and the things that I did well, and mostly the things that I did wrong, and all the things that I got wrong. And if I should have done this, or I could have done this, it would have been so much better, or he should have just thrown that one in the trash and never even used it. Not only that, but it's captured online now, so not only on that Sunday, but now it's out there where people can see it all day, every day, and watch it or not watch it, and then comment or not comment and and just say things that aren't very nice sometimes. So I really wasn't looking forward to that. I was, I was scared. If I'm being honest, there are still times that I'm scared. There are times I don't say something that I feel like the Lord's leading me to say, or I don't post something online that I feel like the Lord might be leading me to say because I'm scared, because I'm fearful of how people will react to that, the things they'll say, the things that they won't say, the people who may leave the church because of things that get out there.My guess is that even if it wasn't a call to be a pastor that you were wrestling with, you've wrestled with something similar, where you felt the Lord was leading you to step into something that you didn't really know what was going to happen on the other side of that, and it scared you that there was some fear that it might cost you something, that you didn't think that you had what it took, or that, whatever it is that somebody was leading you, or God was leading you, to say you didn't know how they were going to react in that moment, and how are they going to treat you, or the way things would go, and so maybe you didn't step into it. There's just these times in our lives when fear takes over and we're so hesitant to do what we feel like is right in those situations, because, again, we just don't know how people are going to respond. We don't know what they will do. And so what do we do in those situations when we find ourselves there? How do we overcome our fears of living out our convictions when it is going to cost us something, we're going to find out the answer to that in the text that we're looking at today in Acts chapter four, we're jumping into the middle of a scene even though it's the beginning of a chapter. We need to go back to what's happened at the beginning of chapter three and beyond. And so to just catch you up really quickly, Peter and John, two of Jesus's disciples who spent three years with them, and now we're empowered by the Holy Spirit. Encounter a lame beggar on the way to the temple when they were going to pray one day. He asks them for money. They say, silver or gold. We don't have, but we'll give you what we do have basically, and in the name of Jesus Christ, of Nazareth, walk, and all of a sudden, this lame man who had been lame for over 40 years since birth, stands up and he he walks, and he starts jumping around and and praising God. And once Peter notices that it has everyone's attention, they've gathered together in a. Certain section of the temple called Solomon's colonnade, and there's 1000s of people that are starting to gather. And now that he realizes this is a great opportunity to share the gospel, that's what he does. He shares the good news with Jesus, of Jesus Christ, with its audience that had gathered, and that's what we looked at last week. Now that he's sharing the good news with them and kind of finishing things up, we find out what happens as a result of him giving that speech. And so I asked you to turn to Acts, chapter four, verse one, and here's what Luke says. There. He says, the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. Now, these are some people who pretty much run the temple that they were gathered in. I mean, they're in a certain section of the temple, and all these people are listening to him give this speech. And so there's priests that are there who were basically like Levites, who were probably on duty for the evening sacrifices that were made. He references that the captain of the temple guard is there. That captain of the temple guard is, like ranked second in the priestly hierarchy, and could throw people in jail. He had the power to arrest people. He was tasked with keeping things in order in the temple, and things were kind of starting to get out of order with this huge crowd gathering around them. And then Luke references the Sadducees, and this is one of the powerful religious groups that were there during the first century. And at this time, the power that they had came from Rome, because the Sadducees, other than being religious leaders had aligned with Rome politically, and now they were given this power and and really this wealth to be able to preserve the order and help Rome keep the peace. And so when Luke mentions these priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees, we're not talking about just ordinary people. We're talking about powerful people. We're talking about people who run the temple. And Peter and John were threatening their power. They were threatening the order that they were in charge of maintaining, and we kind of get a sense of that. Next, in verse two, it says they were greatly disturbed. They were greatly disturbed, partly because of what it is they were teaching the apostles were teaching the people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. And we're told that they seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed. So the number of men who believed grew to about 5000 they were trying to jump in and put a stop to this message in the name of Jesus, but it was already too late. They had shared the good news about Jesus. The Holy Spirit had taken that good news and opened people's hearts and minds to really see the truth about who Jesus was and to empower them to be able to respond. And they were putting their faith and trust in Jesus to be their Lord and Savior, and their lives were being transformed and changed for ever, and the church was beginning to grow. And so they throw them in jail, and they're going to put them on trial the next day, and this is when the really powerful people step in verse five says, The next day the rulers and the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem, Annas, the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John Alexander and others of the high priest family. This was the ultra powerful group, the heavy hitters, if you will. This was part of the Sanhedrin, or a 71 member tribunal that served kind of like as the Jewish Supreme Court, if you will. These were people with power. He even mentions the high priest and of Annas and Caiaphas and and technically, Caiaphas was the high priest at the time Annas had been the high priest before that, but because he was kind of like a godfather figure, if you will, he's the one who had the real power, and the one that was mentioned as the high priest here again, these were prominent people. These were not your normal, everyday, ordinary people. They had power, and they could really do something to make Peter and John's life miserable,to make them fear the consequences of what could happen to them based on what they were doing and the things that they were saying. And so they begin to interrogate or question them. Verse seven, they the those in the Sanhedrin had had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them by what power or what name do you do this? Now, when you and I read that, we just go, Oh, they're starting off a little simple question, and just kind of curious about what power or name they do this in. But that's not the way it's written in the original Greek. You. The original Greek. This is a derogatory statement. They're basically saying something like, how do you people do this? By what power do you people like there's people like us who were prominent and powerful and important and were the religious leaders of the day, and then there's people like you. And so by what power or name does someone like like you do this? I mean, that's really kind of the tone of what it is that they're they're saying here. And so, so these are kind of people that are stepping in and beginning to exert and establish their power and influence over them, even with asking this question. Says, Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, now, before we look at what it is that Peter said, we need to just address what it means whenever he says that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, because some of you who were here over the last several weeks may remember that in Acts chapter two at Pentecost, we said that the Holy Spirit came, and that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And here it says, Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. And you may have questions and going, Wait a minute. I thought he already was filled with the Holy Spirit. So if he was, he not really then, or if he was filled with the Holy Spirit, then, then did it leave? And now it's come back, and he's being filled again? No, that's not what is happening here. The moment that they were in dwelt with the Holy Spirit, the moment any of us, when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to indwell in us. We're full of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't going anywhere. We enter into a spiritual union with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, they can never be broken, even your sin cannot come between you in this spiritual union, Jesus took them all to the cross already, and he died for all of them and buried them in the grave, and they were defeated by the resurrection through his finished work on the cross. And so even if this is true about you now, and you do sin, then that can't come between you, because that sin was already fully taken care of. It's not like you have to go, Well, I've got to leave now, because you sinned. And whenever you get things together again, then I'll come back again, and we'll enter into that spiritual unity. And that is not how the Christian life works. And so Peter had been filled with the Holy Spirit. And what we're saying now is that he was being emboldened by the Holy Spirit. He was leaning in and depending upon the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the Holy Spirit that already dwelt in Him and that he constantly, always had access to. He was experiencing the power of the Spirit and that filling of the Spirit that was there in that moment, which is true about any of us, and we can experience at any time, as we depend on him as well. So Peter, depending on and filled in and having the Holy Spirit embolden him in this moment. Here's what he said, rulers and elders of the people, if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed now, How's that for an opening in front of some really powerful people who've already thrown you in jail and could do worse things to you, like, are We? Are we really? Let me get this straight. Are we really being called here today because of an act of kindness? Is that what this is really all about? An act of kindness? Okay, if that's what this is really all about, then verse 10. Know this you and all the people of Israel. It is by the name of Jesus, Christ, of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. This is how he was healed. That's the power that you were asking the question by what name or What power did we do this in this was done in Jesus' name. Now I want you to think about something here. This is Peter, who's giving this address, and he's saying things where he's kind of accusing these guys. I mean, you crucified Him, you did this, and kind of calling them out in this way, in this emboldened way, right? Well, let's also think about where Peter was not real long before this, this Sanhedrin that he's standing on trial in front of and speaking to right now that was questioning him was the same group of people that Jesus stood on trial in front of, the one that Jesus was being questioned about. These guys had the power they were questioning Jesus. Jesus was on trial. Well, one of the things that we know about the Gospels is that while that trial was going on, Peter, who's giving this speech now, at that time, had tried to kind of get close to the action and the things that was going on, Jesus was the one on trial. He wasn't in front of the Sanhedrin. He was at a distance. But even being at a. Distance, we know that the Gospels tell us that some little girl or a person around the fire asks him, Hey, aren't you one of the followers? Aren't you one of those Jesus followers? I mean, your accent kind of gives you away. And so in that moment, in just being asked about being a follower of Jesus, and filled with kind of fear and and what could happen to him in that moment, Peter, cowardly denies Jesus three times. I mean, cowardly denies him three times. But here now it's Peter, standing right in front of the same group, not the ones that are at a distance, who is standing right there in front of him, and now he's boldly standing in front of them, speaking truth and saying, it's by the name of Jesus that this man is healed and you crucified him, But God raised Him from the dead. What in the world has gotten into? Peter, yeah. One moment, cowardly fear, crawl, walk away. I'm even at a distance from them. I can't even get that close without walking in cowardly fear. And now the Holy Spirit was dwelling in him, and he's facing them head, right on in front of them, and empowered by the Holy Spirit calling things out and proclaiming the truth in front of them.When we talk about life in the Spirit,because the Holy Spirit changes everything.I mean, think of Peter, cowardly, denying Jesus three times, but now filled with the Holy Spirit, emboldened to speak truth and go you can do to me whatever it is that you want to do. I'm about to tell the truth, and I'm not worried. Not worried about the consequences. We ask the question, what do we do when we fear that living out of our convictions is going to cost us something?Well, apparently, we trust the Holy Spirit,the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, the God of the universe, who is all powerful, dwells in you, and you are living in a union with him. So he's emboldened by that Spirit, the Holy Spirit, living in them, calling them out, telling them the truth. And he just goes on now he's quoting the Old Testament at them, Jesus, he says, is the stone that you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. This is a quote from Psalm 118, 22 and of course, religious leaders were going to be familiar with that and, and Peter is saying, Listen, you guys, as the leaders of Israel, you're, you're tasked with, with building up this nation, if you will. But you've rejected the cornerstone that you're building upon, like, like he's been presented, like, here's the cornerstone to build the building that you are responsible for as the religious leaders. And you've gone, no, I don't really think that's right, and you just kind of tossed it over and rejected it, and are building the nation on something other than the actual cornerstone. It's his way of saying to them directly. I mean, Jesus is the Messiah. He's the most important stone in the building, and you have rejected Him, continuing to be emboldened, calling out the truth salvation. Verse 12, he continues, it's found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. And so now Peter continues, emboldened, empowered by the Holy Spirit, declares Jesus is the way. He's the truth, and he's the life, and there is no one that comes to the Father except through him. He's the cornerstone. No other name, no other way. But the other thing that I want you to really notice here is Peter. Is boldly declaring this truth. In front of them is he says, there's no other name of mankind by which we must be saved. In other words, he's standing in front of the Sanhedrin. He's calling them out, boldly proclaiming the truth. You're the ones who rejected Him, you're the ones responsible. You're doing all of these things. I'm telling you the truth about this. But Jesus died for even you. There's no other name. He's in front of them, that by which under heaven that we, including you guys and me, he's saying, can be saved, he's blasting them, but even they can be saved if they'll turn to Jesus for salvation and so. So when Jesus died on the cross, it was for for all people, even the ones who were rejecting Him, denying him, putting him on trial all the. Of and so Peter's laying it out here on the line, Jesus is the only way. And I know that you don't agree with me about that, but I'm going to boldly stand here and declare the truth to you, regardless of whatever it is that you can do for me. But even as I do that, I'mdoing this for you,because if you're willing to turn to Jesus, you too, can have your sins forgiven, and you can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and be building upon the cornerstone. Again, I think this is important for us to recognize, because I think you can see where we're going with some of this is that when we have life in the Spirit, and when we're emboldened by the Spirit, they're going to be sometimes that we are going to stand up in front of other people and declare the truth about things in front of them, and kind of call them out on some things. But what we see here is that Peter is doing so in love. He's doing it in a way that's for them. In my experience is that there are some of us who kind of just like to call other people out. We like speaking the truth to people, and we'll say that we're called to speak the truth, you know, stand up for Jesus. But listen, if you're doing it in a way where it's against people and not in a way that you're for them, then that's not really the Holy Spirit doing that in you and through you. It's it's good to call if the Holy Spirit's leading you to call that out, but if you just find yourself as attacking someone and and trying to put them down, and you have no care and concern about them, then we're missing what it is that we see the Holy Spirit, doing in and through the life of Peter, even here and so he is being emboldened and not cowering in fear, standing in courage, declaring the truth, doing so in love and a heart for them. And if they would just turn and they recognize it. They they notice it. Right. Verse 13, when they saw the Sanhedrin, saw the courage of Peter and John, and realized they were unschooled ordinary men. They were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.Guys, that verse right there can change your life,because there's some of you who are like me,and you think you're just ordinary,that you don't really have muchto offer, that Jesus may be placing something on your heart that he kind of wants to lead you into, but you're going No No, not not me. I can't really step into that, but we see right here that Peter and John were unschooled ordinary men. Nothing special about them. Peter didn't have the gift of, you know, standing up in front of people and speaking in public, speaking and drawing people's attention to those things. It was the power of the Holy Spirit working in him and through him to do extra ordinary things, through someone who is so ordinary. I mean, he's just a fisherman, right? He's just a fisherman, and now he's proclaiming the truth boldly. And so my question, is there something? Is there something that Jesus has been calling you to do, but you've not followed through with it, because you thought that you were too ordinary, because you're fearful of not being good enough, because you're you're scared of whatever the result may be, whatever people will say, how it will go. Guys don't miss out on life in the Spirit, and the adventure that God is calling you into with him. He takes ordinary people, he fills them with courage, and he does extra ordinary things in and through ordinary people. They noticed this, and they took note. It says that they had been with Jesus. They go, you know, maybe there's something to this Jesus guy after all. Thing about it was they had been with Jesus. They had spent three years with Jesus. But it wasn't so much just that they had spent three years with Jesus. It was now that, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, Jesus was living in them. Now it was Jesus who is expressing his life through the power of the Holy Spirit in a way that they were recognizing Jesus's activity in and through them. And so that's the thing is, it's not just that they had been with Jesus, but he was in them, and now he's in you too, if you put your trust in Jesus for salvation as well. But since they could not or could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing that they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin. And then conferred together. What are we going to do with these men? They asked everyone living in Jerusalem knows that they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it, but to stop this thing from separating or from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name. So this group sees the evidence. I mean, they see the evidence of Jesus doing supernatural, miraculous things through the apostles. Everyone knows it, they said, and they themselves even say they cannot deny it. But even though they can't deny it, even though they've seen it, instead of turning to Jesus, they just continue to walk in their own pride and ignore the evidence and also try to stop everyone else from hearing the good news about Jesus. There are a lot of people who sometimes say, you know, if Jesus would just show up and really do something big and miraculous, or show up himself, right here. I believe in him.Then, apparently not.It's not just about that. It's about having a closed heart and not being open to even where the evidence is leading in these moments. Then verse 18, they called them in again and commanded them to not speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus, but Peter and John replied, which is right in God's eyes, to listen to you or to him, You be the judges as for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old, so So one of the things that we see when we're talking about life in the Spirit is that there are going to be times when the Holy Spirit leads us to actually disobey the people who are in authority over us now, not just for any reason, not just because, not just because we want to cause some conflict, but it's when they're telling us to do something that goes against what God commands us to do or is leading us to do. In those moments, the authorities had stood in front of Peter and John and said, Hey, don't tell other people about Jesus. Don't go spread the gospel and the good news about Jesus. But in Matthew 28 we know that Jesus stood before them and said, Go tell other people about me. Go make disciples of all nations. Go share the Gospel. And so even though these people are in authority and power over them, they're led by the Holy Spirit to say, I'm sorry, this is where we have to draw the line. We'll respect you as authorities, and we'll follow through and do what it is that we're supposed to do, until you tell us to do something that clearly violates a command of God, and you're doing it right now. And so they're standing up, regardless of whatever the consequences may be to them in this moment, they're in front of some really powerful people who could make their lives miserable, and they're saying this for us, we can't help but talk about Jesus. So when we talk about application, and what some of this means to me and what we see here, one of the things that we see that we just kind of talked about was that the Spirit will lead us to speak the truth in love, regardless of the consequences. Sometimes that may be to someone who's in authority over to us and we're saying no. Sometimes that may be that God's just leading us to speak the truth to someone in our own family, or someone at work or about a situation or circumstance or things that are going on, and they could make our lives miserable as a result. We could suffer consequences for that. But it's clear that the Holy Spirit is leading us into telling the truth in this way, and so we lean in and we trust Him, and sometimes when we do that, it's going to cost us something. It could cost us a friendship. If it's a friend that we're having to approach with the truth. It could cost us a job promotion if you're encouraged, or you're being led to to tell the truth about something going on in your company, or having a discussion with your your boss in some way, and you're standing up for what is right, it could cause and disrupt family harmony. Maybe everything's going along fine in your family, and the Holy Spirit's leading you to kind of step in and say the truth about something, but you're going, you know, things are kind of going good right now. I don't really know if I want to rock the boat, and again, we don't do that just to cause destruction. But if the Holy Spirit's leading us to and it's something that he wants to do in and through you, to do a work that's good for them and for you and for His glory, then we trust him with the results. On the other side of those things, in those moments, we can choose to stay silent,to keep things comfortable,or we can trust the Holy Spirit and speak up and face whatever consequences actually. Ly come in those moments. We don't react in fear. We don't stay comfortable just for the sake of being comfortable. Life in the spirit looks like us trusting the spirit, speaking the truth in love and living in the freedom of knowing that if the spiritually causing us in this moment and we allow Him to speak that truth through us in love. Whatever results that happen are not on us in that moment. They're on him, because he's the one at work in us and through us to cause that and it may not be the results that we hoped even would happen where we go, Well, you're the All Knowing God, and you're the all wise God, so whatever you caused to happen, or whatever you allowed to happen must have been part of your plan, and for our good and your glory in some way, regardless of whatever it is that happened. And so sometimes we just need to ask the question, Is God calling us to speak up, and we're staying silent in some way because of fear of consequences, trust the Holy Spirit in you and through you in those moments. Life in the spirit will empower the ordinary. We've already highlighted this, but let's just say it. If we're really landing the plane and talking about application and what does this mean for us? Today, we're not just going to walk out of here and go, Hey, I learned something else about the Holy Spirit today, the spirit will empower you. Life in the Spirit will empower the ordinary to do extraordinary Kingdom work. What is it that God has been leading you to step into but you haven't because of fear, again, because you don't think you have what it is that it takes because you're scared. Welcome to the club. Most of us feel that way, but what we saw today is that God took unschooled ordinary fishermen, put his Holy Spirit in them, gave them courage to step into participating in life in the Spirit, and then he began to work in them and through them and do extraordinary things. And he can do the same thing through you, and He will do the same thing through you, if you'll trust and depend upon him. Now, before we move on, when we talk about him doing extraordinary things in and through you, a lot of times, our minds go to these huge, big things that the world, and in your mind, you define extraordinary. But let's be real, even if it doesn't feel like it's that extraordinary, if the Holy Spirit living in you led you to step out into His kingdom work in some way, and he empowered you to carry that work out, that's my definition of extraordinary, because that wasn't you. That was supernatural work of the God of the universe doing something in you and through you. So however small The results were in your own mind, that's pretty extraordinary that he did that in and through an ordinary being like you and me. And so don't get lost in that and going, Oh, that's not true. I never do anything big and extraordinary. He doesn't do that kind of thing through me, and you just need to alter your definition of extraordinary, or maybe need to trust Him and lean in more, and you'll see him maybe even do some of those bigger things that you don't think he can do. And then finally, if we're talking about application, what we saw in this passage today is that the Spirit will reveal the truth that there is no other name by which we can be saved, other than Jesus. He declared that boldly in front of them that there are not multiple ways to heaven. We can't just believe our own truth and think that well, whatever it is that I believe is good, and whatever it is that you believe is good, and even if you go down this path, this way, and I go this way, and other people at some point, they all just kind of merge back together, and we all end up in heaven and okay with God. That's I mean, that would contradict everything that Jesus said about being the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. And what we saw here about there's no other name other than Jesus that can be saved. It can't be always lead it, or only Jesus that can't they both can't be true at the same time. And so if that's never a step that you've taken, you've always believed kind of something else. And we're talking about life in the Spirit. Life in the spirit means that when you're looking to him and saying, I'm open to who you are and how you reveal myself to to me and or yourself to me, if you're you're real or not, or what my response and all that is, is that his role is to illuminate that truth and show you that there really is no other way other than through Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins so that Now you don't have to receive the wrath of God, because He's poured out the wrath on his own son. And so maybe that's the application for you today, the way that he's leading you to respond. And so maybe it's again, he's leading you to speak the truth in love. Trust Him and be willing to take the concept. Consequences. Maybe it's stepping into something that he's been calling you to do, and you've been saying no to because you're just too ordinary. Or maybe you've never said yes to Jesus, and today is the day that you're going, Oh, I'm starting to get it now. This starting to make sense, and now I want to respond and receive this free gift of salvation. If that's you, I want to give you the opportunity to do that right now as we close this time together

Acts 4:1-22 (Week 8 – Life in the Spirit)