Sunday, December 18, 2022 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Well, let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for gathering us here today.

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I thank you that you have raised up your Son from the dead on this first day of the week.

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And in this great hope that we have in our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ ascended to your right hand to reign in victory until he returns.

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Father, we give you praise. Thank you for giving us your Son. Thank you for promising to give all that we need with your

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Son and in your Son. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which we commune with you and commune together in love in the name of Christ.

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I thank you for this season where we reflect upon the glories and the mysteries of the Incarnation.

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The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we behold your glory through the light of your

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Son, Jesus. I pray that you would help us today as we look to your

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Word. I pray that you would give us a clear view of your Son in this

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Word, that we would look like him in this world, that you would have your way among us.

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We pray for these graces for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased. Amen.

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Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 4.

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Acts chapter 4, and we will be reading verses 1 through 12 this morning.

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Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 12. Someone once said that the book of Acts is a little bit misnamed.

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It should be entitled, Speeches. About one in every three verses in the book of Acts is some sort of speech, and we already have a lot of preaching on the part of Peter.

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And we see him preaching in strange moments. The odd opportunity when the

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Spirit arrives at Pentecost, and there is confusion and skeptics.

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Peter steps up and begins to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. How the promises of the new covenant are come to pass in him.

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And then, when a man who was born lame is healed in the name of Jesus Christ, and great excitement breaks out in the temple grounds, amidst all of that excitement and chaos,

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Peter begins preaching again. These are not necessarily organized, orderly, structured opportunities, and yet he takes them and uses them to proclaim

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Christ. We have another moment here in Acts 4. After preaching in the temple in the name of Jesus, the promise of the resurrection of the dead, this made the temple rulers so angry they arrested

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Peter and John, threw them in a cell overnight, and now they are brought before the

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Sanhedrin, Peter and John standing before 70 plus men, all co -conspirators to the murder of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Not exactly preaching to the choir. And yet again, Peter takes up this moment and begins to proclaim the good news of Jesus.

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Well, I invite you to stand with me as I read. This is the word of our

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Lord Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit through his servant Luke, verse 1 of Acts 4.

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

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

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However, many of those who heard the word believed in the number of the men who came to be about 5 ,000.

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It came to pass on the next day that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest,

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Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem.

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And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have you done this?

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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead by him, this man stands here before you whole.

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This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

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Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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You may be seated. When is a good opportunity to do the right thing?

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I don't mean to be hard on the American Baptist culture, but we have an open door, closed door theology which sometimes gets in the way of our obedience.

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I'm just praying for an open door. Well, I grew up with that. You know,

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God closed that door, but I'm praying that God will open another one. You've heard that before, haven't you? We have a tendency to use that language that we have from Paul and his experience in the mission field, and we have a tendency to use that to explain why we don't obey when things are really tough, and that's not really the way

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Paul was using that language in Acts or in his letters describing the situations.

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I think we know that obedience is not problem free. Obedience is not problem free.

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The right opportunity to do the right thing is when it's in front of us, no matter what shape it's in.

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You know, if you're playing stickball and all you have is a broken broom handle, and the ball is an oblong, mashed together roll of aluminum foil, it doesn't matter what shape things are in, it's time to hit.

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And in this particular case in Acts 4, the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, throw a pitch right down the middle, slow and easy.

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Look at this pitch. Verse 7, by what power or by what name have you done this?

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Oh boy. And Peter hits it out of the park. But it is not the best opportunity, is it?

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All around this room are seated 70 plus men who were directly involved in the conspiracy to murder

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Jesus of Nazareth. They had plotted together on several occasions. They had bribed one of his own disciples to betray him.

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They abducted him under false pretenses at night with a mob, put him through various show trials that had no legal standing whatsoever, forced the hand of the

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Roman pro -council by threat of mob violence to condemn him to death, rejoiced in his suffering, and after God raised him from the dead the third day, having glory struck down their temple guard, intentionally spread lies saying the disciples came and stole the body out of the tomb after the guards fell asleep.

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This is the crowd to whom Peter and John preach in this moment.

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You can't get any more hostile than this. If we were faced with the same situation, given the character quality of these men having been proven time and again, we might say something to ourselves like, it just really wasn't an open door.

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But the right opportunity to do the right thing is when it's right in front of us, no matter what shape it's in. And we find, not only in the teachings of Jesus, but in the experience of his apostles, that opposition to Christ creates opportunities for his witnesses.

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Opposition to Christ creates opportunities for his witnesses. Now, last time in verses one through seven, we spent our time trying to understand the nature of opposition to the gospel, because we tend to avoid that which we don't understand.

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And in this particular case, if we don't understand opposition to the gospel, and thus we avoid those situations, we become unfaithful to the task.

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We don't want to be unfaithful to the task. We need to understand that opposition to the gospel, sinful men rebelling against God's word, questioning the authority claims of Christ, but now understanding the opposition to the gospel, we are to undertake these opportunities for the gospel.

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And we are to do so by the grace of God. Notice verse eight. How is it that Peter responds?

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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them.

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Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them.

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It doesn't say, Peter, filled with sardonic wit and a superior mind, far more prepared, a better logician, having been better trained in rhetoric, answered to them.

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What does it say? Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied to them. And this is significant to the story that we're reading, because indeed, this book is called the

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Acts of the Apostles, and yet we have seen that these are actually the acts of the risen

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Lord Jesus Christ. And what did he promise his disciples?

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What did he promise his followers about situations like these? We look back in Luke's first volume,

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Luke chapter 21, verses 12 through 15. Jesus is equipping his disciples for what is to come.

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What will happen after he is ascended to the right hand of his

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Father? What is going to transpire as he rules and reigns and advances his kingdom in the world?

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His followers being his witnesses beginning in Jerusalem. What is going to happen?

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Well, before the judgment falls upon Jerusalem, before the judgment falls upon this wicked and perverse generation, before the judgment falls, before all these things, he says in Luke 21, verse 12, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues.

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It's a very Jewish thing. The Gentiles didn't have synagogues. And prisons.

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Well, Peter and John just spent a night in the prison, and now they're put before the chief so -called synagogue, the gathering of the religious leaders.

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You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.

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This hostile crowd falsely accusing you, trying to persecute you.

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Guess what? This is an occasion for testimony. This is an occasion for you to give witness of my name, right?

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Because you're there for my name's sake. Verse 14. Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer.

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For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.

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So not by your wit, not by your scholasticism, not by your intelligence, not by your rhetoric, not by you beforehand figuring out a really great way to win the argument, to win the day, but by my hand, by my power.

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He clarifies this earlier in Luke 12 .12. He says, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you are to say.

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I'm going to give you a comforter. I'm going to give you a helper, and the Holy Spirit is going to empower you.

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He will empower you to say what needs to be said in this moment. It is unsurprising that, of course, the

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Holy Spirit directing Peter and helping Peter and empowering Peter, that what comes out of Peter's mouth has everything to do with the glory of Jesus Christ.

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That is a totally unsurprising outcome. But this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, what is at stake in this moment for Peter and John?

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What is at stake for them? It is not the fact that they're about to get cancelled by the leaders of their culture.

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The Sanhedrin that rules not only Jerusalem, but all of the Jewish regions, that has authority in all of these areas.

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It is not that they are about to become outlaws. That's not what is at stake. What is at stake is not their own personal shame or risking yet another night in prison if they decide to drag this trial out.

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What is at risk is not their own flesh, should they be beaten. What is at risk is not what kind of persecution may be levied at their own families.

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What will happen to their fathers and their fishing businesses? That is not what is at stake.

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What is at stake was laid before them long before this point in time by their own

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Lord and Savior when he told them, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the

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Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

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That is what is at stake. That they would be ashamed of Christ.

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Ashamed of Christ before this particular wicked and perverse generation of whom

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Jesus said would suffer greater judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah. This particular wicked and perverse generation upon whom will come all the blood guiltiness of all the prophets murdered from Abel to Zechariah son of Barakai whom they killed between the altar.

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This wicked and perverse generation under the judgment of God, under the wrath of God, why would they be ashamed to declare the good news of Jesus Christ, the true

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Son of God, the true servant, the one who fulfills all of the promises of the old covenant.

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Why would they be ashamed of the Son of Man, that royal figure prophesied in Daniel chapter 7 to whom is given a dominion which will never be destroyed.

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Power above all. Do not be ashamed of the Son of Man in the face of the opposition coming from this wicked and perverse generation.

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That is what is at stake for Peter and John. But I would have you know that even with that equation before them, it is not simply a matter of weighing who it is that you have to take sides with.

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It's not a matter of, well, let's see, this generation is wicked and perverse. This generation is under the judgment of God.

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This generation is going to suffer the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. But, of course, Christ, the

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Son of Man, defeated death in the grave, and He's ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He's more exalted than all to put together.

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Well, the scales obviously say side with Christ. It is not simply a logical equation.

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It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Peter stands here in this hostile environment and confesses the name of Jesus Christ without shame.

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It is by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the word of the

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Lord, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

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That is how the temple gets built. And the son of David is the one who builds the temple.

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And, of course, he builds it with living stones. Now, if we're going to undertake opportunities for the gospel, no matter what shape they're in, we do so by the power of the

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Spirit, by the grace of God, also with a love for man, with a love for man.

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Notice what Peter says. Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well.

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And he says, well, it's by the name of Jesus. Notice how he addresses the hostile environment and what he has to say about the man who was healed.

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Obviously, he has compassion upon the healed man. Consider his state.

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Consider what he has been delivered from. Consider what he has been saved from. A continued day after day existence of being lame and laid there outside of the temple gate, never to be healed, never to be restored, never to be helped, never to be given access into the temple courts by this broken system of yours.

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Consider this helpless man who has been made whole. You see the compassion that Peter has for the healed lame man.

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But also we see how Peter addresses those who oppose Christ.

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He says rulers of the people and elders of Israel. He does not say brainless dirtbags.

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Why is that? I mean, don't they deserve to be roughed up a little?

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Don't they deserve to be hit with some insults, especially considering how foolish they have been and how wrong they have been, how treacherous they have been?

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Don't they deserve to be shamed and humbled a bit? But how does he address them?

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He addresses them respectfully. He addresses them according to the weight of the responsibility they bear, which they need to be reminded of.

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But he is not responding in some fashion as to take vengeance at some level for what they did to his

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Lord and what they are doing to he and his brother John at this moment. Filled with the

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Holy Spirit, Peter responds in love to his enemies.

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He responds in love to his enemies, to those who hate him and hate

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Christ. They have arrested Peter and John, seeking to accuse them falsely for causing some sort of ruckus.

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They have lied about Christ several times over. And although this ruling body curses them with lies,

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Peter blesses them with truth. So you see that there is a love for men.

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Opportunities for the gospel should be taken up by the grace of God and with a love for men. In Romans chapter 13, verses 7 through 8, something interesting happens when we have these two verses placed together side by side.

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Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

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And then verse 8 says, owe no one anything except to love one another.

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Well, what if I owe taxes? What if I owe customs? What if I owe respect?

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What if I owe honor? How am I to understand that process?

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Well, a love for men. Owe no one anything except to love one another.

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Why? For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Oh no, not just keeping the law, but out and out fulfilling the whole thing in Christ.

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Righteousness superior to that of the Pharisees and scribes who were only trying to keep up. What is

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Peter doing when he gives fear to whom fear and honor to whom honor? Rulers, elders of the people.

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That is a very respectful approach, is it not? Is he not loving them by the way he addresses them?

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Is he not loving them by speaking to them? But hang on a second. This is, after all, the group that murdered

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Jesus. They conspired together. They hated Jesus Christ. They were always trying to find a way to incriminate him with the people or with the

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Roman authorities, trying to disprove him at all costs. They hated

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Jesus of Nazareth. They didn't want to hear another word about Jesus of Nazareth.

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They especially did not want to hear what Peter says next. You crucified him.

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They don't want to be saddled with that. Yes, in the moment they were yelling and screaming, his blood be upon us and our children.

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But they, as you read to the book of Acts, they really hated being reminded about that. They did not want being mostly

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Sadducees in the room. They did not want to be told that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead by God when they out and out rejected the doctrine of resurrection.

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They didn't want to hear that either. They did not want to hear that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the

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Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one long promised by all of the scriptures.

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The Messiah had finally arrived, and they were the ones who killed him. They didn't want to hear that either.

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Everything that Peter says in this abbreviated sermon to the Sanhedrin was exactly what they did not want to hear.

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It threatened them. It destabilized them. It made them feel unsafe.

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In today's vernacular, someone would say that Peter was doing violence to them. But in fact,

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Peter was loving them. Jacob I have loved,

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Esau I have hated, the scriptures say. God wouldn't leave

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Jacob alone. No matter what Jacob was up to, how desperate

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Jacob got, God wouldn't leave him alone. God was the hound of heaven in that love, hounding

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Jacob, coming after him again and again and again, even wrestling him until he gave him a new name.

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Esau I have hated. What did God do to Esau to express that hatred?

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Nothing. Genesis 36, read it for yourself.

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The whole history of Esau and all his descendants. Do you know what's absent from Genesis 36? God. He didn't have anything to do with him.

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He let Esau be Esau. Esau, you do you. That is hatred.

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If Peter was going to respond in hatred and ultimate vengeance against the Sanhedrin who had conspired against his

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Lord, who had unjustly imprisoned he and his friend John, then he would have stood there and said, y 'all can figure it out on your own.

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You can figure it out on your own. I'm not going to tell you anything. Remember Jonah?

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He hated. He hated the Ninevites, which is why he didn't want to go tell them anything.

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But Peter responds in love. You see, love scripturally is not unconditional affirmation.

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By this we know love that he laid down his life for the brethren. So also ought we to lay down our lives.

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Love is a righteous and sacrificial devotion that I am for you in the right way, even if it costs me. And this is what

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Peter is doing. Risking whatever well -being might be expected, risking his freedom, risking his health, risking his life, risking his name, risking his connections, everything.

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And he is loving the rulers of the people and the elders of Israel who hate him by declaring to them the gospel.

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So when we undertake opportunities for the gospel, we do so by the grace of God, with a love for men in the name of Jesus.

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Look at what he says in verse 10. Let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead, by him, this man stands here before you whole.

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Whole. Peter is very clear on the nature of what happened and who it was who brought it to pass.

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By the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, the anointed one, the great prophet, the high priest, the king of kings,

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Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the one who grew up in that one well town forever known as Jesus the

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Nazarene, the man who was also known as the branch, the nesir.

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The branch, long promised in various locations in Isaiah. He is the one promised to come.

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The branch of righteousness shooting up from the stump of Jesse, the one who continues the promises of God that he made to the descendant of David.

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This particular Jesus, this is not the Jesus of the Mormons or the Jesus of the

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Jehovah's Witnesses or the Jesus of the Muslims. This is not the Jesus of the Spiritists. This is not the

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Jesus of the Hindus. This is not the Jesus of the Buddhists. This is not the Jesus of the

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Roman Catholics. This is the Jesus of Nazareth, fully

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God and fully man, born of a virgin, who lived the perfect and righteous life in our place and for our sake.

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Died on the cross as substitutionary atonement for us, for our salvation, and raised from the dead the third day, ascended to the right hand of the

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Father where he reigns in victory and will return when he defeats all his enemies.

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This Jesus, in the name of this Jesus declared in the scriptures, according to the scriptures, this

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Jesus Christ is the one, Peter says to the Sanhedrin, you crucified him, but God raised him from the dead.

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And if you want proof that he's risen from the dead, this man, this lame man, born lame, he now stands whole before you.

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Here's proof that Jesus is risen. So he preaches this name, this savior.

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He preaches the God man. I didn't like that name, but it was the name they needed to hear.

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After all, he is the chief cornerstone. Verse 11, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

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This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

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We're going to undertake opportunities for the gospel. We do so by the grace of God, with a love for men, in the name of Jesus, because he is the chief cornerstone.

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What Peter says here is a quotation from Psalm 118. Psalm 118 is dealing with the history of the people of God, the history of Israel, and their ups and downs, their difficulties.

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A psalm written by the people of God who returned from exile from Babylon as they worshiped together and reflected upon the grace of God towards them.

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In Psalm 118, and in verse 22, we read the stone, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

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This was the Lord's doing. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.

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This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Don't you love that song?

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You've probably got that verse somewhere up in your house somewhere. What day is it?

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The day that Christ has made the chief cornerstone. The day that Christ succeeds.

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The day that Christ brings about the new covenant. Sunday, the original one.

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This is the day the Lord has made. And we live in the light of that day. Even to this day, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

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Notice how Peter preaches to this passage, this passage which is talking about Israel as a stone which the builders rejected has somehow become the chief cornerstone.

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Look how Peter preaches that to his hostile audience in the context of the

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Sanhedrin. How is he preaching that text? What is he saying about that?

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I mean, Psalm 118 is about the ups and downs, the difficulties that Israel has gone through.

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What a history you read through the Old Testament. You read 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd

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Kings. Oh my, the cycles that that nation went through.

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In light of God's promises. What is being said here about Israel in Psalm 118?

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A stone which the builders rejected which has become the chief cornerstone. But it was the Lord's doing that took the rejected thing and put it in the center of everything, right?

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Look there, a rock uncut by human hands. It's heel chipped out, dropped upon the head of a snake.

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Its appearance marred, unstately, lacking the splendor men crave, despised and forsaken.

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It is now the chief, the head, the most important piece and the most important plan. How did that happen? It was the

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Lord's doing. Abram shakes the dust of Babel off his feet and he heads for the city of Salem.

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For God has a different kind of city which he has designed and which he builds. And the cornerstone of that city is the seed of Abraham.

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Israel is redeemed from baking bricks in pagan Egypt because there's a different kingdom that God has in mind.

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One that has his son as the cornerstone. Remember little shepherd

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David, originally rejected but now he reigns. His life bound in the bundle of the living with God.

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And David's son is the one who builds the temple into which the nations stream, the center of the universe, the cornerstone.

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Who did that? It was the Lord's doing. And now here in Psalm 118, the Jews have returned from exile.

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They've gathered together in Jerusalem. They've survived attempted genocide. They've rebuilt the walls of the broken city.

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How in the world did they survive? How in the world has it turned out so well? It was the Lord's doing. Here in the great

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Hillel, they're singing and they're celebrating the Feast of Booths. Anticipating the arrival of Messiah and his bringing of the new covenant.

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What are we seeing here? The entirety of history and the whole future of creation erected and launched from what was thought to be a garbage land and a throwaway people.

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The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. How did that happen? It was the

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Lord's doing. And Peter takes up this critical passage from the Old Testament and he preaches it to the

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Sanhedrin and says, you're the builders and you have rejected the chief cornerstone.

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You are the builders and you have rejected the chief cornerstone. The one about whom it's all about.

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The Sanhedrin was involved in a lot of building. They were all about rebuilding Jerusalem, beautifying

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Jerusalem, making it the center of trade and religion. They've been in a multi -decade project of rebuilding the temple, beautifying the structure that was originally set forth by Zerubbabel and Joshua and Ezra.

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And by the political power and imperial coin of Herod the Great, they had begun a rebuilding project where they were beautifying the temple there in Jerusalem, overlaying every possible inch of it with gold.

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They are the builders. And what are they building? Why did they kill

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Jesus? Because at His trial, it came to light that He said something to the effect of, destroy this temple and in three days, they'll erase it up again.

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An attack upon the temple? It may never be. And they put Him on the cross because He dared to speak against the temple.

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They are the builders of the temple. But you know what they're lacking in their building project? The starting point of the project.

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The cornerstone. They don't have the cornerstone. They don't have the first piece that is to be laid that is perfectly true and plumb and right, upon which every other piece is to be laid and measured by.

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The text in the original language says, the chief, the head, angle stone.

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That can apply to the cornerstone, the very first stone you lay, or the capstone, the angled stone you insert at the very last that brings a wholeness to the ceiling, the roof of the building, and keeps it all holding together.

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And Christ is called both the cornerstone and the capstone in the scriptures. They're lacking the first stone.

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They're lacking the last stone. The beginning and end, their whole project is wrong. And Peter, loving his enemies, is saying to them, you're the builders, but what you're building is wrong.

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You don't have Christ. You've rejected Him. But he's preaching the gospel, the good news to them anyway.

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This is the word of the Lord, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the

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Lord of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before it's irrevocable, you shall become a plain, and he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace to it, grace to it.

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That's how the temple gets built. Jesus Christ is the builder. He's the beginning and end of our faith.

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He's the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the one who builds the temple. Son of David builds the temple.

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And so the Jews, although they had abandoned the blueprints, God had not abandoned

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His mercy and witnessed them by sending His two fishermen to go fish for men and tell them they needed to repent.

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What expectation could they possibly have that any of these chief priests, any of these priests, these

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Sadducees who ran the temple and hated Christ and conspired against them, what expectation could they possibly have that this would have any efficacy at all?

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Why even bother? They're obviously beyond hope. If there's anybody beyond the reach of Christ, beyond the reach of the gospel, it has to be the priests who run the temple and conspired against Jesus and had

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Him killed, right? In Acts 6 -7, many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

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Meaning what? Sadducees who had once denied the resurrection and denied the deity of Jesus Christ and conspired to have

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Him killed, repented of their sins and believed upon Christ and became part of the church, amen?

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Well, that's the kind of thing that Christ builds. You see, if it's up to us and to our flesh and to our abilities, we wouldn't even try.

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We'll just have to wait till the door opens, right? But how does

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Christ build? Builds in a way which we can praise Him. And this is a message which must be said.

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Verse 12 says, Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Under all of heaven, whether you're Jew or Gentile, wherever you live, no matter what, there is salvation in no other.

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There was only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And we must be saved, for we have been made in the image of God.

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He is our creator. We wear His uniform day in and day out. The worship switch is always hardwired on.

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That's what it means to be a human being. And we worship that which we should not worship. We fail to give glory to God.

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We fall short of His glory because we're made in His image, wearing His uniform, and breaking the uniform code every day.

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We must be saved. So God sends forth His Son, who is the image of the invisible

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God, who is the second Adam, who brings forward the new creation, and He comes forth as our

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Savior. It's His name. Call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

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We must be saved by Him and Him alone. Jesus Himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the

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Father except for me. It's an interesting moment when Peter preaches this to the

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Sanhedrin. He says there is no salvation in anyone else, nor is there salvation in any other.

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There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. He's saying this as a subject, not a citizen, but a subject of the

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Roman Empire. A Roman Empire with whose political power this

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Sanhedrin is in full cahoots. This Sanhedrin who has recently said, we have no king but Caesar.

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And what of Caesar? When Caesar came to power, each

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Caesar successfully coming after the other Caesar, what would they do when they came to the throne?

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They would proclaim euangelion, gospel. They would say, here's the good news.

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Here's the gospel to the whole empire now that I'm your emperor, wonderful days ahead.

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Politicians still do that today because the state is still treated as savior today.

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And the Roman emperors would call themselves the son of God, referring to the previous

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Roman emperor whom they styled as a God. Roman emperors would call themselves divine.

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Roman emperors would call themselves savior. These are the terms of the

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Roman emperors. This is how they would style themselves. And if there were ever any problems, perhaps a man born lame, where were you supposed to look for that man's salvation?

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Who was supposed to help that man? Well, obviously the state must intervene and save because the state was

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God personified by the emperor. And to this

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Sanhedrin, the governing council, who has lately said

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Caesar is our only king, Peter preaches and he says, there is only one savior.

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There is only one Lord. There was only one name that God has given to us under all of heaven, whereby we must be saved.

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And his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

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John Calvin said, we see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.

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If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him.

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If we seek any other gifts of the spirit, they will be found in Christ's anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion.

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If purity, in his conception. If gentleness, it appears in his birth.

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If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion. If acquittal, in his condemnation.

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If remission of the curse, in his cross. If satisfaction, in his sacrifice.

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If purification, in his blood. If mortification of the flesh, in his tomb.

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If newness of life, in his resurrection. If immortality, in the same.

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If inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, in his entrance into heaven. If protection, if security.

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If abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom. If untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.

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In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain and from no other.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've afforded us in your word. I thank you for the message that Peter preached, despite the difficulty, despite the opposition.

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And I pray that this message of Christ's superiority, his preeminence, his glory, his power to save, that this would be the message that we hold to personally, fully, in and of ourselves, by your spirit, that we truly are hanging everything upon this one nail of Christ.

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And that this would be our message to all people that you have brought into our lives, whether they would count themselves as family or friends or co -workers, neighbors or enemies, that this would be our message to them in the love of Christ.

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Please help us with this task and give us joy as we follow you. In Christ's name we pray.