Only One Answer - [Acts 4:5-12]

10 Historic Trials That Shook The World. Because we're going to have a trial this morning. So I thought, hey, we've got to look up 10 historic trials. Number 10, the Salem Witch Trials. And I think it's interesting how they describe it here, because they say, at first glance, the notoriety peculiar to the Salem trial seems a little unwarranted.

Of the estimated tens of thousands of people who were put to death as witches during the early modern period, only 19 were inhabitants of Salem. Of course, another five died waiting execution, but, you know.

But I thought, that's kind of interesting. Only a total of 24 out of tens of thousands, the Salem Witch Trials. But who knows of any of the other trials? I don't. Number eight, Martin Luther. I have to kind of speed through these.

Martin Luther, he said, It is better that I should die a thousand times than I should retract one syllable of the condemned articles. Talking about what he'd written. And as they excommunicated me for the sacrilege of heresy, so I excommunicate them in the name of the sacred truth of God.

Christ will judge whose excommunication will stand. Amen. Number seven, King Charles I. How many have ever heard of him? Good King Charles? There you go. English Civil War. Listen to this. The King's behavior at the close of the Civil War and his repeated efforts to interfere with Cromwell's aims severely diminished the chance that his life might be spared.

In spite of the fact that he still enjoyed the support, or at least the forgiveness, of many in his former domain. A revolutionary tribunal was created. It declared that Charles was a traitor and a tyrant.

And he was beheaded. I won't go through the gory details. Number six, Galileo. Who was condemned for saying what? That the sun was the center of the universe. According to the papal condemnation, the proposition that the sun is the center of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical.

Because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture. I'm not going to debate that, but no, it's not. Jan Hus was put to death. They make mention of the idea that he was a man before his time. Basically, he was teaching Reformation doctrine before the Reformation and therefore put to death.

But it's interesting here that his followers defeated no less than five papal crusades to invade their territory. So the Catholic Church was definitely against the Reformation, even before the Reformation.

Joan of Arc. She had a rigged jury, and we're going to see that this morning too. She was declared guilty and sentenced to lifelong imprisonment. Inside prison, she began wearing male clothing to avoid being attacked by the British guards.

Being a woman there. This provided the authorities with the justification they needed to execute her as a relapsed heretic. Socrates. I like this one. Number two. Socrates. His manner of pointing out people's ethical mistakes has certainly become annoying in the same way that a gadfly might annoy a horse.

It became dangerous to walk the streets of Athens. Athenians never knew when Socrates would come striding out of the blue to morally assault their unexamined opinions. Therefore, what did they do? Eventually, they convict him of being a jerk, and they give him poison.

I won't mention any names, but some people in the congregation should be concerned. Number one, of course, was Jesus. I'm not going to go over the trial as they surmise it, because it's not really that great, but I'd invite you to open your Bibles to Acts 4.

We know the greatest travesty of a trial in history was what happened to Jesus Christ, an innocent man condemned to death. Our text today is Acts 4, verses 5 -12. Acts 4, verses 5 -12. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.

And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Just by way of review, the book of Acts is a history of the early church, covers a little bit more than 30 years of church history. And it focuses first on Peter, as we're seeing even today, and then later on, on Paul.

It is the record of the outworking of the command that Jesus gave the apostles in Acts 1, verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses, listen, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

So clearly, we're still in Jerusalem. In fact, we're not very far away from the temple itself. And last week, as Peter concluded his second sermon, after Peter and John went to the temple for a prayer meeting and then healed the man born crippled, born lame, the man had been begging at the beautiful gate, and they healed him.

And after being born healed, he immediately, and it's so important we recognize this, what happens in the Bible is miracles happen, and they are immediate, and they are total. There's no kind of process to them.

He immediately got up and was praising God and clinging to Peter and John, even as they spoke, and even as they were arrested. Vitally, we know that the man did not merely get healed, but he was saved.

And it would be wonderful if he was physically healed, because he was an outcast, and he was not just physically an outcast or physically lame, but he was unable to participate in the spiritual life of Israel.

He was unable to have a job. He was unable to do anything. But listen to Acts 3 .16. And his name, by faith in his name, talking about Jesus as Peter preached, by faith in his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

Everybody knew who he was. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. Nevertheless, as verse 2 of chapter 4 tells us, those in power were greatly annoyed.

Why were they annoyed? Because Peter and John, does say they in our text, were teaching about the resurrection. And because of that teaching about the resurrection, they were arrested. Even so, Luke, the author of Acts, notes that many who heard believed.

And so the total number of men in the church grew to about 5 ,000. And again, as we've noted, it's a relatively short period of time from Pentecost till this day, and they've gone from 120 believers to maybe more than 10 ,000.

Because when you add in women and others who would not have been counted just in the males, you might have young children who believe. We're talking about quite a lot of growth. This morning we'll look at the trial of Peter and John and we'll see how Peter both defends against these charges and against these men, really, and then how he counterattacks.

So first it's going to be defense because the best offense is a good defense, and then we're going to see the offense as well. Peter and John spend the night in custody. That's what happens. That's why we read in our text on the next day, they spend the night in custody, and then they must answer to the Jewish leadership.

But notice that the jury is biased. We want to talk about a rigged jury. Verse 5 tells us on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem. This would be the members of the Sanhedrin who would be the rulers, men relied upon by them for wisdom, the elders, and experts in the Jewish law, the scribes.

Those are the people composing this jury. The jury has experience, of course. Reading verse 6, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.

I read that text earlier on purpose because I wanted to see who some of these men are. They're not holy men. They're lofty in terms of their position, but these are not men of God. They were certainly not above conducting illegal trials in the middle of night or even plotting to do so, conspiring to do so.

Matthew 26, verses 3 and 4 says this,. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus, listen, by stealth and kill him.

Why? I talked about it while I was going through the Gospel of John. Why was it that they wanted him isolated? Why was it that they didn't go into the crowd and get him? Because they were afraid of the crowd.

And we'll see that as we go along as well. The Sadducees, who were against the resurrection, they did not believe in the resurrection. They thought this life was all there was. I want to make a joke. I'm not going to.

The Sadducees led the Sanhedrin. They were in charge. Why? Why? Because they were the most powerful political figures. They weren't great men of God. They were political figures. They liked the status quo.

They were rich. It was good for them that Rome was in charge because that meant they could maintain their position. Any kind of revolution or anything of that nature was going to ruin their whole setup.

But Annas was not the high priest, even though he's often referred to as the high priest. He was removed by the Romans. He'd served for like ten years. But he was so well-connected that people still referred to him as the high priest.

You couldn't get anything done. You couldn't hold any trials. You couldn't do much of anything in terms of religion without his approval. And his family, and we see several of them listed here, but his family kept control of the position of the high priest and therefore control over the Sanhedrin.

Even now, his son-in-law Caiaphas is the high priest. So that's the who. That's who's got these men on trial. Now, what are the charges? Look at the charges. The charges leveled against them. Verse 7, And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this?

I want you to get the picture here because it's like maybe, probably close to 100 men or so, maybe even more than that, maybe 120. 71 of the Sanhedrin, and then the elders and the scribes, and they're all seated in kind of a semi-circle above Peter and John and the man healed.

They're all standing here, and these men are elevated above them. So it does seem kind of cinematic, you know, the drama of standing before these elevated figures. And the tense of the verb there where it says, they inquired, indicates that they're asking over and over again.

This is like, you know, like some kind of scene out of a police movie where they're slamming the desk and going, just asking repeatedly, trying to get them, trying to trip them up as it were. And that sentence, the sentence that ends it there, by what power or what name did you do this?

In the Greek, the last word is you. And it's an unusual thing for us. I was even thinking about it in Spanish. It doesn't really carry over either. But they put the words that they want to emphasize either at the first of the sentence or the end of the sentence.

The goal ultimately is to put it out of place so that it's almost like discordant. So you just go, it just catches your attention. So they put the emphasis on you. In other words, there's the charge, you guys did this.

So this is not some kind of friendly inquiry, just trying to gather information. It's a hanging jury. They want to know, they're looking for Peter or for John to say something wrong so that they can punish them.

You know, did you heal him by some demonic power? Remember they did that, they accused Jesus of that kind of thing. One misstep, and they're going to be punished severely. The good news, of course, is that they're not alone.

And they're, I named him, sorry. The assisting counsel is perfect. Verse eight, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter, before the resurrection, is known for what? He's known for being rash, for taking rash actions, cutting off the man's ear when they come to arrest Jesus, for saying the wrong thing.

All kinds of things that you could say about Peter before the resurrection, and they're mostly not good. All the pressure now on him, on this man who denied Jesus three times the night Jesus was tried.

And that's even after he's warned by Jesus. He was, why did he do that? It doesn't take much thought to figure that out. Why did Peter deny Jesus three times? Because he was afraid. That night, maybe two months ago, he was in a state of panic.

He was afraid for his life. And if I was among the Sanhedrin, knowing even minimally anything about Peter, I wouldn't be too worried about that guy. I'd be pretty confident that whatever he said to us was going to be incriminating, that something that we could use.

But Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Our text doesn't tell us this, but I think it's fair for me to speculate this far, that he was likely as calm as he could be. Think about these words from Jesus.

Matthew 10, verses 17 and 20. Beware of men, for they will... Tell me this doesn't sound right. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say. For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? There it is. He's not worried. Why? Because he's got a perfect calm, because he knows that the Holy Spirit will do the talking instead of him. He didn't have to rely on his own eloquence, his own wit, or his own legal skills, because he had none.

He was trusting Jesus, the words of Jesus, and the Spirit whom Jesus had sent. And notice he really speaks with a sense of incredulity. He just can't believe this is even happening. Look at verse 8. There towards the end of verse 8.

It's kind of a polite thing, but it's almost like, are you kidding me? We heal this guy who can't do anything for himself? And by the way, it's not even on a Sabbath day, and you want to make a crime out of it?

You ever had that kind of experience where you're defending yourself, and you're like, I have no idea why I have to defend myself? Many of you know that I used to work in a jail, and I remember one time I was called into the lieutenant's office with one of the guys who worked for me who was really a great worker.

The lieutenant said, you know what Steve, we've got a problem. And I said, what's that? She said, the inmates are complaining about being in your building. Really? What are their complaints? Well, they get searched too much.

And I go, well, you know, we're finding more contraband, more weapons than anybody else in the facility. Yeah, but the inmates don't like it. You're doing your job too good. Too well. So, you know what we're going to do?

We're going to break you guys up. And that's what they did. But look what Peter does. It's so polite, kind of almost, you know, okay, but really, for this good deed? I mean, he's taking, this is kind of a verbal sort of judo, right?

Because in judo, what do you do? You take the speed and the weight of the attack and you use it against that person. So, a judo throw is here comes the guy running at me and I just turn and go and throw him, right?

Rather than trying to beat him up, I just toss him around. There'll be lessons afterward. He completely turns the tables on these men. This poor man had suffered for more than 40 years, couldn't do anything for himself.

And you want to know how it was done. Here's the thing. You know who did it. They knew who did it. Only God could do that. So they should have been asking themselves why God would work through these men.

That should have been the question. So that's the defense. He's turned the tables on them. They're totally off balance. And now he goes on offense. Peter goes on offense. He says, essentially, we healed them by the power of Jesus.

They didn't have the power themselves. Look at verse 10. He says, Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I mean, this isn't live TV.

So why does Peter address all the people of Israel? Because word's going to get around. Because the target of the ministry is not the Sanhedrin. It's everybody in Jerusalem. That's their initial audience, as it were.

Now, he mentions Jesus of Nazareth. And I've said this before, but just consider this. Jesus of Nazareth was on the cross. It was above Jesus' head when he was put on the cross. It was not a name of honor.

It was a name of derision. So he says he invokes that name. Jesus of Nazareth. It's his name. It's almost like he's kind of putting his finger in the chest of the Sanhedrin. Not only am I not afraid of you, we did it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Take that. It was the healer. The healer that you murdered. They knew about the miracles that Jesus had done, but they put him to death. Look at verse 10. Whom you crucified. These men knew while Jesus was on trial.

They knew what he'd done. And they knew that he wasn't guilty of anything. They portrayed him as a threat to Rome. They portrayed him as a man who'd done wickedness. But they knew he'd done nothing. And what did they do?

When Jesus could have been set free, they incited the crowd to release Barabbas instead of Jesus. This terrorist. This murderer instead of Jesus. These men had pulled all the levers, made all the moves, done everything to ensure that Jesus would be crucified.

And Peter, who for really... I mean, this is unique to see him. To call him a man without fear. He calls them out. You put him to death. You did that. What does death prove? The fact that he was put to death proves that he was...

Jesus was actually a man. He was fully man. Truly man. Because only a man could die. And that's so key when we're presenting the gospel to anybody and that's what he's doing. But Jesus is also the healer that God raised.

Again, look at verse 10. Whom God raised from the dead. Now, it's interesting to me that the Jewish leadership, these men who are not just religious leaders, not just political figures. That's the Sanhedrin.

But they're also what? Experts in the law. These scribes and these elders who give them wisdom. No one objects. Nobody on this jury objects when he says God raised him from the dead. Why not? They don't believe.

The Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection. But there's a problem. Because there are Sadducees, then there are Pharisees who do believe in the resurrection. The people like the Pharisees. Because the Sadducees are very much a minority, they just happen to have all the power.

So Peter essentially divides the jury, the rulers, with his assertion that God raised Jesus from the grave. But it's interesting that they don't. Well, let's put it this way. If Jesus is still in the tomb, who would be able to disprove it?

They would. If there was somebody who found a body they could say was Jesus, they would bring it forth. But they raise no challenge at all because they can't. They put Jesus Christ to death, and they can't even challenge the fact that God raised him from the grave.

Here's another truth that's evident. They hated Jesus, right? They put him to death. They crucified him. But God loved Jesus. God loves the Son. And it's the same for the world. Even as I was reading earlier in Esther, as I mentioned that there are the children of Satan and the children of God, or the children of Eve, there is no neutrality towards Jesus.

You either love him or you hate him. When you talk to somebody and they say, well, they're not against Jesus, they're not necessarily believers, but they're neutral on the subject. No, they're not. There is no neutrality.

You can't show up on Judgment Day and say, I have no opinion on the topic. I entitle this next sub-point, and it's just making me laugh because it says, what is wrong with you people? This is the essence of what Jesus asked them at the end of verse 10.

He says, by him, by Jesus, this man is standing before you well. This man, we don't know if he spent the night in jail with Peter and John. It seems most likely. Otherwise, he would have had to voluntarily return to where they were.

I think he probably spent the night in the hoosegow with him. Essentially, Peter's asking here, you killed Jesus. You put him to death. We're saying it's by the power of Jesus that he can walk, that he's able to jump up and down.

It's by the power of Jesus that he's praising God. So how is it that Jesus, whom you put to death, is responsible for this and you can't refute that? He mentions he invokes the name of Jesus and they knew exactly what he meant because a person's name, as I've said before, is a reference to everything about him.

So when Peter says he's been made whole, he's complete by the power of Jesus of Nazareth. He's giving Jesus the credit. He's ascribing a miracle to this man. They crucified. Well, how could that be? Except Jesus is raised from the dead.

All who went to the temple would know this man. There was no explanation for this, except it being an act of God. And the logical conclusion is Jesus crucified. Now this man's made whole, who's never been whole more than 40 plus years.

How could he be whole? Because Jesus is divine. Jesus is man. Jesus is divine. Now he's going to explain more about Jesus. First of all, Jesus was rejected by you. Verse 11. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, the powerful, the mighty, the Sanhedrin, the elders, the scribes are all getting taken to school by Peter.

They're getting worked over, not by Peter, by his powerful oratory, but because he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is the verse that Peter was referring to. Psalm 118, verse 22. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

And he says, you builders, you rejected him. And he's poking at them again. Turn for a moment to Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20. As I refused the great temptation to take a drink of water. Luke chapter 20.

And I'm going to read verses one to 19. Make a few comments here. One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders, here we go, same group, came up and said to him, tell us by what authority you do these things or who it is that gave you this authority.

This is same thing. Verse three, he answered them. I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? I'm not going to give you a direct answer. I'm going to ask you a question.

And look what it does. Verse five. And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

This fear of man possesses them because they're not holy men. Verse seven. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

And he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

In other words, it's time to pay rent, fellas. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. And he sent another servant, but they also beat him and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty handed.

And he sent a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir.

Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

When they heard this, they being the crowd said, surely not. But he directly, he looked directly at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Everyone who falls in that stone will be broken to pieces. And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

He did tell it against them. They wanted his place. And that's why they put him to death. They wanted to be done with him so that they could have complete control over the people. Hendrickson says this, he says, they had utterly rejected not only the servants, but even the son.

They had done this in order to enrich themselves. The son was gone now. So they thought this is their thinking. So his inheritance would be theirs. Jesus now surprises them by reminding them about this passage from the Psalms.

Here a very similar transaction had been described. Builders had rejected a stone, ultimately meaning prominent men had rejected, despised, scoffed at the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, Israel had become the most important of the nations, not because they were the most powerful, but because God had chosen them.

It wasn't because they were better or anything else. On the contrary, by the Lord, this wonderful thing had been accomplished. Jesus now shows that the words of Psalm 18 reached their ultimate fulfillment in the owner's son.

That is, in himself, the true son of God. He is that stone that was being rejected by the chief priests, scribes, elders, and at Calvary by the nation as a whole. He was the rejected stone. And Peter's reminding them of that very engagement that they had with Jesus.

Again, just poking at them again and again and again. Back to Acts 4. We're looking at verse 11, the second half of it. They rejected him, which has become the cornerstone. He was God's chosen one. But they had rejected him.

And Peter would return to this theme. You don't have to turn there. I'm going to read it. 1 Peter 2, verses 4 to 8. Talking to believers, though, this time. As you come to him, to Jesus, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices or acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Not in it, in him, will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. Peter makes plain that they are responsible for rejecting Jesus Christ. They're responsible for putting him to death. They're responsible for rejecting him.

And then he says that Jesus is the only means of salvation. Look at verse 12. And there is salvation in no one else. You rejected him. You put him to death. The one that God appointed and anointed, you put him to death.

Now, they would have had the idea, what? That the way to God or to please God was through them. Today, what do we see? The idea that there may be many paths to God. What happens as soon as somebody dies?

Well, God gets a new angel or God must have needed him or I'm sure he's up there hugging his long-lost brother, mother, sister, cousin or that he's playing basketball on the courts upstairs, that he's now rolling 300 games.

I'll tip my hat there to Andrew. But there's this idea that there are many paths to God and all we have to do is just be good people. Salvation is a kind of a freeway with many off-ramps and we just have to pick whichever one pleases us.

But that's really an insult to the triune God. He planned salvation before the foundation of the world and brought it to reality by raising Jesus from the dead. You must believe, he tells these men, in Jesus.

You must believe all that he is. Again, verse 12. For there is no other name under heaven. Again, the name, the name, the name. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

In all the universe, there is no other option. There's no one else who's truly God, truly man. There's no one else who lived the perfect life. There's no one else who voluntarily went to the cross, died for sin, and then was raised on the third day.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not going to be denied or disappointed. All of the elect, 100%, will be saved. They will believe. Kistemacher said this, The word must reveal the divine necessity which God established according to his plan and decree.

To save us, that is to say believers, through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We must believe who he is and what he's done. We must rest entirely on that. That's his closing argument. He doesn't try to excuse himself.

He just says, this man, Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, he's the chosen vessel of God. There's no salvation for anyone, let alone you, unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit-filled Peter turned the tables 180 degrees.

He completely flipped things over. And ultimately, while it seemed to them they had all the cards, that Peter and John were on trial, the truth is what? They were on trial. R .C. Sproul said this, he said,.

We do not usually hear about a God who commands obedience, who asserts his authority over the universe and insists we bow down to his anointed Messiah. Yet in scripture, we never see God inviting people to come to Jesus.

He commands us to repent and convicts us of treason at a cosmic level if we choose not to do so. There is no other name by which men can be saved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the boldness of Peter.

Even as he stood before these men who had all the power, all the cards, who had already betrayed Jesus and sentenced him ultimately to death by your spirit. He not only refuted the charges, but he showed them their own spiritual emptiness, their need for forgiveness, their need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust in his name alone, his person, his work.

Father, help us, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, to think to ourselves, we belong to Jesus Christ. We are here for one purpose, to declare his excellencies. Help us to do that. Grant us your spirit that we might have that sense of we need to speak the truth.

We need to tell people about Christ. We need to tell them that God saves sinners only, only through Jesus Christ. By faith in him alone. Father, we pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen.