Book of Acts Part 11

All right, let us pray and then we'll get into our study Lord Jesus again as we open up your word We ask that your holy spirit to help us to rightly understand what is revealed there so that we may properly believe

Confess and do according to your holy word. We ask in jesus name. Amen When we were last studying the book of acts we were finishing up chapter two and I got to give credit to dan johnston jan dan johnson actually noticed something

And had communicated it to my wife who communicated it to me so there's a little bit of a game of telephone going on here, but worth noting so I had made the the comment that the last part of acts in no way is teaching that we as christians must be um socialists, you know or communists that we somehow need to Sell our property and live in some kind of commune.

Yeah, I would note that's cultish behavior Uh in and often oftentimes that's the case, but there's there's something really interesting here

Uh, you'll note that it says that all who believed were together and had all things in common

They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need

Well, there's a very very simple practical reason as to why that was happening

Let me let me roll back up a little bit here. Okay In the earlier part of acts

Chapter two you'll note that um That there were a lot of people in town

From out of town Okay And how is it that we each of us in his own native language parthenians medes elamites residents of mesopotamia?

judaea capadocia ponchos in asia phrygia and pamphylia egypt and parts of libya belonging to syrene

Visitors from rome both jews and proselytes cretins and arabians. We hear them telling our in our own tongues the mighty works of god

Now when we think of travel today, we somehow think that that's how travel occurred in the ancient world

But the reality is this is that when people travel in the ancient world, they were gone for a

Long time. Okay, when we travel I think about our trip to jerby by the way who put together that memories book

That was really good. I like that. It's it's fantastic. Anyway, um When we traveled to germany, you know, we had to be at the airport at a particular time and then we flew

To a particular place and then we got on another plane We flew to another place and when it was time to come home We had pre -purchased our tickets ahead of time and we were back the same day, you know in the ancient world um, there were no planes

There were no trains There were no automobiles as soon as there's no uber Yeah and Yeah, and there's no steve martin or john candy and uh, and so traveling was uh, was a multi -month long thing

Uh, and that being the case, uh, you know, they had a little bit more freedom and leeway Uh, you know,

I could see some guy coming in from crete going. Well, my wife's not expecting me back until christmas, you know So, you know, i'm you get the point, right?

So you have all these people their their entire lives have been turned upside down they're now believers in jesus

And they want to soak up all of this apostolic teaching

And participate in the fellowship and all this kind of stuff now eventually god's going to disperse them and you'll see that a little further on into the book of acts because Uh that that was kind of a necessary thing

But in in persecuting the church the church got dispersed and guess what all these people went home.

Guess what they brought with them christianity Right, so you can kind of see what's going on here

So they devoted themselves the apostles preaching teaching the fellowship the breaking of bread And all who believed were together had things in common and they were selling their possessions.

So note who's selling their possessions And you know selling, you know pieces of property and stuff like that.

It's the locals They're and they're doing that in order to be able to help meet the needs of the folks who are from out of town

And so this is making it possible for them to stay Making it possible for them to hear the word to soak this all in and and to be catechized into the christian faith

Yes, marilyn No, it did not

No, right It also didn't say that they sold their things under the point of a gun That's also correct.

They did not have to sell their property at the point of a gun communism requires you to do that Okay so you get the idea so that I think that that is

I love that little point. So I Liked it so much. I wanted to share with you, but we're on to chapter three now

Okay Now I think the best way to compare to help us see what's really going on in acts three

Is to remember What peter was like? On the night that jesus was betrayed

Okay I I won't pull the passage up. I will just by way of memory remind you

That when jesus is arrested and he's put on trial peter decides to Surreptitiously slink into the shadows and be there while jesus is on trial

And he's warming his hands by a fire a charcoal fire and there's a little there's a little servant girl

Aren't you with jesus? You have a you're a galilee and you have an accent just like him No, I never knew the guy.

I don't know what you're talking about. You know, he denies christ three times Which tells you uh, he he was uh, he was afraid for his life

Right and then after the immediately after the resurrection Uh, you'll note, uh, let me let me pull this up genesis

Not genesis john john chapter 20 um, it it says it says this regarding the uh,

The apostles and where they were gathered on the evening of that day the day of the resurrection the first day of the week

The door is being locked Where the disciples were for fear of the jews They came and stood among them and said peace and he came and stood among them and said peace be with you

So when jesus first appears to the apostles Where are they? Hiding.

Oh mama. I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law

Right. Okay sing along if you know I'm ready for a bass drum to kick in at this point, you know

But the point is this they're they are legitimately terrified. They're slinking in and out

They're kind of they're being very careful. It's like, you know, hey, I need some starbucks. We're not gonna get any starbucks

They'll recognize us, you know, you know This this is the kind of stuff that's going on, right? So that's let just kind of let this sink in because in very sharp distinction

Peter and john and the apostles these guys are almost like Like they don't care what happens to them

Kill me if you want, you know, that's just the kind of thing. They're they're almost like, you know to the point of like being reckless

But that's how much confidence they have in jesus They have they have had meals with him after the resurrection

They've watched him ascend into heaven he they they've Something dramatic has changed here in their behavior

And I think this is part of the the great evidence for the resurrection itself Because these men all of them are willing to lay down their lives for the truth

They're willing to wait lay down their lives. Whereas just a few weeks earlier They completely were cowardly and and afraid for their lives.

So here's here's what happens So peter and john were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer

Okay Quiz to see how much you guys are paying attention to catechesis and stuff like this. Please tell me the time of the day

Three 3 p .m. It is 3 p .m. How do you know there are two times for the hour of prayer 9 a .m

And 3 p .m. And this is in the afternoon. So this is and this is the highly attended service

So where are they preaching and teaching? in the temple itself

A place called solomon's colonnade by the way So a layman from birth was being carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate

To ask for alms of those entering the temple now, there are people who sit there and go Jesus healed everybody he ever came in contact with who needed healing.

No, he did not Jesus went in and out of the beautiful gate many a time and this guy it says was laid there how often

Like every single day jesus walked by this guy never healed him once Okay Seeing peter and john about to go into the temple

He asked to receive alms which is the normal operation for somebody who's you know, the the lame

This is their vocation. This is how they they they pay for their their Their expenses so peter directed his gaze at him as did john

And said look at us And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them, but peter said

You know, I cannot read this without hearing ken copeland twisting this text. Have you ever heard ken copeland twist this text?

No, but this one's particularly blasphemous. Let me read the text and i'll tell you how he he twisted peter said

I have no silver and gold But what I do have I give you in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise and walk

Ken copeland has famously twisted this text and say I have silver and gold plenty

It's it's it's utterly blasphemous So, uh, you'll note that apparently peter

Missed the memo about the prosperity bit Okay and he's not experiencing his best life now or anything like that and because uh,

His little money belt is just empty. He doesn't have any silver. He doesn't have any gold He says

I don't have any silver gold But what I do have I give you in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise and walk

Now a little quick question here does this fellow? Have faith in order to be healed

No, this is a drive -by healing, okay It's a drive -by

This is the best drive ever in human history and you're gonna note this guy's an innocent victim of being healed

Okay, so there goes the idea that in order to be healed you have to have faith That's completely out of the question here, too

Because this guy had he was just doing his daily business as a lame dude. Okay asking for alms

He doesn't he doesn't have faith for healing peter. Just gives it to him. Here you go I'm gonna heal you and he heals him.

Okay, and you'll note as an apostle of jesus christ this Ability to work miracles at will was one of the signs of the apostles

This is not a general thing given to the entire church And I would note all the people out there claiming to be, you know to be healers and stuff like that You know, this is not a miracle.

Okay lengthening. Somebody's leg is not a miracle Okay, this is an undeniable miracle here.

You got a guy who's lame Everybody knows him. They knew his name.

I don't know what his name was because it's not listed Maybe it was fred, you know Most likely an israeli name his name is itzhak or his name was shlomo

That's solomon or maybe you know, maybe his name was john or pet, you know, you know or simeon you get the idea here so so peter took him by the right hand raised him up and Immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them

Walking and leaping and praising god This is one of the few times that we actually get the real like in the moment response from the person who's healed

Okay, and this guy's lost it. Whoo. I can walk. I can walk.

Praise god. Yay, you know and Yeah, yeah, that's right, you know

So all the people saw him walking, of course, they all know who he is How many of those people have given him money along the way, you know

And and they saw him walking and praising god and they recognized him as the one who sat by the beautiful gate of the temple

Asking for alms and they were all Filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Now. Here's where we got to point something out here The miracle isn't the point

The miracle isn't the point the miracle validates a message

Okay, if you you'll note that they've recently reopened notre -dame cathedral

Okay, notre -dame cathedral is one of the most notable historic artifacts that we have of the ancient

Of the the medieval world and it is a true gothic cathedral If you were to look at the the out the structure of notre -dame from the outside You have these things called flying buttresses coming off that are supporting the structure and making it possible

For them to build it way up high to get the ceiling way up and then open up the the walls so that you can put

Um, you can put stained glass in there without the flying buttresses There would be no way to have the cathedral that higher to have those stained glass because you need to have load -bearing walls

And stuff like that. So what the architects did is they took these flying buttresses and had them carry the load

For the structure and make it possible to open things up But you're gonna note The the main feature of notre -dame cathedral is the cathedral

Okay, the flying buttresses support the cathedral but nobody sits there and goes I I gotta go see those flying buttresses

You know i'm gonna fly all the way to paris. I'm going to learn french so that I can look at a flying buttress

Okay Except for really nerdy architect people, okay

Right, but you get the average person doesn't do this Same thing with miracles miracles are not the point

They are the flying buttresses that support the message. You're going to note then that this miracle

Is going to lead to a message And so here's the thing When somebody comes to you claiming to be able to perform miracles listen really carefully to their message

Because if they're not preaching christ and him crucified for our sins if they're wrongly handling biblical texts

That's a false sign and a false wonder that is supporting a false message Okay, you know,

I think back to martin luther martin luther was challenged by some papists. Okay, we call them papists sometimes

High mucky mucks of cardinals and you know and people like that in the roman catholic church and they asked luther

What miracles do you prove do you do to prove that the gospel you're preaching is correct?

Which by the way is a darn good question Because at least they knew enough biblical stuff to kind of note this that you know

The miracles need to be done to support the message and that's their function and luther goes

Those were done by the apostles Because the gospel I preach is the gospel that they preached

So the miracles that we point to that support our gospel Were performed by the apostles themselves

So we don't have to perform miracles today and I would note Anybody putting a burden on you saying you need to perform signs and wonders and stuff like this

I don't know how to do that Okay, only god can do that. And if god wants to perform a sign or a wonder through me, he's welcome to But why is it on me that i've got to do it?

I can't nobody does this except for god anyway, which peter is going to say by the way So Here's what happens while he clung to peter and john all the people utterly astounded ran together

To them in the portico called solomon So they're in solomon's portico as part of you know Kind of a colonnaded section of the temple which is going to have good acoustics.

It's going to have shade You know and cover from rain and the elements and stuff like this This is where they were meeting and preaching

And so now peter is going to preach a message and note everybody's got the attention Remember you fred frank can walk now what frank can walk?

Yeah, he's right over there. Let's go see what's happening. Okay, you get the idea so When peter saw this he addressed the people

Men of israel, why do you wonder at this? Why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we've made him walk

The god of abraham the god of isaac the god of jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant jesus

Whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of pilate when he had decided to release him

Now let's stop here for a second here. I point this out every time and it's worth continuing to point out

How how uncharitable of peter How dare he? Blame the people that were there for turning jesus over to be crucified

Most of them weren't even up that on that friday morning. They hadn't even had their coffee yet Okay, now granted maybe one or two of the people present there in the temple were also there at jesus's trial

Why is peter indiscriminately blaming me? For for having jesus crucified

Because we're all responsible His indiscriminacy

When it comes to blaming everybody present for a very specific sin

That we can legitimately argue. There's a bunch of people there listening to peter who weren't there on on good friday morning

They were not there I wasn't there You wasn't there

Yeah, but i'm still responsible You're still responsible I remember that movie the uh, the passion of the christ.

What a brutal movie that was horrifying Uh, so it is mel gibson.

He makes one cameo appearance in that movie And he was responsible for putting that thing out and so the cameo appearance that he made is is that It was his hands that was holding the hammer that drove the nails into christ's hands

That was his appearance Yeah He knew full well that that would was the right role for him

So when we get when we roll around back to good friday, which is really not that far away

You know next next sunday's transfiguration pre -lent starts after that We will be fully into lent the first week of of march

And then you know, it's just a matter of weeks before We we come back around to those readings the passion sunday and and good friday when you hear the crowd speaking

And you hear the crowd demanding that they release barabbas That's your voice

That's mine And that's the point that peter is making it doesn't matter if you were there or not

These sins like adam's sins are imputed to us So when somebody says Oh, man, we got to hate the jews because the jews are responsible for killing jesus sit there and go you moron

You're the one who's responsible. So am I? Okay, and then point them to this text and explain it out, right?

And I think Considered the words that were spoken by the crowd in matthew's gospel.

Let me get there. I think it's 27. Hang on. I said Jesus delivered to pilate and judas hung himself

Go down do likewise jesus before Sorry, sorry You got to hear the inner dialogue.

Sorry. I don't know what happened there So here's what it says at the feast.

The governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted and they then had a notorious prisoner by the name of barabbas

Which his name means literally son of the father Let that one sink in yeah this you can't make this stuff up Okay So when they had gathered pilot said to them whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas the son of the father or jesus who's called christ For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up Besides while he was sitting on the judgment seat his wife had sent word to him

Have nothing to do with that righteous man. I've suffered much because of him today in a dream

Interesting strange things are afoot right? Now the chief priest and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for barabbas and to destroy jesus

The governor again said to them which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said

Barabbas Pilate said to them then what shall I do with jesus who is called christ.

They all said let him be crucified And he said why? What evil has he done?

They shouted all the more let him be crucified So when pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather that a riot was beginning

He took water washed his hands before the crowd saying I am innocent of this man's blood see to it yourself

And all the people answered and listened to this one his blood be on us and on our children

And then he released for them barabbas having scourged jesus delivering him over to be crucified

His blood be on us and on our children Now that is a statement that cuts two different directions

In the waters of baptism christ's blood is on us and on our children But not for the purpose of judgment

His blood is on us For the purpose of cleansing us of our sins and washing away our iniquity

And reconciling us to god may christ's blood be on us and our children but for the unbelievers

You'll know all of humanity is held culpable for this But for those who do not repent and believe christ's blood is on them and their children not for good

But for judgment All right Kind of speaks of cain and abel doesn't it?

All right So g so again peter the god of abraham the god of isaac the god of jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant

Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of pilate when he had decided to release him

But you denied the holy one And righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of life

Now wait a second here if jesus is the author of life doesn't that make him god Whom god raised from the dead to this we are witnesses

And his name by faith in his name has made has made this man strong whom you see and know

And the faith that is through jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all

And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as did also your rulers But what god foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his christ would suffer he thus fulfilled repent therefore

Turn back that your sins may be blotted out The times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord and that he may send the christ appointed for you

Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things About which god spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago moses said

The lord god will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers You shall listen to him and whatever he tells you quoting deuteronomy 18

And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people

And all the prophets who have spoken from samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that god made with your fathers saying to abraham And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed

God having raised up his servant sent him to you first to bless you

By turning every one of you from your wickedness Well, i've never heard heard joel osteen ever preach anything like that Yes It may be

There's a there's a good chance of that. Now. There's there's a good chance that some of these people are now hearing peter preached the second time

Okay, that's absolutely within the reasonable expectation So as they were speaking to the people

Okay. Now the the soundtrack goes dark All right, okay

As they were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the sadducees came upon them greatly

Annoyed now. I know what this feels like because from time to time. I somehow get my wife into this state Okay, thankfully she can't throw me in prison before but that were they ever not annoyed

So they're very annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in jesus the resurrection from the dead

They're doing what they're telling people if they were they believe in jesus that they can be resurrected too. Just like jesus

And they're just going Okay, because you got to remember just a few months earlier they were thinking we finally got rid of that guy

Yay No more jesus. Yes Right.

I'm sure on good friday. They gave a toast and you know, they were they were clinking glasses and just going

Oh Finally, we're through with that fellow Nope, he came back from the dead

And now the disciples are his apostles are and they're preaching the resurrection and they're preaching christ

So the greatly annoyed people with power have a tendency to do this. So they arrested them

Okay now here's the thing What's the crime here?

Is the crime making you annoyed Okay Where in scripture does it say thou shalt not annoy

There is a way in which you can annoy that does break the fourth commandment there is a way to do that Okay Yeah, he would no

No Okay So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening

But many of those who had heard the word they believed and the number of men came to about five thousand

We've just added a couple more thousand men to christianity that's also going to include women

So now we've got a really big mega church. Okay Yeah Now in a situation like that you just go for the leaders and hope that the rest gather right

So on the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in jerusalem with annas the high priest

Caiaphas and john and alexander and all who were of the high priestly family

And when they had set them in the midst, so here they bring them all out and who's who was there?

peter john And the guy who got healed Okay, I want you to keep this in mind.

They didn't let him go home that night Okay, well, what did I do you got healed

Is that a sin? Is that is that a crime? I got healed you're going to jail. Why you know, okay

Yeah, when you get greatly annoyed you become stupid i'm just saying okay Right How dare you get healed by jesus in his name?

Okay, so when they had set them in the midst they inquired and here it comes And you can just almost hear the smarminess of the question

By what power? Or by what name did you do this?

I love peter's response filled with the holy spirit now, you're going to note here phil. We got this little tag here

Okay, it's it's sufficient to say that all scripture is god breathed but god breathed here to point out

Everything he's going to say is going to be given to him by the holy spirit now This is important because jesus gave very specific instruction to his apostles

When they arrest you and when they persecute you when they put you on trial Don't rehearse what you're gonna say

I'm gonna give you words in the moment. Okay, so peter didn't sit there and go we need to call our attorney

Does anyone have the number for saul goodman? We need to get okay Yeah You know and you know saul shows up in the middle of the night and they're working on their defense none of that Okay Peter peter had to tell that poor fellow who got healed just relax.

We got this, you know God god will get us out of this Okay so peter's Enjoying his night stay and the this comfy prison with the rats and the smell of urine and poop and all that kind of stuff anyway

Okay, so peter filled with the holy spirit said to them Rulers of the people and elders if we're being examined today concerning a good deed done by a done to a crippled man

And by what means this man has been healed note the absurdity of the way he set this up Okay, let it be known to all of you and all the people of israel that by the name of jesus christ of nazareth

Whom you crucified Whom god raised from the dead 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 There goes hinduism, right?

And there goes the emergent church. Okay You know, uh, yeah, I I would note this.

Okay Hang on a second. I gotta I gotta hunt this down because I can't okay if I go to amazon .com

amazon .com And I look for brian mclaren And I want generous

Orthodoxy what a stupid name for a book Okay All right So when the emergent church movement comes on the scene

This is the book that everyone's reading and I just listen to the title a generous

Generous orthodoxy. Okay, and and it says why I am a missional evangelical post protestant liberal conservative mystic poet poetic biblical charismatic contemplative

Fundamentalist calvinist anabaptist anglican methodist catholic green incarnational depressed yet hopeful emergent unfinished christian

Why i'm a flaming snowflake Okay Do y 'all see the problem here

Okay, and in this book I kid you not I can give you my copy if you want to read it

Okay mclaren argues That there are followers of god in the name of allah

And when this came out That same year when this book came out mclaren to live his theology

Chose that he was going to observe ramadan with his muslim neighbors

Yeah That's the syncretism patrick. Okay, you get the idea, but yeah, this is a mess

Okay So when those guys started coming out of the woodwork and this is one of my early adventures in dealing with tony jones and doug paget

I quoted this passage there's salvation in no one else where there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved

To which they attacked Me by basically saying those words don't mean what you think they mean

Yeah It it legitimately is the bill clinton defense, okay

I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss lewinsky parsed that one out.

Okay. This is word games. It's nonsense What does the apostle peter say eyewitness of the resurrection?

The man who just a few weeks ago was hiding out and biting his fingernails and in complete anxiety

And he gave up jesus three times because a girl asked him if he knew him

He now says there is salvation in no one else There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved

Are you saying that my hindu neighbor is going to hell? Yes You better preach christ to him because he has no hope otherwise

You've been tasked with the job of proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins in jesus name And telling the good news of what christ has done

It is not your responsibility to make them believe it's your responsibility to preach the message to preach the gospel right

So invite ramesh over For barbecue ask him to bring the curry and during the conversation tell him about jesus

Right now when they saw the boldness of peter

Boldness who's given him that boldness the holy spirit He's gone from being a coward

And a denier of christ boldly proclaiming that there is salvation in no one else and doing it

It to the face of the very people who crucified christ The actual conspirators who were responsible for putting him to death

When they saw the boldness of peter and john They perceived that they were uneducated men

And how did they figure that out because peter kept saying y 'all okay, I don't know

Huh easy, you know Because they taught gooder than peter, okay

Okay, first thing they noticed These guys are uneducated Right and they're common men

And they were astonished. That's kind of the miracle here They're speaking with such sound words despite the fact they're uneducated common men and they're astonished so they recognize

Ah, they'd been with jesus Okay, but seeing the man who was healed standing beside them and you can just see the guy going

Do I am I do I need to say anything here? Right, so you can just see them looking at him and i'm going

Okay When they saw the man who was healed standing beside them They had nothing to say in opposition

But when they commanded them to leave the council they conferred with one another saying what shall we do with these men?

For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of jerusalem. We cannot deny it

I don't know the reasonable thing at this point is to go We repent we want to join we want to Please jesus forgive us

Okay, that seems like the reasonable thing because They can't deny the miracle has happened

I would note many of today's charismatic miracles. Okay, you can't confirm that anything has happened.

Okay There's like no way to confirm it Okay Right, I mean

I think back to a couple years ago bill johnson Speaking at a church in missouri Okay, it was a joplin.

Maybe I think that may have been joplin or you know Anyway, he's he's teaching there and at this conference a woman who had lost three of her toes

Had people pray for her and she claimed that her toes were growing back

Okay and of course No evidence was given

And so bill johnson, I kid you not from the stage at bethel said that she had received her toes back

And so some atheist guy gets on the internet puts together a website called show us the toes .com

Or show me the toes .com and and and here's the funny bit the website's still there and And they refused

To show any evidence that the toes had grown back You know why?

Because the toes hadn't grown back so The guy who put the website together

Legitimately had snagged a photo of this woman's toes from her facebook feed of what they look like before the thing

And then two -ish years later Was able to get another recent photo and guess what?

There's no change Yet bill johnson said that god had given her had you know had grown her toes back

Okay That's just annoying that's that falls down to the category of a false sign and a false wonder, okay

But here you have the guys who who legitimately concocted the scheme

That led to christ's crucifixion They are conferring among themselves going we can't deny that a miracle has been done here

There's no way to deny it Are they going to repent are they going to believe?

Not on your life But in order that it may spread no further among the people

Let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name Sin makes you really stupid

Just dumb It's like what? If this doesn't talk about hard -heartedness,

I don't know what does A real miracle has happened. We can't deny it. We need them to stop talking about jesus

Don't you think? That if christ is healing people And good things are happening

Maybe we need to just hand the temple over to the apostles for the good of the people

Right you this is but who are they thinking about? Themselves, you know the satanic trinity me myself and I Okay So they called them and they charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of jesus

Yeah Now peter gives a great answer peter and john answered them both of them

Whether it's right inside of god to listen to you rather than god. You must judge For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard

And when they had further threatened them, don't you dare tell anyone else about jesus? You know, right right they let them go finding no way to punish them duh

They didn't do anything wrong. Okay Because of the people for all were praising god for what had happened

For the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. I hate that verse

Ha ha ha Makes it sound like this guy's ancient.

I almost got 17 years on him. Okay He's like Thanks luke, it was he was 29

If only I can figure out the mystery What right away

Yeah, this wasn't a progressive miracle it happened Instantaneously, okay, and of course he was really old

All right Now when this goes down the disciples, you know, they're released and so they go back to the fellowship

They go back to be with the church And here's where the the humility of the apostles really comes out

They know full well, they heard every one of those threats and those threats are still ringing in their ears right and they were told in no uncertain terms you stop preaching in the name of jesus or Else and i'm sure with those threats some of the or else's were spoken

You know, we'll flog you the way we flogged jesus we crucified him we'll crucify you too, right?

These are the kinds of threats that probably went down So when they were released they went to their friends and they reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them

And when they heard it they lifted up their voice together to god and they said sovereign lord

Who made the heaven and the earth? And the sea and everything in them And who through the mouth of our father david your servant said by the holy spirit

Why did the gentiles rage? And the people's plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves

And the rulers were gathered together against the lord and against his anointed, right?

Why? Why? And so what are they doing? They're praying and humbly praying for god to help them

They're not sitting there going well What we need to do is we need to decree and declare over the satanic Principalities that are over jerusalem right now and tear down beelzebul and do this and come deep to create declare and declare that and all

That kind of nonsense Spiritual warfare is done on your knees brothers and sisters So they prayed

He and this prayer continues for truly in the city there were gathered together against your holy servant.

Jesus Whom you anointed both herod and pontius pilate along with the gentiles and the peoples of israel

To do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place And now lord look upon their threats

And grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness Let us not be afraid please give us the strength to continue speaking with boldness

While you stretch out your hand to heal And signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant jesus

And when they had prayed The place in which they were gathered together was shaken

And they were all filled with the holy spirit and continued to speak the word of god with boldness

So god answers their prayer the spirit comes again Gives them boldness

So that they can continue to preach with boldness in the face of these very real threats

And you're going to note there's going to be an escalation of retaliation against the against the christians as things move forward

So let's let me do this. I'm going to check any questions over here and Yeah, barry says

I found out about his universalism and asked an associate pastor from greg boyd's church

And he confirmed that brian is a progressive universalist and I would avoid greg boyd like the plague

Um, he's an open theist And he his view of god is that god isn't sovereign god doesn't know what's happening

He doesn't know what the future is. And so, you know, you know this past week, you know, you had that Plane hit by that helicopter in in the in the open theism of greg boyd

God would have jesus would have literally said. Oh, wow. I didn't see that coming Okay Kid you not so yeah stay away from boyd boyd's boyd is

Every bit as dangerous as mclaren and mclaren and boyd hang out together And they were they were kind of preaching buddies when the emergent church was a thing

So keep that in mind barry boyd is not sound. He's a very very dangerous man All right