WWUTT 2568 No Basis on Which to Punish Them (Acts 4:19-22)

Peter and John were told by the Sanhedrin to no longer speak in the name of Jesus.

Well, they replied, what we've seen and heard, we have to testify to. And may we also do the same when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter four and we're picking up where we left off yesterday,

Peter and John on trial before the Sanhedrin and being told not to speak any longer in the name of Jesus.

Let me begin reading in verse 13 and I'll go through verse 22. Hear the word of the Lord. Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and comprehended that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus and seeing the man who had been healed standing with them.

They had nothing to say in reply, but when they had ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they began to confer with one another saying, what should we do with these men for the fact that a noteworthy sign has happened through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it, but lest it spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.

And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, you be the judge for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.

And when they had threatened them further, they let them go finding no basis on which to punish them on account of the people, because they were all glorifying

God for what had happened for the man was more than 40 years old on whom this sign of healing had occurred.

And if you've been with me last week and this week, then you know, the man that we are talking about, that lame man that was outside the beautiful gate of the temple who would ask for alms every day.

As the people were going in, this man had been lame from birth. Peter and John come upon him.

Peter says to him, look at me, I've got nothing, no silver or gold to give you. But what I do have,

I give to you. And he said in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, stand up and walk.

And this man who had never had working legs in his life, lame skin and bones, anyone looking at him would have known this man had no ability to walk.

Suddenly he stands up and walks. He goes into the temple leaping and dancing. All the people see this.

They are marveling at it. Peter proclaims the message of the gospel, says this has been done by the power of Jesus Christ whom you crucified, but has been risen from the dead.

And then after proclaiming the gospel, thousands of people come to believe in Jesus and they glorify

God because of this miracle that they have witnessed. But the Sanhedrin is incensed.

The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the rulers of the temple, the scribes, the keepers of the law or teachers of the law, rather, they arrest

Peter and John. They have put them on trial and are now saying to them that you cannot speak any longer in the name of Jesus.

But of course they cannot deny the miracle that they have just witnessed as we considered yesterday.

So let me pick up here in verse 18 today, when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, you be the judge.

Now, that's really quite a thing for Peter to say that. They are, Peter and John are not just simply saying, well,

I mean, you can decide whether it would be good to listen to you or to continue our message. They're not leaving the matter in the hands of the rulers of the

Sanhedrin. What they're really saying is what you have just witnessed is from God and there's no denying it.

I mean, it says right here, we cannot deny it. They're talking with one another in verse 16.

This miracle that has taken place, we cannot deny. So Peter and John are putting this on them, which they themselves recognize.

They're saying to the Sanhedrin, you've seen what's taken place. It can't be from anywhere other than God.

Even the people are recognizing this. Thousands of people are glorifying God because of this miracle that has been done in this man.

So it has to be from God, right? What other power could this be from?

They had asked Peter and John by what power or in what name have you done this? That was back up in verse seven.

And Peter said, let it be known that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom

God has raised from the dead by this name, this man stands here before you in good health.

And so you have seen that this has been done by God who raised

Jesus, whom you crucified. It is in this name that this man has been healed.

So whether it's right in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, you be the judge.

He's putting it back on them. You think you're wise in this situation or you think we're doing the right thing in this situation?

Considering we're the ones that have done the miraculous sign, where's your sign? And then

Peter and John say in verse 24, we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.

Now that reminds me of the beginning of first John, John's first epistle, where he starts that letter saying what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so that you may also have fellowship with us.

And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

So this is the testimony that John gives. And when he speaks there in first John one, one, what was from the beginning is not going back to the very beginning as he does in the gospel of John.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. Now what he's talking about here is the beginning of the gospel, the beginning of this proclamation of all that Jesus said and did, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes.

And so here they give testimony even before the Sanhedrin, we are witnesses to these things. You're talking to eyewitnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We've seen it and we cannot deny it. Okay. So recognize again that the

Sanhedrin has had this conversation about this man who was miraculously healed and about Peter and John who are proclaiming in the name of Jesus.

And in the Sanhedrin, they're saying, what can we do? What can we do with Peter and John for the fact that a noteworthy sign has happened through them?

It's apparent to everybody and we cannot deny it. So they're seeing it with their own eyes.

They've witnessed it themselves, right? What's Peter and John's testimony?

What we have seen and heard, we have to go on speaking. We have been witnesses to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We must proclaim it. So Peter and John, as eyewitnesses are being responsible with the testimony that they have been given, the

Sanhedrin, what are they doing? They are trying to suppress it. They are trying to ensure that this does not get spoken about among anybody.

And good luck to that, right? Because you've got thousands of people now in the temple that are praising

God because of the miracle that they had just witnessed that was done in this man by these apostles. They won't proclaim what they have seen and heard.

The Sanhedrin will not testify to what they have seen and heard. But Peter and John will.

And so you can see right here who is on the side of God and who is on the side of man.

And verse 21, when they had threatened them further, they let them go, finding no basis on which to punish them on account of the people because they were all glorifying

God for what had happened. This was the same thing that had happened in the arrest of Jesus.

The reason why the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, anyone else involved in that, the reason why they were so slow to arrest

Jesus, though you read throughout the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, you read over and over again, all of these different occasions in which they sought for an opportunity to arrest

Jesus. This was going on throughout Jesus' earthly ministry, but they could not find an opportunity.

Why? Because they were afraid of the people. So they did not arrest

Jesus. They knew the people saw him as a miracle worker. They listened to his teaching.

They were hanging on every word he said. He was popular among the people. So they couldn't arrest him because they were afraid of the people.

And now here, their fear of man works out to Peter and John's benefit even. They can't find any reason to punish

Peter and John on account of the people because all the people are glorifying God for what had happened.

They feel jealous of Peter and John. They feel threatened. They know that the people are listening to Peter and John instead of the

Sanhedrin now. They're kind of powerless in the situation here. So all they can do is threaten.

And it says in verse 22, this is the end of the section we've been looking at this week for the man was more than 40 years old on whom this sign of healing had occurred.

It's very interesting how Luke, the author of this account that we're reading here, how much he puts in there, all of these different details about this particular man so that you know this sign that has happened is clearly miraculous.

And again, what we're reading about here goes back to chapter three. We've been at this for a chapter and a half.

At the very start of Acts three, you have Peter and John going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.

That's the way that chapter three begins and healing this man. And then we have Peter's sermon that's there in the temple.

And now Peter and John have been arrested. They testify to the gospel even before the

Sanhedrin. We have the Sanhedrin that's talking about this and trying to decide what do we do with these men?

And then Peter and John, once again, proclaiming what we've seen and heard, we must testify to. Meanwhile, the

Sanhedrin, what they have seen and heard, they're trying to suppress. And Luke adds in here again, like continuing to remind us of the details that the man who was healed had been more than 40 years old.

And he had, he had said in chapter three that the man had been lame from birth. When Peter and John come upon this man, he had been lame his entire life.

His legs had never been working. So what we are seeing here is a genuine bonafide miracle.

And Luke is making sure that we understand that that's what this is. This was not just some guy who like was sitting out there outside the gate pretending that he was lame.

This wasn't somebody was conning people into giving him alms instead of doing an honest day's work. This was somebody who, when you looked at the man, you knew he could not walk.

He had the reputation throughout Jerusalem as being a lame man, had no functioning legs.

This was an incredible miracle that had been done. And yet the Sanhedrin refuses to acknowledge it and testify to it.

Now when the charismatic movement will testify to things they haven't seen and heard, and I'm talking about, they claim that these miracles have been done among them like miracles of healing and actual speaking in tongues and prophecy and all this, these other kinds of things.

They'll testify to those things, claiming that they have seen and heard this, but they really haven't.

What they're testifying to is not actually miraculous. As I mentioned yesterday, it looks nothing like this miracle that has been done to this man outside the beautiful gate when

Peter and John healed him. There is no testimony in the charismatic movement of a man who could just be stood up among the charismatics and said, here is this man that we have miraculously healed.

He was lame, has never been able to walk from birth, and here we've just told him to rise and stand up in the name of Jesus and Nazareth, and he did.

And no one has anything to say in reply to our miracle movement.

There's nobody like that in the charismatic movement. And when they testify to it, they're actually testifying to things they haven't seen and heard.

Now, that's not to say that they're deliberately lying because many charismatics, and again, as I said yesterday,

I'm speaking as one who was a charismatic for over a decade. Many charismatics believe that they have seen something miraculous.

It's very, very wishful thinking to the point that they have fooled themselves into believing something that has not actually occurred.

This isn't really a miracle that you are observing. And like I said yesterday, I feel like I have to add this caveat every time.

That's not to say that Jesus won't heal. That's not to say that you shouldn't pray for healing.

I have seen incredible things done in praying for healing and God granted it, but it doesn't look like the apostolic healing.

You might be able to say it's a miracle, sure, but it's not a miracle in the way that the apostles were performing miracles outside of the temple.

This was a specific thing that was done at a specific time. In fact, when we come back to this passage next week and we read about the prayer that the apostles raised up to God, praising him for this thing that had been done in the temple over these couple of days, at the end of that prayer and being filled with the

Holy Spirit, it says, I'm kind of reading ahead here, but Acts 4 31, when they had prayed earnestly, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with confidence. And at the end of that prayer, they said, extend your hand to heal and signs and wonders happen through you, through the name of your holy servant,

Jesus. These miracles are happening at a time when the gospel is going out to the world. The miracles affirm the authenticity of the apostolic proclamation.

And I say apostolic proclamation, because of course there are more than just apostles who do miraculous things.

Philip was not an apostle. And we're going to read later on about Philip who baptizes the

Ethiopian eunuch, right? What happens with Philip after that encounter? He disappears.

He vanishes. That's miraculous, right? So there are other men who do miraculous things, but these miracles are happening in the apostolic period when the apostles have been sent out to proclaim the gospel.

And that's especially in that period of 40 years between Jesus' ascension into heaven happened about AD 30, and then the destruction of the temple, which happens in AD 70.

So in that 40 year period is when the majority of these miracles are happening, affirming the message that has been proclaimed by the gospel.

And there's eyewitness testimony to this. And we're reading that eyewitness testimony. The Sanhedrin, they were eyewitnesses to this.

So you have the very enemies of Jesus affirming, this is an incredible thing and we cannot explain it.

Or they just don't want to. They don't want to acknowledge that it's from God. Even the enemies of Jesus are acknowledging this incredible miracle and are trying to suppress it because they don't want the name of Jesus to be proclaimed.

But the apostles and then all the people, the thousands who had witnessed this go on proclaiming what they have seen and heard.

And the reason why we are still reading the book of Acts today, the reason why we have the new

Testament and the Bible and the gospel is being proclaimed is because all of these things that we read about was written by eyewitnesses in the time of other eyewitnesses.

All of these things have been tested and verified as true, and there's no denying it.

And so when a person is presented with the gospel, they have a choice to make. Whether to believe that Jesus Christ died, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits on high at the right hand of God and only by faith in him can we be forgiven our sins.

Reading again, verse 12, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

And so a person has to acknowledge Christ only through Jesus can

I be forgiven my sins and be made right with God. Or are they going to be like those in the

Sanhedrin? They're going to suppress the truth and be filled instead with all manner of unrighteousness.

It's because people love their sin that they continue to go after unrighteousness instead of turning to Jesus Christ.

They deny the truth and continue to believe the lie. Now again, there is that movement of people out there that want to testify to something they haven't actually seen and heard.

The charismatics who claim that there are these miracles that are taking place and are not really taking place.

And like I said, I was caught up in that movement as well, and you just have to hope that they will recognize their errors and come to a knowledge of the truth.

But many charismatics still have the gospel, even though they're adding these other things and they're kind of out of wishful thinking and hopefulness, wanting to see miracles that they're not actually seeing, but they do still have the gospel.

I heard the gospel in those years that I was a charismatic and I was very grateful for it because it certainly kept me from doing more foolish things than I was already doing.

To be reminded of this faith, and it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that I can be forgiven my sins.

I continued to testify to the gospel in those things as well. But the truthfulness of what we believe in and what we testify to is in the scriptures.

It's not going to be in miraculous things that we witness ourselves with our own eyes.

You can pray for such things. That is fine. I don't deny that God would do a miracle even in our days, but it would be few and far between to ever see such a miracle.

Because these miracles were going on at the time of the apostles to verify their message as truly being from God.

That has been testified to and affirmed. We don't need that any longer. Even the lame man who was healed, eventually one day, he was going to get sick again and he was going to die.

But believing in Jesus Christ, he knows he will rise again and this resurrection will be even greater than when he was told to stand up and walk.

For when we enter into glory and when we enter into eternity, then is when we receive our true healing.

And we are looking forward to that day as testified to in Philippians chapter three, where God will transform our lowly bodies to be like Jesus' glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

Be looking to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, the healing of your souls, the guarantee of eternal life.

And on that day, when we enter into his eternal kingdom, we will truly be made new and death and sickness and tears and sin will be no more.

Let's finish here and we'll pick up in Acts chapter four again next week. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we have read.

Continue to lead us and guide us in your truth. May we love the truth.

We desire the truth. We are filled with your word, as talked about in Colossians chapter three, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And we are satisfied with this, not seeking for other things outside of this to affirm our faith.

Faith, it is here in the word of God, believing in Jesus who really lived, really died, really rose from the dead so that we likewise who believe in him, we have the forgiveness of sins and promise of everlasting life.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.