Midweek Review #7 (Acts 3:22-4:22)
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A poem about how the Sadducees attempted to silence the Christians. In the same way, our culture would have us be silent. But we must continue to speak the Name.
- 00:00
- As I was thinking of this, I wanted some way to communicate the emotion of this passage.
- 00:06
- So sometimes I write poetry. And I've written this one. Came to me a couple of days ago.
- 00:13
- It's a back and forth between the Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees, and the
- 00:19
- Christians who will not be silent. Tell us how you have done this.
- 00:25
- Reveal what power and name. Power that raises a lame man. Name to stake the claim.
- 00:32
- Admit you're in league with the devil, summoning magical power. Name the demon you contact, bent to destroy and devour.
- 00:43
- A crippled man and a beggar. Must be a great sinner, you said. Now walking and leaping and praising.
- 00:50
- A crown of joy on his head. Here you drag us before you. There is your sinner now clean.
- 00:57
- We'll tell you the name with such power. Jesus, the Nazarene. Curse that name with its power.
- 01:04
- You dare to speak it here? Courage is yours for a moment. Time will replace it with fear.
- 01:11
- Curse be that prophet you follow. See, he was hung on a tree. We have the power to chain you, or power to set you free.
- 01:21
- This is the thing you are facing. You'll find that you sized it wrong. Less like a puddle you're crossing, more like an ocean log.
- 01:32
- The name will always be spoken, gaining ever -increasing fame. The power can never be silenced.
- 01:40
- The power of Jesus' name. Speak no more in this name, under penalty of your demise.
- 01:48
- We've tested your so -called Christ, and deemed his words to be lies. You're deceived and deceiving others.
- 01:57
- Uneducated men of the sea. So go now, say nothing more. Go silent to Galilee.
- 02:05
- Judge for yourselves what is better, to listen to you or to God? Yes, we will go to Galilee, the mere start of the path we will trod.
- 02:15
- Over mountains and seas we will travel. On housetops we will proclaim. Jesus is
- 02:22
- Lord over all the earth. His name is above every name. You can understand why they killed
- 02:30
- James, not long after this. They tried to kill others. These were bold Christians, who were taking the name to Jerusalem and wherever they went.
- 02:39
- They would be scattered. And wherever they would go, they'd preach the name. And so the name has come to us, brothers and sisters, in closing.
- 02:47
- We bear that name. We're called Christian. We bear the name of Christ.
- 02:55
- And yet this culture would make us silent for the sake of John Bunyan, who sat in jail for 12 years, while his blind daughter was home without him.
- 03:05
- For the sake of our brothers and sisters in Kenya today, Saudi Arabia, all the Muslim countries that are bent to destroy
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- Israel. For the sake of suffering brothers and sisters persecuted around the world, do not be silent.
- 03:21
- Make up your mind that this culture will no longer shame you into silence. Wherever you go, carry that name.
- 03:30
- Take the name of Jesus to your family, as hard as it is to do. Many will not wanna hear it.
- 03:37
- And the more you go and the stronger you preach, the more the opposition you'll face. Life will be easier if you ignore me this morning.
- 03:46
- Easier for me if I ignore what I'm saying to myself. I'm preaching to me. Take, take this name with boldness.