Midweek Review #7 (Acts 3:22-4:22)

As I was thinking of this, I wanted some way to communicate the emotion of this passage. So sometimes I write poetry. And I've written this one. Came to me a couple days ago. It's a back and forth between the Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees, and the Christians who will not be silent.

Tell us how you have done this. Reveal what power and name. Power that raises a lame man. Name to stake the claim. Admit you're in league with the devil, summoning magical power. Name the demon you contact, bent to destroy and devour.

A crippled man and a beggar. Must be a great sinner, you said. Now walking and leaping and praising. A crown of joy on his head. Here you drag us before you. There is your sinner now clean. We'll tell you the name with such power.

Jesus, the Nazarene. Curse that name with its power. You dare to speak it here. Courage is yours for a moment. Time will replace it with fear. 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. 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. The name will always be spoken, gaining ever-increasing fame.

The power can never be silenced. The power of Jesus' name. Speak no more in this name, under penalty of your demise. We've tested your so-called Christ and deemed his words to be lies. You're deceived and deceiving others.

Uneducated men of the sea. So go now, say nothing more. Go silent to Galilee. 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.

Over mountains and seas we will travel. On housetops we will proclaim. Jesus is Lord over all the earth. His name is above every name. You can understand why they killed 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. 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, we bear that name.

We're called Christian.

We bear the name of Christ. 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. For the sake of our brothers and sisters in Kenya today, Saudi Arabia, all the Muslim countries that are bent to destroy Israel.

For the sake of suffering brothers and sisters persecuted around the world, do not be silent. Make up your mind that this culture will no longer shame you into silence. Wherever you go, carry that name.

Take the name of Jesus to your family as hard as it is to do. Many will not wanna hear it. 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.

Easier for me if I ignore what I'm saying to myself. I'm preaching to me. Take this name with boldness. Let no one shame you into silence.