The Acts of the Apostles 14

Subtitle: The Threats of the Powerful

Acts 4:13-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 21, 2022.

Peter and John are in front of the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem.  Last week, we looked at Peter’s response to the questions they had given them.  Now, we are going to see the decision of Israel’s top Council, the Sanhedrin.

Let’s get into the passage.

The council members confer among themselves (vs. 13-17)

Luke again gives us commentary about what was going on inside the minds of the council, to which later threats and actions give evidence.  In verse 15, they had Peter and John taken out of the council chamber while they confer among themselves.  However, they are having difficulty processing what these Galilean fishermen have done.

In short, they are amazed by the disciples of Jesus.  First, they are amazed at the healing of this man that everyone knows was lame from birth.  They are not going to be able to say anything that will neutralize the healing that has happened.  How do you convince people that this was not a good thing?

Yet, Peter’s response to the council added to their amazement.  They are amazed at his boldness.  How many men have they brought in before these powerful men and blanched at the gravity of their situation?  Yet, these fishermen from Galilee were bold.  By the way, let’s not interpret boldness as arrogance.  Peter went out of his way to put all the credit at the feet of Jesus.  It is not about him.  It is about Jesus.  Neither was he employing some kind of psychological trick or manipulation.  It was the result of the Holy Spirit within them.  We all need more boldness, and it can only come through spending time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

They are also amazed that these uneducated and untrained men are able to respond in the way that they have.  They then took note that these men “had been with Jesus.”  There is an uncanny similarity between these men and Jesus of Nazareth, whom they thought they had dealt with.

Here’s an important question for every Christian to ask themselves.  Have I been with Jesus?  If I have been with Jesus, then others will take note.  That doesn’t mean they will like it.  Have I been with Jesus?

These men hadn’t been trained and educated according to the system of the Sadducees or the Pharisees.  However, they had been trained and educated by Jesus over the last 3 ½ years, who is the best rabbi ever!  That didn’t fit in their system, the way they did things.

Let me just say that education or lack thereof is never the problem or the solution.  Peter was an uneducated fisherman, but Saul/Paul had been trained in all the teachings of the Pharisees.  For all of his education, he was blind to the identity of Jesus and he persecuted those who were see that Jesus was the Messiah.  Yet, he too came to believe in Jesus.  There is nothing wrong with education, but it cannot take the place of God’s Spirit in our hearts and minds.  If people are only amazed at my education credentials, then they will not be looking at the right thing, and most likely miss what God is trying to give them.

In verse 16, the leaders confess that they are in a tight spot.  What can you do to men who have performed an obvious miraculous sign?  The people of Jerusalem are convinced that God has done an amazing miracle through these men.

Now, the word translated “notable miracle” here is literally a sign.  It is an amazing event that points people to what God is doing.  It has meaning beyond the miracle itself.  Jesus did similar signs that pointed to the reality that at least a great prophet was in their midst, and likely that Messiah was here.  Yet, he was then put to death.  Of course, the resurrection was rumored about, but only the believers saw the evidence for it.  This amazing miracle, however, was like a neon sign pointing out that the powerful works of Jesus were back through his disciples.  Must not God be behind this?

At this point, the leaders are afraid that this teaching will spread if they do nothing.  They don’t want it to spread beyond Jerusalem to the rest of Israel.  In short, they are standing in the way of God.  God help us to work with Him and not against Him.  It is not enough to point to a pedigree, or a passage in the Bible that says you are doing what God said.  We must truly be walking in such a way that we are humbly looking for the leading of God’s Spirit, and saying yes when He speaks.

Their solution is to threaten them severely not to speak in the name of Jesus any more to anybody.  If you will not embrace the seductions of this world that use the flesh to draw us in and entangle us through sin, then the threats will come forth in one way or another.  You will get the carrot or the stick from this old world.

Yet, Jesus has shown us that we do not need to fear these threats.  In one way, they are not empty threats.  In the natural, this world and its ruler can make things very hard for a follower of Jesus.  However, God will take the very things that we fear and use them to do even more powerful things through us.  In this sense, they are empty threats.  The enemy cannot truly hurt you, in the ultimate sense.  We need boldness to walk the path, that Jesus puts before us, over the top of all the fears that the enemy will try to point out to us.  We must walk “in his name” by walking in His power and His authority.  Another way to think of that last sentence is to seek to walk in what He is empowering and to do what He is authorizing.

The disciples are further threatened (vs. 18-22)

In this section, we have the severe threats given to the disciples.  First, they are commanded not to speak in or teach in the name of Jesus.  It may be that they feel like this is a concession on their part.  “You can teach, but just not about Jesus!” It sends the not-so-subtle message.  “This thing that you are doing is only going to get you in more trouble, so go back to fishing in the Galilee.”

Peter speaks again in a bold way.  There is most likely a part of Peter that is intimidated by the threats, but another part of them cannot deny who Jesus is.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and Peter cuts to the heart of the issue.

Whom should we obey, man or God?  This is an important question that we can abuse to cover rebellion.  However, when the authority commands you to obey them rather than God, they have stepped out of bounds.  It is possible that we can try to manipulate this by saying that God wants what we want all of the time.  However, that would not be a fear of the Lord.  We are not talking about a justification of our actions.  When we focus on obedience, we can miss the fact that this comes down to whether you love the Lord or not.  These disciples are not merely obeying God.  They are following the one who has opened their eyes to the truth.  They are following God Himself.  The threats are very real, and those authorities will most likely punish, but to suffer for the sake of Christ is glory on the battle field. 

The disciples had seen and heard amazing things from the Messiah himself.  How could they not talk about it?  It is like the story in 2 Kings 7.  It was during the days of Elisha and King Jehoram of Jerusalem.  The Syrians had besieged the city, and it had run out of food.  Four lepers who were outside the gate decided to go to the Syrian camp at twilight, hoping to get some food, and yet it was empty of soldiers.  After eating food and carrying off silver and gold to bury in the field, they realized that they should go tell the people in the city.  If it is found out later that they knew and didn’t make the city aware of it, then they would be in trouble.

How can we keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard?  That is the key.  What are you seeing and what are you hearing?  Only those with ears to hear and eyes to see will hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.  We need to wake up and be about our Father’s business regardless of the threats of the world around us.

It then says that they threatened the disciples further, and release them.  Really, they are at a loss of what to do.  If they were giving credit to a foreign god, then they could punish them for heresy.  However, this is only a short window of mental confusion.  They will become more and more desperate, until they start the physical torments: whippings, stocks, imprisonments, fines, seizures of property, and even execution.  The cognitive dissonance will not last long because these are very powerful people of the world who are used to accomplishing what they want.  They will eventually turn the threats into punishments.

We need to be a people who are walking in faith in Jesus, not a faith that says, “I can’t be touched,” and not a faith that says, “I can do whatever I want.”  Rather, we need a faith that follows Jesus wherever he may lead us, be it a lion’s den, or a cross.  We can only do this by the Spirit of God.

Threats audio

Society under Siege: The Educational System

Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Proverbs 22:6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 30, 2016.

The first colleges of the colonies in America were started in order to train ministers, with Harvard being the oldest.  It was actually founded by the Massachusetts legislature in 1636.  Today its motto reads, “Veritas,” which is Latin for Truth.  However, originally it was, “Veritas Christo Ecclesiae,” which is Truth for Christ, for Church.  This simple truncation explains much of what has gone on in America when it comes to education.  We have been rejecting Christ and His Church.

Education is a critical area in the life of a young person.  It has a huge bearing upon where their life will go.  As our families disintegrate and fall apart, it becomes harder and harder for kids to get a good education.  Yet, at the same time our educational system is falling apart.  I do not mean that there aren’t enough schools, but that they have changed and become something that is often harmful to them.  Many of our college campuses have become the last place you would go to to find the truth.  Oh, yeah, I am not talking about mathematics and physics.  However, even the hard sciences find themselves bending under the weight of political correctness.  Let me give you a few examples of how Truth is lost on our campuses.

Martin Luther King Jr. promoted in speeches and sermons what we could call being color-blind.  Instead of judging one another by the color of our skin, we should make our judgments based upon the content of one’s character and the actions they take.  Yet, in our colleges, race and color are everything.  The true liberal promoted the idea that race is insignificant, but the leftists of today promote that it is racist to say, “All Lives Matter.”  This brings up the area of free speech.  The liberal idea that ideas must be freely debated without threat of well-being or jail is the foundation of our country.  However, on our campuses there is an iron-clad political correctness on what can or cannot be said.  If you cross these lines you will become the target of some of the most hate-filled language, all in the name of love.  These actions that happen on many campuses do not help us.  They only further hamstring our ability to deal with the issues of society.

So what does the bible say about education?  Let’s go to Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Education Begins with The Teacher

God understands that the education of the next generation is critical for any society.  So He engrained the duty of teaching children into the minds of the people of Israel.  However, in this passage, God is not addressing the “State of Israel.”  There was no government at this time, just a leader named Moses.  Rather, God is addressing to each and every parent as a part of the group called Israel.  His command is to them, not the state.  A pernicious idea has risen and grown over the years that parents are not equipped to teach their kids.  There is some truth in the idea that parents can’t teach their kids everything, especially if the kid is going to enter a profession different than their parent.  Yet, this is misleading.  Do you remember this statement?  “The best things in life are free.”  Similarly we could say that the most important things in life do not need a rocket scientist to teach them.  Our colleges often do a good job at teaching small things like how to build a better bridge or computer.  But they actually propagandize against the big things in life that those same young people need to know.  Historically parents were the primary teachers of their kids.  If there was a school, it was because parents got together and paid for a building and teacher.  Little by little education has been taken over by the state and parents have been more and more squeezed out of the process.  The manipulators of our society understand that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  So they have inserted themselves between the cradle and parent in order to establish and secure their power.  Parents, beware that you do not pay for your kid to be brainwashed against everything you ever taught them.

This passage opens with the word, “Hear!”  Though Moses is speaking to Israel, he does this on behalf of God.  Moses is telling them that they need to hear or listen to what God is saying.  Thus parents need to teach, but they need to teach after having heard from the Lord.  When God and His revelation are separated from education, we end up with pure humanism.  Pure humanism will always fail because it cannot face the ramifications of wickedness found in the heart of mankind.  It continually seeks more and more sophisticated ways to get around the reality that men are sinners and cannot be fixed by other men.  Yes, humanism when coupled with science is very powerful.  But when it comes to ethics, it is powerless and impotent.  Many Christian teachers have left schools or been run out of colleges because they didn’t toe the line.  We must not surrender in this clash.  But continue to stand for truth.  Two counter movements have sprung up to help slow down the damage done through public (actually “state”) education (propaganda).  Many private Christian schools have been built and continue to thrive.  Also, the Home Schooling movement has been able to convince many Christian parents to teach their kids and band together in order to protect it from an antagonistic society.

Having heard from the Lord, it is even more important that parents love the Lord.  I am not talking about having fuzzy feelings for Jesus.  But, rather, a parent must love the decisions and plan of the Lord.  Too many Christians do not love how God has interacted with mankind.  So we focus only on what God has promised.  If our love for God is only based on what He has promised us and refuses to deal with what He has done throughout history, it is not based on reality.  Many people who are supposed to be believers do not believe what Jesus told us to believe.  Similarly they do not do what Jesus told us to do.  The problem is not that they struggle with faith and action.  Rather, it is that they do not exercise enough gumption to struggle with the Lord in prayer and searching of the Scriptures.  Thus they wear Christianity like a mask that covers an inner rejection of the Lord Himself.  We need a generation of Christians who have not just fallen in love with what God is offering, but also love who He is: the judgments He has made, and the grace that He has given.

Lastly Moses tells them to be “diligent” in verse 7.  Diligence often fails on the difficulty of the task.  A child doesn’t want to learn all the time and will vary in their degree of cooperation.  They often resist the principles that we are teaching.  It would be easy to throw up your hands and quit.  However, Christians, we must not do so.  The desire to give up must be extinguished by the reality of the duty that our Lord has given us.  Just as the Lord says to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go,” so He says to us.  It is not the perfection of the process, but the loving diligence to being a perfecting influence that makes a difference in the life of a child.  Now let’s look at the side of the child.

Children Need to be Taught

In Proverbs 22:6 we are told, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  It is easy to take this as a kind of guarantee.  The truth is that the proverbs are words of practical wisdom.  The point is that if you want your kid to go in a good direction then you better train them.  Kids are not born “pointed in the right direction.”  Training and education are critical to the future of a child.

Leftism within our society acts like education is extremely important.  But the truth is that leftists believe only certain education is important.  When a young person enters the average leftist-run college, they encounter many teachers who purposefully antagonize any faith and Christian belief they may have.  They use a kind of historical hypocrisy in doing this as well.  Notice how leftists judge the people of the past by the present context.  Thus our founding fathers were bad guys because they had slaves.  Yet, within the context of those societies, these men valiantly fought the demons of their day and laid the groundwork for what we have today.  Leftists also demonstrate a sort of arrogance, as if they will always be in power.  For they care not that people one hundred years from now will judge them based upon a future context.  In other words they will be judged in the same way that they have judged others.  As Jesus said, “make a right judgment.”  Leftists pretend to want to open kid’s minds.  But, in truth, they only want them open enough to take out what they don’t like and put in what they do.  Then they want those minds locked back up.  They only want your mind open to their ideas.  They pretend that they want open discussion, but in truth only certain things will be allowed to be discussed.  Children do not need such hypocrisy.  This kind of stuff is poison to the minds and souls of our children.

In Deuteronomy God reminds us that all of life is a schoolroom.  “Talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Parents are the teachers that are always teaching.  In fact, parents, we should never stop learning.  As children our parents teach us what they believe we need to know.  But when we become adults, they cease to have the role of primary teacher in our life.  Why?  It is because by then we should have learned how to be taught by the Spirit of God.  On into our adult years to the day of our death, we walk arm in arm with the Spirit of God and learn the mind and heart of God.  If a child is ever to be able to do such a thing, they need parents who will teach them the wisdom of God’s love.

God help us to show this generation that there is a God who loves them, despite their sin.  He has made a way for them if they will only turn away from the propaganda of this world and hear the words of life.

The Educational System audio