19
Acts
Introduction:
The
Apostles Peter and John had been involved in the healing of a lame
man.
He had been born lame and had been lame for over forty years. For this
they had been arrested by the Jewish officials
of the Sanhedrin Council. When
they were asked by whose power and in
whose name the lame man had been healed,
the Apostle Peter had told them that he
was healed by the power and authority of
Jesus Christ whom they had killed. He told them that Jesus is the Son of God
and that God had raised Him from the
dead. HE told them that Jesus not only
has
the power to heal, but that He has the
power to save lost sinners. He said that
there is none other name under heaven
whereby men could be saved. In our
text today the trial of these two men
before the Sanhedrin Council continues.
I.
The man who had been healed brought in as a witness
V.
14, “And beholding the man which was
healed standing with them, they
could say nothing against it.” Apparently not only Peter and John had been
brought before the Council members, but
the man who had been healed had
apparently also been brought before the
Council. He was brought before them
because he was a material witness against
Peter and John. There is no mention
of him being charged with any wrong doing
nor were any questions asked of him.
At least, if he was questioned Luke says
nothing about it in our text.
But
it was not necessary to question the man.
He was present and Luke
tells us in our text that he was
standing. The very fact that he was able
to
stand was evidence that he had been healed
and so far as the Council members
were concerned, that was sufficient
evidence against Peter and John. In
their
minds they were guilty of healing a man in
the name of Jesus of
their minds that was a crime.
Oddly
enough, the man who had been brought in by the council as a witness
against Peter and John was in reality a
witness for them and a witness for
Jesus.
He was a witness against the men on the Council. The members of the
council knew this man. All of the whole city knew this man. Jews from all over
the nation and from foreign lands who came
periodically to
man.
For many years they had seen him seated at the gate of the temple
begging
coins.
They knew that he had been lame.
That was an established fact.
They
knew that the man whom they had seen
begging for so many years was this very man
who was now standing before them and was
able to walk. As a matter of fact, he
had walked into the room where the Council
meeting was taking place. They were
all able to identify the man who was now
standing before them as the man whom
they had seen begging for so many
years.
Luke
says that the members of the Council knew that a genuine miracle had
taken place and they could say nothing
against it. They could not say that the
claim that no miracle had taken
place. They could not say that this man
was
merely pretending to be healed. They knew the healing to be genuine.
Furthermore,
they could not condemn the apostles for making a lame man
whole.
That was an act of mercy and kindness and there was nothing they could
say against it. What disturbed the members of the Council was
that the apostles
had healed the man in the name of Jesus of
Nazarus and had informed one and all
that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is the Son
of God, that He has been raised from
the dead and that He is the Savior of men. The apostles said said that
nobody
could ever get to heaven except by the
power of Jesus.
Now
that disturbed the members of the Sanhedrin Council. It put them in a
bad light with all the public. You see, it had been the Sanhedrin Council
which
had arrested Jesus and had condemned Jesus
and had proclaimed Him to be worthy
of death.
It was the leaders of the Sanhedrin Council who had persuaded Pilate
to crucify Jesus. Now the words and actions of these two
apostles were telling
everybody that Jesus is the Son of
God. Peter and John were accusing them
publicaly of killing the very Son of
God. That was what was disturbing the
Sanhedrin Council.
What
I want you to observe right here is that the members of the Council
had all the proof they needed to convince
them that Jesus had been raised from
the dead.
The lame man had been healed by the power of Jesus and Jesus could
not have healed the man if He were still
dead and in the grave.
They
had all the proof they needed to convince them that Jesus is the Son
of God, the Christ whom the prophets of
old had promised and is, indeed, the
only way whereby one can be saved and go
to heaven.
They
had the proof they needed and they could not argue against it but
they refused to accept it. Instead, they hardened their hearts against
the
obvious truth and continued to reject the
idea that Jesus is the Christ. They
were like many skeptics of our own day who
deny that Jesus is the Son of God and
the Savior of men. They say, “Show us the proof and we will
believe it. But
they are not willing to believe any kind
of evidence which you can show them
that Jesus is the Christ. If a man is not willing in his heart to
acknowledge
that Jesus is the Son of God there is
nothing you can do to convince him. But
if a man is searching for the truth about
the matter, then there is an abundance
of evidence that you can show him.
II.
The dilemma of the Council members
V.
15, “But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council,
they conferred among themselves.” The counsel members ordered that the
prisoners along with the witness to be
taken outside so that they could not hear
the rest of their discussion. They did not want Peter and John and the
healed
man to be aware of the dilemma that they
were in. They wanted to stop Peter and
John from preaching in the name of
Jesus. They wanted to stop the miracles
so
that there would not be another such
healing to take place. About five
thousand
new converts to Christianity had resulted
from this one miracle and they did
not want any more miracles to take
place. But they did not know how to go
about
it without putting themselves in a bad
light with the public. They were in a
dilemma.
After
the apostles and the material witness were out of their hearing they
continued their discussion and frankly
admitted their dilemma. V. 16, “Saying,
What shall we do to these men? for that
indeed a notable miracle hath been done
by them is manifest to all them that dwell
in
Even after this great miracle, the members
of the Sanhedrin Council were just as
much opposed to Jesus as ever. They were still determined to stop the
disciples
of Jesus from preaching in the name of
Jesus if they possibly could. They were
determined to stop the disciples of Jesus
from healing anybody else if they
possibly could.
III.
The decision of the Council concerning Peter and John
They
considered that they were concerned they had been successful in
stopping Jesus from preaching and
healing. They had been unable to stop
Jesus
by debating the issues with Him. Every time they tried to prove Him wrong in
public debate they got embarrassed. Jesus had, instead, proven them wrong and
had done it publicly. In order to stop Jesus it had been necessary
for them to
bring Him to His death. They were perfectly willing to do the same
for these
disciples in order to stop them, but they
could not use the healing of this lame
man as an excuse to put them to
death. The only thing they could think
of under
the present circumstance was to just
threaten them. They must have thought,
“A
threat will be all that will be
necessary. They surely will not dare to
disobey
our orders. They know what we did to Jesus.” So the decision was made. They
would sternly threaten them. V. 17-18, “But that it spread no further
among the
people, let us straitly threaten them,
that they speak henceforth to no man in
this name.
And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor
teach in the name of Jesus.”
According to this order, it would now be
against the law of the land for
the disciples of Jesus to speak publicly
or privately in the name of Jesus.
They were thus forbidden to tell folks
that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
They were forbidden to tell anybody that
Jesus is the Christ. They were
forbidden to tell anybody that Jesus is
the Son of God. They were forbidden to
tell any other crippled man in the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth to arise and
walk.
They would be forbidden to heal anybody else of any kind of affliction
in
the name of Jesus Christ.
IV.
The decision of Peter and John
V.
19, “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be
right in the sight of God to hearken unto
you more than unto God, judge ye.”
This order from the Sanhedrin Council was
somewhat equivalent to being and order
by the congress of the United States. The Romans were the ruling authority, but
they had allowed the Jewish Sanhedrin
Council to rule in Israel pertaining to
all matters of religion. Jesus, who is the very Son of God and Jesus
had
already issued orders for them to go into
all the world preaching the gospel,
baptizing the converts in the name of
Jesus and then teaching them to be
obedient to all of the commandments which
Jesus had given. Furthermore, in Acts
1:8 Jesus had told them to witness for Him
in all of Jerusalem, in all of Judea,
in all of Samaria and in all the world.
Now
how could these disciples promise this council that they would stop
preaching and teaching and doing miracles
in the name of Jesus? There was
simply no way they could agree to stop
using the name of Jesus. This order
forced them to make a choice between
obeying men and obeying God and they let it
be known that they intended to obey God
rather than man.
Now
let me point out to you that these men were not revolutionaries
against the government. It disturbs me when I hear people say taht
Jesus and
the apostles were revolutionaries against
the government. They were not. They
never in their lifetime made any effort to
overthrow the Roman government nor to
diminish the authority of the Sanhedrin
Council. Nor did they seek to disobey
the orders of the Sanhedrin in other
matters. The one and only thing they
refused to obey weas the order which
requited tem to disobey a direct order from
the Lord.
Let
me also point out to you that they did not refuse to obey the orders
of the Sanhedrin Council on the grounds
that the order violated their
conscience. With them, it was not merely that their
conscience would bother
them if they obeyed the order of the
Council. With them it was merely that
the
direct order of Almighty God took precedence over an order
from men. When the
order of men was in direct conflict with
the order of God then they must choose
to obey God rather than men.
Let
me also point out to you that this action of those disciples set a
precedent for us today. We, as Christians, are not to rebel against
our
government simply on the grounds that we
are not in agreement with their
policies.
We are taught in Romans 13:1-3 that it is the will of God for civil
authorities to rule over us. We are taught to be respectful and obedient
to the
laws of civil authorities whether or not
we are in agreement with their
policies.
We are to keep the speed limits which are set by the law of the land
whether or not we are in agreement with
that limit. We are to be honest with
the Internal Revenue and pay all of our
taxes which we rightly owe under the
laws of the land. We are not justified in cheating the IRS
simply because we
are not in agreement with how they spend
the money even when we know that they
are wasting a lot of it. The only time that a Christian is justified
in
disobeying the law of the land is when we
have to choose between obeying the law
of the land or obeying God. As Christians, we are always to obey God
above all.
So
the Apostles Peter and John told the Council right up front that they
could not and would not obey this order to
stop teaching and preaching in the
name of Jesus. V. 20, “For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen
and heard.”
This
bold declaration by the apostles put the officials of the Council
right back in their dilemma. They could not beat or kill the apostles at
this
time or they would be in trouble with the
general public. Three thousand of
them had been converted to Christianity on
the day of Pentecost. Daily others
were doing the same thing. Now on this occasion another five thousand
people
had joined the Christians. Furthermore thousands of others throughout
the city
of Jerusalem were loudly voicing praises
to God and to the apostles for the
healing of this lame man. They simply could not afford to kill them or
beat
them or even hold them in prison any
longer.
V.
21-22, “So when they had further threatened them, they let them go,
finding nothing how they might punish
them, because of the people: for all men
glorified God for that which was
done. For the man was above forty years
old,
on whom this miracle of healing was
shewed.”
V.
Some decisions that men today have to make
There
are several decisions which men in our day have to make. These are
decisions that very strongly affect our
lives and our destinies. For one
thing, men have to decide whether to
accept Jesus Christ as their Savior or
whether or not to reject Him as
Savior. The truth is that Jesus is the
Christ,
the Savior of men. Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jewish leaders
and others were
guilty of killing was and is the very Son
of God. The Jewish leaders were not
willing to acknowledge Him as the Son of
God and as the God sent Savior of men,
but that does not change the fact. Just as surely as the power of Jesus Christ
had made that man whole, even so He is
able to save every lost sinner who
repents of his sin and calls upon Jesus
for salvation. The only way that any
man, woman, boy or girl can get to heaven
is by repenting of his sin and
trusting Jesus Christ to save his
soul. There may be someone in this
congregation who is unsaved, and that
person needs to understand that there is
no other name under heaven whereby he or
she can be saved. Each and every
person has to make up his or her own
mind. He or she can accept Jesus Christ
to
be his Savior and spend eternity in heaven
or he can reject Jesus Christ as his
Savior and spend eternity in The Lake of
File and Brimstone. If you are
unsaved, you need to turn to Jesus today
while there is time and get your heart
right with God.
A
choice which Christians have to make is whether or not to witness for
Jesus to the unsaved. Jesus made it clear that He wants all who are
saved to
witness for Him. In our text Peter and John set a good example
for us to
follow.
They were faithful to witness for Jesus.
Those of us who are saved
need to choose to do the same thing. We need to be witnesses for Jesus.
You,
no doubt, have members of your family who are yet unsaved who need to
hear you say that Jesus Christ has saved
your soul. They know you and have
confidence in you. They will come nearer being presuaded of
their own need of
Jesus Christ as their Savior if you are
the one who will tell them about Jesus
saving you. If you do not have family members who are
lost, then surely you
have friends or neighbors who are unsaved,
and Jesus has called upon you to
witness to them for Him. Listen, I would like to be able to get around
to
everybody in this whole country and tell
them personally about Jesus, but I
cannot get to them all. That is why Jesus through the Scripture has
called upon
you to witness. Those disciples would not let anything stop
them from
witnessing for Jesus. Please do not let anything stop you from
witnessing.
Another
choice that we have to make is whether or not to put God first or
to put men first. We must decide whether or not to obey the
will of God in our
lives or whether to follow after the ways
of sinful man. I think that there is
no doubt in everybody’s mind that when it
comes to choosing to do the will of
man or the will of God that we ought to
put the will of God first and foremost
in our lives. We ought to put God’s will even above our own
will. God is
Supreme and we should obey God above
all.
Also,
we will have to dicide whether or not to be law abiding citizens.
We will note that Peter and John sought to
be law abiding citizens. They never
rebelled against their government. They sought to obey the law of the land as
long as it did not require of them to
disobey the will of God. So it should be
in our lives. We should put God first in all things, but we
should always seek
to obey the laws of the land as far as is
possible. As Christians, we should
never get involved in any kind of
revolutionary activity working against the
government of our land. We have a legal right and a Christian
responsibility to
promote good government. We should vote and elect good public
officials. We
have a legal right and a Christian
responsibility to speak out on issues that
involve our nation. In other words we have a legal right and a
Christian
responsibility to help to improve our
government. But we do not have a legal
right nor do we have a right under God to
seek to overthrow our government. We
should seek to obey every law of the our
land which is not in direct conflict
with direct orders from God.
Conclusion:
Therefore,
I am going to ask you to consider making some decisions here
this morning. I am going to ask that those who are unsaved
make the decision to
call on Jesus and trust in Him to take
care of your soul in eternity. I am
going to ask that you do that today and
that you come forward during the singing
of our invitation hymn and make your faith
in Jesus be known to us.
I
am going to ask that you who saved renew your effort to witness to lost
souls.
I am certain that you will have opportunity to do so during this coming
week.
I am going to ask you to take advantage of that opportunity. I wish that
I could witness to everybody, but I cannot
get around to everybody. Help me
out.
You witness to some and I will witness to some. That way we will witness
to more people.
I
am going to ask you to put God first in your life. God is Supreme. God
is worthy of our very best of service and
loyalty. Let us seek to put God first
this coming week.
I
am going to ask that if you are saved and you are in need of a church
home, that you give consideration to
uniting with us and helping us serve God.
We can use lots of help.
I
am going to ask you to be a godly law abiding citizen. I would not ask
you to go against the commands of God nor
do I ask you to endorse ungodly things
that are done by our government or by
anybody. But since God Himself calls
upon
us as Christians to be good citizens, then
I ask that you do your best to be a
good citizen. Whatever changes you see that need to be made
in our government
you can best promote those changes by
godly Christian living and earnestly
praying to God for His help and
blessings.