Acts 4:13-22
December 23, 2001
Faith Compelled by Truth
The events of April 1520 shook the world. The powerful in both the church and state feared the writings of a single German monk. The Pope sought his excommunication while the Emperor, only 21 and with tenuous power, desired peace with both the German nobles as well as the Italian clerics. If only this university professor would just go away, peace would reign. When Martin Luther arrived at Worms on April 16th he was soon ushered before the august body of nobility and there before him were his writings. Luther was asked whether he acknowledged authorship of a list of his works which had been determined to be in error. He did. He was then asked whether he was willing to recant the errors contained in them. Luther asked for 24 hours in which to deliberate his response. The request was granted. On the following day the examination reconvened, in the presence of the Emperor and the assembled princes and nobles of the Empire, the interrogator asked his question once more. Luther’s response was impromptu, but stands as a tremendous example of how truth compels faith to stand firm no matter what the cost. After some discussion, Luther clearly stated his position.
"Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convinced of error by the testimony of Scripture or ... by manifest reasoning, I stand convinced by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
With conviction that God’s truth demands our acquiescence, Luther left his enemies speechless. All they had left to their disposal was force and violence since their reason was vanquished. The response of the skeptics to the gospel goes only so far until their mouths are silent. The power of unbelief, the force behind the refusal to believe the gospel shows itself ultimately in a refusal to consider the claims of Christ and must resort to force or violence. This is true then and now. This is seen in our text. READ Acts 4:13-22
What lead the Apostles to stand before Israel’s Supreme Court began with their compassion on a cripple. God used them to heal the lame man so that the man would become a beacon to shine on the work of Christ. As the people gathered in amazement, Peter proclaimed Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This upset the powers that be, most of whom denied an afterlife and all of whom had just months before guaranteed the execution of Jesus. Peter explained to this powerful body that they murdered the Messiah and that he alone has the power to save them. To this, they respond.
The power of unbelief leaves skeptics speechless
Skeptics cannot answer a transformed life
The Apostles were common men
It was clear to the Sanhedrin that Peter and John were not a part of the intelligencia. Acts 2 tells us that this was clear from their accent. In 4:13 the court perceives their lower class by pronouncing them to be uneducated, common men. That had not received the proper training in rabbinic theology. They were common men, literally idi?tai, laymen, non-professionals.
On the one hand Peter and John were speaking with straight-forwardness, and confidence, courage and clarity. And they were doing this in the presence of people with power and esteem and scholarship -- the rulers and the elders and the scribes. It simply stunned the authorities. These men spoke as though they had the authority on their side. But what made this boldness so incredible was that Peter and John were not formally educated.
It is important at this juncture to comment on the place of learning in Christian life.
To be bold and clear in declaring Christ you do not need to be formally educated or skilled in the techniques of rhetoric. All that you need is to know that Jesus Christ is God’s Son who died in your place, taking your sin, giving you his righteousness.
I have spent some time in pursuit of education, both in classrooms as well as in continued reading. There is one thing I have found: there is nothing in advanced education that makes a person a courageous spokesman for the truth. I believe in education. Scholarship is a noble and valuable career which may be used for the glory of God, but God’s grace at work in our character and not education will make us bold witnesses for Christ. I have seen brilliant men and women waffle in the face of confrontation, not because they lacked training, but because they feared people more than God.
So, what does make a person bold for the truth? It is confidence not in self, but in God's truth. It is what was evident next to the court – these common men were changed men.
The Apostles were changed men
The astonishment of the Sanhedrin came from Peter and John’s boldness in declaring Christ in conjunction with their lack of credentials. But the one credential they did possess was evident – they had been with Jesus. Their boldness is directly related to their relationship with Jesus. The more you look to Jesus Christ, the more confident you become in the truth. As that confidence rises, you cease having the nagging need to exalt and protect yourself by impressing others.
As the fear of man falls by the wayside, you find freedom to speak with boldness and clarity. There is no need for haze or evasions, no clever camouflaging of indecisiveness. When it comes to presenting the truth of the gospel, it was once said that, "No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save." (J. Piper, 1/27/91 on Acts 4:13-22). The question remains – which will take center stage?
But this simple truth is often missed today. There is the mistaken notion by some that if only we could get someone really famous to profess faith in Christ, then people would sit up and listen. The presupposition there is that regeneration, the new birth in Christ, is of human origin. That we need extraordinary means which we can produce to get people to repent. But in Acts 4 we see that God uses some very ordinary, common people.
God uses lives changed by his grace to speak of his life changing power. Cornerstone’s greatness for God will be found in her commitment to know Christ, nothing more.
So what is necessary to stop the mouths of the skeptic? Being with Jesus. What does that mean?
We have to ask the text: “How was this obvious to the Sanhedrin?” Some will make most of the moral categories – that they lived good lives which would impress the court. But the only evidence this court sees are belligerent men. Rather, what stood out was that they constantly were pointing to Jesus. It was their teaching that “in Jesus [is] the resurrection of the dead” in v3. Their message to the Sanhedrin was very Christ-centered.
If you wish to be able to speak boldly, to have it recognized that you have spent time with Jesus, then you must orientate your life around the cross, make God’s grace to you, a sinner, the touchstone of all you say and do. To have Christ shine forth is not a matter of repeating the rehashed 90’s mantra of WWJD (in today’s church culture that may stand for What Would Jabez Do) – rather, it is about making the death, burial and resurrection of Christ the cornerstone on which you build your life.
Skeptics cannot answer a resurrected life
The resurrection is THE issue at stake
In light of that it should not come as a surprise that the High Court of the land had nothing to say. They were either unwilling or unable to refute these two simpletons. They admitted they could not deny what happened: neither the cripple’s healing nor Christ’s resurrection. They could not refute what was being said: that they rejected the Messiah and that Jesus Christ alone is the only name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.
If they were to set aside these men, the Court would have to attack the central tenet of Peter’s message – that Christ rose from the dead. They could not contradict what was true. Christianity at that point could have stopped if the Court could have answered. But they did not because they could not. Jesus is alive and Jesus is Lord.
The empty tomb, the risen Jesus stands as the irrefutable evidence for the Christian faith. As wonderful as Christmas is, a baby born in a cattle stall is just the beginning. People may reject what we know to be true, but they can not refute the resurrection.
It is interesting that in v15 the Sanhedrin asks: “what shall we do with these men?”
This is the same question in 2:37 as group of Jews heard Peter preach. The same truth works repentance and faith in some, but consternation in others. With evidence they could not refute, with a man crippled from birth now standing – they were silent. It is not that they were not given sufficient reason to believe, rather they would not believe, they could not believe. This tells us something important about the nature of faith and unbelief.
Whether people are lettered or ignorant, powerful or weak, rich or poor, if God does not grant them repentance, they will continually deliberate or ask themselves, "What shall we do?" but they will not be saved.
There once was a man, who, while very much alive, thought he was dead. His concerned wife and friends sent him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist, determined to cure him of his delusion, set out to convince him of one fact that would absolutely disprove his belief that he was dead. The doctor decided to use the simple truth that dead men do not bleed. He put his patient to work reading medical texts, observing autopsies, etc. He told the man that he wanted him to be sure that it was true that dead men do not bleed. After weeks of this the man capitulated. "All right, all right," he said, "enough is enough. You've convinced me. Dead men do not bleed!" Immediately the psychiatrist stuck the man in the arm with a needle and the blood flowed. The man looked down at his bleeding arm with ashen face and cried, "Oh my! Dead men bleed after all!" (Pinnock, Set Forth your Case, p. 87)
But the point of the little parable is clear enough: If a person holds unsound presuppositions with sufficient tenacity, facts will make no difference at all. They will be able to create a reality of their own, separate from and untouched by, the truth.
But what would lead a man to do this? To prefer an unreal world to the real, and falsehood to the truth? People do it all the time, in large ways and small. Why? Because the truth is not to their liking -- so they kill it, they think it away, shutting their eyes and ears. Far too often people are willing to believe anything and everything, however absurd, than to believe the truth that threatens their own self-centered worldview.
They must deny truth in the face of reason to maintain power
The issue here is always the issue when it comes to the gospel – who is in control? The Court believed that while they could not refute the truth, the could extinguish it. Force was their only option. Their tactic was simple, and it is still the tactic the world uses today:
If you can’t ignore the Christians, intimidate them. Demand that which is very personal to become very private. Notice that the religious leaders were willing to let them both believe anything they chose. Verse 17 – unable to deny the truth, they decide to forbid them to speak it. Unable to make thinking illegal, they can make disseminating the truth illegal.
They determine to remain hardened to the truth of their own sin, for to admit culpability is to lose influence over the people. This blindness to the truth shows the depth of sin as the love and worship of oneself to the exclusion of others. These men would have been quite content to see this crippled man remain a cripple for the rest of his life rather than to have the credit for his healing go to Jesus Christ.
This was the sin of Herod who, upon hearing the prophecies fulfilled concerning the birth of the Messiah and the attestation of the Wise Men, sought to kill our Lord so that he would not have to bow in worship to God and so that others would still worship him.
The one thing totalitarianism will not tolerate is that people be permitted to act on what they believe. Today people will condescendingly say: "We respect your right to your religious belief, just don’t impose that belief on anyone else." The fact of the matter is that we can’t impose our beliefs on anyone. But that’s not what they mean. What they mean is that they do not want us acting on what we believe.
When you refuse to compromise God’s Law and do that which God forbids – others may object to your stand ... for the simple reason that your convictions condemn them. People with fluctuating standards are always threatened by consistency. But it is not only wrong to subjugate our faith in Christ, it is impossible. While our faith if personal, it can never be private.
Power of belief forces us to speak
We must respond with a transformed life
The Apostles’ response to the illogical demands is clear. With a good deal of sarcasm, Peter and John respond with the same question Socrates put to his Athenian accusers. These unlearned men boldly accuse the court of timidity. For it was the court’s job to decide right from wrong. It was their duty to determine the mind of God and apply God’s truth to each case before them.
So Peter reminds them of their duty. Rather than taking their abdication to rule as a blessing, Peter forces the issue: “Whom shall we obey? God or you? There should be no difference.” While pointing out that their indecision was a decision to ignore truth, to deny reason, all the court could do is to threaten and maintain control by force. Their fear of the people who were convinced that this was a remarkable sign from God was enough for them to do nothing.
Some at this point will talk about the importance of doing what one’s conscience dictates. One may even use Luther as the example. But that would be a mistake. Remember, what Peter and John are arguing here is not that their conscience dictates that they preach Christ, but the external fact of the resurrection forces their actions. Conscience is not intended to tell us right from wrong. Consciences can be wrong as well as right. In fact, apart from the help of revealed truth, everyone's conscience would be wrong and would lead us all astray. It has been said that:
Conscience is not given to a man to instruct him in the right, but to prompt him to choose the right instead of the wrong when he is instructed as to what is right. It tells a man that he ought to do right, but does not tell him what is right. And if a man has made up his mind that a certain wrong course is the right one, the more he follows his conscience the more hopeless he is as a wrongdoer. (taken from R.Stedman, When the Establishment is Wrong, 4/5/70)
The conviction of God’s truth must so motivate us that when we are faced with the choice of fearing God or fearing man, we will always know that we must speak of and act in light of God’s Word. Let me quote again from Luther before the Diet at Worms when he said:
Unless I am convinced of error by the testimony of Scripture or ... by manifest reasoning, I stand convinced by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us.
It was said of John Knox, the leader of the Reformation in Scotland, that “he feared God so much that he never feared the face of any man.”
And today the church faces the same challenge when confronted with human authorities that demand that it stop advancing in its mission. The church’s willingness to keep spreading the Word despite threats of peril is clear evidence that its message is truly from God.
George Will, political columnist and baseball fan, writes in his book "Men at Work":
Baseball umpires are carved from granite and stuffed with microchips. They are professional dispensers of pure justice. Once when Pinelli called Babe Ruth out on strikes, Ruth made a populist argument. Ruth reasoned bogusly (as populists do) from raw numbers to moral weight: "There’s 40,000 people here who know that last one was a ball, tomato head.”
Pinelli replied with the measured stateliness of a supreme court justice: "Maybe so, but mine is the only opinion that counts."
Christians are also pressed by the weight of numbers aligned against the moral law of God.
But we know that in the end, only one opinion counts: that of the Umpire of all humans affairs.
Many will respond with the obvious objection that they have known too many religious fanatics who badger people, who are clueless as to timing and winsome words. They don’t have a clue as to how to speak of God’s grace, graciously. For that reason they remain silent when God would have them speak.
There are and will always be those whose devotion is not tempered by wisdom. But chances are, 99% of you here are not in that group. We too often find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum, living in fear of what others might think or say when our backs are turned. So we say nothing. That is not an option to us. If you have been with Jesus, you know you must speak. How do we make that change?
Our lives must transformed by Christ’s resurrection.
It is not enough to go out from here and try harder, to speak up for Christ, as though you are doing God a favor. It is grace alone that can change the loves and the desires of a human heart, that can break that natural bondage to the hatred of God that keeps people everywhere from believing in the gospel. It is also God’s grace that breaks the bondage of the fear of people and gives us the boldness we need to speak what is true and to speak that in love.
That change comes as we believe the good news gloriously proclaimed that first Christmas. As the angel chorus proclaimed God’s favor, as reconciliation between God and us is understood, as we find ourselves at the foot of the cross where that favor is secured – then we can know, there we will be changed to honor God with our hearts and lives. We can with great confidence move from here knowing that God’s grace compels us to speak, equips us to speak and in turn, he receives all the glory.
