00:00:00 – 00:01:46
Clint Loveall
Hello, friends. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate you being with us this Tuesday as we continue through the Book of Acts. We are in the fourth chapter here in the 13th verse, finishing a story that we started yesterday, as Peter and John find himself before religious authorities kind of called to account for some of the things they've been saying in the aftermath of a healing that they've done. So I'm going to jump in here at verse 13. We'll read through probably verse 22. Then we'll come back, and we'll talk our way through it. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed, and they recognized them as companions of Jesus. When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. They said, what will we do with them? For it's obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them, and we cannot deny it. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them, and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard. After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people. For all of them praise God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than 40 years old.

00:01:50 – 00:01:59
Clint Loveall
We said yesterday that there are these moments in the book of Acts that are kind of conflictual. We see those in the gospel as well. Today,

00:02:01 – 00:03:37
Clint Loveall
we find this kind of behind the scenes look at the religious leaders as we get to hear some of their private conversation. They want to stop Peter and John. They want to put an end to this Jesus business, this movement that's happening. And yet, they find themselves sort of pressed against the crowds who have witnessed this incredible thing, who believe it was real, who have heard the words of Jesus. We were told yesterday that some 5,000 people had responded. And so the religious leaders are in a little bit of a rock and a hard place. If they punish Peter and John for having done this thing that people celebrate, it makes them look bad. If they don't, they're afraid that it will continue to spread. So they essentially threaten them. They give them this ultimatum. You have to stop doing this. And Peter and John then go on to say, we can't stop. And this is, I think, an important theme of the Book of Acts, Michael, and we'll probably have a more extended conversation about it tomorrow. But the idea of boldness, the idea that the church understands that what it has to do might face some opposition, and it's willing to do that. It's willing to take some heat, so to speak, for proclaiming the truth. And this is going to become a repeated cycle in the book of Acts.

00:03:38 – 00:06:25
Michael Gewecke
So you have this moment where you have the disciples, Peter and John coming. They're making these proclamations. They're saying, these things, and they're doing so in the midst of having the receipts, right? This man, we see at the end of this text, was over 40 years old, right? You have this subtext. Everybody knows that the thing that's happening here isn't conjured. This man is well known. He had been at the temple before, and so, therefore, the people know that the miraculous thing that has happened has actually happened. And in fact, we get this in their words, too. What are we going to do is obvious to everyone. There's a sense in which that's even obvious to them. The problem here ultimately boils down, and I think we are really led into an interesting subtext here in this text right from the start, that Peter and John were uneducated and ordinary men is how the translation goes for us. So not only has God done this miraculous thing through them, which God has, but these men are not the kind of people who are naturally going to be gifted with, rhetoric and with words and with public proclamation, they're also not the kind of men that you would expect to be able to create a kind of movement sustainably behind them. And it is very much in the fact that they are ordinary people that God's work through them is made so clearly, so plainly. And I think that this is a real problem for the religious leaders, Clint, because ultimately the deck is stacked against them. They don't have a lot. that they can do in this circumstance, and so therefore, their opposition to this is going to have to be behind the scenes, as we see sort of playing out in the way that the book goes. But I want to point out that line, uneducated and ordinary, because I think it's not just a description of them. I do think there's a sense that the people who are going to receive the book of acts originally are also not going to think of themselves as highly educated and incredibly capable people. that wasn't true then in the earliest church, as it is still not true for the majority of us in the modern and contemporary church. The reality is we're all ordinary at some level, and that ordinariness is the backdrop that God chooses to do these miraculous things. So the question, like, what is our witness? What are we going to say? Well, we get nervous about these things, but this book is really honest, Clint, that it's not the education, it's not the exceptionalness of the witness. It's rather the way that God works through that witness. It's the fact that God actually shows up and there's receipts. That's what actually is behind this.

00:06:25 – 00:06:51
Clint Loveall
I think there's a little bit of a subtle backstory happening there because the men there are standing before are educated. You're right? They are someone. And so they're met with these people who have done this incredible thing that is very likely outside of their ability, and yet they don't see when they look at these two men powerful people,

00:06:54 – 00:08:07
Clint Loveall
wise people, educated people that they see ordinary people. And so the idea that ordinary people have done an extraordinary thing is a mystery to them. But I think it is, a celebration to the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is not the story of very incredible, capable people deciding to do a thing. It's the story of the Spirit of God, inspiring and equipping ordinary, regular people to do extraordinary things. And I think that there's maybe, it's hard to say, I think there's almost a subtle dig here that Luke is kind of pushing back on these religious leaders. They know so much, and yet when it comes to Jesus, they don't know anything. And Peter and John, fishermen, who by all accounts, don't know much when it comes to Jesus know the truth. And I do think there's a reversal of sorts happening here.

00:08:08 – 00:10:27
Michael Gewecke
The thing that these top of the top men are worried about is also interesting, I think. And there's two things I want to point out. The first of all is the admission in verse 16, we cannot deny it, can't deny what thing has happened. But let's notice their fear in verse 17. But to keep it from spreading further among the people, the spread, this is a thing that's concerning them. We don't want the news of this to be further disseminated. That already clues into these themes that we've already pointed out in the book of Exodus, sorry, acts about witness, about telling the story, about how quickly 5,000 people are already hearing the proclamation of that story. So the spread is a named problem here, and then it continues on, and order them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. So here's the problem, right, when we want to boil it down. The problem is people are continuing to bring up the name of Jesus, who was crucified to be gotten rid of, so to put an end to that. And the problem is that name, and therefore that story, is now continuing to spread. That man and his death was not the end of that problem for these leaders. And this is, I think, where even Peter's sermon in which he was accusing the people, you know, you killed Jesus. Here, Peter's talking to the people whose influence absolutely killed Jesus. It was their work behind the scenes that was necessary to drive that forward. And in this context, the fact that death itself does not keep Jesus's mission from advancing, the story from being told, this is the story of acts. This is the story of the church recognizing that the story of Jesus can't be contained. There is something that punches through in that story. And these men in this particular moment is an encapsulation of that in the microcosm, but that's going to be true in a much larger surface as the book continues?

00:10:28 – 00:12:41
Clint Loveall
We live as those who know this story, right? We live in the success of the Christian church. We live in an era where the church has been to nearly every part of the globe and where millions upon millions of people consider themselves Christian of one stripe or another. And so I think sometimes, Michael, it's hard for us to remember the pretty tough beginning of the church. When the church faced right from the very beginning some serious opposition, not just the struggle of getting out and proclaiming and getting people interested in the gospel, but the reality that there were organizing. organizations and entities and individuals actively trying to stop that from happening. And I think that sometimes we underestimate the challenges of the first century church, the early church, the first generation of Christians, and the difficulties they had to endure as they sought to be faithful. And at this point, we get sort of a hint of things to come, we were told they found no way to punish them. So they warned them and they kind of point their fingers and scold them, but they send them on their way. The book is going to move increasingly toward more than that, that people are going to suffer because of their choice to represent Jesus and proclaim Jesus and preach. And so this book is a, I think a stark reminder for most of us, that those early Christians faced risk and challenge and needed courage. Tomorrow, again, we'll have a conversation where they want to make sure they're up to the task in their prayer life and in their wishes together as they lived this out. But it certainly was not easy for the early church to gain of footing.

00:12:41 – 00:15:35
Michael Gewecke
A thing that we might maybe pass by, because I think it's subtle, Clint, is you just know this really how remarkably civil this story is. And when you think of the other encounters that Jesus certainly has with religious leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees, and then you think that you know, just months ago, these are the very people who have been part and parcel to the politics of getting Jesus killed. I think one of the thing that's really striking here is remember, these disciples are still going to the temple. They're still going to worship as Jews. They are doing so in the name of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ has done for the Jews a thing that God had long promised before and that now it's come to pass, right? They believe that they're embedded inside that community and that that like Levin is going to expand throughout the whole. But here, in this, whether it's right in God's sight to listen to you, rather than to God, you must judge, or we can't keep, but speaking about what we've seen and we've seen. heard, that's both pushing back as a boundary to say like, no. And on the other hand, it's also very civil, is very respectful. And you can imagine that these men, they are in the presence of people who outclass them. And I mean that literally, right? They are the experts in the religious law. And yet, once again, we have this word that we had at the very beginning here, boldness of these men, they come and they stand before people of great stature in society who they would have looked up to and known by name and to say to them, you know, if it's saying what God has actually done versus saying what we should or shouldn't say, we're going to err on the side of God. And that in a way becomes the sort of under the surface motivation, I think, that that's going to guide the proclaimers of the gospel throughout this book because there are many reasons and motivations why the gospel needs to be quieted. This is one. We're going to see many more in the book to come, ranging from financial to political to everything in between. But here, if it's going to be between what God has actually done and between what you say it should be, I'm going to err on the side of God and that that becomes the foundation of these disciples' boldness. That's an incredible kind of spiritual insight. And I think it's also maybe an invitation for us to realize that maybe evangelism, maybe witness is not as complicated as we like to think it is. Maybe it doesn't require the degrees we think we should have to do it. Maybe it just requires being willing to say what God is doing in your life. And that's enough.

00:15:35 – 00:16:02
Clint Loveall
The Book of Acts, And certainly the early church is going to deeply celebrate those who proclaim Jesus, who witness on threat of punishment, or when they are trying, when someone is trying to silence them. That's an important thing in this book. And I would argue in the history of the church, it will get lots more opportunities to see it.

00:16:02 – 00:16:09
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us today for another section of a powerful moment, the life of the church. I hope you'll join us as we continue on tomorrow. Thanks, sir.