As you can see, we are continuing in Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 22. So Acts chapter 4, 1 through 22, that's where we're camping out this morning. And just by way of context, I thought it might be helpful to give a little bit of a map as to where we are so far in the book of Acts. We saw at the very beginning of Acts, we were reminded of Christ's resurrection. And immediately thereafter, during the 40 days, Jesus appeared to the apostles and taught them things concerning himself in the word. After that, there was the ascension where they saw him visibly raised up into heaven. And after that, I left out one thing. After that, of course, they prayed for the replacing of the apostle. Whom shall we choose to take Judas' place? And then after that was Pentecost. And really, right now, where we are in the Book of Acts, we're essentially in what I think we could call the wake of Pentecost. Some unspecified time, probably within the first few weeks or so after Pentecost. is when the events of this passage are taking place. There was, of course, the healing. I forgot to put this on the board, too. There was the healing that we have been looking at the last couple of weeks, and then Peter's sermon, which was based upon that healing. So that is where we are picking up now. I'm going to go ahead and read, starting in verse 1. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, By what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. Well, I just wanna note by way of preface that I have found this to be a very exciting passage. And I pray that God will help me communicate something of that excitement and that sense of victory that I've found in this passage to you, if you don't already sense it. And let me just go ahead and articulate now what I think is the main thrust of this passage, if we were to just put it in a few words. And I believe the thrust is this, Christ, will build his church. I think that that is the main essence of what is going on in this passage. So with that being said, I want to go ahead and start by looking at what I've put here under heading number two, which is the response to the sermon. We see here that there were a few different responses to the sermon which Peter preached on the occasion of the healing of the lame man. So first of all, one of the responses was belief. We see here in this passage that as many as 2,000 were added to the number of the already 3,000 men who were converted on the day of Pentecost. So clearly this was what we could say is maybe a revival of sorts. The Holy Spirit was effectually calling sinners in a special way, special way as far as being unnatural and how many people were coming at once. So we have the conversion of 2,000 or so. And of course it mentions here in the test that this is just men, which is perhaps leaving open the door that there was more than just these men who were converted. Maybe it's just the fact that they were counting the number of men and that perhaps it's also women and perhaps even also some children who are of age who could understand. So we see belief, we see in addition to that, by implication, it says many believed, it did not say all believed, which should not surprise us. So we are left with a conclusion that some people who heard did not believe, some rejected what they heard. And then of that category of those who rejected the word, we see that some persecuted James, excuse me, not James, Peter and John, as a result of this. So we have the acceptance and belief of some, we have the rejection from others, and then we have the, what the text says is the great annoyance of these rulers. And note that, if I'm not mistaken, I think this is the first time that we've seen the rulers since Jesus's, resurrection or ever since they were coming up with that story to tell the people of what happened to Jesus's body, since it was clear that he was no longer in the tomb. But at any rate, people might be wondering when first reading this, okay, what about those rulers? What is their response to all of this? So we have belief, rejection, persecution. And I believe that there are a couple of different principles that we can take away from this before moving on to the next point, which is number one, the hearing of the word is necessary for salvation, but only the spirit can make it effectual. The hearing of the word is necessary, must, must be preached, must be heard. but it does not benefit the hearers and does not produce any effects unless the spirit works through the word. Okay, so that's one principle we can clearly see here. That's why some believed and others rejected and others persecuted. And then one other principle or observation that we can make from this text is, that because of, giving us a biblical theological framework for what's going on here, because of the enmity that Satan has with the seed, with Christ, with Christ's church, we as Christ followers can expect persecution. It should not surprise us when it comes. And I do not think it surprised Peter, and I do not think it surprised John when it came. After all, Jesus had told them If they hate me, they're gonna hate you. Jesus himself suffered and was persecuted, so of course those who identify with him are going to share in his suffering. Satan is a defeated foe, but he is nonetheless an angry and a vengeful and a wrathful foe. That then brings us to the trial of Peter and John. in verses five through seven. And here I wanna note a couple of things. If we think, some of you know the court system much better than I do, and so you'll have to be patient with me if I get some of these details wrong. But as I was thinking about this trial of sorts, I was thinking that we have The defendants, of course, who are the ones who are being accused, and those are Peter and John. So we have the defendants, because what had happened, a plaintiff had brought a complaint. These men, what are they doing that's wrong? They're teaching in the name of Christ. They're teaching in the name of Christ. So they issued a warrant for the arrest of Peter and of John. So there was a warrant issued. And Dennis Johnson actually notes here that the captain of the temple, mentioned in this passage, he actually had charge of temple security and order. And so he actually had a police force of armed Levites. And it's important to note that this is the same force that arrested Jesus. So the same police force that arrested Jesus is now arresting his apostles. So we have the defendants, and of course, the suspects were apprehended, and that's why now they are being brought before the court. Then you have the jury. And it's very interesting to note the parties who are mentioned here. We have essentially the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. Remember who the author of Acts is. Luke also mentions these same three parties who gathered in their trial against Jesus. The chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. So I think perhaps Luke is trying to draw our attention to the fact that what happened to Jesus is now happening to his apostles. Very similar circumstances with very few differences. So we have the jury, the same people who had gathered against Jesus and were seeking to bring charges against him, and The charge itself is very reminiscent of what was brought against Jesus. Their charge, if you'll allow me to paraphrase, I believe is this. You don't have the authority to do this. You, uneducated common men, you don't have the, we did not give you authority to do this. Bruce, a commentator on the Book of Acts, says that there is actually a scornful emphasis in the position of the pronoun you in this sentence in verse seven. Essentially, it's people like you. Who gave you the authority? How do you have the authority to do this? And interestingly enough, this is the same charge essentially brought against Jesus in Luke, chapter 20, verse 2. They say, tell us by what authority you do these things or who it is that gave you this authority. The point being, they had not received that formal rabbinic training, so they weren't recognized in the same way as the other people. They weren't necessarily just concerned that a that a healing had happened and that there was teaching in general, they were concerned that this was not sanctioned by them, that it was happening outside of their authority. There are some interesting parallels you could draw even to today's political situation, but maybe we can have that conversation another time. As far as there being an establishment and people who are sometimes trying to work outside of and against the establishment. So we have the same charge. We have the same jury. And one observation I believe we can make from this part of the passage is that this is a Psalm 2 gathering against God's anointed. As I was reading through this passage, I just kept on being struck by the fact these People are not just simply gathering against men who are doing a healing and teaching, they're gathering against Christ. Go ahead and read that just for the sake of context, in case it's not as familiar to anyone here. Psalm 2 says, why did the nations rot in, excuse me, not rot, why did the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. And then verse seven, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I've begotten you. This is a messianic psalm, and again, I believe that what's happening in this passage is these rulers are, in fact, gathering together against Christ. That's who their beef is with. It's not necessarily with the apostles, it's with Christ, who has given them the authority to do this. They think that they're going to be able to sort out this problem. They think that they're going to be able to stop this and snuff it out, but ultimately they are resisting King Jesus in vain. They thought that they got their way last time because they put him to death, but they did not know it was his plan to give himself over to death for the sake of his own people. but they're gonna find now this time, since he is building his church, they're not gonna be able to stop what he's doing. That then leads us to Peter's defense, or what I was thinking about titling that the trial of the rulers, because there's a surprising twist that this takes, that MacArthur also notes, but we'll talk about that in a second. Using that court imagery again, first of all, something that perhaps if they had known or understood what was happening would have been a surprise to them, is that Peter and John are not alone. When they speak, it is not going to be on their own authority or by their own utterance. What does it say in verse eight? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, So here they are, they've got these apostles cornered, and they're gonna find some way to get them. Little do they know that God himself is manifest in these apostles, in the Holy Spirit, and is himself testifying on their behalf. And not just testifying on behalf of the apostles, but against the rulers who have gathered together against Christ. So they have their attorney, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who is speaking for them. And this is a fulfillment, by the way, of what Jesus had earlier prophesied. Interestingly enough, in the Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, verses 12 through 15, Jesus had promised that when his apostles were taken over and arrested and brought to court, brought to trial, they need not figure out what they're going to say ahead of time. Why? Because his Holy Spirit was going to come and fill them and teach them what to say in that hour. That's what the Holy Spirit is doing in this passage. I believe that in addition to that, we're also seeing the continuing relevance of Pentecost. Remember those flaming tongues that rested on each of the apostles. One of the commentators, a few people had noted that those flaming tongues were signifying the witness, the divine witness that these apostles were going to be able to give with the Holy Spirit's utterance in a way unlike all the rest of Christ's people. So we have the attorney, the Holy Spirit, we have the initial defense that Peter offers, or the answer, which is essentially, by Christ's authority, we did this. And even shifts it, it's such a humble response. He doesn't even necessarily say, I don't even think he uses the pronoun for us, other than if we are being examined today. He gives all the credit and all the glory to Christ. Christ is the one, it's the name of Christ, the name of Jesus that has brought about the healing of this man. So essentially, he's saying by Christ's authority, this healing was done. By Christ's authority is this teaching executed or given in his name. Because, it's important for us to remember, As I've heard Pastor Sam Waldron mention a few times, the apostle is as the man is himself. The apostle is a delegate of the person whom the apostle sends. So just for Illustration, if I were to just ask Chris to go out and go send a special message to my children, he is acting as my apostle. I've given him a message and he's gonna declare it on my behalf to my children. In the same way, so even though he's not me, he's giving my words to my people, essentially. That's what's going on here. The apostles are Christ's, his, authority-invested representatives or delegates before other people. I hope that makes sense. So we have the defense. By Christ's authority, we did this. And then we have my personal favorite part, counter charges. We're being examined for doing a good deed by the authority of Christ. What have you done? What have you done, rulers? The counter charge is, you rejected God's chosen one. Rejected, murdered, God's chosen one. They use the word, or the terminology, first of all, of Christ. I think we're all on the same page about this, but just remember, when we say Christ, we're doing theology. Christ isn't Jesus' last name. Peter is saying here that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, by him, this man standing before you as well. He's saying Jesus is the one that we've been waiting for. He is the long prophesied anointed one. He's the Davidic king that we've been waiting for to set up an eternal kingdom. He is the prophet like Moses. He is the priest better than the high priests of the Old Testament who all had their own sins and who all died themselves. And so Christ, Jesus, is the anointed one. But then, not only is he the Christ, he's also the cornerstone. He's the cornerstone. And the commentators that I consulted said that this was a citation of Psalm 118, verse 22, And you know what, just for context, let me go ahead and read it. Psalm 118, verse 22. All right, maybe backing up to verse 21. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes." So I looked at some commentaries on this verse, because I'm not as familiar with this one in particular, but I thought this was fascinating. At least according to one commentator, he writes about the initial context of this verse, and he says, when he, the psalmist, was in distress, he was like a stone which was discarded by builders as useless. But now that he has been vindicated by God, all can see that he is of special importance to God, like the cornerstone of the building. And then it was Matthew Poole who said that the cornerstone is the chief stone in the whole building by which the several parts of the building are upheld and firmly united and kept together. So. Peter is once again being inspired by the Spirit, interpreting with the Spirit's direction Old Testament scripture and prophecy and saying, Jesus, he has fulfilled this. And the rulers themselves, the builders referred to in this psalm, the rulers have also unknowingly fulfilled scripture by rejecting him. Essentially, It's almost like Peter's saying, you who should have known him best because of your knowledge of the scripture have ultimately fulfilled the scripture, have fulfilled prophecy by rejecting him. So one observation that we can take away from that is that Christ was continuing to act through his apostles by his spirit. And that's a lot of essentially what we see going on in the book of Acts. It's Christ continuing to act through his apostles by his spirit. This is why the apostles were inspired interpreters. This is why when they say something that even strikes us at first as being strange, we're like, I'm not sure about that. The Holy Spirit is the one showing them. So it is right. It is what God is saying. So they're inspired interpreters as apostles. And it's also why they were able to heal and to do other miracles and signs that they were doing at the time. It was to demonstrate the truth of the witness that they were giving on Christ's behalf. And of course, this would continue, this divine teaching and the wonders and signs that are confirming it, this would continue until the foundation was laid. The foundation that Paul says is of the apostles and the prophets. I was gonna read this, but maybe I won't right now. But if you want, you can write down Ephesians 2, 20 through 21. That's essentially the substance of what I'm communicating here with regards to what the apostles are doing. All right, that brings us then to the results. What happened after this trial? Well, first of all, we have the verdict. concerning Peter and John. And essentially, the only real verdict that sticks to them is that they are charged with being like their master. And verse 13, it says, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. And then it goes on to say that they're speechless. They don't know what else to say, what else to do. There's a sign that's been done. They can't do anything. They don't have any charge that's gonna stick to the apostles. So essentially, their only verdict is, wow, these men remind us of Jesus. Because Jesus, of course, also was boldly and confidently handling the scriptures and the prophecies and applying them, though he did not have any formal rabbinic schooling. Just like them, just like the apostles. No formal rabbinic training, and yet they're boldly, confidently handling scripture and prophecy. Like Jesus, the apostles are saying, thus says the Lord, instead of, The rulers and the Pharisees and such who would essentially say, thus says Rabbi so and so, or great teacher so and so. Thus says the Lord, is what Jesus said, and it's what his apostles say with his authority. And I already mentioned that they were They're speechless. I just imagine what would it be like to be in that room, listening to this conversation, just watching Peter close his mouth and just looking around, seeing what are these rulers gonna say? He's just accused them of murder. And he said, by the way, your murder was unsuccessful because God rose him from the dead. And also you're now opposing his divine building project. And it says that they were astonished. They had nothing to say in opposition, and they just commanded them to leave the room so they could talk to one another and figure out, what do we do? What do we do with these guys? And then we also have a verdict concerning the rulers. There's a verdict that we can see in this passage concerning the rulers. What are they guilty of? Well, Peter has already mentioned one thing they're guilty of. They've rejected the Holy One, the prophesied Christ, but they, as we can see in verse 17, let me just read verse 17. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. I would suggest that the verdict concerning these rulers is that they are trying to snuff out the word of Christ. They're trying to contain it so that it doesn't spread any further. They're trying to quarantine it. They don't want it to stay six feet away from anyone. They want it to be locked down in a building that no one else has access to. Word of Christ must stay there, can't go out anywhere else. So the principle that we can draw from this is that, first of all, Satan himself seeks to snuff out the preached and taught word. Satan is not happy when followers of Christ gather together on the Lord's Day to hear his word preached and taught. He is not happy when people have the Bible in their own language. This does not make him happy. He wants to snuff it out. And then in addition to that, another principle we can take away from this is that the righteous, not the wicked, will stand in the judgment. Remember Psalm 1 says that the wicked will not stand in the judgment. These foolish rulers are guilty of many things, and they themselves are feeling themselves compelled to release these righteous men. And so I think in that we have just a little bit of a foretaste of the final judgment, that ultimately the righteous are going to be acquitted by God, whereas the wicked will not. And that then brings us to this last section, verses 18 through 22, which I've entitled here, The Humbling of the Rulers. We have a few different components of this humbling. And firstly, we have a desperate warning given by the rulers. A desperate warning. They tell the apostles, do not speak. Do not teach in the name of Jesus anymore. And then after Peter and John respond to them, they again warn them and threaten them further. No, seriously, don't, don't do this. Because that's all they can do. That's all they can do is threaten them. Do anything that they can to try and prevent the name from being spread, but they can't do anything else. So we have a desperate warning. And then we have what I suggest is another trial. the rulers themselves are put on trial yet again. Because after they give their warning to Peter and John, the response here is, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. So essentially, it's almost like they're coming back at the rulers and saying, all right, you judge. You who know God, is it right for us to obey you instead of God? So it's like they're levying a challenge to them saying, is this right? Do you yourselves think that this is right? If God were telling you to do something and the situation was reversed? And essentially what Peter and John are saying here is you rulers are in opposition to the God that you claim to serve. you are opposing God, they're saying to the rulers. If he says yes and you say no, we've got to go with him. And then in addition to that, just adding to the consternation and perplexion and desperation of these rulers, They've arrested men who did something that the people are praising God for. They're doing everything they can to try and stop the spread of the name, and yet the people are praising God for what has happened. So I think that leaves us with a couple of other principles that we can see in this passage. Firstly, that Christ, hear me very carefully, Christ, not Caesar, is in charge of the worship and the witness of the church. Christ, not Caesar, is in charge of the worship and the witness of the church. Jesus said, give to Caesar what is his and give to God what is his. God demanded, God called these apostles to witness for him. They have to give it to him. Christ commands his church to worship him. We have to give that to him. We do submit ourselves to the rulers, and we do subject ourselves to them, but not when they're telling us something concerning what God tells us to do. Worship is Christ's sphere of authority. Worship and witness. Punishing evil and promoting good and righteousness in the land, that's given to Caesar. And so that's one thing I believe we can see, echoed, and taught in this passage. And in addition to this, I guess a couple of different ways you could articulate this. But again, the whole theme of this passage seems to be, this is a divine building project that the gates of Hades are powerless to resist. The rulers are desperately doing whatever they can to stop this. Satan himself is acting through these rulers and trying to do whatever he can to stop this. But ultimately, Christ said, With no equivocation, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Nothing the enemy can muster will be strong enough to prevent me from accomplishing my purposes. Not even death itself will be able to prevent Christ from building his church. Well, that then just brings me to one last conclusion. I don't know why I'm writing this principle, didn't write the other ones, but I believe that this passage kind of gives us a microcosm or a smaller version of the larger spiritual war and the results of the spiritual war. What do I mean by that? Well, we see, number one, that the wicked will inevitably be put to shame. Whatever charges the wicked bring against God's people, eventually the wicked themselves are going to be judged. In addition to that, the righteous, God's people, are going to be released from every oppression. From all oppression, we will eventually be released. And then, ultimately, God will be praised. While this trial is going on, people are praising God. In the judgment and after the judgment, people are going to be praising God. People are going to be praising God for Him executing, we're going to be praising God for Him executing justice in the judgment, and we're going to be praising Him throughout all eternity. So two concluding practical applications. How should this affect us just on a daily basis? Number one, may we appropriately treasure the word of God. May we appropriately treasure the word of God. Because it's by hearing this word that salvation comes. And it's in hearing this word that we are further sanctified. It's by this word that we are made more holy in our hearts and in our conduct, as the kids' catechism says. And then number two, may this, what we've studied this hour, may this bolster our spirits for worship next hour. Christ wins. Nothing's gonna stop him. Just Let yourself hope for a moment. Just think about what the outcomes of this next hour of worship can be. Hope. Hope that maybe in these pews this morning, Christ might call another sinner or even multiple sinners to himself. He is able. He did it in this passage. He's still on his throne and he's still not done. He's still building. So perhaps he will do so this morning. And even if he doesn't, we can hope that he's going to make us look more like him as a result of our time here this day. Well, with that said, why don't I go ahead and close in prayer. Gracious God, thank you for the ongoing victory of Christ. Thank you, Lord, that in him we are not the oppressed, but we are conquerors. Help us to recognize that and help us to live like it. And this next hour, help us to worship like it. We love you, Lord Jesus. Make us more like you, we pray. In your name we pray this, amen.