Author: Ryan Hale

These “Judaizers” from the Pharisees were pretty sure that they were right. In fact, they were so sure that they went so far as to say that you cannot be saved unless you follow the law of Moses.

Practically speaking, what did that mean? All of these Gentiles that had come to faith, all of these Gentiles that had already received the Holy Spirit, must also be circumcised.

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Acts 15:1

Ouch.

I say “ouch” in a couple of different ways. There is the physical “ouch” in that the Judaizers were saying that the Gentiles had to complete the physical act of circumcision. I cannot imagine that it would be an act that they would be looking forward to completing!

Then I also say “ouch” because the Judaizers have had the temerity to speak for God. The Gentiles had already received the Holy Spirit. Should these zealous religious men try to add something to the gift of God saying that the Gentiles aren’t really saved until we have also done X, or Y, or Z?

Of course, it was a tricky situation. If someone had converted to Judaism in the past, the first thing that needed to be done was for the person to follow all of the laws of Judaism, and that of course included the act of circumcision. Circumcising a man would show his allegiance to the covenant given by God, first through Abraham and then through subsequent leaders.

But Jesus offered his people, including all of us, a new covenant. The new covenant was given in his blood. Jesus fulfilled the law, meaning that he kept all of the laws. He was the only man ever to have done so, so he did not deserve to be punished. He was the only man to ever not deserve punishment for breaking God’s law, yet he was sent by God specifically to take the punishment for the sins of the people upon himself. It is an incredible gift of God through an amazing display of love and mercy for his people.

This is the offer of the new covenant, that by Jesus’s blood, God will be our God and we will be his people.

Nothing more. Nothing added. Nothing additional needed.

In fact, Peter is very clear about this as he addressed the council that considered this question:

We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.

Acts 15:11

Yet even today, we see the “yoke” of additional rules and regulations of the church put upon people as leaders try to decide themselves who can be saved and who cannot. In fact, I have this same conversation with my Catholic friends on a regular basis. They insist to me that it must be Jesus + X or Jesus + Y. And why? Because they believe that the Catholic church has the right to impose rules from the top-down, from the Pope to all of us.

For some reason, they – and sometimes each of us as well – seem to think that we, as humans, have the right to overrule what God has said.

Of course we do not. Yet we often persist in this line of thinking. We insist that we know better than what Jesus has said. We frequently believe, like the Pharisees who became the Judaizers in the midst of the believing church, that we must add something to Jesus for others to be able to know God.

Let us, instead, simply tell others of the blood of Christ. It is through this blood that God has made his new covenant with us. It is through this blood that we can be made clean before the Lord. It is through this blood that we can be saved.

And as we are saved, we will receive the Holy Spirit, and by walking by the Spirit we will do the things that the law requires. Not because we have become a Jew and followed all of the Jewish laws, but because we have followed Christ, making him king over the entirety of our lives and we now live completely for him.

The situation that unfolded in Lystra was pretty amazing. Paul and Barnabas found a man who had never walked since he was born. He saw the man while he was preaching and teaching and so Paul told him to stand, and he did. It was truly a miracle!

The people that were listening to Paul speak suddenly decided that he and Barnabas were Greek gods. That was their context. That was what they knew, it was their culture, the religious context in which they lived every day, and so they set about bringing bulls and wreaths out to the city gates to offer sacrifices to them. They were sure that the “gods” had come down to them in human form, which is ironic because that is exactly what Paul and Barnabas were attempting to turn them away from as they spoke to them about the one true God, the creator of all things, and how the people of Lystra can know him.

Yet now, the Jews from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, those whom Paul and Barnabas had been in trouble with previously, show up in Lystra looking to continue to make trouble for the men as they preached and taught the people about Christ. The crowd, who were just about to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas as a result of the miracle that they had seen, now get angry as a result of what the Jews say about them, and stone Paul, dragging him outside of the city to leave him for dead.

They stoned him and left him for dead!

They were just about to offer bulls as sacrifices and wreaths and throw a big party because they thought that the gods had come to them, and now they go on to stone him. They try to kill him.

Was the miracle that they had seen not real? Was the guy who hadn’t been able to walk since birth now walking? Or was he not?

It was an amazing reversal, and it is certainly an important lesson for us with regard to the crowds of people that may form around us. No one should think that just because they have a crowd of people around them that they have agreement with their message and what they are doing. Numbers of people, crowds themselves, really mean nothing. What counts is what they are doing. How they are living. That which is changing within the community. If you have a crowd that is changing their way of living, in our case, changing to follow Christ, then you have a situation that is going well! Otherwise, you just have a crowd of people, and that crowd of people can turn on you at any moment.

Now, the point that struck me today in this story is what Paul does after he was stoned and dragged outside of the city. Check this out…

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

Acts 14:19-20

First of all, I’m not sure why Paul wasn’t dead. The crowd was throwing stones at him. They were intent upon killing him. Did he lay down and pretend that he had died? Maybe he was knocked unconscious and then woke back up later after he had been dragged outside of the city? It is hard to say what precisely happened here.

But now, what does Paul do?

He gets back up and goes into the city!

What is the matter with this guy? Why would he go back into the city where they had just nearly killed him?

There is really only one reason that I can think of to explain Paul’s actions. He has been persecuted and chased out of both Pisidian Antioch and Iconium. Now he is nearly killed in Lystra. The only explanation for not having given up a long time ago is that he knows that the message that he is bringing to these people – for which they are now trying to kill him – is worth all of the punishment and abuse that he is receiving. He is willing to take it. He is willing to receive that punishment because there is nothing that is worth more than the message of eternal life that God offers to us through Jesus Christ.

Not the pain that he is feeling. Not riches. Not his fame. Not even his very life. Nothing is worth more than this message. It is crucial – truly a matter of life and death – for them to receive, to understand, and to live out this message of Christ.

Paul’s hope is that there will be some who will accept his message, and in fact, we see that there are some who believed his message. There were some that came and gathered around Paul after he had been left for dead, to care for him after the crowd had attempted to kill him. Paul had found a few people through his preaching and teaching that would believe and would go on to teach others. Maybe there were even be some one day in the future, amongst those who tried to kill him, believe themselves.

What great glory would be given to God for his love and mercy toward those that had tried to kill Paul, that they might one day know Christ! Paul himself had experienced this grace and mercy as he himself persecuted and killed Christians prior to knowing Christ. Now, Paul’s hope is that this same love and grace would come to the people of Lystra, and for this reason, he stands back up and walks back into the city, single-mindedly persevering for the hope of Christ for the people that he is teaching, and ultimately for the glory of God.

That is a phrase that I have heard frequently, especially as we have had discussions about taking the Gospel to people who have routinely shown a disdain for the message of Christ.

God will protect his people.

…Or other similar types of sayings.

Except I think that this is more of a hope from a human perspective who lack understanding of the story of God instead of anything that was actually ever promised by Jesus to any of his disciples.

Today, reading in Acts 12, I saw that in the midst of the first followers of Jesus being persecuted, Herod decides to compound the persecution, going on to begin arresting the believers themselves and putting them to death.

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

Acts 12:1-2

Then the situation just continued to get worse:

When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

Acts 12:3-4

Reading about the plights of James, who was arrested and quickly killed, and subsequently Peter, who was put in chains and thrown into prison, it makes me wonder how they would think about us saying that God protects his people. God didn’t stop these terrible things from happening. Instead, those things were allowed to happen.

Yes, Peter was ultimately led out of prison by an angel, but did that make the arrest, any beatings that he may have received, or any chains that he was shackled with, any less painful? No, of course not.

Jesus never promised his disciples that God would protect them. In fact, instead, Jesus warned them of the persecution that would come as a result of the work that they would do to tell others about him. They would be betrayed. They would be beaten. And they would be killed. These are the things that Jesus warned the disciples would happen…even at the moment that he sent them out to do exactly that for which they would be harmed.

Yet Jesus did tell them that he would be with them. He would go with them. Not that they wouldn’t be harmed, but that he would be with them.

So a natural question would come up… Why would God allow his people to be beaten? To be killed? What possible good could come from this persecution, from this misery and death?

At first glance, it doesn’t seem that any good could come from the suffering that the disciples experienced. But as we look further, we see that it is through their suffering that God received more and more glory.

First, we see that Jesus suffered, bled, and died on the cross. That suffering and death is what opened the door for us to come back into relationship with God because, despite not deserving the punishment that he received, he took the punishment upon himself as a result of his love for his people. In that way, his suffering became one of the greatest ways in which God would be glorifed as a result of his love and mercy, and as a result of all peoples now having a way to be reconciled back to God.

Second, it is through suffering that the church has always grown. We see this throughout the writing of the book of Acts as well as through the Apostles subsequent writings in the epistles. There is no special protection that they experienced. No, instead, it was through their suffering that the Gospel was carried to people everywhere!

And that is the same that we see today. The advance of the Gospel comes at a cost. The advance of the Good News of Christ happens through suffering. The Church has grown the most quickly over the last few decades in places like China and Iran, countries where the Gospel and the name of Christ are not welcome and those who bring the Gospel in those places will likely suffer, and possibly die for what they believe.

Instead, I find that it is really only in the hearts and minds of Christians who have been led to believe that to follow Jesus means that they should have a better life now are the ones that discuss their belief that God will protect his people. The “prosperity” Gospel which offers health, wealth, and other types of properity. In short, the Good News is diluted into that which we can gain today.

Yet that is far from what we see in the scriptures. That is not the story of the Bible. No, the headline is not God will protect his people. The true story is that we are to live to give him glory.

We know the names of those who traveled with Jesus and went on to be used by God to start the first church in Jerusalem. These are the disciples who became the apostles. Peter, James, John, and nine others. We know their names.

We know the names of the men who started churches all over modern-day Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, and beyond. Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, and several others were used by God to begin an incredible movement of church planting.

But there was a critical moment in which Evil, through the Jewish leaders and their persecution of the church, attempted to snuff out the church, attempted to close it for good. In Acts 8, it says that persecution broke out amongst those in the church in Jerusalem, causing many to flee from the city to go elsewhere to seek refuge. It was in that moment that the church was in real peril. Would it continue to grow? Or would it die? Would this large church go on to live? Or would it simply be a footnote in history?

A few chapters later, following the start of the persecution in Jerusalem, we receive an answer. The believers from Jerusalem continue what they had learned in this first church as they move out of the city, and then they are joined by others as well.

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Acts 11:19-21

As these believers head out into new locations, what do they do? They continue to do what they learned to do in Jerusalem. And the result is that now, in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch – which are in modern-day Lebanon and the island of Cyprus – these relatively new believers go to tell others and to share the Gospel.

In fact, they do a great work and see great results there in Antioch, and that new location, that new church where they would first be called Christians, becomes a church that may be considered amongst one of the greatest mission-sending churches of all time.

But what were their names? What were the names of these people who went to Antioch and began to share to Gospel, making disciples, and ultimately starting this church?

We don’t know.

The Bible doesn’t tell us their names.

We see that Barnabas comes later and he goes to get Saul to come teach the church for a year. We see the names of three other leaders in the church as we read the first few verses of Acts 13. But these first believers that escaped persecution and made a decision to continue to tell others in this crucial time? No, we don’t know their names, and that is a wonderful fact in the midst of this incredible work.

That is wonderful because, as I mentioned before, this was a critical time, and this was a critical decision. It would be much easier to retreat. It would be much easier to pull back and have a “personal faith”. It would be much easier to huddle together, to simply stay together without telling anyone else. After all, they were no longer in Jerusalem. The people around them didn’t necessarily speak the same language as them. The culture was different. And they didn’t have their leaders any longer. The apostles had stayed in Jerusalem. They were on their own. They were strangers in a strange land.

Yet they made the decision to be bold. With those that they could speak and proclaim the Gospel, they spoke and told others of the best news that they could possibly tell them: Jesus Christ is the Messiah for whom the world has waited and he offers them forgiveness of sins so that they can be reconciled to the one true, and only God, the creator of the world.

We should not care if the world knows our name. There is only one name that the world needs to know, the name of Jesus. He is the one to be lifted up. He is the one to be glorified. Our names can pass away, but his name will live forever. In him, we also will live forever, under his one and only name.

So like those that went before us, like those who left Jerusalem and went to Antioch, let us go and risk great things for him. Let us go to tell others of his name and how the world can know God, only through his name. Let us go to our neighbors, or let us go to another part of the world. God has different callings for each person, but this is the calling that Jesus has already given to each of us: To go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them also to obey what he taught us to do, lifting up one name and only one name – the name of Jesus.

The step that Peter took across Cornelius’s threshold to enter his house was a big one. Peter had make some significant strides forward in his maturity in Christ, but this one was one of the biggest. Physically speaking, Peter simply walked into a Gentile’s house, but it was a place that the Jews would consider to be “unclean”. Spiritually speaking, Peter just walked into a place that showed his understanding and acceptance of Christ as bigger than all of the Jewish traditions and prejudices against the Gentiles.

The passage reads as the conversion of Cornelius and his household, and it is. This entire house full of people is about the receive the Holy Spirit, the first time that Peter will have seen this amongst the Gentiles. But possibly in an even greater way, this passage shows Peter’s conversion, fully leaving behind the old, human ways of thinking that had bound him and taking on the way of God by entering into Cornelius’s house.

While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.

Acts 10:27-28

How many people do we think of an “unclean”? I suspect that there might be quite a few. Those that are literally not clean, maybe they are dirty and smell bad. Or maybe those that come from cultures that are very different from ours. To us, what they eat or how they keep their home, or the way that they manage their society, is repulsive. It could even seem to be the very definition of “unclean” to us.

There could be many of these types of people, and even if we would affirm the idea in the company of others that we should be ready to go to these people, we frequently simply remain ready without actually going. There ends up being a difference in our public words and our true practice.

In Peter’s case, he needed to be taught, and thankfully, Jesus did teach him.

And we also have been taught. Through the example of Peter and many others, we can clearly see that which is God’s desire. He wants everyone to know him. Without prejudice. Without predetermination from a human perspective. He wants that all will go to the other person to tell them about him. That they also can be reconciled back to him through Jesus.

But like Peter, we can either be part of the problem, or we can be part of the solution. Peter could have chosen to ignore the vision that Jesus gave to him. Peter could have chosen to ignore the men who came to take him to Cornelius’s house. Peter could have stopped short of entering through the threshold of the home. He could have been what blocked the Gospel from going forward, but instead he became the conduit through which the Gospel came to Cornelius and his entire household. They received the Holy Spirit and were baptized.

Peter both learned a great lesson that day and went on to teach that same lesson to others, that God had given the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. But Peter only learned that lesson because he was willing to risk stepping over the threshold into Cornelius’s house.

Now, what about each of us? Will we learn the same lesson, pushing beyond that which, from our perspective, seems to be unclean? Will we be a block for the Gospel, or will we allow God to use us to bring forward the greatest story ever told and the greatest news ever heard? If we want God to use us, we will likely need to step over the threshold, take a risk, and allow him to work in the midst of that which seems to us to be unclean.

There is a saying amongst some missiologists, evangelists, and apostolic-type of people that goes something like this:

If you don’t do Acts 1:8, you may get Acts 8:1.

What in the world does that mean?

In Acts 1:8, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus had told his disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and then they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

And so, what actually happens?

Jesus ascends to heaven, the Holy Spirit comes, Peter preaches, 3000 are baptized, and we see an amazing start to the church there in Jerusalem.

Yet, at least for a period of time, that is about as far as we see the church go. We don’t see that the people of the church went, nor were sent very far as they started the process of becoming the people of God that Jesus had told them that they would be. Depending on the timeline that you ascribe to, Acts 1 to Acts 8 may have happened over a period as little as one year to as much as three or four years. It is hard to say exactly, but the main point is that Jesus didn’t intend, and didn’t tell the disciples to go to Jerusalem to stay there. No, instead, he told them to stay there until they receive the Holy Spirit and then they would be his witnesses to the end of the earth.

When persecution comes for the disciples, we should see what happened as a result. What was the outcome of Stephen being killed and the persecution that broke out in Jerusalem?

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there

Acts 8:1-5

We see that there was great grief and mourning in the death and burial of Stephen, but his death was only the beginning. Saul came and began going from one house to the next, putting the believers in prison. He was working to destroy the church.

So, to avoid being thrown in prison, the believers were scattered and moved out of Jerusalem. Forcibly. They weren’t necessarily sent by the church, but they were sent out. They were sent out by the force of persecution. And how did God use this persecution?

Those who were scattered began to preach the word everywhere.

That which Jesus had told the disciples he wanted them to do began to happen. Even if it wasn’t under nice circumstances, or even if it wasn’t within the way that the church had planned it, the people of the church were scattered, they were sent, and thus God’s word was proclaimed everywhere.

We can even see with Philip, who was one of the 12 disciples, that Christ was preached in Samaria, just as Jesus had told his disciples to do. These were no longer the “pure” Jews that were hearing the word of God and following Christ. These were the hated Samaritans, the “half-breeds”, as they might have said, who had intermarried with the Assyrians as a result of colonization process by the Assyrian empire from centuries prior. And God is showing that the good news of Christ is for them as well as they hear the Gospel, believe in Jesus as the Messiah, and even receive Holy Spirit. Wonderful!

God is using these terrible circumstances for his glory. He is using the persecution of the believers to spread the word of God everywhere. God has, from the beginning, said that his image should fill the earth. Then Jesus told the disciples to make disciples amongst all nations, and he told his disciples that they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

God has never intended that his people should stay in one place. His plan is not localized. His plan is that his people should make and execute a plan to fill the earth, reaching all people, going everywhere. No place should be excluded.

But to the extent that we do not do that, God will use any other means at his disposal…and what we see here in Acts 8 is that God can, and will, even use the evil of persecution for his purposes. Even in the midst of violence, God will turn the situation for his glory.

We should learn a lesson from what the first church in Jerusalem had experienced! We should join God in his plan. He does not intend that we stay in one place, but that we join him in doing what he is doing, to spread his image across the face of the earth, making disciples of all nations, as we go and become part of the fulfillment of his plan.

I’m good at coming up with a lot of different ideas. Ideas about doing this, or doing that, mostly in an effort to help the Gospel move forward, but sometimes also just thinking about how to create a project that will be ancillary in advancing the Gospel.

It is an important thing, I believe, to make sure that we do not sacrifice the work of sharing the Gospel or helping others understand and follow the word of God in favor, instead, of developing a project, even if it will be a help to the community, or eventually lead to the spread of the Gospel in a new way.

There was an example of this type of situation in the early church. In fact, it was even more challenging for them because apostles were facing a scenario where some of the widows in their community were not receiving the daily distribution of food. You might think that the right thing to do would be to stop everything and fix the problem. Or be the one to start taking the food to the widows so that the job would get done.

The apostles, though, knew that it was critical that they continue to speak, to preach, to declare the word of God. They knew that they had the responsibility to teach others. They had been with Jesus and they needed to help others understand who he is and how they also can follow him.

But of course, it is important that the widows receive food too! However, not at the expense of preaching and teaching the word of God:

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:2-4

So they found 7 others. The first deacons, we might say. These seven men made sure that the food was distributed properly and that all of those who needed food received it.

And the result? The word of God spread! More and more people there in Jerusalem believed. And even a large number of priests, those from among the Jewish leaders, believed.

Both are necessary. We must care for people, but we absolutely cannot do the caring for others without speaking and proclaiming the word of God while obeying the command of Jesus to make his disciples. Many have believed that we can just do good deeds and the world will know that we follow Jesus because of this.

No they will not.

No one is wondering. No one is just going to ask you why you are a good person. No one is spending their time thinking about how they can be like you.

Yes, our deeds must match our words. But there must also be words.

There is a phrase that is misquoted to Francis of Assisi that says:

Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.

First, it is important to know that he didn’t say that. Francis most certainly encouraged the Francescan order to match their deeds to their words, but this isn’t necessarily a quote that can actually be attributed to him.

And second, it also runs against the words of scripture, contrary to what Jesus and other parts of the Bible teach. Jesus told us that we must make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that he commanded. Not even just teaching, but teaching to obey, to do what he said to do.

Or even, as Paul asked the church in Rome, how can they believe unless someone preaches to them…or for that matter, someone just tells them?

We must make our deeds follow and align with our words, but let’s not forget that we also must, as the first church did, speak the words of life, telling others about Christ and teaching them to follow him, doing what he said to do. In this way, we will also see the spread of the word of God and many come to know him.

Peter and John kept getting in trouble. They had previously been taken before the high priest and several of the other leaders and accused by the Sadducees of preaching of the resurrection. Now, they have been hauled before the Sanhedrin, the entire Jewish leadership council, to receive their judgment and punishment for having continued to preach and teach in Jesus’s name.

In the end, Gamaliel convinced the leaders in the Sanhedrin to let them go, saying that if what they are doing is from God, even they as the leaders of Israel wouldn’t be able to stop them. How right he was!

So they were beaten. Peter and John were flogged there in the Sanhedrin. And what did they do as they left? They didn’t go out complaining or licking their wounds that they had received as a result of the beating that they took.

They went rejoicing!

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Acts 5:41-42

How many of us would do the same? Most of our lives are built around trying to avoid pain. Most of our lives are built around trying to avoid shame, to avoid embarrassment.

But Peter and John knew that couldn’t be the story of their lives. They knew that they had experienced a new life, an eternal life. Even if their life would be cut short here on the earth, they had an eternal life to which they would look forward. Even if their life was considered to be an embarrassment by others here on the earth, they had an eternal life to which they would look ahead.

They rejoiced for the fact that they could be beaten, that they could be shamed, that they could be disgraced on account of Jesus’s name.

Did it feel good? Of course not. Were they masochists and want to keep receiving pain? I would assume they would not.

But in the end, did it matter to them? No. The only thing that mattered was the glory of Christ and that as many as possible could be saved and bring glory to Jesus’s name as well. That is what mattered, and is what still matters even today. And so we also should rejoice, even if – or maybe especially if – we are disgraced for the name of Jesus.

They were now leading a movement of more than 5000 men, Luke tells us in Acts 4. They not only saw the first 3000 join them on the day of Pentecost, but then subsequently, day by day, they continued to add more and more disciples as they went to the temple courts to preach and then meet as the Church, in fact the only church at that time, from house to house. They did this every day as this was the most important thing in their lives.

Of course, as the priests and the other Jewish leaders saw the disciples preaching and teaching the people, most especially in the temple courts, they were disturbed because they were teaching about Jesus, explaining to the people that he was the Messiah, that he had been killed by these same leaders, and that he had been resurrected. That upset the Sadducees, one particular sect of the Jewish leaders who claimed that resurrection was not possible, a position that many Jews had held, at least up until the time after the second temple was built.

Now, the Sadducees have Peter and John arrested as a result of their preaching the resurrection where they will then stand trial before all of the leaders, including the high priest of the time, Caiaphas. These same people that sent Jesus to his death through Pontius Pilate now had Peter and John in their hands and were making their plans on what they can do.

However, they had a challenge on their hands. First, Peter and John had performed a miracle by healing a man who was lame and could not walk. Now this man was walking around.

But second, these were just ordinary guys:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Acts 4:13

So here, in some fashion, God was just using ordinary men who were performing miracles and teaching new teachings about Jesus, whom they had just recently killed. Everything that they were doing, everything that they were teaching, and everything that Peter and John stood for, stood in opposition to these Jewish leaders. God wasn’t using them. He wasn’t using high priest and the leaders. Their words weren’t being confirmed by miracles. And the people weren’t lining up behind them in droves in the same way. How can this be?

What Caiaphas and the other leaders noted was right: They had been with Jesus. They knew him. They taught what Jesus had taught. They did what Jesus had done.

And now, so much more.

What Jesus had done, what Jesus had told them, what Jesus had commissioned them to be and do was all being realized and coming true. It was starting. It was happening. It was moving forward, but it wasn’t happening with the “wise” or the “learned”, but it was happening through the simple. It was happening through the unschooled and the ordinary.

The difference? They had been with Jesus.

We also can do the same. We also receive the Holy Spirit and we can be with Jesus. We can be a people who spend time with him, who learn from him, who become his disciples. And when we do so, we can help others to come alive in Christ. Just as we see Peter and John carrying the message of Christ, the message of resurrection and new life to all of humanity who are spiritually dead in their sins, we also can do the same.

But we must walk with him. We must be with him. This cannot happen on our own. Instead, as Jesus said, we must remain connected to him. He is the true vine. We are the branches.

One way in which we do this here is to do what we call a “band” study and then meet together weekly to encourage one another and walk with one another. We also can walk with Christ, abide with him, and this allows us to be just ordinary people who can take this same message that Peter and John took to the people, also to those around us, such that Jesus would be known and others can live in him.

Peter reached down and grabbed the lame man’s hand, pulling him to his feet. He told the man, who was begging for money at the temple gate, that he didn’t have any money, but he did have the power of Jesus Christ within him.

Peter gave the man the ability to walk. Now the man could go on to work for himself, no longer begging by the gate as he had done day after day depending on others to give him a few coins, but instead he could walk!

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

Acts 3:6-7

The people who were there at the temple came to see Peter. The man had gone into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. What a great miracle had been done for a man who could previously not walk!

Yet Peter doesn’t go on to tell the people about the gift of healing people. He doesn’t tell the people about how they too can lay their hands on people, if only they believe and receive the Holy Spirit.

No, he tells them about a much greater miracle than that. Peter tells them about how the dead came alive. He tells them about the resurrection.

And why?

Peter knows that they too can come alive. The people don’t even realize that they are dead before God, but in Jesus they will be made alive. They don’t realize that they are the walking dead, destined for judgment. But in Jesus, they can be changed into who they were made to be, living as a new creation in the image of God!

The miracle is the confirmation of what Peter is telling the people. The miracle is the power of the kingdom of God breaking into the physical world. Yet we should not look to be the person who just wants the miracle. We should seek the one who can do all things and know him. We must know Jesus so that we who have been dead can come alive in him because what he has, he desires to also give to us.