0:00
So cool. So, there's a different style in preaching and teaching I think from narrative especially the way that Luke does it. It seems to peel back a layer and peel back a layer and so to have this one follow on Carl's Acts four one through 22 last week. I actually was not privy to that. I wasn't here and I was not able to hear it on the internet because it's not uploaded yet.
0:24
So, I don't know what he preached on exactly as far as where all his points were but I know what it says and the fact that we gather around an objective truth that God has given us his truth, his word, and its objective. I know what it was about. So, I can go from there. 04/23, I'm going to do through '31, not '37 as it's listed up there but I'm going to preach on that this morning but if you'll think back, I want you to go back to Acts one for just a minute in your head and think, okay, it's Luke opening up the book and saying, alright, Theophilus, I told you about Jesus. In that other book, it was everything that he began to do and teach and this is how it's playing itself out.
1:05
This is what this story is. In the early churches, life, this is what happened. So, he tells of Jesus in Acts one eight speaking to his disciples and he gave them an encouraging affirmation. He did not say in Luke, he didn't say, go you therefore with an imperative. He didn't say, he didn't hit him with a you must go forth, do this.
1:31
What he said in Luke, now he had said that, no doubt about it. He said it in Matthew, he said it in Mark. He says it throughout the whole Old Testament. It's all over the gospels but what he did say in Acts is, you will be my witnesses. That's encouraging.
1:45
It's a really encouraging affirmation to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts. Now, they're in Jerusalem still at this point. It has not been very many weeks since Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, resurrected. It hasn't been a long long time. There are still people who remember this.
2:04
In fact, what Carl preached last week, if you look at the names in four one through 22, you'll see Anas and Caiaphas and the chief priest and the sadducees and the Sanhedrin, the rulers. You'll see those. It's the same people that were listed as being the ones who were getting ready to crucify Jesus. We'll get into it a little further as as we see but this is a continuation of the same story. We kind of arbitrarily broke at 22.
2:34
This is a fast paced action drama right here. So, Acts one, we have Jesus given them encouraging affirmation. You will be my witnesses. Acts two and he says, stay in Jerusalem until your power imbued with power from on high and in Acts two, we see that happening. We see the sight.
2:52
We hear the sounds. He gives an accurate report of exactly what happened and then, he says, Peter recognized it because Peter knew his Bible. He knew the Old Testament. He knew what the prophet Joel had to say and he recognized, this is what's happening and this is where we see saw it forecast. This is the prophecy.
3:10
This is what's happening and God is pouring out his spirit on us. So, that's great. This is a new thing. It's a different thing that has happened before. This way has never happened.
3:21
So, Acts three, I preached on this a couple weeks ago. It was the lame man sitting by the temple gate. He's asking for money. Peter and John said, silver and gold have we none but what we do have or what I do have, I'll give you and he reached down and as he was reaching down, as he was lifting him up, God heals the man and immediately, it says, Peter sees the opportunity. Peter, seeing his opportunity took it and he began to what?
3:52
Preach Jesus. This Jesus, whom you crucified, this same guy, this is the guy and he preached salvation and forgiveness in Jesus name. So, this bringing us up. It's partially for y'all but it's partially for me to bring myself up to speed. This is where we are.
4:09
They healed the guy and what Carl was preaching on last week is because they healed the guy and there was no way around this. They did it. It was obvious to everybody who saw it. The guy is now healed. It's by God's power.
4:21
Peter claims that it's by faith in Jesus and through his name that the man was healed and so, the Sanhedrin, mostly Sadducees at this point, arrested them. They arrested Peter and John and why did they arrest him? Politics. Politics. The Sadducees, which way is it for y'all?
4:43
Sadducees were very far left. They're way left. They were liberal in their understanding of scripture. They did not believe in inerrancy or infallibility and there might be a little this and that to go. They still used it mostly for political expediency and for holding on to power.
5:03
They did not believe in the resurrection. No matter how many times it said it in Old Testament or referenced it, they did not believe in the resurrection. Sadducees took a hard line that there is no such thing as resurrection. Now, Pharisees, the ones Jesus were mostly fighting with that we remember most of the time, they were way way far right. So, they are way right wing conservative and they, oh yes, there is a resurrection and they believed it.
5:28
No doubt about it because the Bible said it, no doubt about it. Whether they could explain it or not was not important because the Bible said it and that's fine. So, there was a long way between those two sets but they did rule together but they were very different factions. That make sense? At this time in Israel, there were some pretty wide ranged polarity in politics and when it says that the sadducees, the chief priests and elders arrested them and brought them in and talked to them about what was going on.
5:58
The reason that they did it was because they were preaching resurrection in Jesus name. It went against their theology. It went against their politics. That's not popular. That's not cool.
6:08
You can't do that. So, they put him in prison. They had the right underneath Roman control. Israel at this time, the sadducees and the left wing party was basically in control. Herod was extremely that way, probably not even a religious man but he was in charge and under him, the sadducees basically had the right to arrest who are they wanting, put him in jail so they did.
6:32
That's Carl's message last week but I just want to give you that groundwork for this. So, when they had warned them, don't ever do this again. They're they say, is it better for us to do what's right in God's eyes or in man's eyes? And you know what? This is an interesting point.
6:49
They actually asked that question to the ruling bar body. They did recognize that they had some authority and they said, answer this for us. Answer this question. Is it right to live under God's rule or man's rule? If man's rule is going against God's rule, it's not but they had them answer that.
7:09
That's a freebie. That's not even in the sermon. As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers. This is probably not the 3,000 that had been added. It would be hard to be in any one place that had 3,000 people.
7:23
It was probably a group of those 120 that had been together on the day of Pentecost maybe but that's speculation. As soon as they were free, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priest, mostly Sadducees, it says earlier in the passage and elders had said, and when they, the believers, heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God and this is a quote of what it was like. They could have just affirmed this with a hearty amen and that's being together in one accord. They didn't have to be drones chanting this out in unison. Oh sovereign lord, but somebody in the midst prayed this, oh sovereign lord, sovereign lord there in Greek is despotess or despotess.
8:10
What does that sound like in English? Despot. That's bad in English. We usually think of a despot as a being a bad thing. Why?
8:19
Because absolute power corrupts how? Absolutely. As long as you're men, as long as you're a man or a woman, the heart is deceitfully wicked in all of its ways. And if you give absolute power to someone whose heart is deceitfully wicked in all of its ways, it's going to go bad. It just is.
8:39
So, politically, God is good. He is love. He is merciful. His love and kindness endures forever. All these good things about God but he's called despotest.
8:52
Despotest does not mean bad. It means having absolute authority. Having the ability to call the shots. Now, this is one of those sticky wickets. When you get into the sovereignty of God, it often starts up a discussion between Calvinist and Armenians and the sovereignty of God and the responsibility or the free will of man.
9:16
Both are true. The the Bible affirms both throughout. All the way. God is completely sovereign and man is completely responsible for his actions and what he does and I think that that's a lot of what this passage is about. When they pray, I actually I heard a guy here that said, everyone, I I don't I hate to say Calvinist.
9:36
I don't want to start the debate because it's it's gets pointless but he said, everyone's a Calvinist on their knees. When you pray, you pray to a god who can act and do something. Does that make sense? Oh sovereign lord, You're the creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. And again, Peter does the same thing that he had done with Joel, thing he done with Deuteronomy, same thing he done with Psalms.
10:01
He get calls back. He says, you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, and this is, by the way, Psalm two verses one and two and David said, why were the nations so angry? Your version may say Gentiles. Gentiles is nations. It is all the nations except for Israel.
10:23
So, why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans, futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle. The rulers gathered together against the Lord. That's Jesus.
10:39
I mean, the Lord Yahweh and against his Messiah, Jesus. Why were the nations so angry? So, it mentions nations. Why they waste their time with futile plans? The kings, the rulers, and then we see this on the very next verse.
10:55
In fact, Peter is taking scripture. The Psalm had been around for nine hundred years, I think, about nine hundred years and he took a nine hundred year old scripture and he applied it to the modern day life and he said, why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time? The kings of Earth prepare for battle. Rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Messiah.
11:18
Everybody in Israel was supposed to be looking forward to the Messiah. And he says, in fact, this very thing has happened here in this very city. So, that's geographic, the nations. That's happening right here in this very city. For Herod, Antipas, what was Herod?
11:36
Okay. Nations, it's happening right here. Herod, kings, Pontius Pilate, rulers. He lays it out for them. In fact, this has happened here in this very city.
11:51
For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate, the governor, the Gentiles, the Gentiles there, it's the same word, it's nations, but it's specifically in this place is put juxtaposed against Israel. So, we use Gentiles in this case. Nations is probably a better translation in most instances unless it's held up against Israel. So, in fact, this has happened and he says, Herod, Pontius, kings, rulers, Gentiles, that's part of the nations and the people of Israel, the New Living Translation does not have it pluralized but this week, while I was gone, this past week, I told y'all I was using Doctor Larkin's book and I trust him on translation issues. I always have trusted him on translation issues and this I've read through this passage in there.
12:42
I've read through it and they live in translation and it mentions, I mean, in reading through it in Greek, I could see that it's plural. Why is it that it's plural? And not singular. I mean, why is it that it's not plural in the translation? So, I added the S there but I did so after I talked to the guy who did the translation and he said, no, absolutely.
13:03
It is and there is a footnote down below that says that and I said, why do you think it is that that it's plural in that Greek and he said, well, I think it maybe because of parallelism. He's trying to the rulers gather the kings against the Lord and against his Messiah, the nations, all of that. He said, I think it might be that and I said, could it be? Because Israel was so splintered. They're on one side of the spectrum and the other.
13:30
They're politically left and politically right and some hardliners and some conciliatory folks and he said, that's probably a better, that's probably a better way of looking at it. There are peoples of Israel. They were not united around God. They were not united around his Messiah. If they were split off against him, they were peoples of Israel.
13:55
They were all united though against Jesus. Remember back when we were talking about and the Pharisees and Sadducees got together from that day and they plotted to kill him. That's strange bedfellows. When you've got the sadducees and the Pharisees getting along about anything, they got along because Jesus was a burr under their saddle. I'm mixing my metaphors out here this morning.
14:17
I'm going to stop right here for just a second. Doctor Larkin by the way, some of y'all know to be praying for him. I stopped by the seminary. We we went to from Georgia to Florida back to Georgia up to South Carolina and we got a chance to see when I sat down on the plane yesterday and relaxed. The people next to me said, hey, what were you doing on your vacation?
14:36
And I said, I have seen everybody in the Southeast except for the two of y'all. And and then we talked the whole way here. So, we really did see all kinds of folks. So, I stopped in at the seminary and one of the other professors, my my first year Greek professor said, you need to pray for Doctor Larkin. We just found out about a month ago that he's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
15:00
So, he probably does not have a long time to live but I went to see him. It's on a busman's holiday. I went to see four people in the hospital and Doctor Larkin and when I got there, he was so gracious as he always is and he answered the question which I always have and he said, I said, I want you to know that the church is really enjoying the book and they're really enjoying the the insight and I thank you for a life well lived dedicated to to Jesus and he said, and I said, it's it's turn on within me a passion for his word. That's what you did while I was in school and I'm trying and I think it's working doing that at first B and he said, he said, it is a mercy of a great God to be able to allow others to properly appreciate his word. I thought, that's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
15:55
He's just a great, great guy. So, would you please be praying for him? I asked how we could be praying and he said, you can pray either for comfort for me and my wife and family. Or healing. He didn't care which but he was not at all disappointed.
16:13
So, anyway, I'm back to the sermon. They were all united against Jesus. Your holy servant. They're praying to God. Oh sovereign lord, creator of all that is.
16:23
These folks were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed but everything that they did was determined beforehand according to your will. All that they did to rage against you and be angry against you and all that they did, ultimately, what they were trying to do was kill off somebody that they were politically opposed to, spiritually opposed to. And what it ended up being the absolute greatest tragedy that could ever happen, the absolute failure of all failures. Actually ended up being the redeeming point of all history. The central point of all history is the death of Christ and his resurrection.
17:04
Politically, it doesn't matter if you believe in resurrection. It happened. Kings of Earth, rulers but everything they did was determined beforehand and it was according to your will. So, no matter what they did to rage against him, ultimately, it was futile. Their plans failed and what looked like the greatest failure ever is the point of redemption and so, they go from this.
17:30
They go from recognizing God's sovereignty and his goodness. They go from recognizing all of that to asking for something and what is it that they ask for? He said, now, oh Lord, you're the sovereign one. Hear their threats. Pay attention.
17:43
We know that you're omnipresent. We know that you're here with us but listen to what they're saying. They didn't say we don't believe their threats. Their threats were real. Hear their threats and give us your servants, your willing servants, your bond servants, your slaves in some translations.
17:58
Those who are surrendered to do your will. Give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word. They didn't pray for safety. They didn't pray for security. They didn't pray for financial blessing.
18:12
They didn't pray for their enemies to be silenced or taken out of power. They pray for great boldness in preaching the word. So, the stretch out your hand with healing power. They had just seen that, right? It's a continuation of the same story.
18:31
When Peter reached down and picked that guy up, Peter didn't have any particular power within himself. He was just a man. He had denied Christ. He had had all of those instances where he had failed him but when Peter reached out his hand and picked that guy up, this is what he's talking about. Stretch out your hand with healing power.
18:49
May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. Our motto, I've said before, didn't make too, didn't make too much sense to me at first that with all you are, loving God and loving people, with all we are, loving God and loving people. That makes sense but the through Christ part was a little clunky grammatically for me. I didn't like it but this is what this is about. Stretch out your hand with healing power.
19:12
Do what you will lord to bring people to yourself. May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus because we have nothing to offer except through Jesus name. And after this prayer, they got what they asked for. The meeting place shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and then they preached the word of God with boldness. That's beautiful.
19:38
I think it's great that it it shows us some things that we want to be able to preach God's word and teach God's word and love people from a place of confidence and not from fear, not from a place of, oh, I'm not sure if we ought to do this or no, boldness and courage actually is a good translation too. It's just the courage to say, you know what? It's God's word and if I hide behind this and this is my agenda, then, this is where we, this is where we go. So, that's the that's the word part. As I was down in Florida this this week, this past week, I was out in the ocean and I was just enjoying it.
20:24
Standing out there. I was looking at the horizon and I was thinking of this because this is what I studied beforehand and I really would have loved to hear Carl preach. I just love it. I'm a junkie for this stuff. So, as I was out there, was looking at the horizon.
20:36
Everybody feels small when you stand by the ocean. I'm out in it. I'm about this deep and I had passed through a place that was about this deep to get to a sandbar. It's about like this. It's right there where the white caps are breaking over.
20:48
My favorite thing in the world as far as physical activities go. Favorite thing, bar none. Even in the dead of winter here, would say this, is body surfing. I love it. I love to ride the waves in.
21:02
I have tried regular surfing. I don't know if it's because of this or because of my height. Body surfing is much better for me. I fall off of those boards. But I like being in it.
21:12
I like being in there and then riding the wave and just sticking out about this far riding away. Well, I was I was out there. I look at the flag and the flag says calm seas and as I was watching, it was calm seas but every once in a while, there'd be a wave and even small waves, you're doing this and you're carried along by em. You've got your feet planted but you're doing this and then occasionally, there would be a big enough wave that if you caught it at the right time, it just take you on in. I love it.
21:39
It's my favorite thing. I have been in over my head. I have been in a riptide. I've been out to sea in Costa Rica. No flags.
21:46
Very dangerous. I looked down the beach. I saw a guy. He's in it and I thought, well, I can get in it. He looked up the beach, saw me, and said, he's in it.
21:53
I can get in it. We both were nearly killed. When we got out, I was like, I thought, I saw you in it. He goes, me too. That's a different sermon.
22:01
That's on relative thinking. But but I'm seeing in this something that's going on in the church right now. I ask you weeks ago to be praying for the youth and I see youthful faces. I see y'all out there and I believe that y'all are doing that and as elders have been considering things for the past few months, we have considered all of this. There are some things that that some folks would look at em and say, I'm not sure about whether to do that or not.
22:33
What we're doing is moving Carl from the youth pastor position into associate pastor role, which he de facto is already doing. And moving Renzi Reno who has been up here doing the music for the first service into the role of youth director, which he, in fact, is doing right now. He is actually taking he his wife is a girl's basketball coach and he drove them down to Laramie this morning. When I talked to him last night, he's praying for opportunities. I feel like this is a wave.
23:06
I feel like this is a wave and when you're when you're doing the body surfing or doing whatever you're looking for your set, you're looking for the time but really, it's more having to do with the ocean and what the sovereign God is doing and with what we're doing but we do wanna be a part of what he's doing. So, there's not, as far as I know, there's no opposition. We've invited it actually. I probably invited a little more of it this morning when I was preaching through this. Just by being a little vague.
23:32
So, this one being more specific. So Carl moving into the past the associate pastor position. The youth group dwindled and got smaller and some people might look at that and say, this was failure but I see that as a starting point for a building. I see it as a wave. If you don't have in in surfing, if you don't have the draw that draws you back out to sea, if you don't have that right before a wave, like when you're standing there and you're feeling it, sometimes, I was looking at the horizon.
24:04
I don't know how to best display that for y'all but I'm looking at the horizon out there, the beaches behind me and as I'm standing there, the waves do this. But if you get this, all of a sudden and it's drawing you out, then the next wave is the one you catch. You know what I mean? It's like, this is happening and I see that imagery in my head and I feel it and I think that that's the case but because the heart is deceitfully wicked in all of its ways, I pray and I believe that that's God's will and I think that that's what he's doing and as we all as a church pray for the youth of this valley, I believe that he's going to do the work. What we're praying is stretch out your hand, oh sovereign lord, and do what you will with the youth of this valley.
24:47
Allow us your willing servants to be a to be a part of that. Just transparent, open. So, that's what the the word today is, let's pray for that boldness to preach his word, to teach it wherever we get the opportunity but the actual fact of how things are going, the congregational meeting next week, we're sorting through how it all has to be done so that we are in a line with our constitution but really, it's about getting folks who are in positions in the positions and moving forward from there. So, you know what? This is crazy and I know this is crazy.
25:23
It's time for an invitation hymn. Do y'all have questions right now that you'd ask me? Yes? I would like to do the VBS thing. I'll do that right after this.
25:33
Do you have a question for me right now? I mean, you can ask me afterwards. I'm not trying to put you on on the spot. Okay. Well, let's sing the hymn of invitation and then, we'll do the VBS deal.
25:47
Until then, be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. I think we're going to stop the song right there and we will watch the VBS. If y'all be seated and we'll watch a video. There were well, I think it tells you how many there were. Here it goes.
