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Sermons

December 27, 2020

No Other Name

Dave Zuleger (South Campus) | Acts 4:1-12

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 five thousand.

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 the 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.”—Acts 4:1–12 

Outline

Introduction: A World Stuck With Themselves

  1. Enraged Rulers and the Expansion of the Kingdom (Acts 4:1–4)
  2. Examining Rulers and the Exclusivity of Jesus (Acts 4:5–12)

Application: A People Sticking Close to Jesus (Acts 4:13, John 6)

Introduction: A World Stuck With Themselves

Our text today is one that talks about the exclusive claim of salvation in Jesus Christ alone. This is a truth that we love and cherish here, but it’s important that we realize the air we breathe in our culture. We live in an age where self-discovery and self-expression are some of the most highly prized values of our society.

Kids, has anyone ever asked you what you want to be when you grow up? Well, no one used to ask that question because you would be whatever your parents were. If your parents were farmers, you were a farmer. If your parents were bakers or blacksmiths you would be the same. But now, from a very young age, we value self-discovery. You figure out who you are, what you want to do, what makes you happy. It’s a very inward look. And the world we live in tells us to do whatever makes us happiest in the moment. You choose who you are. Whom you will love. Whom you will trust. What gender you will be. What church you will attend this year.

This individualized approach tends to question authority and prize individuality. Institutions are looked at with suspicion, whether that be the CDC or religion. Different groups question different authorities based on their opinions. Instead, you figure out who you are without all that institutionalized stuff. And then you express that individualized self. This leads to a world of unlimited choices and a world that is scrambling to cater to our choices and capitalize on us having this freedom as easy as one-click shopping and same-day delivery. 

And in this world of choices relativism, pluralism, and tolerance reign. That means that everyone gets to choose what is true to them, there are lots of options out there, and we’re not supposed to question or challenge beliefs, because that could easily offend.

This self-discovery and self-expression and all these choices only get amplified with all of the ways we have to quickly post, like, share, tweet, snap, comment, and craft our online personas. And all of this leads to a world where we are kind of stuck with ourselves. We have so much information, we are generally fairly isolated, and we value our individualized priorities, preferences, and expression over any kind of thought for the community or outside authority.

Now, this isn’t all bad. Sometimes, authority needs to be questioned, and it’s good to be the individual that God has made us to be. But I’m sure you can see some of the dangers as well. 

Even more than that, think about how an exclusive message of an exclusive Savior bringing salvation because we are sinners will land on a culture like this. It won’t even make sense. It will seem crazy. It will seem out-of-step with everything we know. And so we could be tempted to think we need to find other ways to say it. Yet I hope we’ll see that the only hope for us and for the world is to continue to deeply trust and widely proclaim the gospel of salvation in the name of Jesus Christ alone. Let’s dive in.

1) Enraged Rulers and the Expansion of the Kingdom (Acts 4:1–4) 

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.—Acts 4:1–3 

The apostle Peter has done a miracle and preached resurrection and repentance—and as the rulers of the status quo religion hear about it, they come and are not happy. These are the important religious leaders rushing to the scene. The text says these leaders are “greatly annoyed.”

These leaders had lots of power in the Jewish religion. So as they come on the scene, notice they are mad about two things: 1) they are outraged that the apostles are teaching, and 2) they are outraged that they are teaching about the resurrection of Jesus. 

First of all, these apostles had quite some nerve to teach at all. They were not priests, workers in the temple, scribes, or members of any official religious party. How dare they teach?

Second of all, the teaching was not very helpful to their religious institution. It was upsetting the normal patterns and rhythms. Jesus was teaching about a kingdom that was not compatible with the status quo and the leaders thought they had gotten rid of him. But now here were these apostles saying he was alive!

These apostles are not simply resisting authority for some kind of self-discovery. They are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming what they’ve seen, reasoning from the Scriptures, and letting it define who they are and what they are devoted to. They are submitting to the proper authority, informed by the Scriptures and Jesus himself.

Kids, it is a good thing for you to learn to listen to God. It is a good thing to read your Bibles and learn that you cannot be happier than learning about who God says you are and learning to obey him. And if you learn that now, you’ll be ready someday if following Jesus gets hard or someone wants to pick on you because you love him. The apostles had learned that.

These leaders decide to arrest them and hold them because it’s late in the day and they are trying to stop their message from spreading too much. Jesus predicted this would happen in Luke 21:12. 

They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.

We will see all of that happen in Acts. And it’s beginning to happen here. Yet, though they are chained, the word of God is not chained.

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.—Acts 4:4

Peter has just said to the people, “You crucified Jesus, but God raised him up. Repent so that times of refreshing may come, and know that Jesus is coming back one day soon—for eternal joy or for eternal destruction.” And the text says that as they were speaking, they were dragged away to prison. Can you imagine this? Imagine speaking to a bunch of unbelievers who don’t yet know Jesus and while you are speaking you get dragged to prison. That doesn’t seem like it would make it a very popular message, does it? Yet here 5,000 men are saved. And probably more women and children.

This doesn’t make natural sense. But it’s the pattern we see throughout history. As the people of God are oppressed and cast off by society, the word of God spreads and frees others in the gospel. There are many nations, rulers, and empires that have tried to snuff out Christianity, and every single time they have passed away and the gospel and God’s people remain. When Christians are chained and oppressed, the gospel is not chained. We see this here. We saw it in 1 Peter with the Roman Empire. Where is Rome today? Is the gospel still running? The kingdom of Jesus is not thwarted by the alternate kingdoms of man.

Do we have supernatural paradigms of accomplishing spiritual revitalization and revival that line up with resurrection power, or do we seek to accomplish this in our own planning and power?

Right now, there are lots of campaigns to revitalize and revive our nation through means other than the gospel of Jesus. There is lots of conflation of political and social means with the kingdom of God. They are not the same. At the center of the kingdom of God is the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead to save people from their sins. That is the message of the Kingdom.

As people hear this message, see their sin, and see their Savior they want to follow him and are changed from the inside out. Later in Acts we will see a violent Roman soldier hear the gospel and be saved, and immediately we’ll see him invite into his home the very prisoners he beat and wash the very wounds he inflicted on them.

There are all sorts of fruit that flow from the gospel, but that is not the same thing as worldviews or campaigns that seek to legislate morality. The gospel is the power of God—and that power cannot be mimicked by political or cultural substitutes. Do we believe that prayer and the preaching of the gospel is still sufficient to change the world?

2) Examining Rulers and the Exclusivity of Jesus (Acts 4:5–12)

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 the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”—Acts 4:5–7

In verses 5–7 the rulers gather together the next day and call the apostles in. They ask them by what name or power they made this lame man walk. Now, I want to point out one thing about these rulers. If you go and read John 18 when you get home today, you’ll see familiar names. You’ll see Annas and Caiaphas listed as some of the men who put Jesus on trial. And remember that the trial of Jesus ended in his crucifixion. One last thing we should remember is that while Jesus is being questioned before he was sent to the cross, Peter was watching it all unfold and denying Jesus. Now here he is before these same rulers for the name of Jesus. 

Kids, can you imagine how this might be scary? These rulers could put them in prison and even hurt them if they keep talking about Jesus. Kids, what would you do if someone told you to stop talking about Jesus? 

Peter was watching and denying Jesus the last time these rulers were working against the Kingdom of God—but now Peter is emboldened and empowered by the Spirit of God to say that he is with Jesus. Do you see that? Let’s read Peter’s answer to the rulers together:

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.”—Acts 4:8–12

Peter answers that Jesus is the One who healed this lame man and made him walk and leap. Then he says what we’ve seen him say so often, “You crucified him—but he’s alive and keeps teaching and working. We don’t teach in our own authority. It is Jesus teaching through us. We don’t heal in our own authority. It is Jesus healing through us. He is a greater authority than you. He is the King of kings.”

And notice how Peter says they are guilty according to the very Old Testament they are supposed to know so well. He quotes Psalm 118:22, which predicted that the very people who were supposed to be responsible for building up the people of God and helping them see the Messiah when he came instead rejected him and crucified him.

And then he keeps going with offensive language. Not only did they reject the Cornerstone of the whole building, but in him is salvation for all peoples. He didn’t come only to save the Jews. He came to save the world. There is salvation in no one else. There is not salvation in Abraham or Moses or David—there is salvation in Jesus Christ alone and it is for the whole world, not just one nation. There is no special nation that gets special access to salvation. Our God is a global God and sent his Son to bring about salvation for all peoples who would call upon the name of Jesus. We are evidence of that in this very room. 

We will see this as Acts continues—the gospel spreading far beyond Jerusalem and heading toward the ends of the earth. And we are evidence of this truth today. And this is where all of history is heading and why we love missions at Bethlehem, because we are joining God in his global purpose through the exclusive name of Jesus Christ alone:

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.—Revelation 5:9–11 

God’s global purpose was alive and well just like the resurrected Jesus. Have you ever seen the game “Whac-A-Mole” at the arcade? It’s the game where these moles pop up and you have to smash them down with your hammer. It must have felt to these rulers like they were playing that game. They thought they had snuffed out Jesus on the cross. Now, here is this growing movement that they cannot seem to stop. They arrest them and thousands of people join them. The religious leaders realized their system of power and control and stability is being shaken to the core by these claims. 

And yet here is the claim. It’s what saved us if we’ve trusted in Jesus. It’s what all of our lives are about proclaiming. There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. There is a day coming soon when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. 

Therefore, we must speak of the exclusive claims of the salvation and authority of Jesus into a pluralistic world that has been taught there is no right or wrong outside of its own opinion. We must speak it because it is the only path to salvation, and therefore how unloving would we be to not speak it? How much would we have to be absolutely distracted from the most important thing in the world to fill our conversations and Facebook pages with all sorts of agendas other than the exclusive claims of the salvation found in Jesus? How silly is it try to legislate a morality to a people that will rail against all authority rather than speak the message that hasn’t changed for thousands of years and continues to thrive in places that oppose the people speaking it?

And if you’re here today, and you don’t yet know Jesus and think I’m crazy right now for saying that Jesus is the only way of salvation and that it is good if you completely submit your life to him—I’d just plead with you to realize that the Bible says all have sinned. That’s all of us in this room. We’re all sinners. And you’ve sinned, and deep down you know it. You’ve hurt people. Going your own way and pretending your sin isn’t bad hasn’t helped you find a joy or peace that isn’t shaken by circumstances. It’s only helped you find temporary joy or peace that maybe numbs the pain for a bit. But Jesus stands ready to forgive your sins and lead you to true joy now and forever in his presence and under his good authority.

Application: A People Sticking Close to Jesus (Acts 4:13, John 6)  

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.—Acts 4:13 

These rulers are trying to figure out where this boldness comes from in such common, uneducated men. And they realize that it’s because they had been with Jesus. What they didn’t quite realize is that Jesus was still with them by his Spirit. We’ve seen this in Acts, right? They are devoted to Jesus. They are devoted to his word, to prayer, and to walking with him together as the people of God. 

If you go and read a few of my Friday pastoral letters, I’ve been talking about this thing called the Acts Ambition and wanting us to do this together. I basically want us to meditate on and memorize the Word, both individually and together. I want us to pray fervently, individually and together. I want us to pray for unbelievers in our lives and the spread of the gospel, individually and together. Why? Because I want us to be a people sticking close to Jesus together. I believe that prayer, the gospel, and a people devoted to King Jesus is still enough to change these South neighborhoods and the nations. 

I want us to be a people that, when others see how weak we are and yet how passionate and bold we are for the sake of Jesus, they would have to realize and say about us, “They have been with Jesus. This is a people that believes Jesus is real, trusts his gospel with all their heart, is devoted to obedience as citizens of his kingdom, loves each other with the love that he showed them on the cross, and is all-in to make him known wherever they are. They have been with Jesus.”

Let’s be a people that sticks close to Christ and his church body. Let’s be a people that doesn’t love our autonomy, choice, and individual rights and expression more than we love fellowship, obedience, and laying down our rights and preferences for one another. Wondering which preferences you need to lay down? What one feels most important?

I want us to be a people so devoted to Jesus that when he calls us to hard things or hard places, we would be like the apostles in John 6 who say, “Where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” I want us to be that kind of people, as individuals and together. I don’t want us to be left to ourselves and our own opinions. Let’s be devoted to the exclusive Savior of the world, submitted to him as Lord, loved and loving as a part of his blood-bought family, and proclaiming him to a watching, lonely, and confused world as we trust that his exclusive gospel still saves broken and weary sinners. 

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

Introduction: A World Stuck With Themselves

  1. Enraged Rulers and the Expansion of the Kingdom (Acts 4:1–4)
  2. Examining Rulers and the Exclusivity of Jesus (Acts 4:5–12)

Application: A People Sticking Close to Jesus (Acts 4:13, John 6)

Discussion Questions

  • Why is it important to know the culture we’re living in?
  • What way can you see your own heart changed by the world around you?
  • Why is it so dangerous how much we glorify our individual rights and expression of them?
  • In Acts 4, why were the rulers upset? What does that teach us about how the world will often respond to the gospel?
  • What happened despite the opposition? What does that tell us about the ability of oppression to snuff out the gospel?
  • Where did the apostle Peter’s courage come from? What does that tell us about our ability to proclaim the gospel?
  • In light of a pluralistic, individualistic culture, why is the exclusivity of Jesus so scandalous?
  • What gives the apostles this passion and conviction? How can we join them in it?
  • How can we show and shine the beauty of the exclusivity of Christ? How does the love of the body of Christ show the beauty of the gospel of Christ?
  • What’s one step of application you can take from this passage?