Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
To download the mp3 file, right click the image below and "save as."
I suspect that most all of the conflicts and battles of life boil down to issues of control. Republicans want to keep control of the congress and Democrats want to gain control. Israelis want to control Palestinians and Palestinians resist. Sunnis and Shiites fight for control of Iraq. Americans want to control illegal immigration.
Parents want to have control over their children and once they reach a certain age, and a very early one at that, children begin to resist their parent?s control over them. Husbands want to control their wives ? something you?d think that by this point in human history, men would have learned, is not possible. Wives want to control their husbands, and they know just how to do it too. And all of us would like to have at least some control over our health, our time and the price of oil.
This struggle for control takes its toll on us. Things happen ? and we have no control over them. We couldn?t have prevented them from happening ? nor did we do anything to cause them to happen. They were simply beyond our control. And that causes us despair or makes us angry.
Or sometimes we do have control. But because we didn?t exercise that control like we should have or could have ? we lost control. James reminds us that in our struggle for control, we cannot even control something so little as the tongue. And that causes us great guilt and shame.
I say all of this by way of introduction because as we move into the third and final episode of Acts 3 and 4, the issue that stands before us is the issue of control.
Let?s begin by overlapping into a few verses before where we left off last week in Acts, chapter 4. Would you take your bibles and go to Acts 4 ? page 912. Just to quickly review this episode so far, Peter and John encounter a lame beggar at the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem. The man was begging alms from those going to worship. Peter and John stop, look at this man and say, ?silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!? And miraculously, this man jumped to his feet and was healed. The crowds of course are amazed at this. So Peter and John take the opportunity to explain what happened. The same Jesus whom they crucified, God raised and He continues to be just as living and active through His body the Church as He had been. By His name and by faith in His name, this man is healed. And we read that the church grew to 5,000 men. A significant number when you add in the women and children. The Jewish leaders didn?t like what was going on. They sensed they were loosing control over their church. And so they arrested Peter and John. Put them in prison overnight. As the ruling council met the next day however it became very obvious that these men had done nothing illegal and there was no basis for a trial. So they had no choice but to let them go.
A. Vss. 16-22 And yet still they would try to exercise their control over Peter and John and that?s where we want to pick things up. Acts 4:16-22. ?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 song of healing was performed was more than forty years old.?
For the rulers of Israel, this was a matter of control. How do we keep this movement under control? How do we keep it from getting out of control? The answer was to silence the preachers. ?Don?t speak anymore in this name.?
To be sure, this was also a matter of control for Peter and John. But for them it wasn?t an issue of being in control. It was a matter of knowing whose control they lived under. The rulers of Israel said ?don?t speak in this name.? But Jesus had said to them ?you must speak in my name.? ?Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.? (Luke 24:46-47) They were faced with the decision ? whose control will they live under.
Be careful here. This is not permission to disobey the authorities because you don?t like their control over your life. Paul writes to the Romans, ?Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.? (Rom.13:1). We are to live under the control of the governing authorities because God has appointed them for the good of a peaceful and orderly society. But when the authorities who are appointed by God command that we do what is clearly contrary to the command of God, then we must disobey the one to obey the other.
B. Vss. 23-25a. ?When they were released they went to their friends and reported what they chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, ?Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything that is in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit??
When they pray saying, ?Sovereign Lord?? they are saying, ?The Lord who is in control?? The word here is ?despot.? A ?despot? is someone in complete and total control and enforces his rule upon others. The Lord is a ?despot? ? things always go His way. He is the one who is in control of everything because He made everything. This is why the 1st article of the Creed is so important to believe firmly. ?I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things, visible and invisible.? The One who makes it is in control of it and God has made everything. ?Sovereign Lord? is a bold confession of faith. It is to say, ?Lord, we believe that the events that take place and the things that happen are all under your control.? ?Sovereign Lord, nothing happens on it own and apart from your will.? ?Sovereign Lord, everything must pass in review before You before it is allowed to happen.? Therefore, ?Sovereign Lord, everything has your blessing stamped upon it.?
C. Vss. 25a-28 And then they pray using the words of Scripture ? just as we do in the liturgy. This is such a good practice for each of us to use in our individual prayers as well. They employ the words of Psalm 2 in their prayer. ?Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The Kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed?? What futility. How absurd. Ridiculous. The Lord is Sovereign. He is in control. Rage and plot against Him all you want ? things are going to go His way.
The early church saw clearly that the fulfillment of this Psalm is in Jesus. ?For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.?
The Gentiles at this point include even the religious leaders of Israel because they rejected Jesus. The Kings of the earth are played by Herod and Pilate. Everyone against Jesus ? the Lord?s anointed One ? His Christ. Yet even this God had predestined and it happens according to His will. Even as they arrest Him unfairly, God is in control. Even as they flog Him unmercifully, God is in control. Even as they crucify Him unconscionably ? God is in control. Even as they hurl insults at Him unrepentantly ? God is in control.
Psalm 2 continues on like this, ?He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he speaks to them in His wrath? saying, as for me, I have set my King on Zion my holy hill.
And to His King He says, ?You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter?s vessel.? Or as Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof wisely says, ?whether the pot falls on the stone or the stone falls on the pot ? it?s going to be bad for the pot.? On the 3rd day, they are crushed. God is in control. ?Christ is risen!? ?He is risen indeed.?
D. Romans 8:28 God is in control and those who know and trust Him to be good and gracious live in peace and contentment under His control. This despot is our good Shepherd.
There is a verse from Romans that is a favorite verse for many of you and one that should be familiar to all of us. Romans 8:28. And I?m going to quote from the NIV here because it?s the way I memorized it. ?And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him?? Let?s say that together. Please repeat after me.
? ?For we know?? That?s the assurance of faith. Not just head knowledge but knowing it in our heart.
? ?that in all things?? Not just some things. But all things. The good the bad. The hard the easy. The fun and the not so fun. In all things.
"God works for the good?? Whatever the circumstance, the situation, the trial the trouble ? the joy the sorrow ? God is in control and working in your life for good.
"of those who love him.? He is the ?good Shepherd.? Exercising His control over His sheep for their good in His love for them. And so when the wolves come, they?re not afraid. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death ? they fear no evil ? for He has laid down His life for them and has demonstrated His control even over death and the grave.
?For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him?? Romans 8:28.
E. Vss. 29-30 ?And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.?
A very interesting and wonderful petition. They don?t ask for revenge or even that these men be silenced. They?re only request is that they may ?continue to speak your word with all boldness?? and that God would continue to do His Work in the world and the lives of His people. No fight for control here. Only the peaceful contentment of living under the control of their Sovereign Lord.