Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI210507B
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00:06 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:09 Before the break, I was about to launch 00:11 into the third chapter of the Book of Acts, 00:14 which is fully named the Acts of the Apostles, 00:16 the things that happened in the new gospel dispensation. 00:21 And as I started the first half of the program, 00:23 talking about the air of expectancy 00:25 and the crush of the crowd there 00:27 near the Wailing Wall. 00:30 Chapter 3 starts with a similar scene 00:32 in the undestroyed, or pre-destroyed temple, 00:36 as it says, was the near the hour of prayer 00:39 when they were all gathering, 00:41 huge crowds coming to this massive reminder 00:44 of God's presence, rebuilt in stone, 00:46 but from the old cloth temple in the wilderness. 00:49 And it says, Peter and John were going up to the temple 00:53 at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 00:55 That in itself is amazing, 00:56 because it's only a chapter or two. 01:00 Since it's the third chapter, there's two more chapters 01:02 that go back to where they were hiding 01:04 in an upper room, fearful for their lives, 01:07 ready to chuck it all in, 01:09 until they saw Jesus and experienced 01:13 the Holy Spirit. 01:14 And something had clearly changed. 01:17 And so these two reappear at the temple, 01:21 as I often thought and said a few times, 01:24 the scene of the crime. 01:26 This is where Jesus basically was taken, 01:31 not ultimately, physically but the dye was cast there. 01:34 This was the moment 01:36 when he couldn't go back anymore 01:38 that the dye was cast. 01:40 And they had to have expected as they entered that gate, 01:42 and today, you can see it's quite a small arrangement. 01:45 You come through some of those city gates, 01:47 you're now in the press of the crowd, 01:48 you're being funneled into the action of the crowd. 01:52 And Jerusalem is not that much different 01:54 from other non-Western cities. 01:57 You know, there's beggars around. 01:59 In fact, I remember clearly walking past a blind Arab. 02:03 And I asked our guide, I said, 02:05 "How come there are so many blind Arab beggars? 02:08 And he gave me the best answer I've ever heard in breeding. 02:14 Because marriage arrangements to this day 02:16 in those traditional families usually favor cousins 02:20 and close relatives, 02:21 which will lead to things like congenital blindness. 02:24 And so as these two men, James and... 02:27 Sorry, Peter and John came in the gate, 02:30 they were accosted by a beggar blind from birth, 02:33 and he wanted alms, give me something. 02:37 Every day when I drive out 02:39 from where I live in Hagerstown, 02:41 at the first intersection there's a guy, 02:42 same guy been there for months, standing there begging. 02:46 We're entering into the same social climate 02:48 that existed thousands of years ago, 02:53 and what did they say to him? 02:55 Remember, when they needed tax money, 02:57 they had to go fishing at Jesus' direction. 02:59 They clearly didn't have much money, 03:00 even with, with Judas taking care of the purse. 03:05 And it says, Peter directed his gaze at him. 03:08 And he said this, "Look at us. 03:10 Look at us." 03:12 And he said, "I have no silver or gold, 03:16 I have no silver or gold, but I give you what I have, 03:19 in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 03:25 I have a name. 03:26 That's a very interesting concept. 03:30 And the man leapt to his feet. 03:32 And immediately the crowd came into them. 03:35 And the speech that, that Peter gave was amazing. 03:40 He says, "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?" 03:44 Well, what? Who wouldn't wonder? 03:47 I'm sure even though he was from Galilee, 03:49 you know, a day's walk away. 03:51 People there knew him. 03:54 Probably some of them even remembered 03:55 his swearing and cursing and denying Jesus Christ. 04:00 Then it was bare weeks after the scandal 04:03 of this teacher taken and crucified. 04:07 And then the rumors of His resurrection 04:11 or the body vanishing. 04:12 It had to be the talk of the town. 04:15 He says, "Why do you wonder at this, 04:17 or why do you stare at us?" 04:22 And I'm trying to remember who made the statement, 04:26 but it's in the Old Testament, it says, 04:28 "Don't be afraid of their eyes." 04:31 It's easy to be self-conscious 04:33 when you're asked to witness for the Lord. 04:35 Don't be afraid of their eyes. 04:36 They can't hurt you by their eyes. 04:39 They can't hurt you. 04:40 He says, "Why do you wonder at this? 04:42 Why do you stare at us 04:43 as though by our own power or piety, 04:45 we have made him walk? 04:47 Yes, you and I know, it wasn't by their own power. 04:49 They never had it. 04:51 Their piety most recently discovered 04:54 not of long term. 04:56 No, we didn't do that. 04:57 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, 05:00 the God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus. 05:04 And by the way, 05:06 this illustrates that the best way 05:08 to present Jesus is emphasizing His humanity, 05:11 not to deny that He was in ways we'll never understand God, 05:15 but don't make Him a mystery or a shadow. 05:18 He's the truest, realest human being 05:21 that we could ever seek to emulate or discover. 05:25 He says this Jesus, the servant Jesus, 05:27 whom you delivered up 05:29 and denied in the presence of Pilate, 05:30 when he had decided to release him, 05:32 but you denied the holy and righteous one. 05:36 And asked for a murderer to be granted to you 05:38 and killed the author of life, 05:40 whom God raised from the dead. 05:42 To this, we are witnesses. 05:45 And I've preached on this many times. 05:48 And that's the cue there, we are witnesses. 05:51 Not, it's nothing we did. 05:53 We are witnesses, 05:55 we have a name that gives us power. 05:57 And we saw His arisen glory. 06:00 We are witnesses to this. 06:02 We are giving you a true statement, 06:05 and nothing inherently about ourselves to recommend 06:08 what's going on here, 06:10 but the name and the reality of Jesus Christ. 06:12 And to me, it's powerful to follow that story through. 06:16 They were brought before the authorities 06:18 and, of course, the priests took notice. 06:21 You know, we forget today that the tithe 06:24 all through to Jesus' day was particularly to pay 06:29 for the priests. 06:30 They had no living other than the temple. 06:34 And if you go back to the earlier days, 06:37 they would dive into the sacrifice 06:39 and take the meat out and live off that. 06:41 But as far as funds, they got it from the tithe. 06:45 They had no other activity. 06:47 So they were lingering about there in their corrupt 06:51 self-indulgence sort of priestly behavior. 06:54 And here they hear this unrestrained spiritual talk 06:59 of the God of heaven, 07:00 and have risen from the dead 07:03 and have the power to heal. 07:04 It was threatening to everything they stood for, 07:06 and they remembered their last frustrated effort 07:08 to get rid of Christ. 07:10 And so they called these men before them, 07:12 and they said, "You know, by what power, 07:15 by what right do you have to speak here? 07:18 And remember, in other programs, 07:20 I've talked about John Bunyan in prison for 14 years, 07:23 an unregistered preacher, same charge, 07:26 what right do you have to preach? 07:28 We've given you no license. 07:30 You're speaking something 07:31 that's disturbing without an authority. 07:34 And Peter answered them, it says, 07:37 filled with the Holy Spirit. 07:39 He answered them, he says, 07:40 rulers of the people and elders, 07:43 be it known to you all, and to the people of Israel, 07:47 that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, 07:52 whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, 07:56 by Him, this man is standing before you well. 08:01 And I've come to believe 08:02 in dealing with religious liberty, 08:04 that the issue is not the Constitution 08:07 which we talk about all the time. 08:09 And I'm not saying we shouldn't deal with it. 08:12 In a country of a good constitution use it, 08:14 as Peter did, as Paul rather did his citizenship. 08:18 But it's not a question of the Constitution. 08:20 What the question is, is authority, 08:23 the separation of church and state, 08:25 struck at the old authority of the Middle Ages, 08:29 with a church reached across and believe 08:32 that it had the power over the civil lives 08:35 of citizens in a society. 08:37 We deny that. 08:39 And in the Reformation, it was denied. 08:41 And we should deny that today and on religious matters, 08:46 dealing with even the ancient Roman Catholic Church, 08:49 which with some reasonable historicity can say 08:53 that it's the continuum of the mainline Christian group 08:58 from early days. 08:59 I can't acknowledge, you know, the authority of St. Peter. 09:03 That's a whole different construct that's streamed up. 09:06 But, of course, this goes back to the early days. 09:08 But so what? 09:13 The fact that, that religious patriarchs 09:16 may have been in part of that procession 09:19 does not give them authority over you now. 09:26 One of the Bible's texts that's most powerful, 09:29 it says though, 09:30 you know, one of the prophet should come today, 09:32 he could save no one but himself 09:34 by his own witness and experience. 09:36 We are under the authority of God 09:39 and the gospel dispensation particularly. 09:41 Our conscience is not bound by prince or prelate. 09:46 And I think Peter 09:47 is a pretty fallible human being. 09:50 With John, you know, my vision of him 09:53 before the Holy Spirit is a soft hearted 09:56 sort of a guy who meant well, 09:58 the favorite of the teacher. 10:01 But now with the Holy Spirit imbued in them, 10:03 they could have the stubbornness 10:06 and stiffness of purpose 10:08 to call the false authority 10:10 that was now trying to restrict them 10:12 as it restricted and killed Jesus. 10:15 We don't acknowledge that. 10:16 We only acknowledge they were saying, Jesus Christ, 10:21 Him risen as Paul said, 10:23 the only thing to know, He's risen. 10:25 You tried to kill Him, but He rose, 10:27 and by His name and the power that's inherent in all 10:32 that His students stands for, 10:33 we place Him before you now, we speak on His behalf. 10:42 There was once a young man 10:43 who had a powerful conversion experience, 10:46 so unique and so worth retelling 10:50 that he was asked many times to travel around 10:52 and share it with quite large crowds. 10:55 And he did it so many times 10:56 that he took to finally 10:58 writing it down on a single piece of paper 11:00 that he would use more than his notes. 11:03 It was his script. 11:04 And then one fateful day 11:06 as just before he stood up before a large crowd, 11:09 that piece of paper went missing, 11:11 he lost it, and he was forced, 11:13 amazingly to stand up before everyone and say, 11:16 I have lost my Christian experience. 11:19 What we have to gain 11:20 is more than just writing 11:22 on a piece of paper of our life. 11:24 It's something that should be written on our heart 11:27 and engraved on every action that comes from what we do. 11:32 That's a privilege that we have. 11:34 That's what motivated Peter and John. 11:36 They weren't the simple men from Galilee, 11:40 they were men perceived to be having been with Christ. 11:46 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2021-10-07