Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
Worship call 1165 the indictment - 2024/10/21
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to "Worship Call" with Bible teacher Buzz Loebatt. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. [MUSIC] Faith and Prayer from A.W. Tozer. [MUSIC] The effectual, perfect prayer of a righteous man, available as much, James 3.15. Hebrews we find a long list of benefits which faith brings to its possessor. Gefication, deliverance, fruitfulness, endurance, victory, victory over enemies, courage, strength, and even resurrection from the dead. Then everything that is attributed, thus to faith, might with equal truth be attributed to prayer for faith and true prayer are like two sides of the same coin. They're inseparable. Men may and often do pray without faith, though this is not true prayer, but it is not thinkable that men should have faith and not pray. Whatever God can do, faith can do, and whatever faith can do, prayer can do when it is offered in faith. It should not be considered strange then that an invitation to prayer is an invitation to omnipotence. For prayer engages the omnipresent God and brings him into our human affairs. According to the Bible, we have because we ask or we have not because we ask not. It does not take much wisdom to discover our next move. Is it not to pray and pray again and again until the answer comes? Let us not fail the world and disappoint God by failing to pray. I like what Ian Bowne says, that prayer, that faith, that ceases to pray, faith ceases to live, and this is a w tozer. And this is the second day of the week in God's creative order. The 21st day of the 10th month, the 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for opening up the avenues of prayer in heaven by which we have a direct line, an open door policy. And thank you Heavenly Father for the faith that allows those prayers to be heard. Now pray, Heavenly Father, that we recognize, each one of us, that without prayer, without faith, prayer doesn't leave the ceiling. And then without prayer attached to faith, then faith is a dead faith. So I pray Heavenly Father, that we recognize these important points this morning. As we move into our study in the book of Acts, open our hearts, these messages, in Christ's name we pray, amen. And we are in Acts, let's move on to 4-1. Miss Friday, apologies for that, and some glitches had to work out. And as they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees came up to them. As a review, we recognize at this point, this was the first recorded healing of the apostles here after the resurrection of Christ as they were coming into the temple. A man who had never walked before is now walking. And now as Peter and John were speaking to the people, and what they were doing, expounding upon the miracles, you see, it's not the emphasis of the miracle that means anything. Without the doctrine that's behind it, miracles didn't save the people from outside of the Exodus. They saw all kinds of miracles, but it didn't save them from dying in the wilderness. And it wasn't that they didn't have doctrine, it wasn't, they didn't have an ear tuned to doctrine. The miracles of the apostles were simply their calling card, their credentials. And it brought people to the hearing of the message. So Peter and John were speaking to the people. And the miracle was also, first of all, the miracle was for the benefit of the man, of course, having not walked for years and for all of his life. And all of a sudden at the age of 40, now he's walking like he's walked all of his life. And what a miracle is that, but it was more so not the benefit for him, but the benefit for all, him included, to hear the doctrine that these, you see, the miracles was nothing but a red star cluster, as we would say, in a military action, something that starts off the operation, something that gets the attention. So the emphasis on the whole event was the message now being communicated by Peter and John, and it pointed to. You see, miracles in our lives, it's not the fact that miracles happen in our lives, and God is still a God of miracles. It's just what do you do with it, you just carry on. Every one of us have seen at least one miracle, and that's the miracle of regeneration, taking that which was dead within our very, in our very souls and making a life, a spirit that is alive and connected to Christ. A miracle where we were guilty sinners, and that through faith we are made alive again. So the religious order, complete with their own military unit, as a resting order, the guards, they were not Romans, they were temple guards, these were the same type of guards that came out and arrested Jesus. The one who got his ear cut off. So these were like your less trained, but they were guards within the temple. The Sadducees were a company with a priest in the Sadducees, and remember the Sadducees were liberals. They believed, they did not believe it in the resurrection, but they believed only in the first five books of the Bible, they dismissed the rest of the books. Like religious orders we have now, religious systems that there are those that dismiss, there are churches that dismiss the whole Old Testament, and they preach that we are a New Testament church, what have you. And so we still have people like the Sadducees today, they were liberals, and they were more, what do you say, friendly toward the Romans and the Roman leadership. So the most, the most important, the most that the two orders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees had in common, because the Sadducees didn't like the Sadducees, the Sadducees didn't like them. The only thing that they had in common before was a hatred toward Christ. Now they still have the same problem. Acts chapter two, or Acts four two. Being greatly disturbed, because they were teaching the people of proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead, remember that they, that was going to get their own doctrine there. Disturbed is the Apodnetomai, which means to be strongly erked, provoked at something or someone, to be erked, to be provoked, to become angry, being provoked that they were teaching the people. And the message, listen, the message of Christ is provocative. There is a, well, I don't know how he's doing these days, but there is a very liberal teacher out there. He's on TV and writes books and all this stuff, and I've heard him make statements that we don't have any controversies. You know, I'm popular because I don't teach the controversies, you know, I want people to feel comfortable in everything. The message of Christ is provocative, and it's going to, it's going to step on toes. It's going, it is convicting. The Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And when you are a follower of Christ and you're a study of doctrine, doctrine is going to step on you. It's going to be provocative. It's going to stir up things in here. But the question is, are you going to, are you going to be reactive in a sense that you're going to close the book and walk away from it? And there are those churches that are, and people, people groups that can't stand to hear it, especially when it disrupts who and what they are. You see, the Word of God just opens you up and it goes to the very fiber. It's like a scalpel. That's why it's like a sharper than two-edged sword pieces right into the heart. These Sadducees, they had heard the rumor. They had to, and that would be in circulation about the resurrection of Jesus. And it probably infuriated there. And here it was that more people were coming to hear the message of Jesus, who were convinced he was still alive, that he was not dead. The very thing that were being preached stood in the face of their own doctrine, and defiance of their own doctrine. 1 Corinthians 15, 12 describes the thoughts of the Sadducees. Now if Christ is preached, this is Paul's sermon, that he has been raised from the dead. How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. Acts 3, 17. And now brethren, I know that you acted in the ignorance just as your rulers did also. So they get arrested for doing the right thing. They get hauled off for preaching, for doing the right thing. Did they murder anybody? Did they break any laws? Nope, they simply taught in the name of this Jesus. If they were teaching about the against Jesus, and the mob was standing there, certainly they weren't arrested when the mob was together shouting crucify him, crucify him, where was the rest made there? Who was inciting that riot? I guess maybe Jesus was, and they crucified him. So they get arrested for doing the right thing. And this should be no surprise for those who followed Jesus. The same Jesus who said that he would live again, and he did, had prophesied that they would be arrested in his name. Jesus already spoke about all these things. Jesus already told him that this was going to happen, and this very one. Could they be so surprised when Jesus himself lived the greatest of things? He said that I'm going to Jerusalem, and I'm going to be arrested, I'm going to be by the religious leaders there, I'm going to be crucified, and three days later I'm going to rise again, exactly what he said, but he also said this earlier than that to them. So if they believe that, they could believe everything else. And Matthew 10, 17, he says, "But beware of the men, for they will hand you over to the courts, discourage you in their synagogues. And you will even be brought before governors and kings, for my sake, as a testimony to them and to their Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given to you the hour, what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it's the spirit of your father who speaks in you." Okay then. In their minds, and their minds, Peter and John, and the rest of them when they go through this, they were not being arrested, they were simply going by a divine appointment. This was God's divine appointment, the situation set up. And the things that were being played out, they are a center stage now, just as Jesus said he would. And so I would imagine they had, all right, all right there, we are being arrested. Okay, and they are not crying out for the rights, they are not resisting arrest, they are not crying to the people and making an aspect of themselves. They pretty much shrugged their shoulders and said, "Okay, we are being arrested. Now we are being hauled off to the next divine appointment. Here we go." And so they must have been a bit gleeful of this. And so they were arrested in the afternoon, they had gone to the afternoon prayer meeting for it was evening now to be brought into court and to, they couldn't try them at night. And that was illegal, well that really didn't apply for Jesus did it. Jesus was the exception of this because expediency of quarrying up and getting him to the cross. But so they were going by by law now and they arrest them and put them in jail for the night, put them in the cooler so they could be persecuted the next day. Acts 4, 5-7. On the next day the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem. And Anas the high priest was there and Kypus the, and John and Alexander and all who were high priest leaves a set. These were, even Anas was a high priest a year before. Kypus is his son-in-law and he is the current high priest. He had other religious officials. John, this is not John the Apostle or Alexander, also a religious leader. A relative to Anas the high priest and John was a member of the family of high priest in Jerusalem following Jesus' ascension. So all of these were in the priestly order and they were in the hierarchy there. So all the big wigs, so you have a court and you have all the big wigs here. Verse 7, when they had placed them in the center and began to inquire by what power and what name have you done this. Let me see if I still have my picture up here of my, I don't know if I do or not. There we go. Yeah, there it is. Hold on, let me get it back up there. There we go. They bring them into the, what happened? There we go. They bring them into the Sanhedrin, they're all stammering. And listen, this is intimidation. And they know full well. They asked this question here. When they replaced them in the center they inquired by what power or what name have you done this. Do you not think they already knew? Do you not think that they already, this is why they were arrested because of the, because of what they were preaching. They just figured this. Bringing these guys into, in front of the witnesses, we said them all around, they were flexing their muscles. And they figured this. They bring them into court. These guys are going to wet their robes. They're going to wet themselves, they're going to stammer, and they're going to deny the power of Jesus. And they're going to go on looking like fools and everything's going to be all right. So this was, this was nothing more than intimidation. They could not deny that a miracle would happen. The men, again, the men who had never walked before, he was not walking. These men already knew the answer. They already heard that these men were expousing in the courtyard. And so, and remember Jesus said that they do not have to bother themselves with what they were going to say. They were under the, the controlling ministry of God the Holy Spirit, Acts 4-8. Then Peter, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. And the filling, let's look at the filling here. We'll need filling on Luonaida. Pip led me, Pip led me to cause something to be completely full, to completely, to fill completely, to fill up, to be filled with. In a number of languages, one cannot speak of filling a sponge. And it may be necessary to render this expression as, to make a sponge completely wet with cheap wine. And they filled both boats. Okay, so there is a filling to capacity is basically what this is saying. Then Peter filled with capacity. I satiate it with the Holy Spirit under the controlling ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Said to them, rulers, elders of the people. Okay, respectful. Respectfully at this point. If we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well. Let me know to all of you. This is boldness. This is what the Jews call hoots by. Okay? And I think it's kind of funny because where is the, where the Sanhedrin was sitting there thinking, they're going, you know, they're going to flex their muscle. There's 70 of us, two of them. We got this, you know, it just makes them power. This guy's got his shoulders rolled back and he has got the posture. He's got the command presence. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by this name. And this actually, this could be by him. This man stands here before you in good health. Peter is equipped with divine influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is doing the speaking here. When you're under the influence and you know the problem, the challenge that we have today is what influence, and we should be asking ourselves, what influence is guiding our thoughts, our decisions, our actions, and every challenge. And often throughout the challenge, we've got to check our instruments to make sure that we're flying straight. And the straightness is who's flying our plane. And by faith, Aw Toes has spoke this morning about faith and prayer. And often when you're flying in the turbulence, which Peter and John are in, they are in a stressful situation. But they can relax. In that situation, they can relax. And they can be ready to give an answer. There are those that will, when you're, when you're, you know, in the apostolic age, you might say it's easy for after, it might be easy for Peter and John at this point. Everything was happening so quickly. Apostolic age, a lot of things were going on and they were in the heat of the battle. It was heating up as far as persecution. But recently, they had been eye-witnessed to resurrected Christ. They had been taught by the resurrected Christ. People saw the resurrected guy. He was, and saw all these things, who couldn't believe at this point. See, people who get saved, they go, who are converted, and they're really excited at the beginning. But, you know, in our Christian life, we have moments about us like regular warfare. You've got training, training, training, training, and you've got warfare exercises, skirmishes here and there. But the longer we relax, the more apt we are to set aside our spiritual priorities. Our prayer, our doctrine life, our prayer, our taking in doctrine, our assembling together, the things that we do to maintain our walk with Christ. And we get distracted by things, other things, good or bad. And we pretty much lay down our swords. We put, we take care of our armor, we let our armor sit there. And all of a sudden, the crises come. And we have to be woken up, we have to be called back from R&R. What does the army, I'm using an army terminal, R&R that's relaxed, what is that? Rest and relaxation. You know, a time of relaxing for the battle. And then when the battle comes, now where's our armor at, where's our sword at, where's this? And we have more of a tendency to have a knee jerk to the knee jerk response rather than responding to the word of God. We've got to learn that the feeling of the Spirit isn't something that we pick up in a time of crises in a time of trial. Even though we are an R&R, even though we're not in a crisis situation, we must learn to maintain the proper stance. I like what the quote from some man, somebody said that he was in a suit all the time. At preacher somebody, he was always stressed with a tie and stuff, and somebody asked him about him being ready. And he says, "I stay ready so I don't have to get ready. I stay ready so I don't have to get ready." So we learn and it's a part of the challenge of the Christian life is to learn to stay filled with the Spirit in order that we go into the battle. We go into battle praying because we're already used to praying. We go into battle having the word of God because we've been faithful to taking it in. We go into battle already having our armor on because we've never taken our armor off. So these guys are filled with the Spirit. They're ready because at this point the victory is God. And the victory is His power. It's the Holy Spirit that's doing the work and doing the talking here. No credit to the apostles. So all of this in Jesus' resurrection was fresh in the life of the apostles. And they were already, and these thoughts were already on the hearts of the man. And this brings us to Acts 4.9. If we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man or as to how this man was made and it's healthy. Okay, first of all, exhibit A. This man, this one standing here, this one walking, this one that you all know that all of his life he never could walk, exhibit A. How do you explain the miracle? You guys certainly didn't do it. So, okay, exhibit one. Okay, quickly. They stand out of the way, get themselves out of the way, wasn't it? They might have been able to get away with it if they said that we did this miracle. No, they're going to take the next step. Let it be known to all of you who are all the people of Israel that let me read again. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus, the authority that Enoma here, the authority of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, let's make it specifically, specific, who you crucified. Ooh, who's on the challenge here? Okay, you crucified him. Whom God raised from the dead. Okay, exhibit B. You've seen him walking around. An empty tomb, exhibit B, exhibit B. An empty tomb, exhibit C. He's walked around. He walked among us. He talked to us. He taught us. By this name, by the name is entered. By this, this man stands here before you in good health. And then finally, the last exhibit is the scripture because now he quotes scripture. Okay? He is he identification. They knew their expression of Pharisees. They knew the scripture. And so he is the stone which was rejected by the builders. He was the cornerstone, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone. This is a condemnation from the word itself. You, the leaders, the authority over the people. Those who you should have a building up the body of Christ, building up the kingdom, building up. You should have been, as leaders, you should have been making ready. The kingdom to come. They had recognition of the kingdom and the coming of the kingdom. And they wanted the kingdom. They longed for the kingdom. They were happy for the kingdom to come. But you cannot have the kingdom without the king. And the king, this very one is the cornerstone of that building. The one by which the rest of the building is adjusted to. And you Pharisees, you religious leaders, you crucified him. So who's on trial here? The very one, the, who's on trial? Because all the evidences point to the Pharisees. Who's forming now in their seats? Who is, who is murmuring? Who is, who is trying to, who's stammering for an answer? For what these two, well, fishermen, these unlearnate, these uneducated men, who initially was going to be browbeaten and muscled into rejecting their own message. Now, who's on trial? And how will the religious leaders plead? Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity of fellowshipping in your word this morning. And we pray heavily follow that as we start another week. May we learn to be spirit-filled in everything that we do. That in every crisis, every trial, every tribulation, we go in there with the confidence that John and Peter had when they came in before the 70, before this, before this trial, where they were going to, where there was a temptation to get them to, to deny Jesus. But it wasn't going to happen. Thank you for this message this morning. We pray heavily follow that you continue to edify our souls as we continue to grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. All right. It's another fine day in the Lord. Keep your armor on. Keep fighting a good fight of faith. Lord Willisburg, God, Rapid Fennel will be back here in the AM. Yes. You can hear this message again as well as previous lessons. And get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
who was really on trial? The religious leaders bought Peter and John into but the Apostle would not cower this time.