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Sermon


Third Sunday of Easter
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Heathsville, VA
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, April 22, 2012


The Messenger, the Message, the Glory


Text: Acts 4:5-12

5 The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is " 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. ' 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

From the Book of Acts today, we get a glimpse of the disciples in the first days of the Church. It was very early on after the day of Pentecost. As we take a closer look, I want to talk to you about the messenger, the message and the glory.

We are looking at a court hearing. It was an inquisition of Peter and John regarding an incident that had occurred the day before. The two disciples had been on their way to the Temple for afternoon prayer when they encountered a man who had been crippled his whole life. This man’s friends brought him every day so that he could beg for money. When he asked Peter and John for money, Peter said to him, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6) The man was instantly healed, and he leaped and danced and praised God.

The people were filled with wonder and came running after Peter and John. Peter turned to the crowd and preached a sermon.

The text tells us that the number of believers swelled to about five thousand that day. (Acts 4:4)

You can imagine what a dramatic event this was. The religious leaders thought they had rid themselves of Jesus—and now this. The priests and the temple guard seized Peter and John and threw them into jail to spend the night awaiting a hearing.

So what we are seeing in this morning’s reading took place the next day. The rulers, elders and teachers of the law were assembled. We know them as the Sanhedrin, the equivalent of the Supreme Court. They began their questioning of Peter and John with the question, “By what power or what name did you do this?” (Acts 4:7)

Now, I want to talk first about the messenger, so let’s remind ourselves about Peter’s recent history. He had bragged to Jesus that he would never abandon Him. And Jesus had said, Oh, yes you will, Peter. Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. Jesus’ dire prediction had come true within hours, and Peter was unmasked as a coward. But Peter was the same man whom Jesus had appointed to be the head of the Church. (See Matthew 16:18) And so, after Jesus rose from the dead, He came to Peter and redeemed him and reinforced his call to service. (John 21:15-19) “Feed my sheep,” Jesus had said. And then came the power of the Holy Spirit descending on the disciples on Pentecost. (See Acts 2)

So the Peter we are looking at this morning was a new man. He had the heart of a lion, because he loved Jesus and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. We find him on the carpet before the same body that convicted Jesus and condemned Him to death. When they asked by what power or what name Peter had done this healing, it was like tossing him a softball. We are reminded that Jesus had promised the disciples, as He promises us, that when they were hauled before tribunals, the Holy Spirit would give them the words to say. (Mark 13:11) So Peter gave the testimony we heard this morning.

I can’t help but think of the options Peter had available to him. I’ve been called into court as a witness myself, and I know it is scary. You are tempted to consider what the easy road would be:

But Peter, filled with the Spirit, did not fudge. He did not just answer the question. He preached to them. He convicted them. Not only did he point to God as the source of the power that had healed the cripple. He pointed to Jesus, the name the Sanhedrin hoped to have blotted from memory. And not only did he point to Jesus, he accused them of crucifying Him. And he testified that God overturned their evil act by raising Jesus from the dead. And then he said the words that will ring forever in the hearts of the believers:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. [Acts 5:12]

Wow! Cowardly Peter. The man who wouldn’t even admit to a servant girl that he knew Jesus. And now, he is standing before the very tribunal that condemned Jesus to death, and saying, “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.”

All I want to say about the messenger is that, if Peter can do it, so can you. Now let’s take a look at the message that the Holy Spirit gave him that day.

“If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple…” He is reminding them of God’s love, expressed through God’s people, using God’s power.

“It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead…” Peter is calling these religious leaders to account for their sin that brought the Son of God to the cross. It is the sin of the world that brought Jesus to the cross, manifested that day in the court that found Him guilty of being the Son of God, and the crowd that shouted, “Crucify him!” But, as Peter pounded home, God was not defeated; He raised Jesus from the dead. The sins of the world are not the final answer. They cannot stand against the power of God to redeem and to save and to heal and to transform and to make new and to bring new life.

Christ is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone,” Peter said. He was reaching back into scripture, to Psalm 118:22, for that image which they knew well. Jesus had used that same image to convict them of their sinful rejection of Him. Recall the parable of the tenants in the vineyard, where Jesus ended with a warning: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” (Luke 20:17-18)

My friends, people still stumble over Jesus today. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:9-10) But that has not yet come to pass.

There are a thousand reasons why people stumble over Jesus Christ. But the truth is, as Peter proclaimed that day to the Sanhedrin, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” As Jesus Himself said, those who stumble over that stone will be broken to pieces. In other words, it is only in accepting Jesus that the broken pieces of your life can come together. And He said, those on whom the stone falls will be crushed. Jesus is the one who will come to judge the world. The one who saves and the one who judges are the same Jesus, who said, “…whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)

That is the message: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” This is God’s message. It is not a message to be ashamed of. It is a glorious message, first of all because there is a way to be saved. There is a name under heaven by which we may be saved, and that name is Jesus. It shows the glory of God that He loved the world enough to save us when we had fallen into sin.

He loves us for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, never to be parted by death. That love is His glory.

Second, He has done it In a way that is possible for us. God has given us salvation not by our heroic achievement, not by our goodness, or our excellence or our compliance. He has given us salvation simply by His grace through our believing in Jesus as the Savior. God is making us an offer that He has tailored to our imperfection.

Instead, God is making promises to us and asking us to believe Him. He is telling us that Jesus has already done it all for us. All God is asking of us is that we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is God’s glory.

And finally, the glory of the message is summed up in what Jesus said to us in John 3:16. “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son…” God has chosen to save us by a personal relationship. He is calling us into a love relationship with Jesus. He is not an absentee landlord, or a clockwork God watching us from afar. He is right in our midst, bidding us to love Him. And the glory is that the love of Christ changes you. Even people who do not know God will tell you that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Well, the Bible tells us that love comes from God. (I John 4:7) And when you are in love:

If you go down through the centuries and read about Christians who loved Jesus, you will see God’s glory manifested in myriad ways.

All around us, we can see God’s glory, because people who once were lost have been saved. And they were saved not by being better than anyone else. They were saved because they came to know Jesus, trusted Him, believed in Him and loved Him.

The messenger at the tribunal that day was Peter, a man transformed by the love of Jesus. But it can be is anyone who knows Jesus that way. The message is that there is a way to be saved, and that way is Jesus. And the glory is all belongs to God.


Jeffrey O. Cerar 2012

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