The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 10.

Tony Clark: Whatever it is that’s going to suit them or not suit them, we’re going to ignore that or say that’s not for today, or say that’s for a different time, or that verse really doesn't say what it says. We’re no different today. They knew they were not supposed to hold a trial at night, but they held the trial of Jesus at night because they wanted to get rid of Jesus. They would break even their own Jewish law in order to get rid of Jesus. People do the same thing today. They will break certain laws if it suits them.

The Bible is very clear about what it is when people are living together and they're not married, but we’re going to break this because I'm in a financial bind. People who call themselves Christians pick and choose what they're going to follow. It’s no different today than at this time as well. Peter and John were held overnight for a trial the next day before the very Sanhedrin that tried Jesus.

I want you to please pay very close attention to these verses and what is happening to Peter and John because these things are going to start happening to us as Christians here in America. Pay close attention to this. We’re going to be arrested for the preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ. I have seen it in spots around the country, but it will start happening in a greater way in the very near future.

In places around the country, in Texas and Georgia, pastors are being asked to turn in their sermons to be examined to see if anything offensive is in them. There’s a line being drawn in the sand, and those who profess Jesus Christ will stand, and those who pretend will fall. The question is what category are you going to find yourself in?

Only time will tell, but let me just say before you start shaking your head and saying you'll be in the good category, you'll say anything sitting in here. But when the rubber meets the road, when it really comes down to being arrested for being a Christian, will there be enough evidence to convict you? Or will they, after examining you, say they made a mistake and you can go because there was not enough evidence of you being a Christian? I just wonder if they would say that about us.

Now we have to ask if the preaching of Peter and John was effective. Many people say you preach Jesus today and people are offended, so it’s not effective. They say it doesn't work anymore and that’s why people are leaving the faith. Let’s ask the Bible a question. Was the preaching of Peter and John effective? Verse four says, "However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand."

Notice the number of the men came to be about five thousand, meaning that counting women and children, there were 15,000 to 20,000 people. Putting Peter and John in prison didn't water down the effect of the gospel because those who heard it grew the church in Jerusalem by at least 5,000 men. As we will see throughout the book of Acts, whenever the church was persecuted, it grew in a mighty way.

The 120 who were in the upper room praying in Acts chapter one grew to 3,000 in chapter two, and now here, at least another 5,000 men were added. Preach the word because the power is in the word, not necessarily in the people giving the word. Peter and John were in prison, but the result was the church grew. Preach the word no matter what because the faith needed to receive Christ and believe the claims of Christ is in the word.

Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. James 1:21 says receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your soul. 1 Peter 1:23 says having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides in us. Preach the word no matter what, in season and out of season as the Bible says, and you will have some who will believe.

We focus so much on the people who say they are offended that we mentioned they are a sinner and need a savior. We focus so much on everyone who is touchy and offended, but you have to remember to preach the word anyway. Not everyone's going to be offended, even though one person will seem like a hundred. There will be some who will believe. We see it here with at least 5,000 men. They went home and told their families, so 15,000 to 20,000 were filling up the church at that particular time.

The church in Jerusalem grew by at least 5,000 men after the word was preached. This church here has grown not by programs, gimmicks, or slick presentations, but by the word of God as it is taught chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and book by book from Genesis to Revelation. You hear the word of God taught, then you go back and tell your family members, friends, and coworkers.

He's giving you the word, and then you feel like you have to come hear this stuff. After they come, they go tell their friends and family members. All it is is reading the word, explaining it, applying it, and we go home and try to live it. There are no slick presentations and all kinds of gimmicks and programs that we’re doing to get people to come through the door. One guy was blown away earlier this year. He came on a Wednesday night and said he just had to see what was going on here because people coming in and out of the parking lot looked like a convention was going on.

He was blown away. We don't have any slick presentations, gimmicks, skits, or drama. God bless those who are doing that. Everyone likes a drama, but that’s just not how we’re led to do it. We’re led to just teach you the word and let that word change you from the inside out. No program or slick presentation is going to change a soul. You'll be entertained, but you won't be saved or changed.

This is how this church has grown, just by giving the word. We have over 30 different countries in attendance at our church. We just taught the word. Jesus said if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. We know that the interpretation of that is Him being lifted up on the cross. The application is when Jesus is lifted up in the volume of the book.

Jesus said it's all about Him when we exalt Him through the teaching of the word. He draws all people to Him. The racial lines get erased because everybody's coming because they want to hear about that Jesus. This is what we do; we exalt Him through the teaching of the word of God and God has grown the church. My wife and I just pinch ourselves and are blown away by how it fills up.

People keep coming back because of the word. The Bible says in Acts 13 that they preached the word to them, and the next week the entire city came out to hear the word of God. The word was preached and it created a hunger for the word. It's nothing in us. Peter said, "Why do you look at us as though by our own power or godliness we've made this man walk?" It's not about us; it's in Jesus and His name that this man was made whole.

Verses five through seven say it came to pass on the next day that the rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. When they had set them in the midst, they asked, "By what power or by what name have you done this?"

In these verses, we see a beautiful submission by Peter and John to the arrest that took place in verse three. They offered no resistance during their arrest nor to the Sanhedrin they were about to face because they knew that whatever happened to them, God allowed. They knew that their arrest would give them the opportunity and a platform to preach about Jesus in front of the Jewish Supreme Court—an opportunity they would have never gotten had they not been arrested.

This is important for us to understand. Sometimes God uses and allows what we call unfortunate circumstances to give us a platform to share Jesus Christ on a stage that we would have never been on had these unfortunate circumstances not happened to us. Listen to what Jesus says in Mark 13:11. He said, "But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit."

According to Jesus, He will allow certain unfortunate circumstances to happen to us, like being arrested for our faith, in order for us to speak about Him on a larger stage. He tells us at this time not to premeditate on what to say in these moments because He will have His Holy Spirit speak through us, like we see in the lives of Peter and John.

The rulers were also called the chief priests elsewhere in the scripture. The elders were the heads of the families as well as the heads of the twelve tribes. The scribes mostly consisted of the Pharisees, who were the conservative religious leaders of the day. These are the people who made up the 70-member Sanhedrin, or the Jewish Supreme Court. Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests.

Annas was the high priest recognized by the people because according to Jewish law, when you are appointed as high priest, you are high priest for life or until you die. Caiaphas, his son-in-law, was appointed by Rome, so he was the high priest Rome recognized and he was the one they could manipulate. John is short for Jonathan and was Caiaphas’s son who later replaced his father as high priest. We have no clue who Alexander is.

We know that he's a family member of either Annas or Caiaphas. In verse seven, they set Peter and John in the midst of a semicircle, which is how the Sanhedrin was set up, and they asked them by what power or by what name they had done this. Keep in mind they had every right to question Peter and John. It was their job and their duty to question anyone who tried to teach the people.

A name represents authority. Seeing that the Sanhedrin felt like Peter and John were rebels, they wanted to know who gave them the authority to do the things that they were doing. They were saying because they didn't give them the authority, then who did? How did they answer them? Verse eight says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit..." The Holy Spirit had me stop right there.

What took place, the filling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, was not a one-time occurrence. This is why it says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit." If he was already filled, so to speak, then what was the need to mention it here? Peter was filled again with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit made a huge difference in the life of Peter that God wanted us to see and pay close attention to.

Two months earlier, he denied the Lord by a fire not once but three times. Then Pentecost occurred in Acts chapter two where he was filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Now in chapter four, the Holy Spirit is saying to look at the difference He made in the life of Peter. Two months ago, he was a chicken. Two months later, filled with the Holy Spirit, he has a fire and a boldness.

Fire does two things: it consumes and it purifies. It depends upon the object placed in the fire. By the enemy's fire, Peter was consumed and burned and denied the Lord three times. Touched by the fire of the Holy Spirit, he was purified and blessed. If you want to stand when things get hot in your life, daily ask the Lord to fill you afresh with His Holy Spirit.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, 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 stands here before you whole."

In verse nine, Peter was saying, "Are we really being judged for a good deed done to a helpless man? If so, can you tell me why?" That was a good question Peter was asking. We can see that the filling of the Holy Spirit gave Peter the boldness to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ, where two months ago he was afraid and denied the Lord.

This is confirmed in Acts 4:31 where it says they prayed and were filled with the Holy Spirit again and they spoke the word with boldness. Peter said, "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole." Can you boldly proclaim the name of Jesus like Peter did here, or are you timid and afraid you might offend someone?

I was telling a group of young leaders out in California a couple of weeks ago that I remember when the tide began to turn back in the '80s when I was in the Marine Corps. You'd say something about the Lord and if somebody said they were offended by that, we used to look at them and say, "So what if you're offended? It's still true. You're still a sinner."