Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: It says now when they, the Sanhedrin and the religious leaders, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Don’t you love—I love that verse for so many reasons.

Narrator (Guest Male): Pastor Brett Meador encouraging believers to continue standing courageously for the gospel.

Brett Meador: This is a time for you to be bold, like Peter of Acts chapter 4 who’s filled with the Spirit and pointing people to Jesus.

Narrator (Guest Male): After healing a crippled man and preaching about Jesus, Peter and John were brought before the intimidating religious leaders, the same ones that had condemned Jesus to death. As Peter bravely declared salvation can only come through Jesus, Pastor Brett Meador takes note of how the demonstration of such a bold witness is one for all believers to follow, from Today’s Word.

Brett Meador: In Acts chapter 4, you kind of need to know the setup because it’s sort of a response to what happened in chapter 3. But we saw the man that was crippled sitting there at the Gate Beautiful as you go into the temple. They’d pass this guy crying out for alms. “Alms for the poor!”

Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. On the way, they saw this crippled man who was crying out for alms, and Peter stopped and looked at him. He said, “Look at us.” The man looked at him expecting to get some money from Peter and John.

But Peter and John said, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Peter reaches with his right hand and pulls this guy up from his crippled condition, crippled from his mother's womb.

The man stands up, and then he starts walking. Everybody wondered, the story says, because they knew the guy was crippled. They’d seen him there for 40 years sitting at the same gate day after day. Now he’s walking? Some gave glory to God.

But there were others who saw what was going on here, and they were grieved. Why are they grieved? Well, that’s where chapter 4 picks up. Let’s look at verse 1 of chapter 4. "As they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in hold unto the next day, for it was now eventide."

These first three verses kind of set up the story where the main group here are the Sadducees. Now, when Jesus walked on the earth and was ministering, probably his primary group that didn’t like him was the Pharisees. Remember, the Pharisees were keepers of the law, legalists.

In this case, it seems like the Sadducees are now at the leadership of this. Now, the Sadducees didn’t give Jesus as much trouble as he was walking on the earth. Here is the reason why: they're the liberal theologians, if you would, the Sadducees.

Anyway, in this story, the Sadducees are grieved. Why? It says because Peter and John and those guys taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They laid hands on them, grabbed them, dragged them, and threw them in jail.

So, Peter and John are in jail overnight. The next morning, they're forced to sort of stand before this trial of these Sadducees, but also the exact same people that condemned Jesus to death. Well, the story goes on in verse 4.

It says, "Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." So even though Peter and John get thrown into jail that night, people are being saved. We went from Acts chapter 2, 3,000 people were saved. Now the group is up to 5,000.

It says here in verse 5, "And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John (not John the apostle, different John), and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem."

Here in this particular trial of Peter and John, in verse 7, it says, "And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, 'By what power or by what name have you done this miracle?'" Now, these religious guys are doing something that is actually biblical, if you would.

Because in the books of Moses, the Torah, the Law, it says that you're to try those people that are doing miracles and make sure they're not doing it in any other name than that of Jehovah, the God of Moses there at the burning bush, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Law of Moses said you're to take those guys and stone them to death.

That’s what's going on here. They're just trying to figure out a way to get these guys in trouble. "So by what name," they said, "have you done this?" Well, I love this verse 8. It says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, 'Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it 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, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.'"

I love it. They're thinking, "Aha, we got him because he said Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and that’s not the name of Jehovah. So we're going to be able to stone him to death." But Peter goes on in verse 11: "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner."

They're saying, "What name are you doing this?" And he says, "The name of Jesus Christ, who by the way is the chief cornerstone that you guys rejected, and it’s the fulfillment of the Messiah." He’s saying to these Jews, "He’s the Messiah, the cornerstone that you rejected."

The problem begins here in verse 12. Peter says after all of this, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." By what name do you do this? Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, who’s the chief cornerstone of the Old Testament. Okay. And by the way, this name, Jesus Christ, there’s no salvation by any other name than that of Jesus Christ.

I mark this in my Bible because this is one of the things that sadly people today, we don’t really acknowledge. In fact, the American church has gotten away from just Jesus is the only way. Which is really sad. How did that happen? I think that there’s a large group of evangelical Christians who don’t even really necessarily know what true salvation is.

There’s people that call themselves Christians, but I’m not sure they know there’s only one way to be a Christian, and that’s through Jesus Christ. Jesus said it: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." Jesus said that.

Peter, hearing that in John chapter 14, now he’s articulating it in Acts chapter 4 to the Sanhedrin, saying there’s no other name under heaven given by which men can be saved than that of Jesus. There’s no other name. That’s what Peter says. Not Buddha, not Muhammad, not Krishna. Peter nails it when he says there’s no other name under heaven by which men can be saved.

The only other insult that comes close is to mention the name of Jesus, his holy name, the only begotten of God, in the same breath as Muhammad and Buddha and Krishna, like some of these new-agers. It’s always many paths. Why is that so offensive to us Christians, or at least it should be? I’ll tell you why.

What do you think God thinks about when you kind of think about the thing? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then he creates man in his own image. Gives man free will. Man uses their free will and sins against God and ends up in a fallen, doomed state.

But God so loved the world, he comes up with a plan to save doomed humanity from going to hell for eternity. God loved the world so much, he says, "I’m not going to—I don’t want everybody to go to hell." In fact, the Bible says God would that none should perish.

So God comes up with this plan of salvation, but it’s a radical plan because somewhere, I guess in God’s cosmos and universe, there’s actually a requirement of sin. When sin happens, there’s a penalty, and it turns out that that penalty is eternal death. Unless an innocent person is willing to die for those sins of someone else.

So what happens? God becomes a man. Well, the way the Bible puts it, God sent his only begotten Son, who comes, lives the perfect life, and dies on the cross for the sins of the world. And you get a sense that this is heavy, that God’s only begotten, who over and over the Bible says this is his Son whom he loves, his beloved Son.

Then God sends the Son. He dies a torturous, brutal death. Now anybody who wants to be saved, they can be saved through him. But if you show up at the pearly gates and God is there and you stand before God and you say, "Hi God, I just—I don’t like to think that that narrow through your Son. I’d like to think there’s other paths. So I chose other paths."

What? You mean I gave my only begotten Son as the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father, which is right here in heaven, but by me, the Son of God? And you're saying, "Eh, no, I’m going to do it through Buddha, Krishna"? Do you see how offensive that is to God?

If you think you're going to pull that off, I think someday you're going to stand ashamed before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. See, this is something our culture doesn’t really like—the narrow path that Jesus laid out. "You guys are so narrow-minded." I always kind of crack up when people say, "You Christians are narrow," and I say, "Yeah, that’s right, you're getting it." Right. Jesus said that.

Yes, Pope Francis said, "All religions are paths to God" during a visit to Singapore in September of 2024. That’s just not in line with the Scriptures at all. When someone says all religions are the same, or their god is the same as our God, they know nothing about world religions.

The notion that all religions are equally valid is logically impossible. Do you understand that? How is it logically impossible? Well, think about it for a second. If you take that most loving and tolerant "all paths lead to heaven," many paths that lead—if you take that, then your logic goes like this: you're saying that all paths lead to the same place.

So you're saying Christianity is one of those paths. Yes, I do believe that. Okay, so you're saying that Christianity is a true path? Yes. But Jesus, if it’s a true path, Jesus said, "I am the only way to heaven. No one comes to heaven but by me."

So Jesus, by his declaration, says it’s the only path. So how can it be one of the many paths if that path says it’s the only way? Do you see the problem there? So you're in a predicament. You need to either reject Jesus's way and say, "I don’t believe it. I believe all the other paths that are kind of ridiculous."

Or you choose to accept the work of Jesus, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, his resurrection, which he’s the only one who proved his claims as a religious leader by dying and then raising up on the third day. Everybody saw it, and eyewitness accounts affirmed it by the hundreds.

That’s the one you can believe, or you can choose to reject that. But Peter’s making it clear, there’s no other name under heaven by which men can be saved. There’s no logic that allows you to allow Christianity along with Buddhism and Hinduism and Baha’i or Jehovah’s Witness or any of these others. There’s no allowance for that.

If you're going to either believe Jesus, you'll be saved. But if you reject Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, then you're going to be crushed by the rock. That’s what the Bible says. So it’s kind of something I wonder. If you're a Christian, I wonder if you should perhaps be prepared to die for that affirmation.

"Brett, did you just say I need to be ready to die for something?" Yep. I think it’s a big enough deal that for us to say what Peter’s saying here. Did you notice that Peter’s willing to die here? He’s talking to the same people that crucified Jesus, and he’s getting in their face saying, "You crucified Jesus, and by the way, Jesus is the only way. There’s no other name under heaven by which men can be saved."

Man, he’s just laying it all out on the line here. Sadly, there’s a lot of people that are making up their religious trajectory by themselves. That’s a new religion I call "God to Me." "God to me is more of a—well, I don’t think God is a man, I think it’s a woman. And God to me is not mad at the world, and he’s not going to judge. He’s loving. So he loves everybody. Everybody’s going to make it to heaven."

"God to Me." That’s a dumb religion. It’s only as big as your brain. But the Bible and the Scriptures of the Word of God tells us the truth. Now, what’s going to happen to Peter with all this getting in their grill just a little bit? I think he’s doing it powerfully, but this is going to get him into trouble. But check out what happens.

Look at verse 13. It says, "Now when they, the Sanhedrin and the religious leaders, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."

Don’t you love—I love that verse for so many reasons. First of all, you always love it when the high and mighty are a little bit stumped. These are the brainiacs of the day. The smartest people lived in Jerusalem, and they knew it. They were the Sanhedrin. If you were part of the Sadducees or the Pharisees or the Sanhedrin, you're like the pipe-puffing, cardigan-sweater-wearing intellectuals pontificating in Jerusalem about all these things. That’s who these guys were. They were the smarty-pants.

Now, who were Peter and John? They were fishermen from Galilee. We've got to remember this. I’ve told you about some of Josephus's writings and others where they talk about how Galileans, they were sort of the equivalent of what we might call hillbillies.

Even their dialect gave them away. Remember when Peter was there warming himself, and the little girl says, "He’s one of them, he was one of the disciples," and Peter says, "I am not," blankety-blank-blank, he’s cussing out this little girl. That’s the Peter of a few months ago.

Now we have this bold Peter who is—what a different thing. But that was before he was filled with the Spirit. What did he do? He denied Jesus three times. But one of the things that they said of him, "Hey, he’s a Galilean. His speech betrays him."

What did a Galilean sound like? Well, to you and me, it’d sound like, "Tell you what, darn tootin', purt' near, that’s what we're going to do, you tell you what." Like, it was total Hickville. That’s the way they thought of Galileans. They were dumb.

Well, it says it right here: they marveled that they were unlearned and ignorant men. I remember when I was a kid, I was listening to the Bible teaching radio on one of our local stations when I was a kid. This guy gets on: "Dearly beloved, turn to Matthew chapter 5." And I’m like, "Who is this guy? What a weirdo," because of his accent. I thought whatever. And I listened to him for a little while as a teenager, and I’m like, "Okay, yeah, click," I turned him off.

Well, a few years later, I was in an old bookstore, and I found this really cool commentary set that I was going to buy. It was called *Through the Bible* by Dr. J. Vernon McGee. And I thought, "Oh man, this guy," and I read Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and I thought, "What a great scholar." To this day, it’s one of my favorite Bible commentaries. I love Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I pictured the guy, maybe with a little British accent. "Turning your Bibles to chapter 3," you know, whatever. Intellectual, cheery-o, whatever.

But what’s funny is I was loving this commentary, and then I turned on the radio again. And they said, "Now, *Through the Bible* with Dr. J. Vernon McGee." And I’m like, "Oh great, here he is," and he’s like, "Dearly beloved, turn your Bibles..." I was like, "What?" It was the same guy. It was the same guy.

I love that. And you know now, if you know, you know. His voice is endearing now. Of course, he’s been in heaven for what, 30 years now? 40 years? He’s been in heaven for a long time, and he’s still preaching on the radio. Now, the reason I say that is that’s kind of what’s going on here.

The intellectuals are looking down their pious noses at these guys and marveling. Wow, these are the unlearned—it’s a nice way of saying stupid. Ignorant. Well, the word ignorant in the Latin is *ignoramus*. That’s what they're saying. They're marveling they're stupid and ignoramuses. That’s what they're saying. That’s how disrespectful they are of Peter.

But they can’t get by it. They can’t get away with it. What do they say? They marveled that they're unlearned and ignorant men, but took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Man, that’s the key. I don’t care who you are. You might be as dumb as a brick, as most of us.

But if you spend time with Jesus, that ups your game. Suddenly that gives you some authority. It actually gives your life meaning, and it actually makes what you're saying and talking about matter. That’s what happens. See, the Peter of the Gospel message, he was always putting his foot in his mouth, saying stupid stuff, doing stupid things.

But now we see this guy who’s saying powerful things, and he’s shaking up the smartest guys in the building. And it’s this guy who’s unlearned and ignorant. I love this. What a beautiful picture of you and me. The Lord wants to use you, no matter who you are, even if you're not the smartest person. "Brett, I don’t know all the gospel. I don’t know how to preach like that." Well, read the Bible enough, and pretty soon the Lord will start by the Spirit speaking through you like he does Peter.

"I don’t know, Brett. I think I’ll never be as smart as Peter." Maybe not. But some of you fall into the next category. And that’s the final verse of our lesson here. Check out verse 14. Then they turn from Peter, and it says in verse 14, "And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it."

What shut the mouths of this Sanhedrin where they couldn’t say another word? It wasn’t even Peter’s powerful Holy Spirit words. It was the dude that was once crippled for 40 years sitting at the temple gate beautiful. Now he’s just standing there.

Listening to this—like, I want to check out this DVD because it just cracks me up. Here’s Peter: "You crucified—agh!" and then this guy standing over here. But there’s nothing they could say about him because he was once crippled, but now he’s just standing there. Just standing there.

Some of you, that’s all you need to do. Some of you were alcoholics, and you were ragers, and your life was a mess, and your marriages were failing, and your jobs were being in trouble. But guess what? Christ found you. You were lost, but you’ve been found. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch just like you.

And one of the greatest things you have going for you is all you have to do is just stand there and people go, "Man, what happened? What’s the deal?" And all you have to do is point back to Jesus. It’s Christ who saved me. It’s Christ who got me. We’ve got people that were once in prison, drug dealers, did some hard time in prison. Now they're one of our pastors at church here. What a testimony that the Lord does.

We’ve had people that were depressed, deeply depressed and suicidal, even attempted suicide, but came out and found Jesus, and the Lord has changed their lives radically. story after story, people who were once lost, once blind, but now they see. Like that "Amazing Grace" song really is many people's story because Jesus changes our lives.

Not only does he save us, but he changes us. And some of you might not be sitting on a stool teaching a bunch of people the Bible and stuff like that. That is fun, I have to admit, I like sharing the Bible with people. But some of you don’t even have to open your mouth. You just kind of say, "Look what the Lord’s done in my life." And nobody can say anything about that. They might have their intellectual arguments, but guess what? They're not going to be able to refute what God has done in your life.

I’d like to conclude with this: be bold. And let’s get back to that proverb scripture. Remember, the wicked flee when no one’s pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. I want to challenge Christians. Be filled with the Spirit today more than ever. The Lord said through Peter in Acts chapter 2, "In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all men." That’s us.

I think we're living in the last days. This is a time for you to be bold, not quiet, cowering, shaking in your tennies like Peter of John chapter 20, but Peter of Acts chapter 4 who’s filled with the Spirit. Oh, we need you to—how do you get the Spirit? We talked about you fathers know being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father which is in heaven give the Holy Ghost to them that ask.

Just ask. "Lord, fill me with your Spirit like he did Peter, and let me speak the words of power and words of life and point people to Jesus." Pray for that. Be bold. Don’t be the weirdo that’s running when nobody’s chasing you. We're in a time where we can talk, even though people threaten us today, we're still in a pretty safe place where we can share the gospel of Jesus. And I hope you do that.

Lastly, if you're not saved, if you haven’t accepted and been broken before the stone, the rock, Jesus, and said, "I am a sinner, and I know that I need you to be my savior." If you've not done that, this is a great time to accept Christ and be saved. You just repent and say—what is repentance? "I acknowledge that I’m a sinner, that I’ve done stuff that’s contrary to what God wants me to do, and the penalty of that is death."

But if you repent and say, "I accept Jesus, who died on the cross in my place, rose from the grave, and I confess and believe that," the Bible says you'll be saved. And guess what? He becomes your precious cornerstone that you can build your life on. And then you become part of the church, and more than that, you'll be saved.

It doesn’t mean your life’s going to be perfect or rosy or you won’t go through troubles. It just means you're saved and you're headed for heaven, which will be perfect and will be wonderful. You need to be born again. You need to be saved. You were born in sin and death, but accepting Christ is where you have new life through Jesus. There’s no other name under heaven where a person can be saved than Jesus Christ.

I’d like to invite anybody who’d like to accept Christ. Maybe there’s a couple of people who’ve never really accepted Jesus. Maybe you've never really heard the gospel presentation. And that’s really what it is. You're a sinner, doomed, but God loved you so much that he sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross for your sins. And if you accept that free gift of salvation and believe in your heart that he died, that he rose again, guess what? You will be saved.

That’s what the Bible says. I’d like to pray that prayer of confession with you if today. Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your Son, Jesus, that he died on the cross for my sins, that he rose up from the grave, and that I’m forgiven. Help me to walk with you. Thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord, as these confessions have been made, I pray that you'd bless these folks as they just express that bit of faith even right now. You tell us, Lord, we just need a little tiny speck of faith to move a mountain. And our sin was a big mountain, but you moved it. You've moved our sin and you've taken the burden off our shoulders.

I pray that they would know their sins are forgiven. I pray that they'd just sense your love and your goodness. May they grow to know you more. May they be connected with other good Christian people who can really strengthen their faith. But Lord, just bless them, I pray. And may we all rejoice that we get to be connected to the rock of our salvation, the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone.

Use us, Lord, as part of your building, and help us to be blessed as we, even as we go through difficult times and tough things in life, but having that hope of heaven, Lord, we're thankful for that. Thanking you and rejoicing you in Jesus’ name, amen.

Narrator (Guest Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on Today’s Word. And if you just prayed those words with Pastor Brett, we want to welcome you into the family of God. And to help, we put together some teachings that will assist you as you begin your walk with Jesus. Just go to our website at todayswordradio.com and click on the link that says "Are You a New Believer?" Again, todayswordradio.com and click on the link "New Believer."

Well, we're so glad you’ve joined us today. Next time, Pastor Brett will look to the book of Acts and the continued boldness of Peter and John refusing to stay silent about Jesus Christ. Today’s Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.