May 22, 2000
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June 25 Lesson
Thoughts of Jesus should set a heart to singing
___Acts 4:1-20
___1The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4But many who heard the message believed and the numbers of men grew to about five thousand.
___5The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
___8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then 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.11He is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'
___12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
___13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16"What are we going to do with these men?' they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people we must warn these men to speak no longer to any one in this name."
___18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to or teach at the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
___By Dan Martin
___Peter and John are in trouble. They have run afoul of the law and are in jail. It may be the first time either of them has been behind bars, but it would not be the last.
___Until this point, the followers of Jesus had not been bothered much by the authorities. But now, probably about two months since the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter and John have been roughly seized by the Temple guards, tossed into jail and hauled into court.
___Read with your imagination.
___As I read the first chapters of the book of Acts, I am awed by Luke's ability under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He is a wonderful writer and reporter and gives us a great story, full of excitement and danger, emotion, action, dialogue.
___Please, as you read the Scripture, read it with excitement and enjoyment, much as you would a novel, story, article or poem. All of those elements are there. These are wonderful stories of real people, in real situations, feeling real feelings, thinking real thoughts. Peter and James and John and all the rest were not cardboard cutouts, caricatures. They were flesh-and-blood people, just like we are.
___I am indebted to a little devotional book, "Moments with the Savior," by Ken Gire, which has reinforced my notion to read the Scripture with my imagination. Gire helps us see and feel and smell and relate to the events and people of the Bible.
___A play in five acts.
___Often it is helpful to think of biblical accounts as plays. That is a good way to think about the encounter between Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Rebecca. The Scripture is a dialogue between them. Another example of seeing an account as a play is the encounter of Jesus, his followers and the authorities over the healing of the man born blind (John 9:1). Sometimes, it is helpful to use The Dramatized Bible to be able to see the dialogue that makes up the accounts. Thus we can see the stories with new eyes.
___The writers of "The Word in Life Study Bible," published by Thomas Nelson, present our story from the third and fourth chapters of Acts as a five-act drama.
___Act One is when Peter and John, going to the temple, encounter the lame beggar lying in front of the Beautiful Gate and heal him (Acts 3:1-10).
___Act Two is Peter's sermon, which identifies Jesus as the "I Am" of Israel's history. What wonderful sentences are in Peter's sermon (Acts 3:11-26).
___Conflict and confrontation.
___Acts Three, Four and Five are from Acts 4:1-37.
___Act Three (Acts 4:1-12) is the arrest and trial. Act Four (Acts 4:13-22) is about John and Peter being warned and released. Act Five (Acts 4:23-37) is the response of the church in worshiping Jesus, continuing to witness and caring for each other.
___We begin with Act Three. It is the story of how the religious authorities react to the healing by arresting Peter and John (and presumably the formerly lame man) and taking them to court.
___You will recall that Peter and John encountered and healed a poor beggar who had been lame for more than 40 years. Peter healed him in the name of Jesus, and the man lept, ran, walked, jumped, shouted and praised God all around the courtyard. It was a very public miracle, one which hundreds of people witnessed.
___Up rush the guards and the priests who were working in the temple that day. The scholars say the words used to describe the scene indicate Peter and John were roughly seized, hustled away and thrown into jail.
___Now it is morning, and they are in the courtroom. Let's look at the cast of characters.
___Imagine Annas and Caiaphas.
___Imagine the faces. The ruling elders are in their robes and trappings of office. Angry. Scowling. Hostile. Intimidating. Scary. That was the way the authorities wanted it. Everybody was supposed to quake and quiver and tremble when they stood before the Sanhedrin.
___The ruling elders were furious. Annas, particularly. He had just gotten rid of Jesus, or so he thought. Annas was corrupt to the core and ran his infamous "Bazaar of Annas" which charged exorbitant rates for animals for sacrifice and extorted money from almost everyone. When Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers, that was the last straw for Annas. He determined Jesus had to be killed.
___To accomplish that, he ruined Judas with flattery and bribery, manipulated the Sanhedrin, lied to Pilate and Herod. He had rigged a kangaroo court of illegal trials and perjured testimony and finally got Jesus killed. He thought that was that.
___Oh, sure, he and his lackeys had heard rumors about a resurrection. But they got that rumor squelched by claiming the body had been stolen.
___He had just gotten rid of Jesus, and now here come two of Jesus' followers making trouble, rocking the boat, stirring things up, disturbing the status quo. Not only that, but the two guys are preaching the resurrection of Jesus. Salvation. Healing. New life.
___Accused and vindicated.
___Peter is challenged, probably by Annas. One commentator says it is impossible to convey in English the contempt of the question he asked Peter. The rulers regarded the two as uncouth, ignorant, unlettered. What they really meant was that Peter and John didn't have the proper doctor's degrees, the proper educational attainment, the correct credentials.
___But Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, took their insult and turned it to good. It stood before them, not as their victim, but as their judge.
___Luke had a wonderful sense of humor. Can you imagine listening to Peter as he asks them if he is being tried for helping a crippled man? What a line.
___Then Peter produces his authority--the risen Christ.
___He sees his appearance in court not as a danger but as an opportunity to witness of his Lord. So, full of the Holy Spirit, he tells them Jesus is the Messiah, the one they have been waiting for, longing for, hoping for all these centuries. Jesus is the one. He is the heart and center of the kingdom of God, which has come and dwells among them. They killed him, but God raised him from the dead. He saves. Not only that, he is the only one who saves. He is the first and last and only chance.
___They are amazed at Peter's boldness. He is not cowardly. He has been, and will be again, but not now, because the Holy Spirit has given him a holy boldness.
___How can I keep from singing?
___The Sanhedrin then does what authoritarians always do. They try to shut Peter and John up. They want to control information and knowledge. They threaten Peter and John. They tell them to shut up and to keep quiet about all this.
___But Peter speaks up again. What he knows he knows first- hand. He has seen the empty tomb. He has touched the resurrected Jesus. He sat at his feet and learned. He watched him go up into heaven. He experienced the coming of God's Spirit. It is not theory. He knows Jesus is Lord. He knows Jesus is the Messiah.
___His heart is full, and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks.
___I wonder what our hearts are full of. We talk of the Cowboys and the Astros and the Rangers, of work, of the weather, of cars and kids and politics and markets.
___But Peter was full of Jesus. He would not be silent about the Messiah, the one who was most important to him.
___Darrell Adams sings an old song about that:
___"My life flows on in endless song, above earth's lamentations.
___"I hear the real, though far-off hymn, that hails the new creation.
___"Above the tumult and the strife, I hear its music ringing.
___"It sounds an echo in my soul.
___"How can I keep from singing?
___"No storm can shake my inmost calm, when to that rock I'm clinging.
___"Since Christ is Lord over heaven and earth
___"How can I keep from singing?"
___How, indeed, can we keep from singing when Jesus--the Promised One, the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, the only begotten Son of God--is the Savior of the world, and my Savior too.
___From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
For thought and discussion
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