No other name
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week in our journey through the book of Acts we left off just after another of Peter’s sermons. Peter and John had gone to the temple during a time when they knew there would be large crowds in order to witness about Christ. As they were heading in to the temple they were stopped by a man who had been lame since birth, and through the power of Christ, he was healed. As we talked about last week, that obviously drew a crowd and Peter used that opportunity to share from the scriptures the proofs that Jesus was the Messiah. When we left last week, the religious leaders, who were not happy about this new branch of faith that was growing so rapidly, had arrested Peter and John and had thrown them in jail overnight while they decided what to do with them. So let’s pick up reading from where we left off last week.
5 The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family. 7 After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?”
8 Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing here before you healthy. 11 This Jesus is
the stone rejected by you builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
So the religious leaders don’t like what Peter and John and the other apostles are preaching in the temple and all around Jerusalem. They don’t like the fact that they are saying that the Messiah has already come and his name is Jesus. But why? Why would the religious leaders not want to see the fulfillment of the prophecies that they all knew from the scriptures? Why wouldn’t they want Jesus to be the Messiah?
Well part of the answer goes back to something we talked about a couple of months ago when we were leading up to Easter. Remember when Jesus went into the temple during that final week and kicked out all the people selling animals for the sacrifice and exchanging money for all the folks from who didn’t have the correct “temple currency”? People were coming into Jerusalem from all over the known world. They traveled in for the Passover celebration and they brought with them the money of their own lands. Even the people who lived there in Jerusalem used Roman currency for their day to day transactions since Rome was the ruling authority. But remember we talked about the fact that they all had to pay the “temple tax” which could only be paid in shekels, Jewish currency. So people had to exchange their money for the correct currency to pay the temple tax and the money changers charged exorbitant rates.
Then there was the matter of the animals for the sacrifice. The animals had to be certified as pure and unblemished by a priest. You could bring an animal from home, but there was no guarantee that it was pass the test. But there just happened to be people selling “certified” animals right there in the temple. Sure the prices were high, but you didn’t have to worry about transporting the animal from home and you knew for certain that it would pass because the priests had already blessed all of these animals. Don’t worry about the fact that the people selling these animals were the cousins, or brother-in-law, or nephew of the currently serving priests. That had nothing to do with anything.
So why didn’t the priests want Jesus to be the Messiah? Why were they trying to shut Peter and John up? Simply put, Jesus was bad for business. Look at that last verse again.
12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
If Jesus was who he claimed to be, and who the apostles proclaimed him to be, then the religious leaders stood to lose a WHOLE lot of money. Think about it. How did people gain forgiveness of sins and salvation under Judaism, under the Law? They had to offer a blood sacrifice to atone for their sin. And we’ve already seen how the sacrificial system had turned into this huge money making scam. But then Jesus came along and claimed to be the Messiah, the savior that the Jewish people had been waiting on for so long. But he does something totally unexpected. He dies. He gets arrested by the religious leaders, taken before the Roman authorities, and ultimately crucified and he dies. And the religious leaders think they’ve got that little problem well taken care of. But then on the third day, he’s not dead anymore. And the apostles are telling the people that Jesus is their way to salvation. That Jesus stood in as the sacrifice. That he shed his blood to pay for sins, for all sins, and that he is the only way to salvation. If that’s true, (and by the way, it is), but IF it is, if “there is salvation in no one else,” then the whole sacrificial system, and the whole money making enterprise that the priests enjoyed, was done. It was kaput. So you can see why they might not want the people to buy into this whole “Jesus is the Messiah” thing.
So what do they do? Peter has answered them. He’s told them, “there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” That effectively kills their business model, so what happens next? Well let’s keep reading.
13 When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 After they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let’s threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.” 18 So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
21 After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done. 22 For this sign of healing had been performed on a man over forty years old.
So what happens? Well, they realized that they couldn’t argue with Peter and John. The proof of what they were saying was standing right there in front of them. This man, who had been lame since birth, and was now over 40 years old, was walking around. He had been healed through the power of Christ. So they can’t argue with them. They can’t say it didn’t happen, because obviously it did. And here they have these fishermen, these uneducated, unschooled guys from some little backwoods town in an out of the way part of the country staring them down and they realize they can’t win. So they kick everyone out of the conference room and they start talking among themselves. “What are we gonna do?” “How do we get out of this?” “Is there any way we can get ahead of this thing?” And they’ve got… nothing. So they decide to threaten the apostles. So they called Peter and John back in and they issued a “cease and desist order.” “Thanks for helping out our man here, but your services are no longer necessary and you are hereby ordered to not practice healing, preaching, teaching, etc. within the city limits of Jerusalem, blah, blah, blah...”
But what do Peter and John do when they are issued this cease and desist order? The bible tells us
19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
That’s the right answer. They tell the religious leaders, “Look, you can order us not to talk all you want. And you’ll have to decide whether we should listen to you or to God but God has told us that we are supposed to speak out so we aren’t going to stop telling people what we’ve seen and heard. We’re not going to stop telling people about Jesus.” And you know what? We face that same decision in our lives every day. Does this encounter sound familiar at all? The strategy that the religious leaders used with Peter and John is the same strategy that opponents of the gospel are still trying to use today. We are told constantly about the “separation of church and state” and that it is unconstitutional to talk about Jesus in public schools, or in a government meeting, or in any type of public setting. We are told that we shouldn’t tell people about Jesus because it’s considered proselytizing and that’s offensive. Well you know what? Sin is offensive to God and the only cure for sin, the only way to wipe it clean is through the blood of Jesus Christ, so if hearing that is offensive to you well then I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to be offended. Now I don’t think any of us in here this morning are offended by the name of Jesus or we probably wouldn’t be coming here in the first place, Amen?
You know that attitude, that boldness in standing up for the gospel was never more evident than in the life of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. He was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1909 to a Jewish family. He grew up following the Jewish faith and like any good Jewish boy he married a good Jewish girl. He and Sabina were married in 1936 but just a couple of years later this good Jewish couple would hear the gospel of Christ and be converted. Richard was be ordained in the Anglican church and then after World War II he would become a Lutheran minister. During WWII Richard and Sabina were involved in evangelism to the occupying German forces. When the war ended the communists seized power and a million “invited” Russian troops streamed into Romania. Pastor Wurmbrand ministered to his countrymen and witnessed to the new occupiers, the Russians.
In 1945 Richard and Sabina, along with many other church leaders, attended the Congress of Cults which was organized by the Romanian Communist government. Many of the religious leaders came forward during the event that was televised nationally to praise Communism and to swear loyalty to the new regime. When it came Richard’s turn to go forward Sabina told him, “Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ.” Richard warned her, “If I do so, you’ll lose your husband.” She replied, “I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband.” So Richard stood up and told all of the communist leaders and all of the religious leaders that their duty was to glorify God and Christ alone.
In 1948 Richard was arrested by the secret police while on his way to church. In 1950 Sabina was also arrested leaving their 9 year old son alone and homeless. 3 years later Sabina was released and told that Richard had died in prison. But that was a lie. Richard was very much alive and he would eventually be released in 1956 after spending 8 1/2 years in prison. He was warned never to preach again, much like Peter and John in our passage today. Despite the warnings, and the torture which he had endured in prison, Richard went back to leading the underground church. He was arrested again in 1959 for preaching ideas contrary to Communist doctrine and sentenced to 25 years. But due to influence from the West he was released again in 1964. Soon afterward Richard, Sabina, and their son Mihai would immigrate first to Norway, then to England, and eventually to the United States. Once here, he founded a ministry called Jesus to the Communist World which would later be renamed The Voice of the Martyrs. This ministry still works in restricted countries today; in places where speaking the name of Christ will get you thrown in prison, or worse.
Richard Wurmbrand was a man who lived up to these verses, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
On this Father’s Day there are churches all over the country that are hearing sermons about fatherhood and spiritual leadership. We’re still plugging away on our journey through the book of Acts, but I think this passage that we read this morning has something to say to fathers. It’s the faithfulness of the father that will lead his family to be faithful to God. In the book of Joshua, the children of Israel were falling away and starting to worship other gods (which was kind of a pattern with them if you read through the Old Testament). And Joshua stood up in front of the assembly and said this:
But if it doesn’t please you to worship the Lord, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship—the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living? As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
Now we’re not to the point in this country where we’re being thrown in prison for speaking the name of Christ, for sharing his gospel. We’re not to the point where we have to make a choice. But that point might be much closer than we hope. It could be just over the horizon. We’ve already talked a little this morning about how our culture is so worried about being offended. Religious liberty slips away bit by bit until one day we may wake up and find it gone.
If that day comes; if the secret police, or even the so-called religious leaders have you standing in front of them asking you to renounce the gospel, to pledge loyalty to the state, or whatever ideals they espouse, what will you do? What are you going to do dads? Or moms? Or kids? What are you going to do Christian? Will you go the way of all the leaders of the church in Romania in 1945 and pledge loyalty and talk about how great communism, or diversity, or whatever twisted ideal they want you to embrace is? Or will you go the way of Peter and John, and Richard Wurmbrand and say “we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard?” Will you keep claiming and proclaiming the name of Jesus? Will you stand up and say, “As for me and my family, we will worship the Lord.”
Would you pray with me?