|
SECTIONS:
CONTROLLING
THE AGENDA
CONFRONTING
AUTHORITIES
STANDING
BY FACTS
CHOOSING
TO SERVE GOD
FOLLOWING
UP
CONCLUSIONS |
N THE Herald the other day,
Tim Costello responded to a speech Archbishop Jensen made at
the weekend. He said that Christians often forget that Jesus
was a troublemaker.
True followers of Jesus
need to be troublemakers. That's what Peter and John were when
they went to court for preaching on the Temple steps.
You’re nice, aren’t you? I’m nice. We are too
ready to do the right thing. I am too ready to be nice and do
the right thing. But even the supporters of Peter and John sometimes
felt exasperated by their refusal to play by the rules.
There was a time when I felt that everything was crumbling around
me. I wasn’t coping. A friend gave me some pieces of good
advice. One was, “Don't always play by the rules.”
I was shocked by that. But she knew me well enough to know I
needed that warning.
I play by other people’s rules far too often.
There’s an ancient poem, a true tale of battle between
the English and invading Vikings.
The English leader was Beorhtnoth, a good man, kind, and honest.
He fought well. But the Vikings defeated him because he was a
good, honest man.
The English held the best position. They were on dry land, camped
on a rise, while the Vikings were coming up from the water below
the English.
The Vikings knew the English were Christians, who would do the
right and fair thing. So they told the English, “You can’t
attack when we are at such a disadvantage. Let us come up to
where you are!”
So Beorhtnoth did what was right. He played fair, and let the
Vikings onto firm ground. And the Vikings fought dirty. They
defeated the English and killed Beorhtnoth.
Peter and John didn't play by the rules. But they played by Jesus’
rules. They played by the rules of God’s Kingdom.
When man-made rules get in the way of God’s Kingdom, then
guess what has to give way!
Let’s look at what happened
at the Temple.
There are several principles in our passage, looking at the apostles:
They controlled the agenda
They confronted the authorities
They stood by the facts
They chose to serve God
They followed up their actions.
CONTROLLING THE AGENDA
One of the biggest problems in most conflicts is defining the
agenda.
He says, “I want to talk about how you reacted when I forgot
to pick you up.” She says, “You always forget to pick
me up.”
He says, “It was only on Saturday, and I think I forgot
to pick you up one other time, about four years ago.” She
says, “But it shows you don’t care. If you did, you’d
do the washing up more often.”
He says, “But I’m at Tech two nights a week. I can’t
wash up those nights.” And she says, “What about all
the other nights? And what about making the beds?”
Do you see what happened? It starts with a specific issue —
a problem last Saturday. But, in the end, it’s about everything.
He set the agenda, but she changed it to control it.
We’ve all seen it done one way or another.
One of the great lessons I have learned is to look at what the
agenda is and ask what people are aiming to achieve. Otherwise,
someone will capture the agenda and use it to gain power.
And that's exactly what Peter and John refused to do. You’ll
see that they came in ready to state their case. What did the
Sanhedrin plan to charge them with? Obviously, they didn’t
really know. They just didn’t like what Peter and John were
doing. The trial was a fishing expedition.
Jerusalem in those days was as full of terrorists as it is today,
except that they were mainly tackling the Romans. Any unauthorised
public gathering might start a riot. And the chief priests and
the Governor’s people had their spies everywhere. They knew
that Christians were critical of the role they had played in
crucifying Jesus. They didn’t want to be criticised.
So the authorities had to move. They had to silence these religious
upstarts. But it’s pretty clear that they really didn’t
know what to charge them with.
Generally in any Court proceedings, the terms are clearly set
out. But the authorities prove their evil intentions by questioning
the men before a charge is brought. They hope to trap them into
an admission that they were practicing witchcraft, which was
a crime demanding death.
This is when Peter takes control of the agenda. He declares that
what they have done is a good deed — should they be challenged
for doing it? Is the Sanhedrin really questioning them about
a good deed for a needy man?
Peter forced the Sanhedrin to deal with the facts, not with some
fear of what could have happened when a crowd gathers. He challenged
them to consider the real issue, the healing of this crippled
man.
If you look at Jesus’ ministry, it nearly always started
out with healing and deliverance, followed by proclamation of
God’s Kingdom. When you look at Peter and John here, the
ministry began with healing and continued through proclamation
of Jesus, the King of the new Kingdom.
There are several reasons for this. First, it shows that God
has a practical care for us in our need. Second, it demonstrates
that sickness, death, demons and evil are intruders in God’s
world.
But there’s also a strategic reason. It enables us to do
good. No one can validly criticise doing good.
If you've done good, and used that as a springboard to preach
the gospel, you don’t even have to think. If someone criticises
you, you can control the agenda: are they attacking you for doing
good?
Once Peter puts the whole meeting back on track, he goes on and
proclaims Jesus to the Sanedrin, anyway. No, he and John hadn’t
cast any spells. There were no black arts in play here. It’s
by the name and authority of Jesus that the man had been healed.
In other words, if they want to arrest someone, let them try
to arrest Jesus!
CONFRONTING AUTHORITIES
Peter and John didn’t just leave it at controlling the agenda.
They could have kept the focus on the real deed, and preached
Jesus in an abstract way. But Peter and John press the point
home: the Jewish leaders themselves have a responsibility for
the death of Jesus.
I want to make this very clear: I am not accusing all Jews of
bearing special responsibility for the death of Jesus. The truth
is that every one of us bears some responsibility for Christ’s
death.
But the Jewish leadership had pressed for and authorised the
crucifixion, and they had to recognise their responsibility.
So Peter went straight for the jugular...
“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. He is
“`the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.‘
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
He makes it very clear to the
leaders: “You crucified Jesus; you failed to see who he
is, so you rejected him.”
I had some dealings with a middle aged lady once who had a reputation
for being a bully. She pulled no punches when she was angry with
someone. No insult was beyond her.
Fortunately, from the moment I met her, I did the right thing.
I confronted her and her attitudes. I didn’t insult her
or rage at her. But I did treat her efforts at gaining control
as an amusing quirk rather than a personal threat. If she didn’t
like something I said, I never backed down. I repeated myself
and I backed it up.
Within a few months, she and I were great friends.
When we are nice, we only encourage violent people. It’s
amazing how many people have been victims of violence and think
that weak people should be victimised.
The Sanhedrin assumed that Peter and John would be weak men,
easily victimised. But they stood their ground, and the Rulers
backed off.
Effective evangelism begins when we are willing to be confrontational.
As I review my own time here, I can see that lack of confrontation
has been a major factor in limited effectiveness.
I read that John Wesley once made an experiment. Another evangelist
had told him of his own practice which was different from Wesley's.
This evangelist used to wait until he felt a prompting from the
Holy Spirit before he spoke to anyone about his or her state
before God.
Wesley decided to try it for a couple of days. He found that,
when he did this, he spoke to no one. But, when he spoke to everyone
who would listen, he spoke to many people each day, and quite
a few became Christians.
Do we ever let people know, “You must take personal responsibility
for Christ’s death!”? The time has come to start doing
so!
STANDING BY FACTS
The Apostles stuck firmly to the facts and the issues. This was
good tactics in court, and it was good methodology for witness.
The Sanhedrin was saying, “We don’t want to hear about
this Jesus. He’s dead.” They were saying, “Keep
quiet! Stop causing an embarrassment!”
But Peter and John just stuck to their guns.
I started by mentioning how easily we can be diverted from our
initial intention when someone starts pulling other issues in.
A number of years ago, the deacons here had a weekend away for
a seminar on conflict and conflict resolution. I remember Murray
Davis, who led the group, telling us how important it was to
define the facts and stick to the facts. It’s all too easy
for someone to raise emotional issues that divert you from the
real story.
Peter and John declared the fact of the man’s healing. They
declared the fact that the healing was in Jesus’ name. They
declared that Jesus had been crucified by the authority of the
Sanhedrin. And they declared their confidence that there is salvation
in no one else but Christ. Finally,they had evidence for the
facts, because the healed cripple was there in the court with
the Apostles.
There’s no waffling or beating around the bush here! Facts
are facts, and the Apostles stick to them, no matter what.
CHOOSING TO SERVE GOD
There was only one course left to the Sanhedrin, and that was
to order Peter and John to shut up about Jesus.
And that was all they could do: issue threats.
What did Peter and John say?
“Judge for yourselves whether
it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
This is incredible! In an age
when ordinary people were not expected to have individual opinions,
Peter and John declare their dedication to God and their commitment
to do what he says, regardless of what the Government says. This
is radical. This is probably one of the earliest declarations
of individual responsibility before God.
Joshua said,
Choose today whom you will serve!
But, as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
The big difference between Peter
and John on the one hand and Joshua on the other is that the
Apostles were poor fishermen, but Joshua was the Leader of all
the Israelites. It's one thing for Good King Wenceslaus to choose
to serve Christ; it's entirely another thing for Wenceslaus'
pagan grandfather's footman to choose Christ instead of the king.
“I as a man before God have the right and the responsibility
to answer to God for my actions and not to a council of men.”
That’s what Peter says. The fact is that Christ comes to
each individual, so each individual must choose him. Another
person’s choice can never stand in the place of a choice
of your own.
FOLLOWING UP
The final thing to see is that Peter and John followed up on
their actions before the Sanhedrin.
In verses 23–31, we see the Apostles bringing it home. They
are going to serve Christ at home, too. They plan to keep preaching:
let God give the power. They plan to let the world know, though
the world might rage.
So often in churches any leap forward is accompanied by a stony
refusal to repeat the miracle. Peter and John said, “Do
it again, Lord! Do it over, and over again!”
CONCLUSIONS
It is possible for us to be much more effective in our witness.
Every day is a day before the Council, because every day is a
day to give account for ourselves and our faith.
But we will only achieve great things if we take a proactive
approach.
Last week I talked about unplanned evangelism, but we need to
see that all unplanned evangelism will lead to planned action,
because you can't just make up the plot as you go.
This will brand us as troublemakers, but the fact is that troublemakers
impact on the world, Even Jesus can’t tolerate the merely
bland and nice.
So, let’s get up, let’s get at it, and may God increase
the blessing, stretching out his hand to work great miracles
and saving many!
AMEN |
