The Intellectual view of the Gospel ..Acts 4
In Acts chapter 2 we are told great events that happened on the
day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended and the disciples
were emboldened and thousands were saved. Even with the hundreds
of thousands that were in Jerusalem at that time for the feast
such an event could not have gone unnoticed. Indeed I am sure
it was the talk of the town as people told one another of what
they had seen and what they had heard and those who had been converted
to Christ began to tell of their new found faith. And then there
were not only the events surrounding the falling of the Holy Spirit
but Peter and John had gone up to the temple to pray and there
had healed a lame man by the power of God. And so it is not surprising
if these things came to the attention of the temple authorities.
Obviously the temple guard had reported what had happened to the
Sanhedrin and so the high priest and some of the chief of the
priests came down to see what was going on. Now it is upon the
reaction of these men to the power of the gospel that I want to
focus your attention today. Many of their names are given to us
in verse 6 . It says, Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas,
and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of
the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. You
may remember that both Anna's and Caiaphas had been involved in
the false trial of the Lord Jesus. In those trials many aspects
of Jewish law were broken and these men had been guilty of breaking
their own laws in their haste to have done with Christ. But you
will remember how our Lord had been tried before Annas before
he was sent bound to Caiaphas. Annas had been the High priest
and probably still retained the title in the same way as ex-presidents
of the United States are called, for example President Carter
or President Reagan sometimes. But Caiaphas was his son-in law
and he was the High priest at that time. We don't know anything
else about the two men, John and Alexander but the very fact that
their names are mentioned would indicate that they were men of
prominence. So we can say that the prime examples of the great
and the good in Jewish society were gathered here.
But just watch how Peter treats them as he speaks. He is not disrespectful
but on the other hand he does not hold back anything in facing
them with the truth. First of all he preaches Christ to them.
Look at verse 10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand here before you whole. But then Peter
faces them with their sin. Look at verse 11 This is the stone
which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head
of the corner. Of course that was a reference to what they
had done to the Lord. He did not hold back anything in telling
them what they had done with Christ. And this amazed the chief
priests. Verse 13 tells us that they took note of the boldness
of Peter and John. They were not used to this kind of thing. These
were the representatives of the Sanhedrin, these were the intellectual
elite of Jewish society and those who were at the very head of
the Jewish religion and they were not used to being confronted
like that. I want you just now to study with me the way they react.
There are many people in our society today who react like them.
There are those who consider themselves to be a cut above the
rest. There are those who feel that they have a superior knowledge
and they feel they can look down on those who come presenting
the gospel message. Their reaction is much the same as the reaction
of the Jewish elite away back in the days of the early New Testament
Church. I want us to examine this reaction today and I want to
knock down this refuge if it is the refuge you are clinging to
when you face the gospel message. I want you to see the reaction
of the intellectual elite to the gospel message.
I Their View of the Marvel of the Gospel
These men hear a plain presentation of the gospel message. Peter
had just told them of their sin and of the way of salvation. He
had said Neither is there salvation in any other: for there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved. These priests and these men of the Sanhedrin, these
lawyers and men of learning were then struck by the boldness of
Peter and John. Verse 13 tells us about that, Now when they
saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were
unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge
of them, that they had been with Jesus. We have said that
these were men of intellect, they were lawyers, the elite of society
and they would have been very clever men indeed, and so it is
interesting to look at how they think when they are confronted
with the fact of their sin and the way of salvation through the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Would you first of all just look at what they NOTICED. They noticed
the boldness of Peter and John. The word "boldness"
there is a word that means that they had spoken without hesitancy.
They had spoken with openness and confidence. The chief priests
took notice of this fluency and this way they put forward their
doctrines. They took note of the fact that these men were willing
to get up and proclaim these doctrines in front of them; the doctors
and the lawyers of their religion and they were willing to contradict
the accepted beliefs and the stand that the established religion
took over the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words they could see
that these were men who were willing to take on the intellectual
establishment and to boldly preach doctrines which were opposed
to those of the intellectual establishment. That of course what
every gospel preacher has ever done. It is the job of the gospel
preacher to contradict the views that the learned men of every
generation have put up against the gospel. for it is a fact that
the intellectuals and the clever people have always opposed the
gospel.
No man no matter how clever or stupid he is wants to be told that
he is a sinner and that unless he is saved he is heading to a
Christless eternity. The only difference between the ordinary
man and the man who has a bit more learning, however is that those
who are a little bit more clever just have the ability to think
up plausible explanations as to why they should not believe the
gospel. There are many great philosophers who have come up with
philosophies of life that would do away with the gospel . Many
of those philosophies have been based on the premise that man
is fundamentally good and if he is put in the right environment
he will behave well. So we have had the great experiment of communism,
for example. It was based on the premise that all men are equal
and if we can learn to share and pool our resources that we could
build a fair society. A wonderful idea; until the wickedness of
men got hold of it and communism descended into barbarism. And
so it has been with many Philosophies. The 18th century has been
called the "Age of Reason" because people emphasised
that human reason could understand everything. But in their philosophy
they said that God was One who when he had created the world retreated
and left men to get on with it and man had to make the best he
could of things. But it was this philosophy that sparked the French
Revolution which soon descended into anarchy and murder of even
innocent nobility who had not been mistreating the ordinary people,
as well as the guilty. And even today we have the evolutionary
philosophy. I heard a scientist on television not so long ago
who said that if the creationist view, The view that the Bible
is right and that God created us in six days, was accepted it
would bring us back to the dark ages. It showed the real motivation
of his promotion of evolution. He wanted to disprove the gospel.
But it is the job of the preacher today to stand against the prevailing
beliefs. He must boldly assert things that the intellectual elite
will reject and because of that he will often be despised and
scorned. Indeed the very boldness with which we assert the gospel
is often the occasion of fun. It is a marvel to many that we can
assert the Virgin birth and that we can assert the resurrection
and that we can assert the existence of Hell. These chief priests
marvelled at the boldness with which these men asserted the gospel.
Is it the same with you. Do you marvel at how we can believe what
we do?
But then I want you to see not only what these men noticed but
what they NEGLECTED Verse 13 says Now when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus. They saw the boldness of these
men. Then they saw something else. They saw that the men who were
speaking so boldly were unlearned and ignorant man. The word,
"unlearned" denotes the fact that they had not had an
education. The word. "ignorant" there means that they
were not people who had public office or who would have been used
to public speaking. The idea is that they had not had a formal
education. Part of an education in those days would have been
to be able to defend your views in public. These men had never
had the opportunity to have learned to do that. So the marvel
was that these men who were unlearned and ignorant were able to
put forward their views with such boldness. The verse then also
says that the chief priests took knowledge of them that they had
been with Jesus. Now just think of all they took note of. They
saw that these were unlearned and ignorant men. They saw that
what had been unlearned and ignorant men were now standing up
in public and with great boldness were willing to take on the
intellectual elite. They were able, with great ability to put
forward a message which was in contradiction to the prevailing
view and they also took knowledge that they had been with Jesus.
But what I want yo to see is what they neglected. They did not
seem to be able to take the things that they had seen and put
them all together. They did not seem to be able to take the observations
they had made and take them to their logical conclusion. What
was it that had made these men bold? What was it that had enabled
unlearned and ignorant men to be able to stand in the temple and
confront the high priest and the chief priests? The answer was
that they had been with Jesus. The answer was that having been
in the presence of Christ there was such a complete and radical
transformation that they were changed men. Now these men, these
clever men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus
but they did not seem to be able to come to a logical conclusion
as far as the gospel was concerned. They could not see that the
change had come about precisely because they had been with Jesus.
They could not see that the power of the Saviour and the power
of the Holy Spirit had transformed these men. But that is to be
expected because the Bible tells us that the things of the Spirit
are spiritually discerned. There are some very clever people in
this world, people who are able to see trends and relationships
between things that many others do not see but when it comes to
the gospel and understanding the Bible they are complete dunces.
You see the man of the world does not think the way a Christian
thinks. When a person is born again not only is his soul renewed
but his mind is renewed too. Romans 8:5 says For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they
that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Titus
1: 15 says but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled
But 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has given his people the
power of a "sound mind". Saved people and unsaved
people think differently. The mind of those who are saved is enlightened
by the power of the Holy Ghost and they begin to see things they
have never seen before and things begin to fit into place that
perhaps they were puzzled about before. And unsaved people can
often look at the marvels that are wrought by the gospel in the
lives of sinners and not see the truth of the power that has done
it. They can see the total transformation that is made in the
life of the drunkard or in the life of the notorious sinner but
they cannot see that there must have been some power that has
done it. They speak of a person becoming religious but they cannot
see the power of the Spirit that has transformed the life. I want
you to ask yourself. Has it been your thinking that has been wrong?
Could it be that the Bible is right after all? You need the Holy
Spirit to enlighten your heart. We see their view of the marvel
of the gospel.
II Their View of the Messengers of the Gospel
But secondly I want you to see their view of the messengers of
the gospel. They were willing to dismiss them as unlearned and
ignorant men. You see that because they confer together and they
try to dismiss what had happened. They would not let the truth
of what was happening in to their minds. They could not accept
that there was a power in what these men were doing so they dismiss
them . Later on we find that the same group is willing to put
the preachers in prison. Now they have to admit the truth of the
power of the gospel and that these men are speaking with boldness.
Indeed they have to admit the truth of the miracle that had been
done on the lame man. Look at verse 14 And beholding the man
which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against
it. They could not deny the truth of what had taken place.
They couldn't contradict the testimony of the man who obviously
had been healed. Then they confer together and they have to admit
in verse 16 What shall we do to these men? for that indeed
a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them
that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. They could
not deny the facts so they asked what they could do to the men.
Of course the testimonies of Christians is something that cannot
be denied. The transforming power of the gospel has been seen
in too many instances for it to be denied and it is not unusual
that in order to escape the power of the gospel that people have
persecuted the men that preach it. They mock the men that preach
it and funnily it would be the more well to do and the professional
people who would be more likely to do it. If you go into an area
where the more professional people live you will very often get
more opposition than in a working class area. They despise the
gospel preacher and those who come to tell them the good new of
salvation.
These men could not deny that the men who were speaking were man
who had done a notable miracle. They could not deny the power
of what they had done. It was evident for all to see. So what
they decided to do was to threaten the preachers and try to get
them to stop preaching in the name of Christ. In verse 17 we see
that decision, But that it spread no further among the people,
let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no
man in this name You know that has often been the reaction
of the world. The reaction of the world has been to stop the preachers.
It used to be a law in Spain that a Protestant preacher could
preach to no more than twenty people. In Muslim countries today
it is against the law to preach the gospel. Under communism in
China they have tried to keep a strict eye on what the preacher
says and as the Russian Orthodox Church has got more and more
power in Russia so it has become more and more difficult to preach
the Word. Even here there are people who hate to see open-air
preaching and in this country you are restricted in when and where
you can go into the open-air with the gospel. But apart from that
one of the ways that it is popular to deny the gospel is to mock
the preacher. It is popular to characterise gospel preachers as
unlearned and ignorant men. It is popular for people to believe
that superior learning has disproved the gospel. and that no-one
of learning would put their trust in the Scriptures any more.
Indeed many modernistic and apostate preachers have reinforced
that opinion by denying cardinal truths of the gospel. What people
do not realise that the theology of modernism changes like the
fashions. What people do not realise is that scientific truth
today is scientific redundancy tomorrow. The only thing that stays
constant is the truth of the gospel, Learned men have been trying
for years to disprove it, indeed some of them always think they
are on the brink of doing so, but the Bible is still here and
it hasn't yet been disproved and its message is still that which
Peter delivered in Acts 4:12, Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved. We see their view of the messengers
of the gospel.
III Their View of the Matter of the Gospel
But thirdly I want you to see the view of these learned men, these
men who professed to be the lawyers and the intellectuals of the
nation to the matter of the gospel because here we have the crux
of the matter. Peter preached Christ to them. There had been a
debate about the man who had been healed but Peter said Be
it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom
God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here
before you whole. Then he had made it clear that outside of
christ there was no salvation. He said in verse 12 Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. It
was that message and the person of Christ that these men ultimately
hated. They could see the truth of the message because they had
to say they could not deny it and that they could not say anything
against what had happened in the life of the lame man but if they
accepted Christ it would turn their world upside down. Their authority
and their position was based on the fact that they were leaders
of the Jewish religion. If the High priest had become a Christian
he would no longer of have been a high priest because Christ is
the High priest of our religion. These members of the Sanhedrin
would no longer have their position if they accepted the gospel
because in the Christian church there was a new system of offices
and so rather than loose their position and loose their authority
and rather than admit that they had been wrong in opposing Christ
they kept on rejecting the Saviour and they kept on spurning the
truth of the message. And how many people who think they know
better than the gospel are really using that for a cover to hold
on to their position. Many people have got themselves into a position
where they feel they cannot admit they have been wrong, they cannot
loose face. I remember reading the story of a Judge in one of
Moody's meetings. As he sat in that meeting and listened to the
gospel he know he needed to be saved but he also knew that in
that meeting there were many lawyers and if he got up to go to
the front all those lawyers would see him and he felt he would
loose face. He struggled with that for a long time. But then he
felt if he was going to be saved he must take the humble position
and so he got up out of his seat and went to the front and when
he did so a number of lawyers saw him. They too had been struggling
about whether they would loose face and when they saw the judge
they felt they could go forward too. Pride might have stopped
them. Don't let pride stop you. Dear friend your position and
your name and your authority will be nothing if you loose your
soul. If Peter was right and if there was no salvation outside
of Christ then they were rejecting the only way of salvation.
They had all the evidence to see that what Peter was saying was
true. They could see what had happened in the life of the lame
man. They had to say that they could say nothing against this
but with all the evidence and with the indications that pointed
to the truth of the gospel if they could only have seen it, they
spurned the truth of God. In rejecting the truth of God they were
condemning their own souls. In making that choice they were making
the biggest mistake of their lives. I don't want you to make the
same mistake. There is no reason at all why you should not be
saved. If there is only one way of salvation, then to not accept
that is to perish. With all your reasoning and with all your arguments
if you reject christ you will perish. You can be saved. Peter
said there is a name by which you can be saved. christ is the
way of salvation. Put your faith and trust in Him as your Saviour.