One name under heaven

IMAGINE a name so powerful that when spoken it could change time, matter and space itself! A name above every other name, the name that is the name of Jesus.

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WILDFIRE, the youth branch of Hope to Families, seeking unity and community,  helping people come to know Jesus  and pointing people  to the local body.  What an amazing  story  Acts 3, Acts 4 But really, what can we learn? 5 lessons I want to give 5 lessons Now, lesson 1 is living out his  story Living out his story Jesus, who is God, has revealed himself by becoming a human That's right, that's totally something that God did  Jesus has lived He's taught, he's healed, he's restored, he's fulfilled prophecies that his predictions of himself made hundreds of years before he ever walked this earth. Jesus has died, he's rose from the dead, and now he has ascended on high. That is presently where he is at, enthroned. quite a backdrop for the story that we're coming to read today. But before we go anywhere else, it is so important today that you hear that this is, or could be, if you don't yet know Jesus, the backstory or context of your life. That your life matters so much, not only because God created it, but also God created this whole  love story that sees us in His love. Then we rejected it and ran away.  but God restores our relationship with him  so for what? That we might have this love story to tell others. We see this play out with the life of Peter and John in this story that we've just heard about. Two of Jesus' closest disciples whose lives were forever changed because of their encounter with Jesus. And Jesus gave them a commission, he said, to go into all nations and that's where we're at in this amazing love story. Peter and John are going out and they're just living out the story of Jesus Christ. Now does that remind you of anyone? Or are the disciples completely unrelated to us? Is the Book of Acts not for us? Wait a second. Disciples of Jesus who have had their lives forever changed because of their encounter? Who does that sound like? That sounds like you and me. We are disciples of Jesus who have had our lives forever changed. And like Peter and John, We have been given a commission, a task, a job, a blessing to go and to live out this story just as it was for John and Peter and everything that we're hearing them doing so it is for us. We are called to do the same, to continue on the legacy and the story. On the 8th of July in 2014 Brazil hosted the World Cup  and they got themselves into the semi-final and they were expected to go on to win but they had one obstacle. and it was Germany. In that semi-final, they played against Germany. Now imagine if you were working or doing some school work or hanging out with friends or you're busy doing SISM work and then all of a sudden you realize that this match is on and you arrive 29 minutes late into the match. Just 29 minutes late. What would you think? You wouldn't have missed much, right? It's only 29 minutes of the game. You would be wrong. In 29 minutes, Germany had scored five goals and it was over. Brazil had lost. Now why do I say that? Because that's sometimes what can happen to us when it comes to stories like these in the Bible. Not that Germany scores five goals past us. No. But instead we tune in to Acts 4 thinking that we haven't missed much.  That we can just understand what's happening. But that's not what's right. How can we tune in to this amazing love story? How in the busyness of our lives and everything that's going on in our lives alone And this amazing book that we call the Bible, we think we can just come in, sing a few songs, sit down,  hear what needs to be said, and then leave. No. We have to be intentional about understanding this full story. About understanding the backdrop. About slowing down what's going on in our lives and saying, God, I want to receive from you. This is your word that is alive and it is active. This is not some fairy tale stories. So what is the context or the backdrop of this story? Remember where we started? It's Jesus. It will always come back to Jesus. History flows to and from Jesus. That is true of the lives of John and Peter and it is true of our own lives. Jesus had told his disciples to go when the Holy Spirit fell on them. And that's what Acts is all about. And you know what? That should be the story of our lives. Are we known as a people? who the Holy Spirit has fallen upon and we are going. Is that our life testimony? Axe  is a record of the church taking seriously Jesus words of wait on the Holy Spirit and go which is lesson number two. Wait on the Holy Spirit and go. Now if anyone can relate to me in this room I find myself constantly going. If you can't tell I have a lot of energy and I'm going and I'm going and I'm doing the next thing  but yet how much do I just wait on the Holy Spirit? How many times? Would my life be forever changed? If you're leading in schism, could it change if you waited on the Holy Spirit? Not because it's the right theological thing to say, but truly, if you actually stopped in your school, in your work, on your holidays, whenever you're in the ice cream line to Morelle's and you're starting to get stressed and your kids are annoying you, do we wait on the Holy Spirit? And then do we go? This is one of the most important lessons when it comes to living life for Jesus and declaring His great love to the world. wait on the Holy Spirit and live by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the invitation. Our invitation is not to  take this task and to live life as Jesus followers alone. We have the Holy Spirit, young and old. Isaiah 11 speaks of Jesus when it says, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Does that remind you of anyone as well? That is talking about our Lord, is talking about our Jesus, but yet some way, some way it is now talking about us. That same spirit that rested on Jesus is the same spirit that rests on us. So this Holy Spirit that rested on Jesus, that was the power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that lives in us? Does our life show that? Does my life show that? Holy Spirit is the one that was promised to be sent by Jesus, was sent by Jesus, and is who what makes it possible for us to even make sense of what Jesus said to his disciples. This is what he says to us. These things I have done. Think about all the things that Jesus has done. You will do greater things. Can you imagine being a disciple? Oh wait, we are one. And Jesus is saying that to us, that you will do greater things. Do we truly believe that? There are those of us in this room who will let that  fly over our heads and there are those of us who will grab that with both hands and say, Jesus, tell me how? How is it that I can do greater things than you? Because it's the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that lives in us. Youngest to the oldest. Regardless of your background. This is exactly what Peter and John are living out here. In Acts 3 and 4, we are reading about them healing a man who couldn't walk. Then they started boldly preaching this amazing love story of our great God, and they were arrested while thousands of people are getting saved. This actually happened. Wait on the Holy Spirit and go. Lesson 3 is that there is one name under heaven. This is what Peter says. Let me proclaim it to you as he would have proclaimed it. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene. The man you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the scriptures when it says, stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else. God has given no one their name under heaven, to which we can be saved. We live in a world where I've heard this said to me multiple times where they say, God isn't loving, He hasn't given me multiple ways to get to Him. It's not right that there's one way to get to Jesus, there has to be multiple ways, multiple religions. If I invited you back to my house for lunch, which I couldn't, I do have one, but my parents' for lunch, they would make you something. Okay, if I invited you and I said, here's a thousand ways to get to my house, would that be loving? And then I said to you, when you finally got there,  actually only one of them was right. So it is with Jesus. Jesus is saying there is one way to get to the Father. There is one way to get to God on high. And it is me. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. There is no other name under heaven but the name of Jesus. You start living your life out in the name of Jesus. We do you see what happens in your life. What happens in your school, in your job, in your university? What happens in Sism when you have faith in the name of Jesus Christ? Lesson four,  which is one of the most amazing lessons from this text, from this story, is ordinary is Jesus' favorite material. love that. Ordinary is Jesus' favorite material. Listen to this from the scripture in Acts 4. you ever asked yourself why God would choose to use us? We know that God is all powerful, right? So that means God can do everything himself, but God is more glorified when he accomplishes his will. through weak vessels, people like you and me. For example, God doesn't need to use me right now, but when people see the boldness or the power of Him working through me now, they are left wondering, like the religious leaders, how is this possible? I know, look, if you're in proximity, if you're close to me, you can list the sins that you've witnessed. Everything that I've done wrong, my feelings, my weaknesses. And so in light of that, you're asking yourself, how is He doing this right now? That's the question the religious leaders were asking themselves about Peter and John. And is that the questions that people are asking in our lives? I know you. You're flesh and blood just like me. And yet, how is your life so different? These men that didn't know Jesus  recognize the power that rests upon them, the Holy Spirit that rests upon them. And they're saying, I know you. You're a normal little human being. How are you doing these things? Perhaps you're sitting there now and you're thinking to yourself, this is all theory. This is all out of my reach. All of these stories about crippled people being healed, blind people seeing, deaf people hearing, me witnessing because of my testimony, and the spirit's power, lives being changed, kids' lives being changed. Everything that we read about in Acts,  it's not for me, it's for them. It's not for now, it's for then. What a lie. What a mistake. That is one of the greatest ways that Satan and the powers and the forces of evil want to rob all of us. We have been given the commission. We have been given the Spirit's power. Just as it was for Peter and John, so it is for us now. Stop looking at what God wants to do through yourself and start looking at what God wants to do through Him. He is our point of reference. The testimony of our lives should be inexplicable except for God. Does your life story make sense to the world around you? The greater chasm, the space between who we are and our weakness and what God accomplishes through that. That's what will give God the most glory. And it is the best evidence for God's power at work in our world. That you stand here and say, I can't do this. If we're all honest with each other, my goodness, it's hard enough for us to get up here and do a kids game in front of people. How can I do the Spirit's work? God's work in my life. And that is true. All of us can't do it. That's where we start and we look at everything that God is calling us to. All the miracles, the signs, the wonders,  the testimonies, the good news of the gospel. And we say, how can I accomplish that? And we say God. One name under heaven, Jesus Christ. So us  and the world around us, they see our humanity, yet they see what we do.  and all of us together say must be Jesus must be Jesus notice in verse 13 of acts 4 it says they also recognize them as men who have been with Jesus these are ordinary men but they're men with Jesus it is because they were living in their first calling which was to be with Jesus to abide to stay in his presence And then in their weakness when they stand with God, God promises that my power is perfected in your weakness. Bring your weakness to the table. Your inability, everything that you're lacking, God promises to perfect His power. What greater witness of the glory and power or work of our God is there than Him using ordinary people like me and ordinary people like you to accomplish what He wants? Right now, make no mistake about it that what you're seeing right now  Is not some order, not some human speaker I struggle with this, I get nervous with this It is only by the Spirit's power that I stand up here and I proclaim and testify to you And my prayer is that you can see the Spirit's power in my life right now As He speaks through me that there's something different There's something holy and godly and so it is with all of our lives With the gifts God has given you do people look at you and do they see God? Do they see the Holy Spirit? Our final lesson is this, the unstoppable gospel. The unstoppable gospel. In verse three, we are told that Peter and John were arrested and put in jail. Again, we may think to ourselves, we just tune into the story, not a big deal, acts, people get arrested. These are real lives. Have any of us been arrested because of our faith? How different would our lives be if we were persecuted and arrested? Would these stories start to make sense a little bit more? But is it, do we really need to be arrested and persecuted to understand the truth of what's being said? I don't think so. The Spirit can teach us now. You see, whenever you read this, it really gives the feeling that the Gospel is defeated before it ever starts.  Like Peter and John, Jesus' closest disciples have now been arrested. Jesus said to Peter,  like, I'm gonna use you to build my church. Peter's in a prison cell. So how have we gone to a prison cell? To right now. To all the churches, to all the schisms, to all the moves of God. In verse four,  we read that many people heard the message, believed it, and so the number of men, which excludes women and children, now totalled 5,000. 5000 people imagine if you walk down to the promenade and you were witnessing 5000 people give their lives to Jesus You see Jesus has told us that in this world we will have trouble that if we godly lives will be persecuted But what is so important to remember? What history has proven because God has spoken that the good news of Jesus which is life to the full because he gave his full life It is a message That will always win that will always be victorious. It is true that we are fighting a battle and as a fellowship we have experienced that with the losses in our church family but yet we know that the battle has already been won. And like Peter we must say to our opposition  in light of any persecution  in spite of any resistance do you think God wants  me to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard and my fear is that We do not tell because we have not experienced. We have not seen, we have not heard, so there's nothing for us to tell. Do we have testimonies and stories of how God has moved in our lives? And if you don't, today is the day where you can say, yes, wait on the Holy Spirit and go and see power and transformation wherever it is God has placed you. God is inviting you to live out His story. God is inviting you to wait on the Holy Spirit and go. God is inviting you to know that there is one name under heaven and it is the name of Jesus. God is saying to you, know you're ordinary, but it's me that will make you extraordinary.  Literally. God himself lives inside of you. So go and proclaim this unstoppable gospel because it will always prevail. The question is, do you want to be a part of it? Right? The Gospel is still going to go out, God is still going to move. The question is, are you sitting here now and are you saying yes to it? Are you saying yes  to living by the Spirit and raising your kids? Of being parents, fathers, mothers,  of living a single life and giving that in full devotion to Jesus, whatever is the calling? The call is for us all to go and be a part of this amazing story. This week we were out in Mission travelling temporary Mayo with the Sand Team travelling all 32 counties of Ireland preaching the good news of the Gospel taking seriously the commission of our God to go in Acts and in my fear, in my anxiety, in my weakness we have experienced healings people have been healed In my feelings, my weakness, in my humanity, in my doubt,  we have seen over in the last week,  17 people in Ireland give their lives to Jesus. Because of our bold proclamation of the gospel, because we're just living out what God has said  and we believe it to be true. You have stories to tell in the SISM team, but there's more. More kids to come to know Jesus, more parents to come to know Jesus. Are you sitting here now and you're in your workplace? and you don't have holidays God wants to change people in your workplace truly He's told us and He wants to do so by the Holy Spirit's power I cannot shake you I cannot tell you it is only you that can say yes to the Holy Spirit and Him moving in power in your life this young guy wants it, do you? do we want the Holy Spirit? it is our privilege, is our blessing to call ourselves Jesus followers and to go with the one name  under heaven Jesus Let us pray