Go, Stand, Speak | Disruptive Presence 23

In which John and David discuss how the Apostles respond to tensions around their activities in Jerusalem. Not everyone was excited about the work the Holy Spirit was doing in the Early Church. How will Peter and the others respond?

Episode 76 of the Two Texts Podcast | Disruptive Presence 23

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Transcript

Transcript Autogenerated by Descript.com 

[00:00:00] David:  
 

[00:00:49] Well, hello John. It's good to be back with you. Since we last spoke, I appear to have, have been attacked by some by, by, by some bug that is making podcasting life difficult cuz it's affecting my ability to breathe and talk 

[00:01:03] John: Oh, bless you. Although I'd have to have to say it has had it, it has added a bit of depth and gravels and, and and weight to the old voice there. So it does, it does, it sounds like a good podcasting voice to me, David, so that sounds good. 

[00:01:18] David: Yeah, this is, this is David with you as you drift off to sleep, 

[00:01:23] John: Yes, indeed, 

[00:01:24] David: But we are not here to talk about me being ill , and rather, we're, we're talking about Acts chapter five still, and the chapter has a, has a lot in it. So kinda where, where we left things last time. Obviously, the sort of events around the apostles are quite fascinating. 

[00:01:45] And now they are causing a bit of a stir perhaps when, when, when even the apostles walking down the street is of interest to everybody. And so what happens now, we turn to a kind of the beginning of a dark turn in act that sets a theme of, of conflict through quite a lot of the, the text of this of this book doesn't. 

[00:02:08] John: It does, it does. It's fascinating that we ended our conversation last time with crowds gathering around Jerusalem and bringing their sick. And it says, and all of them were healed, and you would think, Wow, that's, that's the cue for something amazing. But the next part of the story introduces something quite troublesome and dark, as you say. 

[00:02:28] So from verse 17 onwards, 

[00:02:30] David: So you're gonna read that for us, John, get us started. So verse 17 downturn about verse 32. I think we're gonna do in this episode aren't. 

[00:02:37] John: Yeah. Yeah. So it says this, verse 17. Then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 

[00:02:56] Go stand in the temple courts, He said, And tell all the people about all this new life or this life. At Daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had been told and be began to teach the people. When the high precinct as associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the Elders of Israel, and sent for the G sent to the G for the apostles. 

[00:03:20] But on arriving at the Geo, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported. We found the jail securely locked with the guard standing at doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the Temple Guard and the chief priests were at a loss wondering what this might lead to. 

[00:03:42] Then someone came and said, Look, the man you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people at that. The captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 

[00:04:02] We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name. He said, Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied, We must obey God rather than human beings. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead whom you kill by hang him on a cross. 

[00:04:24] God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior, that he may bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We, we are witnesses of these things, So and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey.  

[00:04:42] David: And . There's, there's another one for the file of Peter's. Pretty punchy sermons. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say punchy. It feels like, feels like what we're dealing with here. 

[00:04:56] John: Hm. Yeah. Fantastic response of Peter. Again, in that context, and it feels like, we, we though this story introduces to us as sort of a cycle of persecution that seems to run all the way through the rest of the book of Acts. We we're al we've already had a little repeat cycle, haven't we? 

[00:05:18] We've sort of got a, this is a, a real echo of chapter three, chapter four, where you've had the. The man healed at the gate. Beautiful. In chapter three. And then as a result of that, Peter being able to speak and preach and then a sort of a threat and persecution breaking out. And you've, you've sort of got this cycle night of not just great teaching, but miraculous activity, a sort of a response from the religious leaders. 

[00:05:46] Of the day, and then the response of the church to that response and, and we're getting this sort of cycle breaking out. So Peter seems to be really getting quite good at defending himself and defending the way in terms of the message. But what's really wonderful in terms of. Peter's response, of course, is the consistency. 

[00:06:04] And, and I think if you, if you listen to that, there's a real consistency in his message. He, he refers to the God of our father's Links, links Jesus. And, and the, and the new way back to the Jewish roots, which of course for Peter's really important. He doesn't wanna abandon those Jewish roots. 

[00:06:19] He wants the Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewishness of this way to be celebrated. And for, for the Jewish nation to embrace this mess. But then of course you get that resurrection link. God's raised him up then, then you get that sort of sense of responsibility, you killed them. And again, that's quite courageous in the context of the Sanhedrin. 

[00:06:40] And then a lovely further expression of Christology. He's been exalted as Prince and Savior a. And then all of this is for the repentance and forgiveness of Israel. And then a love how Peter concludes there. We, we are witnesses to this as is the Holy Spirit. I love the little link there and, and there's a lovely echo of course, back to one eight, isn't there? 

[00:07:00] You will be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be my witnesses. And it's the same idea, cm word there around that. So you, so you get this consistency of message. I think if you start to examine. Peter and some of the message of the early church. There is a consistent theme, especially in the context of persecution or in the con context of confrontation or conflict. 

[00:07:22] There's a very consistent apologetic being presented here as far as Jesus is concerned. 

[00:07:27] David: One of the things I like about consistency is the minor adjustments then become interesting to you, don't you? You see like, oh, what is the, what is the subtle shift in, in this particular this particular context? 

[00:07:40] And I, I was drawn to this. This word prince that you or leader as it sometimes translating Verse 31, God exalted him as his right hand as leader and savior. And I, I think reading it in English, it sort of, it, it kind of. Caught my attention, cuz that's an interesting way, I don't, I don't recall Jesus being spoken about that way very often. 

[00:08:06] Right. And, and the word actually as, as best as I can find, only appears like, like a handful of times in the New Testament.  

[00:08:14] John: I, I, I think I worked out four, 

[00:08:16] David: that's what I had as well, so, 

[00:08:18] John: Two and X two in Hebrews. 

[00:08:20] David: Yes, exactly two in Acts two in Hebrews and, and in Acts three it's where he's called the author of Life, 

[00:08:27] Whom God raised from the dead, Interesting resurrection sort of language again. 

[00:08:31] And that word ar hagon is the word that is translated there, author. But here in chapter five is translated as as leader or prince. And then you've got it in Hebrews chapter. Around around him as the, the, the author of, or, or, or Leader of Salvation. And then of course, famously Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, that he's the author and finisher of our faith. 

[00:08:52] Jesus. So, so I just, yeah, I just thought it was kind of neat. This little, to me felt like a slightly unusual way to talk about Jesus, but you picked up on that as well. 

[00:09:02] John: I did, I did. And, and of course it, what struck me was, was Peter doing that deliberately in the context of this moment, they are again being brought before the sa. He, which of course in the strict sense is a ruling authority. 

[00:09:19] David: Mm. 
 

[00:09:20] John: And if you are prepared to translate prints in the broader sense here of ruler or leader, is Peter doing something? 

[00:09:30] Deliberate here. So this is the sort of second reference in X that we've had to this idea, this idea of, of when, when confronted with the rulership of men, when confronted with rulers who claim to have God's authority. In this moment, Peter Trumps that authority by, by playing the Jesus card and saying, actually Jesus is the ruler and the savior. 

[00:10:01] So it, I I, I do think there's something deliberate in there and, and the fact that we've seen it before in, in X three 15, you killed the ruler or Prince of Life in that idea. So, so, and, and both times it seems to be linked to not only authority, but connected to their responsibility. 

[00:10:22] So I think there's something, I think there's something deliberate there that's going on by the introduction of the word prince or ruler in that context. 

[00:10:29] David: Well, well, whenever a word is used, we all know this in general conversation, don't we? When a word is used, it's not. The common word, it, it picks your interest, doesn't it? It it draws you to it. And, and definitely an act. It's notable that it's in conflict situations that Jesus is, is established, but it, but it doesn't become a term that the New Testament uses all the time, which is, it's just is interesting. 

[00:10:56] It's very, very, very interesting to me that I'm, I'm perhaps reflecting after this episode on. Why they choose not to use overly conflict based kind of language around, around Jesus. Which is how we talk about Jesus is actually an interesting subject actually. I think that, that perhaps this shows the versatility of the early church in saying we can talk about Jesus with a range. 

[00:11:28] Of metaphors that describe him in ways that we understand, but we'll also pick the metaphors in order to make the most sense of what we're trying to say in the context that we're in which just is one of these things that reminds me of. The, the versatility of the gospel as a message actually that the great in my, in my opinion, great. 

[00:11:51] Ghanaian scholar La Siner used to always say, and I've probably said this before, John, but it, it, it bears repeating. He used to always say that the power. Of the gospel is that it can become anybody's very easily. It doesn't require you to learn a language. It doesn't require you to learn a particular way of speaking. 

[00:12:11] Even you, you actually, you, the, the whole message of the gospel is the gospel comes to us and is then interpreted in our space. So Jesus. Jesus can be the great chief , he can also be the king. He could even be perhaps, doesn't, it doesn't quite follow through because of how this works. 

[00:12:30] But we could even talk about Jesus as the President at some level, and, And I think there's something powerful that this, just watching Peter do this here reminds me of how unique and novel that actually is. That this belief wasn't rooted in places or ideas or languages. And even to that extent, wasn't rooted in a book in the same way that religions. 

[00:12:54] Rooted in books before. The, the, one of the first things you see happen with the text is they start translating it and sharing it and moving it around. And, and actually, I don't even know if all of our listeners would realize this, but, but the book itself, right? I don't mean the book, the Bible. I mean, physically a book is, is considered by many historians to be one of the. 

[00:13:17] Products and influences of the church on the world because prior to the church, everything was done on scrolls and books were essentially, I'm, I'm pushing it too far to say scrap paper, but they were notebooks, you basically, bits of parchment that you couldn't use for scrolls. You stitched together and and go from there. 

[00:13:38] Then when the church came along, they used this medium as the text for their religious texts, which tells you something about how they saw these religious texts and then now the whole world use these books, although digitally, I suppose we're coming back to scrolls now, aren't we? 

[00:13:53] John: It's scrolling down. Scrolling across. Absolutely. Yeah. No, 

[00:13:59] David: us something, John? It tells us that we've got to be careful of solidifying our language too much and even our mediums too much cuz the gospel can break out of them. 

[00:14:10] John: Absolutely. And, and I think you see that even in this context. It's fascinating. This confrontation conversation is taking place again in the temple context, the Temple precinct a place that's representative of a sacrificial system that speaks to the saving of the people of Israel. And of course, you're in a very interesting political context. 

[00:14:34] In terms of Herod and the Romans, and it's interesting then in the context for me of the Temple Precinct that Peter refers to language like Prince or Ruler and Savior in the context of repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. , and, and I love that and I think it's easy to miss that there is a little, again, looking, looking at the, the similarities, but seeing the outliers. 

[00:15:00] And here there was a very specific reference to repentance to Israel. And, and Peter now, second time in front of the San Hadron, he seems to be making a very concerted effort to connect not only Jesus. The God of our fathers. But now Jesus, his work in ministry, his position as ruler Prince Savior is with the expressed purpose of bringing repentance to Israel. 

[00:15:27] Forgiveness of sin. So it does feel like although this language can be adapted right across the world and has been, it, it does feel a little bit specific here. And it feels like Peter is not just plucking random or even sort of ni rehearsed ideas. I think, I think he's saying something very specific to the group in which he's actually. 

[00:15:49] In front of, and, and maybe that explains, we'll, we'll be getting to this probably next podcast, but maybe that explains something of Gaia's response, Gaia response in a very interesting way to these men. And maybe it's because he's hearing something in the tone of Peter that is different from the other revolutionaries that he's heard before. 

[00:16:08] So I, I think there is something there very, it's easy to miss it because we're reading it from the 21st century, but I, I think there's something there within. 

[00:16:17] David: And that's, yeah, that's, that to me is, is the beauty of the conversation that it is. Able to be specific. And that's, that's the, I mean, I think what I'm kind of just feeling in the text is this, this reminder of, can I call it the, the incarnation nature of Christianity That, that Jesus, How does God rescue us? 

[00:16:42] He said, he, he comes as Jesus and is born amongst us, but the very fact that Jesus is born amongst us, shapes and models, things cuz he where he was born, affect what he probably looked like, affects what languages he probably spoke. It affects the education system, affects his understanding of the world. 

[00:17:03] All because of the specifics. And this is what to me, is so powerfully beautiful about the gospel, that even by chapter five of Acts, the disciples have captured this and understand this, that, oh, I'm standing here in the Temple Court, so I'm gonna choose to say very specific things. 

[00:17:23] John: Mm-hmm. 

[00:17:24] David: About this because of where I am. 

[00:17:26] And Paul feels that same freedom in Act 17, that he go, I'm gonna say some very different, specific things in this particular point. They're not reading from a script. Right? and, and perhaps that's the beauty of the Holy Spirit's Working Act, is that they're not reading for a script, they're, they're sensitive. 

[00:17:43] Would that be the right word to use? Or at very least alert to what is going on at this exact moment that the spirit would have us. 

[00:17:52] John: Yeah. No, I love that. I absolutely love that. And there is a sense in in which those early apostles though, they're getting particular. Grief from the religious community, you still feel there's something deeply empathetic in them towards that community. And, and of course I, I do think that's reflected in Jesus. 

[00:18:15] We sometimes look at Jesus and think that Jesus, And the Pharisees in the religious community were always at each other's throats. But, but the, the, the careful reading of the text suggests that Jesus works very, very hard at a private level. Three times he goes to the house of a Pharisee to have dinner in the Gospel of Luke. 

[00:18:32] He meets Nicodemus privately under cover of darkness in John's gospel. I think Jesus is trying to work very, very hard with the religious community. In, in a respectful way because he understands that in many ways they are the influencers and the power brokers of his world. And, and you do get a sense that Peter and the apostles are trying where possible to negotiate with the religious establishment of their day. 

[00:19:03] In terms of trying to position Jesus with them. Now as the book of is about the shows, we will reach a point where that hits a tipping point where it literally does catastrophically fracture actually, and and everything changes dramatically in chapter six of X. But you do get a sense that they're trying to remand. 

[00:19:23] I mean, if they wanted to get away from this, from this sort of group, then they just would've. To go to the San Hadron, they could have kicked up a stink and caused a bit of a riot in the Temple precinct. They could just refuse to listen to the directors of these men, but they are trying to negotiate, even though of course they are plotting their own course. 

[00:19:44] So it's like they're pushing hard on the boundaries of the Jewishness of their world, while at the same time establishing a completely. Spiritual epicenter for the world. Their, their locus is no longer the temple and what goes on there, their locus is Jesus who's the fulfillment of the temple. Their locus is not the power of the Sanhedrin, but the ruler, the prince who's Jesus Christ. 

[00:20:10] And so you get this definite move in that early Christian community from the locus of Moses, the, the centrality of Moses to the centrality of Jesus, while at the same time trying to negotiate well a sensitivity towards the Jewish origin of this new way. So I, I think a lot's going on there. And and Peter's working very hard to position this new way in as positive a light as possible without compromising anything. 

[00:20:38] David: Yes. what you've said there draws me into something else that piqued my interest in this, in this text is something that said right at the very end in verse 32, that echoes back to what the angel says to. To the apostles and . I'm just laughing at the fact that one of the things we've been talking about here is the, the Boundlessness of the Holy Spirit's work as in the gospel, , and of course we're, we're reading a story where in they've been put in prison and the Holy Spirit has sent an angel who has just left, let them out. 

[00:21:12] Right? So, so the whole story at some level is a metaphor of the, and by the use of metaphor, sorry, I don't mean to imp. Anything about the factuality of the story, I mean more, the story itself is reminding us of the truth that the Holy Spirit won't be bounded in. And, and this image of, this image of the prison securely locked and the guard standing at the doors, within the open the door and there's nobody in sight, is just wonderfully ironic. 

[00:21:42] Right. And I, and I'm convinced. And maybe it's just me just scratching for things, John, but I'm convinced your Luke wants you to laugh at that point. Cuz this is a hilarious image. , isn't it? It's, it's, contrasting the resurrection tomb where the guards are kind of freaked out by what's going on, that this has happened and they haven't even realized. 

[00:22:02] And again, maybe there's lessons in that that are, that Luke is trying to just. Pick us, push us towards, But the angel says, Go and stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life. 

[00:22:16] John: Yes. Lovely. Beautiful expression. Yeah. 

[00:22:19] David: And I have some thoughts about that, but I was curious, if, if it captured you as well because it really, it really caught me. 

[00:22:24] John: It did. Yeah. And in fact, my, my n my NIV translation translated it this new life. But of course, the sort of the more literal translation is the words of this life. And I, and I do, I do love that, that's sort of this, this idea, go and speak into temple, the words of this life. 

[00:22:46] David: Yes. 
 

[00:22:46] John: And, and the implication the life that they have received through the resurrection life of, of Jesus and the power of the Spirit. 

[00:22:55] And of course, they are proclaiming this life in the temple precinct. The place where historically. That's where life was found, but now they're proclaiming this life. So I I I, I did like the way that was being presented there and, and the way the, the sort of the angel commands that specific language in this context. 

[00:23:15] Yeah. It was very good. 

[00:23:16] David: Yeah, that was the whole sentence I found fascinating. Particularly if you look at it in, in the Greek and the, the and, and the English translations try and preserve it, but it, it's awkward in English, but the, if you look at the, the Greek, it's literally go and stand and. Right. And that, that's the opening Go stand speak. 

[00:23:37] Right? And, and I love the, almost the puntil nature of here are three imperatives. Go stand, speak. And, and I thought again, these are one of these moments where you think goodness act just writes sermons for you, doesn't it? It's like, and, but, but so, so you've got this one con contrast of Go stand speak. 

[00:23:57] Right. But then of course where you to go, you have to go to the temple and who you'd speak to. You have to speak to the people. And. And I think it's quite interesting actually, that the way that Luke structures the sentence or the way the sentence is reported, cuz you've got your three com, you, you go, you stand and you speak. 

[00:24:16] And then go where the temple, stand amongst whom the people, and then speak and what do I speak? And then again, you get this like you, you've picked up on it, all the words. About this life. 

[00:24:29] John: Yeah. 
 

[00:24:30] David: What really struck me at that one was the word, it's, it's rema is the word that's used there. We often expect Lagos even, it's very hard to get far in a, in a Christian life and not heard a pastor talk about res and Lagos as these two Greek words for the word word, but, but it's. Interesting that it's not a word about what we believe, right? It's not a word about what we think, and it's not even simply, and please forgive that bad use of words there. But it's not even a word simply about Jesus. It's about this life, right? It's it, this is not a group of people and it's so obvious from the text, but I love that Luke makes explicit following Jesus. 

[00:25:14] Isn't just something you believe. So go and tell them about this life. And I know John, that just really stirred something in me. 

[00:25:22] John: Yeah. I love that. I do and, and and of course I think even in the reaction of the, the San Hadron a little bit later on, they, they, they talk about this idea that you filled. The city, you filled the place with this teaching. So, so whatever they're communicating about Jesus you get this idea you filled Jerusalem with your, with your teaching or your, your doctrine, your, your dedicat this, this idea of, of the teaching that you're bringing. 

[00:25:53] And, and so again, it's this idea that they're bringing both. The teaching from a doctrinal point of view, that's absolutely there. There's an understanding. Jesus, for example, is Prince and Savior. Those are belief ideas, but they're not simply communicating belief ideas. They're experi, they're, they're communicating, and we need to be careful here, I suppose. 

[00:26:19] But they're communicating experiential ideas. They're, they're communicating ideas that they themselves have experienced. And I think in the combination, Teaching and the words of this life. I think you've got the beautiful combination of both, that this isn't simply the communication of text or the communication of catechism or the communication of ideas, but this is a communication of lived experience. 

[00:26:47] And again, I think that's what Peter's leaning into when he says we are witnesses to this, as is the Holy Spirit. So again, you get that lovely link back to, to, we are the actual witnesses of this resurrected savior. We have literally experienced this. This isn't just something we've heard about. 

[00:27:06] This is something we have literally experienced and know about. So think a lovely connection within the text. David, we've got it. In both those ideas within the section of, of this life and this teaching, this idea of belief rooted in doctrinal understanding, but also words of life rooted in experiential engagement. 

[00:27:29] I think both and in the context of that is, is is seen all the way through the book of Acts, I think, and one that we should lean into, I think is followers of Jesus. 

[00:27:40] David: Like a hundred percent. It's the word holistic is what comes to mind. Is that, is that it doesn't. It's not just doctrine, but it's not, not doc. 

[00:27:52] John: Hmm. .  

[00:27:52] David: It's not just experience, but it's not, not experience. And, and we love trying to live in the, the, the separation I think of, and we even talk about Christianity as a faith, and we talk about it as a, as a belief. 

[00:28:07] And it's not that it's not a belief and it's not that it's not a faith, but there's also so much more to it than that. And that's why I, I just was really attracted to this moment in chapter five. You know the whole word about this life, but then that what interests me there, then John is, so that's verse 20. 

[00:28:25] The whole rema about this life. If you flick over then to verse 32, where this passage ends and. I, I don't like how the translations do this because I think it, it just misses, it misses something. But, but the, but Peter's response is, and we are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit. But, but what Luke writes to us in the Greek, he says, We are witnesses to these. 

[00:28:52] To these words, to this rema, to this message. So, so you, you've actually got this beautiful symmetry of the, this little passage here, which begins with the Holy Spirit saying, Go and tell the whole word. Right? And then Peter at the end says, And we are witnesses to this word, this word that I've just told, that the angel told me to go and tell. 

[00:29:14] And we are witnesses to this word and so is the Holy Spirit a witness to this word. And, and I. I, I don't know why I've looked. A few of the translations translate the same as the niv we're witnesses to these things. It just seems to miss a little bit of the, the kind of book ending of the passage. 

[00:29:32] John: That's brilliant. I, I hadn't seen that before. That is absolutely outstanding. And of course, if, if. Idea that we've reflected on again today, that if the, if the prison experience is almost being used by Luke as a metaphor of the, the sort of resurrection of Jesus breaking out of the tomb and also the power of the spirit not being restricted or bound, then you're getting, even in these words, this teaching, it won't be bound, it won't be held up. 

[00:30:03] It's, it's a life force. It's not just ideology. It is a life force itself coming from the power of the spirit that cannot be, And of course when the, when the angel says, Go and say these things, talk about this life they're doing exactly that, not only in the temple, but they're now doing that in front of the Sanhedrin. 

[00:30:23] They're now being witnesses to the same. Things the same word, the same life that they've been asked to present. So it's a gorgeous symmetry that I hadn't seen that before. That is beautiful and really, really outstanding. And I think again, it shows the, the joined upness, the connectedness of these ideas that the power of both the miracles, the power of the word, the power of the lived experience. 

[00:30:48] All of these are now rolling into a dynamic force, which is becoming very, very difficult for the religious community to control. And they're trying to shut it down, throwing people in prison the public prison, locking people up. And they're struggling now because there's something going on that they cannot get their hands on. 

[00:31:09] And it, it acts, Chapter five seems to show as a culmination of these ideas of. Of life, of the power, of the spirit, of the supernatural, of the experience, and are all rolling together in this community and becoming an irresistible force in the context of the Book of Acts,  

[00:31:31] David: I was thinking as well as, as you were saying that there, one of my favorites in, in Carl Bart, he says this about the word of God. He said The word of God comes to us in three forms, right? And almost in a trinity of ideas, the word of God. Primarily is Jesus, right? And which is deeply scriptural. 

[00:31:51] Jesus is the word, and he's revealed to us. And the word of God's revealed to us is Jesus. But the word of God also comes to us in written form in scripture. And because scripture points us towards Jesus. This is why we call it the Word of God, right? Because it's doing that. But bar then says, But we also find the word of God in preaching that a preacher would get up and we would say, Oh, they have brought the word of God to us today. 

[00:32:16] And, and. And I like this idea of, there's a tension sometimes when Christians talk about the word of God. What are we talking about? Right? And actually here, you see in this part of acts, the angel says, Bring, bring the whole word about, about this, right? About this, this life. And here we have Peter at the end saying, We are witnesses. 

[00:32:38] To this word, and, and there's something powerful in it. Well, what, what is he talking about? Well, he is both in the proclamation of this word, he's proclaiming Jesus, we are now reading this word in the text and it's proclaiming Jesus. And the word that we're talking about is also, is also present in this story in the Holy Spirit. 

[00:32:58] And, and I, I just think it's a, it's a beautiful, it's, it's a be. Blurriness. It's not often I say this, I like things precise, but it's beautiful blurriness of how God is, is we're very clear and very precise, but also working through multiple contexts to be present and real to the disciples, but also to us. 

[00:33:19] John: Beautiful Noah. Love that. It's absolutely superb and I think it's all, it's all wrapped up and it feels to me like David, it's wrapped up in the statement of obedience, isn't it? That verse 29. Peter says, We ought to obey God rather than man. He starts his defense with a commitment to obedience and then virtually his final word he says, he says these things we're witnesses of these things, so it's the Holy Spirit whom God is given to them who obey him. 

[00:33:52] She get this lovely, this lovely wrapping round of obedience. In the context of this experience, this word, this understanding of Jesus, and it's, it's coming together in this dynamic mission of force. So I, I love all that. It's absolutely beautiful and as, as Peter says, Well, we have to obey God rather than man. 

[00:34:15] And that's his defense that he makes and the power of this lived un demonstrated word. It's absolutely. 

[00:34:21] David: And would would that, we all remembered that more 

[00:34:26]