SPEAKER_00 0:11

So we're going to be in Acts chapter 4, starting in verse 23. And as I was reading through this, the question came to mind: who's in charge? Who's in charge? When I was uh a fourth grade school teacher in my very first class, I had a student who showed up very first day, and he uh he said, Hello, boss man, or something like that. What are we doing today, boss man? And this continued for the first week. The next week, I let it go on. What's for homework, boss man? Boss man, can I get a drink of water? And eventually I told the student, You gotta stop. Just I appreciate it, but you gotta stop. Just call me Mr. Dammer. Stop calling me boss. But I got a confession, if you couldn't tell, I love being called boss man. It made me feel good. And maybe it was a sneaky maneuver on the part of the student to get in my good graces, and it worked. So smart kid. But why did I enjoy that? I thought it was just kind of funny. I've never been called boss man before. Um, but he was continually reminding himself, his classmates, and me who was in charge. Me. Because he only called me boss man. He didn't even call the principal boss man, because well, he probably knew better. And it made me feel great to be reminded I'm in charge of this little domain. And maybe you've felt that before, like, yeah, I'm in charge. So who's in charge of your life? It's a question we all have to answer, and it's a question you and I we're all currently answering, whether you realize it or not. Your attitudes, your words, your behaviors, your bank account, your spending habits, your thoughts, your dreams, they reveal who you believe is really in charge of your life. And as we go through this passage, I want you to look at how Peter and John they've just come before some very powerful figures in their day. They've told them stop talking about Jesus, stop preaching about Jesus. And if you were here last week for Pastor Adam's sermon, you know that they told those authorities, we can't help it. We got to tell the truth about Jesus. And we're gonna look at how the early church responds to this, and how they respond shows us who they really believed was in charge of their life. We see that in how they they seek fellowship with one another, they submit to God, they ask God to work, but then they wait for his spirit to lead, and then they obey him. So let's read this. It's tenure bulletin, or there are also Bibles in the seats in front of you. So Acts chapter 4, verse 23 says, When they were released, so Peter and John, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly, in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. It's pretty incredible. And we see from I see from their reaction, um, Peter and John had some choices after they were told by the authorities, stop preaching about Jesus. They could have done any number of things. But it's fascinating and it's it hopefully is encouraging that they, when they were released, they sought out fellowship. So the first thing I want you to think about is seek fellowship. Are you seeking fellowship? Verse 23, right at the start there, it said, They went to their friends. They went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. So they don't go home or uh you know to isolate or hide. They don't run away to somewhere safer. They also don't seek out their friends to brag and boast about who they got to stand up to. Maybe that would have been a little tempting for some of us. I got to stand up to those guys. Instead, they they seek their friends, their fellow believers, to report the facts. This is what happened. Because what had happened to them affected not just them, but also the whole church, the whole body of Christ. And this is probably not the whole uh you know, gathering of the churches, the wording is probably a smaller group. But we see they don't sit around and complain or worry or even really strategize, which I think that might have been you know some of our the first things to do. Like, what do we do next? We're gonna do this, we're gonna do this. They seek out fellowship. And you might be ahead of me and say, listen, your sermon title, that's an easy answer. Who's in charge? God. Let's move on, jump to the end. Now, if you're you're saying that, God's in charge. I'm gonna submit to him. There is that temptation to say, I don't need any other human. Just me and God. I don't need humans, they're messy, they're, you know, I don't like them. Uh and that can lead to an arrogant attitude where it's maybe leads to only ever attending church online. Keep people at a distance. Don't want to get involved. Don't want to get involved in the activities or ministries of a local church. It starts to become inward focused. And what starts that what can start to happen is don't care about reaching the people in your community. Don't care about building up the believers within the body here. It leads to selfish living. And you know, one of the attractive things of that kind of living is I don't have to be accountable to anyone else. Just me and God. Tell me that's a trap. It's a trap. And that's coming from an introvert who, believe it or not, I don't always enjoy being around a bunch of people. But I see in the Bible, I see in the way God and his church worked is we need one another. We need each other. Another reason for maybe not seeking fellowship is you're afraid. You've faced rejection in the past, you're afraid of being rejected again, afraid people will let you down. You know, heard too many stories of Christians who have turned out to be hypocrites, afraid maybe you'll let them down. Listen, we are imperfect people, aren't we? I was gonna ask for an amen, but you know, you know it's true. We're imperfect, but you and I were created for fellowship. Peter and John, the two most powerful Christian figures of the day, they go back to their friends. They go back to people. They need them. You and I, we need each other. Now look what they do. They don't just they don't sit around and complain. Verse 24 says that when they heard it, what do they do? They lift up their voices together to God. First response is to pray. What is your first response? What's my first response in those circumstances? So not only do they pray, they pray together. And it's most likely the prayer we have written down is not everybody's prayer kind of fit into one, but probably one person praying, but everyone's united in agreement with this prayer. Praying with one heart, one mind, same focus, having the mission of Christ as we pray. And it made me think about how often do you, how often do I pray with other people? A group that is united in what they're praying. And I don't have a great solution for this other than to tell you, I realize I don't pray that often with other people. Pray for other people, I pray with my wife, but can we be a church that prays with each other? And we're gonna have you're gonna have an opportunity to do that after the service. Our prayer team, are you guys good to go for today? All right, got the head nod. I want to invite you, come down and pray with them. So they they don't just seek fellowship, they they pray together, and then they're in their prayer, we're hearing them, they're they submit to God. They submit to God. They're acknowledging and submitting to God that He's greater than their circumstances, He's greater than the rulers that are telling them to stop doing what the Lord wants them to do. Verse 24, uh the second part of it tells us who they see God as. They say in verse 24, sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Sovereign Lord. This is not the normal Greek word used for Lord in the New Testament. This is uh this is a word used by slaves to their master, basically saying absolute ruler. And maybe part of your skin crawled when you heard the word slave, but it's really recognizing he's in supreme authority. Sovereign Lord, he's the boss. And not only that, but they're recognizing he created everything, right? He made the heaven, the earth, sea, everything in them. That pretty much covers, you know, covers the gamut there. He's Lord over everything. Yet sometimes you and I, if we forget this, don't we? I know I do. Where there's certain areas we start to hold to ourselves and say, this is off limits to you, God. You can have this and this and this, but my finances, I'm gonna be Lord of that. Or you can have this, Lord, I give you everything, but not my sexuality. Or not my dreams. Can we be open books to God, open hands, open heart, and say, God, all I Pete said this, I think a couple weeks ago, all I have, all I am is completely yours. Can we say that? Because that temptation comes in of, no, but I'm Lord of this particular spot, and we see their open hearts, open hands to God. In verse uh 25 and 26, if we keep going, they bring up um Psalm 2. Psalm 2, where David says, David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. So they're recognizing, first of all, King David, who would have been revered by the by the Jews, by them, they're recognizing he's your servant. Even, you know, our best king, he's still your servant. And they're asking the question, why are why are people opposing Jesus? It's foolishness. So you think about Jesus' day, he's opposed by Pontius Pilate, the Romans, Pharisees, Sadducees, all these people who have power, who look maybe pretty intimidating, but even they're recognizing here, it's in vain to oppose God. They set themselves against Jesus, and yet who was still victorious? Jesus. Why are we, why do why might you oppose God? Verse 27 and 28, we get the again reminder that even though Herod and Pontius Pilate, so the two top dogs of their region, the two rulers, the two guys that people might say, hey, boss man, very respectfully, saying, even though they were opposed to Jesus, God wasn't surprised. God knew from the get-go what he was going to do to fix the sin problem. Think about Genesis 3. Adam and Eve have sinned, they've rebelled against God, against his lordship, they've done what they want to do, brought sin into the world, and God tells before all of humanity and before Satan that someday the seed of the woman is going to crush your head. God wasn't surprised. Even Jesus, as he's, as he's headed to the cross on trial, Pilate, if you remember, you know, the Roman ruler in that region, he says to Jesus in John 19, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Basically saying, I've got the power here. And Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. So again, the reminder is that God is creator. Why would we ever oppose him and what he's doing? God is ruler, but unlike rulers back then and even today, he's perfect. He's good. But do our thoughts, do our attitudes, do our words, do our behaviors, do they reveal that we truly believe that? That Jesus is Lord and that he's good. And when we do, when we can recognize that God is ruler above all rulers, Jesus is king above all kings, he's good, even though in their case, their circumstances were not looking good. Let it drive you to ask God to continue to work. Ask God to work. There might be some people in your life, don't point or name names, that you don't want to come to your home and do work. I was telling the 8:30 service, uh, when I was 18 or 19, I got fired from a job where I was painting, and the guy said I was holding the paintbrush wrong because I was painting like, you know, like a dummy. And he could tell I didn't know what I was doing. The paint was still getting on the building. But, anyways, he might not want me to work. Do you want to see God work? Because when he works, it's a joy, isn't it? Do we want to see God work in your own life? To change the things that maybe you're holding on to that are not good? To show you the sin that maybe you're holding on to. Do you want to see God work in your family's life? Here in Cross Point, here in our community, here in New York State, here in the United States, or across the world. Do we want to see God work? Is it something we even care about? Because to be honest, I get pretty distracted. And I'm not always thinking about wanting to see God work. I get caught up in my own little to-do lists, my own little dreams, my own little kingdom. And I was reminded by Colossians 3 this week: set your mind, your affection, on things above, not on earthly things. Pete and Kate and I had the opportunity to go to the SBC annual convention thing. And it was pretty inspiring to see these people. They brought up the IMB missionaries who were getting commissioned to go overseas. And uh it was really inspiring to hear their heart and to hear what God's doing in them and what they hope to see God do around the world to places where they will experience more hostility than we will. And it was really inspiring, and the kind of things you hear to say, man, yeah, let's go overseas. And hey, praise God if that's what God's leading you to do. But I want to remind you again, there's a mission field right in our backyard. There are so many people in Ulster County who don't know Jesus. But do we care? Because if I'm being honest, a lot of weeks I'm not even thinking about it. I'm just getting lost in the day-to-day. These Christians, they ask God to work. In verse 29, we see specifically how they ask God to work. In verse 29, it says, They say, Now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. They're asking God to see the threats and to help them to continue to speak with boldness. They're basically asking for help to keep doing the thing that's getting them in trouble. Which doesn't make sense from a human perspective. I read a quote in a commentary. Adam wrote the name down for me, and now I can't find it. Oh man, his name's Fernando. He's got a first name. Haha! Aegith Fernando. He said this really stuck with me. He said, They, meaning these early Christians, do not pray for wisdom, protection, or favor with the authorities. All these are appropriate petitions, but this prayer is for the ability to be obedient to Christ's command to them to preach the gospel. I want to read that one more time. They do not pray for wisdom, protection, or favor with the authorities. All these are appropriate petitions, meaning good thing to pray about. But this prayer is for the ability to be obedient to God to Christ's command to them to preach the gospel. How does that contrast with your prayer requests and mine? If you really examine what you're lifting up to God, and yes, he does care about you, he does want your cares, but I don't know that I'm often praying that I would be for the ability to be obedient to Christ's commands. In verse 30, they keep going. They ask God to work, continue to stretch out your hand, to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. This is what got them in trouble in the first place. A lame beggar was healed by the power of Jesus, and they're asking for God to continue to do that. And I don't believe it's like trying to poke people in the eye and yeah, let's get back at them, but it's keep revealing yourself to the world around us. Keep doing the thing you're doing, God, even if we get hate for it. Keep healing, keep working through Jesus. And you notice they give credit to Jesus in that. They're not claiming it for themselves. They're not saying, you know, Peter and John are so awesome, they healed this guy. They're giving credit to Jesus. They're asking for basically more trouble, but really it's for Jesus to be known there. So they ask God to work, but then we see they don't rush out of there. We see them wait for his spirit. So they're praying. I believe they're waiting for God's spirit to move or nudge. Are you and I waiting for the Lord? Or does it look more like, you know, throw a quick prayer up to God and then, all right, I'll figure it out. And waiting for the Lord, waiting for God's spirit, it's not a passive activity where you just sit around and you know, let your brain rot, scrolling, or watching YouTube videos or whatever. It's active listening, it's being engaged, it's seeking God's will. In a book on spiritual leadership, uh, this guy Blackby said, waiting on God is not a passive activity, but one of strain and listening for God's voice. Are we straining and listening for God's voice and his leading? And they get confirmation in an unusual way. We see uh in the first part of 31, it says that when they prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. So they get confirmation from the Holy Spirit that it, yeah, this is what we need to do. So, what dictates your actions, your direction? Is it your ideas, your desires? Where do you get your confidence from? Is it from the Holy Spirit's leading? And I want to remind you, because I'm reminding I've been trying to remind myself this week of the very simple but profound truth that's in the Bible, that if your trust is in Jesus, he's your Lord, you've put your trust in him, God promises his Holy Spirit's dwelling within you. That same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is dwelling within you. You've put your trust in Jesus. Think about that. Why would we not listen to him? Why would we not wait for his leading and follow his direction? I think sometimes we're getting too lost in our own thoughts, thinking about our own stuff we got going on. On. Now they get confirmation from the Holy Spirit, and they do the simple yet hard thing of obeying. Obey. The second half of 31 says they continued to speak the word of God with boldness. They continued. They were already being obedient. Opposition comes. People with power tell them to stop. And with it, the temptation to stop obeying God, but by God's power, grace, and his encouragement, they continue to obey him. And praise God for that. Are you and I obeying God? Do we know what he's saying? Are we actively looking for what he's saying? And can we obey from a heart of worship? Not begrudgingly, right? Like those of you in the room that have had kids where you tell your kid to clean your room. Okay. Can we obey from a heart of worship when no one's forcing you? Growing up, I had this dog named Shadow, who I've probably told you about, was a rascal. He uh, you know, didn't listen to anybody. Um and my mom took him to obedience school one time. You know, you pay money for these dog experts to get your dog in shape and give you tips and all that. And my mom tells this story that our dog failed obedience school. He got kicked out basically. The nice lady said, Please stop coming back with your dog. He's a he's not listening to anybody. But what I noticed is when my dad came home from work, that dog was a different animal. He recognized that he was the boss and he shaped up. But then the next day, my dad goes to work. Dog is is a rascal. And I think that's sometimes how we treat Christianity. You come to church, oh right, I gotta behave. You know, don't swear, don't uh don't smoke in the parking lot. Uh uh. And you start to filter all your stuff, and then you leave and you're just back to what you were doing. And you come back, all right, right. God's, you know, God's presence. Uh that's not following Jesus. Are we following Jesus? Obeying him when no one's looking? Is it a burden to you? Is it an obligation to you to obey Jesus, or is it a joy and a delight? And I'm not saying every day is going to be, you know, rainbows and sunshine, whatever, and easy to obey Jesus, but there's a clear difference between obeying Jesus when you feel like you have to, someone's forcing you to, you're obligated to, and obeying Jesus because you want to. He's changed your heart, he's softened your heart, you have his spirit dwelling in you. Can we obey from a heart of worship? So every day your life is answering that question: who's in charge? Who or what's in charge? What's dictating the direction of your life? Is it Jesus? Can we say, Jesus, I'm gonna follow you wherever that may go. As hard as it may get. For these guys, even if it costs them their life. It's and it that's man, that's why we need fellowship. Seek fellowship, because it's hard. We need to bear one another's burdens like these guys were doing. We need the continual reminder, submit to him. I want to continue to ask him to work. Look for his where's he working? Let's ask him to work. He's not like a grump up there who doesn't want to work. He wants to work in our community. And then will we look for his spirit's leading and then obey? He's the king above all kings. He's in charge. And he's not just in charge, but he loves you so much that he went to the cross for you. Think about that. He loves you so much that he would take your junk, my junk, and bear it on a cross. That's who we've got in charge. Why are we living like someone else is, or you or me are? He's in charge. He loves you. And I want to invite you. Um, if you got questions after, please don't run out of here. If you recognize, man, I'm I'm living like someone else is in charge, or I'm in charge. I want to invite you to talk to somebody. I'd love to pray with you and for you. So let join me in prayer, and um, we'll ask God to do a mighty work in our hearts. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you. Uh man, I'm so quick to come to you and forget that you are the creator of the heavens and the earth. And we get to come before you. Lord, I thank you that you love us. You love us even though we don't deserve it, we can never earn it. God, I pray that we would throw down whatever idols we're holding on to, whatever uh we're trying to retain ownership over, Lord. Help us to live in light of the fact that you are king and we get to serve you, we get to be adopted in your family and the joy that that is. And I pray that we we would worship you each and every day. Pray that in Jesus' name. Amen.