Witness Pt. 11

A study into the book of Acts with Pastor Jesse Carr

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It's good to be at church this morning. Amen. For those for those of you that are visitors here with us today, you've probably already figured out. My name is Jesse. I'm blessed to be the lead pastor here. If I have not had a chance to be introduced to you or to meet you, I will be at uh our entrance directly behind you. Please come by and um please take a moment to introduce yourself. I'd love to get to know you in particular. If there's any way that I can pray for you, I would love to do that. Please take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter number five. Acts chapter number five, and we will begin reading in verse number 12. Acts chapter 5 and verse number 12. On Sunday mornings at Mud Creek, we are going verse by verse through the book of Acts. And we're going to take a break beginning next Sunday on Easter, but we will come back to it, Lord willing, and hope to finish it before Christmas. We'll see. We'll see. Acts chapter 5. Let me go ahead and thank everybody that participated in Eggventure yesterday. We had an incredible, incredible day. I know that's been communicated from many of our pastors, but thank you for your help. Yes, I did get sunburned. Yes, I was wearing sunglasses. Yes, I look like a raccoon. Yes, I know it. But no, no, I do not care. I do not care. Acts chapter number five. In this passage of scripture, we are going to see how people respond to the message of Jesus. How the good news of the gospel can strike some people as very, very good news, but other people as very, very bad news. And that can easily happen in our lives, and it can easily happen in history. April the 12th, 1961 is one of the most important dates in the history of the human race. And some of you right now are racking your brain, April the 12th, 1961, is that my anniversary? Is that the day I got married? April the 12th, 1961 is the date that the first human being went into outer space. April 12, 1961. And it was a day of worldwide celebration, as you can imagine, that humanity, whatever the past had been, that the future of humanity was not just going to be tied to planet Earth, but now we had reached out beyond our planet to begin exploring the final frontier. And obviously it was a day that made newspaper headlines, it was a day that made radio broadcasts, it was a day that made numerous television shows, and millions and millions, even billions of people all over the world marveled and celebrated that a human being had left Earth. And not only left Earth to go to outer space, but had come back. Now we'd already sent monkeys and dogs, but they never came back. But this guy had gone and come back, and millions of people celebrated the good news that humanity had gone into space. The problem was that the first human being that went into space was not an American. But he was a Russian cosmonaut by the name of Yuri Gargarin. And so while this good news was celebrated by millions of people, there were millions of people right here in America who thought we should have been first. Because America should be first. Space is ours. What happened? That the Russians, the communist Russians, they were able to get to space before we did. What was good news for millions of people was bad news for millions more. And that happens all throughout history. Many of us remember September the 11th. We remember where we were. We have those images of towers burning seared in our mind. I'll never forget that day. I was 16 on September the 11th, and we remember how for the first time for many of us our nation felt under attack. We felt vulnerable and we wondered, how could this happen? And yet you also probably remember in other parts of the world video of people dancing in the streets. Millions of people have been raised to believe that the United States of America is the great Satan. And they celebrated this attack. It happened on December the 7th, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Our country was in shock, but the Empire of Japan celebrated that a rival had been taken out. It happened with the Emancipation Proclamation when Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Millions of people in slavery celebrated their freedom, but millions of people in the southern United States mourned the loss of a traditional way of life. Sometimes good news celebrated by some and resisted by others as if it is actually bad news. And it happens in life too, right? There are people here today, young couples in our church, recently married, that if they were to find out they were pregnant, would celebrate, call their families, have big parties, gender reveals, baby showers, and then there are couples here, like me, you got enough kids. And the news, we're gonna have a baby, would maybe not strike you immediately as joyful. You've had it happen before where you've been going down the road, minding your own business, pushing the speed limit a little bit, and all of a sudden you realize that there are blue lights flashing in your rear view. And your heart stops for just a moment, thinking, oh no, this is really, really bad. And then you pull over, waiting for the worst, and the highway patrolman goes zooming by you on the way to someone else. What feels like bad news for you is actually good news for the people that called 911. Here in Acts chapter number five, we see people responding to the good news of the gospel, some as if it's good news, some as if it's bad news, and some even, to borrow a phrase from our president, as if it's fake news. Let's read Acts chapter 5, verse 12 together. The Word of God says that through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, that's a section of the temple complex. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed him highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, and that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees. And they were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when the apostles heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and talked. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported, saying, Indeed, we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be. So one came and told them, saying, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. When they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins, and we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee, Mamgimaliel, a teacher of the law, held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them, men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Phaedis rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing, but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God. And they agreed with him. And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever. As we have been seeing in the book of Acts on Sunday mornings, the book of Acts records for us the story of the rapid growth of the early church. Like a tsunami with unstoppable power, the message of Jesus is going out and sweeping people into the kingdom of God. And again, we see in Acts chapter 5, beginning there in verse number 12, the kind of people that develop into the early church. We see people that are united in a supernatural way. We see people that are blessed with miraculous power so much so that even the very shadows of their preachers have healing power. I don't want to disappoint you this morning. And I can't do all that. But these men had so much spiritual unction that even as they walk through the street, the shadow would bring healing. We see what's happening to people as they come to know God, as they become family, as they serve together and as they share Jesus. And we've looked over the past few weeks at what it would have felt like and what it would have been like to be inside of that early church. What must it have been like to be part of their prayer meetings or to hear the apostles preach? What would it have been like to be loved the way that these people love? But here in Acts chapter number five, we have a bit of a different perspective. We have the perspective of the people outside of the church. We have the perspective of the people that are trying to stop the tsunami. People who, through their own way of looking at the world, are trying to figure out the church. They can't deny the miracles, they can't deny the popularity, but they're not happy about it. And they're trying to push back against it. And as you see them trying to figure out what the church is and who Jesus was, I think you see a glimpse of how people respond to the message of the gospel today. There are some of you that are here today, you've accepted Jesus maybe many, many years ago, and you would say gladly that the message of the gospel is good news. And yet I think for some of us that have believed the gospel for a long time, what used to seem like good news to us, it's just kind of become old news to us, right? We're used to it. It doesn't move us, it doesn't surprise us anymore that God would save somebody like us. Then there are some of you that feel today like the message of the gospel is bad news. Because if this is true, then Jesus may very well be in the way of the life you are determined to live. And then there's some of you here this morning. You believe that the message of the gospel is fake news. Not that it's not true, not that it doesn't do some good for those that do believe it. You just feel like it's not for you, at least not right now. Each of those responses are right here in Acts chapter number five, and I want to lift them out for you today as I ask you, how are you responding to Jesus? First, we do see a group of people that accept the message of the gospel. This is the first response. People that respond to the message of Jesus as good news. Now, if you were with us last week in our study of Acts chapter number five, we got to read an encouraging little story about God killing some people at church. There were two hypocrites by the name of Ananias and Sapphira that were making a mockery of the church and were making a mockery of the Lord Jesus, that had become self-righteous, and it become fake, and we're simply playing a game, and God stops it in its tracks. Well, you find out that immediately after that, people are afraid to go to church. And you can't blame them, can you? I hope that you were excited to come to church today. I doubt you were afraid to come for fear that God might kill you. But that was the mood around the church in the book of Acts in these early days. There was such incredible closeness to a holy God that unholy people said, look, they're okay. Those people love Jesus. We can't get too close. And yet, while there were some that felt that way, the Bible says in verse number 14 that believers were increasingly added to the Lord's multitudes of both men and women, were told here that there were people believing the message of the gospel being added to the family of God. And so we read this passage of Scripture in the book of Acts. And what we see probably is the miraculous healings done by Peter. That sick people are laying in the streets and Peter walks by and they get up and they're fine. We think, man, it'd be something to have some of that in church. You read about the incredible unity of the early church here in Acts chapter number five, that they have one heart and they have one spirit. And if you've ever been in a divided church, you think, man, I would like to see some of that unity at the house of God. But can I submit to you today that the true miracle that is happening here in Acts chapter number five is the miracle of what Jesus is doing as he is bringing people to salvation. That the greatest miracle that God does is not the miracle of healing a broken body, but the greatest miracle that God does is the miracle of saving a lost soul. And I want to emphasize that by keying in on this one phrase there in verse number 14, when the Bible says that the believers were increasingly added to the Lord. Now, how did they become Christians? Same way that any of us become Christians. We believe in Christ, we trust in Him as our Savior. And some of you have done that recently, and some of you have never followed through with that by making public that profession of faith in baptism. Well, I've got good news for you. We're going to baptize. Two weeks from today, on April the 12th, and we'd love to baptize you if Jesus has done that so you can proclaim to the world the message of the gospel that has changed your life. But notice this next phrase. Notice this next phrase. They were added to the Lord. They were added to the Lord. That phrase keys us in that God has done something supernatural in saving them. And it carries through the rest of the book of Acts that highlights that this work of salvation is a divine miracle. Acts 2.47 has already told us that when those people responded on the day of Pentecost, the Lord was adding them to his church. Acts chapter 13, another time the gospel is preached. The Bible says that when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord, and as many had been, as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And I want to emphasize this idea for you this morning because I think some of us who have believed the gospel, call ourselves Christians, were baptized long ago, that are used to all of this church stuff, that know exactly when to raise our hands, we don't need the lyrics on the screen, we know exactly what the preacher's going to say before he says it. Some of us have forgotten that we are a miracle of the grace of God. Some of us, I believe, have forgotten that God has done something for us that we did not deserve, that we did not expect, and we did not see coming. But I want to remind you here this morning that if you are a child of God, you are a product of a divine miracle that God has done nothing less than resurrect you from your sins. He has done nothing less than opening eyes that were blind and ears that were deaf. He has done nothing less than make you a new creature in Christ. Declaring over you when you were lost, that person is now going to live. So what I'm saying to you today is if you know Jesus, if you know Jesus, I don't want you to get over it. I don't want you to come into church week after week thinking, you know, I kind of had all this coming. Look at me, I make good decisions. I'm the product of a good upbringing. But, beloved, listen to me carefully today. Nobody has ever been added to the Lord because they make responsible decisions or because they had good parents. You were added to the Lord because our God is gracious and our God saves sinners. And I don't know of anybody in the history of the church that encapsulated that better than John Newton, the author of the great Christian anthem, Amazing Grace. Some of you know the words of this song. He said, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. I once was lost. But now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see. And the reason that you're not is because God butted into your life and transformed you by his grace. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to get over that. But I do want you to see that these people who had experienced this miracle of salvation, they wanted other people to experience that same miracle. Do you see that? The Bible says in verse number 15 that these believers, that they brought the sick into the street. The antecedent of the pronoun they is the they who have been added to the Lord. In other words, these people believe the gospel and they realize I am a miracle of the grace and the power of God, and I know somebody at home who needs that miracle. And if I can just drag that person that needs that miracle into the path of Jesus, then Jesus might do a miracle for them too. I wonder if there's anybody here today that would say, I've got somebody at home that needs a miracle. I've got somebody in my office that needs a miracle. I've got somebody that I'm around every day of my life, maybe even somebody that bags my groceries that needs a miracle. The reason that we went out and terrified our neighborhood by knocking on their doors this past Wednesday evening is because we recognize that we are people that have received a miracle and we want other people to experience that miracle. And I'm gonna brag on one of our church members today. He don't know I'm gonna do this. I love embarrassing people. You have already done it to me this morning, so now I can just pay it forward. But Chris Jones. Oh, brother Chris, he got assigned to my team. And I love going door to door. I love just to talk about anything, and I love to talk about Jesus, is kind of what I do, right? So I'm like, Chris, you just hang with me and pray, buddy. I'm gonna go knock on doors and I'm gonna win the world of the Lord. And we did that for about three houses. And then I couldn't keep up with Chris. And Chris, I'm gonna tell y'all, Chris would knock on somebody's door, and they would open the door, and where they would tell me, you know, I'm good, I got a church. Please get off my property before I call the police. Chris would talk, and God has given him the gift of evangelism, man. These people, they were just transfixed on what Chris was saying. Why is it that our brothers will To go like that because he recognizes God's grace and goodness in his life. And he says, I know other people. I know other people that need that miracle. Now I'm going to tell you this: the reason we went Wednesday night, I'm going to talk about somebody else in our church that doesn't know this. The reason we did that Wednesday night is because this past Christmas, Brother David Goins comes to me, even before Christmas. And he says, I've got an idea for my neighborhood. We need to have this big Christmas tree lighting. We're going to bring Jesse and Mandy in, and we're going to sing some songs. I want you to come and give the Christmas story because I've got people in my neighborhood that need Jesus. And I said, David, if you can pull it off, and I didn't think he would. I said, Dave, you can pull it off, I'll go. Because I don't have any more sense than just to go if somebody invites me. And then after we went to Brother David and Miss Edna's neighborhood, I began to think I drive by our church every day, passing trailer parks, passing homes, and those folks have never been invited to come worship with us. And if I can go to a country club, I can go to a trailer park. If I can go to a trailer park, I can go to an apartment complex. But God has worked in these brothers' lives to say, I recognize that I've experienced a miracle and I want other people to experience it. Now I've got to move quickly. Some accept this as good news, some accept it as bad news. They're filled with anger. We're told that they belong to the religious class of the Sadducees, the chief priests, important, powerful people that say we will not believe in Jesus. I wish I could just finish by talking about miracles and tell you everybody lived happily ever after. That's not what happened. Even today, not everybody is happy about the message of Jesus, often for similar reasons to the chief priests. Verse number 17 in your Bible says that the reason they're so violent, the reason they're so animated against the apostles, is because their hearts are filled with indignation. Indignation. The word indignation means anger, but really it's anger tainted with jealousy. Tainted with envy. Now, why would they be jealous of the apostles? Why would they have such a problem with the message of Jesus? I mean, people are being healed, God is being worshipped. This is great, right? Here's the problem. The Sadducees and the chief priests are the gatekeepers for institutional Judaism in the temple at that time. In other words, they make money by working at the temple. I know it would be hard to believe that anybody would ever make a living off of religion, but there are some people that do. And so we'll see who's still listening. They made their money by offering sacrifices in the temple. They made their money by praying for the people in the temple. They made their money by leading the movement of temple worship. And yet, if Jesus has come as the true sacrifice, as the true temple, if he is the only way to God, what do they have? They have no more influence, they have no more cultural power. Jesus is a threat to them. He's a threat to their way of living, he's a threat to their income, he's a threat to their respectability. Who are they if Jesus is who he says he is? And so they're jealous. Now, all of us at different times have experienced jealousy. Some of you experienced jealousy when you walked into church today. You pulled in the parking lot, your 2019 Chevrolet pickup shine to perfection. And yet, as soon as you walked into church, you saw another brother pull in with his 2026 Chevrolet pickup. And it's got the larger touch screen. And all you've got is that little puny eight-inch touch screen. His has the cooler in the tailgate. His has the advanced camera system where we can watch yourself parallel apart from outer space. What do you have? Oh, you've got a backup camera. And you felt a twinge of jealousy. But most of us, hopefully, are adult and mature enough just to push that away and move on with life and not let jealousy consume us. And so when we see that these people are resisting Jesus because they're jealous, that seems like such a stupid reason to reject Jesus, right? Is there ever a good reason to reject him? Is there a good reason to keep him at arm's length? Is there a good reason to push him away? Some of you are here today and you think you have good reasons. Or maybe you're watching online and you think you have good reasons for rejecting Jesus. And maybe you wrap all of your excuses in high-sounding philosophical arguments and deep intellectual reasoning as to why the Bible can't be true and why Jesus was not a real person and you can't trust the claims of the church and all these kinds of things. But you know what I found in my experience? I found in my experience in talking to people that often have very, very complex scientific, metaphysical, whatever reasons for not accepting the gospel. I found in my experience that most of them develop those arguments about the same time they start sleeping with their girlfriend. Because Jesus gets in the way of the life they want to live. And so they have to come up with a reason to reject him. Well, let me just say this to you today. Jesus is a threat to the life you want to live. Peter acknowledges that. This is where Peter and the Sadducees actually agree because when Peter is thrown into prison, then the angel gets him out of prison and he's put on trial before the Sanhedrin with the other apostles. Peter speaks up and he preaches and wants his message. His message in verse 31 is a message of repentance. He says, You need your life to change. But the Sadducees say, we don't want our life to change. But Peter agrees with him saying, Yes, Jesus has died. Yes, he is alive, and he has the right to call you, to take up your cross, to deny yourself, lay down your life and follow him. The difference between the Sadducees and Peter is that Peter rightly understands that our Savior is a Savior who will never take more from us than He has already given for us. You see, Peter preaches to them and he says, Do you not realize that the Savior who invites you to come to him is a Savior who's already laid down his life for you? Do you not realize that Jesus has already died in your place and he's conquered death for you? And the one who bids you to change and commands you to change is the one who says to you, I will give you more than I can ever take away. And I think for many of us, we struggle to believe that God would ever give us more than he would take away. What if he takes away my relationships? What if he takes away my respectability? What if he takes away my fun? Well, listen, I can't testify for anybody else this morning. I can't stand and talk about anybody else's lived experience, but I can tell you that yes, Jesus has taken things from me that I love dearly. But I will tell you he has never taken more than he's given. And that I can say from my part, I have zero regrets about walking with Jesus all these years, that he is still the best friend that I've ever had, and he still loves me and takes care of me, and I would never go back on my commitment to follow Jesus. And I promise you, there are hundreds and hundreds of believers here at Mud Creek Baptist Church, each would say that Jesus is the only life that I want to live. And no matter what he's taken, he has given more than he's taken. But see, we are we are spiritually picky eaters. Any of y'all ever raised a picky eater? Yeah, I got a couple of them right now. Raising picky eaters. We eat a lot of macaroni in my house. And I like macaroni. But I can only eat so many pounds of macaroni in a week. And at some point I want something else. And yet at our house it's just macaroni. Or even worse, plain noodles. Or plain rice. Like we're not sick. We can eat real food. And so raising picky eaters, you know that you're trying to convince them, listen, you live in a world of fajitas. And you live in a world of pizza. And McDonald's actually has more than just a happy meal. Every now and then they'll even sling out the McRib for you. There's wonderful things that you're refusing to experience because you're stubborn. And yet, spiritually, is that not the way all of us live? We live in such a way that says, I want nothing other than what I've got now, not realizing that God has so much more to give us that he offers us himself. And so I would say to you today, the gospel may be bad news. If it threatens your life, it may strike you as bad news, and it will change your life. But it is good news because your life needs to change. Every time I come to the word repentance in the Bible, I want to remind myself and remind you that these things, that the word repentance does remind us that repentance is necessary. But it also tells us that repentance is possible, that our lives can change. It's good news, bad news. And as the passage concludes today, and I'll try to be brief, we introduce to a man who just received the gospel as fake news. The Sadducees, they've got their blood up, and they're ready to get the blood out of the apostles. They're ready to kill. They cannot silence the message of Jesus, but they know they can silence the messengers. They cannot deny the miracles, but they can kill the miracle workers. And so in this contentious meeting of the Sanhedrin, a man by the name of Gamaliel speaks up. It's significant that Gamaliel is not a Sadducee. Verse number 34 says he is a Pharisee. But it seems to be that Gamaliel, by this time very, very old, certainly very, very respected, that he's not necessarily the first person to speak. But he will have the last word. He seems to be the kind of man who has such aura that when he speaks, people listen. Now, Gabaliel is one of the most significant figures in Jewish rabbinical history, even still today. If you were a little Jewish kid, you want Gamaliel's baseball card, right? That he would be in the discussion for the great rabbis on the Mount Rushmore, of greatest rabbis. He's an important figure in Jewish history, respected as a teacher of the law. And it seems as if, it seems as if Gamaliel's response is calm, tempered, wise, because he says, guys, let's just let cooler heads prevail. Before we get blood on our hands for killing the messengers of Jesus, let's think back. And he goes back in time. Some 50 years. To two other would-be Messiahs. One by the name of Thaedis, another by the name of Judah of Galilee. And he says, guys, you remember that these men rose up, they preached probably a message of political revolution. They attracted a crowd. One guy had 400. That's pretty good numbers. 400 people. But then things fell apart, the movement collapsed, and it ended as the people were scattered. Then there's Judas of Galilee. He says a few years later, Judas of Galilee pops up again preaching a message of salvation of some sort, probably violent insurrection. People flock to this movement thinking that maybe he is the Jewish Messiah, but then he's killed and the movement collapses. So, guys, listen. Settle down and let's just wait. Let's see what happens to the movement of Jesus. Let's give it time. If it's made up nonsense, then it'll collapse. But if it's true, then it will thrive. And what we don't want to do is we don't, if history says we don't want to be in the position of fighting against God. And so when you think through Gamaleo's argument, I wonder how do you how do you feel about this? It seems pretty reasonable. It seems definitely more thoughtful than the Sadducees. My problem with Gamalio's argument is that when it comes to so many things in life, not the least of which is the Lord Jesus, that if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Gamaleo seems much more tolerant, much more accepting, and yet, in the end, does he trust Jesus? No. He does not repent. He does not take his place with the believers of the Lord as part of the church. He just says, let's just hold off. I'm talking to some people today that probably with very different words you communicate the same idea as Gamalia. Say, well, you know, this gospel, this Jesus stuff, that was great for my grandmother. And maybe when I'm my grandmother's age, maybe then I'll lock in and be committed to the Lord. But right now, it's just not right for me. It's just not what I'm looking for at this stage of my life. It's great for those that need it. I just don't need it. And so I celebrate those that are happy, but I'm just not there. I want you to understand today that to be passive like that, any rejection of Jesus, is still rejection of him. That the message of the gospel, that God has come into this world, he has been crucified for our sins, and he's risen again from the dead, it does not let us take a middle ground. It does not really let us say, well, I'll just hold off and see, I'll just wait. No, it calls each of us and commands each of us to repent of our sins and to put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and to do it today. And so if you were to agree with Gamaliel, and if you were to say, all right, well, let's just wait and see, what did happen? We have 2,000 years of time between Gamaliel's discussion with the Sanhedrin and where we are today. What happened to the message of Jesus in those two millennia? Did it fizzle out? I'd say not. Because here you are today, in a church building which nobody could have conceived of, in a continent that Gamaliel did not know existed, speaking a language that he never would have heard, that wasn't even around yet. And you are worshiping the same Jesus that the apostles worshipped in much the same way that they did. So did the message of the gospel prove itself to be true? I think it has. I think it has. And I would say today, you need to consider this. Why didn't it fizzle out? Because you keep reading in the book of Acts, you'll find some of these brothers who escaped prison in Acts chapter 5 will be executed later. And some who live past the end of the book of Acts will themselves be executed sometime later than that. And in the middle of all of this anger and all this hostility and all the violence towards the church, we're still here. Why is that? Somebody asked me this question a few weeks ago. How is it that the message of Jesus came to conquer the Roman Empire? How is it that it's traveled the world? How is it that there are people in Iran and people in China and people in Nairobi and people in Hendersonville worshiping the same saint? How did that happen? Friends, it happened because it's true. And because the same God who blessed the gospel, the supernatural power here in Acts chapter number five, is blessing it today, and that God is using this message to call you today to repentance of your sins and receive everlasting life. And I would say to you today, unlike Gamaliel, do not wait. Do not wait. If you have questions, we would love to answer them. But what we don't want you to do is we don't want you to do like the Sadducees and maybe mask your opposition in the form of healthy skepticism. We want you to recognize at Mud Creek Baptist Church that the gospel message is the message of how God saves sinners in Christ. And that that message demands that we come to Christ, call upon Him for salvation, and be made new in Him. And perhaps today you've come here and you think, I need to be made new. I'm the person that needs the miracle. My body may not be crippled, but I need somebody to transform my life. I'm gonna tell you today, the real power was not in Peter's shadow, the real power was in Peter's Savior. And that Savior who was healing broken bodies in Acts 5, he's healing broken hearts today. And as we're standing today and preparing for our invitation, our pastors are going to come forward. I'll be up forward. Pastor Kyle will be up here, Pastor Ray, Pastor David on my left, your right. These brothers would love to tell you about Jesus. And we would love to tell you what it takes to call upon him, even if you've been resistant to him, or if you know you have need of him, or even if you've just been putting it off. Why not leave here today trusting him and following him?