Acts 4:1-12
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The first reading for Sunday, April 21, come from Acts chapter four, verses one through 12. Let's read. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests in the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Anna's, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired by what power? Or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today, concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed. Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. Here ends the reading. This reading continues the story that we've we've looked at over the past couple of first readings for Sundays. It's the story of the man that Peter and John healed. Here's just a reminder, Peter and John come to the temple. And there is a man who was born, unable to walk, and he asked them for money. Peter goes up to the man and says, silver and gold, I don't have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. So the man gets up and walks. Right after that, there are a crowd gathers, and Peter and starts to speak to the crowd and gives a sermon to them. And then we get to this passage, and it says, as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, came upon them greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. So Peter and John are already starting to get some attention from the priests in the captains and the Sadducees. They are annoyed that this guy is still talking about Jesus. It seems some of the frustration is that they are talking about this guy, that the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin had Pontius Pilate kill, and some of them are just like, they just want to blame us for this man's blood. Some of it is also this, proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. I think it's not just that they're proclaiming that they killed Jesus, and they're trying to blame him for that. There's also that it is in Jesus is the resurrection from the dead. Now, of course, the Sadducees are that party that denied that there was a resurrection. They believed that once you died, you died. And that was it. And so it's not only that it's in Jesus, but also that there is a resurrection from the dead. They're frustrated with that. So they arrest them and gather them together. On the next day, they have a little bit of a trial. They gather with the elders and scribes in Jerusalem with Anna's the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, all of who were of the high priestly family. Now Now, if you remember, going back to your other gospels, you'll notice that Caiaphas was the high priest and Anis was not. Now it's Anis is the high priest and Kaya, this is not one of the things that I think is going on here is that anus was actually supposed to be the high priest, and had been deposed by the Romans, they did that a lot. They would depose them. But under Hebrew law, you couldn't depose a High Priest, there was one way to depose a high priest, and that was to kill him. You were high priest until you were dead. And then your son took over. And so that, I think, is one of the reasons why Jesus is brought to Atlantis in the Gospel of John, because they're taking him to the actual high priest, the real and true high priest. Now, the Romans are kind of gone, there's a little bit of a power problem going on here, and the Jews are getting some extra power. So Anis is back. Okay, clearing that up. So they ask a question, by what power? Or by what name? Did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them. This reminds us of the promise that Jesus gave to His disciples, that when they would stand before kings and rulers, they shouldn't worry about what they were going to say, the Holy Spirit was going to give them words. So that's what happened. filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter says, rulers and people and elders, for being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed. So I think he starts out with a poke in the ribs, to the people there, he's like, wait, wait, wait, you're arresting us? Because a crippled man is healed? Right? Really? We didn't. We didn't cause any problems. We're not robbing. We're not stabbing we're not running around rabble rousing. We healed a crippled man. And you arrested us. I think he's there's a little poke in the ribs of the officials there. Because he knows it's not about the crippled man. But that's what they asked about, right? What power? Or what name did you do this. Then he says, Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you. So it's by the power of Jesus that the Sadducees and the priests crucified. He is the one who did this. This is Jesus, the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. So there's a psalm that talks about this, the stone that was rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone, this is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. And so Jesus who was killed is now the foundation of a new building a new Israel, and they're saying, you killed him, but God chose him. He is the one that was the cornerstone. And it goes, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, we Christians are kind of used to this sort of statement. But I want you to imagine what it would be like being a priest or Sadr see, and hearing this and saying to themselves, wait a second. There is a name that we've been given. If you go back to Moses, to Abraham, there is a name, they wouldn't have said it out loud. But it's Yahweh. They would have said, Otto and I are the Lord. There's a name. God gave his name to us. We're supposed to use it. We're supposed to use it correctly. But God gave it to Moses, God gave it to Abraham. He called on us to use it to call on him when we need him. And you're saying, no, no, no, not anymore. Now it's Jesus. Their salvation under no one else. And so then you get the the quote, right, the stone that was rejected by you, the builders which has become the cornerstone, you should hear in your head. This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. Right. This is the Lord Yawei God, the Old Testament, God did this. He has made Christ the cornerstone. And it's under him that there is no salvation And outside of him, there is no salvation.
So this would have been a radical idea for the Old Testament, Old Testament Jews to say no longer are we talking about the the one God of Moses, he has now chosen Christ to try in the Triune God to bring about salvation. It's a radical new idea. And it's only through Jesus, that there is this salvation. Like I said before, we're kind of used to it. And so we know that this is true, and that this does not deprive the father of his glory, that Christ is true God and true men and our Savior. It does not deprive the father of his glory, that He sent His Son Jesus Christ, and it's only through him the way, the truth and the life that we are saved. And this idea that only Christ, there is no other name in her under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. It's only through Christ, that we have salvation. What that means is, salvation is not about dedication. Like sometimes people will say, they're really dedicated to their faith, they pray, they've got this spirituality, God must be must save them, right? No, salvation only comes through Jesus, then they're a good person. Do you see all the great things they take care of their family, they give to the gifted charities. They're a good citizen, they show up on time they do their work, they don't complain. They're really good people, they must be saved, right? No, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. But they're really sincere and they pray hard every day. It must that must be God must love them. No other name. And that also means that for us Christian to trust in Christ, we should not be ashamed or worried or afraid. Because there is no other name. It's the only thing the necessary thing, the one thing we need is Christ. What a joy that we have him what a joy that we can trust in Him to give us this salvation. Well, that's all we have for today. That's the end of Acts chapter four verses one through 12. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai