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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
Acts 4:13-31
Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John
and perceived
that they were uneducated, common men,
they were astonished and they recognized
that they had been with Jesus.
But seeing the man who was healed
standing beside them,
they had nothing to say in opposition.
But when they had commanded them
to leave the council,
they conferred with one another, saying,
what shall we do with these men?
For that a notable sign has been performed
through them, as evident
to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and we cannot deny it.
But in order that it may spread
no further among the people.
Let us warn them to speak
no more to anyone in this name.
So they called them and charged them
not to speak or teach at all
in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered them,
whether it is right in the sight of God
to listen to you rather than to God,
you must judge.
For we cannot
but speak of what we have seen and heard.
And when they had further threatened them,
they let them go.
Finding no way to punish them.
But because of the people, for all were
praising God for what had happened,
for the man on whom the sign of healing
was performed was more than 40 years old.
When they were released,
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 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.
For truly in this city
there 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.
The heel 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.
Well, welcome to
the weekend here at Christ
Community Chapel.
My name is Zach,
I'm one of the pastors here and we are
so glad we get to be part of your weekend.
Hey, if you're watching this on video on
Sunday, it's because I'm out in the tent.
Thank you so much for being here
and making us part of your weekends.
We are in week
three of our ten week fall sermon series,
going through the book of Acts.
We're calling it Room For More,
and the reason for that is pretty simple.
We're going to see two things
in the book of Acts.
One is God is in the habit
of always making room
for more more people.
In the opening chapter
of the book of Acts, there are about 100
Christians there in an upper room
waiting for what comes next.
Peter will preach in Acts two.
The Holy Spirit will fall.
We looked at this last week
and the church will grow from 100 to 3000.
In this chapter,
it'll go from 3000 to 5000.
That that reflects
God's heart to increase,
increasingly reach more people,
to make room for more people.
But the other thing we'll see
as we read the book of Acts
is that you and I need to make room
and not room for more people, although,
sure,
but room for for expecting more from God.
You read the book of acts
and God is doing incredible things
time and time again
as part of his mission to reach people.
And I think somewhere along the way,
most churches have just kind of resigned
themselves to a very kind of
nominal experience of the movement of God.
But the book of acts
calls us to something greater,
something deeper, something bigger.
To believe that God can move and wants
to move and to raise our expectations.
And most weeks in this sermon series,
whoever's up here
will be trying to excite you
to that vision, to make room
for more people, to make room in your head
and in your heart
for a bigger understanding of God.
I say most weeks because not this one.
This one is a little different,
because what
we're going to learn this week
is that making room for more will result.
Believe it or not, in conflict,
in controversy, in opposition.
Here in acts chapter four is the
first time the apostles will be arrested.
Next five they'll be beaten.
In acts six and seven a man will die.
In acts chapter eight,
the church will be scattered.
Opposition controversy.
Conflict is going to be part of any person
or any church's experience.
If they desire to join God
in making room for more,
let me show you that in three points
I'm going to use as an outline.
Very simple.
And they go like this I want to show you
violence is inevitable.
Not all fights are the same, but
God won't waste any of them, all right?
Violence is inevitable.
Not all fights are the same,
and God won't waste any of them.
Let me start with the first one.
Violence is inevitable.
You know this.
People, for the most part,
don't like change.
People just.
They don't like change.
I love change, but at 43 years old,
I've realized that's because I'm weird.
I am the weird one.
Most people don't like change.
Like when I go out of town for a week,
I will sometimes ask
our facilities team to rearrange my office
so that it's different.
When I come back, I get bored easily
and they'll say, well, how do you want it?
And I'll say, I don't care,
just surprise me,
I like change,
most people are not like that.
I understand that at least I should say.
I'm trying to understand that
most people don't like change,
but no one likes change.
When the reason things have to change
is because you did something wrong,
even I, I love change, but not like
if I go home tonight and I walk in
and my wife says these dreaded
words, we have to talk,
that will mean something needs to change.
And the reason
something will need to change
is because I've done something wrong.
And I can just tell you
that's change I'm against.
I'm against,
okay, even people who like change
don't want things to change
because we did something wrong.
The reason I say that is because if you
think about it that way, it shouldn't
surprise you that just about everywhere
the message of Jesus is preached.
People sometimes respond angrily
or respond in a negative way,
because the message of Jesus begins
with this.
Things need to change and it's our fault.
I mean, the message of Christianity,
the message of the gospel of the Bible,
is that we are broken people
living in a broken world
with a broken relationship with God.
Things need to change
and those things are broken because of us.
We're the ones who have broken them.
And so yes,
the gospel of Jesus gets to some
really good places about the forgiveness
that's available through the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus.
But you only get that
if you're willing to sit through the stuff
about change and the stuff about it
being our fault, no one likes that.
You know, the Greek
philosopher Plato, in his famous
allegory of the cave, describes
this in a really great way.
Talks about like 3 or 4 guys
that live in a cave.
They've always lived in the cave.
They've never been outside of the game.
They're chained to the wall,
and all they know
of the world outside are some shadows
that are kind of dancing on the wall.
And you might say, well, well,
how were they born there?
And it's not the point. It's
a fictional story.
All right, let that go. All right.
They live in the cave, and one day,
one of the guys
somehow gets loose and he goes
out of the cave into the larger world,
and he realizes, oh, my goodness,
there's a whole world out here.
And what we're watching on the walls
is just shadows of this world.
And he comes back into the cave
and he says, these guys,
you're never going to believe this.
This is just a cave.
And there's a whole world out there.
And what we see on
the wall are just shadows.
And Plato says,
the guys will get so angry with him
that they'll try to get loose,
not to leave the cave, but to murder him.
Because
Plato says, we don't want to be wrong.
We don't want the status quo challenge.
We don't want our worldview turned around.
What we're going to see time and time
again in the book of acts is because
the gospel message is a message of change.
It is a message of personal
responsibility, is a message
of worldview shift.
People will respond negatively.
In fact, in this passage,
Peter is going to be arrested,
Peter and John are arrested.
And you know what their crime was.
I don't know if you could pick it up
when the story was being read in acts
chapter three, verses one through nine,
you can read about their crime.
Do you know what it was? It's going
to blow your mind. They healed a guy.
That's right.
There was a beggar and the beggar said,
can I get some money?
And Peter said, I don't have any money,
but I'll tell you what I do have.
He said, in the name of Jesus,
get up and walk.
And the guy gets up and walks
and everybody freaks out,
and that gets them arrested.
You know why?
Because everybody was doing just fine.
And their preconceived notions
about who God was and what religion was
and what life should look like.
But when a guy gets healed,
you have to rethink some things,
and they didn't want to do it.
I'm saying this to say this
what the Book of Acts is teaching us
is that if we get serious about making
room for more, we should expect conflict.
We should expect expect controversy.
We should expect a fight.
Jesus said this, by the way,
I'm not just saying this.
John chapter 15. Here's
what Jesus says. It'll be on the screen.
He said, if the world hates you,
know that it has hated me before.
It hated you.
Listen, if you were of the world,
the world would love you as its own.
But because you're not of the world.
But I chose you out of the world.
Therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you,
a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me,
they will also persecute you.
Jesus says they're going to crucify me.
They're not always going to like you.
We preach a message of change.
The Apostle Paul understood this.
He traveled all over the known world
to different cities, different cultures,
different languages.
You know what
the one universal of his experience was?
He found a controversy,
a conflict of fight everywhere
he went in Second Corinthians.
Here's how he describes his ministry.
Listen to this.
This is how he describes his career.
He says this five times I received at the
hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned, three times
I was shipwrecked a night and a day.
I was adrift at sea on frequent
journeys in danger from rivers, danger
from robbers, danger
from my own people, danger from Gentiles.
Danger in the city.
Danger in the wilderness. Danger at sea.
Danger from false brothers in toil
and hardship through many a sleepless
night in hunger and thirst, often
without food, in cold and exposure.
I mean, other than that great career,
great career.
You see my point?
Jesus says, we preach a message of change.
They're not going to like it.
Paul says, everywhere I went with this
message of change, they didn't like it.
And I'm just telling you this
because I'm saying,
as we make room for more, make room
for more people, make room for a bigger
understanding of God,
there's going to be conflict that comes.
It's going to come for you
on an individual that you get serious
about your faith.
Not everyone in
your family is going to like it.
You're going to want to talk about Jesus,
and they're going to tell you to shut up.
You're going to want to get serious
about living your life
in a way that is countercultural.
And they're going to say,
you're bothering people.
You're going to raise your kids
to be different than the culture,
and they're going to say, you're over
zealous.
You get the point.
It's just going to happen.
And I know that's not a great sales pitch
for making room for more.
But as your pastor, part of my job
is to prepare you.
Conflict, controversy
and a fight are coming.
They're coming.
But by the way, that doesn't mean
we're doing anything wrong.
They healed a guy,
they healed a guy, and it came anyways.
And let me just be very real for you.
It's going to come for us as a church.
I don't want our church to be in the news
for bad reasons.
I don't want to be put on blast
on social media, but it's inevitable.
If we make room for more, it's inevitable.
People are going to be.
By the way, Peter's arrested. Peter
and John are arrested.
When I say that you think the government
that that's actually not true.
They were arrested
by religious people back then.
The lines were blurry and God help
us, religious people could arrest people.
That's never good, right?
But that's what was happening.
Here's what's going to happen.
We make room for more, more people.
Or I'm just being very real with you,
more people, or for God to do more.
And we're going to get
attacked by other churches.
You may already hear people, I can't.
Why do you go there?
You know,
we put a banner
outside the church once that said
sleeping on Sundays and come on Thursdays
because we're just aiming at families
that are busy on the weekends.
We're telling them, listen,
if you want to meet God,
you don't have to give up your weekend.
And people got upset about it.
So we're making room for more.
But the more people who come,
the more God does.
People are going to go,
what's that mean for us?
If we don't see that, why aren't we?
Seeing a do a healing service, people say,
I don't know, should you be doing that?
I don't know, they heal
the guy in acts three.
You see my point?
You see my point.
What I'm saying to you is this conflict
and controversy are not an indicator
that we're not getting it right.
Sometimes.
Sometimes it's an indicator you're right
at the center of what God is doing.
Now. We got to be careful, okay?
And some of you are freaking out right
now. Okay.
Let me nuance this, okay?
Because not all conflict is equal.
Didn't I say my second point was not all
fights are the same?
You remember
I said that not all fights are the same?
Because of course there is a way of going
overboard with this, right?
You could say, well, shoot,
if they want to fight, bring it.
You can go looking for a fight.
You can go looking for conflict,
go looking for controversy.
But that's not what we're talking about.
There are some Christians
who love participating in what they call
the culture wars.
They want to put everybody
on blast on social media.
They want to yell and scream
at every party.
They take it as a virtue when they don't
get invited to the family gathering.
Like,
look at us, we're warriors for Jesus.
That's not what I'm talking about.
Listen, here's what the apostle Paul says
in Ephesians chapter four verse 15.
Love this verse.
It'll be on the screen. Here's
what he says.
Speak rather. Listen.
I'm just going to read the first part,
speaking the truth in love.
This is how I visualize it.
It's like Paul saying, you're in one hand,
you're holding on to a rope,
and that rope is connected to truth.
And in the other hand,
you're holding on to a rope,
and that rope is connected to love.
And sometimes holding on to both ropes
will stretch you,
he says,
but you can't let go of either one.
You can't let go of either one.
If some people read this
speaking the truth of love,
and here's what they read
speaking the truth instead of love.
But that's not what he said.
If you let go of love,
if people don't like you
because you're fighting all the time,
you're not a warrior for Jesus.
I say this with all pastoral sincerity
you're a jerk.
That's not the same thing.
But listen, just as you can't hold on
to truth and let go of love, listen.
You can't let go.
Hold on to love
and let go of truth either.
Because it matters.
Look, not all conflicts are the same.
Sure, but.
But what Peter is doing in this passage is
he is not pursuing conflict.
Look, Paulson it this way.
Romans chapter 12, verse 18.
It'll be on the screen. Here's
what it says.
Listen, if possible, so far
as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all.
Do you see what he's saying?
He says, if it's up to you, choose peace.
But what's he saying?
It's not always up to you.
Peter didn't get up that morning
and said, I'm going to pick a fight.
John's not holding the phone and Peter
goes, get this on Instagram, okay?
This is not an online influencer
causing problems.
Peter prays for a guy
and that guy gets healed.
Peter, listen to me church.
Peter didn't get up seeking a fight.
He got up seeking obedience
and the fight found him.
That's different.
God has called us to do some things right.
This is what Peter says.
Look at what he says in acts four, acts
four and 19 through 20.
I love this, he says,
but Peter and John answered them,
whether it is right in the sight of God
to listen to you than to God,
you must judge.
For we cannot
but speak what we have seen and heard.
He's like, listen,
if we gotta fight, that's up to you.
We're not going to stop talking about
Jesus.
Friends, God has called us to some things.
This is why we do it. Thursday
night service.
This is why we do a healing service.
Listen, if the best place to reach people
is Wednesday morning at 10:00, guess what
service is next?
Because that's
God has told us, you know
what was supposed to reach people.
God is supposed to make disciples.
How do you make disciples?
You say, the way we're living is crazy.
Don't live that way. Live this way.
God's told us to raise our kids
in a culture that is bent on turning them
away from God and filling their heads
with all kinds of nonsense.
God has called us to seek justice,
to push back against oppression.
We don't want to fight,
but we will do those things
even if a fight comes.
Are you ready for that?
We're not looking for a fight.
We're looking for obedience.
But we're not going to run
either, isn't the point I'm making
my nine year old son, Graham.
You've heard me
talk about any plays. Football, right?
My wife and I give him two very different
talks about fighting.
Okay?
She says to him, Graham, no fighting.
That's a good talk.
Here's
what she means. Here's what she means.
Graham. Don't use anger to solve problems.
Absolutely agree.
She she says, Graham,
don't bully other kids.
That's totally agree.
He's big kid. Football player.
Totally agree.
Then when she leaves the room, I give him
a different talk about fighting.
And what I say to him is, Graham,
don't let another kid get bullied.
You're a big kid.
You're a football player.
You step up, kids getting bullied,
you step up, tell him to stop.
If he doesn't stop, make sure he stops.
I tell him, Graham,
you got a seven year old sister.
Any kid threatens your seven year
old sister, you make you tell him to stop.
He doesn't stop.
You make him stop and say, Graham,
there are two rules of fighting.
Don't get in a fight and don't lose.
Those are my two rules of fighting.
And I felt really good about that speech.
Until a couple weeks later.
Amy and Graham came home a little early
from a birthday party,
and Graham's and Amy said,
do you know why we left?
Your son was choking
another kid out on the trampoline.
And I said, Graham, tell me more.
And he said, well, dad,
there was a kid jumping on the trampoline.
He's jumping
too high. Little kids are getting hurt.
I told him to stop.
Then he jumped even higher.
My sister got hurt and so I made him stop.
And I'm like,
how do I high five him without Amy
seeing like, you know,
what are we clear is not a joke.
One week later,
like any good dad, I hide in the bathroom
when one of my teenage daughters
is coming home from school
and she comes in the door.
I jump out and scare,
and she loses her mind
and he comes running down
the stairs, jumps on the kitchen
island, comes across the island, tears
in his eyes and punches me.
And I'm like, dude, what are you doing?
He's like, you're hurting my sister.
Listen, this is what I'm saying.
This is what I'm saying.
You don't get out of bed in the morning
looking for a fight,
but you don't call evil good.
You don't call crazy
and delusional normal.
And you tell them that
Jesus is the Son of God.
And the only way
to have a relationship with God.
Now, let me ask you a question.
What's your tendency with conflict?
Do you, do you
do you get up in the morning
seeking a fight?
Are you so bent on everyone being happy
and everyone
getting along
that maybe lean towards cowardice?
Listen, I want to show you that
although not all fights are equal,
here's my third point.
God doesn't waste any of them.
Did you know, Peter,
over the course of his
life, has every one of those responses
to conflict?
Like you remember the night
Jesus is arrested,
the guards are coming to get Jesus.
Peter draws his sword
and he cuts off the guy's ear.
Do you remember this?
Let me tell you something.
Nobody aims for the ear, okay?
He was trying to split the guy's head
open. Right?
First of all, who gave Peter a sword?
That's what I want to know.
Who? Who? You got to frisk Peter, right?
You got to check it. But Jesus says,
listen.
Peter's response is, they want to fight.
Bring it. I'm here to fight.
The next time Peter is a confronted
with conflict, a little girl says to him,
weren't you with Jesus?
And like a coward,
he curses at her and says, no, I wasn't.
He shrinks back.
But what's interesting is that Jesus uses
both of those things to grow him.
Peter pulls a sword and he cuts off
the guy's ear, and Jesus heals the ear
and he says, Peter, what are you doing?
We didn't come to fight.
We didn't come to fight.
That's not who we are.
That's not what we're about.
What are you doing with a sword?
I came to die. I came to give my life.
I came to forgive. I came to the people.
Could be included. Listen,
some of you need to hear this.
God is going to continue
to let you lose friends and family members
until you realize
you are not a righteous warrior.
You need repentance.
You get out of the morning
in a bed in the morning
looking for a fight
that is not who our Savior is,
and that is not who you should be.
How many people will
you have to lose before you realize it?
Don't you dare
take this sermon and justify being a jerk.
But others of you listen.
Peter denies Jesus he's a coward.
You know what Jesus says to him
when he sees him?
He says, Peter, Peter, look at me.
Feed my sheep.
Do you know what he's saying?
Peter, get in the game.
Participate.
Listen, I'm telling you something.
Do not let them fill your kids
heads with nonsense.
Do not apologize for living a life
that is counter to the culture.
Don't you ever stop telling people
that Jesus Christ is the only way
to have a relationship with God.
But he's the but.
He's available to anyone
and everyone who looks.
Don't you dare apologize
for speaking out against lies
and speaking out against evil that isn't
looking for a fight that's being obedient.
Some of us in the name of being
kind, we've become cowards.
And when the evil people
are the only ones doing the talking,
what fills the air?
But what's cool about Peter is he grows.
He grows.
This time he recognizes,
and this is what he says instead.
He doesn't pull the sword.
He doesn't shrink like a coward. Here's
what he says.
Acts chapter 429 to 31.
Listen to what he prays,
he says, 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 filled with the Holy Spirit,
and they continued
to speak the Word of God with boldness.
You know what God was saying?
Keep going, keep going.
This is my mission.
You've got my power.
You do it in my name, friends.
You see, they want to reach people.
They believe
healing is a way for that to happen.
And they say, God,
if you don't show up, we're cooked.
That's exactly what we're saying here.
Conflict, controversy, social media.
Listen, I don't want people to ask you
why you go to church here.
I don't want you to have to listen
to people whisper about your church.
But we're not going to stop making room
for more
just because of conflict and controversy.
We're going to get up in the morning.
We're going to seek obedience.
We hope that leads to peace.
But if it doesn't,
we're going to be faithful.
Because, by the way, listen to
this isn't the center of our faith
the fact that God uses conflict.
Jesus didn't seek a fight, did he?
But they murdered him.
We murdered him.
We didn't want to hear his message
of change, but God didn't waste that.
He used it to forgive us from our sins.
Conflict and controversy.
Opposition, a fight, even violence
is not a sign that we've got it wrong.
It's not a sign that we took a wrong turn,
that God isn't with us.
It may just be a sign we're
at the very center of what he's doing.
What we pray to God is God.
Give us courage.
God, shake the room.
Fill us with your Holy Spirit.
God, show us that you are with us.
And if you're with us, we'll keep going.
Room for more, room for more people.
Room for a bigger
vision of God will mean opposition.
Will you keep going?
Let me pray for you, father God,
thank you so much for everyone here.
I know in this room
there are people who have all different
kinds of responses to conflicts.
Some of us are jerks.
God in your holy
with your power of your Holy Spirit
right now,
would you be leading us to repentance?
Would we be thinking of all the people
we've got a call,
all the people we've got a text,
all the apologies of
I thought I was serving Jesus,
but I wasn't.
I was just picking a fight.
I was Peter with the sword.
Well, God, would you heal their families
like you healed that man's ear?
God. Others of us,
in the name of kindness,
we've become cowards.
We've looked the other way.
We've kept our mouths shut.
We've ignored what's happening around us.
God, would you lead us to courage
like Peter?
Would you whisper to us, feed my sheep.
Get in the game.
Participate in my mission.
Obey me.
Be with me.
God, would you lead former cowards
to become
courageous leaders
like he did with Peter and God?
Would you perpetually shake the room
so that we know that you are with us
in the name of Jesus?
We pray that we would have the courage
in the face of opposition for your glory.
And we pray God for the salvation of those
who at one time opposed us.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.