ACTS OF THE APOSTLESUnschooled, Ordinary Men Doing Extraordinary Things

Review• Acts is a book about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit• Acts tells about Jesus baptizing Jew and Gentile with

the Holy Spirit• Acts tells about the birth of the church and the spread

of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome• Acts tells how ordinary converts were led to do

extraordinary things by the Holy Spirit

Review

Sermons:

1. You Shall Receive Power, 1:8

2. To the Ends of the Earth, 1:8

3. All Whom God Calls, 2:39

4. Today: Unschooled, Ordinary Men, 4:13

5. Next Sunday: The Word Spread, 6:7

Acts 3-4

Acts 3:1-10 – Peter and John heal a crippled man in Jerusalem

Acts 3:11-26 – Peter preaches the gospel to the crowd that gathers

Acts 4:1-4 – The priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees come and seize Peter and John, putting them in jail

Acts 4:4 – Many believed though and the number of men grew to about 5000

Acts 3-4

Acts 4:5-12 – The rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem and had Peter and John brought in for interrogation: “By what power or what name did you do this (heal a man)”?

Acts 3-4

Peter: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and everyone else in Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you completely healed.

Acts 3-4

He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’”

Acts 3-4

4:13-17 – “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since tey could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

Acts 3-4

So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. ‘What are we going to do with these men?’ they asked. ‘Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

4:18-22 – “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’ After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.”

Three Lessons

1. You Don’t Have to Know a Lot but You Need to Know Jesus Well

2. You Don’t Have to Have Worldly Accomplishments or Degrees But You Have to Have Jesus

3. You Don’t Have to Have Human Power When You Have God’s Power

1. You Don’t Have to Know a Lot but You Need to Know Jesus WellThe apostles and early disciples spent time with him.

Jesus poured out his Spirit for the next generation of Christians

Luke writes Acts as an example and testimony

Phil. 3:1-11 – Paul’s testimony:

1.Paul considered his learning and accomplishments as worthless

2.“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…”

Eph. 3:14-21 – Paul’s prayer:

3.Strengthen you with power by his Spirit

4.Know this love that surpasses knowledge

5.He can do immeasurably more than what we can ask or imagine by the Spirit’s power

1. God is not so concerned about how much you know as WHO you know “(this is the work of God, to believe in the one he sent”, Jn. 6:29)

2. “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1).

3. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29).

2. You Don’t Have to Have Worldly Accomplishments or Degrees But You Have to Have JesusThey took note that these men had been with Jesus…

The two men from the road to Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32).

Mark 3:13 – Jesus went up into the hills and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him…that they might be with him and that he might send them out…

2 Tim. 4:17 – The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength…

2 Cor. 1:9 – This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

John 15:16 – You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.

1. Our salvation is not about attainment, but atonement.

2. Our power is not by our strength but by our faith in his.

3. God wants us to rely on him and not anything earthly.

4. He doesn’t need our gifts, talents, and accomplishments; he needs our faith and our hearts.

3. You Don’t Have to Have Human Power When You Have God’s PowerThey saw their courage…

Zech. 4:7 - So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

Paul: Be strong in the Lord and in his might power… (Eph. 6:10).

Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress": did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.

Paul (Phil 3:3-4) – For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

Favorite Quote: If it’s just God and me, we’ve got them outnumbered!

1. You don’t need to be special; you need to be faithful. Paul said to Corinthians, Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

2. You don’t need to be powerful; you need to be Spiritual.

3. You don’t need attainment; you need atonement.

4. God’s power is manifested in your weakness. Paul said, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

Conclusion

1. You Don’t Have to Know a Lot but You Need to Know Jesus Well

2. You Don’t Have to Have Worldly Accomplishments or Degrees But You Have to Have Jesus

3. You Don’t Have to Have Human Power When You Have God’s Power