Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming out this morning, especially those that are visiting with us. We are grateful to you for taking time to be with us. You make us feel honored. We feel honored because you are here. And we hope that, during this time of worship together, that you will be blessed by God. If you have a Bible, you'll want to turn with me to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And while you're turning there, let me remind you that for a number of weeks now, we've been looking at the Book of Acts and especially seeing in it a model or a way, a path for all of us to reach success in this life. You'll recall that the Book of Acts begins with Jesus telling his disciples again about this grand theme of the kingdom of God. That one day, God's rule would extend to the entire earth and that peace and justice and mercy will reign over the entire planet of which we're apart right now. And he said that this would happen because the Holy Spirit of God would be poured out on his church. And then the wonderful thing about the Book of Acts is that it ends in the very last chapter with the apostle Paul having reached all the way to the city of Rome. In Rome, he is preaching and proclaiming the fact that the kingdom of God is still coming. The kingdom of God extended through the work of the apostles and ways that we could not even have imagined had we lived in those days. And so we come to this book as this book ends because the very last words of the Book of Acts the very last phrase in the original language is that Paul boldly announced the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with success. We turn now to the fourth chapter of the Book of Acts where we find Luke focuses our attention on an element or a characteristic of Christian life that's devoted to this success that lies before us and it's the characteristic of courage. Read with me please beginning in Acts chapter 4 verse 5. The next day the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas, the high priest was there and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them. By what power or what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, 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 all the people of 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 healed. 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. When they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were unschooled ordinary men. They were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then confer together, what are we going to do with these men? They asked everyone living in Jerusalem knows that 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. 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. May God add his rich blessing to the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, a great story from your Word about the apostles, Peter and John. We admire them from this great distance of 2000 years. We admire what they did on that day. But we confess to you now that we are not Peter and we are not John. We are not your apostles. But today, living an hour day, we still want to know what you would have us learn from this portion of your Word. We want our lives transformed and empowered by this portion of your Word. So please send Holy Spirit to us, to teach us, to empower us, to enable us, not only to see and understand, but to bring these things to life in our lives. That you may be praised and you may be honored. Amen. We are talking about the theme of success in the book of Acts because it is one of the main themes in this book. And as you know, people talk about success all the time, especially in business. And when you get to know people who are successful in business, at first you often have the impression this person has a lot of confidence. This person has a lot of courage. That must be the reason why they are so successful in what they do. But you know as well that it isn't very long after knowing such people that frequently, the word confidence and courage really doesn't apply to them anymore. Instead you are more inclined to say, that person is arrogant, self-assured, overly competent, arrogant. What's the difference between courage and arrogance? What's the difference between being courageous and being proud? Well, it's a difficult thing to lay out and step by step. But this is precisely what Luke does as he gives us this story about a time when Peter and John are walking through the temple and they come across a man who is begging for money, a man who cannot walk. And you know the famous passage where Peter looks at him and he says, silver and gold I do not have. But what I have I give to you, rise up and walk. And the man stands up and walks. And of course a crowd gathers around and then Peter begins to preach and it isn't long before things start going sour. But if there is a verse in this passage that summarizes what Luke wants us to get from this story, it would have to be verse 13. When the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council in Jerusalem, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unscued ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. What did they see in Peter and John? Not arrogance. These men had nothing to be arrogant about. Their background was that they were fishermen from the sea of Galilee. They were from the wrong side of town. They were unscued. They were untrained. They were unsophisticated. But what the Sanhedrin or the Jewish council noticed was these men had courage, much like Jesus with whom they had spent those years. As we take a look at this passage, there are going to be a number of things we see about courage for success as people who follow Jesus. Courage in your individual life. Courage that leads to success in your family. Courage that leads to success in a local church. And even for the Jesus body around the entire world, the body of Christ everywhere needs to have courage if we're going to succeed in fulfilling the mission that Jesus has given us. And the first thing that I want us to notice from this passage is that courage comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit. That sounds strange, doesn't it? The courage comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit. Usually when people think about courage, think about something that's inside of you. It's your personality to be courageous or it's your personality to be confident. But here in this passage we discover that Peter and John have courage because the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit whom Jesus said would come and empower them, actually comes on Peter and fills him. You know that this was the case when Peter said to the man there in the temple, rise up and walk. You know that he was overwhelmed by the power and the presence of God's spirit at that moment, but it goes even further because they are arrested and brought before this council and notice what happens in verse 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people, Peter speaks. But he speaks not out of his natural personality. He speaks not out of his natural gifts. He speaks out of the filling of the Holy Spirit and it is this kind of talk that makes the Jewish council step back and say, what courage these men have to talk to us this way. After all, we can throw them in jail. We can execute them if we want to. For blasphemy, for disruption, whatever it may be, we have their lives in our hands yet they have courage. Well, where did such courage come from? The answer is simple. It comes from the filling of Holy Spirit in their lives. I don't know about you, but when I hear this story, when I hear what's going on with Peter and John, I say to myself, well, of course they were courageous. I mean, if I had the ability to walk up to someone and say, rise up and walk and they would walk, well then I wouldn't have any problem talking to people, that's for sure. But the reality is the Holy Spirit is not in my life that way. If I were to tell you to rise up and walk, well, you might be able to in your own natural strength, but it wouldn't be because I said those words, that's for sure. And that's the way most of us feel about ourselves. We're not apostles. We're not people that have those kinds of miraculous gifts and let's face it, it doesn't happen very often anymore. And the natural result of that is we often think to ourselves, well, because I don't have those kinds of gifts, then it's certainly appropriate for me to be timid, for me to be kind of quiet about my faith. If I had those kinds of gifts, then I would seek the filling of the Holy Spirit and I would be able to have courage against the greatest enemies, but I don't. So how can anyone expect me to have much courage? This was not just a problem in our day. This is a problem that existed even in the first century church. Some of you will remember that in the Book of Romans and in the Book of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul addressed this very matter, because even in the early church, there were people who thought, oh, to have those spectacular gifts of the Holy Spirit, to perform miracles, to do great things, to do supernatural things. Now, that's the special Christian. And that's the kind of Christian we all wish we could be, but then there's another class of Christians, which are the ordinary Christians. Now, the first class, they can have great courage, they can be great witnesses for Jesus, they can stand for him no matter what. But the rest of us say, that's not so great. We don't have that much to offer. And you'll also remember that, although even early Christians believe this, the Apostle Paul said to them, it's a lie. He said to them, look, every single person who has come to Jesus in faith has been blessed with the Holy Spirit in his or her life. And they have been gifted by the Holy Spirit, just as much as any miracle worker, just as much as anyone who can call a man to stand up and walk. Every believer in Christ has gifts and abilities that have been given to them by the Spirit of God. Now, Christians can take those gifts, and they can quench them, they can squeeze the life and the power of the Holy Spirit out of those gifts, or they can seek the filling and empowerment of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says, if you have the gift of mercy, in other words, if you're a merciful kind person, then let it flow in abundance. That's just as important as being able to have someone stand up and walk at your command. And he also says, if you have the gift of giving, meaning giving money, then give cheerfully, give boldly, give so much that no one can believe it. Just because you're not a miracle worker doesn't mean that you don't need the filling of the Holy Spirit in your life to enable you to have the kind of courage that these men had. Now, let's say you're a person that's been gifted by God, and you have the gift of mercy. You have a tenderness toward people who are down and out, or who are sick. Well, you can quench the Holy Spirit, and that would look something like this. Someone who is having a problem and sort of walk up to them, pat them on the shoulder and say, well, God bless you. I'll be praying for you and go on. That would be normal. That would be a gift of the Spirit that's not particularly empowered or filled or elaborate or extraordinary. But if you are seeking the power of the Holy Spirit and you have the gift of mercy, then you will find yourself attracted to people who have needs, people who need mercy shown to them, and you will show it in such abundance that those people will be absolutely astounded that someone cares about them as much as you do. If you have the gift of giving, and the number of you in this church do, you've actually been given a generous spirit by God. What a wonderful gift that is. Now, you can do that quenching the Spirit by writing checks and by calculating how much you can afford this year to give and things like that. Now, you can do that. That's fine. Or you can seek the filling of Holy Spirit and the courage that comes with that to do things like give and abundance or as Paul says, cheerfully, hilariously, giving more than you could possibly even imagine affording because it's worth it. And I'm full of courage in this thing called the Christian life in bringing the kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven. This is what Luke wants the early church to learn from his book and is what Jesus wants this church to learn from this book today. The courage it takes to be successful in your personal life, in your family, in this local church, comes only as you and I turn ourselves with conscious attention to the Spirit of God and ask Him and wait on Him to fill us with extraordinary power, extraordinary zeal for the gifts that He has already given to us, the ability He's already blessed us with, so that we may serve His kingdom with boldness. Sure, if you were a miracle worker, you'd do it. But every single person in this room has the ability to be a miracle worker with the gifts that God has given to you and it's what we need to be doing. So courage, that's necessary for success for the kingdom of God, comes when the people of God realize that they need the filling and empowerment of the Spirit. But courage also comes to us out of this passage. And we see something that happens with Peter and John. You might have expected that when Peter performed this miracle of raising the man, the layman and telling him to walk that a big crowd surrounded them, and that happened. And you would also imagine since people knew this fellow who had been sitting there for years begging for money as they walked through the temple, that everyone would be astounded at that and that they would be excited about it, and that happened too. In fact, Luke makes a very big point here that after Peter actually preaches to this excited crowd, something happens. Look at verse 4 of chapter 4. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about 5,000. Okay, you would sort of expect that wouldn't you, if a miracle were performed in front of your eyes. Remember, Luke is very interested in the fact that there are positive reactions out there in the world when the church proclaims the good news of Jesus. People who are not believers are looking at believers. And they're looking to see, does their belief in Jesus make any difference at all? I mean, can I see anything in them that's worth having? I'm afraid to say that very often they look at us and they don't see much worth having, and they don't care what message we bear or what name we bear. They just look at us and say, well, they're just like me. I don't see much difference at all. But when they see a difference, like when Peter demonstrated here the power of God on him, the Holy Spirit working in him, they were astounded. And what started off as 120 people in an upper room praying, then moved to 2,000, then 3,000 people in Jerusalem who were Christian and now 5,000 people in the city of Jerusalem profess the name of Christ. This is the positive reaction that often comes when people see Holy Spirit courage in believers. And it's the kind of thing we often want to happen. But Luke is very clear about this. You don't just have to be ready for those kinds of positive experiences, those kind of positive reactions. You also have to be ready for negative reactions. Listen to what happens. Not only is there 5,000 people who believe, but if you take a look at chapter 4 beginning in verse 2, they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. And as you know, on the next day, the Jerusalem council questions them and threatens them and tells them, stop doing all this proclamation in the name of Jesus. The reaction was not simply positive. It was also negative. Negative reaction to the Church of Jesus with such a positive message. Why would there be negative reaction? Well, in their day it was because they were saying that Jesus is the way that resurrection to eternal life comes. And they didn't want to hear that no matter how good news it was, no matter what kind of miracle had been performed, they did not want to hear that. And so they reacted very negatively. Now, I don't know what it is about being a pastor or a preacher, but for some reason, people tend to think that ministers know everything. If you have a problem in any area of life, just go to the preacher. He can tell you what to do. A few months ago, a young man came to me and he said, I have a problem. Can I talk to you? I thought, oh no, here it goes. Some serious problem. I said, sure, be glad to. Because I'm always glad to talk with people with problems that's one of those rescuer things in me. And so we went to a room here in the church and sat down and talked. I said, what's going on? And he said, well, I'm in love. I said, well, what's the problem? He said, she doesn't know it. In fact, she doesn't even know I exist. And I said, well, have you talked to her? Have you gone up and invited her to go out with you? Have you done something there where she'd see you? He said, oh no, I can't do that. Why not? Well, because if she knows I'm here, she might reject me. All right. So as easier, isn't it, sometimes, because of the fear of rejection, because of the fear of a negative reaction to just sort of stay hidden, stay unknown, stay under the radar. That's one of the great temptations. I'm sure that Peter and John faced in their day. I'm sure that Peter had wished to himself, as this man said, can you help me? I'm sure he thought to himself, I wish this guy would just let me go do my private worship today. But instead, he had to perform a miracle in public. Put him on the stage. Made reactions happen. I'm sure that Peter would have said to himself, I sure didn't have to talk to the Sanhedrin. I'd much rather be at home this morning. But he was on the stage. He had to do something. And the danger of being on stage, the danger of being noticed is that some people are going to reject you. One thing is true in your personal life today. It's much easier for you and me to be timid and lack courage because we're afraid that we might actually be rejected by someone, a fellow employee, your employer, a compatriot that you have at the golf club, friends that you have in your neighborhood. The fear that they may not like what you stand for is something that often makes us very timid and afraid of standing for anything. It's even true of a local church. You have to ask yourself the question. What does Memphis think about independent Presbyterian church? Well, I think most of us would have to say, Memphis doesn't know that independent Presbyterian church exists. There it is. Oh, the Christian community does. But not the world at large out there. Why? Because it's easy to stay under the radar. It's easy not to let it be known what we stand for, what we believe. It's very easy not to allow the gifts of Holy Spirit in this church to be so bold and so obvious that the world has to take recognition of it. But I can tell you this, if those of you who had gifts of mercy, for example, were abundant in your gifts of mercy, it would be noticed by the world. Because there are many people in this city who are languishing and nursing homes. There are many people who languish alone in hospitals, attended to by no one but those who are being paid to do it. And if this church were known as a church that was over abundant and mercy toward those in need and those who were suffering, the city would take notice of that. If this church were known as a church that was so over abundant and is giving and is financial support and the gift of giving, it would be known. If this church were filled with the Holy Spirit to the point that all the gifts that are here today were being used magnificently, the world would know. Now, some out there in the world would say, that's wonderful. What is it about these people? What do they know that I don't know that makes them so generous or makes them so merciful or makes them so kind? What is it? And then they hear that it is Jesus and they believe, but there's also going to be the negative reaction. And that is the rejection of independent Presbyterian church. Now, the New Testament tells us very plainly that those who are godly will suffer rejection and persecution. It says, be careful now. Don't suffer because you're doing wrong. And I'm afraid that's often the case for it, isn't it? We get in trouble with people because we've done something wrong. It says, don't do that. The New Testament says, get in trouble because you're doing good things. Because you're doing wonderful things. And the world can't ignore you anymore. Does the world ignore you? Are you just one in a crowd? Is it true in your personal life? They look at your family. Do they say, well, that's a weird family. Or do they say, well, it's just another family on the block? Do you stand out somehow because the gifts of Holy Spirit are so evident in your family and in your home and in your personal life that people take notice and want to know what's wrong with those people? And the local church as well. Do they ignore us? Are we just another church on Walnut Grove? Oh, yeah, they're about five or six of them. I think one of them has the word Presbyterian on it. Or do we stand out because you as members of this church are so seeking the empowerment of the Spirit and the gifts that you have that the world cannot ignore you anymore? That's what was happening with Peter and John. The feeling of Holy Spirit inspired such gifts in them that the city could not ignore them anymore. But if you want to know the way of success as a Christian, as the Church of Jesus, you have to realize that such courage will lead to mixed reactions. Some will say, that's great. Others will say, I want nothing to do with them. Now as Luke tells this story, he not only emphasizes the fact that there is courage because these men are filled with the Holy Spirit. And not only that, this feeling of the Holy Spirit leads to there being accepted by many and rejected by others. But he also points out that the feeling of the Holy Spirit and the courage that's given to these apostles takes the form of a singular commitment in these men's lives. And that singular commitment appears right here in this passage in verse 12. When Peter is speaking to the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, he closes his speech this way. He says, salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. And then it says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and they realized they were ignorant and unschooled men. Where is the courage? It's the fact that Peter stood before the Jewish Council, the legal council in Jerusalem and he said to them, there is only one name by which men and women and children may be saved from the judgment of God. And that name is Jesus. Now, if there's anything that's true about our culture today, it is that that message of exclusivism, that salvation is an exclusive club, not for fancy people, not for well-dressed people or highly educated people, but for people who trust in Jesus. And only for those people, if there's a message that is unacceptable in our world today, it is that message of exclusivism, that there's only one name in heaven and earth. And you might think to yourself, okay, then, was it like that back in Peter and John's day and the answer is yes. Archaeologists have demonstrated that in the upper classes, even of the city of Jerusalem, nearly everyone in their home had multiple little idols that they had in their homes. They could go to temple to worship the God of heaven and earth, but they would also come home and pray to that idol and that idol and that idol and that idol. They were covering their bases. They were making sure that they met all the needs of all the gods so that they could be saved. They had the attitude that that class of people, much like we have today, there are many rose to God, who am I to say that one is better than another? This is just my tradition. This is just my religion. Surely we need to tolerate other religions as well. Some of you will remember that I was at the University of North Carolina a few weeks ago doing a trial log or a debate with a Muslim imam, a rabbi, and then me, the Presbyterian preacher in the middle of them. I know that this was going to be the rule of the evening, but basically the purpose that they had of coming that evening was that we wanted to present the fact that there are many roads to God and everyone needs to find their own road. I was very uncomfortable when I sat there at that table with the others and said, no, as Christians, we believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. And the question just kept coming back. You don't mean that, really, do you? And I said, yes, we really mean that. Well, you can't mean that because of your exclusive in your religion, then the next thing you know is, you'll be killing people that don't agree with you. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. I want to talk to people as much as I can in the small realm, but when it comes to religion, I'm going to be faithful to only one, only one, and his name is Jesus. And he is the one that said, no one comes to the Father, but through me, they couldn't believe it. Someone educated who was speaking at the University of North Carolina would actually say that there is only one way of salvation. And aren't we all tempted to want the approval of people around us by saying, you know, I like Jesus best, but you have your way too. It makes you stand out, it makes you weird, but it is the courage of a singular loyalty that's required for success in the kingdom of God. In fact, it was so important to these men that later on after they are talking to the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin says, go home, we're not going to throw you in jail, but stop talking about this Jesus. You're causing too much trouble, and listen to what Peter does in verse 19. 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. The reality is this, the Sanhedrin, that Jewish council could have committed them to death for blasphemy. And who among us would have stood there and said, no, I'm going to keep on doing this because I must obey God rather than you. I must tell what I have seen and heard, and that is that Jesus is the only way of salvation. We would have said to ourselves, no, no, no, no, you know, if you just go ahead and go along with it today, you live for tomorrow, you can do it tomorrow. We would have compromised so many of us in one way or another at the threat of imprisonment or at the threat of death because we hesitate and we compromise at the threat of exclusion from a social group of someone laughing at us, of someone not giving us emotion, of someone not giving us tenure. We think it's not worth standing for Jesus for those kinds of small things, what will we do when the day comes that even in this country as in Europe today, there are ministers of the gospel who are imprisoned because they say that the prophet Muhammad is not the true prophet of God. What will we do? Will we say, well, just don't mention Muhammad, that'll be okay. Will we soft pedal that Jesus is the only way of salvation, that the Bible is his only word, is that what we will do, or will we stand with a singular commitment to Jesus that not only proclaims that he is the only way of salvation, but even being willing to do that to the point of imprisonment and death. You want to know what kind of courage these men admired? They admired Peter and John because they had the kind of courage that death was no longer a fear to them and they were willing to give it all for the sake of Jesus. And now you want to know what will make you a successful member of the kingdom of God? It is that kind of courage. You want to know what will make your family a part of moving the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth, it's that kind of courage. You want to know what will make independent Presbyterian church a part of extending the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. It is the kind of courage that says, it doesn't matter what exclusions you offer to us, how you ridicule us, how you hate us, even how you threaten us. This church stands for one Savior and one Lord alone and His name is Jesus. Otherwise, we simply fail. As Luke builds the history of how the kingdom of God spread through the apostles in this story, he tells us about courage. And he says, it doesn't come from inside of you and me. It comes from seeking the empowerment of the Spirit of God. He tells us about courage. And he says, it's not just courage so that people will accept the message, it's courage so they will even reject the message of the gospel of Jesus. He tells us about courage that the filling of the Holy Spirit and the willingness to be rejected goes all the way to the point of death. And when we learn that for our lives, when it becomes a part of us, then we will be successful everywhere we go. Let's pray together. Our Lord Jesus, we adore you and we love you. You were bold enough and courageous enough that you feared nothing. The Spirit of God was with you, you were accepted by many and rejected by many. And you went all the way to the point of death for this. Grant to us by your Spirit the ability to do the same and we pledge to you all the glory and all the splendor of the extension of your kingdom that we will see. Amen.