Jesus, Our Leader and Savior
Download MP3We continue our study in Acts, looking into Acts chapter 5. It's also there in your worship guide, and we'll begin reading in verse 12. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles, And they were all together in Solomon's portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
Joel Brooks:So that even so they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits. And they were all healed. But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to this people all the words of this life.
Joel Brooks:And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council and all the senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prisons who have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in prison. So they returned and reported. We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.
Joel Brooks:Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name. Yet here you are having filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
Joel Brooks:But Peter and the apostles answered him, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. Who would pray with me? Lord, we ask that we would hear words of this life. Lord, that through Your Spirit, you would breathe into the words we have just read, and they would not be black ink on white pages only, but through your Spirit, come alive and be written on our hearts. We would hear Jesus calling to us.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, your words would remain, and they would change us. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. So last week, if you remember, we got to see how Ananias, he went to the apostles and he lied to Peter, then he literally dropped dead at Peter's feet.
Joel Brooks:And then Saphira, his wife came in 3 hours later and she went down to Peter, lied to him, dropped down at his feet. And the people are watching this. Let let me ask you a question. If here at church, you know, afterwards during our time of of worship and ministry and prayer, if if you see somebody come forward, talk to me, drop down, dead. And then you see the next person come down, talk to me, drop down, dead.
Joel Brooks:And I say, we're gonna have an altar call. I I would just like for those who want to trust Jesus, just come on down. I mean, would would that be you at that moment? You're like, heck no. That I'm not I'm not going there.
Joel Brooks:You've seen what happens. There was there was fear that was settling down on the church. People were scared. They were scared because these apostles were not like the other speakers that they had heard over the years. They were not just some religious professors spouting out some kind of mumbo jumbo or some new philosophy that might sound good in a class room, but you know actually doesn't have any place in real life.
Joel Brooks:This was real stuff. There's life and death right here. When Luke says here in in verse 12 that none of them dare join them, you you kind of understand why That nobody They were fearful of these people. They were reluctant to join them. But we do know that people did join in because the very next verse says that more than ever, these believers were being added to their numbers.
Joel Brooks:And so when you put those two statements, verse 12 and verse 13 together, what you see is that people realize the seriousness of the calling of Christ. It wasn't something you just casually did. You didn't just casually come forward. They knew you were either in or out. You either came forward and you gave all of who you were to Jesus, or it was best to keep a healthy distance.
Joel Brooks:There wasn't any of this putting a toe into Christianity. That that didn't exist. That was not an option for these people. And what the Lord was doing here through these apostles is quite extraordinary. That's why we have this book, Acts of the Apostles.
Joel Brooks:They're extraordinary. Acts of the apostles. And I just wanna say here as kind of a little side note that I don't fully understand what's happening here. I don't fully understand why the spirit of God works so mightily here, yet he doesn't in other places in the book of acts. I mean, this is incredible.
Joel Brooks:You have people literally lining up, hoping Peter's shadow will fall on them, and then they are healed. And then later in chapter 19, you have Paul, in which Paul could send a handkerchief out and whoever gets the handkerchief is healed. Extraordinary acts are being done, miracles through these people. But then you know what else? Sometimes Peter's freed from prison.
Joel Brooks:Sometimes he's kept in prison and flogged. The next thing that's gonna happen is James is gonna be killed. Stephen is gonna be killed. Peter's gonna sit 2 years in prison. And and you just you're like, why is it that the Lord seems to heal and work in power in this situation, but he doesn't in this situation.
Joel Brooks:I actually went through and I read through all of Acts again this week just trying to figure out if there was any kind of rhyme or reason or pattern to how God works uniquely in these situations. And I have to tell you, I found none. My conclusion is just this, that God is free to work however, whenever, and with whoever He wants. And there are sometimes that God moves in an extraordinary way, and He brings healing, and He comes and He works in power. And there's sometimes, He doesn't.
Joel Brooks:And we experience that today in the church as we believe and we pray that God would do the miraculous, and sometimes He does. Sometimes he heals people, and sometimes he doesn't. It's the same thing that happened in the early church. God does what he will, what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. And we see that clearly here and we just bow the knee to it and accept it.
Joel Brooks:Now because the apostles were at this time, doing all of these extraordinary miracles, and God was moving in this way, people were being added left and right. Left and right. The church was flourishing. It was exploding in growth. And that meant that the priests were getting a little jealous.
Joel Brooks:I mean it'd be one thing if the apostles decided, you know, to go preach down by the river or to go to the other side of town to preach, but they literally set up shop right in front of the temple. Right in front of the priest's offices. This would be like, you know, a little hot dog vendor. Like taking his little cart and setting it up in front of the nicest, fanciest restaurant here in Birmingham and just setting up there. The chef would look at that and laugh until people started leaving his restaurant and going to the hot dog vendor.
Joel Brooks:It's like, what? Why why are you leaving this for that? That's that's nothing. And the priests here, they're thinking, I mean, we have this beautiful ornate building, a great place for you to sit. You get to hear educated people give well thought out sermons, and you're leaving all of that to go hear a bunch of Galilean rednecks on the front lawn.
Joel Brooks:But that's what people were doing. And so the priest got jealous as the people began leaving and going there. So this time, they're they're like, we're gonna arrest them again, but not let them off with a warning like we have before. This time, there is an intent to hurt these apostles and then comically, as they arrest all the apostles, an angel of the Lord comes at night, frees them. We don't know how.
Joel Brooks:Just freeze them. So they go right back to the temple courts and begin preaching. And the next day, as as the officials, they realize the apostles are not in prison, they have to walk back out to the temple courts again. Can you imagine how embarrassed they were? Like, I know we did this yesterday, but we gotta arrest you again and put you back in the prison again that we obviously know you could just easily get out of.
Joel Brooks:And it was how to be humiliating for them. And what we see here is the temple is powerless, but the apostles are filled with power. They're clothed in power and God is working through them in amazing ways. When when the angel of the Lord comes to them, while they're in prison that first time, he speaks these words to them in verse 19. And we need to slow down and listen to these.
Joel Brooks:What I'm gonna do in this sermon is we're just gonna go over 3 words. Alright? I'm gonna preach a little shorter than normal. I'm gonna say more than 3 words. Alright?
Joel Brooks:But we're just gonna go over 3 words. Three words that really explain the gospel and explain why these apostles had such resolve in standing up for the gospel and even giving their lives later for it. So verse 19. They arrested the apostles and put them in public prison. But during the night, an angel of the lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.
Joel Brooks:Now we need to land here for just a bit because this is a pretty important verse in the bible. It's actually one of those ones, you know, you've heard me say this before with other verses. You you need to star it, highlight it, underline, whatever you do to show that this is an important verse. You need to do that for verse 20 because it's an important verse. And this is why.
Joel Brooks:As the apostles are there in prison and an angel of the Lord comes to free them, he tells them that they need to keep speaking. Speaking what? What is it he's gonna tell them that they need to keep speaking? Christianity does not have a name yet. Christianity has never been named.
Joel Brooks:Up to this this point, it's just been this kind of movement. Nobody's put a name to it. It wasn't it's not gonna happen until later when we get to Acts chapter 10. We're gonna hear the word Christian for the first time that came much later in church history, in which people became identified as Christian or Christianity, those messiah people, and it was a derogatory term. But what do you call this movement now?
Joel Brooks:A movement that's filled with people who follow Jesus, who believe Jesus to be the risen son of God currently reigning in heaven. A movement in which they are waiting for his which people believe they they are forgiven of their sins, that they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they are now doing extraordinary things. A movement in which people believe it is their mission to tell people about it. How do you describe a movement like that? What name do you put to it?
Joel Brooks:This angel comes, and I don't know if he's thought about this before or not, but he he has to actually label it here. So here for the first time, we get a name to this movement that would come later to be known as Christianity. And the word that this angel comes up with is life. This life. It's the first word I want us to look at.
Joel Brooks:He tells the apostles to speak words of this life. And we could just pause right there and end this. Let me ask you, is that the first word that comes to your mind when you think of Christianity? Life. I mean, it it makes sense though, doesn't it?
Joel Brooks:I mean, for months now, this angel's been observing this this movement. Observing what the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been accomplishing with these people. And he sees that they're now filled with the spirit. They now have this unspeakable joy. They now have a new family.
Joel Brooks:They have a new generosity. They have a new love for one another. They have a new mission. They have a new purpose. And is there a better way to describe this than simply a new life?
Joel Brooks:They're altogether different people. It's almost as if before they were dead, and now they've been given Zoe, life. And so the angel reminds them, speak about what you've been experiencing. Speak of this life to others. And hear me, if you have not experienced Jesus giving you new life through his spirit spirit, then you haven't experienced what we call Christianity.
Joel Brooks:At its most basic level, Christianity is not attending Sunday services, is not adhering to some moral code of conduct, It's not giving your tithe each week. At its most basic level, Christianity is this, life. You once were dead, but you've been made alive. It's what we just read about at the start of this service, John 10:10. Jesus said, I came that you might have life, that you might have it abundantly or have it to the full.
Joel Brooks:John would later say in first John, he said, whoever has the son has life. Whoever doesn't have the son, doesn't have life. It's as simple as that. Because Jesus came to bring life. There's a lot of other ways you can describe Christianity, but really, at its core, I hope you see it's all about life.
Joel Brooks:I was actually talking with my youngest daughter yesterday, and we had some one on one time together, and she said, she was, Dad, I would like to talk to you about Christianity. And I was like, well, okay. Alright. You know, I am a professional. And, so he started talking.
Joel Brooks:And she she had a very hard time articulating what she wanted to say. She goes, Dad, I I know, like, when we talk about Christianity and what being a Christian is and, you know, we go to church and stuff. But, you know, listen. I I I don't like listening to you that much. It's fine.
Joel Brooks:But, you know, it's just it's not the most exciting thing to me when I listen to you. I'm like, well, get in line. Alright? And she goes, I mean, and it we sing the songs. We do all this.
Joel Brooks:She goes, but, dad, I want you to know I feel like things are changing in me. I was like, okay. In what ways? And once again, she had a hard time articulating. She kept saying it it means more to me.
Joel Brooks:It's now doing something in me. I said, it's kinda like you're coming alive? And she goes, yes. Like something in me is becoming alive. It's like, that's the heart of Christianity.
Joel Brooks:It's you once were dead, and Jesus makes you alive. And yes, these things do take new meaning. So that's our first word. First word is life. Life.
Joel Brooks:Think of Christianity as life. We gotta keep moving, so the next word we find, we'll begin reading in verse 29. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior.
Joel Brooks:Those are the next two words, leader and savior. Leader is an interesting word in scripture. The word in Greek is arkagos. Arkagos. And it's only used a few other times in the new testament.
Joel Brooks:The first time we see it, or in acts is in acts 3 in which Peter is preaching at the temple again. And as he's preaching at the temple, he Once again, he points to these people. He loves doing this. He says, you killed Jesus. But he says, you killed the author of life.
Joel Brooks:That word author is archegos. Same word. What you find is this word archegos is translated differently throughout scripture. But earlier, in acts 3, it's translated as arkagos. Later, we see in Hebrews 12, it's translated as founder.
Joel Brooks:This is probably a more familiar verse to us, but it says that when we look to Jesus, the founder or the archigos and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Now the reason that there are so many words used to translate this because you also have the words captain, leader, prince, pioneer, champion. Depending on what translation, you're gonna find all these different words used to translate archagos. And the reason you have that is because no one word really captures all of it. There's a lot of nuances to this word and possibly the best translation we could have of it, is the word hero.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is our hero and our savior. Tremper Longman, who is, he's a famous bible scholar. If you're one of our Beeson Divinity School students, you would immediately recognize his name. He actually translates archegos as superhero. Superhero.
Joel Brooks:And I know it sounds somewhat ridiculous. It's led to some terrible Christian children's songs. But he's actually, he's actually pretty dead on here. Jesus is the superhero. And one of the reasons I think this is because you find this word most often used in the ancient world to describe Hercules, to describe the half God, half man hero.
Joel Brooks:And we have all these inscriptions on coins and throughout literature, all using this word, archagos to describe Hercules, the hero. And Peter here, he is saying that Jesus is the real hero. He's their prince. He's their champion. He's their captain.
Joel Brooks:He's their leader. A hero, think about it, A leader or a hero is the person who fights the battles that you are scared to fight, that you can't fight. A hero is the one who enters into those dark and dangerous places that you are unwilling to go. A hero is the one who fights on your behalf and if the hero wins, you win. But if the hero loses, well, he's not a hero.
Joel Brooks:He's not a hero. Now the reason that Peter and all of the apostles, and the Christians in the early church could be so brave and so heroic in the face of the persecution that's getting ramped up against them, the reason they could be so brave is because they looked to their hero. The one who had gone before them. Everybody loves the stories of the heroic and this is true of every time, every culture, and every place, people loved telling stories of heroes. We're all moved when we hear a story about how a hero overcame incredible odds, endured all this suffering, and He did that on behalf of the people.
Joel Brooks:And He came out victorious. 7 years ago, I was in my car and I was driving to a meeting and I got in the parking lot, but I couldn't get out of my car because there was some story on the radio and I had to finish listening to it. And actually what it was, it was a ceremony. It was a ceremony in which the medal of honor was being given to a man named Dakota Meyer. Now the medal of honor is the highest honor we can give on any soldier there.
Joel Brooks:You have to have an extraordinary acts of bravery. And as you're hearing the story of heroism there and just how how Dakota had willingly gone into above and beyond the call of duty, put his life at great risk, turned the tide of battle, saved all of these lives and you were just like, wow. And I had to finish it. I knew I was gonna be late to that meeting, but it it was worth I listened to the ceremony as they were describing his heroic story. And when I left, when I closed the door to my truck, I tell you what, I was ready to conquer that meeting.
Joel Brooks:Like, that's right. Like, I mean, you're pumped up. You're inspired from hearing the heroic. The the early apostles, the early church, they gathered courage when they thought of Jesus. We have, you know, sayings in sports that lead us into battle.
Joel Brooks:Win one for the Gipper. You know, we remember the Gipper, whoever the Gipper is. We remember the Gipper and it leads us in. For those of you Lord of the Rings nerds out there like me, it's remember Frodo. Alright?
Joel Brooks:Remember Frodo. And when you think of the courage and the bravery of Frodo, you're ready to go into battle. The best example of this comes in Hebrews chapter 11 and 12. You remember Hebrews 11? It's our hall of fame or what's called the hall of faith in the bible, which goes through all of our heroes of the faith.
Joel Brooks:It begins with Abraham who sacrificed or was about to sacrifice Isaac. Moses, who gave up being in pharaoh's house. Instead, he he wanted to be with the people of God and endure contempt there. And it shows tells of the people who endured floggings, fire, torture, imprisonment, the sword. Some were even sawn in 2, and the author of Hebrews goes through all of these Hebrews all of these heroes and it ends with this.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings to us so closely and let us run this race with endurance that is set before us looking to Jesus the archagos. Jesus, the ultimate hero over every one of these other heroes. And when we consider him, may we not grow weary or faint hearted. And Peter is not weary. Peter is not faint hearted as he considers the heroic deeds of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:But hear me. Jesus must be more than a hero. Jesus as a hero is gonna crush you. He is both hero and savior, and you need to see those two things together. Let's look at our final word, savior.
Joel Brooks:If you see Jesus as only your hero, you know what's gonna happen to you? You're you're gonna be inspired. You're gonna be inspired to try to live a life like his. You're gonna think of him as as an example for you to follow. And while it's true, Jesus is an example for you.
Joel Brooks:If Jesus is just your example, you're gonna be defeated. So in high school, basketball was kinda my life. I loved playing basketball all the time. Much like Denny, and had all these aspirations, be a pro athlete, all this stuff. So my hero was Michael Jordan.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you have to, when you're a child of the eighties. Michael Jordan is your hero. I won't get into the whole Michael versus Lebron thing. They're both great. But I try to model my game after MJ.
Joel Brooks:Alright? I'd get out there. I'd work on the fadeaway like MJ. I'd work on, you know, the the shake and bake, his great spin move he had, his crossover dribble. I'd work on all those things, my my vertical leap jumping, like MJ.
Joel Brooks:The problem was this, like, I could not be MJ. There was a limit. And when MJ was my hero, even though I tried to model everything after him, I was crushed and defeated. Because who could ever be like that? And when you think of Jesus, even you you hold him up in such a steam and you're like, I've gotta be like Jesus.
Joel Brooks:WWJD, what would Jesus do? Because that's what I gotta do. It wouldn't matter if I had a, you know, WWMJ do, you know, a wrist bracelet. It wouldn't matter what Michael Jordan could do. I couldn't do that.
Joel Brooks:And some of you, you're trying to act just like Jesus and you're wondering why you are failing. It's because Jesus as an example, only an example will crush you. Gandhi, he famously said this, and I I know you've probably heard this. He said, if I were to ever meet a Christian, I would become 1. Said, if I were to ever meet a Christian, I would become 1.
Joel Brooks:And he said, he never became 1 because he he never met a Christian. Now, the reason he said this is because his understanding of Christianity and Christ was flawed. And what he thought he thought highly of Jesus as an example, and he never met anyone who fully followed the example of Jesus. Therefore, he said, I didn't ever meet a Christian. He he once said this.
Joel Brooks:He goes, I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so patient, so kind, so loving, so full of forgiveness, that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek. I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man. His death on the cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious, miraculous virtue in it, my heart cannot accept. He thought Jesus was an inspiration, an amazing example of all of these things, and if your view as Christianity is that Jesus is nothing more than an example, man, you cannot carry that burden.
Joel Brooks:It will crush you. Jesus, as only an example, will be a burden you can't bear. And some of you are being crushed by that right now, because you look at Christianity as nothing more than a bunch of rules, and not life. You think of Jesus as just being an example, but not as your savior. Jesus is both your hero and he is your savior.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is the one who went and fought the battles that you couldn't fight. Mainly, he fought sin and death, and he won. He went to the dark places you could not go, and he rescued you. He is our hero, and He is our savior. I mean, listen to these three words again.
Joel Brooks:If if you struggle with being crushed, as you think of Christianity, and it it feels lifeless to you, and it feels burdensome to you, then then hear again these words. Life. Archigos or hero. Savior. Jesus is your hero who saves you and gives you life.
Joel Brooks:That's the gospel. Jesus is your hero who saves you and gives you life. And the question is, won't you come to Him and trust Him to save you? If you would, pray with me. Father in heaven, once again, we ask that we would come to understand life.
Joel Brooks:That we once were dead in our sins, but you have made us alive through Jesus. May our form of Christianity, what we come to know and believe and love, not be just empty doctrines, empty words, and empty songs, and burdensome rules and morals, but may it drip with life through your spirit. The only way we can describe our relationship sins, but now we've been made alive in Christ. For whoever hasn't experienced the life that comes through Jesus, right now, through your spirit, I pray that you would awaken that up in their hearts and change them. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
