The Power of God

Acts 4: 5-12
1John 3: 16-24

Why does something so good, cause so much trouble? The something good is the healing of the lame beggar in Jerusalem. The man began the day as a panhandler, lying pitifully in the dust outside the temple, and he ended the day walking like a new man, leaping, and praising God. At last, a little good news to put in the newspaper.

But no, this apparently wonderful healing set up a chain reaction of misunderstanding, resistance, and opposition. First, those who witnessed the healing misunderstood what had happened. Peter had summoned the healing – “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk” – but the people assumed that Peter had caused the healing. They assumed that he and John were powerful, shaman like healers. Peter had to straighten out the people’s theology, telling the amazed crowd, “It wasn’t our power at all that caused this healing, but the power of God and the power of faith in the name of Jesus”.

Peter kept on preaching, proclaiming the resurrection from the dead, and that provoked even more trouble, stirring up a hornet’s nest among the temple officials. By nightfall, Peter and John were under house arrest and, if that were not enough, the next day Peter and John were called on the carpet and interrogated by essentially the entire family of the high priest. One would think that the healing of a desperately needy man would evoke hallelujahs all over town, but instead we see theological confusion, widespread suspicion, and a nasty crackdown by the authorities.

Peter and John have been arrested by the Sadducees, who are very annoyed because they have been teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. For us 21^st century people to understand more about this passage, we need to know a little more about Sadducees and their beliefs.

Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, but that isn’t the only problem here. Peter and John have also healed a man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, causing some five thousand people to believe what they are hearing about this Jesus. Sadducees knew that Romans do not ignore crowds of five thousand agitated Jews. The Sadducees are in fact among those whom the Romans hold responsible for keeping such crowds from forming. Peter and John are not just doctrinally out of bounds. They are also dangerous to the peace of Jerusalem and, more than that, to the Pax Romana, the peace guaranteed by Rome.

When Peter stands up to defend himself, the first brilliant thing he does is to reframe the charge against him. A good deed has been done to a man who was sick. He and John have done a mitzvah, an act of kindness. What is the big deal? Of course they have not done it under their own power, any more than Peter is speaking under his own power. He is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

This leads us to what the real problem was for the Sadducees and for Rome. The power these two men had was the same kind of power Jesus had and it scared them. It was the power of the Holy Spirit, they were filled with a higher, nobler purpose than those around them and it showed. They had the ability to do amazing, wonderful things and they were bringing the people together in a way that caused them problems. They needed to be stopped - immediately.

If we fast forward to today, where are we at? Where is the power that Peter spoke with so confidently? If the church is filled with the Holy Spirit, where are our acts of power in Jesus’ name? Peter and John were in a lot of trouble because they were following Jesus’ commands. The truth is that Jesus’ teachings are still controversial today even after two thousand years of people repeating his words; the message inside of them hasn’t sunk in.

The world still resists God. The world does not want to hear what Jesus has to say which means if we are following Jesus, we will be doing controversial things according to many people, perhaps even our own family.

When I decided to become a pastor, I was working for a successful company and had just been given a significant pay raise and elevated to a more demanding position. I told my family I wanted to go to seminary and that it was expensive. Then I told them that when I get out, I’d be making around the same amount as I’d just been given. My whole family was upset. Why go to school and incur all those loans to make the same amount of money I’m making now? It made no sense to them.

In the world’s point of view, a person goes to school to get an education which will help them get a better paying job than they had before the schooling. It’s the advice I would and have given to others. However, for me, at that point in my life, the advice was wrong. What I needed to do was not the logical or practical choice. It was the least practical choice, but it was also a choice that saved my soul.

That high paying job and better position was slowly killing the joy in my heart. God saved me by calling me away from there. The whole three years in seminary, my family was still skeptical about this decision. They thought I was crazy to do it. It’s only now, 18 months into my first call that some of them have come around and see what I saw from the beginning.

The Holy Spirit is not just a voice that tells us what is right and wrong. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit will never lead us to the same path as the world and if our church is to be the united church of Jesus Christ the only way for us to walk is among the fallen. It is at the fringes of society that Jesus found his followers. It is at the fringes of society the Holy Spirit is leading us too. Our path is not an easy one.

If we are too easily accomplishing our goals, then we have not set the bar high enough. If we are able to walk away from church and not think about God for the rest of the week, we are not fulfilling our Christian mission. If we do not challenge ourselves, we will not grow. If we do not grow, then we will die.

The church is not a place to come and sit for an hour and feel good about ourselves. The church is the place we go to for direction and guidance for the week. The church is the place where God is supposed to reside, where our hearts should be strangely warmed, and a voice should speak so loudly in our ear that we cannot ignore its voice.

Peter and John helped to found Christianity by not ignoring the voice of God. They walked a fine path between the world and Jesus, and it often got them beaten, and thrown in jail, and eventually killed. They, who knew Jesus personally, were not treated with gentleness. If we are to follow Jesus, we must be prepared for the world to hate us and we must be prepared to stand up to the injustices the world will try to force us to be a part of.

And when we are asked by whose authority we do these things, we will shout, “It wasn’t our power at all that caused this, but the power of God and the power of faith in the name of Jesus”.

Amen.