Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So at the height of the Cold War in nineteen
seventy seven, as the USA and the Soviet Union were
competing with each other to have more and more nuclear
weapons when compared to the other country. At the height
of this a professor, a mathematics professor by the name
of Robert Axelrod, developed a tournament for people to compete
in to enter that sort of mimics the Cold War,
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except they were submitting a computer code. Axelrod was very
interested in a newly formed branch of mathematics called game theory,
and if you've ever seen the movie A Beautiful Mind
about the life of John Nash, John Nash was instrumental,
very influential in developing that field. Game theory is really
the study of mathematical models or strategic interactions, namely in
(00:42):
competitive situations. So what game theory is interested in is
having a model that can represent interactions where people could
either decide to cooperate or sort of defect betray each other.
My favorite example of game theory at work is why
for sixty five has a speed limit of fifty five
miles an hour. Now, most people jack you rightly understand
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that one of the reasons that speed limit exists is
just for the safety of drivers, that's one reason, but
another reason is actually for traffic flow as well. So
like the faster you're moving in a car, the more
distance there has to be between cars in order to
safely travel. So that means if cars are going really quickly,
you can't have as many cars on the road at
the same time. So fifty five miles an hour has
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been a number that's been calculated said, well, this is safe,
and it's also fast enough that people are going to
be okay traveling at that speed, and it can have
enough volume on the road to get cars where they're going.
So what that means is if we all cooperated, if
we all would just go the speed limit on four
to sixty five, then on average we would all get
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to where we're going faster. But we are fiercely independent people.
I don't care about how fast you get to your destination.
I care about how fast I get to my destination.
So defect we just decide, well, I'm just gonna break
the law and I'm gonna I'm gonna drive faster because
I care about how fast I can get there. So
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actual Rod he developed this tournament with the hopes that
some some contestant might submit a computer program, a computer
code that would somehow show a path forward out of
the cyclical trap of the nuclear arms race. If both
countries developed this strategy, well then maybe there's a path
forward for us. Is this tournament that has famously become
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known as the Prisoner's Dilemma. That there's a show in
England about Split or Steel with these little golden balls
that they open up. If you've ever seen that before.
If not, it's a pretty obscure game show, but it's
a fairly popular idea, this Prisoner's Dilemma. So here's how
this game works. It's basically glorified paper rock scissors, but
with only two choices. You're gonna decide if you're gonna
cooperate or defect. That's it. So you you write this
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computer code that's gonna decide if it's gonna cooperate it
or defect, and then it's gonna face off against another
code and like both at the same time, you decide
if you're going to cooperate or defect. So if both
if both teams decide to cooperate, then both teams get
three points. If both teams decide to defect to betray
the other team, both teams only get one point, but
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if one decides to cooperate and the other decides to defect, well,
then the person who decided to cooperate you get nothing
and the defector gets five points. So like the betrayer,
like the most points you could possibly get is betraying
while someone else is cooperates. So that's the rules of
the game. So there's fourteen entries into this tournament, and
each program would would play the other program a total
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of two hundred rounds. So my program would play this
one two hundred times, then this one two hundred times,
and whoever have massed the most points at the end
of this tournament would be the winner. Coincidentally, there were
seven nice strategies and seven nasty strategies that were submitted.
I'll explain more about that in the moment, but the
huge surprise is that the top six scoring teams, the
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highest six were all nice strategies. To be a nice strategy,
he had to be two things. You had to be cooperative,
which means that you would not be the first to defect.
That if you cooperate with me, I'll continue to cooperate
with you. You had to be cooperative and you had
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to be forgiving, which means if I cooperate with you
and you defect, then I will return to cooperating with you.
If you return to cooperating with me, I won't hold
a grudge. Those are the two things for a nice strategy,
cooperative and forgiving. So to be a nice strategy, you
didn't just have to cooperate all the time, like you're
not a doormat. You would stand up for yourself. You
would defect, but you would forgive. The top six strategies
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being nice. That was extremely counterintuitive result for Axelrod. He
did not anticipate this at all. It seemed to him
at the outset that the most successful strategies were going
to be the ones that were clever enough to defect
enough times to get five point it's without getting caught.
That's what he thought would happen. And commenting on these results,
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actual Rob pointed out how the USA and the USSR,
where they were not cooperating, they were not nice strategies.
These were both defecting from each other. I'm amassing my
nuclear weapons, you're amassing your nuclear weapons. We continue to
defect we're just we're escalating things more and more and more.
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In fact, the USA alone spent about twenty six trillion
dollars in today's money during the Cold War just on
nuclear weapons. Imagine what we could have done with that money. Eventually,
the way out of the Cold War was through cooperation, right.
There was this reduction of arms if I'll cooperate with you,
if you cooperate with me, if you reduce your nuclear weapons,
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I'll reduce mind. And there was checks and balances to
make sure that both those eggs were happening. So here's
why I bring this up. In our text today, we
see a perfect example of how to do what we
were talking about last week. So we've hit pause on
the Book of Acts last week and we looked at
a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. What we
were talking about last week. Today is a perfect illustration
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of how to do what we talked about. We see
Peter and John standing up for what's right, for what
they know is good and true, and how they're doing
this is in line with God's kingdom. Our text today
is like a case study from last week. So in
case you missed it, I was making an observation that
I see an awful lot of Christ followers standing up
for what they know is right, but in a way
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that is not in line with God's kingdom at all.
Like they're standing up for what they believe is true,
but they look nothing like Jesus as they're doing it.
So that cannot be the way forward. You cannot build
God's kingdom by wielding the weapons of this world. That
was the entire point I was trying to challenge us
with last time. Today's a case study of that. Today's
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text is a perfect picture of how to oppose something
and at the same time remain rooted in the hope
and joy of God's kingdom. It's counterintuitive that being cooperative
and forgiving while at the same time refusing to be
a pushover. It's counterintuitive that that is the best way
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to stand up for what's right in your devones because
of your flesh. The way of Jesus is counterintuitive. It
doesn't feel like the best way forward. We can't wield
the weapons of this world, weapons of aggression, hatred, insults, defections, betrayal.
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We can't wield those weapons and build God's kingdom. The
way of Jesus is counterintuitive to the world. God's kingdom
is one of love, patience, forgiveness, generosity. So we must
wield love, patience, forgiveness generals as we're showing others what
we believe is right, as we stand up assertively for
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what we believe in. So before we get into today's text,
on your tables, you have a copy of our of
our text today. So what I want to do before
we go any further is I want to give you
some time as individuals to read the text again through
the lens of what we spoke about last week. I
want you to read the text and look at how
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Peter and John stand up for what they believe is right.
I want you to see how they speak to those
they oppose. Listen for how they're not passive in their beliefs,
yet they never wield anger, hatred, that kind of thing
that they that they look like Jesus says they do it.
So again, spend the next few moments as individuals. You
could take those with you so you can write all
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over if you want to make notes. If there's not
enough at your table, there'll probably be another one around you.
So let's spend the next couple minutes just rereading our
text today through the lens of what we talked about
last week. So Peter and John are not passive in
our text today. They aren't pushovers. They spoke the truth.
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They even risked offending those that they were speaking to.
But their motivation was not to tear down the people
they were talking to, showing contempt and like disdain for
you disagree with me. Their motivation was to elevate Jesus.
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That was their entire motivation. The entire time, their focus
was on Christ and his goodness, and they elevated him.
So this is our big idea for our time together today.
If we take nothing else out to successfully navigate opposition,
elevate Jesus. If you want to know how to successfully
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navigate opposition disagreements when you're not seeing eye to eye
with someone, even if you believe they are way off
track thatead of tearing them down showing showing how small
they are, elevate Christ and show how big he is.
What Aiden was talking about, how large God really is,
how much his goodness looms. Two observations from our time
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together today as we look at the text. First is
that the Gospel will always challenge the power structures of
the world. It will always create opposition. The Gospel, when
clearly presented, when clearly lived out, will create opposition. The
Gospel is counterintuitive to how the world works. Second, the
Holy Spirit empowers us to create courageously place our hope
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in Jesus in the face of that opposition. It's by
the power of the Holy Spirit, not by our own wits,
not by our own cleverness, not by your own study.
It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, depending on
God with us, that we can place our hope of
Jesus in the face of opposition. God is going to
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is present. He teaches us to stay the course even
the world's being nasty, even when it's being uncooperative, to
successfully navigate opposition, elevate Jesus. So that's what we're gonna
look out this morning, and our text make some mapps, observations,
applications to our lives. So as we're preparing to do that,
let's first pause and pray. So God, thank you for
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what you continue to do in our hearts. That we
aren't slaves of fear, but we're child your children. Lord.
Thank you for that good news. Thank you for the
zealousness that you've put within us for the goodness of
Your kingdom. God, continue to refine us into people that
live out the Gospel, that share it with other people,
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not as a sales pitch, Lord, but as a very
way of life. Everything about us is rooted in the
joy and the hope of your Kingdom. Teach us to
be people who don't go have to go out of
our way to figure out out how to speak about
your Son, but who are rooted in your Son to
such a degree that we can share the hope that
we have with you in the relationships that we are
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naturally forming in life. Do we need your help, Holy Spirit,
We know it's not by our power, but only by
You and your indwelling presence. Teach us to hear your
still small voice and to pay attention. So your name,
I pray God, Amen. So first, the Gospel challenges the
power structures of this world. The Gospel will create opposition.
Verse one of our texts. The priests and the cabinet
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of the Temple guard and the Sadducees came up to
Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the
people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They
seized Peter John because it was evening. They put him
into jail until the next day. But many who heard
the message believed, so the number of men who believed
grew to about five thousand. There's three specific people groups
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that are listed in our texts as those who are
opposing Peter and John. There's the priests, the temple guard,
and the sadducees. Let's zoom in on each one of
these briefly. Versus the priests, these were the elite members
of the Jewish society. They were the important people with
political power. They were at the center of the Jewish
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way of life. How they interpreted and applied God's law
went through the priesthood. It dictated how the nation would operate.
This is the government the government. Because of this, the
priests were politically opposed to the Gospel. They did not
like what Peter and John were saying about Jesus for
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political reasons. They were the ones in charge, and the
message of Jesus threatened that the finished work of Jesus Christ.
This lessened their stranglehold on the power and importance that
they had because if this news takes root, then they
would no longer be at the center of public life.
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Jesus and his kingdom would be so Peter and John
they were threat to the priest's sense of prestige. Regardless
of what they were saying was true or not. You're
a threat to my power. The priests were politically opposed
to the Gospel. The good news of Jesus threatened their power.
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The second was the captain of the Temple Guard. This
is like the temple police, the head of security. They
were in charge of law and order. They were socially
opposed to the Gospel. They were worried about losing their
job because a riot might break out. Theologian William Barclay
says this, if the apostles were allowed to teach about
Jesus unchecked, riots and civil disorder might follow, with disastrous
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consequences from Rome. This is why Peter and John were
promptly arrested. It is a terrible example of a party
of men who, in order to retain their vested interest,
would not themselves listen to the truth or give anyone
else a chance to hear it. Peter and John threatened
their comfort. Things were working well for them. They were
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benef fitting from Rome being in power. They didn't want
to rock that boat, the captain of the Temple guard.
They were opposed to the Gospel for social reasons. The
good news of Jesus threatened their comfort. Then there's the Sadducees.
They were theologically opposed to the Gospel. This is a
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sect of Jews of the Jewish priesthood who did not
believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in any resurrection,
Like when you die, that's it, game over. That's what
they believed. So this message that Jesus was raised from
the dead and is through his power this man is
being healed, Well, that can't be right. They had their
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mind made up about the truth already. They had no
room for being challenged. They had no capacity to grow
to change. The good news of Jesus would shake their
worldview way too much. So the miraculous healing was terrified them,
Like what if I'm wrong about how life in general works?
What if Jesus really was raised from the dead. Verse nine.
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Peter says, we're being called to account today for an
act of kindness shown to a man who is lame,
and we're being asked how he was healed. It's like
Peter saying, can you at least agree with me? How
irrational this is that I was arrested? Like, we went
out of our way to do a good thing. We
healed a man, and our reward is that we're arrested.
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How irrational is that the man was healed. The Sadducees
couldn't argue that. They don't argue that in our text. Today,
all we see them doing is trying to intimidate Peter
and John to stop teaching about Jesus. That's all we
see them doing. We don't see them making a case
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against why what they're saying is wrong. We see them
intimidating and say shut up. Regardless of what the facts were,
they were wilfully ignorant so that they didn't have to
change life made sense. I don't want things to change.
I'm just gonna bury my head in the sand. I'm
just gonna keep walking this way. The Sadducees were religiously
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opposed to the finished work of Jesus. The good news
of Jesus threatened their beliefs. Darryl Bach, a commentator, said
the Apostles teaching was politically socially and religiously destabilizing to
the relatively good relationship with Rome that the Jewish leadership had.
So we can think about this like the priests. Is
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a bit reductionistic, but we can think about this way.
The priests, they were politically opposed. You are threatening my
power with the News of Jesus. My power is being threatened.
The Temple guard, they're socially opposed. You're threatening my comfort.
The Sadducees are religiously opposed. You're threatening my beliefs. In
other words, the Gospel is always offensive to those who
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are benefiting from how the world is currently working. Whether
the gospel's made known, whenever that happens, opposition will always arise.
It will arise from those with power, with wealth, with prestige,
with comfort. It'll arise from those who don't want the
world to change. Frankly, change is not something that you
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and I like, We want others to change. We want
to maintain the power, the comfort, the belief system that
we have. We want to decide for ourselves how I'm
going to live. And anyone who gets in the way
of that, anyone who disagrees with the way that I
view the world you need to step off. That includes God,
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this is how I'm going to live, and anything that threatens.
When we make up our mind that way, we feels
like it is in opposition to us. It is an
opposition to us. The Gospel challenges the power structures of
this world. It also challenges are unconscious allegiance and dependence
on those power structures. You see, two thousand years later,
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not a lot has changed the power structures of our
world today, and every nook and cranny on both sides
of the political isle, in local, federal, like everywhere, there's
still corruption and self interest, willful ignorance to the truth.
The way of the world is still the way of
the world, the way of Jesus, the good News of
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His kingdom. This is still being opposed for political and
social and religious reasons by our world today. There are political, social,
and religious reasons that tempt us to resist the way
of Jesus. Even as his followers, we still have this
temptation to resist his way. There's things that we subconsciously
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allowed to have power in our lives that drown out
the voice of the Holy Spirit. We swim in the
water of our society, we swim in the water of
our culture. Sometimes it feels so normal that we don't
even pay attention that this is how I think, this
is what I do, this is what I value. Politically,
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one example from our culture today is the sensationalized media.
The sensatialized media has a tendency to drown out the
voice of the Holy Spirit. The current political climate is
opposed to the gospel because everyone, regardless of what they believe,
needs your attention. They need your outrage, they need your
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hysteria to turn a profit. They want you on the
edge of your seat at each other's throat because then
you keep tuning in. They need your attention. Our culture
is teaching us to place our hope into a political ideology,
whatever that might be, instead of the unshakable and eternal
kingdom of Jesus, to get swept along by that outrage,
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of that panic that will always come at a cost
of your joy and hope in Jesus. A socially an
example that we have in our world today that's opposed
to the way of Jesus is our consumerism. Our culture
teaches you want safety, you want comfort, then you need more.
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You need more money, you need more experiences, you need
more stuff. But the way Jesus says, be content, be generous.
I need you feeling like you're empty so I can
turn a prophet. And Jesus says, I need you to
know that you're full, so that you can follow my way.
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To be selfishly consumed with what I want, my safety,
my comfort, my point of view, without considering other people.
That's not of Christ religiously. One example that's the post
of the way of Jesus in our Western world today
is far sense of individualism. I don't want to submit
to you. I will not go fifty five miles an
hour and four sixty five. Our culture is one that says, listen,
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whatever is good for you, that's right. Whatever is good
for you is right. We long to make moral standards
for ourselves. Instead of allowing the Lord to have control.
We struggle to submit to God. Our culture does not
like that. Jesus says, if any of you wants to
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be my follower, you must give up your own way,
take up your cross, and follow me. We don't like that.
We'll put it on a coffee mug, but we won't
put it in our heart. We do not like that.
Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you. We think that's a nice sentiment, but we
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rarely practice it. We do not like that. Jesus says,
if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out,
throw it away. It's better to enter eternal life with
only one eye than to have two eyes. We thrown
it through the fire of hell. We don't like that
at all. We don't like that. Jesus says, I am
the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life.
No one comes with the Father except through me. Our
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culture does not want to submit to the rule and
reign of Jesus. Friends, your heart, your flesh, my heart,
my flesh. I do not want to submit to the
rule and reign of Jesus. Left to my own devices,
without the power of the Holy Spirit, I won't. I
need the redemptive touch of God's love to restore me,
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to redeem me, and that redemptive touch isn't found in
the way that our world is operating. Our sense of
individualism is opposed to the posture of the submission and
the surrender that we must have in order to follow Christ.
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To follow Jesus is to face opposition both externally and
the world that we live, and eternally internally. In my
own heart, I see it out there and I see
it in here. The way of the world is not
the way of Christ. We have to consider how we're
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being discipled by our culture to believe and to do
certain things. We hear those messages over and over and
over again, and we hear them so much that they
become normative. We have to take every thought captive for Christ,
submitting ourselves over to His kingdom. We have to say
to our culture what Peter and John say to the
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Sanhedron in verse nineteen, which is right in God's eyes,
to listen to you or to him, you be the judge.
As for us, we can't help speaking about what we've
seen and heard. That's what we have to say to
the world that we live. The Gospel challenges the power
structures of this world externally and internally. We cannot wield
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the weapons of this world and build God's kingdom. A
second observation that the Holy Spirit empowers us to courageously
place our hope in Jesus Verse five vertecks the next
day the rulers. The elder is the teacher of the
law they met in Jerusalem, and Us the High Priest
was there, so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others in
the High Priest's family. They had Peter and John brought
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before them. They began to question them, by what power
or by what name did you do this? Then Peter
filled what the Holy Spirit said to them. Rulers and
elders of the people. If we're being called to account
today for the act of kindness shown to a man
who is lame, were being 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,
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whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead,
that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the
stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation
is found in no one else, for there's no other
name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must
be saved. The very first thing I want us to
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notice here is that Peter is addressing the exact same
group of people who murdered Jesus. These are the same
people who two months ago arrested Jesus, had him brought
before him, slapped him in the face, handed him over
to the Romans to be killed. These are the same people.
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Our text says Annis, the High Priest, was there, so
was Caiaphas. While in the account of the Passion when
Jesus was arrested, betrayed and tried in John eighteen, we
read the soldiers, their commanding officer, the temple guards arrested Jesus.
They tied him up first, they took him to Annis,
since he was the father in law of Caiphus, the
High priest at that time. These are the same people.
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Let's think about how Peter handled this situation two months ago.
Two months as Jesus was on trial in front of
the Sanhedron, Peter was there, but he was hiding in
the courtyard. He was hiding his connection with Christ. He
denied even knowing Jesus to the servants of the High Priest.
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But in our Textaday we see Peter speaking clearly and
confidently about his allegiance to Jesus, to the very same
people who put Jesus to death. He went from hiding
from the servants to laying himself bare before the Sanhedron,
and a span of two months On top of this,
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Peter went out of his way to make sure that
everyone knew with precision and clarity, that he was speaking
about Jesus, that Jesus is the source of the power
of that miracle. Verse ten, he says, know this, you
and all the people of Israel. It is by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucify. There's
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two very important details, like I want to make sure
that you know who I'm talking about, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the guy you crucified, the guy that God raised from
the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He
gave extreme precision and clarity, like this is who is
this power source of this miracle? Two months ago, Peter's
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hiding in the courtyard. Now he's standing in front of
the Sanhedron, placing himself square in the crosshairs of the
very people who murdered Christ. So the question for us
is what happened? How did that happen? The answer sound
in verse eight, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,
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Filled with the Holy Spirit, didn't say, then Peter really
reving himself up and motivating himself to do the right thing.
So Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. His confidence was
a direct result of the Spirit's presence in his life,
of him submitting himself over to God. Boldness that's in
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line with God's kingdom. Boldness that does not wield contempt
and dehumanizing aggression like we see the Sanhedrin doing in
our text today. They're wielding contempt, They're wielding dehumanizing aggression.
Boldness that's in line with God's Kingdom. Its power sources
the Holy Spirit. Friends, hear me on this. I'm not
saying try harder. I'm saying give up. Stop trying so hard.
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Allow Jesus to do what Jesus does. Give him your heart,
give him your allegiance. Christ himself promises us this, and
Luke twenty one, he says, make up your mind not
to worry beforehand how you're going to defend yourself. I'll
give you the words and the wisdom that none of
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your adversaris will able to resist or contradict. Jesus say, hey,
make up your mind beforehand, just to trust me. I
want us to pay special attention to that promise to
Jesus in our lives. So the hope that we have
when we take God out his word when we submit
ourselves over to him. When we do that in the
face of opposition, then we can know, we can rest
assured that God is with us, He's guiding us. He
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will illuminate the way that we have to live. And
it's not something that God's saying, hey, you'll figure it out.
He's saying, I'll do it for you. This is cultivated
through prayer, as we're going to see in the second
half of Acts chapter four. When we get there the
face of opposition, the Holy Spirit, he will give us
the words to say that's in line with God's kingdom.
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So if I'm struggling to say words that are in
line with God's kingdom in the face of opposition, maybe
what I need to do is just slow down, just
spend more time with the Holy Spirit, allow him to
do the work that he does, and standing up for
what you know is right. You're not called to be passive,
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you're not called to pull punches. You're called to be
loving and full of joy, full of hope. You're called
to be an ambassador to the good news of Jesus
Christ that has completely redeemed your life. And when we
are when we're this mixture of love and wisdom, pointing
people to Jesus. People will be amazed at you, in
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the same way that the sanhedron is amazed at Peter
and John. Probably the most important verse of the day,
verse thirteen. When they saw the courage of Peter and John,
they realized that these were unschooled, ordinary men. They were astonished.
They took note that these men have been with Jesus.
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What did they take note of? These people have been
with Jesus. To call on your life is to live
in a way that shows how I've been with Jesus.
Our calls to astonish people by the Gospel as it's
oozing out of our life. The strategy of this world,
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the strategy of your flesh, your sort of if I
take my hands off the wheel where I'm going to
naturally drift. The strategy of the world is contempt and aggression.
This is clearly seen in our text. Contempt. These are ignorant, unlearned,
ordinary unschooled. These are unimportant people. These are people that
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are beneath me. I am better than these people. I
am right when compared to these people. Contempt aggression verse
twenty one. They threaten them with violence, stop speaking in
the name of Jesus. Contempt, aggression, that's the way the world,
That's the way you're flesh. Follow Jesus. To do the opposite,
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especially with those we disagree with, leverage the joy and
the hope of God's kingdom. Peter and John, they weren't passive.
They stood up for what they knew was right. They
spoke the truth. But they continue to put the spotlight
on Jesus. They elevated the goodness of Jesus. They kept saying,
don't look at me, look at Jesus. So, friends, oppose
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things that you know are not of God's kingdom, go
for it, But for the love of God, would you
elevate his rule and reign as you go about opposing it?
Will you please elevate the rule and reign of Jesus.
I want your opposition to highlight the joy and the
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hope that you have, not the contempt and the outrage.
To successfully navigate opposition, you must always elevate Jesus and
the face of disagreement, elevate Jesus and the face of
political tension. Elevate Jesus. As you certainly stand against which
you know is wrong, elevate Jesus. I don't know how
you do that. I'm pretty sure that the Holy Spirit
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is going to give you the words to do that.
So just make up your mind ahead of time that
I'm going to be about the business of Jesus. So
as we start to transition to a time of communion,
a time of remembering the joy and the hope that
we really do have because of the finished work of
Jesus Christ on the cross, the finished work of Jesus Christ.
You hear me say that a lot, it's finished. That's
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what he said, It's finished. As we transition into a
time of remembering and celebrating that, let's close our time
of teaching by praying together. So God, I repent. I
repent of all the ways that I have violated the
very things I'm encouraging people to do today. Lord, did
you know it? God? I pray for this room that
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you give everyone the courage to just allow allow the
Holy spirits work of self discovery to occur, that we
would lay ourselves down, bear before your feet and say,
not my will, but your will be done. Lord, May
you give us the heart of Christ. Will you help
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us to consider how he dealt with opposition so he
did it in a way that always elevated your kingdom,
your will, your way. So give us excitement that we
are your kids. We are not slaves of fear. We
love you. We need your help. See in your name,
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I pray Amen.
So at the height of the Cold War in nineteen
seventy seven, as the USA and the Soviet Union were
competing with each other to have more and more nuclear
weapons when compared to the other country. At the height
of this a professor, a mathematics professor by the name
of Robert Axelrod, developed a tournament for people to compete
in to enter that sort of mimics the Cold War,
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except they were submitting a computer code. Axelrod was very
interested in a newly formed branch of mathematics called game theory,
and if you've ever seen the movie A Beautiful Mind
about the life of John Nash, John Nash was instrumental,
very influential in developing that field. Game theory is really
the study of mathematical models or strategic interactions, namely in
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competitive situations. So what game theory is interested in is
having a model that can represent interactions where people could
either decide to cooperate or sort of defect betray each other.
My favorite example of game theory at work is why
for sixty five has a speed limit of fifty five
miles an hour. Now, most people jack you rightly understand
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that one of the reasons that speed limit exists is
just for the safety of drivers, that's one reason, but
another reason is actually for traffic flow as well. So
like the faster you're moving in a car, the more
distance there has to be between cars in order to
safely travel. So that means if cars are going really quickly,
you can't have as many cars on the road at
the same time. So fifty five miles an hour has
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been a number that's been calculated said, well, this is safe,
and it's also fast enough that people are going to
be okay traveling at that speed, and it can have
enough volume on the road to get cars where they're going.
So what that means is if we all cooperated, if
we all would just go the speed limit on four
to sixty five, then on average we would all get
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to where we're going faster. But we are fiercely independent people.
I don't care about how fast you get to your destination.
I care about how fast I get to my destination.
So defect we just decide, well, I'm just gonna break
the law and I'm gonna I'm gonna drive faster because
I care about how fast I can get there. So
(02:08):
actual Rod he developed this tournament with the hopes that
some some contestant might submit a computer program, a computer
code that would somehow show a path forward out of
the cyclical trap of the nuclear arms race. If both
countries developed this strategy, well then maybe there's a path
forward for us. Is this tournament that has famously become
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known as the Prisoner's Dilemma. That there's a show in
England about Split or Steel with these little golden balls
that they open up. If you've ever seen that before.
If not, it's a pretty obscure game show, but it's
a fairly popular idea, this Prisoner's Dilemma. So here's how
this game works. It's basically glorified paper rock scissors, but
with only two choices. You're gonna decide if you're gonna
cooperate or defect. That's it. So you you write this
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computer code that's gonna decide if it's gonna cooperate it
or defect, and then it's gonna face off against another
code and like both at the same time, you decide
if you're going to cooperate or defect. So if both
if both teams decide to cooperate, then both teams get
three points. If both teams decide to defect to betray
the other team, both teams only get one point, but
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if one decides to cooperate and the other decides to defect, well,
then the person who decided to cooperate you get nothing
and the defector gets five points. So like the betrayer,
like the most points you could possibly get is betraying
while someone else is cooperates. So that's the rules of
the game. So there's fourteen entries into this tournament, and
each program would would play the other program a total
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of two hundred rounds. So my program would play this
one two hundred times, then this one two hundred times,
and whoever have massed the most points at the end
of this tournament would be the winner. Coincidentally, there were
seven nice strategies and seven nasty strategies that were submitted.
I'll explain more about that in the moment, but the
huge surprise is that the top six scoring teams, the
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highest six were all nice strategies. To be a nice strategy,
he had to be two things. You had to be cooperative,
which means that you would not be the first to defect.
That if you cooperate with me, I'll continue to cooperate
with you. You had to be cooperative and you had
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to be forgiving, which means if I cooperate with you
and you defect, then I will return to cooperating with you.
If you return to cooperating with me, I won't hold
a grudge. Those are the two things for a nice strategy,
cooperative and forgiving. So to be a nice strategy, you
didn't just have to cooperate all the time, like you're
not a doormat. You would stand up for yourself. You
would defect, but you would forgive. The top six strategies
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being nice. That was extremely counterintuitive result for Axelrod. He
did not anticipate this at all. It seemed to him
at the outset that the most successful strategies were going
to be the ones that were clever enough to defect
enough times to get five point it's without getting caught.
That's what he thought would happen. And commenting on these results,
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actual Rob pointed out how the USA and the USSR,
where they were not cooperating, they were not nice strategies.
These were both defecting from each other. I'm amassing my
nuclear weapons, you're amassing your nuclear weapons. We continue to
defect we're just we're escalating things more and more and more.
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In fact, the USA alone spent about twenty six trillion
dollars in today's money during the Cold War just on
nuclear weapons. Imagine what we could have done with that money. Eventually,
the way out of the Cold War was through cooperation, right.
There was this reduction of arms if I'll cooperate with you,
if you cooperate with me, if you reduce your nuclear weapons,
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I'll reduce mind. And there was checks and balances to
make sure that both those eggs were happening. So here's
why I bring this up. In our text today, we
see a perfect example of how to do what we
were talking about last week. So we've hit pause on
the Book of Acts last week and we looked at
a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. What we
were talking about last week. Today is a perfect illustration
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of how to do what we talked about. We see
Peter and John standing up for what's right, for what
they know is good and true, and how they're doing
this is in line with God's kingdom. Our text today
is like a case study from last week. So in
case you missed it, I was making an observation that
I see an awful lot of Christ followers standing up
for what they know is right, but in a way
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that is not in line with God's kingdom at all.
Like they're standing up for what they believe is true,
but they look nothing like Jesus as they're doing it.
So that cannot be the way forward. You cannot build
God's kingdom by wielding the weapons of this world. That
was the entire point I was trying to challenge us
with last time. Today's a case study of that. Today's
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text is a perfect picture of how to oppose something
and at the same time remain rooted in the hope
and joy of God's kingdom. It's counterintuitive that being cooperative
and forgiving while at the same time refusing to be
a pushover. It's counterintuitive that that is the best way
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to stand up for what's right in your devones because
of your flesh. The way of Jesus is counterintuitive. It
doesn't feel like the best way forward. We can't wield
the weapons of this world, weapons of aggression, hatred, insults, defections, betrayal.
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We can't wield those weapons and build God's kingdom. The
way of Jesus is counterintuitive to the world. God's kingdom
is one of love, patience, forgiveness, generosity. So we must
wield love, patience, forgiveness generals as we're showing others what
we believe is right, as we stand up assertively for
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what we believe in. So before we get into today's text,
on your tables, you have a copy of our of
our text today. So what I want to do before
we go any further is I want to give you
some time as individuals to read the text again through
the lens of what we spoke about last week. I
want you to read the text and look at how
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Peter and John stand up for what they believe is right.
I want you to see how they speak to those
they oppose. Listen for how they're not passive in their beliefs,
yet they never wield anger, hatred, that kind of thing
that they that they look like Jesus says they do it.
So again, spend the next few moments as individuals. You
could take those with you so you can write all
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over if you want to make notes. If there's not
enough at your table, there'll probably be another one around you.
So let's spend the next couple minutes just rereading our
text today through the lens of what we talked about
last week. So Peter and John are not passive in
our text today. They aren't pushovers. They spoke the truth.
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They even risked offending those that they were speaking to.
But their motivation was not to tear down the people
they were talking to, showing contempt and like disdain for
you disagree with me. Their motivation was to elevate Jesus.
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That was their entire motivation. The entire time, their focus
was on Christ and his goodness, and they elevated him.
So this is our big idea for our time together today.
If we take nothing else out to successfully navigate opposition,
elevate Jesus. If you want to know how to successfully
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navigate opposition disagreements when you're not seeing eye to eye
with someone, even if you believe they are way off
track thatead of tearing them down showing showing how small
they are, elevate Christ and show how big he is.
What Aiden was talking about, how large God really is,
how much his goodness looms. Two observations from our time
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together today as we look at the text. First is
that the Gospel will always challenge the power structures of
the world. It will always create opposition. The Gospel, when
clearly presented, when clearly lived out, will create opposition. The
Gospel is counterintuitive to how the world works. Second, the
Holy Spirit empowers us to create courageously place our hope
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in Jesus in the face of that opposition. It's by
the power of the Holy Spirit, not by our own wits,
not by our own cleverness, not by your own study.
It's by the power of the Holy Spirit, depending on
God with us, that we can place our hope of
Jesus in the face of opposition. God is going to
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is present. He teaches us to stay the course even
the world's being nasty, even when it's being uncooperative, to
successfully navigate opposition, elevate Jesus. So that's what we're gonna
look out this morning, and our text make some mapps, observations,
applications to our lives. So as we're preparing to do that,
let's first pause and pray. So God, thank you for
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what you continue to do in our hearts. That we
aren't slaves of fear, but we're child your children. Lord.
Thank you for that good news. Thank you for the
zealousness that you've put within us for the goodness of
Your kingdom. God, continue to refine us into people that
live out the Gospel, that share it with other people,
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not as a sales pitch, Lord, but as a very
way of life. Everything about us is rooted in the
joy and the hope of your Kingdom. Teach us to
be people who don't go have to go out of
our way to figure out out how to speak about
your Son, but who are rooted in your Son to
such a degree that we can share the hope that
we have with you in the relationships that we are
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naturally forming in life. Do we need your help, Holy Spirit,
We know it's not by our power, but only by
You and your indwelling presence. Teach us to hear your
still small voice and to pay attention. So your name,
I pray God, Amen. So first, the Gospel challenges the
power structures of this world. The Gospel will create opposition.
Verse one of our texts. The priests and the cabinet
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of the Temple guard and the Sadducees came up to
Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the
people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They
seized Peter John because it was evening. They put him
into jail until the next day. But many who heard
the message believed, so the number of men who believed
grew to about five thousand. There's three specific people groups
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that are listed in our texts as those who are
opposing Peter and John. There's the priests, the temple guard,
and the sadducees. Let's zoom in on each one of
these briefly. Versus the priests, these were the elite members
of the Jewish society. They were the important people with
political power. They were at the center of the Jewish
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way of life. How they interpreted and applied God's law
went through the priesthood. It dictated how the nation would operate.
This is the government the government. Because of this, the
priests were politically opposed to the Gospel. They did not
like what Peter and John were saying about Jesus for
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political reasons. They were the ones in charge, and the
message of Jesus threatened that the finished work of Jesus Christ.
This lessened their stranglehold on the power and importance that
they had because if this news takes root, then they
would no longer be at the center of public life.
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Jesus and his kingdom would be so Peter and John
they were threat to the priest's sense of prestige. Regardless
of what they were saying was true or not. You're
a threat to my power. The priests were politically opposed
to the Gospel. The good news of Jesus threatened their power.
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The second was the captain of the Temple Guard. This
is like the temple police, the head of security. They
were in charge of law and order. They were socially
opposed to the Gospel. They were worried about losing their
job because a riot might break out. Theologian William Barclay
says this, if the apostles were allowed to teach about
Jesus unchecked, riots and civil disorder might follow, with disastrous
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consequences from Rome. This is why Peter and John were
promptly arrested. It is a terrible example of a party
of men who, in order to retain their vested interest,
would not themselves listen to the truth or give anyone
else a chance to hear it. Peter and John threatened
their comfort. Things were working well for them. They were
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benef fitting from Rome being in power. They didn't want
to rock that boat, the captain of the Temple guard.
They were opposed to the Gospel for social reasons. The
good news of Jesus threatened their comfort. Then there's the Sadducees.
They were theologically opposed to the Gospel. This is a
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sect of Jews of the Jewish priesthood who did not
believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe in any resurrection,
Like when you die, that's it, game over. That's what
they believed. So this message that Jesus was raised from
the dead and is through his power this man is
being healed, Well, that can't be right. They had their
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mind made up about the truth already. They had no
room for being challenged. They had no capacity to grow
to change. The good news of Jesus would shake their
worldview way too much. So the miraculous healing was terrified them,
Like what if I'm wrong about how life in general works?
What if Jesus really was raised from the dead. Verse nine.
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Peter says, we're being called to account today for an
act of kindness shown to a man who is lame,
and we're being asked how he was healed. It's like
Peter saying, can you at least agree with me? How
irrational this is that I was arrested? Like, we went
out of our way to do a good thing. We
healed a man, and our reward is that we're arrested.
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How irrational is that the man was healed. The Sadducees
couldn't argue that. They don't argue that in our text. Today,
all we see them doing is trying to intimidate Peter
and John to stop teaching about Jesus. That's all we
see them doing. We don't see them making a case
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against why what they're saying is wrong. We see them
intimidating and say shut up. Regardless of what the facts were,
they were wilfully ignorant so that they didn't have to
change life made sense. I don't want things to change.
I'm just gonna bury my head in the sand. I'm
just gonna keep walking this way. The Sadducees were religiously
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opposed to the finished work of Jesus. The good news
of Jesus threatened their beliefs. Darryl Bach, a commentator, said
the Apostles teaching was politically socially and religiously destabilizing to
the relatively good relationship with Rome that the Jewish leadership had.
So we can think about this like the priests. Is
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a bit reductionistic, but we can think about this way.
The priests, they were politically opposed. You are threatening my
power with the News of Jesus. My power is being threatened.
The Temple guard, they're socially opposed. You're threatening my comfort.
The Sadducees are religiously opposed. You're threatening my beliefs. In
other words, the Gospel is always offensive to those who
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are benefiting from how the world is currently working. Whether
the gospel's made known, whenever that happens, opposition will always arise.
It will arise from those with power, with wealth, with prestige,
with comfort. It'll arise from those who don't want the
world to change. Frankly, change is not something that you
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and I like, We want others to change. We want
to maintain the power, the comfort, the belief system that
we have. We want to decide for ourselves how I'm
going to live. And anyone who gets in the way
of that, anyone who disagrees with the way that I
view the world you need to step off. That includes God,
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this is how I'm going to live, and anything that threatens.
When we make up our mind that way, we feels
like it is in opposition to us. It is an
opposition to us. The Gospel challenges the power structures of
this world. It also challenges are unconscious allegiance and dependence
on those power structures. You see, two thousand years later,
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not a lot has changed the power structures of our
world today, and every nook and cranny on both sides
of the political isle, in local, federal, like everywhere, there's
still corruption and self interest, willful ignorance to the truth.
The way of the world is still the way of
the world, the way of Jesus, the good News of
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His kingdom. This is still being opposed for political and
social and religious reasons by our world today. There are political, social,
and religious reasons that tempt us to resist the way
of Jesus. Even as his followers, we still have this
temptation to resist his way. There's things that we subconsciously
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allowed to have power in our lives that drown out
the voice of the Holy Spirit. We swim in the
water of our society, we swim in the water of
our culture. Sometimes it feels so normal that we don't
even pay attention that this is how I think, this
is what I do, this is what I value. Politically,
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one example from our culture today is the sensationalized media.
The sensatialized media has a tendency to drown out the
voice of the Holy Spirit. The current political climate is
opposed to the gospel because everyone, regardless of what they believe,
needs your attention. They need your outrage, they need your
(20:39):
hysteria to turn a profit. They want you on the
edge of your seat at each other's throat because then
you keep tuning in. They need your attention. Our culture
is teaching us to place our hope into a political ideology,
whatever that might be, instead of the unshakable and eternal
kingdom of Jesus, to get swept along by that outrage,
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of that panic that will always come at a cost
of your joy and hope in Jesus. A socially an
example that we have in our world today that's opposed
to the way of Jesus is our consumerism. Our culture
teaches you want safety, you want comfort, then you need more.
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You need more money, you need more experiences, you need
more stuff. But the way Jesus says, be content, be generous.
I need you feeling like you're empty so I can
turn a prophet. And Jesus says, I need you to
know that you're full, so that you can follow my way.
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To be selfishly consumed with what I want, my safety,
my comfort, my point of view, without considering other people.
That's not of Christ religiously. One example that's the post
of the way of Jesus in our Western world today
is far sense of individualism. I don't want to submit
to you. I will not go fifty five miles an
hour and four sixty five. Our culture is one that says, listen,
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whatever is good for you, that's right. Whatever is good
for you is right. We long to make moral standards
for ourselves. Instead of allowing the Lord to have control.
We struggle to submit to God. Our culture does not
like that. Jesus says, if any of you wants to
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be my follower, you must give up your own way,
take up your cross, and follow me. We don't like that.
We'll put it on a coffee mug, but we won't
put it in our heart. We do not like that.
Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you. We think that's a nice sentiment, but we
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rarely practice it. We do not like that. Jesus says,
if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out,
throw it away. It's better to enter eternal life with
only one eye than to have two eyes. We thrown
it through the fire of hell. We don't like that
at all. We don't like that. Jesus says, I am
the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life.
No one comes with the Father except through me. Our
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culture does not want to submit to the rule and
reign of Jesus. Friends, your heart, your flesh, my heart,
my flesh. I do not want to submit to the
rule and reign of Jesus. Left to my own devices,
without the power of the Holy Spirit, I won't. I
need the redemptive touch of God's love to restore me,
(23:38):
to redeem me, and that redemptive touch isn't found in
the way that our world is operating. Our sense of
individualism is opposed to the posture of the submission and
the surrender that we must have in order to follow Christ.
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To follow Jesus is to face opposition both externally and
the world that we live, and eternally internally. In my
own heart, I see it out there and I see
it in here. The way of the world is not
the way of Christ. We have to consider how we're
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being discipled by our culture to believe and to do
certain things. We hear those messages over and over and
over again, and we hear them so much that they
become normative. We have to take every thought captive for Christ,
submitting ourselves over to His kingdom. We have to say
to our culture what Peter and John say to the
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Sanhedron in verse nineteen, which is right in God's eyes,
to listen to you or to him, you be the judge.
As for us, we can't help speaking about what we've
seen and heard. That's what we have to say to
the world that we live. The Gospel challenges the power
structures of this world externally and internally. We cannot wield
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the weapons of this world and build God's kingdom. A
second observation that the Holy Spirit empowers us to courageously
place our hope in Jesus Verse five vertecks the next
day the rulers. The elder is the teacher of the
law they met in Jerusalem, and Us the High Priest
was there, so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others in
the High Priest's family. They had Peter and John brought
(25:29):
before them. They began to question them, by what power
or by what name did you do this? Then Peter
filled what the Holy Spirit said to them. Rulers and
elders of the people. If we're being called to account
today for the act of kindness shown to a man
who is lame, were being 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,
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whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead,
that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the
stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation
is found in no one else, for there's no other
name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must
be saved. The very first thing I want us to
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notice here is that Peter is addressing the exact same
group of people who murdered Jesus. These are the same
people who two months ago arrested Jesus, had him brought
before him, slapped him in the face, handed him over
to the Romans to be killed. These are the same people.
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Our text says Annis, the High Priest, was there, so
was Caiaphas. While in the account of the Passion when
Jesus was arrested, betrayed and tried in John eighteen, we
read the soldiers, their commanding officer, the temple guards arrested Jesus.
They tied him up first, they took him to Annis,
since he was the father in law of Caiphus, the
High priest at that time. These are the same people.
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Let's think about how Peter handled this situation two months ago.
Two months as Jesus was on trial in front of
the Sanhedron, Peter was there, but he was hiding in
the courtyard. He was hiding his connection with Christ. He
denied even knowing Jesus to the servants of the High Priest.
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But in our Textaday we see Peter speaking clearly and
confidently about his allegiance to Jesus, to the very same
people who put Jesus to death. He went from hiding
from the servants to laying himself bare before the Sanhedron,
and a span of two months On top of this,
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Peter went out of his way to make sure that
everyone knew with precision and clarity, that he was speaking
about Jesus, that Jesus is the source of the power
of that miracle. Verse ten, he says, know this, you
and all the people of Israel. It is by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucify. There's
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two very important details, like I want to make sure
that you know who I'm talking about, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the guy you crucified, the guy that God raised from
the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He
gave extreme precision and clarity, like this is who is
this power source of this miracle? Two months ago, Peter's
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hiding in the courtyard. Now he's standing in front of
the Sanhedron, placing himself square in the crosshairs of the
very people who murdered Christ. So the question for us
is what happened? How did that happen? The answer sound
in verse eight, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,
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Filled with the Holy Spirit, didn't say, then Peter really
reving himself up and motivating himself to do the right thing.
So Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. His confidence was
a direct result of the Spirit's presence in his life,
of him submitting himself over to God. Boldness that's in
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line with God's kingdom. Boldness that does not wield contempt
and dehumanizing aggression like we see the Sanhedrin doing in
our text today. They're wielding contempt, They're wielding dehumanizing aggression.
Boldness that's in line with God's Kingdom. Its power sources
the Holy Spirit. Friends, hear me on this. I'm not
saying try harder. I'm saying give up. Stop trying so hard.
(29:39):
Allow Jesus to do what Jesus does. Give him your heart,
give him your allegiance. Christ himself promises us this, and
Luke twenty one, he says, make up your mind not
to worry beforehand how you're going to defend yourself. I'll
give you the words and the wisdom that none of
(30:01):
your adversaris will able to resist or contradict. Jesus say, hey,
make up your mind beforehand, just to trust me. I
want us to pay special attention to that promise to
Jesus in our lives. So the hope that we have
when we take God out his word when we submit
ourselves over to him. When we do that in the
face of opposition, then we can know, we can rest
assured that God is with us, He's guiding us. He
(30:26):
will illuminate the way that we have to live. And
it's not something that God's saying, hey, you'll figure it out.
He's saying, I'll do it for you. This is cultivated
through prayer, as we're going to see in the second
half of Acts chapter four. When we get there the
face of opposition, the Holy Spirit, he will give us
the words to say that's in line with God's kingdom.
(30:50):
So if I'm struggling to say words that are in
line with God's kingdom in the face of opposition, maybe
what I need to do is just slow down, just
spend more time with the Holy Spirit, allow him to
do the work that he does, and standing up for
what you know is right. You're not called to be passive,
(31:10):
you're not called to pull punches. You're called to be
loving and full of joy, full of hope. You're called
to be an ambassador to the good news of Jesus
Christ that has completely redeemed your life. And when we
are when we're this mixture of love and wisdom, pointing
people to Jesus. People will be amazed at you, in
(31:31):
the same way that the sanhedron is amazed at Peter
and John. Probably the most important verse of the day,
verse thirteen. When they saw the courage of Peter and John,
they realized that these were unschooled, ordinary men. They were astonished.
They took note that these men have been with Jesus.
(31:52):
What did they take note of? These people have been
with Jesus. To call on your life is to live
in a way that shows how I've been with Jesus.
Our calls to astonish people by the Gospel as it's
oozing out of our life. The strategy of this world,
(32:16):
the strategy of your flesh, your sort of if I
take my hands off the wheel where I'm going to
naturally drift. The strategy of the world is contempt and aggression.
This is clearly seen in our text. Contempt. These are ignorant, unlearned,
ordinary unschooled. These are unimportant people. These are people that
(32:36):
are beneath me. I am better than these people. I
am right when compared to these people. Contempt aggression verse
twenty one. They threaten them with violence, stop speaking in
the name of Jesus. Contempt, aggression, that's the way the world,
That's the way you're flesh. Follow Jesus. To do the opposite,
(32:58):
especially with those we disagree with, leverage the joy and
the hope of God's kingdom. Peter and John, they weren't passive.
They stood up for what they knew was right. They
spoke the truth. But they continue to put the spotlight
on Jesus. They elevated the goodness of Jesus. They kept saying,
don't look at me, look at Jesus. So, friends, oppose
(33:18):
things that you know are not of God's kingdom, go
for it, But for the love of God, would you
elevate his rule and reign as you go about opposing it?
Will you please elevate the rule and reign of Jesus.
I want your opposition to highlight the joy and the
(33:41):
hope that you have, not the contempt and the outrage.
To successfully navigate opposition, you must always elevate Jesus and
the face of disagreement, elevate Jesus and the face of
political tension. Elevate Jesus. As you certainly stand against which
you know is wrong, elevate Jesus. I don't know how
you do that. I'm pretty sure that the Holy Spirit
(34:03):
is going to give you the words to do that.
So just make up your mind ahead of time that
I'm going to be about the business of Jesus. So
as we start to transition to a time of communion,
a time of remembering the joy and the hope that
we really do have because of the finished work of
Jesus Christ on the cross, the finished work of Jesus Christ.
You hear me say that a lot, it's finished. That's
(34:25):
what he said, It's finished. As we transition into a
time of remembering and celebrating that, let's close our time
of teaching by praying together. So God, I repent. I
repent of all the ways that I have violated the
very things I'm encouraging people to do today. Lord, did
you know it? God? I pray for this room that
(34:48):
you give everyone the courage to just allow allow the
Holy spirits work of self discovery to occur, that we
would lay ourselves down, bear before your feet and say,
not my will, but your will be done. Lord, May
you give us the heart of Christ. Will you help
(35:12):
us to consider how he dealt with opposition so he
did it in a way that always elevated your kingdom,
your will, your way. So give us excitement that we
are your kids. We are not slaves of fear. We
love you. We need your help. See in your name,
(35:34):
I pray Amen.
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