Acts 4 Explained: No Other Name — Only Jesus Saves

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, away we go again, and I'm going to take you right back to where we left off in the closing verses of chapter 3 of the book of Acts. Then we're ready to go into chapter 4. And for those of you in television, again, if you're just tuning in, remember we're just an informal Bible class. We're not a denominational group. We don't have any, what shall I say, no underwritten, and we just depend on God's people. And again, I just always like to let you know how we appreciate your letters, your little short notes of encouragement. And as I said earlier, nothing thrills me more than when you write and say that you're finally understanding what the Bible has been all about and not to change a thing. I guess that's what I like as well as anything. Just keep doing what we've been doing, and we're going to keep it simple, and we're going to keep it low budget, and we're going to take every dollar that comes in and purchase television time. I have never really advertised it, but for those of you who are not aware, we are on a station in Colorado, another station in Minnesota, a station in Indianapolis, Roanoke, Virginia. And satellite, that course reaches coast to coast, and we are getting listeners from almost every corner of the country. And the other day we were approached about another station, and if funds become available, we'll probably take a good look at that one. But anyway, we never go any further than what the Lord has provided. All right, now if you'll come with me then to Acts chapter 3, as we closed our last program. Peter, this is still shortly after Pentecost, is still addressing, if you watch the language, don't have to take my word for it, just watch the language, he's addressing the nation of Israel. And as we saw in our closing moments of the last half hour, he's still on covenant ground. Now when I say on covenant ground, I stressed that Abrahamic covenant when I was back there in Genesis for weeks on end. Because I found out in my own study that until I realized that the Abrahamic covenant was really the bedrock of everything that God has been doing in order to redeem mankind. After 2,000 years of a hopeless race of humanity coming out of Adam, destroyed in the flood, went right back into paganism at the Tower of Babel, then finally God in so many words and exasperation I think, at 2,000 B.C. said, I'm going to do something totally different. I'm going to call out one man. And out of that one man I'm going to bring me a little nation. And I'm going to work through that little nation, I'm going to prepare them, and through them I will take salvation then back to the whole mainstream of humanity. And that of course was basically the Abrahamic covenant. That he promised Abraham a nation of people, he would put them in a geographical area of land, and then at the appropriate time he would bring them their king, their government, give them their kingdom. And Israel could be the evangelization of the nations. But Israel rejected all that when they crucified and killed their king. But God hasn't given up on them. I think this is what you have to see in these early chapters of Acts. We like to normally think that as soon as Israel crucified the Christ, God was through with them and turned to the Gentiles. But He didn't. And that's why I'm constantly showing you from the Scriptures that Peter is still pleading with the nation of Israel. The one you killed was the one you should have accepted as your king, but God raised him from the dead, God has called him back to glory, and God is ready to send him back and still be your king, if you'll just believe that that's who He is. Now I'll pick that up in our closing remarks in our last program, in verse 25 of Acts 3, where Peter says to the nation, You are the children of the prophets, and put in the word children, you are the children of the covenant, which God made with our fathers, remember Peter is just as Jewish as the rest of them, which He made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Now, in the seed of Abraham, we can also go all the way back to Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman. And who was the seed of the woman? Who was the seed of Abraham? Well, the Christ. See, so this was all tied all the way back as part of God's plan of redemption for the whole human race. But it was going to be through the nation of Israel, and Peter is pleading with them. You're the covenant people. Believe it. Accept Him as your King and as your Messiah, and God would yet send Him. Then verse 26, Unto you first. See how plain that is? That's not gobbledygook. That's plain. Peter says to Israel, Unto you first, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, send Him to bless you in turning away. Now, I told you I'd point this out when we got here. How many of them? Every one. See, that was the secret. Every Jew had to believe and be converted and understand that Jesus was the Christ. They could have had the Tribulation and the King and the Kingdom just that quick. And then they could have evangelized the whole Gentile world as the Old Testament prophesied. And as I've showed you so often from Zechariah, then ten men out of the nation shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. And what would they say? We'll go with you, the Jew, because we have heard that God is with you. And where would He be? In Jerusalem. But Israel rejected all that. And so it all fell through the cracks. Temporarily, Israel is still going to have her day in the sun, but in the meantime, God has now been dealing with us Gentiles. But here is the secret. Every one of you have to be turned from your iniquities. All right? Let's move into chapter 4. And as they speak unto the people, that is again the Jewish nation, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees. What are all those? Well, they're all Jews. See? Every one of them. There's no arguing there. There are no Gentiles involved in the temple priests and in the Sadducees and the Pharisees and what have you. Verse 2. They were grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Now we have to be careful here, especially the Sadducees. You picked that up back in the Gospels, in Christ's earthly ministry. What did the Sadducees believe? No resurrection from the dead. You lived like an animal and you died like an animal. That was their doctrine. Now, here is the one group that are most concerned about Peter's preaching that Christ is alive and is yet able to come and be their King. The Sadducees. Because they didn't believe in resurrection. And so they're coming at Peter. How dare you teach something that flies in the face of our doctrine? There's no such thing as someone coming back from the dead. All right? So what did they do? Verse 3. They laid hands on them, that is on Peter, and I don't know if they're all of them, but anyway, the disciples, and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed. And the number of the men was about 5,000. Now we've got a fair number of Jewish believers at this time. 3,000 in chapter 2, others in the interim, and now we've got the figure of 5,000. So we've got a few thousand, but look, out of several million people, how many is that? Just precious few. It's just a sprinkling. All right, now verses 5 through 12. We'll just sort of skim, because here we have Peter and the others arrested. And now the rulers and the elders and the scribes in verse 5 and then verse 6, Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them, that is Peter and the others, when they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power, or by what, what's the next word? By what name, see that? By what name have you done this? In other words, performed a miracle on this layman. That's still the point of controversy. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, now again watch who he's talking to. That's all I'm asking. I'm not brainwashing you, I'm just telling you to read what it says. Then Peter said unto them, Ye rulers of the people. Who were Israel's rulers? They're religious leaders. They're priests. Ye rulers of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent, or the crippled man, by what means he is made whole, if this is what we're on trial for, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel. You see that? Who is he talking to? Jews. I don't want to override, but I want to make the point. Do you see Gentiles involved in here? Not a one. Not a one. And this is what I want folk to understand, that we are not ever seeing Gentiles included in any of this language. Now I'm not saying that there weren't a sprinkling of Gentiles, because a crowd is a crowd. Gentiles came to Jerusalem on business then, just like they probably do today. And there were probably a lot of curiosity seekers, and so forth. But so far as the Scriptural language is concerned, it's all directed to the nation of Israel. Verse 10 again. "...Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified..." Now remember last taping, that would be last month's program I pointed out. Peter constantly says, "...you crucified Him," and Paul said what? "...He died for you." You see the difference? Oh, that's a difference. Peter says, "...you killed Him." Paul says, "...He died for you." A whole different concept. Alright, reading on. "...Be it known unto you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead..." And he says that for the benefit of Sadducees especially. "...whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you all." Of course it was the power of Christ. Of course it was the power of the God of Israel that raised Him. It wasn't Peter's power. It was the power of God, see? Now verse 11. I wish I had an hour and a half, so far as content voice wouldn't take it, but content could. "...This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved." Alright, coming back to verse 11. All through Scripture, who is the stone or the rock? Well Christ is. Daniel chapter 2, when he sees a stone cut out without hands, smiting Nebuchadnezzar's vision, who is the stone? Well Christ is. When Moses struck the rock out there in the desert, and out of it flowed water, who was the rock? Christ was. And all the way up through Scripture, the analogy is that He is the rock. He is the stone. Now I don't know, maybe I'm carrying this too far, but you know I've got plenty of rocks on my place. When I stumble on them, I'm prone to say things I shouldn't say. But you know a long time ago, it suddenly struck me. Now wait a minute. Be careful how you respond to those rocks. Because I'm going to remember that Christ is the rock of Scripture. And I don't know why He sent all those rocks to plague me, but I'm going to be careful nevertheless. But I'm constantly reminded that He is the rock. He is the stone. And when He said to Peter, Thou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church, who was the rock? Christ was. He's the rock. He's the rock of our salvation. And so all the way through Scripture. Now here you see, Peter is using an Old Testament analogy, and it's in the Old Testament, how that he was to be the chief cornerstone. He was to be the head of the corner. And now you see associated with that, there is a legend, it's not in Scripture, that when they were building the temple, predominantly Solomon's temple, what was unique about the whole thing was that at the temple site, there was never the sound of a hammer or a chisel. Everything was pre-cut, clear out there at the quarry. And then they would bring it in, I suppose on carts or sledges or whatever, but anyhow there was no noise at the building site. Well then one day the chief cornerstone was brought in way ahead of time. And the engineers and the architects couldn't recognize it, and they didn't know what to do with it, so they dumped it off in a vacant lot, and the weeds grew up around it. I said this is legend, not Scripture. And that stone which should have been the chief cornerstone holding all of the architecture together. Now you know in the arch architecture, which of course they use, which stone holds everything together? The very top one. It's put in in a V, and it just supports everything. Now that's what Christ was to have been. But that was the very stone that the builders dumped out in a vacant lot. And as people would walk through that vacant lot, what would they bump into? Well that stone that had been dumped there in ignorance. Now this is the exact reference that Peter is making then, that He was the stone that they needed to hold everything together. But they threw Him out into a vacant lot, and what does He become? A stumbling stone, even to this day. Now in that same light, isn't it almost amusing if it weren't so pitiful? The Scripture says Jerusalem is to be a stone of what? Stumbling. And isn't that exactly what it is? All the nations of the world are stubbing their toe on Israel, and on Jerusalem. And it's going to be the stone of stumbling right up until the last day. But all right, now Peter is saying that you builders, you should have recognized that chief cornerstone. You should have known that He was the one that would hold the whole thing together. But instead you pitched it off to the side and didn't know what to do with it. It's exactly what He's saying. This is the stone which was set at naught, or count for nothing of you builders, who is to become the head of the corner. In other words, He will yet one day fulfill that role. And then verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other. My, how many times it's come up in my classes. Well now, what about Muslims? They're devout. They're sincere. A lot of them are probably a lot better people than most of us, morally and every other which way. But what's their downfall? They do not recognize the name of Christ. And so there is no other name. Mohammedan may have been the best fellow in history, but it's not the name of Mohammedan that makes salvation possible. It has to be centered on the finished work of the cross of Christ. All right, verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, remember I mentioned when we finished up the book of John, or at least somewhere during the book of John, I said if anything proved the resurrection and its power, it was the change of attitude of those 11 men. How that before His resurrection, at His crucifixion, what did they do? They scattered like a bunch of little chicks, scared to death for their life. But after His resurrection, Peter and those men are afraid of nothing. For example, keep your hand here at chapter 3, go all the way over to chapter 8. This always shocks people. This is hard for most people to believe when I point it out, because they've never seen it before. But here in Acts chapter 8, we're seven years after Pentecost, according to all the chronologies that I've studied. Right at seven years, Saul's persecution had been running rampant, especially in the area of Jerusalem and Judea, against Jewish believers. Now in chapter 8, verse 1, they have just put Stephen to death by stoning. Saul was consenting unto his death, that is Stephen's, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, the assembly, which was at Jerusalem, Jewish believers remember. And they, the Jewish believers, were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except whom? Can you believe it? Now I think there are two things that should just shock us. Number one, that in spite of the terrible persecution that was coming in upon these believers, that Jesus was the Christ, these 12 men did not run. Everyone else is fleeing for their life, but these 12 men sit tight. Number two, if the Great Commission was kicked in gear like we all think it should have been, then for goodness sakes, why are these 12 men still in Jerusalem seven years after the fact? Have you ever thought of that? Most people don't. They should have, according to most of our understanding, they should have been out amongst the Gentiles a long time ago. Is that right? That's what everybody seems to imply. But no, they aren't. They're still in Jerusalem. Why? They're still looking for the King, see? And they weren't about to be down in Alexandria, Egypt if Christ should return, because He's not going to return to Alexandria, He's going to return to Jerusalem. I've always given the illustration. One day I was teaching up in Iowa, my home church, and I'd gone up for the car, and an Irish came up toward the end of the week, and came up by bus at that time, and I got to the bus depot, and it didn't come, and it didn't come, and it didn't come, and so finally I was getting ready to go across the street and get a cup of coffee to pass my time, and as I was about to get out of the car, I thought, no, I'm not going to do it, because as sure as I'm over there having coffee, the bus will pull in, and I won't be there. Well that was the same attitude of these 12 men. They weren't going to leave Jerusalem, no matter how tough it got, because they were still looking for the King at any moment, see? But the main thing I want you to see is, we've all been impressed with the idea that they were already going out into the ends of the earth with the Gospel. No, they weren't. They're still in Jerusalem, seven years later. Well, we'll come to that when we get to chapter 8, but come back with me now, if you will, to chapter 4 again, and verse 13. Now when they, these Jewish leaders, and the Sadducees, and what have you, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Hey, that's me. That's me. I'm unlearned and I'm ignorant, and I'm not apologizing for one bit. I don't stand here with a great big long list of degrees behind my name, and I can't claim to be a graduate of this, and a graduate of that, and a graduate of that, but neither do these guys. And yet God used them. In fact, I even like to go back, well, once in a while someone will say, well, who are you to be doing what you're doing? You haven't had an education in all this. No. Unless it did Amos. Huh? Did Amos? No. Did David? What were they? Basically what I am. They came off the ranch, and God used them, and if God used them, He can use me. If He can use me, He can use you. See, when Christianity started going down the tubes, and it lost its power, I maintain was when congregations got to the place that they wouldn't even consider a man for the pulpit unless he had a doctorate. Now, I'm not against education. Don't misunderstand me. I admire people that have got it, but when that becomes the sole criteria for being qualified to preach and teach the Word, hey, they're out in left field, because God never used those kind of men in the past. These were uneducated, from the intellectual point of view, ignorant men. But God uses those kind of people, and until we recognize that that's what we are, He can't use us. So they're ignorant, unlearned, uneducated, and they marveled, and they took knowledge of them. What did they have going for them? Hey, they'd been with Jesus. That three years was better than 15 years in a seminary. That was better than 15 years in the University of Jerusalem, and they recognized that, see? And then verse 14, and beholding the man who was healed, standing with him in complete health and strength, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded him to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do with these men? See, they were up against it. For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. We cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them. That is the 12. Let us threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this what? Name. Name. Now according to normal thinking, you know what those people should have said? We cannot let these people preach anymore that Christ died for the sins of the world, and that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead. But see, it doesn't say that. All they're saying is, we can't let them continue to preach in this name. And that's what I'm going to emphasize throughout these early chapters. It's what the Book says. I'm not dreaming it up. All right, lest they preach or teach anymore in this name. So verse 18. They called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge you, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, in other words, with prison, probably with scourging, they threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. And again, the man in the street, he would come to their defense because, hey, they haven't done anything worthy of prison. They've done nothing worthy of scourging. Leave them alone. For all the men glorified God for that which was done. And then verse 22, the verse we looked at in our opening remarks. For this impotent man who had been crippled was above 40 years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed. Now, I'm going to have to stop here. Why do you suppose the Scripture sees fit to give the man's age as 40-something? All right, and remember that Israel's time of testing over and over was in terms of what? 40 years. Now, it doesn't have to be just an exact 40 years, but again, I'm pointing this out the same way today. Israel has now been in the land since 1948. We are in 40-something, and I don't set dates, but there's something important in the time scale of 40 years when you're dealing with Israel. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. 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