The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

Acts-The Gospel in the City PART VI
13 January 2013
Rev. Leo Schuster

Acts 4:1-13
1The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.  2They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.  3They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.  4But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

5The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem.  6Annas the high priest was there, and so was Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family.  7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"

8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!  9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

11He is
"the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.'

12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we myst be saved."

13When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

PROVOCATIVE NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY
--v.12 suggests exclusivity.
--Yet it crosses cuts all socio-economic and cultural differences.
--The Biblical Jesus is meant to interfere with your daily life.

APPEAL OF CHRISTIANTY
--Resurection empowers the poverty stricken and an overthrow of the existing regime.
--Predicts the restoration of holiness and an end to suffering.
--Reinterprets and recalibrates everything in our lives.
--Provides a gateway to joy that is untethered to our specific circumstance.

CRUX OF CHRISTIANITY
--V.7
--We experience a dislocation of the soul when we ignore Jesus.
--Baptism is in the name of Jesus as our identity is changed.
--Being a Christian is being a radically different person.