The Exclusive, Narrow Road
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 4:1-12, examining the first persecution of the early church as Peter and John are arrested for preaching the resurrection of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. He traces Peter's bold proclamation that Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead, is the only name under heaven by which people can be saved, pressing listeners to take that exclusivity seriously. The teaching closes with a call to personal gratitude for salvation and a renewed urgency to share the gospel with those who are lost.
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 1999 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 41 min
Themes: salvation, persecution, boldness, gospel, resurrection, exclusivity, evangelism, gratitude, new believer, feeling afraid to share faith, facing opposition, questioning suffering, young adult, struggling with doubt, seeker, someone who has never heard the gospel
Scripture: Acts 4:1-12, Acts 28:31, 2 Timothy 3:12, John 15:18-20, 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 5:18, Psalm 118, Psalm 118:24, Mark 13, John 7:46, John 14:6, Matthew 7:13-14
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation through christ alone, exclusivism, resurrection of christ, early church, apostolic preaching, sanctification, bold witness
Full Transcript
Introduction: Context and the Promise of Persecution
Please open your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter four. Let me remind you of what has taken place in our study to this point. We have seen Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the command to the disciples, and the charge that they would preach in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth. We saw what is commonly referred to as Peter's first sermon, with three thousand people responding and the church being born out of that. We also saw some of the fundamentals for the church — fellowship, breaking of bread, the apostles' teaching, and prayer — laid out for us.
Then Peter and John are on the way to the temple to pray, and there is a man who is lame. He spots them in the crowd and asks them for alms. Peter says, "I don't have any silver, I don't have any gold, but I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk." He reaches down, the man stands, leaps with joy, and begins to praise God. A commotion breaks out, and it gives Peter an opportunity to deliver what is referred to as his second sermon. Again, we see the same basic message of Christ crucified, resurrection from the dead, and the reality that there is real power in that — and that it is the only place we will find transforming power in life. That is where we stopped last week.
Let me try to strike a chord in your thinking, because it has been my experience that many of you think this way: "I am going to do what God told me to do. I am going to be obedient to what God has asked me to do. One of the ways I will know I am in His will is that everything will start to work out. Clearly, when I am doing that and things are working out, God has got to be so happy with me that at that moment I cannot imagine He would allow anything bad to come into my life." That is the way we think, is it not? We think that because we are obedient, He owes us a smooth road.
Here is Peter, who just a couple of weeks before had denied Christ. He did not move to despair, but to true repentance, and now he has been used by God. Literally thousands have come to Christ through his preaching. It seems to us that at this moment, the last thing God is going to do is allow something bad to happen to him. What we see today in the first twelve verses of Acts chapter four is really the first persecution of the church — but it should not take us by surprise. It was predicted, foretold. We were warned of this.
The Promises God Made That Didn't Make the Bookstore
As I read through these first twelve verses, I am drawn almost inevitably to the message. But do not miss the persecution. I think it is a key part — hand in glove with the message — and it carries a strong, even stronger, message for us. I had not been a Christian very long when I began what was a familiar trek for me to the Christian bookstores. I loved to go there and look. One day I was checking out and I saw a little book that caught my attention called *The Promises of God*. I opened it up, and there were all these great promises. As my Christian walk continued and as I spent more time in God's Word, I discovered that there were some promises that did not make it into that book.
Let me read a couple of them to you. Second Timothy chapter three, verse twelve: "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Jesus also spoke to this — that is why Peter is not caught off guard here. In John chapter fifteen He said, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hates you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you." That promise is not just for those who were there, but for all of us in all time.
First Peter chapter two, verse twenty-one: Peter says, "For this purpose you have been called — since Christ suffered — to suffer also." It is a promise. And before we even get into the message, I want to reinforce that not only is it a promise, it is for our own good. It is through suffering and trials and tribulations and persecution that we grow.
The Test of Prosperity
Let us set persecution aside for a moment, because these trials take on many different forms. Pretend for a second that I can guarantee you that this week you will be tested — that you have a big test coming. Spend a moment and let your mind wander around to see what that test would be. What would be something in your mind that would feel like a gigantic test? Some of you thought of spouses that would leave. Some thought of spouses that would stay. Some thought of children who become rebellious or just disappear, jobs that go away, or cancer that invades the body. When I say you are going to be tested, we tend to think in those terms.
Let me give you a gigantic test that most of you will face — and I guarantee you will face it this week — the test of prosperity. It was from this very pulpit not more than twelve months ago that we told you the stock market was going to twelve thousand, and some of you laughed. And it is not going to stop at twelve thousand; it is going to fifteen thousand and it is going to twenty thousand. Unless there is a cataclysmic event or the government intervenes — and they may be one and the same — unless one of those two things happens, this thing is off and running.
For us, that is a great challenge. Some of you have freedom you never thought you were going to have. You can live where you want, drive what you want, wear what you want, and do what you want. It is in times like that — times of intense testing through prosperity — that many of us fail. We turn our backs, and our time, energy, effort, and money become driven by our own satisfaction rather than by God's.
The Opponents Gather
As Peter and John were speaking to the people gathered around them, a group of bystanders confronted them. This group included the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees. The priests were gathered there in preparation to conduct the evening service. They were enemies of Christ, of His gospel, and of His people.
The captain of the temple guard was the second ranking person in this power structure, second only to the high priest himself. His job was to maintain order, and he had been granted authority from the government of Rome. The third group, the Sadducees, were the dominant religious and political force in Israel at this time. All of the high priests at this time were coming from the Sadducees. They were aristocratic, wealthy landowners — not many in number, but very powerful.
The Sadducees were opposed to any opposition to Rome, and it is easy to understand why. Their friend was the status quo. They did not want to rock the boat or see things get out of control. They did not want the Romans to become concerned, because it was the Sadducees and their authority that might be called into question.
The Sadducees believed only in the written law and rejected any oral tradition. They rejected the idea of the bodily resurrection — not just the bodily resurrection of Christ, but the bodily resurrection of all people. They rejected future rewards and punishment and angels. They denied the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of predestination, and they held that man was the master of his own destiny.
A Swift and Hostile Response
Going back to the text, it is easy to see why the Sadducees had a vested interest here. This triumvirate — the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees — all had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, some for political reasons and some for economic reasons. They all came together against Peter and John, and at the end of verse 1 it says they "came upon them." This was not a calm request to stop. The phrase "came upon them" implies a swift, strong, hostile, and aggressive action. They swooped in.
According to verse 2, they were greatly disturbed, and there were two things that had them upset. First, they were upset simply because Peter and John were teaching. They considered themselves the trained religious authorities, dedicated for that task. It was the same reaction they had to Jesus. In John chapter 7, verse 46, they said, "Never did a man speak this way," and they asked how this man had become learned, having never been educated. They said the same thing here about Peter and John. These were fishermen — uneducated, untrained, and usurping their authority. In their view, Peter and John had invaded their territory.
The second thing that disturbed them was what was being taught. They were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Peter and John were not only teaching without authorization, but they were teaching that Jesus had risen from the dead, and that because He conquered death, those who believe would also conquer death and rise as well. This deeply disturbed the Sadducees, who did not believe in the bodily resurrection and had no interest in these teachings about future life. They were threatened not just by the act of teaching itself, but by its content.
So in verse 3, they laid hands on Peter and John and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. Jewish law forbade a trial from taking place in the Sanhedrin at night. As we saw when we studied the Gospel of John, Jesus was tried five or six times through the course of an evening, with various trials and arrangements taking place. But apparently they did not see Peter and John as that great a threat, and so they simply imprisoned them for the night.
Five Thousand Believe
Despite the opposition, many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of men came to be about 5,000. Before moving on to the text, it is worth pausing to make a point about that counting. In that day, the only people considered significant were the men. Ray Steadman writes that in that day they did not believe it was worth counting women and children. This is one of the great things Christianity has done for the world — it has made women and children worth counting.
This is why it is so frustrating to hear Christianity described as chauvinistic. It simply is not. When the world said women were chattel and children were unimportant, it was the Christian faith — Jesus Himself — who said every person matters and every person is significant. When it comes to faith and teaching, there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female. They are all significant and important.
This figure of 5,000 is the last time in Scripture that we see a specific count of this kind recorded. Throughout the rest of the book of Acts, Luke describes teaching taking place and then simply says that God added to the numbers.
The Message They Proclaimed
Preaching the kingdom of God and preaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness and unhindered — that is what happened. In the face of all of this adversity, look at the message. The message was, in Jesus' name, the resurrection took place.
Note what they didn't say. They didn't preach against the social ills. Should we be concerned about social things? Absolutely. Should we be concerned about poverty and bigotry, about things that aren't fair and aren't right, about morality and purity in the culture? Of course we should. But in terms of winning people to Christ, their message was not against slavery. At that point in the Roman Empire, every other person — fifty percent of them — were slaves, and the apostles didn't call for its abolition. They didn't argue that taxes were excessive and unfair. They proclaimed the gospel, and people responded as God used it.
The Trial Before the Sanhedrin
It came about the next morning, as the trial and arraignment was about to take place, that the rulers and the elders and the scribes were gathered together. The rulers were those also called chief priests, represented by the priestly orders. The elders were the family heads and the tribal heads — these were the power structures. The scribes were experts in the law, mostly Pharisees. They were there to refute the teaching of the apostles, to debate them, to take them on, and hopefully to defeat them in the eyes of the Jews and once and for all put an end to this movement.
Also gathered in Jerusalem for this arraignment and trial were Annas and Caiaphas, John and Alexander. Annas was really the power behind the scenes. Caiaphas was the high priest before whom we saw Jesus stand. They were trading off alternate years as high priests. Annas had five sons, a son-in-law in Caiaphas, and a grandson who became high priest. This John — not John the apostle — was, we believe, a son of Annas.
When the Sanhedrin gathered to hear a case or conduct business, they would arrange themselves in a circle. They gathered Peter and John and placed them in the center, standing them in the middle for a trial that was about to take place. The question put to them was: "By what name or in what power have you done this?" There was a man lame from birth who now walked, and they demanded to know how that happened.
One scholar reminds us that Mosaic law specified that whenever someone performed a miracle and used it as a basis for teaching — which is exactly what the apostles had done — that person was to be examined. If his teachings were used to lead men away from God, the God of their fathers, the nation was responsible to stone him. That was what was at stake. On the other hand, if his message was doctrinally sound, the miracle worker was to be accepted as coming with a message from God. That is the framework within which this trial took place.
Peter Filled with the Holy Spirit
It is significant for Peter that he had been prepared for this moment. Consider these words from Mark 13: "Be on your guard, for you will be delivered to the courts, to the synagogues, to governors. And when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speaks, but it is the Holy Spirit." Jesus had told him in advance that he would have the opportunity to share his faith not just with common people, but with the very rulers themselves — governors and power structures, and the power structure within the nation of Israel. He was told not to worry about what he would say, because at that moment the Spirit would give him the words.
And so, in verse 8, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us remind ourselves what that means. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not the same as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it is not the same as being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. To be baptized with the Holy Spirit is simply to be a Christian. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, we are all baptized into one Spirit — so if someone asks whether you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the answer is yes, because you are born again. Likewise, every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our seal, our guarantee, our pledge.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is something distinct from both of those realities. It is the Holy Spirit in us becoming the controlling, driving force of our lives. In the simplest terms, I am filled with the Holy Spirit when I am obedient to what God has given me to do — when I yield to Him, when I am controlled by Him. It affects every area of life.
Ephesians 5:18 says, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." Paul then goes on immediately to address husbands loving their wives, wives submitting to their husbands, children obeying their parents, slaves obeying their masters, masters treating their slaves fairly, and fathers not provoking their children to anger. Being filled with the Holy Spirit touches every area of life. It means doing what God wants, following His will. And for those who say they don't know His will — you do. It is right there in your lap. This is the will of God: to obey and to follow all that He has revealed.
Peter's Bold Stand Before the Sanhedrin
Every account of filling of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is immediately followed by a bold testimony for the person of Christ. We talk about evangelism, we continue to plan, and we continue to prepare to share our faith. But when we talk about evangelism, we want to race to a program or some sort of method. There is no way that your sharing of the faith will be powerful and real if you are not yielded to, filled with, the Holy Spirit.
Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, and they have asked him a question. By what power and what name have you done this? If you are Peter, you have to love this. Look at what the persecution has done for him — it has not driven him from Christ, it has driven him to Christ. It has not made him weaker, it has made him stronger.
This is the same man who, weeks before, in the face of a servant girl, said, "I don't even know Him." Now he stands in the midst of the elders, the rulers, the scribes, the Sanhedrin — stands in the middle of the base of power in the nation of Israel — and he speaks out boldly.
Peter's Four-Point Message
Here is what Peter said: "Rulers and elders of the people." They want to talk about this man being sick? "If we are on trial today for a benefit done to this sick man, how is it that this man has been made well?" Is that the charge — that they healed him? Then they should get down to the very core of the issue: was he made well by God or not?
Peter delivers a four-point message. First, the Jews crucified Jesus — verse 10. Second, God raised Jesus from the dead — also verse 10. Third, the Jews rejected the person of Christ — verse 11. And fourth, in verse 12, the powerful statement that drives the point home: there is salvation in no other name. There is salvation in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
Verse 10: "Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ, whom you crucified." There it is again — the third time he has said this. In our culture we think frequently about winning people over, about influencing people, about being afraid of giving offense. There is an appropriateness to that concern. But that does not seem to be on Peter's mind. He says: Jesus Christ, whom you crucified — you killed Him. He is the Messiah. How do we know? You killed Him. God raised Him from the dead.
Because this message is familiar, do not miss the intensity of the moment. Peter is saying to this power base: you killed Him, God raised Him. You, who say you are religious, are pitted against the very God you say you serve. You, who say you are religious, are pitted against the very God you say you worship.
The Rejected Cornerstone
Peter moves to his third point. He quotes from the Old Testament, from Psalm 118: this Jesus was the stone rejected by the builder. This was the stone that was to come — a messianic promise. But they rejected Him.
Psalm 118, verse 22 leads into that passage, and verse 24 will be very familiar: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." What is the day? It does not simply mean any ordinary day. The context of Psalm 118, spoken in a prophetic way, is the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the day we rejoice in.
The message all through the New Testament to the nation of Israel is this: you could have been a stepping stone. Instead you became a stumbling block. You took Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of our faith, and you rejected Him. Peter delivers this message directly into their own faith tradition to drive home to them that they are guilty — that they are against God, that they are lost, that they are defiant, and that they are in trouble. But there is a way to be saved.
Salvation in No Other Name
Here is what Peter says in Acts chapter four, verse 12: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
For many, this verse is so familiar it has almost become background noise. But this is radical to these men. Peter says: Jesus is dead — you killed Him. God raised Him from the dead. You had an opportunity. You were given the message. You rejected it. Even in your lost state, you can be saved. Here is how: convert, repent, follow Christ.
This is a radical message to these Jews, and it is a radical message in our own culture as well.
The Limits of Tolerance
If there is anything that dominates our culture today, it is the idea of tolerance. Webster defines tolerance as "a tolerating or being tolerant, especially of views or beliefs or practices different from our own." We live in a time when tolerance is considered one of the great virtues in our society.
And there is a sense in which we should be tolerant. There are views other than our own that are worth respecting. If one person likes blue and another likes red, tolerance is perfectly appropriate there. When a group goes out to dinner and everyone orders something different, there is a tolerance that applies — a sense that says there are many different ways to approach certain things.
But we are not called to be, and cannot be, tolerant of deviant, heretical teaching. That is something different altogether. We can be understanding, but we cannot be tolerant of that.
People Are Basically Good — Or Are They?
I can understand how someone who is lost can be very comforted by the false teaching that is around. I have won three or four things on eBay auctions, and I was messing around the other day going back to the site looking at some frequently asked questions. I tried to find the page this morning — Michelle and I spent ten minutes on it — because I wanted to show it to you. It was essentially the tenets of eBay, what eBay believes.
You know what the very first item was? People are basically good. What eBay is trying to say is: you don't have to worry about whether the seller is going to send the item or whether it's genuine, because people are basically good. That is the dominant view of our culture. We even have a phrase for it: "Deep down inside, he's a good person." He's like a little onion — you peel away the layers, get down to the core, and he's basically okay.
But here's what Scripture says. You take that little onion, peel it away, get down to the core, and you go — that really stinks. Because he is not basically good. He is evil. He hates God.
The Exclusive Claim of Christ
I resent this teaching about human goodness, and you may too. I remember the first time someone tried to share their faith with me along these lines, and I shoved it right back at them. I said, "You've got to be kidding me. You're telling me God has one way? What about the Buddhist? What about the person who follows Muhammad, or Confucius, or Joseph Smith? There are many ways." That is the dominant view of our culture, and this message is just as radical to the Jew as it is to anyone else.
But consider the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." There are some words in that statement worth pausing over. The nuns who taught me drove home one point about English that I have never forgotten: the definite article. The word *the* is used to eliminate all other possibilities. You don't ask, "What is *an* answer?" You ask, "What is *the* answer."
Jesus does not say He is *a* way, *a* truth, or *a* life. He says, "I am *the* way" — there isn't any other. "I am *the* truth" — there isn't any other. "I am *the* life" — there isn't any other. And just in case that still seems too vague, He adds, "No one comes to the Father except through Me."
That is a very exclusive message in a very inclusive culture, and that is precisely why you are in tension with the world. You do not have to make the gospel any more offensive to a lost person than it already is. All you have to do is say this, and you pit yourself against your friends, your family, and your coworkers.
The Narrow Gate
Jesus put it this way in Matthew chapter seven, verses thirteen and fourteen: "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter it. The gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
I have thought a lot about how many people go to heaven. My answer used to be pretty much everybody — probably not Charles Manson or Hitler, but just about everyone else slides in somehow. Then I thought, well, that doesn't seem right either, so I pictured it more like the PGA Tour: 170 players tee off, the low seventy and ties make the cut, and heaven is something like that — about half get in and half don't.
But then there is Matthew 7:14: "The gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." If we really believe that Jesus is the only way, then sheer demographics begin to show us just how narrow that way is. Consider alone those who would not be followers of Christ because of their own religious belief, and right away we see that heaven is not a majority outcome.
Gratitude and Urgency
It is important for us to grasp this, because without it we will never have a heart for evangelism. We were talking about it the other night, and I really do believe — and this is hard to say, but I think it is true — that the reason most of us do not share our faith is not that we are afraid. It is that we do not care. Your neighbor is going to hell, and the attitude is essentially, "I hope the next neighbor is nicer." We have to truly care.
Two things should flow out of this truth. The first is a spirit of gratitude. That is always where this takes me — Lord, I don't understand it. I don't know why. I don't know why me. Thank you. The second is a sense of urgency for delivering the message.
The Heart of the Matter
Three weeks ago, Ricky Birdsong was walking through the streets of Skokie. Because some bigot drove along and shot him for no other reason than he was black, he is dead. Ricky's wife spoke to the world, but specifically to USA Today, and they were trying to get her to talk about gun legislation. What she said — and I paraphrase, but it is pretty close — is that it is not a matter of guns and gun control, but a matter of the heart. What this man needs is to know who God is and to follow His word.
A Five-Year-Old's Question
There has been a lot of JFK material in the news this week. I was watching TV one day when Haley came in and said she wanted to turn it off. I told her to keep her hands off that TV. At the time, Haley was about six years old. She asked what I was watching, and I told her I was watching a special — an hour-and-a-half special on John Kennedy. I thought there was no way Haley would sit through it, but we were about half an hour in, and she stayed and watched the entire thing.
All those scenes so familiar to all of us played across the screen. There was a beautiful day, Air Force One, the President and the First Lady emerging — she had on that beautiful pink dress and was holding roses. We all know the scene. Then it shifted, went dark, and came back to the flag-draped casket being pulled through the streets of Washington.
Haley said, "Who's in there?" I said, "John Kennedy." She said, "How did he die?" I said, "Somebody shot him." Here is John Kennedy with all of this legacy, all of this Camelot mythology — volumes of it. And this five-year-old summarized all of John Kennedy's life in one four-word question: "Did he know Jesus?"
That is it. She could not yet articulate it fully, but she understood that there is no other name. God did not say, "Oh, you're President of the United States — you get a pass." There is no other name. We thank God that He saved us in the name of His Son, and we pray that He gives us a passion for the lost and a reality that without Christ, every person in this world is lost. Member of the Sanhedrin or a lame man in the temple — it does not matter. You are lost.
The Ball Is in Their Court
They have delivered this message. Now the ball is in the court of the Sanhedrin. What is their response going to be? Next week we pick up right there with those leaders and their answer.
Father, thank You for this. We pray that You use Your word to teach us these truths. Help us see and understand that we all are lost and we all need a Savior, and that Jesus is the only Savior. In a world that looks for economic saviors and political saviors, help us understand that there is one Savior. If we are hurting, if our eyes are filled with tears and we feel weak and inadequate, help us understand that it is through You that we find comfort and peace and strength. We pray You teach us that. In Jesus' name, amen.