We cannot stop speaking
Acts 4:13-22 · Vern Peterman · Apr 2, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926552563979

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we've begun going through the book of Acts, I just, each time I get excited about it, I look at it and just see great things. And also as I look ahead, I just keep anticipating some of the things we'll be touching on with that. To bring ourselves up to speed here, Acts 3, 1 through 10, which is actually several weeks ago that we covered that. Here's Peter and John coming up, and this is midsummer of 33 AD. They come up to the temple to pray at the usual three o'clock hour. There was nine, and noon, and three were the typical times. And so this is the third one in the afternoon.

So they're coming up and there they encounter a man who was lame. And so Peter says, and I'm sure this was a great disappointment at first, I'm sorry, I don't have any silver or gold for you. And so the guy must have been down, you know, crestfallen almost from that, but still what I have I will give to you. And so at that point, Peter heals the man. So at any rate, the man is healed and not only does he kind of get up and he doesn't just sort of tenuously, you know, walk around carefully and all that so he doesn't fall over, but here's a guy who has for four decades been lame and has never walked before, not only walking, but leaping, you know, and I would say if I had done that for the first time, I'm sure I would have fallen into a heap. But this man actually goes and walking and leaping, you know, and so rather astounding.

And then they go from there, so it's Peter and John and this man who had been lame, over towards Solomon's Portico, and that is over on the east side and on each side of the Eastern or Golden Gate, as it's shown here in this picture of the temple area. This is a model that was made of the temple during New Testament times.

It would have looked something like this, Solomon's Portico. It was a colonnade or sometimes called a porch, although it's certainly bigger than any porch I ever had. But there was a gathering there, and later on we find that there are 5,000 who come to the Lord that day, so even this picture showing a crowd is not quite enough. There was a very large number of people who are gathered there in Solomon's portico.

And while Peter, I'm sure, had very cool, you know, things that he communicated with them about, nonetheless, he does get an escort from the captain of the temple guard and his soldiers. And so they grab Peter and John and haul them off. They spend the night in the jail. We don't know exactly where that jail was, although some ideas have been put forth.

There are actually a few of them present in the area around the Temple Mount, so it's not that we have no idea. It's just that there are several possibilities. Then they are brought up before, as we saw in Acts 4, 1 through 12 last Sunday, they're brought up before the Sanhedrin. the Sanhedrin is also called and and typically in our translations will be called the council and So this was a group of 71 kind of leaders or elders in Israel and so they're brought up to answer for what they're teaching and and specifically the name that they use and And so Peter and John have a response. The Sanhedrin, the people on the Sanhedrin are just stunned at the response. The likely place where this would happen is right here in the temple yard at the south end towards the middle. There was a room there called the Chamber of Hewn Stone. That was the Sanhedrin's or the council meeting room.

So we have a pretty clear idea of where that very likely took place. This would be what it was like inside, where you'd have 71 members, 35 members on each side, headed up with the high priest there in the middle, and then the accused, which in this case would include Peter and John. there, and then you would have, in addition to the accused, and the formerly lame man appears also to be there in front of them, but also there's student seating, which would have meant that it was actually even possible that the Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul, was present for this, or at very least he was present for those kinds of gatherings where criminal charges were placed.

Now, as we go through this passage—this is Acts 4, 13-22, as Courtney read through us—the passage has several important practical applications for us in the body of Christ right here and right now, and so it'll be valuable for us to go taking a look at that. We'll look at those implications and the applications as soon as we get through stepping our way through the passage here. They come from this passage having deep significance for us and for the next generations of believers We live in a very unique time an interesting time as the Chinese curse goes An interesting time and it's at this point in time We need to take very careful look at what's being presented especially to the next generations coming up Here's Acts 4, 13 and 14. Now, as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. So, the members of the Sanhedrin or council that were gathered together that day, They saw that as they viewed as spectators. It's a special word for saw. It's the word that would be used for somebody who was at a theatrical performance or who was at some sort of a demonstration of military power and expertise, gathering together for an orator.

This was a special kind of viewing, so they viewed as spectators, Peter and John. Seeing Peter and John, these common men, speak and present themselves as they did was a sight to behold. It got their attention. They were astounded and amazed at these guys.

What came across as Peter and likely also John speaking, as these men spoke, they were astoundingly confident and bold in what they said and in how they said it to these men who stood in judgment. They didn't back off at all. They didn't hedge their statements or put any kinds of cautions or limitations on. They stated things fully and boldly and very completely.

Here you have a couple of Galilean fishermen, right? So these guys are accustomed to going fishing night after night, right? That's how they've been raised. As a matter of fact, even with Jesus' ministry, they were about 80% of the time around the Sea of Galilee. These men were Galilean fishermen and very good at that, but it was certainly not the learned things that these people in the Sanhedrin were accustomed to hearing. So they'd spent a few years as Jesus' disciples.

Jesus was generally recognized as a rabbi, although an unorthodox one. We need to point out that Jesus sometimes did things that the other rabbis did, sometimes did things that were rather unorthodox, and sometimes he did things that no other rabbi would ever do, and said things that no other rabbi would ever say. So, but they lacked polish, as we might say. These fellows did not speak in the conventional terms that we would say someone who had polish would do.

So Peter and John were not schooled in logic and rhetoric and points of argument that the more well-educated and trained members of the Sanhedrin had been. They were of the group Sadducees and Pharisees. The Sadducees were more influenced by Greek philosophy and culture. The Pharisees shunned Greek philosophy and culture. Both of them, within their groups though, had a certain sense of this is what it means to be schooled and trained according to our standards.

Here's John 7, 14, and 15, which gives you an idea what they thought of Jesus and His presentation as a rabbi. So here's John 7, 14, and 15, but when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews, therefore, were marveling, saying, How has this man become learned, never having been educated?

And those words marveling and educated, rather in the reverse here, show up in Acts 4.13. And so it gives you a sense they looked at Jesus in somewhat similar terms as, boy, this guy knows a lot, but he's not using all of our usual terminology and the usual approach to things that we do.

So it began to dawn on these men. that Peter and John had actually been with Jesus. Oh, I recognize these guys. I think we've seen this sort of thing before. The one whom they had plotted to kill just a few months before and had in fact succeeded in killing, at least temporarily, right? So these very same men had indeed, in fact, been with Jesus. These leaders of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, this very same group of men, had thought that killing Jesus would solve all the problems that they had with Him.

Can you imagine the disappointment? I thought we got rid of that problem. Oh, I guess not. So, there's one other problem here. Problematic miracles. The Sadducees, or the ones who led the Sanhedrin, did not believe in a physical resurrection. Therefore, this testifying that Jesus had resurrected was really a problem. They didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in miracles. That is, they were very skeptical of them. They were much like today's skeptics. There's no such thing as miracles.

So as we have it here, here is the chief priest saying, look, nobody gets healed on my watch. Comprende, senor? Right? Well, probably not exactly those words, but that's kind of the idea. This healing thing? Nah, we don't want that. So for there to be an undeniable miracle, as there was, of healing of this man who was once lame, well that was a real problem. That was a real problem.

This miracle had not been their first problem, because the disciples had in fact been doing wonders and miracles and healings all the way along, but this was getting to be a big problem. When Jesus did miracles, and he did some in Jerusalem several weeks ago, we pointed those out, or in other places, that had been quite a problem for the Sanhedrin and especially the Sadducees, but really for all of them.

Imagine what they thought of Lazarus' resurrection. This had only taken place about a week before Christ's resurrection. And so the idea that someone would be resurrected was a really, really big problem. Jesus also often did His miracles on the Sabbath intentionally, okay? Intentionally on the Sabbath.

When Jesus was in Capernaum, He cast a demon out of a man right there in the synagogue. He walked to the back of the synagogue and a short distance away, about from here to the coffee room, okay? He walked from the back of the synagogue into Peter's house and healed Peter's mother-in-law. And it says after that that he spent the rest of that Sabbath day healing and healing and healing and healing until the sun went down. And why would he heal until the sun went down?

That would be the end of the Sabbath, right? And so Jesus deliberately healed on the Sabbath and broke other laws, that is their laws, their concoctions about the laws along the way. So, Jesus resurrected Lazarus, and so what do these guys want to do? They start developing plans to un-resurrect Lazarus, right? To do him in, because he didn't like that. So that's their solution to Jesus doing miracles. And now with this lame man, what they would like to do is a miracle that would make him invisible, right? But it was a problem, because everybody knew who this guy was. The man who had been born lame, who was standing right there in front of them all, had been healed in the name of Jesus.

And it was the songs he kept singing, you know. He went around singing, and I went walking and leaping and praising God and walking, and they said, shut up, right? Stop doing that, right? So he kept talking about it, I'm sure. So stop walking and leaping and praising God. That was irritating.

So Peter and John knew that these men knew about him having been lame. So did just about everyone else in Jerusalem. People who had been there had seen this man for decades. They'd seen him grow up from his younger years on into being a man who they would consider middle to even older age, above 40. Everyone who had been there and anyone who had come into Jerusalem regularly would have recognized this lame man that had been healed. So, what would happen? Would the Sanhedrin order Peter and John to stop healing people? Would the Sanhedrin order them to make this man lame again? Hey, make him un-lame. This thing is terribly inconvenient for you to do this.

Something else. It had only been a few months since the veil of the temple had been torn from top to bottom about a hundred feet away from where they were meeting that day. And by the way, it would take a number of months to make a new one. So they might, for the short term, go in and, you know, stitch the thing back together. But longer term, it would take months to make a new one, and likely that was the case, and they were still not done getting it fixed. So you imagine about a hundred feet away from where they are, this horrific ripping sound on Jesus' crucifixion. That still was in many of their memories.

And we're going to find out when we get to Acts chapter 6. Only a couple chapters from now. A great many of the priests, most of whom were Sadducees, became believers. Why? I think it's because of this. I think this got their attention and they knew about it. It was only a hundred feet away from where all these people were meeting that day. And the Roman guards assigned to guard Jesus' tomb had told the leaders of this group about the angel of the tomb where Christ was resurrected, and these same men gave the soldiers hush money. Shh! Give you some money? Keep it quiet. And if it gets to your officers, don't worry about it. We'll cover it for you. That is code for we'll lie for you, even if it's against the Ten Commandments. Right? Okay.

Here's Acts 4, 15-17, And when they had ordered them to leave the council, they began to confer with one another, saying, What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man, and notice what they said, in this name. We don't want to mention the name of Jesus any more than we have to. So, we need to talk. That is, we need to talk amongst ourselves without these guys present.

They had no idea at first what to say to Peter and John or this formerly lame man. And one of the questions is, did they send the formerly lame man away? My guess would be, yeah, get him out of here. This guy keeps singing songs, right? And keeps talking about how he was lame, and we all know he was lame, but isn't. He's walking and leaping among us here.

And so the formerly lame man, they probably had him leave too, so they could talk in private. Of course, I don't know how private you can be with 71 people gathered. But, so now, what shall we do with these men isn't just a question of rhetoric. It wasn't just a formality. It was also a question of these guys were really at their wits' end. What can we do to these guys?

We've got a miracle here. This man who keeps walking and leaping and praising God was undeniably, we all know it, everybody out there knows it, that guy was lame for four decades plus. We've seen him around here begging. That we can't deny. So that's a problem. Everybody out there, imagine 5,000 people came to the Lord that day as a result of what Peter and John said, and seeing this man who was formerly lame, now healed. 5,000 people came to the Lord.

So are you going to go out and get these people ticked off at you? Get them upset with you? That's probably not a good idea. There's 71 of you, right? There's 5,000 of them, at least. And that's just the men, right? So, we've got to be careful what we say and what we do to these guys.

It's kind of like getting the bees back in the hive. When Nancy and I lived in Carson City, Twice we had these bees swarming, you know, and we had some beekeepers come over and they would pick the swarm of bees away, but they'd come from somewhere and trying to get them back into the hive was nearly an impossible thought, especially when they're just filling the whole backyard. So now that this well-known lame man wasn't lame anymore, there was no way to undo the miracle, okay? and to keep it quiet and to keep the miracle among themselves. This had spread to thousands that day already. Very quickly, these guys were meeting the very next day with, I'm sure, a lot of the same group of people there in the temple courtyard. So there is no undo button to click on. You can't undo this. No way to do that. Caiaphas' plan to have Jesus die for the people wasn't turning out to be such a great plan after all. In fact, it was turning out to be a very bad plan.

Imagine an earthquake at Passover. A torn veil. Huge torn veil. Huge ripping noise. All that. A resurrection. As a matter of fact, Matthew talks about resurrections out of the tombs all over the city. This was getting to be a real mess. Ah! Make it stop! You can imagine them.

So this well-known layman healed in Jesus' name, the name that you are afraid to even mention. Now, they say, so that it will not spread any further. It's almost like an epidemic, right? Like a disease that you want to stop, right? So they act like this name of Christ's disease, they're trying to stop this epidemic, this Christ epidemic, from spreading any more than it has already. Well, good luck with that. Good luck with that. Recall that the term, the people, means the Jews or the nation of Israel, referring to the people of Israel.

So what are they going to do? How will they stop the spread? We've got to make a plan. How does one stop God from doing what He's planned to do before the creation of time? How do you do that? Well, they're going to make a plan that's not going to work very well.

So, speak no longer to any man in this name. That's what they're going to do. Tell Peter and John to speak no longer to any man in this name. How well is that going to work? as if not actually saying the name of Jesus was going to help their cause. We're going to tape up Peter and John. So, as we've heard in what Jesus has already said, and we're going to hear from Peter shortly, a plan to tell Peter and John not to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus is dead on arrival. Not happening.

So Acts 4.18, And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Alright, so don't talk about Jesus. Think about that. The twelve disciples, many others have just spent a few years with Jesus. Many of them memorizing what Jesus said.

By the way, that's what disciples would do in those days. They would go around drilling. You can imagine, you'd get up in the morning, you'd have one disciple drilling another on what Jesus said. And they would drill and drill and drill, and they'd check what the other one said, make sure you had it right. And they'd drill and drill, and they would have everything memorized so that what we have in the Gospels is what they had spent those years memorizing. and then writing down, later writing down the Gospels. Memorizing was what was considered the norm among disciples in those days.

They had seen Him perform miracle after miracle, as John wrote at the end of his Gospel. If we wrote everything down that Jesus said and did, we would drain the oceans dry if they were made of ink. They'd seen all those. They'd seen Jesus crucified and buried and resurrected. Eleven of them saw him ascend into the heavenlies on May 14th, 33 AD.

Finally, they were just now beginning to understand. Would they understand more as time went on? Oh yes. But they were just beginning to understand. Think of these words of Jesus. Here's Matthew 28, 18-20, And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples, that is imperative, of all the nations, baptizing them in the name, singular, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I command you. And, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Here's Luke 24, 45-49, And He, that is Christ, opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you, but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Acts 1.8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. Now, with those kinds of assignments from Jesus, and being empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry this out, how well are the members of the Sanhedrin going to be? How well are they going to do at keeping these guys quiet? I think not. They think not either.

Having been the witnesses of Jesus and all the things Jesus said and did, having been told about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection by Christ Himself. By the way, each of the first three Gospels records at least three times when they were told in advance about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Having seen Him personally, having been told by Christ Himself that the Scriptures had prophesied all these things centuries in advance, and over a hundred prophecies specific to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And now having been empowered by the Holy Spirit as Christ's witnesses, here's Acts 4, 19-20, and this is a New American Standard but with some more literal translation here and there.

But the singular, Peter and John, answered plural and said plural to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to the God you must judge, for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. So are we going to listen to your order not to speak?

No. So what's amazing in this verse, the Greek is constructed so as to express that Peter and John are speaking in unison. Speaking in unison with one voice and a single message. It indicates in here that they both spoke and what they spoke was consistent. They both were given the same assignment by Christ, had the same basic role as Christ's apostles, had both been empowered by the same Holy Spirit to do what they were doing and to say what they were saying. So we ought to expect that they speak in unison, and that, Dr. Luke records, they actually did.

So we put it here in informal terms, y'all have a decision to make, You hear in the Sanhedrin, this council, 71 men who are a minority of Sadducees, but in leadership, and who were the leaders then of the Sanhedrin, and a majority of Pharisees who were among them able to speak and to vote. So Peter and John put the issue in the right perspective before this well-regarded Jewish body of men.

Most people would have been trembling. at this order, right? Do we obey all of you or do we obey what God Himself has clearly called for us to do and say? You pick. Among yourselves, now we've already chosen, right? So there's Acts 4, 21 and 22, when they had threatened them further, they let them go, finding on no basis on which to punish them, on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened. for the man was more than 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed." Right? Imagine, let's threaten you some more. Not that it didn't be good the first time, but we'll try it. Right? So they go and threaten these two guys.

Now, it's possible that you still had a few who kind of remained quiet, possibly even chose not to attend the meeting. And by the way, they could do that. And that would be Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Could have been quiet or even said, hey, I'm not going to this one. This is a little bit difficult. And there may have been others too. But in great part, these wanted to stop these disciples from saying anything further about this Jesus. So if you guys mention Jesus one more time, I'll cry. I mean it.

But they could not stop them from doing so, nor did they tell them not to do any more miracles, which is very interesting. There's no record, don't you go healing any lame people anymore, right? They didn't even want to acknowledge the one that had happened. So they threatened Peter and John, let them go, having basically no choice. That's all they could do is say empty words. So, they tried. So what else could they do?

The Jewish people, all of them knowing virtually this lame man for decades, seeing this formerly lame man totally and instantly healed, even to the point of being able to walk and to leap there that day. So these people, it says, were praising God for the healing of this lame man. And it wasn't just a few. Five thousand came to the Lord that day. So he had thousands of people praising God for what had happened and coming to the Lord that day. He was now walking and leaping among them, himself praising God, praising the Lord for what had happened and giving God the glory.

So, there are some very important applications in our time. There is a time to obey God rather than human authorities. Certainly, there are various times and places, and it's happened here in the United States recently, people have rebelled against their government, sometimes in riotous, disorganized ways, other times in more organized fashion.

Scripture tells us, however, as believers to be subject to the authorities that God has put into place. Romans 13, 1 through 7 is one of those passages. Titus 3, 1 is another. And that's not the only scripture that points to it. There are others as well. We're even called to pray for them. And what's very interesting, you ever get concerned about somebody who's in political power? Ever happen? Pray for them. And He even tells us how to pray for them. Pray for them with respect to our freedom to share the gospel. That's how you pray for them.

But only if God calls us in Scripture to act One way, and the government says another, we are to obey God and not the human authority. So we'll be subject to the government in everything, and only if there is a conflict between what God says and what the government says are we to then do what God says instead of what the government says. And that's exactly what Peter and John are doing. That's what Peter and John are doing here.

I heard a story about a gal who was brought up before the authorities, and this was back during the time when the Iron Curtain was in force and in place in Eastern Europe. And so she was brought up before the authorities because they heard that she was a Christian. And so as she was asked about, you know, what is this thing about you being a Christian? And she said, I believe in everything that Karl Marx taught, insofar as it agrees with the teachings of Jesus Christ. They didn't know what to do with that, right?

But what happens now is occasionally our government is running into things that may cause us conflict, and we've even had to deal with that recently here at Holly Hills. in the last couple of years. But one of the things that's happening more, not just from the pressure of government, but in society, is keep your faith to yourself. Keep your faith to yourself. Nancy and I have moved into a neighborhood just a couple miles from where we lived before, where we have the Muslim Community Center over our back fence.

And we look over there and we notice that they particularly like to gather on Fridays and Saturdays fill the parking lot and whatnot. And so one of the questions we're asking is, does the Lord want us to do anything with that? And how will that opportunity open up? As we introduced ourselves to a Muslim lady who was walking by our street this last week. So we're looking at, no, we're not intending to do that. But we're just looking for the Lord to open the opportunities there.

So this worldly pressure is just that. There's worldly pressure, contrary to actually logic, legal basis, objective assessment of the facts, and most importantly, the Word of God. But the expression is out there. Here, for example, is Richard Dawkins. By the way, I own most of his books.

We don't need fossils in order to demonstrate that evolution is a fact. Well, it turns out fossils are the only historical evidence to demonstrate that evolution has actually taken place. Everything else is circumstantial evidence. This is the only evidence that evolution has actually taken place It turns out just a few years ago in Wyoming the oldest bat fossil according to the dating system Which I don't particularly subscribe to but if we take that the oldest bat fossil was found in Wyoming in the Green River Formation and when you look at it, it's a very well-preserved fossil and you know, it looks like It looks like a bat It just looks like a bat, right? If you go to a lot of the universities, they will have here on the internet, oh, the internet's wonderful that way. They will have the internet. Here's the listings. For example, UC Berkeley had listings of here are all of our bat fossils.

Supposedly, bats evolved from rodents. As a matter of fact, I can show you in Richard Dawkins' books where he writes about bats a number of times. Lots and lots and lots about bats. What he won't tell you is the number of bat intermediaries between the rodents and the bats. You know how many?

Goose egg. None. There are zero. Therefore, since that's the only historical evidence We don't need fossils in order to demonstrate that evolution is a fact because we believe it on faith. Zero facts historically to demonstrate that that's true. We don't need facts because we believe on faith that it is true.

Here's Romans 12, 1 and 2, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Don't be conformed to this world. This world has a mold in which it would like to press you.

Truth be told, we are very unlikely to run into the Sanhedrin. You probably know that. We're very unlikely to run into any of them. They haven't been around for quite some time. We are going to run into people who will say, keep your faith to yourself, who will be more aggressive, and that's the pattern more and more, more aggressive with regards to us keeping our faith to ourselves. They don't understand, much less admit to, their faith-based assertions, such as Richard Dawkins saying we don't need any fossils. That's the only historical evidence. Why? Why do we not need any fossils? Because it's entirely based on bait.

Freedom of religion was never meant to mean freedom from religion, as these guys are inclined to define it. When the United States first put in the First Amendment, in which it was illegal to establish religion, right, or deny the freedom thereof, every state had its own state religion and continued that for at least a few decades on into the next century. It wasn't intended to define a freedom from religion, simply that the federal government was not going to do as the states already had and establish a state-by-state religion.

So the world's assessment of science and the Bible actually doesn't fit the facts of science or the Bible. They will say, I believe in science. As a matter of fact, if you Google that, you'll find lots and lots and lots of places. I believe in science. Who invented science? Christians. Christians invented science. And there's no exception to that. They were not all the same kinds of Christians, but they came from a Christian worldview. It was them who developed science in the first place.

The more and more we examine things in the Bible, just as we have been saying here, I can tell you with a high level of certainty what was the day, even the hour when Christ was crucified, and that's about 9 a.m. on April 3rd, 33 A.D. Confirmed through several different lines of evidence, he was crucified near the intersection of what is now in the modern times the intersection of David and Chabad streets in Old City Jerusalem. Right across the garden, underneath what is now called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was the place where the tomb was located, right nearby. Hebrews says that Christ was crucified outside the gate. That's the Ganoth gate called, the Ganoth means garden, the garden gate. That's the place. There was an earthquake.

The date of that earthquake and that it came from Jerusalem has been scientifically confirmed. If someone tells you, oh the Bible is full of fables, nonsense. Things have been historically confirmed in great degree and in detail. I can tell you times and places and even times of day with multiple confirmations of those things. These are not fables. These are not myths. These are actual historical events.

We can proclaim them with the same boldness that Peter and John did on that summer day in 33 A.D. When time is no more, the human authorities are no more, only what God says matters. It won't do any good for someone to show up at the white throne judgment and say, I don't believe in God. It won't help. The other thing for us to recognize as Christians is God is the one who makes the opportunities.

Ephesians 2.10 says that God has prepared good works that we might walk in them.

He set them out there. That was true at the time of the opposition to the message and it will be true now. It doesn't mean that if He has prepared a good work that we might walk in them, that walking in them will be easy. It won't always be a cakewalk. Just as it was true then, it's true now that God prepares the good works that we might walk in them, whether it's easy to do them or not.

When Nancy and I were at college together, I took one class in Eastern religions in which my Eastern religions professor was taking roll for the last time and said, You're a Christian, aren't you? Yeah. So stand up. And he whacked me across the face, right? But I had another class where it was an oral exam at the end of the class. And the professor said, Mr. Peterman, it's evident from your papers that you believe in God. You have four minutes to tell us what difference that makes in your life. So afterwards, one of the students got up and said, I'm an atheist. I said, that's great.

Why don't you come over to my house and let's have dinner and we'll talk about it. So we talked about it and had dinner and all, and he went away. About a year later, I looked over in church. Vince, what are you doing here? You're an atheist. He says, correction, I'm a former atheist.

God makes the opportunities. God makes the opportunities. And we don't know, sometimes it'll be easier, and sometimes it'll be harder, but God's the one who sets things out and makes the opportunities for us. It's simply a matter of us walking in them, right?

But He does it all. He's prepared every good work. You do not have to go out and do any good work that He hasn't already prepared everything. He's got it all ready. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it's ready. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that you have indeed prepared everything. You put everything in place. You put the opportunities in front of us. And we just pray that we would be sensitive to that. And we would also see that there's no opportunity out there that you haven't already prepared everything and done it all. Thank you for that. Thank you for your faithfulness and your love and your care. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.