No Other Name

[0:01] Acts chapter 3 verse 17 to Acts chapter 4 verse 12. Please follow along with me as I read. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

[0:19] But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. So, repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

[0:50] Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers, you shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.

[1:06] And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days, You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

[1:22] God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

[1:47] And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, And the number of the men came to about five thousand.

[2:01] On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.

[2:14] And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of 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, by him this man is standing before you well.

[2:53] This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[3:13] This is God's holy and authoritative word. Many of the world's great literary and cinematic works have a messianic archetype, a self-sacrificing savior, the chosen one, a hero who transcends all his peers and surpasses all those who came before him.

[3:35] Whether it's Aragorn or Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, Neo in The Matrix trilogy, people have still seen that, right? The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan, Jim Casey in The Grapes of Wrath, Simon in Lord of the Flies, Harry Potter, Superman, E.T., even Goku of Dragon Ball, or Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy.

[4:04] These are compelling stories because they are reminiscent of the greatest story ever told. And these figures are compelling because they resemble Jesus, the original Christ, the real Messiah that all of these other messianic figures point to.

[4:22] And in this passage, Luke tells us that Jesus is greater than all other prophets, he is greater than all other priests, and that we must, therefore, repent and turn to him who alone can save us.

[4:35] That's the main point of this passage. In the preceding passage, Peter didn't hold back from giving his fellow Jews a piece of his mind. He told them bluntly that they denied the Holy and Righteous One and killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead.

[4:51] And that this Jesus, whom they rejected, was the chosen one of God, the one that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of their fathers, had glorified.

[5:02] But now in verse 17, he cuts them some slack and says, And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

[5:13] What they did to Jesus was horrible, but they did it unknowingly. They did not know that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the servant of the Lord, the Holy and Righteous One.

[5:25] This is why Jesus prayed on the cross in Luke 23, 34, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Ignorance does not erase guilt, but it is a mitigating circumstance that God takes into account.

[5:44] And Peter understands that, and so he says, I know you acted in ignorance, and offers another chance for them to repent. But the fact that the Jews acted in ignorance in killing Jesus doesn't mean that Jesus' death was a mistake or an accident of human history, because as Peter continues in verse 18, it was a fulfillment of God's sovereign plan.

[6:06] He says, What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Many prophecies of the Old Testament, including the one we looked at last week, Isaiah 52 to 53, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Jeremiah 11, Daniel 9, Zechariah 12, 13, plenty of other places, all of these prophecies point to Jesus, pointed to a suffering Messiah.

[6:34] Therefore, Peter exhorts us in verses 19 to 21, Repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

[6:59] The commands, repent and turn back, form a complementary pair. To repent is to turn away from something, from our sins and from our rejection of Christ, and then to turn towards Jesus Christ.

[7:12] To turn back is to turn toward Jesus Christ. So two complementary actions. The Jews had turned away from God by rejecting his chosen Messiah, whom he sent, and now they must return to God and his promises by believing in Jesus.

[7:27] We have all sinned against God. We've all rebelled against him, and the default path of human life is disobedience.

[7:38] And it is for that reason there isn't a single human being on earth who can continue to live as he or she has been living. Imagine the most righteous, moral, ethical human being you can imagine that does not know Christ.

[7:58] That person cannot continue to live as he or she is living and be saved. Every single person must repent and turn toward Jesus.

[8:09] We all need a change in direction. And when you do that, the result is threefold. Peter describes this. First, he says that your sins may be blotted out.

[8:21] The word blot out is used throughout Scripture to wiping out something completely. For example, it's used in Exodus chapter 17 verse 14 to speak of blotting out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

[8:37] When your name is blotted out from under heaven, there's not even a memory of you. Not even a faint memory of that person remains. It refers to complete annihilation.

[8:54] When you repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ, your sins will be wiped out. the blood of Christ is not like many of the erasers that I happen to have in my house where you erase a pencil mark and it leaves these traces.

[9:16] It's plain and obvious that something was there before, a mistake. The blood of Jesus is not like that. We Christians sometimes live with this lingering guilt and shame as if Christ's atoning death on the cross on our behalf is insufficient.

[9:37] But it is totally sufficient. If we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus in faith, our sins will be blotted out, wiped clean, scrubbed clean, a clean slate.

[9:51] we live in the internet age where it feels like we can't erase or hide from anything in our past. More and more people's applications are rejected and jobs are lost because of something he or she said on social media a long time ago.

[10:08] Our past returns to haunt us and we have this foreboding sense that we can never get away from our mistakes and our regrets but this is not the case with God.

[10:22] He will blot out your sins if you trust in Jesus. God will never hold those sins against you. Our sins will never be dredged up again because as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

[10:41] The second result is this, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. This is the only place where you find this wonderful phrase in scripture, times of refreshing.

[10:53] The word refreshing refers to providing relief from an obligation or trouble, some breathing room, a sigh of relief. This verse is parallel to chapter 2 verse 38 where Peter says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[11:20] Both verses command people to repent and both verses promise forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins, blotting out one's sins.

[11:35] And so given these parallels, the final results is also likely related. So in chapter 2 verse 38 it spoke of you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus sends from the presence of the Father.

[11:49] And in chapter 3 verse 20 it says that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. So the times of refreshing are connected to the Holy Spirit who comes from the presence of God and His presence is refreshing because He provides release, relief from our bondage to sin.

[12:09] He gives us rest from the burden we can't bear. As 2 Corinthians 3 16 to 17 says, When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed and now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

[12:25] when you've been stuck in a stuffy room all day and you finally venture outdoors and the sun is shining on you and a gentle breeze is blowing on your face and cooling you down and you take a deep breath that's refreshing.

[12:40] When you've been cramped inside a car wearing a seatbelt all day and you finally get to your destination and you step outside you unbuckle the seatbelt and step outside and you stretch out your legs that's refreshing relief rest when you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ and get baptized when you receive forgiveness of sins you are filled with the Holy Spirit and what you experience is not times of stress or times of burden but times of refreshing this is exactly what Jesus promised in Matthew 11 28 to 30 come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light a yoke is the wooden frame that joins two oxen together so that their strength can be combined to pull a heavy weight that one ox can't do on its own it's a metaphor of subjection even oppression but Jesus turns this metaphor onto its head when he says my yoke is easy the word easy is elsewhere translated kind

[14:03] Jesus yoke is not harsh it is kind his burden is not heavy and onerous it is light because servitude to Jesus is freedom because subjection to Jesus is to share in his rulership those who live apart from Christ have no recourse when they are feeling the crushing legalistic burden and overwhelming shame and guilt from falling short of it but Christians do have a recourse we turn to Jesus we trust in what he has accomplished for us on our behalf on the cross that he paid the debt that we owed and he received the punishment that we deserve so that the gift of the Holy Spirit the third result is this that he may send the Christ appointed for you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which

[15:05] God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago this result lies in the future currently Jesus must remain in heaven but a time is coming when Jesus will return to us to restore all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets this is when the kingdom of God the reign of Jesus Christ will be consummated brought to its fruition fullness when he will make all things new sometimes you might feel this cognitive dissonance as you read the promises of God and examine your present life there seems to be a gulf between the ideal and the reality and that's because we live in an already but not yet kingdom the kingdom of God has already been inaugurated but it has not yet been consummated do do do do you wonder why your body is wasting away do you wonder why you still feel the pull of your sinful flesh do you wonder why this world is broken it's because

[16:18] Christ is coming back and when he returns he will restore all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago if we forget that final piece of our salvation we will be disillusioned in this life so then to summarize verses 19 to 21 repenting and returning to Christ leads to removal of sin spiritual refreshment and renewal and then in the future return of Christ which brings restoration and then in verses 20 to 23 Peter combines Deuteronomy 18 15 to 20 and Leviticus 23 29 to prove that Jesus is the one that Moses had prophesied about it says the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers who shall listen to him in whatever he tells you and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people in

[17:22] Deuteronomy 18 in that original context Moses is anticipating the fact that Israelites will enter the promised land and dispossess the nations that serve other gods and listen to other prophets soothsayers and sorcerers and witch doctors and he tells them you are not to listen to any of them instead you are to listen to a prophet like me that's what Moses tells them and whoever does not listen to that prophet will be held accountable by God himself while that prophecy does refer to the succession of true prophets that followed Moses messianic expectations grew around that prophecy and many Jews expected a second Moses and Jesus according to Peter is the one who fulfills that prophecy when Moses was born the Egyptian king sought to wipe out all the male children of Israel in order to suppress them and make his rule more secure similarly when

[18:25] Jesus was born king Herod massacred all the male children in an attempt to kill the prophesied Messiah and secure his throne like Moses Jesus was not recognized by his own people and at one point almost stoned to death by them Jesus likewise was not recognized by his own Moses sent 12 spies to the promised land on a reconnaissance mission and Jesus sent 12 apostles to proclaim the kingdom of God like Moses Jesus fasted for 40 days and went up on a mountain to give God's people the law of God like Moses whose face was shining after meeting with God on the mountain Jesus his face shone when he was transfigured on the mountain like Moses who fed God's people in the wilderness with bread from heaven Jesus multiplied bread in the wilderness to feed the multitude and he declared that he is the bread of life like

[19:29] Moses who brought out water from the rock for God's people to drink Jesus said that he is the living water from people from whom people must drink in order to receive the Holy Spirit and eternal life like Moses who lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole to satisfy the wrath of God and bring healing to all of God's people Jesus was lifted up on a cross to satisfy the wrath of God and bring healing to all of God's people but Moses ultimately failed to lead God's people into the promised land he came just short he could not bring rest for God's people but Jesus the new and greater Moses goes ahead of us and leads all of his people into the eternal promised land and this is not something that

[20:30] Moses alone prophesied of Peter says every subsequent prophet pointed to Jesus Peter says in verse 24 and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days Samuel is the next prophet after Moses and he along with every prophet after him pointed to a greater prophet a prophet like Moses who would come Elijah was not the one Elisha was not the one Isaiah was not the one Jeremiah was not the one Ezekiel was not the one right up until the time of John the Baptist who was the last prophet before Jesus and John the Baptist said this concerning Jesus I am not the Christ I baptized with water but among you stands one you do not know even he who comes after me the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie who is this great prophet that even the greatest prophet up to that point John the Baptist says he's not worthy to untie his shoes who is this great prophet that every other prophet proclaimed

[21:38] Peter says his name is Jesus Christ the christened one the anointed one the Lord this is a thrust and trajectory of redemptive history human history is not controlled by natural selection entropy or by ineluctable human progress rather it is sovereignly guided by God and God has directed human history to culminate in the person and work of Jesus Christ every age before Christ prepared a way for him and every age after Christ must hark back to him Jesus stands at the very center the pivot point of human history and since the prophesied prophet like Moses has come we must repent and turn to him and that's what Peter implores his Jewish brethren to do in verses 25 to 26 in you you are the recipients of these promises you are the children of the covenant that

[23:03] God made with your forefathers so you should repent of your sins and turn to Christ for salvation. And recall what God said to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

[23:16] That's a quotation from Genesis 22, verse 18, where God says to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. From the very beginning of his covenant, God envisioned the day when all the nations of the earth, and not just the descendants of Abraham, shall be blessed.

[23:39] And that blessing entails salvation because it's a bestowal of divine favor. And that salvation would come about through Abraham's offspring or seed, which is singular, referring to a specific descendant.

[23:56] And this seed is Jesus, the servant of the Lord, that God sent to bless them by turning them from their wickedness.

[24:08] This is why Jesus says in John 4, 22, that salvation is from the Jews. Because Jesus, the Savior, was a Jew, descendant of Abraham, heir of David. Salvation comes first to the Jews, and then through Jesus to all the nations.

[24:24] What's startling about this is that Peter is exhorting fellow Jews. These very Jews, who are descended from Abraham, from which the Messiah came, and yet he exhorts them that they need a change of direction, that they need to repent and turn to Jesus.

[24:46] That's the same with us. You may have come from a distinguished lineage or generations of faithful Christians.

[25:03] You may have come from a Christian, but you may have come from a Christian, but you may have come from a Christian, you could have many accoutrements of piety, outward appearances, but if you have not personally turned to Jesus, there is no salvation for you.

[25:21] And so he tells the Jews to turn, repent of their wickedness, and turn to Jesus so that their sins may be blotted out.

[25:39] That's the case even for Jews. It's even more the case for us, most of whom are Gentiles. It's not the trappings of religion, institutional membership, or personal piety, or the observance of the law that ultimately saves us.

[25:55] It's only Jesus who saves us. Those things that I mentioned may be implications or evidence of our salvation, but they are not the basis for our salvation.

[26:07] We must turn to the greatest prophet. And as Peter is preaching the gospel, he is interrupted by the Jewish authorities in chapter 4.

[26:19] We're going to see how Jesus prayed in all other priests here. It says in chapter 4, verses 1 to 3, And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

[26:37] And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. Three groups of Jewish authorities arrive on the scene. First, the priests.

[26:49] They are those who are responsible for the temple, the ones who are in charge of the rituals and the sacrifices. Second, the captain of the temple. This is an administrative official, second in authority after the high priest.

[27:01] And the captain, he was the captain of the temple police. He was responsible for maintaining order in the premise. And then third, the Sadducees were a Jewish sect, much like the Pharisees.

[27:16] They were members of the priestly ruling class. Many of them belonged to the Sanhedrin, which was the highest Jewish religious, political, and legal council. And one of their distinctive beliefs of the Sadducees, which we see throughout the Gospels, is that they denied the resurrection of the dead.

[27:35] And these three groups of Jewish authorities gang up on Peter and John. Notice it says in verse 1, As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them.

[27:47] They're not waiting politely until Peter and John finish speaking. They are interrupting them as they are speaking. And not only that, the verb came upon them has a threatening overtone.

[28:00] The word is often used to describe the coming of a sudden misfortune. And in Acts chapter 17, verse 5, the same word is translated as attack. So these Jewish authorities descend upon Peter and John as the crowd is listening to them and as they're speaking to them.

[28:20] And it says that these Jewish leaders are greatly annoyed. Chapter 3, verses 10 to 11, told us that the people who had gathered to listen to Peter and John were filled with wonder and amazement and utterly astounded.

[28:35] So this is a stark contrast. These Jewish leaders are not astounded. They should be astounded. A man born lame is not walking and praising God.

[28:45] They should be astounded. But instead, they're greatly annoyed. They see Peter and John as a nuisance. What are they doing?

[28:57] Stirring up this commotion. The day is almost over. I can go home and rest. When our hearts are hardened, even when we see God moving powerfully in our midst, instead of marveling and praising God, we find something to nitpick about.

[29:16] And we're greatly annoyed that our lives are disturbed and interrupted. These Jewish leaders were annoyed for two reasons.

[29:30] One, because Peter and John were teaching the people, it says. And two, because they were proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Since the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead, it makes sense why they were annoyed that they were teaching that Jesus was raised from the dead and that in Him lies the key to the resurrection of the dead for those who follow Him.

[29:49] So that makes sense. But this is not just doctrinal annoyance and disagreement. It's also a political dispute. These Jewish authorities are concerned about jurisdiction.

[30:02] They're annoyed that Peter and John are teaching the people at all without their authorization. So it says in verse 3, they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening.

[30:17] Since the lame man was healed around 3 p.m., the fact that it's already evening shows that Peter and John have been preaching to the crowd for several hours already. And since it's too late to convene the Jewish legal council, the Sanhedrin at this time, the priest, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees just arrest Peter and John and hold them in custody until the following day.

[30:37] But the word of God cannot be stopped. It says in verse 4, but many of those who had heard the word believed. And the number of the men came to about 5,000. As Paul says in Romans 10, 13 to 15, only those who hear the word can believe.

[30:53] Which is why it's imperative that we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. And so we see here that many of those who had heard the word believed. In chapter 2, verse 41, we are told that about 3,000 souls were added to the number of the church.

[31:08] And so by this point, another 2,000 people at least have been added. And if this figure only includes men, which is unclear but possible since he says the number of the men came to about 5,000, he could be speaking men and using the word men inclusively to refer to all of them.

[31:27] But if he's referring only to men here, then the total number including women and children likely would have been significantly larger, well over 10,000 people. On the next day, he says in verse 5, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.

[31:51] The rulers are likely a reference to the people named in verse 6, the current high priest, the former high priests and their families who are members of the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas was the sitting high priest at the time and there's only one high priest.

[32:05] He was the high priest that presided over Jesus' trial, initial trial. But Annas, who preceded Caiaphas as high priest was his father-in-law and he was the patriarch of the most powerful high priestly family in Jerusalem at the time.

[32:21] All five of his sons, Annas' sons, became high priests after him. And furthermore, because the Romans had deposed Annas by force and replaced him with Caiaphas, many Jews resented this and still held Annas to be the real high priest.

[32:37] And this is why Annas is here called the high priest. John is son of Annas who became high priest after Caiaphas and we don't know who Alexander was but it seems that they were all distinguished members of the high priestly family.

[32:53] So they are all the rulers. And the elders referred to civil officials and scribes to scholars of Jewish law. Both of these groups would have been represented among the Sanhedrin, which was the highest ruling class that I mentioned earlier.

[33:08] In short, then all the notable and distinguished people, the who's who among all the Jews, have gathered together in Jerusalem to see what all this fuss is about.

[33:22] And then they start the interrogation in verse 7. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this? The Sanhedrin sat for court in a semicircle like a crescent moon.

[33:38] So Peter and John would literally have been placed right in the middle, which must have been quite intimidating. And they ask him, by what power or by what name did you do this?

[33:50] Peter and John are aware that not long ago the same class of Jewish leaders accused Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons by the name of Beelzebul.

[34:02] And they know that these leaders are not sympathetic toward them by the way they approached them and arraigned them and then detained them and now interrogating them.

[34:14] And Peter had said earlier in chapter 3 verse 16, Jesus' name has made this man strong whom you see and know. So it seems the Jewish leaders are aware of the explanation that Peter has already given earlier and yet they question him again.

[34:27] how did you really do this? By whose authority have you done this? Since we definitely did not authorize you and you certainly don't have the right credentials.

[34:47] Then Peter, it says in verse 8, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, he addresses them as rulers. In Luke 12, if you guys remember, Jesus told his disciples not to fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

[35:07] And he told them, and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself for what you should say for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

[35:20] So that's exactly what's happening. The Holy Spirit fills Peter and gives him boldness and teaches him exactly what to say and he begins by addressing the Jewish leaders as rulers of the people.

[35:32] And this is significant because later in verse 11, Peter will quote from Psalm 118, verse 22 to say that Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected which has become the cornerstone.

[35:43] Interestingly, the earlier part of the Psalm, verses 6 to 9, says this. It's projected for you there on the screen. The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

[35:56] The Lord is on my side as my helper. I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

[36:11] In the ancient Greek translation of Psalm 118, that word princes is the same word that is translated in our passage twice as rulers. in verse 5 and verse 8.

[36:23] I wonder if during their detainment, as Peter and John thought about what might happen to them on the following day, whether or not they will be able to leave that place unscathed. They took comfort in Psalm 118.

[36:36] I will not fear what can man do to me. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in rulers.

[36:46] And if so, it's no surprise at all that this is the Psalm that's on Peter's mind as he begins to defend Jesus to these rulers, to demonstrate Jesus' messianic identity.

[37:00] Emboldened by God's word, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ who has been raised from the dead in verses 9 to 12. If we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of 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, by him this man is standing before you well.

[37:28] This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[37:41] It's by the name of Jesus Christ, whom these rulers crucified, that God raised, that this lame man is standing healed. Yes, that same Jesus whom you crucified weeks ago, unbeknownst to you, God is raised from the dead, and it is by him that this lame man has now been made well.

[38:04] And quoting that verse from Psalm 118, Peter argues that the Jewish leaders are the builders. They discarded Jesus as a worthless stone, unfit for use in their building project, in God's building project.

[38:16] But God has made Jesus to be the cornerstone, which is the foundation stone, and that sets the corner, that's where the construction begins. It sets the site, the location, and the direction of the building.

[38:29] The most important stone in the entire project. So then there has been a great reversal. The revered and esteemed Jewish leaders who cast Jesus aside and humiliated him and branded him as a rejected stone and killed him, God himself has raised and exalted and made him the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple, the Church of God.

[38:52] So in effect, Peter is conceding here, yes, we do not heal and teach by the name of Annas, or Caiaphas, or John, or Alexander, but we heal and preach by the name and power and authority of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

[39:10] In fact, we have no other option. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved. Notice how emphatic that is.

[39:22] No one else. No other name. Salvation is in Him, Jesus. Jesus is the location where salvation is found. You can find it nowhere else. Salvation is by Him.

[39:34] He is the agent who saves us. No one else can save us. Psalm 146, verse 3 says, Put not your trust in princes.

[39:46] Put not your trust in rulers, in a Son of Man in whom there is no salvation. But Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man in whom there is salvation. Peter's declaration can't be more straightforward.

[40:00] Lord, Annas, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, you members of the high priestly family, the rulers of Israel, you cannot save anyone. You do not offer the way of salvation.

[40:14] We can be saved only by one person and His name is Jesus. You too must repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins. So in chapter 3, we saw that Jesus is greater than all other prophets and here in chapter 4 we see that Jesus is greater than all other priests too.

[40:35] No one can for sin atone but Jesus, the rejected cornerstone. There is no prophet who can reveal God's word like Jesus. There is no priest who can make a once and for all sacrifice like Jesus.

[40:49] There is no prophet who can represent God to us like Jesus and there is no priest who can represent us to God like Jesus. This world is full of prophets and priests. Some explicitly religious and some not who tell you how you should live.

[41:07] Who tell you what salvation for yourself and for our society should look like. Some try to sell to you and sell to you a vision of the better you.

[41:19] The richer, thinner, prettier, healthier, more comfortable, better traveled, more chiseled, more mindful, more activist, more admired you.

[41:36] But the prophet and priest you should turn to is not the people on the Times 100 most influential people. It's not your favorite social media influencer or your favorite media pundit.

[41:51] It's not the political rulers. It's not your life coach or psychiatrist. It's not your husband or your wife. It's not your best friend.

[42:03] It's not Mohammed. It's not Buddha. It's not Gandhi. It's not Confucius. There's salvation in no one else for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[42:23] Those voices are so tempting, so alluring at times. But we must be reminded every single day there is no other name by which we must be saved.

[42:35] There's no other name that you should be paying more attention to, no other word you should be paying more attention to, no other relationship that you should be more attentive to, no one else you should be more knowledgeable about, no one you should love more than Jesus Christ.

[42:58] No matter how hard and long this life is a momentary blip compared to the eternity that awaits us and only Jesus offers the eternal salvation we need.

[43:12] all the pain and brokenness we experience in this life are symptoms of the disease of sin and the resulting alienation, separation from God and if you want your sins to be blotted out, gone, if you want to be reconciled to God to live eternally under His favor and not under His wrath and judgment, you must repent and turn to Jesus who alone can save us.

[43:46] Let's pray together. Let's pray together. O God, we ask for your help because we know that our hearts are so prone to wonder God, we ask you, we beg of you, make the name of Jesus, make the power of Jesus, make the authority of Jesus, make the love of Jesus more real to us than any other voice, any other relationship, any other person.

[44:39] that we might hold fast to Him, that we might bear witness to Him, that we might glorify Him with every breath you give us.

[45:04] in the holy and authoritative name of Jesus, we pray.

[45:19] Amen. Amen.