Salvation Is to Be Found through Him Alone—Ac 4:5-12

Peter and John have gotten themselves arrested at the Temple.  They’re at the house of the Lord, the house of prayer, but this is also the headquarters of the religious elite: the esteemed scholars, the powerful lawyers, the authorities.  It’s very encouraging, I think, that Luke tells us, as Peter and John are marched off under guard, that many who heard Peter and John believed (4:3-4).  You and I, we seem to operate most of the time under the impression that many who hear won’t believe, so we don’t bother to speak—wasted effort, wasted breath!  But it isn’t.

The authorities want to know one thing from Peter and John: what authority do these two have for what they’re doing?  Some priests, some scholars, some Pharisees recognize who Jesus is.  As a group, though, an institution, the religious elite recognize no authority in competition with their own.  God speaks and acts through them, you see: no one else has the qualifications, educational, institutional, or moral.  It’s a closed shop, and that’s how they mean to keep it.  But many who heard believed.  Telling people about Jesus, showing people about Jesus isn’t wasted breath.  It isn’t wasted effort.

The elite have the moral authority, oh yes.  This is why they can arrest Peter and John for the offense of enabling a lame beggar to walk.  When Peter begins to speak to the religious elite, he questions them: why have you brought us here?  What is our crime?  “[I]f we’re being questioned because of a good deed done to a lame man” (4:9)—now isn’t that an odd thing to be arrested for?  The crime of helping someone, the offense of letting someone know that God means to save, to restore, and to bless.  May I always be guilty of such offense!  May I be a repeat offender!

Luke is showing us that the authorities, as an institution, are not interested in, are in fact hostile to any talk about Jesus—any talk they haven’t authorized; that is, any talk that they haven’t authored.  Maybe you have encountered that.  Within institutions, especially institutions of secular authority, no authority can be used to speak of Jesus.  If Jesus is spoken of at all in such places, it must be with no authority.

Luke tells us that, when Peter begins to speak to the authorities about Jesus—and remember, to speak about Jesus, you must speak with no authority—Luke tells us that, as Peter begins, he is “full of the Holy Spirit” (4:8).  Wow.  Rather than speaking with no authority, Peter speaks to the authorities with full authority, greater authority, the greatest authority: the Holy Spirit of God.  When we speak to others of Jesus, may that same Spirit fill us, that Spirit of authority that authored all things!

Inspiration.  Have you ever felt uninspired?  Has life ever left you feeling uninspired?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of nice things, and we’ve done alright for ourselves, for the most part, in this life.  We’ve got no grounds to complain, as we know.  By material measures, we are quite well off, especially in a global sense.  At the same time, unaccountably, people today feel unfulfilled, lonely, empty, lacking . . . something.  What?  We can’t seem to buy it, though many claim to be selling it.  Some roam this world far and wide in search of it, only to find they’ve spent a lot of money and seen a lot of things and posted a lot of amazing pictures of amazing places among amazing people, and still haven’t found it.  Still unfulfilled, still lonely, still empty, surrounded by our stuff.

Long ago, people were looking for someone who would give them things: rains, a good harvest, protection from enemies.  Some people still decide they’ll give God a try, when they want or need something from Him: wealth, health.  For the most part, though, science and technology have got this covered.  Small wonder that so many seem to worship science and technology.

A much smaller number aren’t looking to get anything from God.  They’re looking to become God: to have enlightenment, deepest wisdom, the serene, tranquil mind set free from all illusion and limitation.  This is the draw of one sort of Buddhism for some Westerners; it’s also the end goal, in theory, for Hindus.

If people are no longer turning to God to get things from Him, and if only a small minority are ever looking to become one with the cosmic consciousness, what is it, besides habit and custom, that makes Christianity the predominant world religion?  A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 31% of the world’s population identifies as Christian, with Muslims a close second at 24%, and the next largest group, at 16%, are those with no religious affiliation.[1]  Today, Peter is giving us some insight into the answer, as he addresses the religious elite, the authorities, as he speaks to them filled with the authority of the Holy Spirit of God.  Peter is saying that the lame beggar is “well through the power of the name of Jesus Christ” (4:10).  He is well because of Jesus.

Last Sunday, I spoke with you about the nature of this wellness.  The man is restored physically, but full restoration also includes mental restoration, emotional, spiritual, and restoration to a community, a church.  That lame beggar had lived for how long—all his life?—crippled: not physically—that was the least of his woes!  He had lived crippled in his mind, in his heart, in his soul, in his relationships!  He had lived with emptiness, lack of fulfillment, wondering what was wrong, wondering why he was so unhappy.

Then Peter and John saw him, and they got him to see them.  Here’s the Spirit at work: The Spirit gets us to see someone, and the Spirit helps us to get someone to see us.  We get their attention in the right way at the right time.  Peter tells the man, I don’t have anything you think you want, but I do have what you don’t yet know you need.  Then Peter speaks the name of Jesus into that wrecked man’s life, and the man stands, and walks, and jumps, and praises, and discovers the answer to his question, the fullness for his emptiness, the satisfaction for his dissatisfaction, the purpose for his aimlessness, love for his longing.

It’s those who know spiritual longing who come to Jesus, who are drawn to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe, hopefully, through us.  We can be part of this; God invites us to be part of this.  If we decline, we are cutting ourselves off from great blessing, great fulfillment for ourselves, and we cut ourselves off from God’s mission in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit in this world.  We’re here today not only to find encouragement for ourselves—and God-willing, you are!—but to take that encouragement from here with us, and to share it with others, those whom the Spirit is pointing out to us, helping us to see.

Speaking Jesus into the life of another isn’t done with words only.  Deeds, acts, are a huge part of what we are to be about in this world, and words are also important.  Peter speaks, and the act happens.  The apostles first speak; speaking results in action; acts and deeds are the fruit of speaking the name of Jesus.

What is it about Jesus?  Sometimes those apostles say some pretty crazy stuff, stuff that Jesus would never have said, right?: like when Peter tells the religious elite “Salvation is to be found through [Jesus] alone” (4:12).  Terrible!  So exclusive!  So presumptuous and arrogant!  When did Jesus ever say that?  Of course, I’m baiting you, and I hope you realize that, but I’m not going to tell you where Jesus makes these claims.  Read your Bible, find out for yourselves; don’t take it from me.  The apostles do not invent things to say.  The apostles say what Jesus taught them.  And so shall we.

What is it about Jesus?  He is our Savior.  It’s that simple, and that complex.  Of the major religions, ours is the only faith that hangs upon a Savior.  A Presbyterian missionary to Iran for many years, William Miller (1892-1993), reminds us that “Islam has no Savior.”[2]  Mohammed is a prophet.  He is no savior.  Except for Jews for Jesus and similar groups, many Jews today don’t talk about salvation and definitely not in relation to sin.  One Jewish writer puts the matter this way: “When the Torah speaks of G-d as our Salvation or our Redeemer, it is not speaking of salvation or redemption from sin; rather, it speaks of salvation from the very concrete, day-to-day problems that we face, such as redemption from slavery in Egypt, or salvation from our enemies in war.”[3]  I’m not going to question the writer, but I seem to be reading the Old Testament a little differently.  For me, the “very concrete, day-to-day” problem I face is sin.

A Savior.  A savior brings salvation.  Salvation from what, though?  The world doesn’t understand.  We say sin, but not everyone says so.  Not everyone says salvation.  Hindus and Buddhists aren’t saying salvation.  Oh, they say liberation: liberation from the illusion that is this existence, liberation from the prison of selfhood, personality.  For Buddhists at least, the enemy, if such a word must be used, is desire.  Eradicate desire, longing, and you graduate into the Universe.

In my experience, most people aren’t looking to eradicate the desire of their heart and their inmost longing: most people want to fill their desire, fulfill their longing.  It all depends upon what we’re talking about, of course, but desire and longing can be a sign, an indication—there is a spiritual dimension, here, that we should not ignore, because this comes from God, from the Holy Spirit.  We want fulness for our emptiness, purpose for our aimlessness, satisfaction for our dissatisfaction, love for our longing.  People want a Savior.

Have you ever heard a song on the radio, on one of the pop, rock, or country stations, where they’re singing about how so and so’s love saved the singer?  “Oh, yeah, your love saved me.”  We get, culturally, that love saves.  The one you love “saves” you.  If you have been saved, it is because you have found love.  How that search preoccupies us!  How we sing, and write, and paint, and sculpt, and film about it!

Probably the best-known Presbyterian pastor in America right now is Tim Keller, who is PCA, not PC(USA).  A while back, Keller was reflecting upon some reading he was doing in books by the New Testament scholar and University of Edinburgh professor Larry Hurtado.[4]  Hurtado suggests that, from a social, cultural, and religious perspective (from this side of eternity, in other words), Christianity became dominant because, unlike other religions in the ancient world, Christianity spoke of and offered a relationship of love with God.  Relationship.  With God.  Love.  God saves because God loves.  God sends us a Savior, who is God’s love.  What God looks for from us is love: faith expressed and lived as love, love lived and expressed in faith.  Jesus shows us how.  Jesus helps us.  Jesus opens the way because he is the way.  Many religions have prophets.  We have a Savior who speaks to us of God’s love, who offers himself in love, who gives himself from love, who rises in love’s power.

As Peter had just reminded the people, so now he reminds the religious authorities that though you crucified him, God raised Jesus (4:10).  God’s Yes! overrules your No!  “Salvation is to be found through him alone” (4:12).  Salvation, through a Savior, is from love and is for love.  We don’t serve God in order to get things from Him, like some sort of contract labor.  We aren’t looking to eradicate self by graduating into the Universe.  Like everyone else, we are looking for love.  Like so many, we spent a long time, too long! looking for love in all the wrong places.  The longing didn’t go away.  The longing was a signal, given to us by God, a signal that would guide us to Jesus, who alone can satisfy our longing, our desire for fulfillment, for satisfaction, for purpose, for relationship, love.  The longing brings the Spirit, and the Spirit does not fail us.

But why speak?  They won’t believe.  Yet you believe.  Who ever spoke to you?  In whose name?  By what authority?

To the God of all grace, who calls you to share God’s eternal glory in union with Christ, be the power forever!

                [1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/

                [2] Qtd in https://www.jashow.org/articles/islam/islam-salvation/what-does-islam-teach-about-salvation-part-1/)

                [3] http://www.jewfaq.org/search.shtml?Keywords=salvation

                [4] https://www.redeemer.com/redeemer-report/article/why_does_anyone_become_a_christian