Acts 4:9-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands here before you whole in him. 11He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’ 12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. 14Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it. 17But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.” 18They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9. If we be judged. Undoubtedly Peter layeth tyranny…
9. If we be judged. Undoubtedly Peter layeth tyranny to the charge of the priests and the scribes, because they examine them unjustly concerning a benefit which deserveth praise, as if he and his fellow had committed some heinous offense. If, saith he, we be accused for this cause, because we have made a sick man whole. Peter hath in this place more respect unto the wicked affection of the mind than unto the very order of the question. For if, under color of a miracle, the apostles would have drawn away the people from the true and sincere worship of God, they should have been worthily called to answer for themselves; because religion doth far excel all the good things of this present life. But seeing they (having no cause at all) did wickedly make an offense of that which they ought to have honored, Peter, being supported with this confidence, doth at the first gird them wittily with a taunting preface, because they sit as judges to condemn good deeds. Yet he toucheth this point but lightly, that he may pass over unto the matter.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12, 13 Wolves which succeed true pastors plead their own cause,…
Wolves which succeed true pastors plead their own cause, and not God’s neither the Churches’.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9 If we this day be examined of the…
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
Ver. 9. If we this day be examined of the good deed] q.d. Evil times we must needs say they are, when good deeds and evil are dangerous alike; when to cure or to kill is equally criminal. "Should I not visit for these things, saith the Lord?" &c. Bede said of the ancient Britons, immediately before their destruction by the Saxons, that they were come to that height of wickedness, as to cast an odium upon pious and profitable persons, tanquam in adversarios, as if they had been public enemies, not fit to be endured.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Examined; juridically called in question; it is a forensic…
Examined; juridically called in question; it is a forensic word.
Of the good deed; though they disputed not the authority of the court, yet they assert their integrity; that it was no other than a good deed they had done, which rulers ought not to be a terror unto, Rom 8:3.
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By what means, that is, in the words of the question which was propounded unto them, Act 4:7, by what power, or by what name, he is made whole?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Observe here, 1. A positive assertion, that there is…
Observe here, 1. A positive assertion, that there is no salvation but by Christ; or, that besides, or without him, there is no possibility of salvation, either for Jew of Gentile; both those under the Old Testament have, one and the same common Saviour.
Observe, 2. The ground and reason of this confident assertion, That there is no salvation but by Christ; namely, because there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved:
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That is, no other person designed or appointed by God, to be the author of redemption to, and procurer of salvation for, a lost and miserable world, but only Christ.
Take we good heed then, that we do not reject or set him at naught; for in rejecting of Christ, we reject the wisdom of God, the authority of God, the love of God, yea, the salvation of God.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–13 If we this day be examined of the good…
If we this day be examined of the good deed,.... Or "seeing" we are; for it was not a matter of doubt, but a clear case, that they were brought into court, and were passing under an examination, about the cure of the lame man; which the apostle rightly calls a
good deed, it being done in faith, and to the glory of God, and for the good of the man; and hereby tacitly suggests, that they were dealt very hardly with, to be seized and kept in custody, and be called in question, for doing an action so beneficent and kind, as this was, which was
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done to the impotent man; who could not help himself, nor get his bread any other way, than by begging:
by what means he is made whole; restored to perfect health, and the proper use of his limbs; that is, by what power, and in what name this was done; the answer is ready, and it is as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10–13 Be it known to you all - Probably the…
Be it known to you all - Probably the herald of God proclaimed this with a loud voice. Whom God hath raised from the dead - They knew in their own consciences that it was so. And though they had hired the soldiers to tell a most senseless and incredible tale to the contrary, Matt. xxviii, 12, 15, yet it is observable, they did not, so far as we can learn, dare to plead it before Peter and John.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Verse 9. The good deed done] επι ευεργεσια, The…
Verse 9. The good deed done] επι ευεργεσια, The benefit he has received in being restored to perfect soundness.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v13 Act 4:13-14. Now when they saw the boldness of…
Act 4:13-14. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John — Observed with what courage and freedom they spoke, and pleaded their Master’s cause, and to what a high degree they extolled him in the very presence of those magistrates who had so lately condemned him to the most shameful death; and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant — Or rather, illiterate and uneducated men, or men in private stations in life, as Dr. Doddridge renders the latter word, ιδιωται, observing, that the expressions literally signify, “that they were not scholars, nor in any public rank of life, as the priests and magistrates were; but that they import no want of natural good sense, or any ignorance of what was then the subject of debate: so that our translation seems very unhappy here.” They marvelled — Were greatly astonished; and took knowledge of them — Greek, επεγινωσκον, they knew, or were persuaded, namely, upon further recollection or consideration; that they had been with Jesus — Had been his disciples, and from him had received their knowledge and their courage. They themselves, it is probable, had seen these two disciples with him in the temple, or on the night when he was taken, led to the house of Caiaphas, and examined: and they now recollected that they had seen them with him. Or some of the servants of these rulers, or those about them, informed them of it. And when they understood that they had been with Jesus, had been conversant with him, attendant on him, and trained up under him, they knew what to impute their boldness to; nay, their boldness in divine things was enough to show with whom they had associated, and from whom they had had their education. Observe, reader, those that have been with Jesus, that have had converse and communion with him, should conduct themselves in every thing so that those who converse with them may take knowledge of them that they have been with him; and, therefore, are made so holy and heavenly, spiritual and cheerful; so raised above this world, and inspired with hopes of, and desires after, another. And, beholding the man who was healed — As they were obliged to acknowledge he was; standing with them — With Peter and John, perfectly recovered; they could say nothing against it — Against the fact, though they were unwilling to own the doctrine which it tended so strongly to prove.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–13 If we this day - If as is the…
If we this day - If as is the fact; or since we are thus examined.
Examined - Questioned; if the purpose is to institute an inquiry into this case, or since it is the purpose to institute such an inquiry.
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The good deed - The act of benevolence; the benefit conferred on an infirm man. He assumes that it was undeniable that the deed had been done.
To the impotent man - To this man who was infirm or lame. The man was then present, Act 4:10, Act 4:14. He may have been arrested with the apostles; or he may have been present as a spectator; or, as Neander supposes, he may have been summoned as a witness.
By what means - This was the real point of the inquiry. The fact that he had been made whole was not denied. The only question was whether it had been done by the authority and power of Jesus of Nazareth, as Peter declared it to be, Act 3:6, Act 3:16.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10, 13 Name of our Lord Jesus. From this, St. John…
Name of our Lord Jesus. From this, St. John Chrysostom takes occasion to make several pathetic exhortations against swearing and profaning this adorable name. What profit do you propose to yourselves by abusing this name? Is it to gain credit to your discourse? So you will tell me; but, believe me, you are mistaken: if people saw you respected oaths, and were afraid to make free with them, then they would believe you. Not when you give them to understand that you undervalue them, by your frequent abuse of them. Break then so profane a custom. It will cost you neither money nor labour to do so: you are not required to part with any gratification for this purpose. Use only at the beginning a little diligence, and you will easily overcome so idle a practice. Wish, and it is done. (St. John Chrysostom, super Act. sparsim.) (Haydock) --- Whom you crucified. St. Peter, without fear or apprehension, openly and boldly tells them of their heinous crime: that Christ is the head corner stone, which they had rejected, as Christ himself had told them, (Matthew xii. 10.) and that there is no name under heaven given to men to be saved by. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–13 Be it known unto you . . . and…
Be it known unto you . . . and to all the people of Israel--as if emitting a formal judicial testimony to the entire nation through its rulers now convened.
by the name of Jesus, &c.--(See on Act 3:13, &c.).
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even by him doth this man stand before you whole--for from Act 4:14 it appears that the healed man was at that moment before their eyes.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9. If we… be—Rather, since we are.
9. If we… be—Rather, since we are.
Good deed—Their misdeed is a good deed. There might seem a gentle sarcasm in this expression, but there was a warning and awakening truth.
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Made whole—The Greek word is Σεσωσται; the same word as is rendered saved in Act_4:12, and should have been so rendered here.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9. if we this day be examined of the…
9. if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man] Both the nouns are without the article. Read “a good deed done to an impotent man.” Of = concerning, as we still use it in “to speak of.” St Peter’s words imply that perhaps there would be some other charge brought against them, for teachers of a new doctrine who had in a brief space gained five thousand followers must have attracted much notice in Jerusalem. Nor is it long before we hear (Act_6:13) blasphemy “against the Temple and the law” laid to the charge of Stephen, whose preaching (for this accusation precedes Stephen’s defence) must have been of the same character as that of Peter and John.
by what means he is made whole] The Greek has this (man), the demonstrative pronoun, for the man was there in the council-house to be seen by all. See Act_4:14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–13 (9) If we this day be examined.—The word is…
(9) If we this day be examined.—The word is employed in its technical sense of a judicial inter rogation, as in Luk_23:14. It is used by St. Luke and St. Paul (Act_12:19; Act_24:8; 1Co_2:14-15; 1Co_4:3-4), and by them only, in the New Testament.
Of the good deed.—Strictly, the act of beneficence. There is a manifest emphasis on the word as contrasted with the contemptuous “this thing” of the question. It meets us again in 1Ti_6:2.
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By what means he is made whole.—Better, this man. The pronoun assumes the presence of the man who had been made able to walk. (Comp. Joh_9:15.) The verb, as in our Lord’s words, “Thy faith hath made thee whole” (Mar_10:52; Luk_7:50), has a pregnant, underlying meaning, suggesting the thought of a spiritual as well as bodily restoration.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Are for be, A.V.; concerning a (good deed) for…
Are for be, A.V.; concerning a (good deed) for of the, A.V.; an (impotent) for the, A.V.; this man for he, A.V. We; eraphatic, probably in response to the emphatic "you" at the end of ver. 7. An impotent man. The following outov, this man, makes it necessary to supply the definite article, as the A.V. has done. St. Peter alludes to the good deed, i.e. the benefit done to the lame man, being the subject of a criminal inquiry, as a tacit condemnation of the unrighteousness of such a course.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12–13 Neither is there salvation in any other.
Act_4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other.
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Salvation in none other
This is--
1. The substance of every apostolic announcement.
2. The experience of every pardoned sinner.
3. The strength of every courageous confession.
4. The foundation of all missionary preaching of the Church. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
Salvation in Christ alone
I. Salvation is a subject of world-wide interest, for all need it.
1. The infant at birth needs salvation, and unless kindly hands save it, and minister to its necessities, it must perish. Through Childhood the saving interposition of others is needed. Even in manhood there is constant exposure to dangers, salvation from which is required. In age, sickness, and sorrow, how great is the need of temporal succour and salvation!
2. The unhappy fall of our first parents has involved all their descendants in ruin. By it the human race has been brought into imminent peril (Rom_3:10; Rom_3:23; Eze_18:4). Nor is the danger of sinners the less real because they are ignorant of it, or affect to make light of it. See to it that you neglect not so great salvation. To give prior consideration to any earthly consideration, however pressing, is a terrible mistake.
II. Salvation in Christ.
1. With the general outlines of the plan of salvation in Christ we are all happily familiar. We know how the Divine pity was extended to man in his fallen estate (Job_33:24). Christ undertook our cause, and purchased our salvation by His death (Isa_53:5; Rom_5:6; Rom_5:8; 1Pe_2:24; 1Pe_3:18). Now, since Christ was really God, His sufferings had an infinite value, and His life might well be regarded as more than an equivalent for the life of guilty man; and since He was perfectly man, it was both possible and proper for Him to take mans place, endure his punishment, and procure his salvation, so that God can be, and is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom_3:26).
2. The conditions on which this salvation is bestowed are also familiar, viz., repentance and faith (Act_20:21). Compliance with these conditions is necessary. Nor can you justly complain of this. The seaman, provided with chart and compass, and instructions as to their use, who refuses to follow his instructions, and perishes, has only himself to blame. The man who has taken poison, and refuses the antidote, will have but scant pity.
3. And how much does the expression salvation in Christ include?
(1) By it the mind is brought in contact with the entire range of human history. We are led to think of the fall of our first parents, the promise of a Deliverer in the seed of the woman, the types and shadows of the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, the incarnation of the Messiah, His atoning death, His triumphant resurrection and ascension, the mission of the Holy Spirit as His representative and administrator until He shall come again, His high-priestly intercession and mediatorial reign, the coming judgment of quick and dead.
(2) Nor are thoughts connected with the salvation of the individual less full of interest. Salvation in Christ comprehends the first dawn of conviction of sin, the apprehension of the plan of salvation, the exercise of repentance and faith, the joy of forgiveness, adoption, and renewal, a life of holiness and usefulness, with its vicissitudes, its conflicts, and its triumphs, conquest of death, entrance into heaven, everlasting life in Gods presence, where there is fulness of joy, the light of perfect knowledge, the glow of perfect love, the rapture of perfect felicity, and all this for ever.
4. This salvation, as it is needed by all, is adapted to all. Of all so-called faiths the gospel alone is equally suited to all latitudes and Lives. Some religions can only flourish in certain countries, just as some kinds of food are peculiar to certain climates; but this seed of the kingdom is like corn--wherever man lives it will grow.
5. And this greatest of all blessings, while adapted to all, is intended for all. It is cause for thankfulness that the chief blessings even of this world are not the exclusive property of the great and wealthy. And salvation may be the portion of the poor as well as of the rich. Moreover, it may be embraced by the illiterate as well as by the learned.
6. This salvation is in the name of Christ. Amongst the Jews a mystic virtue was supposed to be attached to certain names (chap. 19:14-16). And we rejoice to know that the name of Jesus is still the most potent of charms, and is invested with glorious mystic and saving properties.
III. Salvation in Christ alone.
1. With regard to the salvation of the race, of no other being except Christ has it ever been affirmed, He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1Jn_2:2). Christ, however, having redeemed all, claims the homage and the hearts of all (1Ti_4:10).
2. As to the salvation of the individual, this, too, is to be had in Christ alone.
(1) We cannot save ourselves. The poor sinner under conviction resolves, it may be, to turn over a new leaf, but the first thing he does is to make a blot at the top of the next page. But even supposing he could succeed, what would it profit him while his former sins still cried for vengeance? For a sinner to undertake to lead a moral life henceforward is merely like a bankrupt promising his creditors that for the future he will always pay cash. Nor can we save ourselves by the merit of our penitence and faith. Impenitence is a perpetuation and aggravation of sin; but penitence has in it no atoning efficacy. And unbelief--the refusal to accept Christ--is a sin; but faith is not a meritorious act which earns salvation.
(2) And as we cannot save ourselves, so also no other human being can save us. We would not undervalue the loving efforts of others for our salvation. Who can tell how much those of us who are now saved owe to the examples, counsels, prayers, and faith of pious parents and devoted friends? The conditions of salvation cannot be fulfilled by proxy.
(3) Nor can any human system save us.
(a) Look at the various systems of heathenism. How degrading and demoralising their teaching and tendency!
(b) Sometimes an impious priesthood has professed to dispense salvation by external religious rites and sacramental efficacy; but such a claim is mere blasphemy.
(c) Philosophy has often made proud pretensions as to the elevation and salvation of mankind, but her actual performances have not been such as to warrant boasting. Education and civilisation may do much for man; but with regard to his sorest need they are helpless. The greatest benefits which it is in their power to bestow may be enjoyed, and enjoyed to the full, by sinners whose end is everlasting destruction. In the great work of human redemption Christ is absolutely alone (Isa_63:1-3; Isa_45:22; Mat_1:21; Heb_7:25). (A. O. Smith, B. A.)
Salvation by Christ alone
I. What is implied. That there is salvation for us in Christ, we appeal--
1. To the typical representations of Christ. There were a great variety of sacrifices under the law which typified the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. To the positive declarations concerning Him. Nothing can be conceived more clear and strong than the Scripture declarations of Christs sufficiency to save. How forcibly has the prophet marked the extent (Isa_45:22), the fulness (Isa_1:18), and the freeness (Isa_55:1-2) of His salvation!
3. To matter of fact. We can draw aside the veil of heaven, and point to some before the throne of God who are such monuments of grace as leave no doubt respecting the sufficiency of Christ to save any others whatsoever. Let us now turn our attention to--
II. What is expressed. It is of infinite importance to every one of us to know that, as there is salvation for us in Christ, so there is no salvation in any other.
1. There is not.
(1) In whom else can we find the requisites of a Saviour? In whom can we find a sufficiency, either of merit to justify, or of power to renew, a sinner? If we should apply to the highest angel in heaven to give us of his merit, he would tell us that he himself is only an unprofitable servant; for that he does no more than is his duty to do (Luk_17:10). If we should intreat him to change our hearts, he would confess his utter inability to effect so great a work. Shall we then look to ourselves? We are full of sin.
(2) If there were any other Saviour, the most eminent of Gods servants would have had some intimation of it. Abraham (Rom_4:3-5); David would probably have been acquainted with such an important fact in order to his own salvation; but he sought refuge in none but Christ (Psa_51:7). We might hope at least that some information of this kind would have been given to the Apostle Paul (Php_3:9; 1Co_2:2).
2. There cannot be. We are warranted by the Scriptures to say that, consistently with His honour, as the Moral Governor of the universe, man could not have been saved without a Mediator: nor could any Mediator besides Jesus have been found to execute all that was necessary for our salvation. But there is yet another ground on which we may deny that any other could save us, namely, that if we were indebted to any other, either for righteousness or strength, we could not join in the songs of the redeemed in heaven, but must separate from the heavenly choir (Rev_7:9-10), and ascribe to ourselves, or to some other, the honour of our salvation. And how would this comport with the dignity of Jehovah, who has determined that no flesh should glory in His presence?
Address--
1. The careless. Wherefore are men so indifferent about their spiritual concerns? Is it that they are in no danger of perishing? Surely the very circumstance of Christ being sent down from heaven to die for us is enough to alarm all our fears, and to convince us that, if the salvation offered us could be procured by none but Him, the danger of those who are not interested in Him must be inexpressibly great.
2. The self-righteous. It is difficult to convince those who are looking to Christ in part that they are really renouncing Christ altogether.
3. The desponding. By nature and practice. Let none complain as though they were beyond the reach of mercy: for there is nothing impossible with Jesus: with Him there is mercy; with Him is plenteous redemption; and He shall redeem Israel from all his sins (Act_3:16; Act_4:10). (Theological Sketch-Book.)
Salvation only from above
In Germany there was a prison of exquisite beauty; its floors and walls were highly polished; it was roofless, and the prisoner could look out upon the beautiful sky. A prisoner was placed therein, and for a moment congratulated himself upon the polish and splendour of his apartments; he could freely breathe the fresh air and see the stars that decked the brow of night, or the sun that rose in glory; but after a time he observed that the walls were gradually approaching him, softly as the fall of the dew from the hand of night; noiselessly, as by the force of gravitation, those walls drew nearer, inch by inch, and as they came closer and closer the cold sweat stood upon his brow, for he saw that those walls were soon to embrace him in the arms of death. There was but one way of escape, and that was from above; a friendly hand might possibly be put down, but there was no such friendly hand for him. That represents the condition of humanity; the walls are approaching, there is but one way of escape, and the relief comes from above. The Son of the Highest from His Fathers throne is reaching down His hand of power into our dungeon; our hope is to grasp it, or the walls of our dungeon will crush us to death. There is none other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. (J. P. Newman, LL. D.)
Salvation in Christ alone
You have been a good child to your parents, said the venerable George
III. to his daughter, the Princess Amelia; we have nothing for which to reproach you; but I need not tell you that it is not of yourself alone that you can be saved, and that your acceptance with God must depend on your faith and trust in the merits of the Redeemer. I know it, replied the dying princess, with gentle resignation, and I could not wish for a better trust.
Christ the only Saviour
Believe a dying man, said Dr. Johnson in his last days to his physician. There is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
Christ the only Saviour found out too late
It is not long since that a prominent business man, when closely pressed by his pastor, who had lately come to the church, replied with a call force which was meant to put an end to further pertinacity: I am interested in all religious matters; I am always glad to see the ministers when they call; but I have in the years past thought the subject over long and carefully, and I have come to the decision deliberately that I have no personal need of Jesus Christ as a Saviour in the sense you preach. Only two weeks from this interview, the same man was suddenly prostrated with disease; the illness was of such a character as to forbid his conversing with any one, and the interdict from speaking was continued until he was within an hour of death. A solemn moment was that in which a question was put to him, intimating he might talk now if he could--nothing would harm him. The last thing, and the only thing, he said was in a melancholy and frightened whisper, Who will carry me over the river? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Christ the only Saviour
A young French nobleman, a particular friend of Napoleon III., becoming unaccountably gloomy in mind, and threatened with insanity, was urged by the Emperor to apply for advice and treatment to the celebrated Dr. Forbes Winslow. He came to London, and the great doctor, after careful questioning, discovered the character of his disease. He was tormented with a thought--and the thought was Eternity! where shall I spend it? This haunted him day and night. Dr. Winslow told him he could not help him. He had sought in the wrong quarter for his cure. Is there no hope, then! exclaimed the nobleman in despair. Yes; listen to me, and I will tell you how I was helped and healed said Dr. Winslow. When I was younger I had your complaint; and I tried every resource but the right one. At last I carried my case to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer, and He gave me health and peace. Go thou, and do likewise. The nobleman was astonished, but he stayed while the doctor read to him the portions of Scripture that had been blessed to himself, and after prayer, light and comfort came to him. The new medicine had cured him.
The way of salvation
Salvation is the total restoration of man from his fallen estate; and yet it is something more, for Gods salvation fixes our standing more secure than it was before we fell. It first heals our wounds, removes our diseases, takes away our curse, puts our feet upon the rock Christ Jesus, and baying thus done, at last it lifts our heads to be crowned with the King of heaven. Some people, when they use the word salvation, understand nothing more by it than deliverance from hell and admittance into heaven. Now, that is not salvation: those two things are the effects of salvation. We are redeemed from hell, and enter heaven because we have been saved. Observe here--
I. A negative fact. Neither is there salvation in any other.
1. Did you ever notice the intolerance of Gods religion? In olden times the heathen respected the gods of their neighbours: but Jehovah put this as one of His first commandments, Thou shelf have none other gods besides Me. The Christian religion is just as intolerant. The Brahmin may admit that there is salvation in fifty religions besides his own; but we admit no such thing. There is no true salvation out of Jesus.
2. What is the reason of this intolerance?
(1) Because there is the truth with the Jew and the Christian. A thousand errors may live in peace with one another, but truth is the hammer that breaks them in pieces. A hundred lying religions may sleep peaceably in one bed, but wherever the Christian religion goes as the truth, it is like a fire-brand. Truth cannot afford to be yoked with error- it gives to error its due, declaring that it hath no salvation.
(2) Because we have here the sanction of God. It would be improper in any man who had invented a creed of his own to state that all others must be damned who do not believe it; but since this religion is revealed from heaven, God, who is the author of all truth, hath a right to append to this truth the dreadful condition. We are not really intolerant, for we are but echoing the words of Him that speaketh from heaven, that there is no salvation out of Him.
3. Now persons say, Do you imagine, then, that none are saved apart from Christ? I reply, I dont imagine it, but I have it here in my text. Well, but how is it concerning the death of infants? Are they saved? and if so, how? I answer, Saved they are beyond a doubt; but not apart from the death of Christ. Another says, But how about the heathen? Holy Scripture saith but very little concerning them; but there are texts which lead us to believe that there are some who, led by Gods Spirit, are seeking after Him; and it may be that the God of infinite mercy is pleased to make to them revelations, so that they may be made partakers of the blood of Jesus Christ, without having such an open vision as we have received. But this much is certain: no heathen, however moral--whether in the days of their old philosophy, or in the present time of their barbarism--ever did or ever could enter the kingdom of heaven apart from the name of Jesus Christ.
4. But it is a great deal better not to talk upon speculative matters, but to come home personally to ourselves. And let me now ask you this question, have you ever proved by experience the truth of this great negative fact? Once I thought there was salvation in good works, and I laboured hard to preserve a character for integrity and uprightness; but when the Spirit of God came into my heart, sin revived and I died; wherein I thought I had been holy I found myself to be unholy. After that I thought, surely salvation might be obtained, partly by reformation, and partly by trusting in Christ; so I laboured hard again. But after fagging on for many a weary day, like a poor blind horse toiling round the mill, I found I had got no farther, for Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. Perhaps I have in my presence some who are trying to gain salvation by ceremonies. You have been baptized; you take the Lords Supper; you attend church; and if you knew any other ceremonies you would attend to them. As well might you labour to build your house with water, as to build salvation with such poor things as these. These are good enough for you when you are saved, but if you seek salvation in them, they shall be to your soul as wells without water, clouds without rain, and withered trees, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
II. A positive fact, viz., that there is salvation in Jesus Christ. Thou hast long been trying to find the road to heaven, and thou hast missed it. Guilt, like a heavy burden, is on thy back, and thou darest not yet cry for pardon. Satan whispers, It is all over with thee; there is no mercy for such as thou art: Christ is able to save many, but not thee. Poor soul! Come to the Cross of Christ, and thou shalt there see something which shall remove thine unbelief.
1. Come now with thy defilement, and look at Christs purity; and as thou lookest at that purity, like the lily, and thou seest the crimson of His blood overflowing it, let this whisper be heard in thine ear--He is able to save thee, sinner, inasmuch as though He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He was without sin; therefore the merit of His blood must be great. Oh, may God help thee to believe on Him!
2. But this is not the grand thing which should recommend Him to thee. Remember, He who died upon the Cross was no less than the everlasting Son of God. If He were a mere man, a Socinians or an Arians Christ, I would not bid thee trust Him; but since He is none other than God Himself incarnate in human flesh, I beseech thee cast thyself upon Him: He is able, He is willing, doubt no more. He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
3. Recollect again, as a further consolation for your faith, that God the Father has accepted the sacrifice of Christ. It is the Fathers anger that you have the most cause to dread. Now, Jesus was punished in the stead of every sinner who hath repented, and God the Father hath accepted Christ in the stead of sinners. Ought not this to lead you to accept Him? If the Judge -has accepted the sacrifice, sure you may accept it too; and if He be satisfied, sure you may be content also. If the creditor has written a full and free discharge, you, the poor debtor, may rejoice and believe that that discharge is satisfactory to you, because it is satisfactory to God. But do you ask me how I know that God has accepted Christs atonement? I remind you that Christ rose again from the dead.
4. Another argument is this--many have been saved who were as vile as thou art, and therefore there is salvation. The chief of sinners was saved years ago; that was the Apostle Paul: but even if thou should exceed him, still that word uttermost goes a little beyond you. I could turn to you myself, and tell you that surely there must be salvation in Christ for you, since I have found salvation in Christ for myself. Often have I said, I will never doubt the salvation of any one, so long as I can but know that Christ has accepted me.
5. To quicken thy diligence, however, I will conclude by noting that if you do not find salvation in Christ, remember you will never find it elsewhere. What a dreadful thing it will be for you if you should lose the salvation provided by Christ! For how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
One only way of salvation
I. Other way of salvation there cannot be, for that one way is Gods way; its divinity necessitates its exclusiveness. It is clear, that when man fell, he lay at the mercy of his Sovereign. To Him alone it pertained to determine these two points-whether the offender should have means of salvation at all; and then, what those means should be. If, in the exercise of the mercy in which He delights, Jehovah determined on mans salvation, and appointed and revealed the way, how can the conclusion be resisted that that way is the only way? The name by which we are to be saved must he given; i.e., it must have Divine appointment. If Jesus be the name given, then must it be the only name that can furnish any valid and satisfactory plea at the throne of the eternal God? If men could have been saved in ways of their own, God would not have devised one of His; and the very fact of His having done so is sufficient to show that men cannot be saved in ways of their own. It is related of Alphonsus, of Castile, that on having the Ptolemaic system of astronomy explained to him, he jeeringly said, that had he lived at the time, to give the Almighty counsel, he could have instructed Him to make a universe better. We now know that the scoff of presumptuous profanity was founded in sheer ignorance. And so it is in every one who fancies that he can dictate to God the way to save him. Men calling themselves philosophers have speculated whether God could have saved men in any other way than that which Christianity reveals, so as to forget the necessity of an interest in the way which He has accomplished. The question with us should be, what God actually has done, and if you admit that God has done what was best, you admit that He has done what alone He could do without ceasing to be God.
II. We argue the same thing from the Divinity of the Executor of the plan; that is, from the person of the Redeemer. He is God manifest in the flesh. Now if this is true, then that there can be no other Saviour must of necessity be as true. Either such a Mediator and such means of salvation were necessary, or they were not. If they were not, God could never have had recourse to them, for He is infinitely wise, doing nothing in vain, never using great means for little ends; and if they were, then all others must have been not only inadequate, but infinitely inadequate. The Mediator between God and man must either have been created or Divine. Then if a creature were sufficient, no matter how exalted, a Divine Mediator was infinitely above the exigency of the case; and if, on the contrary, a Divine Mediator was requisite, then was a created infinitely beneath the exigency of the case. We might base our argument, with equal conclusiveness, on the wisdom or the goodness or the justice of God. Take, in connection with the Divinity of the Saviours Person, the sufferings which He endured. Then, if all this was not necessary, the adoption of such a plan was at variance with the Divine justice and goodness.
III. We argue exclusiveness, on the ground that the plan revealed is the only one that bears to be tested by the principle of adaptation to what the existing case requires. This principle of adaptation is largely appealed to, as exhibiting the evidence of Divine perfection in the works of creation. This principle is as applicable in the moral world.
1. The gospel plan of salvation is in the essential and elementary principle of it, as well as in its provisions, adapted to the circumstances of man as the party to be saved. As guilty and condemned, he needed pardon and justification; and these are provided for by the mediatorial propitiatory obedience unto death of the divinely constituted and Divine Saviour. As depraved and sinful, he needed renewal in the spirit of his mind, sanctification; and this is provided for him by the work of the Holy Spirit in association with the work of Christ.
2. It is the only scheme adapted to the character of Him who saves. There is no salvation in any other, because He is the only Saviour by whom, and His the only name by which, in saving the lost, the glory of God is in every point secured.
IV. The last ground on which we rest the exclusiveness of the gospel method of salvation is the completeness of the salvation itself. It is a salvation worthy in all respects of God, and fully meeting the wants of man. It is a salvation from guilt, sin, suffering, death, hell, to a state of pardon and acceptance and favour, to the exercise of holy principles and holy affections, to life, to happiness, to usefulness, to heaven, and all for eternity. All Gods works are perfect, and this not less than others. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
Jesus the only Saviour
This passage is remarkable as forming part of a sermon by Peter--who thrice denied this very Jesus--and as having been first delivered in the hearing of the judges and murderers of Jesus. When Jesus stood before their tribunal, He told them that hereafter they would see the Son of Man standing on the right hand of power, and when the sacred writer speaks of His second coming, he says, Every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him. Now, it must have been a foretaste of this fearful truth when His apostles stood in their presence. In illustrating this subject, let us--
I. Remove an objection. A difficulty arises in the minds of some, as if the doctrine savoured of intolerance. They rest satisfied with the general idea that Christianity is true and important, but do not feel that it is the only Divine religion. Now these views are precisely those of the ancient heathens, who would have allowed an image for Jesus as one amongst many idols. What they found fault with was the universal demand that every idol should be destroyed, and that Jesus alone should be regarded as the object of worship and the author of salvation. But this is evidently the very spirit of Christianity. No blood can cleanse sin but that which was shed on Calvary; no power can open the gate of heaven but that of Him who hath the key of David, opening so that no man can shut, and shutting so that no man can open; no power can overcome the strong man armed, but the power of Him who binds Satan in chains and bruiseth him under the feet of His people. If men would only meditate on the solemn truth, that God spared not His only-begotten Son, who died the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, he would see that it is blasphemy to imagine that the salvation of man can be secured in any other way. For if so, God would have spared His only-begotten Son. Nor is there any ground for imagining that the doctrine of the text is at all inconsistent with just views of the benevolence of God. Suppose a body of men cast ashore on a desert island, smitten with disease, and famishing, and that in such circumstances one solitary ship was descried making towards the island, loaded with bread, but carrying an infallible physician, who offered to supply and heal the diseases of the people and to carry them to a land where they should hunger no more, and where there should be no more death--what would you think of the perishing men if they objected to all this because there was only one ship by which to escape, only one physician, only one supply of bread--because vessels had not been sent to all sides of the island, and bread of various kinds, and physicians of various qualities? Would you not think them insane and deeply ungrateful? Now this is the very case before us, only not nearly so strong. And what are we to think of such as object solely on the ground that God has not sent many deliverers instead of one; and instead of hailing the glorious offer, stand by callous and indifferent, and imagine that somehow or other they will escape, although death and famine are raging around.
II. Explain the truth.
I. We are said here to be saved by the name of Christ. This is a mode of expression sometimes used in Scripture; as, e.g., The name of the Lord is a strong tower; where by the name of the Lord is meant God Himself. We speak of the greatest names of antiquity, and of men filling the world with the terror of their names, when in both cases we mean not the names but the persons. And so we are saved by Christ Himself, although in Scripture we are said to trust in His name. In His name shall the Gentiles trust.
2. The form of expression, also, in the first part of the verse, is peculiar. The apostle does not represent Christ as giving salvation as a thing disconnected from Himself, but as a thing existing in Him, as a great treasure-house of spiritual blessings in Christ, from whom all the members united to Him by faith derive strength, nourishment, and salvation. The general doctrine here is, that Christ is the only Redeemer as He was the only Creator; and that He only is able to create us again, as He was to make us at first. The special doctrine is, that this fulness of mediatorial power is laid up in Christ as the Head of His Church, and that it descends from Him upon all His members, like the holy anointing oil from the head of Aaron, which flowed down to the skirts of his garments. The general truth is, that Christ alone hath removed the curse of the law and silenced the accuser of the brethren. He hath died, the just for the unjust, that He may bring us to God, and is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The special truth is that it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell, and that we become partakers of all the blessings which He hath purchased only when by faith we become branches of the true vine, living stones in the spiritual building of which Christ is the chief corner-stone. And these blessings are in no other. The merits of saints only exist in the imaginations of blinded idolaters; for every saint is by nature a child of wrath, even as others. If we desire blessings we must go to the Master of the house direct, for none of the servants can supply our wants.
III. Show the concurrence of scripture in this truth. The whole stream of revelation from the beginning points to Jesus and His finished work. The law which was given by Moses pointed to that grace and truth which were to come by Jesus Christ. The prophets prophesied beforehand His coming and sufferings. The angels of heaven filled the air with melody at His birth, and announced that the great Deliverer had at length arrived. The Spirit of God descended like a dove, and rested on His head, and a voice from heaven said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. John, who baptized Him, said, Behold the Lamb of God, etc. Old Simeon said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, etc. Philip said to Nathanael, We have found, etc. And what was the uniform doctrine of the apostles? Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And the song of heaven is full of Christs atonement. (J. Begg, D. D.)
Salvation exclusive but comprehensive
I. The nature of this salvation. St. Peter might well have meant--
1. Salvation from physical discomfort and pain. The circumstance was the healing of the cripple which the judges thought was effected by magic, but which the apostles ascribed to the name of Jesus, who had simply employed them. Pain and discomfort, although they may be transfigured by resignation, may yet crush out heart and hope, and our business in imitating God is to cure it if we can. Our Lord did by His apostles what He still does by generous hearts. The inspiring force of our hospital system is the grace and charity of Christ.
2. National salvation. This was the point of the reference to Psa_118:1-29. Christs way of delivering the nation was by becoming the corner-stone of its hope. For Israel was the real cripple. As a political body the Roman power had broken it. Still more was it crippled morally. The devotion of prophets and psalmist had died away, and in its place were Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. The old heart had been eaten out. What Israel wanted was new life, and its only Saviour was He who had healed the cripple.
3. Spiritual salvation. This was implied by the national, and the spiritual salvation of the nation implied that of the majority of its members. A nation is but an aggregate of individuals seen as such by God. To save men they must be taken one by one. Did not the Redeemer, who gave Himself a ransom for all, love me and give Himself for me? Does not the Spirit, by whom the whole Church is governed and sanctified, dwell in each separate soul? Does not a mother deal with her children personally? So Christ dealt with Peter, Thomas, Mary Magdalene, as if there were no other souls in existence.
II. Salvation in this sense is no monopoly of Israel. What was Israel that she should claim the sole monopoly of the saving name? The final absolute religion could not but be universal. The question of the Gentiles had not been raised, but there was behind the apostles the broad commission. The old infection of nature still remains in the world. Who mill save it? Now, as eighteen centuries ago, Jesus washes out the stains of a guilty past, and gives new desires, aims, hopes, enthusiasms, and renews by His eternal Spirit what His enemies have destroyed.
III. Salvation was exclusively confined to the power of the Lord Jesus. Christ was not one among many possible saviours; He was the only Saviour. And the ground of Peters confidence was that he had not a human speculation or theory, but, as he firmly believed, the final, absolute, one truth. Error may pay its insincere and splendid compliments to that which contradicts it. Truth can only firmly, tenderly, unvaryingly say, It is I who save; neither is there salvation in any other. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. The apostles speak as men who had found the secret of life, hope, happiness, salvation, and their highest ambition was that others might share their privilege.
1. When we affirm that there is salvation in none other than Jesus, we do not deny that other religions than Christianity have in them certain elements of truth. They would not exist if they had not. The element of truth in them enables them to resist dissolution. But they cannot save.
2. When we affirm that Christ alone can save men, we do not deny that other agencies can improve mankind. Education, etc.
3. But such influences as these are bounded by the horizon of time; they have no effects in the great hereafter. They are not opponents nor rivals; they move in a different sphere.
4. There can be no doubt that this conviction was in the first ages of Christianity, and has been since a great motive power in urging devoted men to spread the religion of their Master. (Canon Liddon.)
Christ our only home
On a huge cross by the side of an Italian highway hung a hideous caricature of the Beloved of our souls, who poured out His life for our redemption. Out of reverence to the living Christ we turned aside, disgusted, from the revolting image, but not until we had espied the words Spes unica, in capitals ever its head. Here was truth emblazoned on an idol. Yes, indeed, Jesus, our now exalted, but once crucified Lord, is the sole and only hope of man. Assuredly, O Lord Jesus, Thou art spes unica to our soul.
Other refuge have we none,
Hangs our helpless soul on Thee.
We found this diamond in the mire of superstition: does it sparkle any the less? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
None other name
A few persons were collected round a blind man, who had taken his station on a bridge in the City Road, and was reading from an embossed Bible. Receiving from the passers-by of their carnal things, he was ministering to them spiritual things. A gentleman on his way home from the City was led by curiosity to the outskirts of the crowd. Just then the poor man, who was reading from Act_4:1-37., lost his place, and, while trying to find it with his fingers, kept repeating the last clause he had read, None other name,--None other name,--None … Some of the people smiled at the blind mans embarrassment, but the gentleman went on his way musing. He had lately become convinced that he was a sinner, and had been trying in many ways to obtain peace of mind. But religious exercises, good resolutions, altered habits, all were ineffectual to relieve his conscience of its load, and enable him to rejoice in God. The words he had heard from the blind man, however, rang their solemn music to his soul--None other name. When he reached his home and retired to rest, the words, like evening chimes from village towers nestling among the trees, were still heard--None other name--None other name. And when he awoke, in more joyful measure, like matin bell saluting the morn, the strain continued, None other name--None other name. The music entered his soul, and he awoke to new life. I see it all; I see it all! I have been trying to be saved by my own works--my repentance, my prayers, my reformation. I see my mistake. It is Jesus who alone can save me. To Him I will look. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name--none other name--none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
The power of the name of Jesus
A brave cavalry officer was dying of his wounds. He thought himself on the field, at the head of his gallant men, and fancied that a heavy gun was just in front of them ready to be fired. His distress was great. At length he thought the gun had been fired, and his men, badly cut up, were retreating. Here I interposed, saying, There is no gun there; you are safe among friends. Let me alone, he sternly replied; I must recover my command and renew the attack. No, said I, let us not think of battle scenes. You are soon to die. Let us talk of Jesus. The mention of that name seemed to exert the powerful influence I had often heard ascribed to it. His agitation ceased at once; his delirium passed away; a smile lit up his pallid features. After a moments silence, he said in a low tone, Jesus, Jesus! It is He who said, Come unto Me, etc. I want rest, I am weary. Soon after he entered the glorious rest of heaven. (W. Baxendale.)
The one saving name
The text declares that Christs is the only saving name on earth. Other terms are used elsewhere to indicate the paramount value of His religion over all other instrumentalities for mans well-being in this world and in that to come. But, either from an inadequate idea of moral evil, or from a failure to see the perfect fitness of Gods remedy for it, this truth is yet widely unfelt or denied. Men resort elsewhere, and apply to this or that pretender, instead of the only infallible Physician. With some insufficient and temporary expedient, they patch up evils which the miraculous touch of the Son of God is requisite to cure. Lanterns and lamps are of no little use, but he would not be accounted wise who should propose to substitute them for the sun. Let us consider some of the substitutes which have been proposed by some men for the great instrument of mans highest good.
I. Liberty--the goddess, as Mammon is the god, of the present civilisation. Summoned upon the theatre of Europe by the fearless voice of Luther, breaking forth in the tremendous throes of successive French revolutions, and winning her more complete triumph in the New World, liberty is one of the strongest passions of modern history. And no wonder. When you have entered the house of human bondage, and remembered its dreadful secrets, no wonder your blood boils. The Bastiles of tyranny have fallen before this potent indignation. Let them fall. All honour is due to those who have lifted the yoke from the neck of humanity, and said to myriads, Ye are men, go free. But then we need only glance at the condition of the freest nations to see that Liberty can be no substitute for the gospel. Under her dominion men may know their rights, but they need another master to teach them their duties. Liberty must take law into her partnership, or she is but another name for license. And when the general relations of society are equitably adjusted, and justice done between man and man, what a wide empire of character is beyond her reach! National liberty, glorious boon as it is, is external. But the liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free is carried into the inmost recesses of the mind. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty--Liberty from anger and malice and lust and drunkenness, and the whole legion of evil spirits wherewith society is possessed.
II. Modern civilisation. The crying demand for a spiritual regeneration is postponed for external ease and luxury. When the sacred writer wished to describe the growing degeneracy of the chosen people, he said, Jeshurun [a term of endearment for Israel] waxed fat, and kicked. That phrase describes the two great eras in a nations growth: first, of prosperity; and secondly, of insolent power, forgetting right. Thus modern civilisation has woven so thick a veil, that many seem to be incapable or indisposed to see underneath the living texture of Divine laws, and our accountableness to the will of the Supreme. Strange and deplorable result, if home become so attractive that it should prove a rival to heaven! Sad mistake, if the charms of earthly friendship and comfortable life should dull our sensibilities to our holy relationship to God and Christ! We need to know that what is best and safest in this modern civilisation has flowed from Christianity; but that, so far as it is disconnected from Christ, as its controlling principle and sanctifying motive, it is base and soulless and dangerous; that there is hazard of entombing our souls in this magnificent earthly good. The splendid gift of life was not bestowed that we might dress in purple or fine linen, or fare sumptuously every day, or even that we might ride a mile a minute, cross the ocean in ten days, or send a despatch round the globe in the twinkling of an eye. He who rides a mile a minute ought to be using that grand conveyance on no fools errand. He who can cross the Atlantic in ten days should feel himself commissioned to do some great and good work for man, when the Almighty has thus put in his hands the sceptre of the winds and waves, and they obey him. He who can send swifter than the suns flight messages from clime to clime ought to charter the telegraph with some good tidings of good. Modern civilisation is all good and safe, when kept down at the proper secondary mark; but if it arise, and assume prouder titles, and the privilege of monopolising immortal capacities for mortal uses, the watchmen must cry aloud, and spare not. For none can look abroad, and not see that the world, so called, has got a fearful hold of mens minds. Everything, even virtue, is to be turned to profit. What does not bring money is not, in general, thought to be worth anything. Then is there no fear that we have another God than the Lord of heaven and earth, even Mammon, as the actual deity of our worship! Tried by every rule, and weighed in every balance, modern civilisation, as such, is found wanting. Ill can it suffice for its own temporal needs, and keep itself out of fire and water; how much less meet the great need of immortal man! Ill can it stand in the place of Christ for the healing of the nations. Its god is gold, its aim is self; too many of its governments are tyrannies; too many of its cities Sodoms; its highest honours are military butcheries; and its only tolerable deserts are discoloured reflections from His glory who died on the Cross.
III. Reformation, philanthropy, a new organisation of society. The plea is ingenious, because it has some truth to give it countenance, that, notwithstanding Christianity has existed so many centuries, the dreadful evils of society have gone unreformed. True, but it is because it has been corrupted, both under Greek, Catholic, and Protestant forms. But there it is, in the life of Christ, in the books of the New Testament, and it will never suffer man to give sleep to his eyes until it has made all things new. It is said, also, by the reformer, that though men make institutions, institutions, in turn make men. For example, that you may preach heavenly-mindedness, but how can you expect any considerable amount of spirituality in the brutal camp, or in the damp, cold cellars of city pauperism? We confess we cannot. It becomes, accordingly, a matter of the last consequence that the permanent institutions of society, and the customs of the time, should all square with the Christian standard, Christ must sit as sole and final umpire upon all the great questions that now agitate society. And in this just judgment, whatever Christ, by His Word, rejects, we, who are His followers, must reject; and whatever He commands we must do, let whoever will say nay. So much we yield to reformation. But what we protest against is, simply, that moral reformation, or any new organisation of society, can take the place of the religion of Christ. For, in the outset, how could these great moral movements start, unless there were the heaven-derived and omnipotent influences of Christian ideas acting behind? This is the ever-flowing river that sets in motion all the wheels and complicated machinery of practical philanthropy. This is the exhaustless reservoir and lake that fills all the pipes, aqueducts, and fountains, and quenches a citys thirst, and cleanses a citys impurity. Christ is the reformers wisdom and guidance and strength, and without Him he could do nothing. Then, again, grant that you could by a possibility get the world all reformed, the timepiece wound up and running well, properly more equalised, education and happiness universal. How long would the millennium last without Christ? Self is still there, and passion is busy, and the old man will again come to life though he has once been crucified with the lusts thereof; and then the world is as bad as it was before, and you have all your work to do over again. No; Christ is the only Sovereign and legitimate Reformer, as He is the Saviour of the individual soul, and those only who go forth in His name and spirit are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.
IV. Education. We grant, indeed, that if the world is ever to be better and happier, it must be in no slight measure by a better family and common school nurture. But education, like all other great movements of benevolence, is powerless of good when disjoined from Christ. The culture of the mind exclusively becomes a doubtful good, if moral training keep not an even pace with it. Jesus, as the perfect representative of our spiritual nature, encourages the earliest moral training, He called children to Him, and pronounced His blessing upon them. At one time He set a little child in the midst, and bade His disciples be converted and become like little children, or they could not enter His kingdom. And He left it in charge to His apostles, Feed My lambs. Education, then, in its higher forms, has the explicit encouragement of Him who knew what was in man. (A. B. Livermore.)
One saving name
We can destroy ourselves and each other, but we cannot save ourselves or each other. There are some dangers and evils from which we can save both ourselves and our fellows, but from the worst we can neither save ourselves nor others. All that in this case we can do for ourselves is to look to a Saviour, and for others to direct them to a Redeemer. We are seldom satisfied with what we have. Eve desired the forbidden fruit; and the Jews desired a Saviour entirely different from Him to whom the prophets had given witness, and whom God had sent. To this fact Peter calls attention, and then adds, Neither is there salvation in any other, etc. Note here--
I. Salvation.
1. Ignorance with respect to the highest subjects is compared to darkness; to be called out of darkness into marvellous light, is in part salvation.
2. Foolishness is ever attendant upon sinfulness. To receive wisdom from above, and to be made, concerning the highest ends and the best means, truly wise, is in part salvation.
3. The imagination is a faculty ever busy for good or evil. Unless connected with knowledge and wisdom, its fabrications are vain and wicked. To have all such imaginations cast down, is in part salvation..
4. The heart of man is a tree bearing corrupt fruit, and a fountain pouring forth bitter water. To have created within us a clean heart and a right spirit, is in part salvation.
5. The will of man was created to correspond to the will of God, as a wheel within a wheel, but it has fallen from its place and revolves out of its sphere. Like the rudder of a ship, the will was intended to keep men true to the glory of God while compassing the broad way of Gods commandments. But the helm is in the hands of pirates, and the vessels prow is to the rock, or the quicksand, or the iceberg. To be delivered from a rebellious and wayward will, and to be made ready to do the will of God as an obedient child, is in part salvation.
6. Conscience is a faculty which many suppose can never become corrupt. But a man may do evil when he acts conscientiously, for there are evil consciences. To have the conscience cleansed and healed by the precious blood of Christ, and rectified by the Holy Ghost, is in part salvation.
7. God created man in His own image (Gen_1:27). As the painting or the statue to its subject, as the mirror to the spectator, so was the first man, in the beginning, to his God. But the mirror is broken, and the statue is defaced, and the painting is rent, and the child has fallen and is disfigured and maimed. To have the mirror replaced, the picture renovated, the child healed, and the Divine likeness restored, is in part salvation.
8. With a sinful nature we are born. To have our sinfulness crucified and its dominion destroyed, is in part salvation.
9. The position of man was, in his first estate, righteous and filial. But we have fallen from our position by sin, and are accounted guilty and ungodly. To be justified, is in part salvation.
10. There is an evil spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. To be delivered from his presence and power, is in part salvation.
11. There is evil in all human institutions and arrangements. Gods world is good, but mans has much evil. To be made to overcome the world, is in part salvation.
12. Death has crept over our human nature, spiritual death. To be morally and religiously quickened, is in part salvation.
13. Punishment hangs over our guilty heads like a thunder-cloud pregnant with storm, and the impending tempest murmurs in our present sorrows. The wages of sin is death, and all the evils to which flesh and soul are heir are as instalments of the wages of sin. To have the firmament of life cleared of these clouds by the forgiveness of sins, is in part salvation.
14. Such are the derangements of evil, that the forgiven and regenerated are exposed to affliction, and it is appointed that they too should die. To be sustained in the hour of tribulation, to go down into our grave and to rise again, shouting, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? is in part salvation.
15. Paradise was lost by Adam, but paradise is regained by Jesus Christ. To enter that garden as our own, and enjoy its innumerable delights, and to realise therein everlasting life, this is the consummation of salvation. This salvation God promised at the beginning, this God has provided, and this we offer you in the preaching of the gospel.
II. Salvation in a person.
1. Deliverances are sometimes wrought by things. The shipwrecked one is saved by clinging to a floating spar, the tenant of a house on fire by the trap-door in the roof. And deliverances are effected by things employed by persons, as by a crew in a lifeboat, a fireman and the fire-escape, a physician and his medicines. There are, moreover, persons whose profession is some work of salvation, as the medical practitioner, the fireman, and the lifeboat crew.
2. The salvation of which we have been speaking is not in the Divine purpose, or in the Divine fiat, or in anything, but in a living Saviour.
3. To be saved by a Saviour.
(1) This shows our weakness, and in our weakness we see our wretchedness. We are like one drowning, bound hand and foot. We are like one exposed to the flames, and paralysed in every limb. We are like one poisoned, upon whom the sleep of death is already creeping.
(2) This arrangement removes all cause of boasting from the saved.
(3) It places the redeemed under special obligations. They are indebted to their Saviour as to none other. Father, mother, husband, wife, have done nothing for us compared with Him who saves us.
(4) It renders the actual work of salvation a service of sympathy and love. Salvation comes not from a mere power or force, but it is connected with intelligence, affection, and volition, and is therefore not liable to failure.
(5) it creates a new relation and connection. By our existence we become the offspring of God. By our entrance into life we have parents of the flesh. And these and other connections are natural. We have Creator, mother, father, perhaps brothers, sisters, in the ordinary course of providence. But a Saviour is distinct from all other relations. Blessed is the man who, looking toward one mighty to save, can say My Saviour. A man may be an orphan and friendless, but with a Saviour anything but desolate, while he who, in the midst of the largest and most loving circle, has no Redeemer is not only a forlorn, but a lost man.
III. Salvation in a person whose name is made known.
1. Six thousand years ago the Saviour of men was simply called the seed of the woman. Then He was denominated the Shiloh, the Prophet, Wonderful, Root of Jesse, Righteous Branch, Jehovah our Righteousness. And the angel who announced the conception said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, etc.
2. Jesus is the name given among men as the name of the Saviour. To this Jesus give all the prophets witness as the Christ of God. This Jesus was proclaimed Saviour by the angel Gabriel, by another angel, and by a multitude of the heavenly host. This Jesus was introduced by one of the greatest prophets the earth has ever known. The works He wrought bare witness of Him. The heavens were thrice rent, and from the excellent glory a voice came, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Eclipse and earthquake saluted Him as the Saviour when He died; resurrection revived His renown, and ascension established it for ever, That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. It is an interesting fact that the name Jesus occurs nearly seven hundred times in the four Gospels, Christ alone some sixty times in the Gospels and in the Acts, Jesus Christ but five times in the Gospels, and Christ Jesus not once in those books. We may regard Jesus as therefore the name given among men.
3. Joshua, to which name Jesus corresponds, is composed of a portion of the name Jehovah, and of a word which signifies salvation. So that the etymon would signify the Lords salvation, or Lord of salvation. This name was given to the Son of Man, to a Bethshemite in the time of Samuel, to a governor among the cities of Judah in the days of Josiah, and to a high priest in the days of Haggai. The name, though in use, was not common, and it was given the Son of Mary with a special signification.
4. But who is this Jesus? He is God manifest in flesh. He has all the attributes and properties of God, but while on earth He made Himself of no reputation, etc. He has all the attributes and properties of humanity, but without sin. In Him is all that is requisite for complete redemption. God has given this name--in writing to be read, by preaching to be heard; given it Himself that it may never be forgotten, and that it may be above every name; given it among men, that men may read and hear it, learn and repeat it, incorporate it with their prayers and their songs, and that it may become as familiar in their mouths as any household word.
IV. Salvation limited to this person.
1. There have been other names under heaven given among men. The Pharisees gave the name of Abraham, and said, We have Abraham for our father, and the name of Moses, saying, We are Moses disciples. The false prophet of the sixth century gave his own name. The Church of Rome gives the name of the Holy Catholic Church, the names of angels, saints and martyrs, and above all, the name of Mary. But Abraham was the ancestor of the Saviour, not the Saviour; Moses was a prophet of the Saviour, not the Saviour; Mahomet was self-deceived and a deceiver; the Church is composed of the saved, not of saviours; the angels minister to the heirs of salvation, they cannot save them; and Mary is indebted for her own salvation to her own son Jesus.
2. But not only have other names been put forward, but things have been presented as saviours. Thus, sacraments are given among men as means of salvation, and men-made creeds, and membership with particular churches, and good works. But these are given among men by men, and not by God.
3. It would be interesting to inquire into the causes of other names and things being put forward. Perhaps the chief cause is pride. We shrink from the practical acknowledgment of entire and absolute dependence upon the grace of God for our redemption; we despise the simplicity of faith, or we are not prepared to follow after holiness. But, however, this may be, neither is there salvation in any other.
4. There is much mystery surrounding this name, the mystery of the holy incarnation, of the union of the Divine and human natures, of oneness with the Father, co-existing with subjection to the Father, of the temptation and agony, and of the Eloi, Eloi, of the grave, and resurrection and ascension; but we cannot afford to neglect the name Jesus because of the mystery which surrounds it, because neither is there salvation in any other.
5. There are differences of opinion concerning Him who bears this name Jesus. Some deny His Deity, others His true humanity. Some refuse to recognise Him as victim and priest, and do Him homage only as a teacher; others leave Him in the sepulchre among all the mighty dead. The unbelieving Jew still accounts Him an impostor, the believing Gentile crowns Him Lord of all. But amidst this diversity of opinion we may not say, I suspend my judgment. We must on this subject make up our minds. Nor can we hold error without fearful peril, for neither is there salvation in any other.
6. Many who say they are saved by Christ show no signs of redemption. As we look at them we say, Saved from what? If they be saved, what must they have been before? There are men who boast that they are saved, who are such children of the devil, that many have said, If this be salvation, may Heaven keep it far from me! But what then? Although many who say they are saved exhibit no signs of salvation--yea, more, although but few be saved--yea, more, if as yet not one soul has been saved, my text abides true, Neither is there salvation in any other.
7. Many men think their own cases too singular to be saved by Christ Jesus. One man is sceptical, and his doubtings are, in his judgment, of the most extraordinary character. There have been sceptics many, but none like himself. A second was once an atheist or a deist, and in the denial of religious truth proceeded farther than he can conceive it possible for an infidel to go. A third has been a blasphemer. A fourth has been a licentious profligate. A fifth has been more cruel than a beast of prey. A sixth once wore the form of godliness while destitute of the power. A seventh once heard the Word with joy, but endured only for a while; tribulation arose and he was offended. The eighth has been a bitter persecutor. Now, each of these say, Jesus may save others, but He cannot save me. But whatever eminence a man may have in that which is sinful, if he be saved at all, he must be saved by the Redeemer of the least of sinners. There is one sun to rule our day, one moon to rule our night, one atmosphere round our globe in which to breathe and move, and not another. Neither is there salvation in any other.
Conclusion:
1. And are there any persons here who believe not on Jesus? If there be, who can they be? Surely not the children of believing parents? Not those who are now, or who have been, in our Christian schools? Not the possessors of a New Testament? Not those who regularly or even occasionally hear the gospel? Not such as know this name Jesus? Or is it so, that the unbelievers here consist of these very classes? Not believe! Why do you not believe? This name, by faith in this name, saves. The ignorant by faith come to this Jesus as a teacher; the unwise by faith come to this Jesus as wisdoms fountain; the foolish builders by faith come to earths Creator; the impure by faith come to this Jesus, as to a fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness; the conscience-wounded creature comes by faith to this physician of souls, that He may make him whole; the fallen come by faith to this Jesus, mighty to save, that He may lift them up; and if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved.
2. My brothers, believe. Do I hear you say, Go thy way for this time? For this time! Why for this time? Ah, I know why--that you may drink more freely of this worlds pleasures.
3. Believers in this name, do your utmost to make it known. When you see it, does it not sparkle beneath your eye as the gem of gems? When you hear it, does it not sound as heavens sweetest music in your ear? and in your heart of hearts, do you not feel it to be the power of God to your salvation? Then do your best to sustain the men by whom, and to uphold the places in which, this name of names is preached. (S. Martin.)
Only one way in
Standing opposite Fort William, a missionary heard the Mussulmans and Chinamen saying, There are very many gates into Fort William--there is an hospital gate, a water, gate, and others. Now, Sahib, it is just the same in regard to heaven. Chinamen get in at one gate, Mussulmans in at another, and Hindoos in at another! Yes, the missionary said, that is true; but there is a sentinel at every gate, and every sentinel has the same watchword, and you cannot get into it without that watchword. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
Christianity the only reformatory force
1. Four great facts confront us at every turn.
(1) There is that in the world which men have consented to call vice.
(2) There is that in the world which men have consented to call virtue.
(3) This vice and virtue has its residence not in the human physique or intellect, but in that which you and I have consented to call character.
(4) The power to suppress vice and to develop virtue is not in man nor of man, but from God.
2. These are four facts, confirmed by the whole race, that stand to-night unchallenged. And we stand here to advocate the great thought in the text that the only power whereby vice can be suppressed and virtue developed is the power of Christianity, manifested through a personal Christ, resident in the human heart.
I. The liberalism of to-day is opposed to such a thought, and points us to other sources of reformatory power.
1. Our attention is directed to China, where a name is held as sacred as the name of Christ by us. Once a year the Emperor, surrounded by his court, enters a temple, and exclaims: Confucius, Confucius, how great is Confucius; before Confucius there was no Confucius, and since Confucius there has been no Confucius; Confucius, Confucius, how great is Confucius! Now what was the radical conception of humanity by Confucius? It was that humanity is radically good, that it is capable of the highest form of virtue, independent of any external force; hence he gives to his countrymen the five relations. The great reformatory force of Confucius was subordination; the obedience of the wife to the husband; of the child to the parent; of the youngest brother to the eldest brother; of the youngest friend to the oldest friend; and of the subject to the Emperor. Let us honour Confucius for the moral principles he gave his countrymen; but those principles have been tested under the most favourable circumstances, and what are the results? Go all through the Chinese Empire, and what do you find? Lying and theft, and all forms of dissipation; the degradation of women; and an expenditure of £33,400,000 annually in one branch of idolatry.
2. Then in the East there is another rival name, the name of a man who sways his sceptre over more than 100,000,000 of people in China, Japan, the Isles of the Sea. Sakya-Muni went forth with the two great ideas that vice is the result of the change that is apparent all around us, and that to secure virtue the mind must rise to that law under which no things change. Hence the name Buddha is given to one who ascertains that changeless law. I have no interest in misrepresenting this great man. I would estimate him a providential man, as Socrates and Plato. But when he is brought as a rival against my Master I am bound to sit in judgment upon his proposals to make humanity better. He gave noble precepts to his people, and that six hundred years before Christ came into the world. He issued His commandments, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not commit adultery, all of which, however, can be traced to Moses. But now go all through where Sakya-Muni has swayed his religious sceptre. Here not only are his precepts violated, but all the precepts in our Ten Commandments.
3. In India we find another rival to our Master in the form of Brahma. The great theory in Brahminism for the elevation of humanity is that as sin abides in the flesh, and virtue in the intellect, we must reduce the physical to the minimum, and exalt the intellect to the maximum, and then we suppress vice and develop virtue. Well, let us judge of Brahminism by its results. Let us go to that fair land, where all nature is lovely and only man is vile. Look at the idolatry--360,000,000 of gods! Woman is degraded; childhood, especially female child-hood, is sacrificed; Thuggism prevails, and there vices are dominant. And all this is the result of the insufficient reformatory force in Brahminism.
4. I do not mention Mohammedanism, for Mohammedanism is not original; it is plagiarism.
II. Now turn to Christianity. What is Christs radical idea of the condition of humanity? It is that human nature is bad, and that this badness is in the condition of the will, conscience, and affections, and that out of this moral condition flows vice, and that out of vice comes the misery of the world. Now, what does He propose to do? To transform by a supernatural power.
1. We must not look upon Him as a mere philanthropist; Christs philanthropy is subordinate to His supernatural power. Christ did not come to improve the physical condition of man. Do you tell me that He performed miracles? True; but not as a philanthropist. He did not raise all the dead, or heal all the sick; but only where He could write a credential for His great mission to renew the human heart. The significance of the miracles of Jesus Christ is this, that all through the East there prevailed the idea that sin was in matter, and that there was no power in the universe by which matter itself could be controlled. Hence He performed His miracles simply to prove that He was higher than nature, and that matter was subject to Him. He was not a philanthropist in the ordinary sense. The orphans cried in the streets of Jerusalem, but He erected no orphan asylum; He never founded a college. He might have given to the world a perfect system of science and a Materia Medica that would have alleviated the sufferings of humanity. But He did nothing of the kind. He might have anticipated great inventors; whatever to-day seems to be the glory of our civilisation must have floated through His Divine imagination. But this was not the purpose of His coming. Nor did He come as a statesman. Twice He was invited to be a judge, but He declined; once He was asked to be a king, but He refused. He expressed no preference for this form of government or that. He knew that government was oppressive, and slavery fearful, but He issued no proclamation of emancipation. The social evil prevailed, but He organised no meetings for reclamation. Intemperance prevailed, yet He never offered the pledge of total abstinence to any. War prevailed, yet He did not organise peace societies. Even idolatry cursed every hill and valley, yet He organised no crusade against idolatry. What He did not do is as remarkable as what He did do. The infidels of to-day arraign Him because He did not do these things.
2. But listen! His eye looked down the ages, and, passing over China, saw what subordination or subjugation had failed to do; over the region swayed by Buddha, and saw what his teaching had failed to do; over India, and saw that intellectual culture had proved a failure; over Rome, and saw that law had failed to suppress vice or develop virtue; ever Greece, where art was in its glory; and there He saw that the aesthetics of civilisation had failed, and that art was not a reformatory force. Then He said, I will now enter the citadel of man; I will come to each individual, and ask him to permit Me to incarnate Myself in him; to enchain his conscience to My severe morality, to harmonise his will with Mine, to enthrone Myself in his affections; I will make each man a living, walking, speaking Christ.
3. He resolved not to do what men could do. He knew that man, unaided by Him, could educate the mind, could bless the orphan and comfort the widow; but He resolved to touch the fountain of life that all the streams might be pure, and just in proportion as He is received as the regenerator of the human heart, in that proportion do public charities become facts, and benevolence is a sublime truth in the world. A learned Chinese in Philadelphia wrote a series of articles to this effect--that in his country there were houses of charity for the reception of the widow and the aged, but he should have had the honesty to tell two facts--first, that in his country there is no house of charity which antedates the introduction of Christianity; and, secondly, that on the banks of the Yang-tse-kiang there is a house of charity for animals which antedates Christianity. Those Chinese are in advance of Darwin, for they say these animals are to be men in the next world. In the same city I attended the semi-centennial of the Bible Society. First came upon the stand a mute, who, in his graceful language, recited to us the Beatitude, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Then came a beautiful girl born deaf, but Christian science had taught the mute lips to speak, and she whispered, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Then came a Chinese lady who was born blind, brought to this country and converted, and Christian science had taught her fingers to read deftly in the language of the blind, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Christian science is doing to-day what Christ did in His person. The genius of Christianity working through renewed hearts is writing its credentials in favour of our Divine Lord. Is it true He did not found a college or a university? He did something better; He placed in the hands of each man a book that should tell men of the character and the claims of Almighty God; that should inform man of his own origin, that he is immortal, and responsible to the ages as he is to God; a book that should present to him the noblest specimen of virtue and the grandest laws of morality, and wherever this Book has spread its banner of wisdom and love knowledge has been diffused, universities founded, and science advanced. Christ did not come as a statesman? He declared the brotherhood of mankind; He announced the eternal principles of truth and justice, and He knew that wherever these principles were accepted, from a heart that had been renewed by Him, there government would be modified, oppression would cease, and liberty would be enjoyed. Is it true He did not organise missions to reclaim the poor courtesan? He knew it was necessary to create a new affection in the heart of men and of women, for Him to be received into the human heart, to restrain passion; and He knew that, having been thus received, there would come a reformation of this fearful class in society. Only in a Christian land, and as Christianity becomes a living force in society is the social evil branded and banished. Is it true He did not offer the pledge of total abstinence to any? He knew that antecedent influences would be at work at first, and that great moral forces must operate. Is it true He did not organise peace societies? He whispered that Beatitude, Blessed are the peacemakers, and He very well knew that only as humanity is transformed by His power would war-passions cease and men live in sweet harmony together. Christian men have organised the only peace societies in the world. (J. P. Newman, LL. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9. If we this day be examined of the…
9. If we this day be examined of the good deed. Observe Peter's point, that they are prisoners on trial for a good deed.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v13 Act_4:13. Perceived.—Lit., having perceived from what they saw and…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_4:13. Perceived.—Lit., having perceived from what they saw and heard at the time, or from previous inquiry. It would certainly have been strange if the Sanhedrists, and in particular Annas and Caiaphas (see Joh_18:16), had not been acquainted with Peter and John (Zeller, Holtzmann); but this is not necessarily implied in the language, which rather suggests that they recognised the apostles as having been formerly among Christ’s disciples. Unlearned.—I.e., illiterate, untaught in the learning of the Jewish schools (see Joh_7:15), and Ignorant.—I.e., private or obscure persons, plebeian as distinguished from persons in the higher walks of life (1Co_14:16).
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Act_4:15. Out of the council.—Which was open to others, so that Luke could easily have ascertained from parties who had been present what was said and done during the absence of the apostles. It has been thought not improbable that Saul of Tarsus was there (Hackett).
Act_4:16. That indeed a notable miracle hath been wrought by them is manifest.—This confession on the part of the Sanhedrin has been pronounced incredible, and inconsistent with the instruction given in Act_4:17 (Gfrörer, Zeller); but their conduct in this instance is no more difficult to understand than their behaviour in the case of the man who was born blind (John 9), with which it is pretty much of a piece.
Act_4:17. Let us straitly threaten.—Lit., with a threat let us threaten them. For a similar construction see Luk_22:15. The R.V. omits “with a threat.”
Act_4:18. Nor teach in or upon (ἐπί) the name of Jesus.—So as to make it a theme of discourse.
Act_4:19. Whether it be right, etc.—See on Act_4:29; and compare Amo_3:8; 1Jn_1:1-3. This remarkable utterance is not without Greek, Roman, and Rabbinical parallels.
Act_4:21. Glorified God for that which was done.—Compare Luk_5:26; Gal_1:24.
Act_4:22. Forty years old.—A note characteristic of Luke (compare Act_9:33, Act_14:8; Luk_8:43).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_4:13-22
The Apostles removed from the Court; or, the Conspirators in Conclave
I. The perplexity of the Sanhedrists.—These holy inquisitors before whom John and Peter were arraigned were
1. Staggered at the boldness of their prisoners. These behaved not like criminals who had been apprehended in acts of wickedness, taken, as it were, red-handed, but like persons who felt conscious not of having done wrong, but of having performed a great good. Peter could have replied to Annas or Caiaphas—
“Thou shalt not see me blush
Nor change my countenance for this arrest;
A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.
The purest spring is not so free from mud
As I am clear from (wrong doing).”—Shakespeare.
Neither Peter nor John resembled their old selves who ran away when they beheld their Master bound with cords, and hurried off to face that awful tribunal. Things had changed since the Gethsemane transaction, both with their Master and with themselves. He had risen from the tomb into which His enemies had thought to shut Him down, and had ascended to His throne; they were being assisted and upheld by His Almighty Spirit.
2. Confounded by their prisoners’ eloquence. Peter and John, though neither learned nor distinguished persons like their judges, but ignorant and obscure fishermen, nevertheless spoke with such fluent and cogent utterance as the most gifted of their Rabbis could not equal or even imitate. The only possible explanation of the phenomenon which presented itself to the Sanhedrists was one they did not like—viz., that their prisoners had been companions of Jesus. It was a virtual admission that Christ had impressed even those who rejected Him with a secret conviction of His superhuman dignity.
3. Unable to deny the miracle. The evidence of its reality stood before them. The man who had been healed was in court. The whole town besides was ringing with excitement at what had happened, and had pronounced it a miracle. The theory of imposture would impose on no one. Just as little would the hypothesis of illusion or delusion. The man himself might have been a hypochondriac, and the apostles might be counted jugglers, but a whole town could not be cheated into believing that a miracle had been wrought, if no such thing had occurred.
4. At a loss what to do with their prisoners. To punish them for healing a lame man would look ridiculous; common sense would say they should rather be rewarded with the freedom of the city. Besides, in the present temper of the people, it would be dangerous to proceed to violence, the people being manifestly on the side of the apostles. Then to debar them from working similar miracles upon other lame persons would be hard upon the invalids. To drive them from the metropolis would only be to send them with their philanthropies to other towns. When men will not do the obviously right thing, it is no wonder they become perplexed in choosing the best of the wrong things. Wrong things are never best.
II. The resolution of the Sanhedrists.—How Luke ascertained what was talked in the council chamber, after Peter and John had been removed, may be difficult to tell. If the court was opened to the public (see “Critical Remarks”) some of the apostles’ friends may have been present; if it was closed against the public some of the Sanhedrists themselves, on becoming converted, may have revealed the secrets of the court. In any case, what the Sanhedrists resolved upon was this—
1. To prevent, if possible, the spread of the report about the miracle. They felt that if the story was repeated it would be believed, which shows that they regarded it as true. So will Christ’s gospel, wherever told, commend itself to men’s consciences in the sight of God. Hence, the chief aim of its enemies is to prevent its diffusion among the people.
2. To forbid the apostles any more to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Still avoiding the explosive topic of the resurrection, they limit their prohibition to a general order not to speak in Christ’s name. What they wanted was, if possible, to suppress the name altogether. But as Christ could not be hid when on earth (Mar_7:24), so now that He is risen can He not be suppressed. “He must reign till all His enemies have been placed beneath His feet” (1Co_15:25).
III. The action of the Sanhedrists.—Having concluded their deliberations, and recalled the apostles, they did three things.
1. Charged them. Not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. But such an order neither John nor Peter could obey. It invaded the domain of conscience, which was God’s peculiar territory. It traversed the commandment of Jesus, which had already bound them to preach the gospel to every creature (Mat_28:19; Mar_16:15). It sought to silence the convictions of their souls that what they had seen and heard was true. It collided with that three-fold necessity which urged them on. Hence Peter told the Sanhedrists, that where the alternative lay between obeying them and obeying God, the choice could only be the latter. So affirmed he afterwards to the same judicial body for himself and his brethren. “We ought to obey God rather than man” (Act_5:29). So replied Socrates to his Athenian judges: “Athenians, I will obey God rather than you; and if you would let me go and give me my life on condition that I should no more teach my fellow-citizens, sooner than agree to your proposal I would prefer to die a thousand times” (Apology, 23, B.). “In this first conflict between conscience and force,” says Pressensé, “victory remains with the former. This day is liberty born into the world never to be destroyed.”
2. Threatened them. With pains and penalties endeavoured to deter them from following the path of duty. “Had the judges of Peter and John gone no further than this prohibition and threatening, they would have been entitled to be called persecutors (Pressensé). The essence of persecution is the application of physical force to religion, in which the only forces admissible are those of truth for the understanding and love for the heart.
3. Dismissed them. The Sanhedrists lacked the courage to inflict punishment upon their prisoners. As yet they feared the people, who, siding with the apostles, and glorifying God for what had been done, would not have tolerated either imprisonment or scourging. Hence they felt compelled to let their prisoners go.
Learn.—
1. The transformations Christ through His grace can effect on human character and life, exemplified in Peter and John
2. The best sort of evidence in support of Christ’s religion—such miracles as are wrought upon men’s characters and lives through its influence.
3. The holy courage that should at all times be displayed by Christ’s servants—to obey God and Christ rather than man.
4. The confidence with which Christ and His servants can appeal to the consciences even of their enemies.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_4:13. Companionship with Jesus.
I. A distinguished privilege.
II. A transforming power.
III. A perilous distinction.
IV. A high responsibility.
Act_4:1-14. The Courage of the Apostles.
I. The occasion of the courage.—It was an imposing assembly, made up of the intelligence and authority and ecclesiastical power of the Jewish nation. The court demanded by what power or efficacy, and in the use of what name, they had done this now notable miracle. Peter stood in view of them all, calm and confident, a splendid illustration of the truth that “the righteous are bold as a lion” (Pro_28:1), and made his reply.
II. The secret of the courage.—“Filled with the Holy Ghost.” This was the secret of Peter’s boldness. This made the difference between Peter before the Ascension and Peter after it. It was not natural courage, “to the manner born.” Peter was impulsive and forward, quick and stout in assertion, but by nature a coward. The coward is become a hero. The bank of sand is transformed into a rock of firmness. Impulse has given way to principle. Fear of man is exchanged for fear of God. His being “filled with the Holy Spirit” accounts for the difference. That Spirit has given him a sense of things invisible, has opened to his faith’s sight invisible troops of God, has lifted him to a level where he can look with something of the calmness and fearlessness of his Lord upon those who can only “kill the body.” He knows now, even better than he knew before, his own weakness and his own need, but he has been taught of the Spirit the illimitable sufficiency of God. “Filled with the Spirit” means assurance of sonship. “Filled with the Spirit” is proof that “God is for us and in us,” and that therefore they that be for us are more than they that be against us. It can easily be understood how this would arm the timid soul with a dauntless and deathless courage. One, with God, is a majority always. Weakness, with God, is omnipotence.
III. Characteristics of the courage.—But a courage of this sort, born of the presence of the Spirit of God, true Christian courage, will be marked by certain characteristics. Let us look at them as they appear in the record of Peter’s speech before the court.
1. Courtesy marks the first words of this brave soul. Peter gives the men of the court their appropriate titles, recognises their office and authority, and addresses them with deference and respect: “Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel.” Bravery does not consist in brusqueness and bravado and bluster. To speak the truth boldly one need not be a boar or a bear. The bully is not the ideal hero. The kingdom and patience of Jesus go hand in hand. There is a so-called maintaining one’s self-respect which is simply a manifesting one’s impudence.
2. Prudence is another characteristic of Christian courage, as shown by Peter in this defence. His courteous recognition of the position and office of the men composing the tribunal is immediately followed by a reference to the character of the deed for which he was arraigned: “If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man.” The deed was “good,” and Peter reminds them of it. An impotent man has been made whole. Mark the prudent wisdom of this answer. Peter first turns attention from the method of the doing to the thing done. The work itself could challenge only gratitude and joy. Of itself it could provoke no opposition. He thus by a wise tact sought to pave the way for a favourable hearing. He made the most of his circumstances. So will the highest courage always. It does not disdain the use of every justifiable means to conciliate opposition. While scorning compromise of principle, it presses into service every alleviating circumstance. It does not court a tilt or invite a conflict.
3. Frankness is another characteristic, as exhibited by Peter. The council demanded by what authority or by what name they had done this. They got for instant answer, “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Here Peter might have stopped. But this was not the truth that put Peter in bonds. Peter could answer the court’s questions without any allusion to the crucifixion and resurrection. But it was this that got him into trouble, and he must not withhold it now to get out of trouble. Christian courage is always the very soul of frankness. It will wear no masks—tell the whole truth, as well as nothing but the truth. The temptation to be compromisingly politic at the point of real danger is most plausibly insidious and subtle, and a brave spirit gets here its sorest test.
4. Fidelity is one more mark of Christian courage that shone out conspicuously in this court-scene at Jerusalem. This pushed Peter beyond the mere claims of frankness. He had fully stated the facts. The Jews had crucified Jesus, and God had raised Him from the dead. These two facts Peter had put in the plainest terms. They were offensive to the tribunal. They implicated his hearers both in crime and folly. Yet out they came with courageous frankness. This was the top and crown of Christian courage. It was transforming the prisoner’s bar into a pulpit from which to preach a gospel sermon to men, some of whom probably had never heard it before, and whose ear the preacher might never have again.
IV. Effect of the courage.—It only remains to speak briefly of the effect of this righteous boldness. These effects are common where Christian courage gets anything like such public exhibition in such hostile circumstances.
1. Men wonder first at the boldness. They see nothing behind it, nothing to support it—no arms, no government, no material resource—and they are astounded. They marvel where it gets its spring and inspiration. The world knows not its secret. It is born of the invisible Spirit of God.
2. Then they have nothing to speak against. Christian courage has a wonderful way of disarming opposition.
Christians, there are some things taught here that ought to be to our spiritual profit.
1. The Spirit of God can make the weakest saint bold.
2. We can afford to trust Christ.
3. Truth will sometimes smite to silence when it does not smite to heal.—H. Johnson, D.D.
Act_4:16. What shall we do with these men?—The world’s question concerning Christians.
I. To this the world has usually answered.—Let us
1. Suspect them as hypocrites.
2. Disbelieve them as liars.
3. Oppose them as enemies.
4. Punish them as evildoers; and, generally,
5. Persecute them as sectaries, separatists, and heretics.
II. To this the world ought to answer.—Let us
1. Listen to them as bringers of good tidings.
2. Honour them as self-denying philanthropists.
3. Credit them as sincere preachers.
4. Reward them as benefactors of their race; and, generally,
5. Imitate them as noble exemplars of virtue.
Act_4:19. Liberty of Conscience.
I. The principle stated.—To hearken unto God rather than unto man.
II. The principle exemplified.—By the behaviour of the Apostles.
III. The principle justified.—By an appeal to the moral and religious instincts of the Sanhedrists.
IV. The principle recognised.—In part, at least, by the dismissal of the apostles from the council chamber. (See further on, Act_5:29.)
Act_4:20. The Preacher’s Motto.
I. The nature of the preacher’s function.—To speak, to address his fellow-men by the living voice. This function can never be superseded by the press. There is that in the contact of soul with soul, through the medium of the living voice, which no printed page can supply.
II. The extent of the preacher’s commission.—To speak what he has seen and heard. This what the apostles were called to do when they were made witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. In like manner the proper business of the Christian preacher is to lay before his fellow-men the truth of sacred Scripture as that is revealed to and appropriated by his own understanding, heart, and conscience.
III. The constraint of the preacher’s action.—“We cannot but speak” showed that the apostles had not taken up their calling as a matter of self-directed choice, but in obedience to the impulse of conscience, and not from interested motives as a means of procuring a livelihood or acquiring fame, but from an irresistible sense of duty, or, as Paul afterwards expressed it, “because necessity had been laid upon them” (1Co_9:16). So should none assume the preacher’s office except under a similar constraint. To exercise the preacher’s office for a piece of bread (1Sa_2:36) is to desecrate the office and be guilty of sacrilege.
Act_4:21. God glorified by the People for the Healing of the Lame Man.
I. For the exhibition of divine power which they had witnessed.
II. For the rich grace which had been shown to the cripple.
III. For the signal honour which had been put upon the apostles in making them the instruments of this miracle.
IV. For the glorious hope of heavenly succour which was brought to themselves, the people, through this wondrous deed.
Act_4:1-22. The Jewish Leaders and the Apostles.
I. On the side of the Jewish leaders there was—
1. Illiberality. “Being grieved that they taught the people.” The highest pre-christian culture! Christ alone has shown Himself the friend of universal man—slave or king. Christianity is a universal appeal. It is not a taper, it is the sun.
2. Shortsightedness. They put the apostles in prison! Fools! They could not put God in prison! Had the apostles been original workers, had the cause of their actions lain within themselves, imprisonment might have met the case. But God! etc. Why were the apostles put in prison? For two reasons:
(1) They did good to the diseased;
(2) They instructed the ignorant. Christianity is still the great physical and mental regenerator of the world. The only charge which can be brought against Christianity is that it continually seeks to do good.
3. Impotence. “What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.” They “threatened” the apostles. That is, they shook their fists in the face of the sun in order to darken the world! They stamped a foot angrily on the sea-shore in order to repel the advancing tide! They sent a message to the wind stating that they would henceforth be independent of the living air! We see how small men are when they set themselves against Truth. They know not what they do! Truth is to them an unknown quantity; at any moment it may smite them; it is subtle, mysterious, intractable. Terrible is the hand of the Lord upon all them that oppose the truth.
II. On the side of the apostles there was—
1. Complete intelligence within the sphere of their ministry. Though the apostles “were unlearned and ignorant men,” yet within the compass of the work which they were called to do they were wise and efficient. This is the secret of success. Know what you do know. Do not venture beyond the line of your vocation. Every preacher is strong when he stands upon fact and experience. Christians must not accept the bait which would draw them upon unknown or forbidden ground.
2. Inconquerable courage in narrating and applying facts.
(1) Look at the dignity of the address;
(2) Look at the calm and emphatic assertion of the name of Christ;
(3) Look at the direct and special impeachment of the hearers; “whom ye crucified”; “set at nought of you builders.” Dignity is proper in the preachers of truth; Christ is the life of Christianity—beware of lauding the system, and forgetting the Man. Accusation is the first work of every Christian evangelist. Prove the world’s crime!
3. Christian magnanimity in preaching the Gospel. “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, where by we must be saved.” Thus was the Gospel preached to the murderers of God’s Holy One. “Beginning at Jerusalem.” In this brief sermon Peter proceeds upon two assumptions:
(1) That men need saving;
(2) That there is but one true way of saving them. These assumptions have been proved to be true.
4. Incorruptible loyalty to God and to His truth. “Whether it be right in the sight of God,” etc. (Act_4:19). “Things which we have seen and heard!” What a field! Missions at home and abroad,—Schools,—Labours,—Sacrifices,—Death-beds!—J. Parker, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 11, 12. Can we not learn this truth? There…
JESUS ONLY
11, 12. Can we not learn this truth? There is salvation in none but Jesus. If you differ from this you are an idolater. Our Jesus needs no help to save a soul. Some worship a water-god; others, a day-god, and still others worship gods of wood and stone in the form of a fine edifice, while many worship creeds and sects, Mammon and style. Jesus warns us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, i. e., modern orthodoxy;
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the leaven of the Sadducees, which is rationalism, i. e., higher criticism; and the leaven of Herod (a royal dynasty), which is spread-eagleism, i. e., the worship of political gods. Oh, how few worship Jesus only! The true God is only revealed in Jesus by the Holy Ghost. Reader, be sure you adopt the creed Jesus only.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v13
Acts
THE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST
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WITH AND LIKE CHRIST
Act 4:13.
Two young Galilean fishermen, before the same formidable tribunal which a few weeks before had condemned their Master, might well have quailed. And evidently ‘Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest,’ were very much astonished that their united wisdom and dignity did not produce a greater impression on these two contumacious prisoners. They were ‘unlearned,’ knowing nothing about Rabbinical wisdom; they were ‘ignorant,’ or, as the word ought rather to be rendered, ‘persons in a private station,’ without any kind of official dignity. And yet there they stood, perfectly unembarrassed and at their ease, and said what they wanted to say, all of it, right out. So, as great astonishment crept over the dignified ecclesiastics who were sitting in judgment upon them, their astonishment led them to remember what, of course, they knew before, only that it had not struck them so forcibly, as explaining the Apostles’ demeanour- viz.,’that they had been with Jesus.’ So they said to themselves: ‘Ah, that explains it all! There is the root of it. The company that they have kept accounts for their unembarrassed boldness.’
Now, I need not notice by more than a word in passing, what a testimony it is to the impression that that meek and gracious Sufferer had made upon His judges, that when they saw these two men standing there unfaltering, they began to remember how that other Prisoner had stood. And perhaps some of them began to think that they had made a mistake in that last trial. It is a testimony to the impression that Christ had made that the strange demeanour of His two servants recalled the Master to the mind of the judges.
I. The first thing that strikes us here is the companionship that transforms.
The rulers were partly right, and they were partly wrong. The source from which these men had drawn their boldness was their being with Christ; but it was not such companionship with Christ, as Annas and Caiaphas had in view, that had given them courage. For as long as the Apostles had His personal presence with them, there was no perceptible transforming or elevating process going on in them; and it was not until after they had lost that corporeal presence that there came upon them the change which even the prejudiced eyes of these judges could not help seeing.
The writer of Acts gives a truer explanation with which we may fill out the incomplete explanation of the rulers, when he says, ‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them.’ Ah, that is it! They had been with Jesus all the days that He went in and out amongst them. They had companioned with Him, and they had gained but little from it. But when He went away, and they were relegated to the same kind of companionship with Him that you and I have or may have, then a change began to take place on them. And so the companionship that transforms is not what the Apostle calls ‘knowing Christ after the flesh,’ but inward communion with Him, the companionship and familiarity which are as possible for us as for any Peter or John of them all, and without which our Christianity is nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
They were ‘with Jesus,’ as each of us may be. Their communion was in no respect different from the communion that is open and indispensable to any real Christian. To be with Him is possible for us all. When we go to our daily work, when we are compassed about by distracting and trivial cares, when men come buzzing round us, and the ordinary secularities of life seem to close in upon us like the walls of a prison, and to shut out the blue and the light-oh! it is hard, but it is possible, for every one of us to think these all away, and to carry with us into everything that blessed thought of a Presence that is not to be put aside, that sits beside me at my study table, that stands beside you at your tasks, that goes with you in shop and mart, that is always near, with its tender encircling, with its mighty protection, with its all-sufficing sweetness and power. To be with Christ is no prerogative, either of Apostles and teachers of the primitive age, or of saints that have passed into the higher vision; but it is possible for us all. No doubt there are as yet unknown forms and degrees of companionship with Christ in the future state, in comparison with which to be ‘present in the body is to be absent from the Lord’; but in the inmost depth of reality, the soul that loves is where it loves, and has whom it loves ever with it. ‘Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,’ and we may be with Christ if only we will honestly try hour by hour to keep ourselves in touch with Him, and to make Him the motive as well as the end of the work that other men do along with us, and do from altogether secular and low motives.
Another phase of being with Christ lies in frank, full, and familiar conversation with Him. I do not understand a dumb companionship. When we are with those that we love, and with whom we are at ease, speech comes instinctively. If we are co-denizens of the Father’s house with the Elder Brother, we shall talk to Him. We shall not need to be reminded of the ‘duty of prayer,’ but shall rather instinctively and as a matter of course, without thinking of what we are doing, speak to Him our momentary wants, our passing discomforts, our little troubles. There may be a great deal more virtue in monosyllabic prayers than in long liturgies. Little jets of speech or even of unspoken speech that go up to Him are likely to be heart-felt and to be heard. It is said of Israel’s army on one occasion, ‘they cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them.’ Do you think that theirs would be very elaborate prayers? Was there any time to make a long petition when the sword of a Philistine was whizzing about the suppliant’s ears? It was only a cry, but it was a cry; and so ‘He was entreated of them.’ If we are ‘with Christ’ we shall talk to Him; and if we are with Christ He will talk to us. It is for us to keep in the attitude of listening and, so far as may be, to hush other voices, in order that His may be heard, If we do so, even here ‘shall we ever be with the Lord.’
II. Now, note next the character that this companionship produces.
Annas and Caiaphas said to each other: ‘Ah, these two have been with that Jesus! That is where they have got their boldness. They are like Him.’
As is the Master, so is the servant. That is the broad, general principle that lies in my text. To be with Christ makes men Christlike. A soul habitually in contact with Jesus will imbibe sweetness from Him, as garments laid away in a drawer with some preservative perfume absorb fragrance from that beside which they lie. Therefore the surest way for Christian people to become what God would have them to be, is to direct the greater part of their effort, not so much to the acquirement of individual characteristics and excellences, as to the keeping up of continuity of communion with the Master. Then the excellences will come. Astronomers, for instance, have found out that if they take a sensitive plate and lay it so as to receive the light from a star, and keep it in place by giving it a motion corresponding with the apparent motion of the heavens, for hours and hours, there will become visible upon it a photographic image of dim stars that no human eye or telescope can see. Persistent lying before the light stamps the image of the light upon the plate. Communion with Christ is the secret of Christlikeness. So instead of all the wearisome, painful, futile attempts at tinkering one’s own character apart from Him, here is the royal road. Not that there is no effort in it. We must never forget nor undervalue the necessity for struggle in the Christian life. But that truth needs to be supplemented with the thought that comes from my text-viz. that the fruitful direction in which the struggle is to be mainly made lies in keeping ourselves in touch with Jesus Christ, and if we do that, then transformation comes by beholding. ‘We all, reflecting as a mirror does, the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image.’ ‘They have been with Jesus,’ and so they were like Him.
But now look at the specific kinds of excellence which seem to have come out of this communion. ‘They beheld the boldness of Peter and John.’ The word that is translated ‘boldness’ no doubt conveys that idea, but it also conveys another. Literally it means ‘the act of saying everything.’ It means openness of unembarrassed speech, and so comes to have the secondary signification, which the text gives, of ‘boldness.’
Then, to be with Christ gives a living knowledge of Him and of truth, far in advance of the head knowledge of wise and learned people. It was a fact that these two knew nothing about what Rabbi This, or Rabbi That, or Rabbi The Other had said, and yet could speak, as they had been speaking, large religious ideas that astonished these hide-bound Pharisees, who thought that there was no way to get to the knowledge of the revelation of God made to Israel, except by the road of their own musty and profitless learning. Ay! and it always is so. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theology. The men that have summered and wintered with Jesus Christ may not know a great many things that are supposed to be very important parts of religion, but they have got hold of the central truth of it, with a power, and in a fashion, that men of books, and ideas, and systems, and creeds, and theological learning, may know nothing about. ‘Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, are called.’ Let a poor man at his plough-tail, or a poor woman in her garret, or a collier in the pit, have Jesus Christ for their Companion, and they have got the kernel; and the gentlemen that like such diet may live on the shell if they will, and can. Religious ideas are of little use unless there be heart-experiences; and heart-experiences are wonderful teachers of religious truth.
Again, to be with Christ frees from the fear of man. It was a new thing for such persons as Peter and John to stand cool and unawed before the Council. Not so very long ago one of the two had been frightened into a momentary apostasy by dread of being haled before the rulers, and now they are calmly heroic, and threats are idle words to them. I need not point to the strong presumption, raised by the contrast of the Apostles’ past cowardice and present courage, of the occurrence of some such extraordinary facts as the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Descent of the Spirit. Something had happened which revolutionised these men. It was their communion with Jesus, made more real and deep by the cessation of His bodily presence, which made these unlearned and non-official Galileans front the Council with calmly beating hearts and unfaltering tongues. Doubtless, temperament has much to do with courage, but, no doubt, he who lives near Jesus is set free from undue dependence on things seen and on persons. Perfect love casts out fear, not only of the Beloved, but of all creatures. It is the bravest thing in the world.
Further, to be with Christ will open a man’s lips. The fountain, if it is full, must well up. ‘Light is light which circulates. Heat is heat which radiates.’ The true possession of Jesus Christ will always make it impossible for the possessor to be dumb. I pray you to test yourselves, as I would that all professing Christians should test themselves, by that simple truth, that a full heart must find utterance. The instinct that drives a man to speak of the thing in which he is interested should have full play in the Christian life. It seems to me a terribly sad fact that there are such hosts of good, kind people, with some sort of religion about them, who never feel any anxiety to say a word to any soul concerning the Master whom they profess to love. I know, of course, that deep feeling is silent, and that the secrets of Christian experience are not to be worn on the sleeve for daws to peck at. And I know that the conventionalities of this generation frown very largely upon the frank utterance of religious convictions on the part of religious people, except on Sundays, in Sunday-schools, pulpits, and the like. But for all that, what is in you will come out. If you have never felt ‘I was weary of forbearing, and I could not stay,’ I do not think that there is much sign in you of a very deep or a very real being with Jesus.
III. The last point to be noted is, the impression which such a character makes.
It was not so much what Peter and John said that astonished the Council, as the fact of their being composed and bold enough to say anything.
A great deal more is done by character than by anything else. Most people in the world take their notions of Christianity from its concrete embodiments in professing Christians. For one man that has read his Bible, and has come to know what religion is thereby, there are a hundred that look at you and me, and therefrom draw their conclusions as to what religion is. It is not my sermons, but your life, that is the most important agency for the spread of the Gospel in this congregation. And if we, as Christian people, were to live so as to make men say, ‘Dear me, that is strange. That is not the kind of thing that one would have expected from that man. That is of a higher strain than he is of. Where did it come from, I wonder?’ ‘Ah, he learned it of that Jesus’-if people were constrained to speak in that style to themselves about us, dear friends, and about all our brethren, England would be a different England from what it is t-day. It is Christians’ lives, after all, that make dints in the world’s conscience.
Do you remember one of the Apostle’s lovely and strong metaphors? Paul says that that little Church in Thessalonica rung out clear and strong the name of Jesus Christ-resonant like the clang of a bugle, ‘so that we need not to speak anything.’ The word that he employs for ‘sounded out’ is a technical expression for the ringing blast of a trumpet. Very small penny whistles would be a better metaphor for the instruments which the bulk of professing Christians play on.
‘Adorn the doctrine of Christ.’ And that you may, listen to His own word, which says all I have been trying to say in this sermon: ‘Abide in Me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv9–13 See notes on verse 8
See notes on verse 8
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
salvation
(See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v13 The consultation of the Sanhedrin:
The consultation of the Sanhedrin:
v. 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
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v. 14. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
v. 15. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
v. 16. saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.
v. 17. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.
The Jewish rulers had expected Peter and John to show fear or timidity in their presence, to be overawed by the dignity and learning of the members of the council. Instead of that, however, there was in their bearing a freedom and confidence and in the speech of Peter a fearless candor which compelled respect on their part. The longer they contemplated the manner of the men, the more this conviction was forced upon them. And this impression was heightened by the fact that the judges had perceived, either by their dress or by their dialect, that the two men before them were really unlearned and ignorant men, that they not only were not versed in the Law and in all the Jewish learning, but actually had not been able to write, were altogether illiterate. And there was still another point which the members of the council now noted, namely, that these men had belonged to the small company of Christ’s followers. This recognition came to them at this point, since they had seen Peter and John both as attendants of Jesus, and since John was a personal acquaintance of Caiaphas, Joh 18:15; Joh 18:18. No wonder that all these facts, gradually absorbing the consciousness of the judges, caused them to sit in embarrassed silence. For as far as the miracle was concerned, any attempt at denial would have been worse than futile, since the former cripple was there before their eyes, standing upright and sound upon his feet. The evidence of the miracle spoke no less forcibly than the apostles themselves. And so the rulers had nothing to say. Finally the silence was broken by the proposal, and the command based upon it, that the men leave the council-chamber for some time, being undoubtedly taken out under guard. Now the judges felt free to consider the matter; they exchanged their thoughts and opinions of the case. The gist of the discussion is given by Luke. There was no denying that a very evident miracle had been performed, which had also come to the knowledge of all the people of Jerusalem. To attempt a denial of these facts would have been worse than useless, it would have been foolishness of the most extreme type. And yet someone proposed an effort to stop the spread of the truth, and the proposal was eagerly made a resolution. In order that the message and the movement which accompanied it might spread no farther and be dispersed among the common people, like seed that promised a bountiful crop, they resolved earnestly to threaten the apostles that they speak no more about the name of Jesus, making Him and His Gospel the subject of their discourses. With none of the people, to not a single individual, should they speak about the name Revelation red by them above all other names. Note: The unbelieving children of this world cannot deny that the power of God is mighty in the teaching and in the lives of the Christians. And yet they remain hostile to the name of Christ and make every effort to suppress the proclamation of the Gospel. Thus the unbelievers, with their unbelief and with their enmity toward Christ, act in direct opposition to their own conscience and better knowledge
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Peter completes his speech to the Jewish religious rulers that he began in Acts 4:8.
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General Information:
Here the word "we" refers to Peter as well as those to whom he is speaking. (See: Inclusive "We")
Jesus Christ is the stone ... which has been made the head cornerstone
Peter is quoting from the Psalms. This is a metaphor that means the religious leaders, like builders, rejected Jesus, but God will made him the most important in his kingdom, as a cornerstone in a building is important. (See: Metaphor)
head
Here the word "head" means "most important" or "vital."
you as builders despised
"you as builders rejected" or "you as builders rejected as worth nothing"
There is no salvation in any other person
The noun "salvation" can be translated as a verb. This can be stated positively. AT: "He is the only person who is able to save" (See: Abstract Nouns)
no other name under heaven given among men
This can be stated in active form. AT: "no other name under heaven that God has given among men" (See: Active or Passive)
no other name ... given among men
The phrase "name ... given among men" refers to the person of Jesus. AT: "no other person under heaven, who is given among men, by whom" (See: Metonymy)
under heaven
This is a way of referring to everywhere in the world. AT: "in the world" (See: Idiom)
by which we must be saved
This can be stated in active form. AT: "which can save us" or "who can save us" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Jesus
cornerstone
save
name
heaven
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unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v13 4:13 ordinary men with no special training in the…
4:13 ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures: That is, they were not scholars or ordained teachers—they were working men without higher education. The educated members of the Jewish high council were treated as authorities on the Scriptures and matters of religion, so it amazed them to see uneducated men speaking with such boldness about such matters.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.