This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
What would cause you or me to be willing to go through
persecution or to have a uncomfortable conversation or
relationship with someone who doesn't like us because we want
to tell them about Jesus? The only thing that would cause
you or me or these guys to do what it is they're doing is that
they are full of the Spirit and that Holy Spirit attributes are
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, temperance,
and self-control. Sharing Jesus despite resistance
is like planting seeds in rocky soil, trusting they'll grow
anyway. In today's message, Pastor Clark
reveals how your willingness to face persecution or tough
conversations comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit empowers you. Without the Spirit, you'd
hesitate. His presence makes you
courageous. You are equipped to endure for
His sake. Are you relying on the Holy
Spirit's power to share Jesus even when it's uncomfortable or
difficult? Now here's Pastor Clark in the
book of Acts Chapter 3 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. So Moses spoke about the Messiah
who was to come. The nation of Israel has gone
through tremendous heartache, burned in ovens, all kind of
things going on. And it isn't over yet.
The, the, the army of the north, Russia in the last days will be
that country that will descend upon them to try to destroy
them. And you used to think, boy, I, I
don't know. It doesn't seem possible.
Russia seems like a very calm country, right?
Sort of picking up some of the ideologies of capitalism and
free enterprise and religious freedom and all that, and then
all of a sudden this rogue leader in Russia has become a
tyrant, right? Do you think it's possible that
if he does this to Ukraine, he could do this to Israel?
The intentions prophetically are directed that way.
And in time this will all be unfolded.
I don't know if it's going to be in our lifetime, another 100
years, whatever 1000, but it is prophetically in the Bible
regarding what will happen in that last period of the
seven-year tribulation, in the last 3 1/2 years.
So Moses is being referenced by Peter.
Peter knows the prophets and knows the Old Testament Torah in
the Scriptures. This is this is how they preach.
They preach from the Old Testament.
Now as New Covenant believers, we preach the gospel primarily
from the New Testament. We can use the Old Testament,
but the New Covenant's far better than the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant we learn historically of how God worked
through his nation Israel, unfortunately, almost to no
avail. The nation of Israel, in spite
of having all these blessings and promises, they've still
refused to believe for the most part that Jesus is the Messiah.
And so Peter's telling them that Moses told you guys that Jesus
is the Christ, the Messiah. You're to hear from him.
Verse 24. Yes.
And all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as
have spoken have also foretold these days that this wasn't
Moses, there was others. You are sons of the prophets and
of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to
Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall
be blessed to you first. God having raised up his
servant, Jesus sent him to bless you and turning away everyone of
you from your iniquities. And so the gospel is the same
today as it was in the days of the book of the Acts.
It's still empowered by the the work of the Holy Spirit and it
convicts people and it causes them to see their need of Jesus.
But for some reason right now, and you can study this later, we
went through it extensively when we went through the book of
Romans. You can read Romans chapter 9:10
and 11:00 and it'll sort of encapsulate all this plan that
God has for Israel while they're blind, in part so that the the
gospel would come to us and we would receive it, and that
eventually Israel and the Jewish people would become jealous of
us because we've become partakers of this covenant that
God gave to Abraham. They've sort of cut themselves
off from the covenant temporarily because of their
unbelief, but God promises in the 11th chapter of Romans the
answer the question from Paul was, was God through with
Israel? No, he isn't.
He's got this plan for Israel that the nation would be saved
in the last days. So there was this great revival
in in Israel and many, almost all the population that hadn't
been martyred during the tribulation will come to faith
in Christ. Matter of fact, it says whenever
he returns a second coming, it'll really dawn on them
because it says every eye will see him and they'll look up when
he's coming and they'll see him whom they appear 1st and it'll
it'll 'cause their hearts to be broken and contrite and
repentant and believe. So they preach this message.
Now I'm thinking about Peter as an individual human being like
us. How different he was weeks
before this event. What compelled him now to do
what it is he's doing here? They're going to face
persecution because of this, this message he's proclaiming.
Why did he struggle that night when they asked him directly if
he knew who Jesus was? Well, the big difference is the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit. He's a different man now and I
don't think at times we realize how different we are or how
different we could be because of this same Holy Spirit that lives
in US. Many times we have challenges
and I don't, I can't do this or I'm not able to do this.
And that's a good recognition in regard to spiritual work.
I, I can't do what I'm doing here today apart from the work
of the Holy Spirit. There's no way.
And I know that in the core of my being, I have one or two
alternatives. I come up here in my own
strength and I do some study and I try to give you some
information and hope that it has some impact.
But that's futility because without the Holy Spirit, there
will be nothing happening here today in your heart of mine.
And so there is a difference between us living life,
believing and loving God, trusting God, and also being
empowered and filled with the Spirit of God.
And as we're studying this book, I hope my prayer is that myself
as well as you are investigating more and more of this need to be
filled with God's Spirit. He may be putting something on
your heart about a ministry or a service or something that you're
stalled because you're thinking, I can't commit to this, I can't
do this. I don't have the strength, I
don't have the ability. I mean, we got all these excuses
before God and the Lord already said, well, without me you can't
do anything. So why don't you just ask me to
do it in you and I'll do it through you?
Well, that's a novel idea. I never really thought about
that. I never really thought about
asking God for help. I thought I had to do it all
myself, right? You ever think that way?
But we can say, God, I, I, I sense what it is you want and
what it is you desire and I'm willing, but you have to give me
the grace and fill me with the power to do what it is you've
called me to do. And he'll do that for you.
He really will. So now they're entering this
chapter 4 and they're, they're in the process of getting
arrested, Peter and John getting arrested.
They're going to be arrested by the same people that came
against Christ and had him crucified.
Now, I would be somewhat intimidated in saying, boy, this
looks somewhat familiar here. These same, some of these same
characters that took Jesus and, you know, beat him and, and
eventually crucified him. What's going to happen to us
now? But they weren't worried about
that because they were in power by the Holy Spirit.
And you read the writings of the apostle Paul and imprisoned
numerous time. He was never crying about, you
know, what was happening or afraid of what was going to
happen. He distrusted God and, and it's
because of the Holy Spirit's influence and power in his life.
And so now these guys are going to encounter some persecution.
And when you think about persecution, what wouldn't, What
would cause you or me to be willing to go through
persecution or to have a uncomfortable conversation or
relationship with someone who doesn't like us because we want
to tell them about Jesus? The only thing that would cause
you or me or these guys to do what it is they're doing is that
they are full of the Spirit and that Holy Spirit attributes are
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, temperance,
and self-control. So the love of Jesus was so deep
in these guys that they were willing to sacrifice their own
lives for the sake of others coming to know Him.
They asked Paul at times, you know, one verse in the in the
Bible, they they said, well, what what causes you to, to put
up with this abuse and rejection and frustration with the
churches at times. He said, it's the love of Christ
that compels me. The love of Christ is so
powerful that it can cause us to overcome the greatest
adversities and challenges of life.
And now as they spoke to the people, the priest, the captain
of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them being greatly
disturbed. They, these guys are uptight,
they're mad. This isn't a calm conversation
that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the
resurrection of the dead. Though the Sadducees of the of
all these leaders were the group that didn't believe in a literal
resurrection. They didn't believe in life
after death. They didn't believe in the
Spirit, and so this was a complete affront to their
religion and their theology. And so they took great offense
at what this message was about. The Pharisees believed in the
resurrection, so they were on a different page than the
Sadducees, but nonetheless, they were all against this person,
Jesus Christ. They were against them when they
crucified him, and now they're against him with his followers.
They're greatly disturbed that they taught the people and
preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and
they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next
day. So they're they're thrown in
jail and they spend the night in jail.
But it was already evening. However, many of those who heard
the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5000.
So as I said in the early part of Acts 3000 came to know the
Lord. They hear this message of
Peter's preaching. Several thousand more people
come to know the Lord. So there's this great, great
movement of God's Spirit opening the eyes of many, many Jewish
people to believe that Jesus is a Christ.
Nonetheless, there's still a lot of people that aren't wanting to
believe or, you know, refusing to believe.
So Peter addresses the the Sanhedrin.
And the Sanhedrin is this group of, you know, political leaders.
And they set the precedent for the rules and regulations of how
things go down in their religion.
The Apostle Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, obviously, before
he became saved and met the Lord Jesus.
And we'll study about that down the road in the book of the
Acts. And it came to pass on the next
day that they're rulers, elders and scribes, as well as Anis,
the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander, and many were of
the family of the high priest were gathered together in at
Jerusalem. So what's interesting is when
these people like retired or died, it was like the ultimate
nepotism. I mean, they had their family,
their kids, their relatives, all controlling what's happening in
the in the particular empire at the time.
And so some of these guys were familiar and some of them were
descendants of the other ones. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked by what power or by what name have you
done this? Good question, isn't it?
By what power or by what name have you done this?
Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.
And that's important to underline in your Bible.
Peter this and get up there and start giving him a rebuttal of
his position and giving him a bunch of doctrines and defenses.
It says and, and for his for our benefit, to know that the only
way he could deal with this group of people that were
persecuting them would be to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And, and you and me. That's we have to remember, like
when we're in positions of real difficulty, challenges with
people in situations, whether it's work or home or family or
neighbors or just life itself. I mean, we got to stop that.
God, I can't, I can't maneuver this.
I need a fresh empowerment and filling of your Holy Spirit.
I don't know how to move forward with this.
Well, Peter understood the need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Numerous teachings throughout the book of the Acts, you'll see
continual fresh infillings of God's Spirit.
He said rulers of the people and elders of Israel.
If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless
man, by what means he has been made, well, let it be known to
you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised
from the dead by him, this man stands here before you whole.
So it's only through the power of God in the name of Jesus
Christ that this blame man who was lame since birth, he was
about 40 when he got this healing is standing there before
them whole. This is the stone in verse 11
which was rejected by you. This is from Psalm 118 by you
builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.
So they got all this religion, religious activity going on.
They got all this stuff they're working with as a as a nation,
and they are missing the key ingredient to the effectiveness
of their faith and their theology because they used
everything that God had provided through the Old Testament, the
symbolism, the sacrifices, everything that was in place
except the key to making all this work at the time.
And that is Jesus Christ. He's the chief cornerstone.
Without him, none of this stuff can work.
And then he says something very, very specific here in verse 12.
And now today we're living in a day that you and I tell people
this stuff and they'll they'll call us bigots, close minded.
They'll say there's other, there's got to be other ways.
That's not fair. You know what?
Why do we need to have? Why do we need Jesus?
Can't we do it some other way? They don't understand this whole
truth of the Bible and understanding that Christ is the
only one that could shed his blood for the remission of sin.
The Bible tells us without the shedding of blood, there is no
forgiveness of sin. Not your blood, not my blood,
not Buddha's blood, not Muhammad's blood, not Krishna's
blood. Only the blood of Jesus could
cleanse us from sin. So that's why he specifically
says, and this is a key verse in the Bible, that you know you
should memorize and know when you have conversations with
people. Nor is there salvation in any
other, for there is no other name under heaven given among
men by which we must be saved. Amen.
Period, exclamation point, dot it.
I mean, that's it. There is no other way of
salvation. And Jesus talked about this.
He said I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
No man cometh to the Father but through me, right?
There's no other way. And so all of us here today, the
majority of us have come to faith in Christ.
Thank God by His grace that he saved us, for by grace we've
been saved through faith. Amen.
And this certainly was not of ourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works.
And no one can boast, for we are His workmanship, creating Christ
Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we
should walk in them. And so this whole focus of
ministry that's happening in this world today is rooted and
based upon this foundation, this chief cornerstone that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the living God, and there's
salvation and no other name. Now, when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and
untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been
with Jesus. Well, not only had they been
with Jesus, they're still with Jesus.
And you and me are with Jesus right now, right?
He's here with us, present with us.
And so this is not a past tense thing here.
Would they think it's a past tense thing?
And seeing the man who had been healed standing with him, they
could say nothing against it, because if they started
challenging the reality of this man's miracle, the people would
have flipped out. But when they had commanded them
to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
saying, and what shall we do to these men?
For if indeed that a notable miracle has been done through
them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, we cannot deny it.
But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us
severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in
this name. Can you imagine that?
I mean, like, there's no way Peter and John are going to say,
oh, OK, we won't talk about this anymore.
Like you and me. We're we're, there's no way
we're not going to tell someone what Jesus has done for us.
I mean, it's like ludicrous. So in verse 18 they called them
and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said to them, Whether it is right and the sight of God to
listen to you more than to God you judge.
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and
heard. So when they had further
threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing
them. So God's favor, grace,
protection, he told them in the Gospels, don't worry what you're
going to say or how you're going to respond when you're brought
before the authorities, you'll be given what it is you need to
know to say by the Spirit when that time comes.
And obviously this is obviously happening here occurring and so
it says they leave and because of the people since they all
glorify God for what had been done for the man was over 40
years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
So you know what, what's the challenge for us today.
I just felt let read first Corinthians 13.
This is a many devotion because if I don't have God's love in me
and you don't have God's love in you.
All we are is a clanging gong and a noisy cymbal.
We can give information, but we can't see transformation apart
from the work of the Spirit of God through the love of God.
This is the biggest need in the world today.
The love of God, it says, in the last days the love of many will
wax cold. In other words, people's hearts
will become cold and cold and indifferent.
And we don't want that to happen to us.
And this is a good chapter to read once in a while to just
think about where you are. And you can put your name in the
different descriptions of what love is and see how you think
you might be doing. And if it's you're, you're
struggling you, you got to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you so
that this love can come through. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, but have not love, I've become the
sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
And though I've had the gift of prophecy and understanding all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that
I could remove mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I
give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me
nothing. Love suffers long and is kind.
Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is
not puffed up, does not behave rudely.
Love does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil,
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. Love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail.
Whether there are tongues, they will cease.
Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.
But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am
known. And now abide Faith, hope, and
love, these three. But the greatest of these is
love. Father, we come before you,
Lord, humbled by your scriptures.
Today as we study the book of the Acts and we see how merciful
you were and how powerful you work through human lives, how
you want to work through each of our lives.
And use us, Father, with this wonderful message that can
change lives and give people the hope and the promise of eternal
life, Lord. There's a need in this world
today for the gospel more than I think any time I've ever lived.
I just see the the insanity that's happening in this world,
Lord. And you're the only answer,
Christ. You are the answer.
And your word can change people, it can change lives, it can
change cultures and civilizations.
It can change governments. It can change authorities and
leaders. Lord, we don't have to live
hopeless lives. We can live with this hope of
the gospel and then look for opportunities to share it and
also to pray for others, to be given opportunities to stand
before kings and Princess, to proclaim the need of Christ, the
Prince of peace. And Lord, we ask by your grace,
Lord, that you would favor us and impart to us a greater
manifestation of this love that you have for this world.
Pour it into us so it can be poured out of us, that we would
have patience with people that we would have a desire to love
even when we're not loved, Lord, and to give it all for you,
Lord, as you've given it for us. Lord, we know this is a prayer
that you will answer if our hearts are open to having more
of you and less of us. So Lord, please do that in US
and do it in this church. Lord, we can be a stronger
influence for you in this community and wherever we go,
wherever we work, wherever we live, we thank you, Father.
We're so glad you joined us today on this edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching through
the Book of Acts, which is the only book that chronicles the
history of the early church immediately after Jesus's
ascension. It gives us a front row seat to
how the Gospel began to move outwards, starting in Jerusalem
and reaching into the heart of the Roman Empire.
In just three decades, a small group of frightened ordinary
believers became a bold, spirit empowered movement that
transformed the known world. Acts is not just a history
lesson, it's a reminder of what God can do when His people are
surrendered, obedient, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Their perseverance still inspires us today.
May we follow their example and live faithfully for Christ in
our own time. We hope today's message
encouraged you. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to have you join
us in person. Our Sunday service begins at
10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St., Unit 6B.
Be sure to visit calvarychapelonline.com to
confirm times and learn more. If you are in the Greensburg
area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
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Thank you for tuning in and spending this time in God's
Word. Be sure to join us again for
Living Waters of Grace.