Creekside Church Sermon of April 20, 1997 "Who Gave You the Power?" Acts 4:5-12	Rev. David Bibbee
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From the hallowed links of legendary Augusta National where a new Master's champion was crowned, we go to Jerusalem where Peter and John stand before the Sanhedrin. Two lowly looking men before the protectors and preservers of the system. Two meager men before those who had power of authority. It was clearly a no-win situation. Who do Peter and John think they are? The side bar on the cover of the Jerusalem Journal read, "Why Remnants of the Jesus Sect Will Be Crushed: Dead leader and no power just two reasons."

It didn't seem that they were such a big threat, but the disciples were in fact a threat. With the resurrection of Jesus, with his victory over the powers of darkness and death, a new power was unleashed in the world. The display of this resurrection power was not reserved for hereafter only, but here and now. It wasn't just Jesus who was raised. Now his people were raised and with them the conviction and confidence to take on the powers that be which were at odds with the Kingdom God was intent on creating. God not only raised Jesus. He raised a people. God took uncultured, uneducated men like Peter and John and used them to bear witness to Jesus in the court of the most powerful men in Israel...the very men who had condemned Jesus to death.

There are big ramifications here. You seemed so confident on Easter Sunday. It's so easy to believe the resurrection is the premier event in history and God is really in charge. But before the Hallelujah Chorus stopped ringing in your ears, you ran headlong into the principalities and powers, the systems and the vested interests the world would have you believe are in charge. Easter not only stakes a claim on the graveyard, but declares that in Jesus, God stakes a claim on the world and is working to change it and bring life to it through the likes of ordinary people like us who too seldom see themselves as possessing power that amounts to much. To believe in Jesus is to believe that the power at work in him to preach, teach, and heal, can be operative in your life and mine. The challenge is to get you to believe it and act upon it in a world that doesn't relinquish power easily.

I got a taste of this back in 1982 when a seminary class on "The Church and Politics" went to Washington DC We sat in on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and listened to Senators Glenn, Biden, Dodd, and Helms pontificate on Cuba. Then we went to the Pentagon where we met with a highly decorated, credentialed Under Secretary of Defense as he discussed US policy in El Salvador. It was designed to overwhelm us...make us feel sufficiently small. We were, after all, in the Pentagon. We were just a bunch of Seminarians who had questions about death squads targeting the church under the dictatorship our government supported. The tone of the responses made it clear that we had no business sticking our noses into the intricacies of foreign diplomacy. We should stick with spiritual things. By what authority did we dare ask such questions?

This is how the world has dealt with the church. In exchange for allowing the church to exist, we're not supposed to ask questions of the powers that be. Where we get into trouble is with the truth. Christianity says that Jesus is the truth. He told his disciples to tell the world the truth wherever there was suffering and injustice. And rest assured that when we consciously live that truth, there will be resistance, or as someone put it, "Truth makes its own enemies."

Peter and John were preaching the resurrection. They healed a lame man on Temple turf...the power of God unleashed, and the authorities did not like it.

From the moment Jesus was born, he was a threat to those in power. As a baby he was hunted by Herod, and not even the final solution to Jesus was final. Now his disciples were continuing his ministry. So Peter and John were arrested. A night in the slammer would soften them up. Then in a move designed to overwhelm them, they were brought before the Sanhedrin and asked, "By what power and in whose name do you do this?" "Who do you think you are? Who gave you the authority? You don't have a license to practice medicine in this state.

Listen to Peter. The accused becomes the judge. "Since you wanted to know about the good deed done to the cripple, I'll be honored to tell you. By the name of Jesus who you crucified, by his name and power this man stands before you." Two kinds of power were revealed in this incident. On the surface, Peter had very little. No credits, no credentials. Caiaphas and company had all the power. Two kinds of power were at work here...the power derived from position, and the power that comes from the person.

There is a story of an enthused discussion which took place in a fashionable London restaurant between G.K. Chesterton and Alexander Woolcott. The discussion was on the relationship between power and authority. Woolcott said the two were bound together. Chesterton disagreed. As the debate escalated, so did their voices, and before long the other patrons stopped conversing and were riveted by the point counter point duel. Aware of their audience, Chesterton slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "Now see here, Alex, if a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant right now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to arise and assure him that he had no authority whatever!"

There is power that comes with position, but stronger still is that which comes from a person's depths. Peter had no power by virtue of position. The presence of the resurrected Christ would not let Peter shrink and cower before the authorities. When ordered not so much as to mention Jesus' name, Peter boldly replied, "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."

Most of us were raised to respect authority. But like the bumper sticker I saw last week says, there are times when we should, "Question Authority." Given what we know about Jesus, the claim he made for self, and the picture of life as it should be that he painted, we should question the state of things. It's hopeless to challenge the wrongs of the world with just words. The authority to call the powers of this age into question is the word of God given by Jesus Christ.

David Buttrick tells the story from the Czech underground after the Communist take over. To tout their victory and flex their muscles, the Communist Party had a parade...lumbering tanks, missiles, battalions of lock stepped shoulders. Then from nowhere a little blue truck came weaving in and out of the tanks and troops like the Shriners at a Fourth of July Parade. On the truck was a six foot sign which read, "For God's sake, why?" It's not for our sakes alone that we ask such questions of the powers that be. It's because of the power unleashed by the resurrection of Jesus that we speak and act. For God's sake, why do the wealthiest two percent of the population control more and more of the nations wealth while the ranks of the poor grow larger and larger? For God's sake, why in the recreational vehicle capital of the world is there such a shortage of decent housing? For God's sake, why do so many churches have so much to say about the spiritual state of things within the church, and comparatively little to say about what's wrong in the world?

To hear some Christians talk, you would think that God had written the world off as a lost cause and the church should keep to itself till the final curtain. There is so much that is wrong in our world. But God hasn't given up, and you are the sign God hasn't. The sign that a claim has been staked is you...the church. God saw to it that there was proof of the resurrection--a proof that brute power and evil would not prevail. There stand Peter and John, blue-collar, uneducated powerless fishermen before the powerful Sanhedrin. They were proof positive that Jesus was raised.

And what about you...are you claiming your power? Halford Luccock put it like this, "Has there been anything in our lives concerning which people ask in wonder, how do they do it?"

Do you know that you are proof of the resurrection? Has anyone asked you, "By what power and in whose name do you do these things?"

Power is what Jesus promised his disciples. Power was the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the prologue to John's gospel we read, "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become the children of God." Paul testified to the reality of the resurrection when he said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

In East Berlin there is a Cathedral that is within sight of where the Berlin Wall stood. A small group began a weekly meeting to pray for the breaking down of the wall and for freedom in their country. What started as a handful grew to hundreds who gathered every Monday to pray. The government learned of the meetings, it became very concerned about the people's desire for change. Remember...truth makes its own enemies.

One Monday night the government sent two hundred officials in a show of strength. Outside the Cathedral there were armed guards...just in case. When word spread about the government officials, several thousand came to the prayer meeting and stood in silent witness as a sign of their trust in God's ability not just to break down the wall dividing the city, but the walls separating people. Seven weeks prior to the dismantling of the wall, the prayer group dismissed with thousands of people walking in silence around the inside perimeter. The week following they marched again and sang. Week after week. Not with the power of position but with the power of their person and trust in God. And after the seventh walk, it happened. Television cameras captured the incredible sight of the wall coming down piece by piece section by section. Who would have thought that it happened this way?

It's easy to be discouraged, what with all the impersonal, faceless forces which peck away at what is good and right. And when you do, remember what happened on Easter. As we work through important decisions in the discernment process concerning the direction of the church's ministry, remember that something decisive happened on Easter morn.

Times of change are always challenging. It's easy to give in. I've looked at some of the comments from the cottage meetings, and I saw the word "can't" too often. Do you believe in the resurrection? You don't use resurrection and "can't" in the same sentence. We can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us.

God did something decisive on Easter. God promised to never let us go. God promised us we would never be without a presence. You're not as limited as you think.

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