They Didn't Stop Talking | Pastor Eric Morris

What's up, men of God? Pastor Eric here, and I am so excited to bring this message to you. I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in, let's see what God has for us this week. And I know you'll be blessed for it, and I love you. We're starting a brand new series called Sticks and Stones. And what we're showing here in the very beginning of Acts, we have to understand a few things. Wait, before I jump in, I want to greet Bartlett Innovation Unit. Guys, I love you so much. Thanks for tuning in. We actually had two gentlemen who got out and they visited our church a couple weeks ago. So praise God for that, isn't that amazing? Okay, so whenever we read Acts, hang with me, I'm gonna fly through a lot. Lock in, baby. If you're on your phone at any point during this message, you're gonna miss something, unless it's to take notes. It's a historical narrative. So it's reading as like history telling you the story

and then we unpack its meaning. And this very beginning new church, okay, we have to understand here, Jesus died months ago. There was only 120. Now there's a few thousand. This church is growing and you immediately see the church threatened. You see Satan enter the church and cause people in their church to lie to the point where the Lord kills them in a church service. Then you see the disciples thrown in prison again. Then you see the church begin to overlook Greek widows and then you see Stephen stoned. So you see all these challenges both from the outside and the inside that ultimately leads to Stephen being stoned and killed to death. And you would think that this church is really fragile and anything could kill it, but when I read the text, you see something underneath it and that's this, that we are killable, the kingdom of God is not. We are corruptible, the kingdom of God is not. We are cowards at times, the kingdom of God is not. There's times the church will overlook in its humanity people who need to be served, but the king never does. And so we're looking through this series to go what should have killed the church but didn't so that you can have hope when you look at the modern era of the church

and you see all the challenges and problems, you see the threats, you see the situations. It can kind of create a little timidity in believers to kind of almost go, is this church thing gonna work out? Is this kingdom of God thing is gonna work out? And Acts chapter three through eight show us it got hit over and over and over again, but it still kept going. In fact, in every moment where it's threatened, challenged, the Lord uses that to multiply it. So we can take hope today that what we're a part of, even though we're fallible, we're human, we're killable, we're weak, God chose the weak things of the world to confound the wise. So we're gonna go to the scripture, we're gonna read through a lot of scripture, but I want you to stay with me. So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna go to Acts chapter four and I need to set the story up. Okay, I know you've heard it. I gotta set it up again for those who don't because there's people who don't. Peter and John are going to the temple in Acts chapter three. They're going in normal day life. They're not looking for a fight. They're not looking to start anything. They are literally just going to pray and they see a lame man asking for money, they heal him. So the way I'd describe it like this, this causes a scene.

It'd be like this, you go to high school with someone and maybe one of those people, unfortunately, have found themselves in a wheelchair and you know your fellow student that is crippled and they cannot walk and then one day at lunch and you guys remember being in high school how crazy lunch was and noisy lunch was. Imagine if one day at lunch, a student who you all knew to be in a wheelchair started to literally run around the lunchroom, stand up screaming. How many of you guys know it would cause a scene? You'd be like, oh my gosh. You remember when a fight would break out in the lunchroom and everybody wanted to get eyes on it and nowadays everybody wants to film it, right? That's the type of scene this has created. Peter uses this opportunity to begin to preach a message, and he's preaching a message about Jesus. Okay, so in Acts chapter four, verse one, is where it picks up. All these people are gathered, it's causing a scene. Peter uses this scene to talk about Jesus, and in Acts chapter four, verse one, let's pick up the text, and it says this. As they were speaking to the people, mid-sermon, it's like someone interrupts my sermon, the priests and the captain of the guard and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people, look what it says, and proclaiming in Jesus

the resurrection from the dead. Pause, we have to understand this. They're annoyed, and there are so many people that are annoyed with the message of Jesus in our world. Like, have you ever tried to talk to somebody about Jesus and it's your atheist friend, and they're just like, oh, you are so stinking annoying with all this Jesus stuff. Anybody ever experience that? The world is going to be annoyed at the name of Jesus. It's going to annoy them. Politicians, people in power, celebrities, your neighbor, your college professor, when he finds out you're a Christian is gonna be like, oh, I've got a Christian in my class. Annoyed, and the world has conditioned Christians to, I don't wanna be annoying, I don't wanna be annoying, I wanna be a nice person, and they're conditioned Christians to keep their private faith out of the public world. You Christians are annoying talking about Jesus all the time, don't push your private faith on me. And I've heard Christians in our church say this right here and they mean it so well, but they've been conditioned by culture, I just don't wanna push my faith on someone. As if your faith is like a preference. You know, I prefer Starbucks over Dutch Bros, that's my preference. Well, keep your preferences to yourself. Peter and John are not proclaiming a preference, they are proclaiming the way to salvation. Christians, listen to me.

When you keep silent about the one name who can save everyone, that is not kindness, that is cruelty. I know. And you have been conditioned by people who are annoyed with you, will you just keep that quiet? And what do we do, come on, lean in, we cower. Well, I don't wanna be annoying. It's almost like we care more about the opinions of other people than we do God. Opinions of people have become an idol to us. We live for the opinions of people. And here, Peter and John, they're preaching and Peter's standing up and it says, they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of men came to about 5,000. Peter's message has some fruit, which tells me this, the Sadducees, they were not converted, but those listening came to Jesus. You never know who is listening when you talk about Jesus. That's right. You never know what coworker is listening in the cubicle. You never know what follower is following you on Instagram. You never know what neighbor sees you talking. Can I tell you, don't stop talking about the name of Jesus just because someone gets annoyed at you. And on the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem.

This is wild, y'all, you gotta see this in historical context. This is the very same courtroom that Jesus stood in two months ago. The very same people that crucified him. And now Peter, y'all remember what Peter did? Peter was checking in front of a servant girl in the middle of the night. This same Peter, I'm sitting talking about the story with my son yesterday, and I'm like, God, listen, son, look what Peter did. He gets up there and he just testifies and he's bold. And I go, imagine just like a few weeks ago, he's scared of a servant girl. And my son goes, yeah, he's a hypocrite. I was like, well, that's a little harsh on Peter, son. A little harsh. But we have to see this transformation. We cannot look over this. We have to go, why? How is a man who was scared of a teenage girl in the middle of the night in front of a campfire now standing in the very same courtroom that crucified his savior? You must see the implications of this. You must ask yourself, what is going on? Text should force you to reckon with this. How does this happen? He's standing in the court, text says, the rulers and the elders and the scribe

gathered together with Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all were the high priestly family. He's got the royalty, the aristocracy standing in front of a fisherman. This would have been intimidating. Imagine you standing on the Senate floor and the Senate questioning you. Would you cave? Would you plead the fifth? 112 times? No, but for sure, let's just pause here for a second, let's think to ourselves, what would I do? It says, and when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power? They don't like it, what are you doing? I thought we dealt with this problem. I thought we killed this man, are you kidding me? This roach won't die. Why are we still dealing with this man from Nazareth? They're annoyed. In verse eight, look at it, it's on the text. You got your Bibles? Verse eight, what does it say in your Bible? It says here, it says, then Peter, this is why I'm a little easy on Peter. Then Peter, what, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, now there's the key. Peter did not have the Holy Spirit at that campfire. He had his own willpower, he had his own strength,

and he was trying to leverage his own fears and worries. He was trying to do it under his own power, which tells me this, courage will always fail when it's only human. When you wait to feel courageous, you will be a coward. And here you see the rulers, these very same men that crucified Jesus. You must understand that Peter and John are thinking about the implications that if we stand up and be bold, we may be crucified too. Imagine the gruesomeness in that evening that they are contemplating in prison. If we stand up, if we are bold, if we take a stand, we will be crucified. And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, see, this is the thing, the world has no problem with the church doing good things for humanity. The world does not like the name in which we do it. Oh, they have no problem with the church doing charity work? That means we don't have to. The church does not care if the church does good things for society. The world cares when the church begins to declare that there is no other way in which humanity can be saved than through Jesus Christ, and this is what the world has problems with. The world does not want to be held to account

that there is a higher God, that there is one way to salvation. It's so exclusive. Peter and John say, what are you really putting me on trial for healing a lame man? No, they're not putting them on trial for healing a lame man. They're putting them on trial for them standing up in public saying, it is only by Jesus that you can be saved. Here's the deal, Christians, listen to me. Sometimes we are bold about all kinds of issues, and we're not bold about the name of Jesus. We can be bold about political issues, we can be bold about social injustices, and all which are important, let me just say that, so don't get all mad at me and send me an email, but the most important thing is the name of Jesus. And it says here, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed? Verse 10, this is so gangster. Let it be known, I love this, right? Peter hears this uneducated man, he's a fisherman, he's not a legal representative, he's not a lawyer, he's not prepared, he wasn't chat GPT-ing, what do I say to the Sanhedrin tomorrow? Mikey is standing on his own. And he says, let it be known to all of you, I love this, this is so crazy,

I don't know if I would have the courage to, I pray the Holy Spirit would help me. Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ, what does it say, of Nazareth, and I love this, here's the gangster part, he points at him, he goes, who you crucified? You killed him! And oh by the way, the tomb is empty homie The tomb is empty. I know you think we stole the body. We didn't steal the body He walked up he ascended into heaven now the Spirit of God same Jesus fills my life And now I walk into public spaces and I declare the name of Jesus Now we gotta understand this that Peter and John didn't go looking for a fight so don't show up to your workplace clock in If you don't give your heart to Jesus you're gonna die Peter and John was just living their life and then when they came upon a lame man a broken man They said in the name of Jesus rise up and walk Now you may get an email from HR That says hey, we've noticed that you've been praying with three to four people during work hours We're gonna need you to not be praying in work hours, right? There's going to be a moment when if you help hurting broken lost people Not because you're going to create a stir and then HR is gonna email you Please keep religion out of the workplace and you're gonna have that choice Do I stand on business I I'm so sorry I'll keep my private life my private faith

private Peter doesn't do this Peter stands at the very man knowing the complications the implications and the Consequences that could have happened when he looks at the men who crucified Jesus and he says, you know how I'm doing this the man you crucified Lives now on the inside of me. I mean this is boldness This is courage This Jesus was a stone that was rejected by you the builders who have become the cornerstone the very man that you had knowledge of that all the scriptures pointed to that you felt in your hands and you tested in this very courtroom and you Rejected him has now become the cornerstone The thing upon which the kingdom of God is being built And There was salvation in no one else for there is no under name other name under heaven given among men which must be saved Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John the boldness not brashness I Think you're like what that's not my personality type. Listen, okay Like Peter and John weren't doing this for social media clips Like they didn't go and cut it up with a big thumbnail, this is Peter and John don'ts on the Sanhedrin Again they weren't going out to cause a problem. They were just walking in their life full of the Spirit of God They come upon a person who needs Jesus The world gets annoyed at the name of Jesus and then presses them I Think you need to see something here because Peter references two Psalms in his defense and it's going to give us an indication on What Peter is fighting? The first one is from Psalms 118 that quote out of Acts 411 is Peter Referencing the Psalms 118 the very same verse that Jesus references when he says this Jesus is the stone that was rejected By you, here's the thing. There are power systems in our world that run on knowledge and they want to make you feel stupid There are people who are in Universities and high powers who look down upon Christians and they're like you're stupid. We have the knowledge. Come on what did we do in 2020 where they told us to believe in the religion of this trust the We're smarter than you And that's what the world does to Christians we're smarter than you we have more knowledge than you you're stupid you're gullible

and Have you ever been I know I have been in situations where someone will Intimidate you because of their credential because of their degree because of their claim and there's just maybe a little bit more smart than you And you're like, I don't have the words, but I have the name The Other one is power I'm gonna jump ahead in the text. You can go to Acts chapter 4 verse 25. If you have your Bibles, it'll be easy for you Acts 4 25 it says who through the mouth of our father David your servant said by the Holy Spirit Listen, this is the key part. This is Psalms 2 Peter is referencing Psalms 2 He says why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? Look at this part right here The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers We're gathered together against the Lord. We have two dynamics in our world that are trying to intimidate Christianity and the message of Jesus and that is knowledge and power. Knowledge and power. The scripture is clear in this where it says the rulers of the world set themselves against the message of Jesus. The ruling elite go on in the text and they tell Peter and John, they give them a gag order, stop talking about Jesus. It'd be like Meta and Instagram and TikTok telling you if you talk about Jesus, we will de-platform you. Stop talking about them. It'd be like if you lived in the UK and you posted something that the UK government did not like, they would throw you in prison. These are the stakes. How are they so bold?

Church, are we bold? I know we're bold in here. We bold out there? Not just bold in the comments sections. Not just bold about your soapbox but bold about the name of Jesus. Bold when called upon, not bold to go just cause a scene. Peter and John are not trying to cause a scene. Some Christians do. But I think most of us, we're honest, come on, let's just take a look here and say, oh God, I want that boldness. No man likes to feel like a coward. Men, have there ever been moments or situations you walked away from and you justified it to everybody else? But in the quiet moments of your life, you go like this. I was a coward. I've had moments. Well, I mean, it wasn't time right, when I came, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was a coward. And then you see this story and you go, I never wanna be a coward again. So how does Peter do it? Because again, how do we explain the transformation? We see, number one, that they went to the Word. Peter does not wait for his emotional vibe to feel bold. He goes to the Word of God. Here's this uneducated, excuse me, unlettered man. He didn't go to university.

He wasn't prepared. And it says that he went to the Scriptures. What did Peter do in the courtroom? He went to the Scriptures. What did Peter do when he got amongst the other believers? He went to the Scriptures. And there's a lot of Christians that believe that if I just catch the vibe right, if it's an emotion, if it's a personality, if it's an attitude, and a lot of you, because you're like, well, I'm not really a confrontational personality, you're immediately writing off this message. But here we see Peter's not either. The previous story about Peter denying Jesus to a little girl shows that he doesn't have the personality type. He goes to the Word. The Word is what gives him the foundation to be bold. And could I potentially posit to you that the reason that you lack boldness is because you lack the Word? You're waiting to catch an emotion. Maybe if I like do some worship nights. If I just do some worship nights, you know, I'm gonna like, washed in the water, washed in the, right? And then I try to take that emotion. Listen, emotion's gonna go up and down. You know what ever changes?

His Word. And can you imagine Peter walking for three years with Jesus? You don't think Jesus was like preloading all this stuff in him? You don't think Jesus was like, I just had this picture of like all this knowledge in Peter's brain that he didn't even know what to do with it yet, right? Because all the time, Jesus was like, oh, you don't understand. But he kept explaining it, kept explaining it. And that's why in the scripture, in Luke chapter 21 through 25, he says, then he opened their minds to understand the scripture. So you can imagine three years by Jesus, all this preloaded scripture just in there. And the minute the Holy Spirit fills him, it's like, I start glowing. You know that meme? It's like the brain is just like. It's like everything fell into place. I'm weird, I know, I think of it like that. But look what John says, he says, but John the helper, or the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all I have said to you. Here's the thing church, can I help you with just one second? We have to be people of the word.

It's like loading bullets in the chamber. If we don't know our word, it's just smoke machines, LED walls, and goose bumps. And let me tell you where that doesn't work. Anywhere else but the church. It'll work in the street, you can have like one air pod in, put a little Kirk Franklin, we'll go be bold today. Start a revolution, I don't know. You need the word, you need to be students of the word, and let me just lean in with you for just a second, let me be honest and kind. If you are not a student of the word, you will be a coward. Because you don't have anything to stand on. So do I spend 15 minutes in my word? Well I just don't understand, I'm sorry that the greatest cosmic truths of the world is not attainable to you in five minutes on your verse of the day. All right, come on, good, that's really good. Way to be a student. Way to meditate on it day and night, like Joshua said. And here's the thing, I'm not condemning you. I promise you, I'm not, if it feels like condemnation, that's because you're not used to conviction. I'm sorry, I love you. I promise you, that's not going on, that's not clickbait, don't post that, that's from my room. Like let's be students. When Peter was pressed, what came out of him? The word.

When you're pressed, what comes out of you? Four letter words? Or the word? The word. What's the next thing they did? They gathered and prayed. So how do we have the boldness of Peter? I think I want that, I want you to have that. And hear me, hear me, listen to me. I am not saying let's be bold to go cause a scene. But let's also know that this, the world is always gonna be annoyed with Christians, they really are, because they do not like our message. Our message is exclusive, one name. One name. It's open to all, but it's one name. So this whole like many roads to heaven, that's from the pit of hell. That is a lie. You would know that if you read your Bible. One name. We live in a city that's open to spirituality. Like just go down to downtown Austin, you see all kinds of spiritual people that don't shave their armpits. Spiritual, I just feel like the energy in the universe. It's called a demon, homie. If it ain't Jesus, it's a demon. Like I'm just gonna let you know, like we don't live in a material world,

we live in a spiritual world, and if you're like vibing on spiritual stuff and like all that and it's not Jesus, it's called demonic forces. It's not Jesus, it's demonic forces. It's called demonic forces. And so what's the next thing they did? Here's a pattern, here's how you can grow in your boldness. They gathered together and prayed. Look what the scripture says. The scripture says that the powers gathered. They, what did they do? They were consolidating power. Literally against Jesus, the Romans, the Greek rulers, and the religious establishment, who, by the way, all hated one another. They all got together against Jesus. The scripture says, let me find it right here. Oh yeah, in verse 27, if you have your Bibles, it'll be easy. It says, for truly in this city, they were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. Look, and it names them, to name it, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. To make it land for you today, it'd be like the Democrats and the Republicans getting together on something. They don't like one another,

but they don't like Jesus more. So we're willing to work together against this power, because it threatens our power, right? The Romans didn't like Jesus, because Jesus is declaring, I am the king of the world. No, he's not Caesar, no, Jesus is. They gathered together and prayed. One of the biggest lies in modern Christianity is, I don't need the church, I don't need to gather. Again, that's not scripture. All it took in 2020 for the church not to gather was an illness and then a letter from our governing powers to tell the church not to gather. I'm not making a judgment claim on what you made, decision you made around your health. I'm just showing you, that's how easily the church stopped gathering. Why do you think the enemy wants to weave in its lie, you don't need the church? If we look at the scriptures, Peter and John are threatened, thrown into jail, what's the very next thing the church does? They gather and pray. And in their prayer, I'm going to give you a pattern of prayer for you this week. Let's look at the pattern of how they prayed and it's going to give you an indication of how to be bold. So it starts, if you go to your scriptures, it starts in verse 24, and when they heard it, they lifted up their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, first of all, here's the pattern. Can you guys just fill it up there for me, the who and all the stuff? Here's the pattern of prayer, who he is, what he made, what he said, what he's done, what I need. Okay, let me break that up for you. They go, Sovereign Lord, who he is. You are God above everything.

Tomorrow morning in your prayer, you start with who he is. You are the Lord of lords, the king of kings. You are the alpha and the omega. They don't start with give us more boldness. They start with who he is. Wait a minute. We stand against Caesar? Who is God? What has he done? What has he made? Look at the verse. It says here. It says, Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Jeff Bezos makes data centers. God made the Himalayas. Mark Zuckerberg makes the metaglasses. God made all the universes in all the galaxies in our universe. What he said, that's when they went to Psalms 2. You see it in verse 25 and 26. Wait a minute. God, what did you say? You said hundreds and hundreds of years before that this is what would happen. And if you go read Psalms 2, it's pretty cool. Psalms 2 says this, that the kings of the world gather. And it says in the scripture that God laughs. You gather against me? And then God says, what I do to your power is like a rod to, an iron rod to your shin. He gives you this violent imagery of going, earthly power set up against me is like your shin bone if I have a piece of rebar. But then in Psalms 2, God invites them.

But I will kiss you if you come to me. God's making it clear. He's like, God is not a teddy bear. He is all loving and he is holy and just. And that's why we see next week, God goes, if you're going to lie to the Holy Spirit, we have to reckon with that. We have to ask ourself if a holy, all-powerful God, he's not Santa Claus, what was bad this year? I guess I'll get cold. No, you get death. What he's done. Verse 27, for truly you were gathered together against the holy servant Jesus. And now I want you to see this, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the peoples to do whatever your hand was planned to predestine. What has he done? He went to the cross. He took the greatest punishment the world could offer and he came back. Then they go, give us boldness. Wait a minute, who is he? He's the Lord of Lords. What's he done? What's he created? Oh, everything. He went to the cross and came back alive. Lord, give me boldness. And then you see something in Acts 4.33. If you have your Bibles, it'll be easy, go to Acts 4.33. So the beautiful thing that starts happening. In fact, your homework today is to re-read this chapter. And I want you to look at what it produced.

Now, this is really important because it's not all bad news and I don't want you to feel like this legalism message. Here's the deal. You cannot go out there just going, I'm gonna be more bold, I'm gonna be more bold. No, you have to be in your word, you have to pray, you have to invite the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit will make you, right? What does verse eight say? Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, I want you to look what happens in verse 32. It says, now the number, or the full number of those who believed were with one heart and one soul. Isn't it crazy that the church is threatened, there's a gag order, don't talk about it, but the church is gathering and look what happened, it did. They weren't afraid, they were all in unity. Holy Spirit produces that. That's what I want for our church. I want us to be with one heart, one mind. Look what it says, it says, and no one said that any of the things belonged to him. All of a sudden, they started getting generous. Crazy, this isn't a giving message, you guys have been doing incredible. But you gotta look at that. Oh my goodness, the church became more generous. And in verse 33, this is the key, and with great power, the apostles were giving

their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Two fishermen, one of them was a coward, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the scripture, connected to community, and they didn't stop talking. Verse 33, I know it's hidden in there, and you're like, you could pass over it really quick, but it says this, and with great power, the apostles were what? Giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one faith system in the world that can give testimony to a risen Lord. And that is Jesus. Where does our boldness come from? Jesus, the Spirit of God. I want us to be bold. I want you to be bold. This week, I want you to be bold when the opportunity arises. I want you to be filling your life with this word of God so that when that moment arises, you're locked and loaded. I want you to be filled with the Spirit of God because as humans, we're weak, we're fallible, but the Spirit of God is not. And that's the crazy thing about the Christian faith. We are jars of clay who are filled with the Spirit of God who enlists us into crazy, wild, amazing things. I am believing that the Spirit of God

is enlisting us into crazy, wild, amazing things. I am believing for the testimonies that will come out of this message because you were bold in your faith. And the church will celebrate. We will rejoice. And so church, we're gonna go into a time of worship, just worshiping. We're gonna do that and we're gonna ask the Lord to fill us with boldness. So will you stand on your feet with me this morning? I wanna pray over you. Come on, if you're somebody who's going, Lord, fill me with boldness. Fill me with your Spirit. Can you just put your hands in the air? Just briefly and then the team's gonna lead us in a song. Team, you guys can come on up front, already get in position. Father, I just pray over my church in Jesus' name that Lord, that we would have a hunger and a desire for your word. That Father, we would gather together in prayer. And Lord, I pray that we would look at the knowledge and the power of the world and we will not be intimidated because we know who lives on the inside of us. And Lord, will you strengthen us? Will you give us courage and give us boldness? God, not just for issues, but for the name of Jesus.

It's in your mighty name we pray. Come on, church, everybody say amen.