Travis Connick

This is a paper that Rick Booye and I co-wrote regarding the issue of gender in church leadership.  Enjoy!  If you have comments, please let me know.

Gender Issues in Church Leadership

Biblical Guidance/Our Position

At Trail Christian Fellowship we have been blessed because gender has never been a divisive issue among us.  We want to preserve that peace and unity.  Yet, all around us the gender wars are raging.  Even within the evangelical community people disagree, sometimes heatedly.

The reason for the disagreement (aside from the perennial angst in our culture over these topics) is that in one place Paul says that women should not teach or exercise authority over men in the church (1 Tim. 2:12), yet in other places it seems obvious that women prophesied, prayed and were taken very seriously in Christian body life (Acts 21:9; 1 Cor. 11:5; Rom. 16:3-16 where women are included with the men as heroes of the faith).  The fact that Paul had to correct some abuses with regard to the sisters’ freedom to join in ministry indicates that Christian women had more clout in the church than the surrounding culture generally condoned.  They were considered equals with the men in service to Christ.  So, how should we understand these seemingly divergent perspectives?

Three main views regarding gender and leadership within the Church have emerged:  Egalitarians believe that men and women are equal before God and therefore women should be admitted to and represented in all ministries within a church, particularly senior pastoral and eldership positions.  They believe a person’s gender is not at all a relevant issue for positioning people in ministry.  Hierarchialists believe Scripture teaches that men and women are equal before God, but that women should strictly avoid ministry to adult men under all conditions.  Complementarians believe that men and women are equal before God, but that he has created some church ministry specifications based not on superiority or inferiority, but on his designed spirit distinctions between male and female souls.  These specifications position men as ultimately responsible for the life and health of the church (elders) in this age.  The complementarian view opens all other venues for women to teach, pray and prophesy within the ministry except elder-board membership and primary pulpit responsibility.  This is the view we hold at Trail Christian Fellowship. 

Love and respect are more important to the Lord than titles and power.  As a church we believe that how men and women treat each other is more important than what roles and titles we have (John 13:34-35; Mtt 20:25-28).  When anger and divisiveness predominate and ministry degenerates into arguments about authority, prestige, and position something very important has already been lost—Christlikeness (see Phil. 2:1-11; Jas. 3:13-18).   We also believe that this issue, while important and worthy of a position paper like this, is not the basis of unity in the body of Christ and therefore ought not to be a dividing factor between brothers and sisters.  We ask that all those who fellowship among us accept the functional position we as elders believe is most biblical and strive to love and respect one another within that parameter.  We do not insist that everybody outside the elder board and teaching faculty “sign off’ personally on our view.  We do ask that for the purposes of fellowship and unity in Christ at our church we not argue or agitate for one of the other two Christian positions on this issue.

Our Position (Complementarian)

We believe God created both male and female in His image, and gave them equally dignity, value and purpose (Genesis 1:27).  We also believe that men and women are equal partners in Christ (Gal. 3:28), and both men and women are equally gifted by God (Eph. 4:7, 11-13) so that the local church may be strengthened (1 Cor. 12:4-7).  In the Trinity, there are three distinct and equal Persons sharing the same essence and yet who exercise different roles.  God the Father sends the Son and the Spirit (John 5:23, 24, 36, Isaiah 48:16).  God the Son and God the Spirit submit to the Father, yet each is equally God.  This is equality in diversity.  At Trail Christian Fellowship we believe there is an equality of persons between men and women, but a diversity of function.

For further reading we recommend:

Women and Men in Ministry by Robert L. Saucy & Judith K. Tenelshof

Two Views on Women in Ministry by James R. Beck & Craig L. Blomberg

Women in Ministry: Four Views by Bonnidell Clouse & Robert G. Clouse

Elder/Pastor

Biblical Guidance/Our Position

Within the pages of the New Testament the terms “elders”, “overseers” and pastor are interchangeable and designate the primary spiritual leaders of the local church who do the work of pastoring or shepherding God’s flock (Titus 1:5, 7; Acts 20: 17, 28).   The term “elder” emphasizes maturity, the term “overseer” emphasizes the leadership responsibility, and the term “pastor” emphasizes the heart of a shepherd.  The local church should have a plurality of elders, (Acts 14:23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14) who are equal in authority, although the scope of their ministry may be different.  Their authority is to be expressed in loving, Christ-like leadership and not lording over the flock (1 Peter 5:3; Hebrews 13:17). God has designated men as elder/pastors (see “Gender Issues in Church Leadership” document).  Leading the elders is a senior elder who is first among equals and is responsible to help train the elders who then, train additional leaders (1 Tim. 5:17).

The Elders have final responsibility before God for prayer ministry (James 5:14), ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4) including teaching and protecting the church’s doctrine (Acts 20:27-31; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:9), the administration of the church (1 Tim. 3:5), and shepherding the flock (1 Peter 5:2) by guiding them in the way of Biblical truth, and by protecting them from false teachers and diseased doctrine (Acts 20:28-31) .

Because the role of a pastor or elder is such an enormous responsibility (Heb. 13:17, James 3:1) the Lord gives the Church qualifications that must be met over a long period of time before a man can be considered to fulfill the role of pastor/elder.  In John 21, Jesus appears to Peter, after Peter had given up on himself, and Jesus asks him three times, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”  Peter responds, “Yes” and Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”  In essence Jesus is telling Peter to pastor His people, but notice that Jesus reaffirms Peter’s role in the ministry after Peter reaffirms his love and loyalty to Jesus.  Therefore, the most important ingredient, the most obvious qualification for pastoral work is a deep love and loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In addition to love and loyalty to Jesus, the Bible lays out the qualifications for pastors/elders in two key places (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9).  Elders must be blameless in character (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9), able to teach Scripture (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17), and refute those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). An elder must be the “husband of one wife” (1 Tim.3:2; 3:12). We believe this qualification does not exclude an unmarried person, someone remarried after the death of a spouse, nor necessarily one who has divorced and remarried. The phrase describes a reputation as a “faithful” husband or a “one-wife kind of man” (see Divorce and Remarriage document).

Elders are public leaders, and so valid accusation of blame should only be accepted by two or three witnesses and result in public rebuke (1 Tim. 5:19-20).

In Scripture, elders were selected by the original church planter (Acts 14:23) or by other elders (Titus 1:5), with recognition from the congregation for its leaders (Acts 6:3; 15:22-23). Scripture does not describe how elders should organize themselves, which gives the local church freedom to determine how best to organize themselves to meet the specific needs of the local body of Christ.

For further reading we recommend:

Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch

Pastoral Theology by Thomas C. Oden

Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

Daylon was a young man, 25 years old.  He was intelligent, passionate, fun-loving and kind.  He was also deeply in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.  He wasn’t perfect, but Daylon may have been the closest I’ve seen to perfection.  He was a certified pilot instructor, and was training to be a missionary pilot, who would fly into remote areas with supplies and aid for fellow missionaries.  While helping a friend fly a plane to a customer, something went wrong with the aircraft and they crashed over central Arizona. 

When the phone call came to our family that Daylon’s plane had crashed and that he and the other pilot were dead, the news hit us hard.  It was as if someone repeatedly punched us in the gut, only worse. Here was a young man that had so much promise, so much potential to do great things, and his life on earth was over. We walked around in disbelief for hours, and then began to mourn our loss.  My uncle and aunt had lost their precious son.  Our cousins had lost their brother.  We would never see him again, or hear his laugh this side of eternity. We were and still are heart-broken.

In the days that followed Daylon’s death our family received many kind phone calls, emails, and encouraging words, to which we were thankful, but we also had several well-meaning people tell us, “It’s okay to be angry with God.” 

Each time someone told one of our family members this, we made sure to look them in the eye and say to them, “It’s actually not okay to be angry with God.  It’s never okay to be angry with God.”  As our family suggested to different people, “it’s not okay to be angry with God” you could see their eyebrows furrow and they gave us skeptical looks, as if we had gone off the deep end.

What caused them to think it was okay to be angry with God, I wondered?  As I thought about this, I started to notice this idea is everywhere.  Country artist Alan Jackson sings about it in “Sissy’s Song.”[1] New York Times Best-selling novel, The Shack details one man’s anger at God over the death of his young daughter. Movies such as Signs teach us that it is perfectly acceptable to be angry with God.  

What assumptions do people carry around with them that haven’t been examined enough which would lead them to believe that it’s okay to be angry with God? 

There are at least two basic assumptions that many people make that would cause them to think it’s okay to be angry with God, and which would lead them to believe that if you don’t think it’s okay to be angry with God then you’re crazy!

First off, many people assume that feelings don’t matter. Feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are.  Therefore, if feelings are neutral, than anger at God or anyone else for that matter is neither right nor wrong.  Feelings, they would argue aren’t something that you can control, they just come and go, like tides upon on ocean shore and if they just come and go than they are not moral or immoral, again they just are.  This is probably why people thought we had gone off the deep end when we told them, “It’s not okay to be angry with God.”

To many, a feeling could only be considered wrong if acted upon in such a way as to hurt another person.  This is why many people assume it’s not wrong to be angry at God; because it’s only a feeling, and if it’s only a feeling you can’t ascribe morality to it.

However the Scriptures teach that our thoughts and feelings actually do matter to God.  Within the pages of the Scriptures feelings are both morally good and morally bad depending on how they cause us to think about the Lord.  If they remind us that the Lord is faithful, true and trustworthy than they are morally good, however if they lead us to believe God is anything but faithful, true and trustworthy than they are morally bad.  In fact, Scripture commands that we love the Lord (Psalm 31:23), delight in the Lord (Psalm 37:4), rejoice and be glad in the Lord (Psalm 32:11) and hope in the Lord (Psalm 33:20).  These feelings are morally good because they provoke in us thoughts that cause us to trust the Lord in a deeper way, and find our satisfaction in His presence!  On the flip side to “delight in lies” (Psalm 62:4), or to “have delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12) is morally wrong because it causes us to think that something, in this case sin, is more satisfying than God, which is blatantly false.

The second assumption that many people have is that God’s not really in control.  Many people believe that God created the world, got it going and then left it to its own devices, like a boy playing with a spinning top. We watch young people we love die, we witness marriages collapse under the most terrible conditions, and we observe older people die slow, painful deaths.  It breaks our heart, it crushes our spirit.  When disaster or tragedy occurs on a national or personal level many assume God’s not aware or is indifferent to the situation.  Which would mean He doesn’t care about what He created, and if He doesn’t care about us, why should we care about Him, thus making it easy to be angry with God.  But this isn’t the case. The Scriptures repeatedly reveal that God is in control over His creation and actively involved in the affairs of humanity.  Psalm 135:5-7 declares, “I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods.  The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lighting with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.”  Even the smallest events in the life of humans is directed by the Lord Himself: Not even one sparrow “will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Matthew 10:29). And again, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33).  The truth is God is sovereign, which means He is in control over every aspect of His creation, both the world and its people.  The world is not spinning out of control; God is at work right now behind the scenes working all things together for good, even the things that cause us immense pain.  “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25)

If you think it’s okay to be angry with God what you’re really saying is you trust your finite mind and your personal feelings more than God’s infinite mind and God’s character, which is why it’s never okay to be angry with God. 

Now I want to make sure you’re hearing what I’m saying, and not hearing what you want to hear. I’m not saying you’re not going to experience heartache and pain, you will. I’m not saying to stuff your feelings and live hypocritically as if life isn’t difficult and sin hasn’t marred humanity, it has. I’m not even saying you can’t faithfully wrestle with God; asking Him why He would allow such things to happen, you can. What I am saying though is it is wrong for any human at any point to be angry at God for any of His decisions: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments (Revelation 16:7).

Well what do we do if we find we are angry at God?  Simply admit it. He knows it anyway; you’re not hiding it from Him.  He knows our hearts.  If we are angry at God, we might as well tell Him, and ask Him to forgive us, and pray the He might give us “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) which will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus and also pray that He will help us keep our eyes on Him instead of on our circumstances.

The Good News is that when Jesus died upon the Cross He completely removed the wrath of God for those who trust in Him. This means when God looks at those who have faith in Jesus all He has for us is His mercy and grace.  He received the wrath we deserved; we receive the life He lived!  There may be times when we cry out to the Lord in pain and heartache, angry at sin and Satan, but continuing to have faith in the Lord, because we trust Him and His eternal plan more than our limited understanding. 

 

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[1] Loved ones she left behind/Just trying to survive /And understand the why/Feeling so lost inside/Anger shot straight at God…

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/blogspot/Uwik

Latest teaching from Acts 9:32-43.

In Acts 8, Philip, one of the seven Hellenistic Jewish Christians that the Apostles appointed to deal with the distribution of food was forced out of Jerusalem because of the persecution that Saul of Tarsus was creating.  So Philip went to Samaria and started communicating the message of Jesus there, and all these stinking Samaritans started getting saved to the shock of the Jerusalem church.

The Jerusalem church, needing some eyewitness confirmation that Samaritans are getting saved, send Peter and John to Samaria to check it out.  Peter and John show up, see that the Lord has in fact been at work in Samaria, lay their hands on those who had been baptized and they receive the Holy Spirit. 

So here’s Philip with this growing Body of Believers, with this tremendous responsibility to lead, nurture, strengthen and equip these Believers.  He seemed to be utterly indispensable.  Yet it was at precisely this moment when the Lord called him to leave the area, and go to a desert road.  Amazingly, Philip didn’t put up an argument.  He didn’t say, “Lord, I’m doing great things for you here in Samaria.”  He made himself available for whatever the Lord wanted him to do. 

Sometime later we read that Philip meets up with, guides and baptizes an Ethiopian eunuch who was returning from worshipping the Lord in Jerusalem. The account between The Evangelist and The Eunuch is a fascinating account, but if you want to be an effective witness, if you want to be a Philip—someone who is effective in sharing the Gospel wherever the Lord leads you, please take notice of what Philip did; it’s a great model for us.

1. Philip was sensitive to God’s leading! (Verse 26)  Here he was in the midst of an amazing work in Samaria, witnessing all sorts of new beginnings and hundreds of lives being changed.  But God called him out in the middle of a desert wasteland—and Philip had the sensitivity to go where God led.  Amazing.  By the way, you will find that there is a direct correlation between having the mind steeped and saturated with Scripture and being sensitive to the voice of the Spirit.
2. Philip was available. (Verse 27) Philip left immediately after having received the Call.  Availability is sensitivity’s twin.  You can’t have one without the other. Sometimes we forget this, but everyone thinks about God.  We need to be prepared and available to talk about Him. Keep praying for opportunities to talk about the Lord.
3. Philip started where the man was, but he guided him to Jesus! (Verses 31-35).  When you get into conversations with people, begin with what is on their mind.  Listen well; even ask questions, before you start talking.  Let them talk until they begin to ask questions, then you can guide them….but guide them right to Jesus.  Focus on the personal relationship with Christ.  I gotta tell you one of the worst things about being a pastor is hearing other pastors…I’ll turn on the radio or the TV and I’ll hear sermons on 7 ways to gain wealth, or 9 steps to a better marriage, or 4 steps to have obedient pets.  But at the end of the day people need to hear about Jesus and what He has done by taking our place on the Cross.  In your conversations guide people to Jesus.
4. Philip used the Scriptures! (Verse 35) The passages you know will be the ones you use—so the more you know, the more effective you can be. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
5. Philip encouraged him to trust the Lord, and trusted the Lord himself. (Verses 36,38) Philip obviously encouraged this man to trust the Lord with his life, which is why he was ready to be baptized Often times though, when we witness we sense that the situation is not ripe for a response, so we end up hoping that someday this person will be led to Christ, which is the right thing for us to hope, but we must trust the Lord to oversee the follow-up.  The follow-up may be through you, it may not be through you, but trust the Lord is at work in that person’s life.

In Acts 6, the early church is growing so rapidly and the Apostles are being pulled in so many different directions ministering to over 10,000 people at this point that a mini-crisis occurs that causes the disciples to re-evaluate their central calling(s) in their life.  As the Body of Christ grew some widow’s fell through the cracks administratively.  They were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, and they complained to the leadership that they were being overlooked. 

“So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:2-4).” 

Please notice what the Twelve did here:

First, they let go of what was not central to their calling:  They understood that administering the food ministry was not their central calling; that doesn’t mean it’s not important, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be ran well. But it does mean it wasn’t their central calling, and for the overall health of the ministry it was best if they let it go.

Second, they straighten out what was their central calling.  This needs to happen from time to time.  We need to be reminded of what our central calling is. Thankfully, this situation gave the Apostles an opportunity to step back and think about their central calling and pursue that. 

What about you?  Do you know your central calling(s)?  Often times our lives are shaped so that we have more than one central calling.  How do I even go about finding out my central calling(s)?  Here’s how: Ask yourself, “Which things in my life cannot be delegated to another?”

What might be some central callings in your life?

i.      Your devotional life is one.  Your personal relationship with Jesus Christ cannot be delegated. 

ii.      Your marriage-being a spouse to your partner.

iii.      Your children-Being a parent cannot be delegated.

iv.      Your work-career, job….

We need to lean into where God has called us for this season of life.  Identify your central callings in life, and re-prioritize your time and your energies around these things…which is exactly what the Apostles did.

Within the pages of the New Testament a young man appears who quickly grows into a mature Believer, an valued co-laborer alongside the Apostle Paul, and a respected pastor.  His name is Timothy.  As we read through the book that bears his name, and we read brief accounts of Timothy’s life from the book of Acts, we see a picture of a young man who loves the Lord, and is growing in Godliness. 

How did Timothy grow into this type of a man?  By way of application let me bring out a couple of things about Timothy’s life that are good for us to think about.  Timothy’s life is a challenge and an encouragement for every generation of Believers. 

His grandmother, Lois imparted the knowledge of Scripture to Timothy from a young age (2 Timothy 1:5).  This reminds us of the power and influence believing grandparents can have on their grandkids.  If you have grandkids, teach them the Scriptures, spend time with them modeling Christ-like behavior, and teaching them to pray and to worship.

Timothy’s mother, Eunice, was a Jewess married to a non–believing husband, but Paul writes in 2 Timothy that she has passed the faith onto Timothy.  It’s a good reminder for women who are married to unbelieving husbands that by your faith, your constant prayer for your kiddos, your modeling of Christ-likeness to your kids will have a huge impact on their souls for eternity.  Continue to trust the Lord with your kids.

For young women the encouragement is that there are young men likeTimothy in the world.  Young guys who love the Lord and want to serve Him with their life.  Maybe not in pastoral ministry, but with their business, with their hands, and with their life they want to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus.  There are young guys like this, I know them! Look for this type of a guy.

For older men the challenge and the encouragement is this…Timothy was mentored and shaped by an older man, the Apostle Paul.  And his impact on Timothy was profound, and shaped his life.  This is the call to older men to invest some of your time into the lives of young men, who have all sorts of questions about faith, life, love, and about marriage.  If you’re an older guy with some time on your hands, pray about mentoring a young guy. Your impact will be felt for generations to come.

Lastly, for young guys the challenge is to imitate Timothy’s devotion and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, and to continue to grow in the knowledge of our Lord.

This was posted over at www.theresurgence.com and thought you might enjoy it.

 

Missio Dei

It is impossible to grasp the true heart and soul of Christianity without understanding the mission of the church. Christians have been sent as missionaries to share the gospel in our present culture and to fulfill the Great Commission. The church is rooted in the concept of the Missio Dei, which recognizes that there is one mission: God’s mission. Missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as “Mission of God.” The church is not an end in itself; the church points beyond itself to fulfill the mission of God. Robert Webber reminds us, “The calling of the church in every culture is to be mission” (The Younger Evangelicals).

Being Missionaries Like Our Missionary God

To understand what it means to be a part of the mission of God begins with understanding that God is a missionary God. The very being of God is the basis for the missionary enterprise. God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed, and healed (The Shaping of Things to Come). God’s mission can be seen throughout the pages of the Bible and history, and nowhere is the mission of God better understood than in the person and work of Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Missionaries To Our Own People

Many Christians and churches teach and preach that missions are something we support or do, such as sending or supporting missionaries in other countries. This was the case 20 to 30 years ago. However, in the 21st century, the mission field has come to us. We live in a post-Christian world where many people simply don’t know the gospel anymore. Therefore we are all called to be missional and share in the mission of God. Ed Stetzer says, “Being missional means actually doing mission right where you are. Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound” (Planting Missional Churches).

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is a classic, must read story in the Scriptures.  The story is told in Acts 5:1-11.  After watching Barnabas sell some land and give all of the proceeds to the ministry, Ananias and Sapphira devise a plan to sell some property, and give a portion of it to the ministry, while pretending to give all of it! They were hoping to recieve the acclaim without the sacrifice, and they wanted the comfort without the commitment.  So Ananias comes to where the Apostles are, carrying with him a bag of money and he drops the money at Peter’s feet, and he probably expects Peter to gush over this gift…but Peter says in verse 3, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?  Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?  What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Immediately following Peter’s statement Ananias drops dead! 3 hours later, his bride, Sapphira comes in and it’s deja vue all over again.  She lies to Peter as well, and she dies right there on the spot! 2 dead within 3 hours. My kind of church service!

But this brief exchange, this amazing story reminds us that Christ-likeness, not churchy-ness is the goal of every Believer!  And it also reminds us that Churchy-ness not Christ-likeness is Satan’s goal.  Peter says in verse 3, “How is it that Stant has so filled your heart…”  Why would Satan encourage this couple to build their identity through decietfulness?  The reason is because it would shift the focus off of Jesus, and His victory over Satan, sin and death, and it would place the focus on Ananias and Sapphira and what they’ve done to to help this growing community.  It would place the focus on us, and what we’ve done, instead of on Christ and what He has accomplished, and this would strip the community of it’s power.

The truth is Satan is crafty and smart and he will use any avenue available to take the focus off of Jesus, off of His kingdom, and off of the spreading of the Gospel, and often times he does it by getting Christians to care more about their position or identity in the church, rather than in their identity in Christ…which is what he does with Ananias and Sapphira.  It’s obvious they wanted to become like Barnabas, and Satan used that as the “in” to lead them down the path, and into sin.

Let me ask you this; are you more concerned with your identity in the church, than you are with your idenity in Christ?  If you are involved at any level of ministry the temptation is there to earn a name, build your reputation, grow your fame, earn a esteemed position within the church, just as Ananias and Sapphira tried….but this is nothing more than self-serving ambition, and opposite of Jesus thinking. The only reason for any type of involvement in ministry is a profound love of the Lord Jesus Christ because of what He has done by cleansing us of our sin, and giving us new life in Him.

In Acts 4, you can find it here.  Peter and John are arrested, and brought before the Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin is composed of the high priest, and seventy of the most powerful people in Peter and John’s world.  The Sanhedrin formed a semi-circle around Peter and John and started firing questions at them.  The situation for Peter and John could not look more bleak.  They probably thought that they were at best going to jail, and at worst, death.  And yet this whole situation that started out looking really bad, turned quite good.  Peter and John were on trial before the same people that sent Jesus to Pilate for crucifixion.  Satan meant all of this for evil, yet before the day was over, look at what the Lord does.

1. Two thousand more men come to faith in Jesus Christ, probably four to six thousand more when you add women and children (4:4).

2. Peter relied upon the Holy Spirit to guide his words before the Sanhedrin (4:8).

3. Peter preaches Jesus to the leaders of the Jews (4:10-12).

4. Peter and John grow bolder for Jesus, than they had been before (4:13).

5. The Sanhedrin (who didn’t believe in the supernatural) actually confirm that a miracle has been done in Jesus’ name (4:14, 16).

6. God is glorified (4:21).

You know we get thrown into tough situations and sometimes we think, “This cannot turn out for the good” and yet if we trust the Lord, rely upon His Spirit, if we tell of Jesus’ work, then God will be glorified, we will be strengthened for the next situation, and the Lord will use all of it for His purposes!