Peter's Audacious Claim

A Sermon preached on Sunday, July 15, 2007

by Pastor Terry Davis

First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT

Last week we read about Peter’s second sermon following the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Luke’s report was that as a result of the first sermon that 3000 people responded to Peter’s invitation, repenting of their sins and receiving Baptism. Subsequently Luke reports the more people were being added to their number daily. Following this second sermon the results are even more spectacular; this time the report is that many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand.

There was no response by the religious authorities to the Pentecostal preaching and conversions, but this second sermon took place right at the Jewish Temple itself. Right there at the religious center of the nation people were being converted from temple centered traditional Jewish faith into this Jesus movement. People still considered themselves to be Jews, worshipping the same God they had always worshipped, but now they identified Jesus as the promised the Messiah and were Baptized into faith in Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the anointed one, or in their language Jesus Christ.

Obviously this could not happen right there in the temple without official response from the temple leaders. A delegation of priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees quickly confronted Peter and John before the meeting was over, much annoyed that they were preaching Jesus and his resurrection right there in the temple. They detained them for a hearing the next day; simply locking them up for the night without charges or a warrant or anything. There was no constitutional right for charges or a speedy trial for them, and for that matter, although we supposedly have these rights and protections, it sounds like what has happened to all together too many people in this country detained as enemy combatants or suspected illegal immigrants or suspected of other charges.

The next morning Peter and John are led into a great council of the priests and rulers, the elders and scribes to be examined concerning what had happened the day before.

In the course of defending their message and conduct Peter makes a most audacious claim, and this is what I want to talk about this morning.

Concerning the name of Jesus Peter said “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” He does not claim that Jesus is one way among many by which people can be saved, but that there is no other way to salvation. The rulers could possibly have tolerated the idea that he was one way. After all there were different Jewish sects represented right there in the council, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Each of them claimed to have the right understanding of the Jewish faith, the ultra conservative orthodox Sadducees had learned to live in peace with the more modernist Pharisees, even though they didn’t accept the way they elevated the prophets almost to the same status as the Torah and the way that they did accept the resurrection at the last day as being a Jewish doctrine, even though it only appeared in the latest of the prophets.

It would be easy to dismiss Peter’s claim as being merely the misguided enthusiasm of a true believer, but it is a claim that is repeated again and again through out the New Testament. We read this morning in John’s that when Thomas said that they did not know the way Jesus said to them I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. He did not say I am one way among many ways, not even the best way to know God, but he said he was the way, the one and only way. This is the same audacious claim that Peter made in the sermon this morning, the claim of exclusivity; the claim that Christianity is the only true religion, the only way to be saved.

This claim that Jesus is the only way to salvation was quite unacceptable to the temple authorities and many people today find this claim to be quite audacious, indeed think it is arrogant and ignorant of the contributions and value of other religions. A constant metaphor in the book Jesus at 2000 that the adult forum studied a few years ago was that God or the truth about God was like the top of a great mountain and that there are many different paths to the summit. One can follow Jesus, someone else follow the teachings of Moses and the prophets, another follow Muhammad, another follow the Buddha, still others may follow the way of the Hindus or another way but we are all on different paths to reach the same God, the same salvation, the same enlightenment.

It seems that this way of religious tolerance is almost a necessity in a pluralistic world where we all come into constant contact with followers of other religions, on our small planet, often in our schools, our neighborhoods or in the places where we work. How can we get along with others who we encounter if we don’t respect their religious outlook? Isn’t it religious intolerance and exclusiveness that is contributing to the internal warfare in Iraq between the Shiites and the Sunni Muslims? Haven’t we seen enough armed struggle between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, how long can the world tolerate the strife between Jews and Muslims who surround Israel on all sides? Isn’t religious intolerance at least a part of the cause of most of the warfare that is raging across the world today?

For that matter the doctrine of exclusivity leads to great conflict within the Christian Church because so many groups within the family of Christian Churches and sects claim that their interpretation of the Christian message is the only true Christianity. There are those who claim that they are born again and saved and sanctified and others are not, while still others claim that if you haven’t been baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues you have not been saved.

This claim to exclusivity has been troublesome to me since the time I was a young kid in Sunday school. What kind of God would condemn the majority of the world’s population to hell? How was it fair that those of us who had been born in a family and society where Christianity was known could accept it and be saved, but all those people who had never been exposed to our faith were condemned? My Sunday school teacher’s response to my troubling question was that it was our responsibility to spread the message about Jesus to the entire world, to our non Christian neighbors and to the people all across the world who had never heard the gospel. For years I have tried to live with this and have worked hard to raise money for overseas missions. I have gone to evangelism training schools to learn to teach others to be good evangelists and to present the gospel to people. I still have Bibles on my shelf that have a list of the five steps to salvation pasted inside the front cover and key passages highlighted to make key points in explaining the way to be saved.

I came to a point where I could no longer live with this exclusive understanding of the Christian faith. The God I believe in, the God revealed in Jesus Christ, is not a God of condemnation. Jesus does not reveal to us a God who is in the business of sending people to Hell. John 3 says that God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. In the same chapter we read that God so loved the world, not part of the world, not some people in the world, but God so loved the world. I have been repeatedly told that God does offer salvation and eternal life to everyone, but in order for offer, the gift of salvation to be effective we have to accept the gift that God offers. But doesn’t this make salvation depend on us, isn’t accepting Christ and praying the sinners prayer and accepting God’s forgiveness a good work on our part, something that we have to do. But salvation is supposed to be God’s free gift of Grace, if we have to work for it, to do something to earn or deserve it is no longer a gift of grace, but something that we earn.

I have come to believe that God loves every one, from Mother Theresa to the most vile murderer on death row; God loves every human being that God has made, and that the death and resurrection of Jesus brought salvation to every child of God. Whether or not you or I or anyone else accept Jesus, he died for everyone, and in terms of our eternal salvation, our eternal life, all of us have been saved through his, whether we know it or believe it or not.

Now I will agree that it doesn’t become effective in our earthly life until we accept it. The burden of guilt remains until we accept through Jesus, or through some other teaching that we have been forgiven by the creator. The good news of eternal life has no effect on our lives until we know about it and believe in it, with out this faith we still live with the fear of death and our ultimate destruction or eternal punishment. In this life it makes all the difference in the world what we believe, but in terms of our ultimate salvation it is an absolutely free gift. No one is condemned, everyone is accepted, and everyone is a beloved child of God. Believe, my friends, believe the good news of the gospel, we have been forgiven and eternally saved by Jesus Christ. Share that good news with others.

Scripture for this sermon

Acts 4:1 - 16 ¹While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, ²much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. ³So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand. ⁵The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, ⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. ⁷When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” ⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, ¹⁰let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

¹¹This Jesus is

‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;

it has become the cornerstone.’

¹²There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” ¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. ¹⁴When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. ¹⁵So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. ¹⁶They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it.

John 14:1 - 10 ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believ in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And you know the way to the place where I am going. ⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you know me, you will kno my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ⁸Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

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