Sermon title

Speaker: Justin Gingrich

Sermon date: September 06, 2026

Scripture: Acts 4:1-31

Series: UNHINDERED | Through It All, I Will Sing of the Goodness of God

Sermon summary

Acts 4 is a story of great reversal. The religious leaders appear to be in control, yet they are powerless. Peter and John are arrested, yet they speak with freedom and boldness. The rejected Jesus has become the cornerstone. By God’s Spirit, Peter is freed from the old categories of success, failure, power, and security. He no longer has to judge his life by what appears to be happening in the moment. That same Spirit frees us to stop judging our unfinished lives and trust God’s unfinished work in us.

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Sermon transcript

Lightly edited from automatic captions for readability. Some transcription errors may remain; the recording is the authoritative version. Select a timestamp to open that moment on YouTube.

0:00 — And it is my joy to read our Scripture this morning from Acts chapter 4.

The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

The next day, the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

“Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

On their release, Peter and John went back to their people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

“‘Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord

and against his anointed one.’

“Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you, Genevieve. Let me pray for us.

3:58 — Father, we love you. Thank you for being here with us this morning. For those of us who are traveling, would you keep them safe as they join us online?

Father, we ask right now for mercy from your Holy Spirit. Would you be here, Spirit—guiding, redeeming, restoring, and convicting?

Help us to trust you this morning, Father. Help us to trust you with the areas of our lives that are difficult. However we assess our lives, however we think we are doing, would you help us to find home in your plan?

Would you help us to give up our seat as judge, even as judge over ourselves, and trust you—trust your unfinished but still-working plan in our unfinished lives? We pray all of this in your name, Father. Amen.

5:03 — Well, good morning again. If you are joining us for the first time, we are going to look at this story in Acts. This particular story is the first time we begin to see a pattern emerge.

God’s people will encounter real, actual, tangible discouragement. Yet throughout the entire story, we see these great reversals occur. Just when you think this is the end of the line or the end of the story, or when you say, “I don’t know how something good can come out of this,” God’s Spirit moves and redeems, guides, cares, and empowers.

What we are going to see throughout the book of Acts is that God emboldens, empowers, and invigorates those who encounter great discouragement.

So let me ask you again the question I asked this morning: How are you doing in life?

6:18 — If I asked you to give me an assessment of where you are, or if your mom or dad called later and asked, “How are you?” how would you answer? How do you measure your life based on your circumstances?

I want to argue this morning that there are usually two metrics in particular that we use to measure how we are doing: purpose and security.

For many of us, security is the primary measure. If I have enough in the bank, if my job is stable, if I have climbed to where I need to be, then no matter what gets thrown my way or how the political system changes in our country, I have some security around me. This is how I know I am okay. This is how I know my life is where it should be: I feel secure.

Others of us measure our lives by purpose. We might have a secure job, yet there is still something burning inside. Something feels empty. Something is missing. There is still a yearning or longing.

I might have the perfect family. I might have the white picket fence. I might have everything I worked for, yet somehow I am still searching. Or maybe I have landed my dream job and married my dream spouse. I have my purpose wrapped up and fulfilled. I know what I am here for.

Most of us assess our lives based on one of these two questions: Is my purpose fulfilled? Am I able to do what my heart and soul long to do? Or am I secure? Am I safe? Is my marriage in a safe place? Is my children’s health okay? I look at how life is going based on how safe I feel.

8:27 — This morning, I want to look at these two areas of our lives and at what the story of Acts tells us. I keep calling it the Gospel because Acts is really the second part of the Gospel of Luke. Luke writes both books. It is one long story broken into Luke and then Acts.

In this part of the story, Peter and John are arrested. That is how it opens.

This is the first time in the story of Acts that we begin to ask, “Wait a second. Is this really what I want to buy into? Is this really the hope that will anchor me?” Its leaders are now experiencing real opposition.

We have seen Jesus ascend to the Father. We have seen real healing happen. We talked about that last week: Peter and John healed a man, and he walked, leaped, and praised God. Then we arrive at chapter 4 and begin to ask, “Is this worth buying into? Is this hope really going to carry me? Is it going to carry my security and my purpose?”

9:58 — I want to invite us to consider how the book of Acts shows us that we can find deep, eternal purpose and unshakable security. When I say unshakable, I mean unshakable. It is unalterable and undeniable because it is rooted in who Jesus is. It is rooted in Jesus’ name.

Unshakable security and eternal purpose are always available to us, no matter what our circumstances do to us.

In fact, here is the good news I want us to see this morning: Even our uncontrolled, unplanned circumstances can deepen and reveal our purpose in the eternal things of God. They can show us our eternal security in the finished work of Jesus.

This whole conversation is an argument over what is found in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name, this man is healed. In Jesus’ name, Peter and John are speaking. It is in the work of Jesus that we find unshakable security and deep purpose that our circumstances ultimately cannot influence.

11:17 — This is the freedom I want for us as a church as we prepare to celebrate five years. This is the prayer I have been praying this week: “God, I want this kind of unshakable, unalterable security in you and in what you have done. I want eternal purpose in what you have done.”

So much of the discontentment we feel, and even much of the fear we feel, comes because we have not quite taken hold of these two things: our eternal, unshakable purpose and our eternal, unshakable security in Jesus.

When life picks up and things get thrown our way, we find ourselves pulled in different directions. What we see this morning is that even when this happens—even when unplanned things take place—Peter, John, and the other Christians experience not less discouragement, but more encouragement, boldness, joy, and purpose.

12:32 — I want to return to the question I asked at the beginning: When you evaluate how you are doing, how much of the time are you wrestling with your security—“Am I safe?”—or with your purpose—“Do I matter? Does my life have meaning?”

The beautiful thing about the gospel, about the person and work of Jesus, is that the answer to those questions is a resounding yes. The question is not whether we find those things in Jesus. The question is whether our hearts will trust him enough to believe it.

As we move through the story, we see great irony taking place. If I asked you to evaluate whether your life is successful, here is the first thing I think must change for many of us: Our categories of success and failure must begin to shift.

Throughout this chapter, the categories shift. When we wrestle with security or purpose, I think it is because we have not grasped just how ironic the Christian hope is—how much it reverses our priorities and the way we assess how we are doing in life.

This story is littered with what commentators call irony. I love how Beverly Roberts Gaventa phrases it. She calls it a kind of “triumphant captivity.”

Let me walk us through what I mean. In verse 3, Peter and John are arrested, yet more and more people begin to believe the gospel and follow Jesus.

14:33 — “They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.”

Probably many more believed. Luke records the number of men, but that would not include the women and children. A massive number of people begin to believe on the eve of Peter and John’s arrest.

15:04 — Then, in verse 13, Peter is in custody, yet throughout this narrative he is the one in charge. He is the one speaking with power.

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Despite the fact that Peter is in custody throughout this interaction, he is the one who is empowered.

His life has moved in a direction he did not want to go. This is something Jesus predicts for Peter: So much of following me will involve others stretching out their hands and dragging you to places you do not want to go. Peter is dragged before these leaders. He is in custody. Yet throughout this conversation, he is the one in control.

I want us to think about this for a second. What would my life look like if, despite every setback, every discouragement, and every plan that does not work out, I maintained a sense of control?

How would that affect your peace? How would it affect your excitement for life? How would it affect your enthusiasm for following God’s plan for you?

Despite the fact that Peter is in custody, he is the one in control. He is empowered through the work God is doing in him.

16:52 — We read in verse 21: “After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened.”

Here is another irony: Those with actual power and influence cannot carry anything out. The things we assume carry weight in this story turn out to have no weight at all.

17:18 — Friends, I think this is how so many of us live. The things that carry great weight in our lives may carry very little weight when measured against the purposes and plans of God. They cannot actually carry us through.

The religious leaders who are supposed to be in charge cannot decide what to do. The weight of the story begins to shift. Peter is in captivity, but he is in control. The leaders who are supposed to have power have no idea what to do.

Then we see more irony in verse 14: “But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.”

They tell Peter and John, “It is time for you to be quiet,” but the only ones who end up with nothing to say are those commanding Peter and John to be silent.

Luke is showing us a great reversal in the hope Jesus offers us. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the rejected Jesus becomes the cornerstone. The rejected Jesus becomes the foundation for all of this.

We talked about this last week. Jesus’ resurrection begins to change things, and the man who was healed begins to leap for joy, yet the people do not have a category for it.

18:51 — We read in verse 11: “Jesus is the stone the builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Maybe you are saying, “I want more purpose. I want to feel a deeper sense of purpose. I want to feel part of what God is doing.”

Or maybe you are here this morning thinking, “My life is not secure.” Maybe it is because of the pain you have known, the loss you have suffered, the fear you hold, or an unstable place in your mental health. You do not feel secure. You do not know what to do with that.

19:52 — I want to offer you the same encouragement this story offers us: When our lives are in Jesus’ care and love, a great reversal begins to happen. We begin to discover that the places where we put our hope, identity, and what matters most may not carry the weight we thought they did.

That is what this whole story is about. Those who appear to hold power do not actually have it. Those who appear powerless are, in fact, in control.

One thing I often hear as a pastor, especially right now, is, “I feel really disillusioned with the state of the world.” Friends, I am convinced that some of the disillusionment you experience is the gospel awakening you.

Sometimes, the more you sense that things are not right—the more it bothers you and the more parts of your soul become unsettled—the more it may indicate that you see what God is doing. You begin to feel the tension. The things that used to carry weight in our lives may not have all the power we thought they did.

21:17 — Part of the Christian life is feeling that tension. It is recognizing, “Wait a second. This thing I used to lean on, this thing that once looked so appealing, will not carry me through.”

If that is you this morning, I want to encourage you: Maybe this is an indication that the Spirit is reshaping your categories and priorities. If the things I once used to measure my life—where I had to get, what I had to become, and how I found my purpose—are beginning to feel emptier than I thought they would, maybe that is a sign that the Spirit at work in this text is guiding, leading, and recategorizing me.

If you are in a place where you do not yet know what to cling to, that may be an indication that the Spirit is working. We are learning that the other things we clung to did not offer the security or peace we thought they would, just as the religious leaders in this story do not have the power we assume they have.

22:23 — In Peter, the captive, we find this beautiful embodiment of the gospel—this centeredness and anchoredness. Despite being in custody and having his safety threatened, great boldness and security emanate from his heart.

Here is the first step Acts encourages us to take: Begin to ask God to reshape our priorities. When I pray, “Father, would you have mercy on us this morning?” this is part of what I am asking: God, would you shift our priorities away from the things we look to for safety, security, and purpose, and toward what you are doing? We settle for so much less than you offer us.

This is part of what we saw last week. The author of life comes and heals this man, and no one knows what to do with it. We are much more willing to settle for far less than what God has for us. We are much more willing to place our purpose and security in something less than what God wants for us.

This is the gospel.

23:32 — If our priorities begin to shift, what happens next? I want to return to the question I asked at the beginning of the service: As long as we try to judge ourselves and the circumstances of our lives, we will remain in captivity.

Underneath this whole story is something I want us to see. As these priorities shift, Peter does something incredibly freeing. If you can find what Peter finds here, I am convinced that there is freedom in the Spirit that God is offering us.

We see this in verse 19: “But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges.’”

24:35 — Here is what Peter is saying: “I am stepping back from being the judge. You judge away. But I cannot help being what God has called me to be. I cannot help living in the love God has called me to live in. I cannot help but speak. Your assessments and judgments of me no longer carry weight.”

Going back to the question that started this sermon: When you assess and judge your life, what categories are you using? Has the gospel transformed them yet?

And second, how do you find the kind of freedom Peter has here? His purpose as the leader of the church looks thin because he is not leading anything. His security looks thin, yet his sense of purpose and security remains unaffected by what is happening around him.

25:24 — I think the reason is that Peter steps away from being the judge, even of himself. This declaration is what the whole story hinges on: “I cannot help being what God has called me to be, and I am not going to judge this anymore.”

Paul expresses a very similar sentiment in 1 Corinthians 4:3–5:

“I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”

Here is what Paul says: “You want freedom? I do not even judge myself. I care very little if you judge me. I do not judge myself. I am waiting for the appointed time, when God will reveal all that he is doing.”

I think this is what keeps Paul, and Peter before him, anchored. Peter does not say, “God, you just called me to be the rock of the church, but now I am in custody. This does not look right.” There is not that kind of anxiety. Peter trusts that God’s purposes are still working.

26:54 — “You be the judges.” Being a judge over them is no longer what interests Peter. “I am here simply to be who God has called me to be. I am here to live in the love and purpose he has given me. Your assessment and my circumstances now play very little into that.”

Karl Barth wrote a very thick theological work called Church Dogmatics. If you stacked it, it would be about this high—massive. But here is what he said: The chief problem of humanity is that we took the role of judge. We began to judge one another, and we began to judge ourselves.

He said, “It is our basic sin to take the place of judge, to try and judge ourselves and others, and all sins, both small and great, derive ultimately from this source.”

27:46 — Jesus took our place as judge. Here is the freedom Barth is pointing toward—the freedom Paul and Peter discovered: I no longer judge myself.

When that begins to happen, I no longer judge myself by whether the old categories matter. Instead, I can trust the new categories the Spirit gives me. I wait for God to judge.

I love Paul’s language: “Do not judge anything before the appointed time.”

Ask yourself this question, but do not answer out loud: How much pain, suffering, and violence is perpetrated in the world because people judge—because people assess a situation or decide what someone deserves or does not deserve?

28:46 — Now ask: How much discontentment do I carry because I judge myself? My judgment goes out, and it goes in. How much of my own inner peace do I destroy? How do I try to take refuge, even in my addictions, from the judgments I pass on myself?

What the gospel offers us here in Acts is total freedom—complete freedom to stop judging, let go of evaluating our circumstances by those old categories, and stop judging ourselves.

29:29 — As we surrender our judgments, our security begins to become unshakable and our purpose begins to become eternal. We are no longer bound by the anxiety—the spiritual anxiety—of wondering, “Does my life matter?”

People call it existential anxiety. I think it is spiritual anxiety because when you ask, “Does my life matter?” you are asking, “Was I created for a purpose? Am I living in that purpose? What is God doing with me?” That is what lies beneath the question.

When Peter, John, and the church are able to do this, we see these great reversals, this anchoring, and this deepening of purpose.

Near the end of Acts 4, we read: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

This is one of the early church’s prayers. They do not ask God to eliminate the threats. They say, “Consider the threats and give your servants an invigorated sense of purpose. Help us speak with great boldness.” It is a prayer of great security.

The circumstances themselves are a very small part of the prayer: “Consider the circumstances, but here is what we are asking for: Continue to uphold our souls. Give us great boldness.”

31:30 — Friends, I am convinced this is Christian freedom. Whatever we face, whatever circumstances we are subjected to, we can remain bold and unhindered because of God’s Spirit in us.

As we begin to close, I am going to invite the band back up and ask Genevieve to pray for us.

I want to invite us to do a couple of things. First, invite the Spirit this morning and throughout this week to begin rearranging your categories.

Invite God’s Holy Spirit. Invite her into your life, asking for wisdom—the kind of wisdom only God’s Spirit can give—to show you: How am I measuring my life? What metrics am I using? Are my categories saturated with the gospel? Has the gospel reversed them enough?

32:44 — Then ask: How do I let go of judgment? How do I let go of judging myself? How do I stop judging my circumstances to determine how I am doing? Instead, how do I lean into the work of the Spirit? How do I look to God’s Spirit to show me my purpose and hold my security?

33:15 — Then we can pray as they do in Acts 4:29: “Consider their threats and enable your servants to speak with great boldness.” Our prayer might sound like this: “Consider what I am facing, and yet, God, give me an unbreakable spirit and heart for you. Give me unbreakable trust in you.”

As we move into our final time of worship, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we would be praying through Hannah’s prayer. Hannah prays something very similar to what we have talked about this morning.

She prays, “God, you are my rock.” Nations rage and war, and yet I am steady in you. No matter how violent or hostile my circumstances are, I find hope in you.

34:16 — She does something very similar to Peter and Paul. She says, “You are the one, God. You and you alone are the judge. You are the one by whom kings rise and fall.”

They quote something similar in Acts: You are the one by whom these categories of what matters and what does not matter disappear or remain. Give me a sense of you, your priorities, and your purposes for my life. How do I cling to and hold on to this?

Let’s continue to worship as Genevieve prays for us this morning.

34:58 — In 1 Samuel 2:2–3, Hannah prayed:

“There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

“Do not keep talking so proudly

or let your mouth speak such arrogance,

for the Lord is a God who knows,

and by him deeds are weighed.”

Just as Hannah prayed, so now let us pray.

Holy God, there is no one like you. There is no rock, no cornerstone, no foundation like you, God. So free us from the need to constantly measure ourselves—to measure our success by whether our plans work out, our worth by the opinions of others, our security by whether our fears come true, and our purpose by whether our lives make sense to us.

35:43 — You see what we cannot see, and you are still at work in stories that are not finished yet. Teach us not to pronounce final judgments over our unfinished lives.

Give us the spiritual wisdom to wait until your appointed time, trusting that you are weaving our lives into your beautiful story of restoration.

Strip us of the need to control, secure, and defend ourselves. Root our security in Jesus so deeply that the judgments of others cannot shake us and even our failing plans cannot change who we are in your love.

When life is beyond our control, fill us with your Spirit. Give us courage instead of fear, love instead of revenge, and boldness to keep becoming the people you created us to be.