Lift Every Voice
How do you know something to be real? Is it because you read about it? Or maybe some authority has told you about it? Perhaps you know something because “it’s always been that way?” It seems to me that to really know something you have to first experience it. The great philosopher John Locke once wrote, “No man’s knowledge can go beyond his experience.” John Keats wrote, “ Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.” You might believe something to be true because someone else has said it, but once you experience it, whatever ‘it’ is, then it becomes absolutely real to you because you now own it. I don’t understand the beauty and majesty of the Matterhorn because I have never experienced it, but I do now understand the beauty and majesty of the Grand Canyon because I have seen it with my own eyes and experienced this wonder of God’s creation. Ever jump out of a plane with a parachute? Off a bridge with a bungee cord tied around your ankles? I haven’t and don’t plan to, either! I don’t know what it is like to fight in a war, or to be an orphan, to be black in America, or to have another language as my native tongue, or to be a single mom. All that is beyond my experience.
The old saying goes, “Seeing is believing.” What this means is that when you experience something, whatever it is, you know it and have a deeper understanding of what it is.
This is exactly what happened in 1st century Jerusalem. The people, who had seen and heard Jesus, knew Him because they had experienced Him. When He came riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, they hailed Him as the Son of David, the Messiah, their King, who came in the name of the Lord. The religious leaders confronted Jesus and insisted that he command these people to stop shouting and be quiet. Jesus responded, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40)
Acts 4 is a post-Resurrection event. The key verse is verse 20, “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” What we are talking about here is what we have experienced. Our kids sing a song that says, “I know that I know that I know….” You really know something when you have experienced it yourself firsthand.
I. In looking at verse. 1-7 of this story we see that sharing our faith in Christ is not optional but is actually quite essential. How ironic that this is one of the least things we who claim the name of Jesus do. The very thought strikes fear into our hearts. I want to quickly tell you what we are not talking about. We are not talking about preaching to people, nor being able to exegete Isaiah 53 on the Suffering Servant, not arguing with people, nor trying to convince people to accept Jesus, nor answer every question that people have. We’re also not talking about being perfect or never making a mistake. What I am talking bout is simply being able to talk about what you have seen, heard, and experienced what God has done in your own life.
Peter and John were eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus. They walked, talked, and ate with Him. They heard what He taught in the parables. They were there at the miracles and experienced those supernatural events. They were there at the crucifixion and they were there at the empty tomb. Jesus was alive. They had seen, heard, and experienced Him, and they wanted others to know that He was alive! When something great grabs you, there is something deep within that yearns to tell others. You almost can’t stop talking about it!
II. One of our big misconceptions abut sharing our own experience with Christ is that we think we have to do it in our own strength. Looking at verse 8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit….” The strength, the courage, the words, the power all came from the Holy Spirit, not from himself. Some of us silently say, “Yeah, but they actually saw and talked with Jesus. No wonder they could talk about Him.” Look at verse 13, “When they (the rulers and elders) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men they were astonished….” If God can take an insecure little boy who spoke with a lisp and stuttered his way up through high school, who only spoke when he had to, and took him through 4 years of college and then 3 years of seminary and then put him in front of a bunch of scary people week after week after week to speak, no less, let me tell you that if our God can use me then He can use you! “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.” (Zechariah 4:6)
God uses ordinary people to do some great and awesome things. In the early 1930s, Mordecai Hamm was preaching a revival at a little North Carolina church. A teenage farm boy knelt at that church’s altar and gave his life to Jesus. Several years ago, we went to Vet Stadium to hear this farm boy preach. When he was finished one of my kids said to me, “That sermon was nothing special.” I responded, “You are right, but keep watching.” As we sang “Just As I Am,” hundreds of people made their way to the center of that stadium responding the Billy Graham’s challenge to know Jesus personally. It doesn’t happen by great singing, nor by great preaching, nor by big offerings. It happens by the transforming work of God’s Holy Spirit in a person’s life.
III. When you experience the power of God in your own life, talking about it becomes a delight not a duty. In verse. 13-20 we read how the authorities tried to get them to stop talking about Jesus. Look at verse 19f, “Judge for yourselves whether or not it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After seeing and experiencing the death and resurrection of Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit, they couldn’t help but open their mouths. They knew that they knew that the resurrection of Jesus wasn’t just a nice, inspirational story of warm fuzzies. While others would scoff, scorn, and doubt, Peter and John could not be denied what they had experienced and knew. The most convincing evidence for Easter is not scientific proof, but the experience of people whose hearts and lives have been transformed by the power of the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.
In 1990 Rusty Woomer was the 244th person to occupy South Carolina’s electric chair for the crime of murder. Bob McAlister was deputy chief of staff to the governor, and a Christian who regularly visited prisoners to share his faith in the risen Christ. One day on death row he stopped by Rusty Woomer’s cell. The cell stank. Rusty stank. The cell was strewn with litter and half-eaten sandwiches. Rusty’s long blonde hair and beard were matted and greasy. He lay in the filth of his cell like a rotted shrimp. And all over his cell, all over Rusty Woomer crawled dozens of cockroaches.
Instead of recoiling in horror, Bob McAlister was drawn toward this human trash. “Rusty, just call on the name of Jesus,” he said. After several minutes of urging, Rusty’s lips began to whisper the name of Jesus. Finally with tears streaming down his face, Rusty prayed, “Jesus, I have hurt a lot of people. Ain’t no way that I deserve you to hear me. But I’m tired and I’m sick and I’m lonely. Please forgive me Jesus for everything I’ve done. I don’t know much about you, but I’m willin’ to learn, and I thank you for listenin’ to me.”
On Monday Bob McAlister returned to death row and found Rusty Woomer’s cell spotlessly clean. The garbage was gone, the bed was made, the roaches were history. Rusty Woomer was a changed man. In the short period after his conversion, Rusty Woomer accomplished more for Christ than most Christians do in their entire lives.
Is there evidence of the resurrection of Jesus? Absolutely! And the best evidence is the lives of men and women who have met Jesus in a life transforming way. The hope and truth of Easter is that our hearts and lives can be radically transformed by God’s grace and touch. To really know something you have to experience it. Have you experienced the transforming power of Christ?
Easter is about new life. Easter is about eternal life. Easter is about Jesus. Let me ask you: Do you believe in Easter? Do you believe in Jesus?