“Do Not Give to Dogs What Is Holy”

Sunday, April 02, 2023

As the book of Acts begins, the Apostle Peter, whose mouth got him into trouble so many times during Jesus’ ministry, has redeemed that talent for use in God’s service.  As a result, the first several chapters of Acts follow Peter closely, and record several of his sermons, as the church was being established and growing in and around Jerusalem.  In a broad sense, these sermons all have the same goal: convince the hearers that Jesus is the Christ, that he died and rose again, and that they need to repent and enter into a new, eternal covenant with him.  Yet, while there are many points that keep coming up in each sermon, Peter doesn’t just repeat the whole thing verbatim.  Instead, he suits his words to each situation, taking into account the different audiences, with different attitudes, different goals, and different likelihoods of success.  Consider an example:

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel…” (Acts 2.14-16)

Peter and the rest have been speaking in tongues at the behest of the Holy Spirit, for the benefit of people from many nations, visiting Jerusalem for the feast.  Some of the native Jews, not understanding these foreign languages, think they’re hearing drunken babble, and so hurl a mocking accusation at the Apostles, to dismiss what they had to say.  How does Peter handle it?  With a gentle, logical counterpoint, followed by the real explanation.  Now, let’s consider his approach, in the next sermon.

“Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” (Acts 3.12)

This time around, he’s defending himself against unwarranted praise!  Just like last time, he dismisses the idea quickly, and afterward moves on to talking about Jesus, who’s really the one who healed the cripple.  What about his next opportunity to speak?

“Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.” (Acts 4.8-10)

This time, Peter savors his defense, and uses it to go on offense at the same time!  Note that the entire clause beginning with “if we are being examined” and ending with “has been healed,” could be removed from this long sentence without causing any trouble for what remains.  It’s totally unnecessary, and yet he includes it.  Why?  Well, he could have skipped the editorializing and simply answered the question posed to him in v7, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”  But that would have missed the opportunity to point out the absurdity of the situation, and thereby to shatter the illusion of his accusers’ sincerity.  Really?  You arrested and jailed us for the night, and are now putting us on trial for—let me check my notes—helping a crippled man?  Don’t we have, like, laws telling us to do that sort of thing?

Peter’s not about to miss his chance to preach Christ to the rulers of his people—but he also takes a moment to highlight the horrible motivations of this audience.  Just as they accused Jesus of sinning when he healed on the Sabbath, so now they find fault with the obviously good deed done by Jesus’ Apostles, despite knowing that only God could enable such a miracle!  There’s nothing Peter can do to prevent them doing this; but he can point it out in embarrassing fashion!

We face a similar climate today, in which the prevailing winds are opposed to Christ, in many ways and for many reasons.  On many topics, including marriage, reproduction, the role of each sex, and especially the lordship of Christ and the coming judgment, there is pressure to go along with the spirit of the age, and reject Christ’s commandments.  Many who profess to be Christians succumb to this pressure.  Others content themselves with remaining silent, for fear of the world’s response.  Still others, of a more combative nature, are tempted to overreact, as if it were the job of Christians to hatefully force the world into compliance with God’s rules, by any means necessary.  Satan is just as pleased with this, as with silence or participation in the sin, because it’s simply the exchange of one idol for another, and he’s not picky about exactly which idol-worship he’ll accept. 

We can see, in Peter’s three sermons, that he recognizes what the civil authorities want him to do, and that he will not only refuse to go along with the spirit of the age, but will refuse to keep silent about the truth.  In preaching Jesus, he will expose these men for what they are: self-serving hypocrites, dressing themselves up in a pretense of righteousness, in order to please themselves, not God.

Isn’t he worried that pointing out their hypocrisy will push them even farther away from Christ?  Well, no.  If they ignored the miracle, and the Scriptures, and the Apostles’ testimony, then they’ve already made their decision, and it’s not Peter’s fault they reject Jesus.  So, he’ll confess Jesus before men, but will not waste his time and effort on a vain attempt to be winsome toward those who have so clearly chosen the world.  Learn from Peter, and apply what Jesus said:

“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” (Matthew 7.6)

Jeremy Nettles

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