Episode 157: We Can't Stop | Landon Dermott

Alright, hey, are there any James Madison University fans here this morning? Oh, I see a couple, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's a big weekend for the Dukes. I don't know if you heard the news, but JMU's moving out of the CAA, the Colonial Athletic Association, into the Sunbelt Conference, which means they're kind of moving up a notch. They're in the big leagues playing football in a bigger stage and it's pretty exciting.

It reminds me of a few years back when I was a sophomore at JMU in 2015 and James Madison had an undefeated season and it was a pretty exciting year. The energy around it was great. Our quarterback at the time was an NFL prospect and people—it was a big year and we were undefeated and our next game was against the University of Richmond, which was the biggest rival of the year. In this weird turn of events, there weren't any big number one versus number two matchups in college football that weekend and College Gameday, which is ESPN's show that's live every Saturday morning at different college campuses all around the nation—they decided they were coming to none other than Harrisonburg, Virginia and they were gonna broadcast live from JMU on the quad that Saturday. I've never seen James Madison so electric. It was such an exciting time. Everybody was getting ready, they were getting hyped up and it was crazy.

The Thursday before, I had stacked all my classes that semester to where I took all five classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant there were literally five days of the week that I didn't do anything. I don't know what I did with my time back then. I wish I could go back in some ways, but I was in there from Tuesday and Thursday from eight a.m. till about five p.m. It was a long day.

This Thursday it was about 3:45 and I was in class and I was thinking about the game. I started to daydream about the weekend and College Gameday being there and I was so excited. As I started to imagine the game, it was almost like I could hear the marching band playing the fight song and I could hear students chanting "JMU, JMU" and I look over in the corner of the classroom and there's a window cracked and I wasn't imagining it. I really could hear the band playing and people cheering.

Right about that moment, I heard a familiar voice and it was one of my roommates and a fellow Young Life leader in Harrisonburg, his name was Kyle Brinkley. He had been sitting in class in the same building in a different room and he was scrolling through his phone and he saw a tweet from James Madison that said College Gameday's bus was pulling into campus right now. It was 3:45. They were pulling in and a bunch of people saw that and thousands of people started pouring onto the quad. He saw what was going on and he realized there are poor innocent people who are sitting in class right now and are gonna miss this amazing thing that's happening out there.

So what he did was he stood up in the middle of his class and he said, "Guys, College Gameday is coming here right now, we gotta go." And he storms out of his classroom, but it wasn't enough for him just to tell his own classmates. He starts running through the halls of Harrison Hall and he's bursting open doors and he's saying, "College Gameday's here, we gotta go." And people just start pouring out of their classrooms into the hallways.

I knew what was coming and I'm kind of a rule follower—I don't like to break the rules—and he burst into my classroom and he made eye contact with me and he said, "College Gameday's here, we gotta go. Landon, come on." And I don't know what came over me but I left everything, all my books, everything, and I followed him out.

We saw thousands of people. It was an incredible scene. The band's there, the cheerleaders, the Duke dog—it's crazy. And we start flying through all these people trying to get to the front, trying to get on the video camera, trying to be on national television. One of my friends was actually up a couple steps and they recorded a video of me. I thought that was it and then a few weeks later, I went home and the Madison Magazine, which sends out magazines to all the alumni, students, parents, and things like that, sent out a magazine and on the front page was this huge spread of a thousand people and it was this picture. It's a little bit of a "Where's Waldo." If you go up from the camera, you can see me. I won't keep it up long because I look ridiculous, but it was amazing. It was so much fun.

I would have missed it. I would have sat in Communication Theory class for another hour and a half if my friend Kyle Brinkley hadn't decided, "Man, everybody needs to know what's going on outside here." And I'm so grateful that he told me.

There's a verse in the Bible in Psalm 107 and it says:

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so

What that verse is saying is let the people who've been transformed by Jesus, by his gospel, let them be people who speak about the power of the gospel. Let them be people who say so, who tell other people.

This morning I want to look at an account in the book of Acts and we see two people who I believe live lives that say so. Who are so transformed by the gospel that they couldn't help but tell other people. They couldn't help but burst through classrooms and burst through hallways like Kyle did telling people what they might be missing. To tell them about the power of Jesus.

If you want to follow there with me we're going to look at Acts 3:1-8 and for some context purposes this is the first miracle that's actually done after Jesus ascends into heaven. He comes and he dies on a cross and then he raises from the dead and then shortly thereafter he ascends into heaven and he gives the disciples this crazy task of taking the news about him to the ends of the earth and this is the first miracle that we see performed without him here on the earth.

So I'm going to read it if you want to follow along. I'm reading from the NIV. I think that's the ESV and whatever you might have it's great but here I go.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John then Peter said, look at us. So the man gave them his attention expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold I do not have but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk. Taking him by the right hand he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. — Acts 3:1-8 (NIV)

Peter and John's Dependence on Jesus's Power

This morning I want to take a look at this passage and this account and key in on three specific things we see about Peter and John. And the first thing is this: I think we have a slide normally when someone performs a miracle, it's to show the power of the person who performs it. But that wasn't the case here. Peter and John performed this miracle in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You can almost argue that Peter and John didn't have the power of this miracle. They're not even the ones that perform it. Instead Jesus performs this miracle through them and what's crazy is they have Jesus's power and the same is true of me and you. We have access to the power of Jesus and my question would be, are we using it?

I had a mentor in college who used to often ask me this question. He would say, "Landon what are you doing today that would only work if Jesus showed up? What are you doing today that would only work if you truly had Jesus's power?" In so many days of my life I have to admit that I'm not doing anything that would only work if Jesus shows up but why not? We have the power of Jesus. We have access to it. Are we using it?

Because they perform this incredible miracle in Jesus's name, we see people start to say, wow, this guy who was sitting, this guy we saw before is now healed and jumping and praising God and they started to ask questions and because of that Peter and John have an opportunity if you follow it down, won't read it but they begin to speak about Jesus and how he's the Messiah and the one who changes everything. They're living lives that say so. And because of this miracle and because they get to speak about it we see 2,000 people start a relationship with Jesus that day. It's this incredible amazing thing but then enter the teachers of the law. The same teachers of the law that butted heads with Jesus when he was walking the earth. The same teachers of the law who are integral in getting rid of Jesus and having him put to death.

And they hear what's going on and they don't like it at all and they go and they find Peter and John and they grab them and they throw them in jail. And then they put them on trial the next day and they pull them aside and they say, "By what power did you do this? By what power did you perform this miracle?" And Peter and John know that the answer they don't want to hear is Jesus. All they have to do is kind of shrug and say I don't know but they knew they were going to speak the truth. And here is Peter and John's response when they say by what power? If you want to follow with me I'm actually now in chapter four verses eight through 12.

Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we're being called today to account for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are 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. He is the stone you builders rejected which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Peter and John don't soften their answer. They say it boldly. They say this is in the power of Jesus who you put to death and who's resurrected from the dead. And then they really don't like it there because they don't want people to hear about Jesus being resurrected from the dead. They're trying to put this thing to rest but we're gonna look at one verse later and this might be one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. This is the response of the teachers of the law when Peter and John say this:

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

Ordinary Men With Extraordinary Power

That leads me to my second point: Peter and John were ordinary unschooled men. How'd they get their power? They got it from being with Jesus, from following him for all those years as his ministry was taking place here on earth.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to watch these teachers of the law who had studied the scriptures their whole lives watch two fishermen in Peter and John quote Psalm 118 as they say the stone you builders rejected has become the capstone. To talk about Jesus and how he's resurrected from the dead their jaws must have dropped. It says they were in awe because they were ordinary unschooled men but they took note because they had been with Jesus.

They didn't have the qualifications of the time. They weren't teachers that had been through the right training and things like that but they had been with Jesus. I think the same is true of us. I think often we say, "Man, I know that Jesus is gonna move. I know that he's gonna do powerful things but it's gonna be through someone maybe who's got a seminary degree. Maybe through someone who has more knowledge than me or who might be more eloquent than me," or you name it and we come up with all these things. But I don't believe that's true. Those things are all important and the Lord does move through those but he also moves through ordinary unschooled men and women.

If you hear one thing today hear this: Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. I'll say it again, Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

The gospel was sent like an explosion out of Jerusalem and we see it in the book of Acts and it was done through 11 rough and rowdy dudes. Imagine what he would do if we let him get a hold of us here in this room today. Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

They Would Not Be Stopped

As we see the story come to a close, what we see is these teachers of the law are so upset and they bring them in and they threaten them. Essentially what happens is they threaten Peter and John and they say, you need to stop talking about this guy Jesus. You need to stop talking about him being resurrected from the dead. You need to stop doing miracles in his name and they threaten them. They probably threaten them with saying, we're gonna throw you back in jail again. We'll do worse. We'll even treat you like we treated Jesus who they had just put to death.

And I've never had my life threatened in a real way but I imagine my response would be much more sheepish than Peter and John and how they respond. We're looking now in chapter four verses 18 through 20:

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, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God for we cannot help speaking about what we've seen and heard."

They don't just say we won't stop. They say we cannot stop speaking about the things we've seen and heard. That's our third point: Peter and John wouldn't be stopped.

What did Peter and John see and hear? As Jesus' disciples Peter and John watched as Jesus turned water into wine. They watched as water blushed in the face of its creator. They watched as Jesus took a small boy's lunch and fed 5,000 men. They watched as he restored a blind man's sight with his touch. They saw a woman who had been sick for years and years healed simply by grabbing the edge of his cloak. They saw storms yield at his voice. They saw him transfigured on a mountaintop into his heavenly state.

They saw dead bodies breathed back into life because he told them to and then they saw him hanging on a cross covered in sin and shame but not his sin and shame. It was their sin and shame. It was my sin and shame and it was your sin and shame and he died the death that we deserved to die and then three days later they saw him resurrected and they saw the holes in his hands where he'd been crucified and they saw the scars in his side and then they saw him ascend into heaven.

See they knew that Jesus wasn't just a good man, just a good teacher. They knew he was exactly who he said he was. He was the Messiah. The one that everyone had been searching for and they couldn't. No they wouldn't stop speaking about the things they've seen and heard.

Peter and John make it out alive here and I can't help but admit that as a reader of this story, I breathe a sigh of relief. The good guys get to go home. Peter and John live to fight another day, let's go. But shortly hereafter Peter and John meet an unfortunate fate. But I don't believe that it surprised them when Peter was put to death pretty similarly to how Jesus was. I don't think it surprised John when he was exiled. Because they knew that if we speak about these things, we've received the threats. It's not gonna go well for us but they knew that they wouldn't. No, they couldn't stop speaking about the things that they've seen and heard.

The Story of Todd Bush

There was a young life leader in Texas his name was Todd Bush and he was a young guy he was about 30 years old and he worked a nine to five and in his extra time he gave his life away as a young life leader and he went on a trip with some high school guys and over the course of the weekend he got sick and he got a stomach bug and it was a pretty simple illness but in this weird crazy freak accident that night as he was getting ill he stretched his neck out in a weird way and he had a stroke and his wife found him and he was collapsed and she took him to the hospital and he was put on life support and there was several weeks where they thought that Todd was gonna get better but then it became clear that Todd was declining and she knew that it was time for Todd to go. So she called all their friends and family and said hey we want you to come in and say your goodbyes to Todd.

So Todd's best friend came to the hospital and was given an opportunity to say goodbye to Todd and with tears rolling down his face he said his goodbyes and shared some stories and encouragements and he left the room and he went into the hallway in the hospital and he could hear the moments and he knew that right then Todd had gone home to be with his heavenly Father.

And what happened next was a really unique and interesting thing. See Todd was an organ donor and he watched as they started to prepare Todd and essentially what was gonna happen now is they were gonna take some of Todd's organs and they were gonna give them to other people who were in desperate need of them. And he watched as they wheeled his body back into this room and he just had this bird's eye view and he sees Todd wheeled back and then he sees this nurse roll a cart with an igloo cooler on top of it into this room. And what he comes to find out is that nurse was taking a cooler where they were gonna take Todd's heart. They were gonna put it in that cooler and wheel it out of the hospital, put it on a helicopter and fly it to someone who would otherwise die if they didn't have a new heart.

And he watched the nurse roll in and then roll the cart out and she's got this heart and she rolls it down to the end of the hallway and she swipes her access badge to get through these double doors to put that heart on a helicopter and it says access denied. She looks and she swipes her card again and it says access denied again and she realizes and she starts to panic and she bangs on the door and she looks through the window and she said, I need someone to help me and no one comes and she's banging on the door and she's swiping her card and she starts to develop this panic and she looks around and she realizes what she needs to do. She takes that cooler on top of that cart and she backs it up about 10 or 15 feet and this nurse who's about five foot nothing, ninety nine pounds runs as fast as she can and she slams that cart through those doors. And the alarms start to sound but she doesn't look back and she takes that heart and she puts it on the helicopter because she knew that someone was in desperate need of a new heart and she had to get it where it needed to go.

See I think the nurse that day was a lot like Peter and John in this story. We've got another slide that you can toss up there. Peter and John had access to the power of Jesus in the same way that nurse had access to the power of this heart which could save someone's life. Peter and John were just ordinary unschooled men. This nurse wasn't the surgeon, she wasn't the donor.

All she needed to do was get that heart from point A to point B. And the third is this, that nurse just like Peter and John wouldn't be stopped on her mission and she was doing whatever it takes to get that heart where it needs to go.

And then there's us because we have access to the power of Jesus and we might just be ordinary unschooled men and women. Maybe we don't have a seminary degree. Maybe we aren't missionaries across the country but I'll tell you right outside the doors here at Church of the Holy Spirit there are people in desperate need of what we have in Jesus. In desperate need of a new heart that are otherwise dying without it and my question is will we stop? Will we be stopped?

It would be a sad story if that nurse just turned the cart around and said I guess I'm not getting out or will we be a people who do whatever it takes to be people who say so. That say this thing, this person, Jesus, the Messiah, it changes everything and we gotta burst through those doors to take them the heart of life.

Closing Reflection

I'm gonna close with two questions and we'll lead into a time of prayer and I'd love for you to spend a little bit of time reflecting on these two questions. The first is, what have you seen or heard Jesus do in your life or in the lives of others that you can't stop speaking about? And the second is, will we be stopped?

Because I think so often the times that we're not bursting out of those doors or running through classrooms like Kyle was that day telling people about Jesus, it's because we might have forgotten about the things we've seen or heard or experienced from Jesus in our own lives.

So reflect on those two questions as we lead into a time of prayer. One, what have you seen or heard Jesus do in your life or in the lives of others that you can't stop speaking about? And two, will we be stopped?

Let me pray and then we'll lead into a time of prayer. Lord thank you for this morning. Thank you that you died on the cross for us. Thank you that you love us. Pray that we would fall more in love with you. Pray that we wouldn't stop speaking about the things we've seen and heard. It's in your name we pray. Amen.