Louie Giglio - Astonishing, Living a Life That Leads to Why
I was doing a podcast with a friend of mine a few months back. He’s a pastor in New York City named John Tyson. I asked him, because I ask everyone on the Passion and Purpose podcast, «What is your passion and what is your purpose?» When he answered the question about his purpose, he shared three things he genuinely wants to do in his life and through our church in New York. He said the first one is, «I want to raise up and release into the world astonishing disciples.»
When he said those words, it just arrested me in the moment. I scribbled all three things he said down on a piece of paper next to me. I thought, «This is what God is looking for. He’s looking for astonishing disciples. It’s not astonishing people who attend church, but astonishing followers of Jesus who live lives so filled with awe and wonder that it causes people around them to ask questions about their lives.» That phrase, «astonishing disciples,» got inside me in such a way that I couldn’t let it go. I thought about it day after day after day, and that was the seedbed for this collection of talks we’re heading into in the next few weeks: «Astonishing,» with the tagline «Living a life that leads to why.» Today, we are seeing the heart of where all this came from because it wasn’t just from a podcast with John Tyson; it was John Tyson pulling this out of Acts chapter 4. We’re going to see this today as we look at the text together.
Let’s look at that particular verse, and then we’ll back up and zoom out for a moment. I hope you’re okay with this; we’re going to dig into a lot of Scripture today, and I could not be happier about it. In Acts 4:13, it says, «When they saw the courage of Peter and John"—we’re going to go back and understand what that courage was—"they realized that they were unschooled; these guys were fishermen, ordinary men. They were astonished.» There’s our word. «And they took note that these men had been with Jesus.» When they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized they were unschooled and ordinary guys, yet they displayed such courage. We’ll see boldness in proclaiming Jesus. They were astonished, and they took note of their lives, that these men had been with Jesus. Wow! Don’t you want a life that makes people take note and say about you, «She has been with Jesus»? You can tell by the way she lives her life.
The context here is so powerful. Remember in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came and filled the room where the followers of Jesus were waiting. They all went into the streets and started preaching the gospel in different languages to people who had come to Jerusalem for the feast. That was chapter 2. Then we go to chapter 3. We don’t know how much time has passed between chapter 2 and chapter 3—it could have been a day or a week, but it wasn’t very long. It says Peter and John were going up to the temple as they normally did. On their way, there was a man who was brought there every day; he sat by the gate called Beautiful and begged for money all day long. As they came by him, he asked them for money. Peter said to him, «Hey, we don’t have any money, but what we do have, we’ll give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.» The guy gets up and walks. Have you heard that story too many times? I haven’t. I am absolutely blown away by that today! In the name of Jesus, this man gets on his feet, and he freaks out. Everyone freaks out; they cling to Peter and John, thinking they might somehow be God. They’ve never seen anything happen quite like this before.
Peter takes this occasion to speak, and notice what he says in chapter 3, verse 11: «While the man, that is, the guy who’s walking now, held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished,» there’s our word again, «and they came running to them in a place called Solomon’s Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, 'Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.'» Then he takes a little side note and says, «Oh, and by the way, let me just recap: you handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.»
Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, just like your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer: repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. Wow, that’s a sermon on the spot—extemporaneous, spontaneous! They didn’t know they were going to heal a guy—they were just going up to the temple again. The guy asked for money, led by the Holy Spirit, they said, «We don’t have money. In the name of Jesus, walk.» The guy gets up, walks, the crowd freaks out, everybody clings to them. Peter steps up and preaches that sermon. Wow!
Now, I don’t know if you understand what we just read or not, but that’s the greatest sermon ever! It was short, to the point, took lots of twists and turns, went all the way back to Abraham, went all the way to Jesus’s coming back as Messiah because God said he was going to send him back at the right time to bring people to faith. This is one of the most amazing things you could possibly see, and it all came just like that. They were astonished that the guy got healed. I’m astonished that Peter preached that sermon on the fly!
Then what happened? Let’s go to chapter four: the priest, 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 and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They did not want this resurrection story to be preached, so they seized Peter and John. Because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. So things turned pretty fast here. We saw God heal a guy, we were preaching, and everything was great, and all of a sudden, now we’re in jail. But look at verse four: «But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000.»
We don’t know; this could be three days after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. When that message was preached by Peter, 3,000 people came to faith just like that. Now, 5,000 men have come to faith. Days are going by now, and hundreds and thousands of people are getting saved. The next day, the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas, the high priest, was there, and so was Caiaphas. We remember these names because 50 days ago, these are the people Jesus was standing before two months ago when they arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They took him to the high priest, Caiaphas, and Annas was there with his family. These are the same people who had Jesus crucified, and now they’ve got Peter and John standing before them.
They brought Peter and John before them and began to question them. Key word: «By what power or what name did you do this?» Now get ready because here comes another one. I don’t think they spent the night in jail saying, «I know they’re going to ask us tomorrow about the name, so let’s work on our response, okay? I think we should do this, and I think this would be a good idea.» No. 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 is 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"—he uses his full name; «I want to make it as clear as I can"—"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.»
Wow! All they asked him was by what name or power did you do this, and then he preached that! They, the elders, and the high priest and family were astonished that they were standing right in front of the men who 60 days ago had crucified Jesus, and they were preaching with such boldness, conviction, and courage. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled and ordinary men, they were astonished. This word «astonished» comes from the root word of wonder; they were filled with wonder! They were amazed at what they were seeing. 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 conferred together. «What are we going to do with these men? 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 40 years old. Amen! Thank you. One amen!
Side message today: maybe you’ve been sitting by that gate for 40 years. Don’t let the enemy tell you today that God can’t change your story in one fell swoop! They were astonished that they were ordinary and unschooled men, and they took note that they had been with Jesus. I’m just asking today: does anyone ever say that about our lives? Is anybody ever astonished when they see our fill-in-the-blank, and do they take note that we have been with Jesus? There are several big ideas in this text that I want us to focus on, and we’ll go through these rather quickly.
But I want you to understand: God wants to write you into an astonishing story. The first of these big ideas is that the Holy Spirit fills ordinary people to act in extraordinary ways. That is where this whole message begins. They asked, «By what name did you do this?» and Luke wants us to see, as he’s recording all of this for history’s sake, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them. In other words, this wasn’t just Peter going, «Oh, I know how to do this. I know how to answer questions like this. I know how to seize moments like this. I know how to preach the gospel.» No, this is the Holy Spirit filling a fisherman and giving him the ability to do something extraordinary, and that is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in you.
They were unschooled and ordinary in the light of the fact that they were standing before the most educated people in the Jewish faith: the high priest and his family, all the elders, and the Sanhedrin. These were the smartest of the smartest of the smartest people, and then you had two fishermen standing there, and they absolutely confounded them with their answer. Basically, Peter, in effect, said, «Hey, you want to punish us for healing a guy? Well, what about the fact that you killed the Savior?» They were like, «Whoa! Okay, you’re going to go all the way back to Abraham? You’re going to spin all that around?» And they were astonished! Why? Because the Holy Spirit isn’t looking for extraordinary people; he’s looking for anybody who would say to him, «Fill me and do through me things that I cannot do on my own.»
Do you realize today that the Holy Spirit that filled Peter is the very same Holy Spirit who is in this house right now? The very same Spirit. He has not modified over time; he is the same Holy Spirit. If you’re thinking, «I don’t know if God would ever do something astonishing through me,» why not? «Well, I’m just a pretty ordinary person.» That’s okay! «I’m not really all that knowledgeable in that,» or «I don’t have the right training for that,» or «I’m not in the right stage of life,» or «I don’t have the resources.» And the Holy Spirit’s like, «That’s why I’m here! I’m here to do what you cannot do.»
The second big idea that I don’t want us to miss here is that the Holy Spirit’s supernatural working always has a purpose, and that purpose is to open eyes to see Jesus. The healing of the man had a purpose. When Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to say, «Stand up in the name of Jesus,» the Holy Spirit was thinking, «This is about to be a revival!» Not, «This is going to be a healing service.» This is going to be a revival service! Thank you! You got healed; these couple of thousand people just got saved! When we call on the Holy Spirit, we’re not just asking him to help us, or to fill us, or to change something in our circumstances or situation. We’re saying, «Do something that will open a doorway to open eyes to see Jesus!»
Yes, heal, but not for healing’s sake—for Jesus’s sake. Yes, do a miracle, but not for a miracle’s sake—for Jesus’s sake! Yes, make provision, but not for provision’s sake—for Jesus’s sake! Yes, change my husband, but change him for Jesus’s sake! Yes, save my kid, but save him for Jesus’s sake! Yes, set them free, but set him free for Jesus’s sake! Do a miracle that will open eyes to see Jesus! Yes! Come on!
The third big idea, and I love this, is that astonishing lives lead to questions that open doors allowing us to tell others about Jesus. They didn’t have to get to the point with these elders. They brought them before them and began to question them. In other words, if you want to figure out what we’re all trying to figure out, which is how can I get the conversation with the receptionist at my work around to faith? So how was your weekend? Great! What’d you do? Well, do I go right to «go to church,» or do I talk about the kids' soccer game, or do we go to a barbecue? How do I get there? By living a life that is astonishing, people are going to ask you, «Why are you astonishing?» and a door is open.
You didn’t have to go, «Wow, I really want to talk to a financial planner about Jesus, but I just can’t figure out how to get the conversation with her to that point.» Astonishing lives lead to questions, and that’s why God is inviting us today to start thinking about living lives that lead to «why.» Because then the door is open, and when the door is open, you get to share the «why,» and you get to talk about what really matters to you and what really is causing you to be the way you are. The person might very well say, «Wow, man, I didn’t expect that,» and that might be it. But at least in the «why,» you had the opportunity to share about the one who is most important to you in your life.
The fourth big idea: is everybody okay so far? The fourth big idea is that the Holy Spirit— and I love this, and I love that the Holy Spirit loves for people to talk about Jesus. The Holy Spirit fills us with astonishing boldness to speak the name of Jesus. That’s what they did! They were filled with the Holy Spirit. I want you to notice this: they didn’t talk about the Holy Spirit. The only way we know they were filled with the Holy Spirit is because Luke was seeing all this go down. He had seen what happens when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was like, «Oh, that’s happening right now!»
And then two verses later, they say, «You and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that this man stands before you healed.» The Holy Spirit fills us, but the Holy Spirit really doesn’t want us to go around talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us so that we can boldly talk about Jesus. You see that everywhere in the Gospels. The Holy Spirit is coming into our lives today not so that we can get in this little Holy Spirit bubble over here, but so that we can step out boldly, filled with the Spirit of God, to proclaim the name of Jesus.
In chapter three, that amazing sermon they spontaneously preached after the guy got healed—107 words in this reply and 16 times Jesus is referred to by a pronoun (he, him, his), but four times his name is used, and then other names of his are used. As soon as he starts preaching, it’s just Jesus every which way you can communicate Jesus! And that is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our life. He wants to give you astonishing boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus.
Now let me just put a parenthesis around this thought for a second, though, and just underline again that «bold» doesn’t mean «loud,» although I was just really a little bit loud when I said «loud.» It doesn’t mean annoying, and it doesn’t mean weird, because for a lot of you in our church—and we talked about this a few weeks ago—you’re in all manner of spheres working alongside, living alongside, creating alongside all kinds of people, all manner of people of different faiths, at different stages of life in their faith journey. Being led by the Holy Spirit and filled by the Holy Spirit for you doesn’t probably look like walking into work tomorrow and going down the hallway dropping off Louie Giglio books in people’s offices saying, «This will help you, praying for you.» That’s probably not the way the Holy Spirit is leading you, but he is leading you! Right?
He is leading you! You did ask him when you went to work; you did ask him as you’re going to work tomorrow; you did ask him, didn’t you? «Will you fill me and lead me today? I want all these people to know Jesus!» That’s the endgame for me here: that this whole company will know Jesus. «I don’t know how you want to do that today; I’m guessing it’s probably not me sending out a message on the company Slack to the people of Israel. So how do you want to do it today? Because I want you to do it today.» The Holy Spirit is going to give you wisdom, and he’s going to show you when, where, what, and how, and he’s going to empower you if you ask him to live a life that causes some of those people to come and knock on your door.
Amen! I have a friend who owns a business, and we communicate all the time, praying for each other; he’s praying for me right this minute in this message. He told me in a text the other day about this and that, and he said, «Oh, by the way, this was an amazing week. This guy wants to tell everybody on the planet about Jesus.» He said, «You’re not going to believe it: the other day I had a coworker that I’ve been praying for and sharing with come into my office, close the door, get down on his knees in my office, and pray and accept Jesus Christ in my office.» I was like, «Don’t you want to send that text sometime in your lifetime?»
Bold doesn’t necessarily mean loud. Now, Peter was loud; it says an exclamation point after his first sentence, so he was speaking with some authority. He was before a whole council of people; it was a bold and big moment. But God may cause you to speak very quietly and softly and slowly and just at the right time, having lived a life that shows people, «Wow, there’s something different about her! There’s something so different about him! I know this guy—how is he so kind? How is she so consistent? How is she so patient?» I’m going to ask her what’s going on.
Number five: big idea—there’s two more. Proximity to Jesus leads to lives that look like him. They took note that these men had been with Jesus. Being astonishing, I love this, is the fruit of being filled with the Spirit and walking closely with Jesus. In other words, you don’t wake up in the morning and say, «I’m going to be astonishing today.» No, you wake up in the morning and you say, «I’m going to stay close to Jesus today and in step with the Spirit today.» Staying close to Jesus and in step with the Spirit, guess what? There’s going to be some fruit today in my life, and the fruit in my life today is going to look like Jesus because I’m going to stay as close to him as I can, and I want to be as filled with the Spirit as I can today.
The last big idea is this: they prayed for boldness more than protection. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God, saying, «Sovereign Lord.» I’m telling you, I’ve read this prayer a couple dozen times at least, a hundred times in the last few weeks; you just don’t hear a lot of us praying like this. We’re like, «Dear Lord, do you understand such and such and such and such?»
This prayer, again, is astonishing to me: «Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.» This is a prayer you pray on a night like last night. You start with, «Sovereign Lord, 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.» And then they’re quoting now to God his own word: «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.» Then they recap. There’s a lot of recapping going on in these people’s preaching and praying: «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.» That’s why we’re calling you «Sovereign Lord.» People do what you already decided ahead of time they would do because you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them, and you have a plan, and your plan, according to Job 42, will not be thwarted.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and—oh, excuse me, sorry—"consider their threats and save us.» Nope! «Consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.» What a prayer! They threatened them as much as they could, but they couldn’t really punish them because they had a whole town in revival. So they said as much as they could, and they let them go. They go back and report, «Hey, these guys are breathing down our necks; they’re telling us to shut this whole thing down.»
Okay, let’s pray, «Sovereign Lord, you know they’re threatening us! Will you give us boldness to proclaim your word?» And then they said, «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! That kind of prayer right there shakes things! And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and the result was they spoke the word of God boldly. They were all astonishing! In the face of the threat, they were filled with the Spirit, and they spoke boldly about things they’d been told not to say! They were astonishing!
It’s unlikely that most of us are going to ever be in a situation like this where we’re going to get thrown in jail and dragged out by people, and they’re going to tell us, «Hey, don’t talk about Jesus!» It’s possible! I mean, everything’s possible in this world, but living in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s not likely that this is going to be the scenario we’re in in the immediate future. But God is asking you today to consider the way he moved in these ordinary and unschooled people so that you could be inspired that maybe God could move like that in you.
In the circumstance you’re in, the situation you’re in, you could see the Spirit of God do something in your life that would be, wow, this word «astonishing,» that we’ve seen both times in these two chapters today is found in other places in Scripture. In Matthew, it’s found in the same chapter two times, and in one instance, it’s when the man wanted Jesus to heal his child. He said, «Do you want me to come?» He goes, «You don’t have to come. You just say the word. You just speak the word; he’ll be healed. I’m a man under authority; I know how authority works. You’re Jesus, so if you just speak the word, it’ll be done.» Jesus looks at him and was astonished and said, «I’ve never seen faith like this in all of Israel.» He was astonished at the man!
A few verses later, a storm on the Sea of Galilee—they wake Jesus up. He speaks to the wind; he speaks to the waves. The wind stops, and the waves die down, and it says, «The disciples were astonished.» They said, «Who is this man, even the wind and the waves obey him?» Around Jesus, near Jesus, filled with Jesus, in step with Jesus, astonishing things happen. That’s what God is looking for, and he’s just asking today, «Has anyone ever been astonished at our lives? Has anybody ever taken note of us?» That’s what Passion City Church must be!
We must never be attenders; we must be astonishing disciples! We must never come and sit and absorb, absorb, and absorb. We must be filled with the Spirit of God and in step with the person of Jesus, in such proximity to him that we live lives that look like him and that we have fruit that comes from our lives! It is obvious to people, «That’s not me; that’s gotta be something else going on with that! Where did you get that? What are you on? What are you taking? What is the secret? Where do I get some of that?» Well, if you’re asking, it’s Jesus.
And I know that sounds like a real religious answer, but that’s just the answer: Jesus is life to me. He’s working in me in ways that I cannot work by myself! If you’d seen me four years ago and see me now, you would know it is not me; it is God’s grace and his mercy working in my life through Jesus by the power of the Spirit. He’s changing things; he’s modifying things; he’s transforming things! And that’s how—if you want to be more like that, don’t try to be more like me; just ask Jesus if he’ll come and give you life and do in you what only he can do!
We need Passion City Church to be no more of just saying, «Wow, how many attenders can we get into buildings?» This city needs astonishing disciples that show the world that following Jesus is not just church; it is change; it is transformation! The most astonishing people in this city ought to be the ones who say, «Today, I throw up my hands and praise you again and again because I know my name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.» There should be no more astonishing people in this city!
And even in a moment like this, to say, «I don’t know, but I’m confident in God! I will not fear! I will not cave in to the what-ifs! I’m going to put my feet today on the rock of ages; I’m going to keep my eyes on the sky, and until he comes, I’m going to be busy trying to be astonishing, not by waking up and going, 'Today’s my day; look out, here I come; I’m going to be astonishing today.'» And some of you, I know that’s worked for you a little bit, and you got that thing, you know, on your podcast, and you were doing that last Thursday on the way to work—"I’m going to be a champion today! I am going to sell today! I am going to win today!»
That can work, but not as much as saying, «Jesus, I want to get as close to you as I can today. Holy Spirit, I want to be as in step with you as I can today!» And what a thought! I don’t know; I hope something shifted today, but what a thought! You know, a lot of my preaching is what I worked hard on, and a lot of it is the Holy Spirit just moving. What if every one of us went to work this week saying, «I want everyone here to come to know you, Jesus! I don’t know how, but that’s my prayer!»