Remember the television show called Let’s Make a Deal? Monty Hall offered to make deals with people. Later Howie Mandel hosted the game show, “Deal or No Deal.” Are you a deal-maker? As a child, I marveled at my dad’s trading ability with automobiles. When I asked him about it recently, he reminded me that his father’s business was called, “The Brooks Trading Post.” His grandfather had been a mule trader in the generation before. Do you know a good deal when you see it?
When Peter and John turned the world right-side-up with the gospel, the same ones who crucified Jesus were deeply offended. They thought they ended the matter with Jesus on Calvary. Instead, Jesus’ followers had filled the city of Jerusalem with the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Catching Peter and John preaching again, they offered them a deal: “Stop preaching about Jesus and we will let you live.” Peter and John said, “No deal.” Why would these men be willing to die for Jesus? Wasn’t it because Jesus had died for them?
In Acts 4:11-12, on an earlier, similar occasion, Peter had clarified, “There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” If all religions lead to the same place, we might expect Peter and John as well as Christians today to say, “Live and let live. You be sincere in your faith and we will be sincere in ours.” This would certainly be an easier, less controversial approach. But what if Peter and John and the witness of 2000 years of Christian history are right? What if Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life? Then we must obey God’s imperious summons and not the politically correct solutions of the day. The deal remains the same for all people. Trust Christ and live. Deal or no deal? There is no other deal.
