Pastors notes for 7-13-14 Healing At The Beautiful Gate Call to Worship - We come together to praise you, God. For you are the Living God who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in them. - You have shown kindness by giving us rain from heaven and seasons of harvest. You provide us with food for our bodies and happiness for our hearts. All- Let us be glad and sing with joy! Acts 3:1-11 (NLT) Responsive Reading - Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. - Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. - Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” - Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them. - All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon’s Colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John. - This is the Word of the Lord for the people of God. Thanks be to God! Peter Preaches in the Temple Acts 3:12-26 Acts 3:12 Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? • Power and amazement The ability to perform a miracle, especially one like the healing of the lame man, is a dangerous power because it can be assumed that the one who works the miracle is someone great (Acts 8:9-11). A lot of times people give glory to the miracle worker instead of to God. A similar miracle by Paul had that effect among the non Christians (Acts 14:8-15). Peter wasnt criticizing their astonishment. They had every cause to be amazed. Peter was, however, making very sure that Jesus Christ, not Peter and John, got the credit and glory for this miracle. Acts 3:13-15 For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact! • You denied and killed Jesus Peter confronts the crowd with the same set of facts he preached on the day of Pentecost: Jesus had worked miracles among them, yet they denied him and had him crucified; but God raised him up. • Pilate is not absolved from guilt Peter is not absolving Pontius Pilate from all guilt, but when Pilate was requested to release a murderer and to crucify Jesus, he was put under a lot of pressure to do what the crowd wanted, even though he didnt want it himself (Mtt 27:11-26). Sometimes we can be pressured into doing things because of pear pressure, fear of rejection, etc just like Pontius Pilate, but we are always called to do the right thing in spite for the pressure to do wrong. Acts 3:16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes. • Perfect soundness This man, lame from birth, was suddenly whole: his feet, ankles, and legs were perfectly strong and sound and he could walk and leap as though he had been doing it since childhood. Faith through Jesus Peter attributes this miracle to faith in Christ; But whose faith? Not that of the man born lame —he had expected to receive a coin not a healing. It was the faith of Peter and John, the faith they followed, that was behind this miracle. When healings fail today, many preachers say that the people being healed did not have enough faith. However, the man born lame was healed without himself having faith, and this miracle should be a paradigm or bench mark for genuine miracles today. • Was made strong The people, who saw the man born lame, believed he was healed because he was walking and leaping and praising God. He was made strong. They knew the man had been lame from birth and now was made perfectly whole. • Whom you recognize and know Peter didnt tell stories of miracles in other places that happened to people unknown by the crowd. The healed man was there present before them; someone they recognized and knew. They knew he had been a lame beggar. They knew and saw first hand that now he was made whole. Acts 3:17-18 “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Prejudice Not Excused We come here upon the problem of destiny and things foreordained. It was by God’s predetermined counsel and foreknowledge that Christ was crucified (Acts 2:23). Therefore, werent those who had a part in it only doing what God had decided? How then can God blame them? We have to be careful not to fall into fallacy here. God was willing that Christ should suffer, and God predetermined and announced that Christ would die as a sacrifice for sin (Isa 53). However, God didnt compel anyone to take part in Christ’s crucifixion. They did so by choice. God knows what evil Satan will do, and God can plan a strategy to turn Satan’s evil against Satan. But God doesnt make Satan do the evil, nor does he make anyone help him. • They acted in ignorance Ignorance explains why Jesus’ own countrymen sent him to the cross. It does not absolve them from guilt. Nor was their ignorance justified. They knew, or ought to have known, that the prophets had foretold that the Messiah should suffer. How then could they be innocent of their part in bringing prophecy to pass? Their ignorance stemmed from prejudice and was without excuse. Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Promise of Forgiveness Repent and turn Repentance means a change of heart. But that should be followed by a change in the course of one’s life. You can intend to change. Thats repentance. But you have to actually change as well, and make the turn around. Thats conversion. • Just as godly sorrow leads to repentance (2Co 7:10), so repentance leads to a complete reformation of life. Peter calls for both a change of mind and a change of conduct. • Conversion and baptism How does Peter’s command, Repent and be baptized(Acts 2:38) compare with his command Repent and be converted (Acts 3:19)? In baptism the old person is, by God’s grace, killed and buried with Christ and a new person is raised to life in Christ (Romans 6). Peter in commanding conversion was in no way contradicting or nullifying his command to be baptized, any more than in commanding baptism he was negating the need for conversion. Times of refreshing In his previous sermon (on the day of Pentecost) Peter also commanded people to repent, and he promised them forgiveness of sins. He also promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 3:20-21 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Promise of Christ’s Return • The Lord will send Jesus Christ Here Peter is affirming what the angels said at Christ’s ascension: This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall come in the same manner in which you have watched him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). Times of restoration Peter’s audience would be thinking that he was talking about the restoration of Israel. Even Peter himself, with the other disciples, had asked Jesus, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6). Even teachers today are looking for a restoration of Israel on earth. But that isnt what God has in mind. For behold I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered (Isa 65:17). Peter later wrote, According to his promise, we look for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells (2Pe 3:13). There is a beautiful description in the latter visions of Revelation (Rev 21:1-5). Acts 3:22-24 Moses said, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you. Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’[e] “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. Prophecy Fulfilled • The prophets told of these days (Compare verse 17) Many folk think that the Bible prophets spoke about the second coming of Christ and the “end times” preceding it. But Peter says the prophets, whilst they did fortell Christ’s second coming spoke mainly of these days in which Peter lived, and in which Christ had lived; had died; had been raised; and had ascended to heaven. Peter had no sense that what the prophets said would largely be postponed. It was fulfilled and people should now listen to Jesus. A Prophet like Moses Moses and Jesus were, unlike all other prophets, original lawgivers or mediators of God’s covenant (Jn 1:17, Heb 8:1-7). Christ’s superior law-covenant replaced that of Moses. Acts 3:25-26 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will beblessed.’ When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.” Providence of God You are the children The people in the temple were mostly descendants of Abraham and of the prophets. God had kept a remnant for himself. They of all people should have accepted Jesus the promised “seed” whom God had sent to them. And the way they should accept Jesus is by turning from their wickedness. • First to you Peter concludes his message with this point: God has honored the people of Jerusalem by preaching Christ first to them, before providing the message to the whole world. Surely, therefore, they should be the first to turn to Jesus and acknowledge him. Conclusion 1. First God works: God does something. God changes a life. God does something that only God can do, that person cannot do at all. 2. And then the person explains what God did: The person to whom it happened says what happened to him. That is what witness is. Sharing your own experience with the Lord with others. 3. And, as a result of it, God works again: And another ground of witness, another explanation, is given. And that is the successive pattern of witness, all through the ages. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 21:21:00 +0000
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