We pray that you would speak powerfully to us.
Our hearts are here Lord speak so that we might hear.
We ask in your son's name, we pray, Amen.
Please be seated and if you would get yourselves a little
comfortable because in a few minutes I'm going to ask you to
stand again for a longer passage of Scripture as so go ahead and
rest up. Get your energies going.
But before we do that, I wanted to comment real briefly on the
passage of Scripture. The bill read it leads right
into the text in which I'm about to read, so it makes sense to
make a brief comment upon that. James and Peter and sorry, Peter
and John are on their way to the temple.
They are working their way towards the place of worship so
that they might pray. It's about 3:00 in the
afternoon, and as they come, they see a man who's been
crippled from birth. A little bit later we realize
that he's been crippled for 40 years.
So he's a 40 year some old man and he has been crippled and he
spends his days there at the corner of the temple begging for
alms, begging for a charity and everybody knows him.
We'll we'll see in our text that we're reading here a few
minutes. People know who he is.
And so they got upon this. They come to him.
And of course there's that powerful scene and I hope you've
heard it when Bill read it. Perhaps many of you know this
scene where Peter says, draws the man's attention to himself
and then says gold or silver, I have none, but what I have I
will give to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Walk. And of course the man jumps up
and starts walking and leaping and praising God across the
board. And it's a wonderful picture,
particularly for anybody that has dealt with suffering in
their life. And so I suspect that I'm
speaking to absolutely everybody in the room who has experienced
some kind of suffering or a loved one who is suffering much.
As Bill shared about his sister earlier, we have that great
yearning and that need to be able to respond to the suffering
of those who are around us by something powerful and explosive
where they would leap up and start praising the Lord.
Having been healed a lot across the board, I think that it's a
desire. I can't imagine it's that
everybody here doesn't share that desire.
To have that kind of ability to be confronted by the evils and
the sin and the brokenness of this world and to be able to say
in the name of Jesus Christ, be fixed, be healed and that take
place in a powerful way. I think that would be a
wonderful blessing, a wonderful gift.
Now, of course, in a little bit we're going to read the sermon
that Peter gives in light of this event.
And we're going to be reminded that it's not Peter and John
that healed this man. It's not this man, abilities or
merits that healed this man. It is Jesus Christ and Christ
alone who healed this man. So what do we mean?
How do we understand Peter's words?
Silver, gold. I have none, but what I have I
will give to you. What I have I will give to you.
What is it that he had? Well, First off, I think we have
to do a little bit of speculation, but in light of
this congregation, in light of most of our financial situation,
it's worth speculating on. When Peter says silver, gold, I
have none. What's the implication?
Well, I think you can draw probably two of them.
First is the apostles were poor. I think that's pretty well
carried out in the rest of the scriptures.
They didn't have a lot of excess finances.
So he didn't have any finances. But is the implication, am I
reading too much into it to assume that he, what he's saying
is gold and silver? I don't have any because if I
did, I would give it. As a matter of fact, he comes
right after that and says, but what I have I will give to you,
implying that if he had money he would give to him.
But that's not what he says. He says silver or gold.
I have none. I don't have any of that to give
you, but I do have something. And what does he give to him?
The command, rise up and walk. No, in the name of Jesus.
Now we tend to think of the name of Jesus as being a moniker or a
label that we put on this person, Jesus Christ, but that's
not how the scriptures use the term.
They use that as a a sum all, a summary of his character, of his
purpose, of his essence, everything that Jesus was.
In other words, what Peter is saying is I have something that
give you. What do I have that I can give
you? I have the witness of Jesus
Christ. I can point you towards somebody
who can heal you. I can point you past myself to
somebody else. Gold or silver I don't have any
of, but I do have this. I have this witness and I
translate this in my own life and I think gold and silver I
don't want to give you. But what I do have that won't
cost me anything is my witness to Jesus Christ.
And I wonder why my witness is so weak and so poor.
Perhaps that's because silver or gold I do have.
We are surrounded by those who are in need, as Bill mentioned
earlier, they are in need physically.
They are in need materially. They are in great need
spiritually. You can't say to them silver or
gold. I have none but what I have a
lot, unless of course you don't have any.
And of course we realize that there are those who are in that
financial situation with us too. And you can hear this little
comment in a different way, but for most of the people that I'm
looking at with no integrity at all, Can you say silver or gold?
I have none. But what I have, I'll give you
follow Jesus Christ. We have to be men and women of
integrity and be able to say to them what I can.
I will give you including the call to follow Jesus Christ.
The man leaps up, praises God was filled with rejoicing, and
there's something about responding to God's healing that
we could look at just by focusing upon this man's
reaction. It's really dramatic.
We might hit on it a little bit next week, but Peter gathers, a
crowd gathers and Peter takes that opportunity to preach,
which is what any good preacher does, sees a crowd and goes at
them. So Peter goes at them and here's
what Peter says. If you would stand, if you would
please, if you're able to, please stand for the reading and
hearing of God's word. Again, settle in a little a
little bit longer passage for us.
While the man who was lame clung to Peter and John, all the
people, utterly astonished, ran together to them in the portico
called Solomon's, and when Peter saw it, he addressed the people.
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?
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the
God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you
delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when Pilate
had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and
righteous one, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the
dead. To this we are witnesses.
And His name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong
whom you see and know. And the faith that is through
Jesus has given this the man this perfect health in the
presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that
you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that
as Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
Repent therefore, and turn back from your that your sins may be
blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed
for you Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for
restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His
holy prophets. Long ago Moses said, The Lord
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your
brothers. You shall listen to him in every
way he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not
listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.
And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel to and those
who came after him also proclaim these days.
And you are sons of the of this, and you are sons of the
prophets, and of the covenant that God made with our fathers,
saying to Abraham. And in your offspring shall all
the families of the earth be blessed.
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first
to bless you, by turning everyone of you from your
wickedness. And this is the word of the
Lord. Thanks be to God.
God, we do give you thanks right now.
Thank you, Lord, fulfill your purpose in us.
We ask through Christ our Lord, we have pray, Amen.
Please be seated if you would, if you have your Bibles
available and you want to turn to Acts chapter 3, that would be
fabulous. Acts Chapter 3, I have a certain
routine that I follow before I get before I come forward,
always I take a drink of water, kind of swish it around so to
make sure that I can talk fairly well or talk as well as I fairly
can. I always make sure that my hair
is not too far out of whack and I make sure there's no wardrobe
malfunction. Yes, I check to make sure my fly
is up and all those kind of things.
And I do that for a number of reasons, two different reasons
versus I really don't want to embarrass myself much more so
than I normally do. I don't want to embarrass
myself. And if my fly were down or
something like that, I would be embarrassed standing up front
here. But more importantly, I don't
want to distract from the word of God.
Now, there is a reality here that no matter what the
messenger looks like, no matter how goofy he might be, no matter
how fallible, he might act like I'm proclaiming the word of God
here and you should look right through me.
Not see me, not pay any attention to me, but focus upon
the word of God. That's what you should do.
But we also know the nature of human humanity.
If I'm standing up here with my fly down right now, nobody D
hear anything I'd say, because you'd all be sitting thinking
what a clown to have his fly down up front.
The reality is that Satan works hard to distract us from the
truth. Satan works hard to distract
this. Satan puts forward an
alternative lie. He certainly does.
But when confronted by the truth of the Word of God, Satan's
happy just to distract us from that.
And any way in which Satan can latch onto to distract his
people from the Word of God, he will so do it.
And Peter here comes right face to face and confronts a major
problem, this major problem with the crowd that has gathered
around him. So people are astounded.
Here's this guy that they've seen for 40 years begging at the
street and you can see his legs are crippled.
You can tell that he's that he's that he's lame by birth.
And yet here is dancing, praising God.
He's strong right off the bat, able to do all these kind of
things, running and walking and praising the Lord.
And of course the people gather around and look at how Peter
gathers them together and what he says in verse 12, men of
Israel. So he's talking to the folks who
had gathered around him. Men of Israel, why do you wonder
at this? I suspect what's he doing?
What? Why do you wonder at this?
He's pointing at the guy. He says, why do you wonder at
his? Why do you, why are you looking
at him or why do you stare at us, Peter and John?
Why do you focus on him? Why do you focus on us?
It's not by our power. It's not by our piety that this
came about. Peter does what every good
witness should do. What Christie testified to
earlier, what what Bill testified to earlier?
The best picture of being a witness of Jesus Christ.
So many of us think that what we have to do is we have to
proclaim God in such an effective way.
We have to functionally accomplish something.
We have to do what Peter did here, layout the gospel message
in a clear way. That's what it means to witness
to Jesus Christ. One of the best pictures of
witnessing to Jesus Christ I've ever heard is to be a signpost.
Be a signpost. What does a signpost do?
A signpost points to what the focus is supposed to be.
So many, so much of the time we're sitting there saying, hey,
look at Jesus Christ, but we're standing in the way trying to
draw all the attention to ourselves so that we look at
ourselves. So look at how wonderful I can
talk, look at the arguments in which I can put forward, look at
how wise I am to answer all yours, all your questions, and
we make the question all about us.
Have you ever seen those commercials?
I don't know what commercial you're immediately thinking of,
but it's really good. It makes you laugh or it's
touching and emotive and, and you're really powerfully
impacted by the commercial. The commercial ends and you turn
to your spouse or your kids or do something.
You say, man, that was a really great commercial.
And then everybody takes a second and realizes that they
have no idea what was being sold.
You know, the commercial was so great that it was funny.
It was all funny, but what was being sold?
I don't know, because you were distracted.
That's a terrible commercial. Way too often as Christians,
we're terrible commercials for Jesus Christ because we're not
doing what a signpost does. Think if you're looking for an
address, if you're driving, looking for something your GPS
isn't working, and you're looking for an address, think of
how glorious, how wonderful is the street sign?
A street sign is great because what the street sign says is
here's where you're at. Points us in the right
direction. It points us to where we need to
go. A Christian witnessing to the
Lord Jesus Christ is always doing this.
He is always pointing past himself at the Jesus Christ,
highlighting Jesus Christ, which is exactly what Peter does here.
Why are you looking at this guy being healed now?
By the way, I should have set this up a little better earlier.
Peter asked some bad hypothetical questions.
Why are you looking at this guy? Hello.
He's been lame for 40 years. Of course we're going to look at
him. Why are you staring at us?
Because we saw you wave the magic wand and suddenly the guy
was healed. Of course we're going to be in
awe of you. What Peter is trying to do is
not to be that distraction that points away from Jesus Christ,
but consistently points to Christ past himself, to Jesus
Christ. That's what it means to be a
witness. That's why everybody who is a
follower of Jesus Christ in this room can do the job.
You don't have to be a great speaker like Christie was.
You don't have to be a Bible skilled person.
You don't have to be able to link all the what you need to do
is point to Jesus Christ. Be a signpost, be a witness.
That's what Peter starts the his sermon here by doing by
refocusing people's attention after refocusing their attention
upon Jesus Christ. Then he reviews what had taken
place. Look in verses 12 through 15.
Sorry, 13 through 15, he reviews what had happened.
We're talking about Jesus Christ and about halfway through 13,
the one whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of
Pilate when he had decided to release him.
But you denied the holy unrighteous One and asked for a
murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of
life. When I was looking at these
passages, I really was struck by that idea.
You killed the author of life, and I was thinking how ironic
that these people killed the author of life.
Then they went back and looked at the other passages.
The one whom you delivered over, that's a word for betrayal.
The one that you betrayed, the one that you rejected.
You rejected the holy unrighteous one.
The holy unrighteous. 1 is the is, is a picture of life.
Every Jewish person would would register holy and righteous, not
just as morally good person or something like that, but as
somebody that has life. Listen to what's happening.
They're rejecting life and they're embracing the murder,
which he identifies easily. If you know the the crucifixion
story, Pilate wants to let Jesus go and says, well, who do you
want me to let go for you? Barabbas, the murderer or Jesus
the King of the Jews? And what all the people scream
out for Barabbas, give us Barabbas.
They chose death. They chose a murderer versus the
author of life. They chose wickedness and the
lack of life instead of the author of life.
What a terrific picture of your sin.
Your sin every day is a rejection of life.
My sin every day is an embrace of that which is dead.
Now, trust me when I lose my temper with Kelly or when I
think evil thoughts of some people in Hebron or when, you
know, when, when, when I'm doing all these things, I'm not
sitting there thinking, oh, I'm going to.
I'm going to embrace death at this point in the game.
I'm going to reject life. But that's exactly what sin, big
sin, the rejection of Jesus Christ is an embrace of death.
But so is the sin that grabs your heart every single day.
It is a rejection of the Lord. It is a rejection of life.
It is an embrace of death. You would rather have the
murderer than the author of life?
No, I wouldn't. That's a crazy thing to say.
Yes, you would. And you prove it every single
day by our failure. Where does that possibly leave
us? It leaves us with verse 19.
Verse 19 If we refocus our attention upon Jesus Christ and
we review the fact that we are convicted by our sin, what is
left to us? What is that natural response
that all people give when they hear the word of God?
Brothers, what now shall we do? Brothers and sisters, what now
shall we do? And Peter answers in verse 19,
repent, therefore repent. We looked at this last week.
I'm not going to talk about it again necessarily, but repent
does not confess all of your sins.
Identify every moral collapse that you have.
Lay yourself bare before God of everything that is wrong.
It's clear once again within this context, Peter is saying,
look, you rejected the Lord of life, now repent.
You were embracing death. Now turn and embrace the Lord of
life. Repentance is straight is
straightforward. It is a turn from what you were
and now to something that is totally and 180° different.
Repentance is the turn and to embrace that which you have
previously rejected. And again, go back and read
verses 13 through 15 to see what it's like to hand over.
To reject, to turn your back upon Jesus Christ, to choose
that death and now repent of it in every possible way.
Turn from what you were to the what you will shall be now.
And once you have done so, what is the result?
What is the result of your repentance?
Look in verse 19 and 20. Repent therefore, and turn back
that your sins may be blotted out.
Now if you've been around the church for some period of time,
that's familiar language or that's familiar thought process
that our sins would be blotted out that normally we don't
phrase it like that we phrase it nor that your sins would be
forgiven. This is the only time in
Scripture where blotted out is reference to our sins, and I
love it. Blotted out means to to wash
thoroughly, to remove completely.
It's a complete and total cleansing.
It's not a washing of your hands.
It's not a rinsing of your feet. It's a complete, total immersion
where everything gets blotted out.
This is the way in which it's referred to in Revelation.
That wonderful passage where it says, and God will wipe away
will blot out. God will blot out all of your
tears. What do we know about heaven
when we're in the embrace and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit through Jesus Christ with God the Father, that there will
be a complete blotting out of all of our tears?
That's not a partial thing. It's not a temporary thing.
When I talk with people about the gospel and I share with them
about Jesus Christ, when I point and I say, you know what
happened here, all of your sins are forgiven.
I've never heard anybody that hasn't really liked that idea.
They like the idea, but they don't trust it long term.
They they sit there and say, oh, that's really great.
And then in the back of their heads they sit and they think,
yeah, but boy, oh boy, if you knew what was going on in my
life, if you knew what I was capable of, your sin past,
present and future has been blotted out.
That needs to transform the way we respond to the Lord.
What are the results then of repentance?
The result of repentance is that our sin is blotted out.
Verse 20. There were times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord.
This is the only way, the only time it's ever phrased in
Scripture. This is the only time that
these, this I is I ever identified.
But this is the blessings that come along.
If the negative aspect, the negative work of Jesus Christ is
to take away our sin, what's the positive work of Jesus Christ?
It is that we would have times of refreshment.
Now what does that mean? Times of refreshment?
I don't know, but it certainly means something more than the
dour faces that I normally look at.
Right. Yeah.
Thank you. We're, we're supposed to be, we
are supposed to be men and women of joy.
We are supposed to be men and women who have been so who our
sin has been so blotted out and now we are experiencing the
refreshment of our Lord Jesus Christ That is supposed to be
characteristic of how we live our lives.
We are supposed to be, we're supposed to eagerly be able to
gather people around us who are looking at us so that we can
redirect to Jesus Christ because we are so filled with the joy
and the presence of our Lord. Times of refreshment.
Look, it's great that my sin is blotted out.
It's great that my sin is taken care of.
But it's equally as great that the Lord blesses me with a
refreshment, with the empowerment, with the grace and
a goodness the he blots out my sin, that he refreshes my soul.
And then finally at the end of verse 20 and that he may send
Christ appointed for you Jesus from heaven.
In other words, that there is hope for the future because I do
live in a broken world. I do live in a world where
although my sin has been blotted out and I experienced the
refreshment of the Lord, I nevertheless live in a world
that beats me down and my own sin beats me down.
And so there's this hope, a yearning for the future, the
future that God has promised through the Scriptures.
That's the blessing that the Lord provides for us.
What does it mean to witness well to the Lord when the Lord
brings together, brings folks into our presence?
For however he does it, our task is to refocus them upon Jesus
Christ, to be a signpost, not an interference.
Don't block out the message. Make sure that the message is
clearly seen. Jesus Christ.
To refocus upon Jesus Christ, to help people to see that they are
choosing death over life, and then to lead them to encourage
them to repent so that their sin might be blotted out, so that
there might be refreshment for their souls and so that they
might have future, a hope, a future with Jesus Christ.
Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, we do ask for
Your goodness to come upon us at this time, a fulfillment of Your
blessings, a fulfillment of what it means to have our sin blotted
out, to have refreshment in our souls, and to have the future
hope of the coming Kingdom. Lord, we desire to experience
that more and more fully personally.
But then, Lord, we also desire to witness to that.
We want to be good. Signpost, Lord, not distracting
from the gospel, but rather pointing people past ourselves
to Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior, in whose name we pray.
Amen.