Acts 2:32 – 3:26 - Sunday Opening Messege.. Pastor Gilman

 

Acts 2:32 – 3:26

We will begin with Peter , as he addressed the men of Judea.

And so Father, we commit this morning to you, the time that we're together, these next several minutes.

We also want to understand truth and how it applies to our hearts, our lives, our future, our present,

our relationships, where we go to school, where we work, where we live. And I pray, Lord, that we would have a very dynamic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

We trust, Lord, that you will direct us and feed us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

     One of our biggest fears is the fear of failure. Most everyone has the fear of failing at something or failing with someone. Dream analysts even say that the most common form of dream is what they would call an anxiety dream. They are taking a test in the dream, and they fail the test. They have to get up and give a speech, and most people don't like to do that, and they're sweating in their dream. It's the fear of failing. And yet, wouldn't you agree that failure is common to humanity?

It's built into humanity. We are born sinners separated from God, we need redemption, so failure is built into who we are. In fact, one of the most common things about us is failure. You have a long history of failure, as do I. The first time you tried to walk, you fell. You failed at walking the very first steps you took. You plopped on the ground, you failed.

The first time you jumped into a swimming pool, you almost drowned. Somebody encouraged you, you're a little baby, a little child, they pushed you, perhaps, like they did me, my brother pushed me. My dad caught me, but I just remember the frightening experience. I couldn't swim. I would have died unless somebody helped me in my failure.

The first time somebody threw a baseball toward me to hit, I missed.

You didn't get straight A's in all your classes. Chances are, you have let people down in your life, you have failed. James says, we all stumble in many things. That's probably not a Bible verse you have underlined or made your life verse, but it's there. We all stumble in many things, that's just part of human nature.

At the same time, that doesn't take the sting away from our failures. Peter, ( we're reading his message here in Acts chapter 2,)… Peter struggled with failure, spiritual failure. Jesus told Peter he would fail, Peter denied Jesus three times. The last time Peter denied Jesus, Luke tells us, Jesus looked at Peter, and then Peter went out and wept bitterly. I don't know what kind of a look it was, I can only guess it was a sympathetic look of great love that when Peter saw, he understood, he realized what he had done to this one who loved him so much, and he went out and he wept bitterly.

But at the same time, Peter's failure was a great hinge in his life. It was a fulcrum for greater usability. Jesus said he would be used again. Jesus predicted that he would be strengthened again, he would be restored.

And now we're reading about that same Peter, former failure, who preaches the first sermon, the one we're reading in Acts chapter 2. He will be the one who will lead the first Gentile to Christ, Cornelius. He'll oversee the work and the spread of the gospel up into Samaria.

I personally struggled with failure. I remember when my brother died, I felt the burden of his death on me for this reason. I felt like I had failed to lead him to Christ. I just felt so guilty that I could have done more, could have tried harder, could have shared other truths, wasn't a great witness, failed to lead him to make a commitment to Christ, and now it was over. But failure is something that the Lord wants to use to make us more effective in the future.

So we are landing, so to speak, right in the middle of this message that Peter is giving. And if we wouldn't know who it is, if we wouldn't know the past history of Peter, we would be looking at this sermon going, wow, this guy's amazing, he's well trained. And we would forget that he is the same fisherman from Galilee who struggled and failed. We read him here, and he's very articulate, he's very knowledgeable. He quotes the book of Joel Chapter 2, he quotes Psalm 16, which is a prophetic Psalm about the Resurrection. Peter even says, David, being a prophet, foresaw this event. And he said, and he quotes Psalm 16, you will not leave my soul in Hell, or suffer, or allow your Holy One to see corruption. David was speaking not of himself, but of Jesus, Peter says. And if you recall, because Peter says, here is his tomb. It's visible to this day..

Let's look at verse 32. Peter continues, this, Jesus, God has raised up of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this, which you now see and hear. Remember, they said, well, what is this? They're drunk with new wine, and Peter said, this is that, which was spoken of by the prophet.

So he goes then through the scriptures, and he kind of comes to a conclusion. I say kind of, because he's not done talking, but he says, this, which you now see in here, for David, verse 34, for David did not ascend into the Heavens, but he says of himself, (now he's quoting yet another Psalm from the Old Testament, Psalm 110,) but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. He's quoting Psalm 110:1. The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.

That is an interesting Psalm, because that is the very same quotation that Jesus quoted in Matthew 22 on the day when the Herodians came to Jesus, the Pharisees came to Jesus, the Sadducees came to Jesus, and they peppered him with questions, hard questions. And he answered them, but then he asked them a question. He said, hey, what do you think of Messiah? Whose son is he? And they said, he is David's son. They believed traditionally that the Messiah will be the son of David, which is accurate. But then Jesus, quoting the Psalm, says, well then how is it that David in the spirit calls him Lord? And he quotes Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. So if David calls him Lord, Jesus said, how then, do you say he's David's son? And it says they didn't answer him, and they didn't ask him any more questions? It was perfectly logical and it just sort of shut up all their arguments..

The Lord said to my Lord. Yahweh said to Adonai, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. That famous messianic Psalm that Jesus himself quoted, Peter now quotes. Therefore, let all the house of Israel assuredly know that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified,both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, ….that's conviction… They were convicted by the Lord, they were convicted of their sin. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Notice Peter's answer. And Peter said to them, repent. Repent and let every one of you will be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So Peter's giving his sermon, he preaches the gospel. He does quite well, but then he makes application.

And that is his goal, his goal isn't to just dispense information. . Getting them to transformation is his goal. He wants change to occur, he calls a choice has to be made. Repent and be baptized.

Now, notice the order. He didn't say be baptized and repent, it's repentance first, and then baptism. Why? Because baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. Repentance, turning around, changing your mind, demonstrating that by baptism.

Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, they had just seen and heard a mighty work and evidence of the Holy Spirit as the birthday of the church, the birth of the church was on that day. They heard the rushing wind, they observed this speaking in their own dialects, they wondered what this is. Some thought they were drunk, Peter explains that's not the case, and then he preached the gospel, told them to repent, and he says, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now watch this, this is concerning that promise of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and your children, and to all who are a far off as many as the Lord, our God will call. So I love that verse, because if you call on the Lord today, that promise is also for you. As you call on the Lord, that same empowering is available to you today. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

Now, that's the same word Jesus used in describing this world. It's the same word we discussed this last weekend in our study in Philippians. A perverse and crooked generation among whom you shine as lights in this world. And those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them.

Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need …..So continuing with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of hearts.

There's a lot there, and I just want to point out a few things. First of all, if we're getting a snapshot of what the very first church was like, we need to look at these verses a little more closely. So in verse 42, we have a little list. These were their priorities. They continued steadfastly, number one in the Apostles' doctrine. So we learn right away, they were a learning church.

The Apostles' doctrine, didaché doctrine, teaching, instruction. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are ignorant not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. You err not knowing the scriptures. On another occasion, he said, have you not read? See, he's talking to leaders saying…, you should be Bible teachers by now. Haven't you read that text? Don't you know what the scriptures say? You are in error. You are ignorant, because you don't know the scriptures nor the power of God, , and the reason I press this, is because we live in a day and age where Bible doctrine is not tolerated, Bible teaching is not tolerated, and people go to church and want just a pep rally. Somebody just to whip them up with a little exhortation, and a cool little clever phrase….

The Apostles' doctrine. First on their list, they were a learning church. Second thing to make note of, they were a loving church. Notice the word fellowship verse 42. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, that's one, number two, and fellowship. You know the word, right? Fellowship…. So they loved one another. Fellowship is something you can't do alone. You can't say, you know what, I'm going to get on my podcast and have some fellowship. I'm going to my computer, and my computer and I, man, we're going to have fellowship together. I love the computer age, I love podcasts, I love to listen to them, but you can't have a rich, full relationship with Christ without the body of Christ. You need fellowship.

People say, well, do I need to go to church? Do you need to ask that? You can't be a lone ranger, we used to say. See, The Lone Ranger even had Tonto. … Right? He had fellowship.

Not only were they a learning church, not only were they a loving church, they were a lauding church. Lauding, L-A-U-D, worshipping church, a praising church. Notice what it says, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Breaking of bread, sharing communion together. And in prayers. Those are exercises of praise and worship. And it goes down in verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people.

When it says they were breaking bread, it's not just confined to the communion elements. In those days, they shared what was called a love feast, an agape feast. It included the Lord's Supper, but it also included bringing food together to share in a common meal together. Part of their fellowship was a sit down meal that included taking the elements of the Lord's Supper. That was part of their worship, which I think it's great, because it combines worship of God and fellowship with the body of Christ. Not only that, but it says in verse 43, fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common. That's that same idea of fellowship.

Now, it delineates what that means. And they sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as any one had need….They sold everything and distributed it. That's not communism, that's commonism. And commonism is different from communism. Communism is enforced participation, commonism is voluntary participation. Feeling that That's something you want to do, it's something the Lord laid on my heart. I don't need all this stuff, I'm going to share it with you. Now, when that's forced, then it's communism. They're not practicing that. In fact, not everybody is doing it, because in verse 46, it says continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from what? House to house. So evidently, some people held on to their houses, and didn't sell them, and didn't pool all their resources. Many did, but not all. Some maintained their homes for themselves, for their family, but allowed it to be used by the church for Bible studies, for fellowship. Something about this pooling of resources of the early church. We see it here, it's a beautiful thing to do.. But they shared together as a church. And then in verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Now, how did he do that? How did he add to the church? Do you think it just happened mysteriously? That the believers just sort of sat around and unbelievers just came in and saying, a voice spoke to me, I'm going to become a Christian? No, I believe it was an evangelist church. I believe they shared the gospel. They gave witness by their love for each other, but also by their words to the people in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit poured out. So the Lord added daily those who were being saved.

OK, 3,000 souls on the day of Pentecost. This is a new covenant, the church is birthed. And the first day of the birth of the church, 3,000 souls are saved. Now, if you were to compare that with the first day the law was given on Mt. Sinai, you make a very interesting comparison. On the day the law was given on Sinai, I guess what? 3,000 people died in the camp of Israel. You know the story about the golden calf and the plague that went to the land on that day, 3,000 people died at the giving of the law .At the giving of grace, 3,000 were saved. The law kills. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. It's just an interesting comparison on the day these covenants were initiated, were inaugurated.

Now chapter 3 finally. We get now to the first recorded miracle in the book of Acts performed by the Apostles. It generalizes it in chapter 2, many signs and wonders were done, but here's the first described and recorded miracle. Now just a word about miracles, please don't overuse that word. I fear some of us are a little too generous with the word miracle. A baby was born, we say, what a miracle. No it's not. The sun setting, what a miracle, the sun rising, it's a miracle. No it's not. Happens everyday, it's part of natural law. A miracle is different from something that's awesome. We even overuse that word, we overuse just about every word in our language. A miracle is humanly impossible, but divinely simple. OK, so we have natural laws and we have natural order. A miracle is when God decides to supersede natural law with his own law, which for him isn't a wow moment, it's easy. So we understand there's a principle. We work on the principle of laws that supersede other laws, OK? Example, the law of gravity. If I drop something right now, it hits the ground. The law of gravity says you're earth bound. And yet, you can get in a jet at the airport, an airplane, you can pay your money, get on an airlines, and you can lift off from the strip, fly in the air, and land in another city. First time I saw a Boeing 747, , I looked at that thing and I said, no way. That thing, I don't know how much that weighs, but it's going to carry 500 passengers and 45,000 pounds of our luggage. Gravity says it's not going anywhere, but those who are scientific and understand the law of physics far better than I do would say, oh, it's very simple, it's rudimentary. You just get other natural laws to supersede the law of gravity. The law of thrust, propulsion, aerodynamics. You put those together in the right form, and you can get something extremely heavy off the earth and flying through space. So certain laws in combination can supersede other natural laws.

A miracle is when God enacts supernatural law in the midst of a natural world. These are Apostles, but Jesus said these will follow those who believe. That they will perform signs, and wonders, miracles in his name, so we're seeing the fulfillment of that. In verse 1, now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Now, please notice that Peter and John feel no conflict going to the Jewish temple to worship.

They're believers in Jesus Christ, but they see no spiritual moral conflict going to worship in the synagogue or go into worship in the temple. They were Jewish, but they believed in the Jewish Messiah. Now today, people will see a conflict. You can't go to a synagogue, you believe in Jesus. They saw no problem with that, because they understood that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah who fulfilled the Jewish scriptures. And they probably would have continued going to the synagogues and the temple, but there came a time when they were expelled from Judaism. And by necessity, Jesus said you can't pour new wine into old wine skins. So the churches formed.

The church at first continued with mainstream Judaism until they were pushed out by Judaism, and forced to meet on their own. But they're going at this point up to the temple. It says at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, that's 3:00 in the afternoon…

According to Jewish tradition, the pious Jewish person, do you Psalm 55, David said evening, morning, and noon I will cry aloud unto you. In Daniel chapter 6, after the decree was that nobody could pray to any other God in the kingdom except the King of Babylon, it says Daniel went to the upper room, opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times that day as was his custom. As a Jewish man, he prayed toward Jerusalem in the morning, at noon, and in the evening time. And then he got thrown into the lion's den because of it. So it's the hour of prayer, it's the afternoon, 3:00 in the afternoon, and as they're going up.., There was a certain man, lame, that is unable to walk, from his mother's womb, so it's a congenital defect, was carried. Whom they laid daily, everyday, at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, that's the name of the gate, the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Now, just a word about this gate. Josephus, the Jewish historian, spoke about this gate. It was called the Nicanor Gate. It was 75 feet tall. So look up at the peak. If you can see the peak of this building, it's more than twice the height of a telephone pole …At 75 feet tall made out of Corinthian brass.Josephus said, of all the gates of the temple, it was the most beautiful, hence the term Beautiful Gate. He said it was more beautiful than any of the gold, any of the silver, any of the engravings of the temple. This was the standout feature. It was a gate that separated the court of the women from the court of the men, or the court of Israel. There was this gate and then 15 steps that went down to the lower court, the court of the women. That's where they laid him every single day. Now, he was lame from his birth, so it's a congenital anomaly. It's not like he used to walk and now he's lame, all he has known is the inability to be ambulatory. So all of the joys of childhood were taken away, robbed. He never had a childhood, he was always a beggar. No muscle strength whatsoever. Now, I'm drawing this out because I want to point something out. Jesus visited the temple, and he went through these gates. And it says this man was laid every single day at the gate. Jesus came, he died, he rose, he ascended by this time. So Jesus probably passed him a few different times. Jesus didn't heal him.

I want you to understand Jesus didn't heal everybody. In fact, in John chapter 5, he goes to the Pool of Bethesda. How many people does he heal at the Pool of Bethesda, John chapter 5?

One. And yet, it says in the scripture, multitudes of sick people lay there. What about them? What about their needs? What about their pain? Understand that healing is a sovereign work of God. God is sovereign in his work and he is sovereign in his timing, and this was the time. So I'm sure as Jesus walked by, he saw the man, but he said, not yet, today's not the day. In fact, that's going to be done through Peter and John in the future. Now the day has come.

Now, this guy seeing Peter and John about to go in the temple asked for alms. So he's not looking for a miracle, not looking for healing, does not expect one, has no faith for a miracle whatsoever. He just wants a few coins. And fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us.].. He Looked right at Peter. So he gave them his attention expecting to receive something from them. Oh, wait till you see what he receives. Then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately, his feet and ankle bones received strength. This is a little bit cool. This is written by Luke. Luke is a doctor, right? I told you he's a physician. When he says his feet and ankle bones received strength, he's using medical terminology for the joints snapping into place, the tendons and the muscles instantly being strengthened. The way he writes it, it's translated in English, but it's, in Greek, a medical term. He's a doctor, he's writing about it from a medical perspective. But he says, silver and gold have I not, but such as I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk..

Peter said, I don't have silver and gold, but I'll give you what I have. And it was the exercise of the Name of Jesus. And then notice this, this is important. Peter, he, verse 7, took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Now that's faith. Anybody can say to somebody, be healed. Anybody can pray, and I recommend that you do, but to actually in a public place, take someone who is unable to walk, never has ever been able to walk, has no muscle strength at all, but to pull that man up, that's an act of faith. Now, whose faith was it? Whose faith was it? Who had the faith? Peter, not the lame man.

So it doesn't take always the faith of the person, because this person here did not have any faith. He wasn't even looking for a healing, he was just looking for a handout. Peter said, I'm not going to give you a handout, you're going to get a healing, but it's in the name of Jesus. And Peter had the faith to pull him up.

So it's just sort of like the paralytic that was led down in a house, some Galilee member, they couldn't get to Jesus because the house was filled with people. So a few of his buddies took tiles off the roof, and took the paralytic and lowered him down by a rope. You know what It says? It says, in seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven. He didn't see his faith. This guy's going, you're making a scene, I don't want to do this, leave me alone. He saw the faith of those friends. Enough said.

His feet and ankle bones received strength verse 7, verse 8, so he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them walking and leaping. Can you imagine it? Of course he would, he's never been able to do this before.

In chapter 17 --Jesus healed 10 lepers. Not leopards, lepers, men with leprosy. And he said, go show yourself to the priest. Only 1 of the 10 came back and thanked him. And Jesus said, hey, didn't I heal 10? Where are the other nine? Sometimes, we are all about the gift, and not the giver of the gift. We must always be thankful, we must always return thanksgiving and praise, not just walking and leaving, yeah, awesome, I can do it, but I am praising God for it. And all the people saw him walking and they saw him praising God.

Do we forget to praise God sometimes? For all of our blessings…. Today in the interest of time I will stop here but will continue on next time from this place……