So, our Scripture reading today as we continue in the book of Acts is in the third chapter, and Acts chapter 3 is on page 1,082. You know, here we are coming to the end of February. We started looking at Acts at the beginning of January, and we are all the way to chapter 3. I know. I feel like you need a seatbelt for the wild, fast ride we have been on here. But now that we're a little bit of a ways into it, I thought looking back at the last few chapters, a couple of chapters that we've looked at, and then looking forward at what's coming, themes start kind of unfolding as I work through this. In chapters one and two, you could almost call the church's one foundation. Because in chapters 1 and 2, all of the foundations for the faith, and the work, and the life of the church are laid out. Jesus, if you recall, He spends 40 days instructing His disciples, whom He would call apostles now. and teaching them and other followers and disciples of Christ, what it really means, how to understand Scripture, that all of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus. All of Scripture, the Old Testament, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, they all in some way point to and prepare God's people for the coming Messiah who would come and suffer and die and rise from the dead, defeating death itself, and then ascend to heaven. He taught them about the coming Holy Spirit, who would be their permanent, present God comfort, that He would be poured out onto all of them. And we saw how that all unfolded on the day of Pentecost, a week and a half after Jesus had ascended to heaven. and how the Holy Spirit was poured out, not just onto the apostles, as one might expect, because in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was reserved for just special folks. They would be filled with the spirit if they were prophets or if they were kings or if they had a special task. And yet here, all 120 of God's followers, men and women, old and young, they're all filled with the Holy Spirit. And as a result, the the delight, the beauty, the promise of God's salvation is is preached in every language, foreshadowing that that there won't even be a language barrier to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, this is all preparation work. And and then Peter, having been instructed by Jesus, having been filled by the Holy Spirit, then preaches his first sermon. explaining what happened at Pentecost through the lens of the cross and the empty tomb and the risen Savior. And as a result, over 3,000 souls repent and come to Christ. And it's incredible, and the church explodes in growth. And they all come together, and they're so excited. They're excited to learn. They're excited, they're devoted to hearing what the apostles have to teach them. They're devoted to prayer and worship and communion. They're devoted to caring for one another and providing for each other. Nobody has any needs that don't go unmet. That's a lot of negatives. I don't even know if that sentence made sense. Everyone's needs were being met. There we go. And so, but that end of chapter 2 that we looked at last week, that's sort of the beginning of chapters 2 through where we're heading into chapters 6 and 7 and 8. And from Chapter 2 to Chapter 8, you might title that section, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. And last week and this week, we're really just in the good. We're still just looking at the good. And we'll see, you know, last week we were told that many signs and wonders were being done for the apostles. And this week, we're going to see one of those in particular, one of those signs and wonders and unpack that. But the next week, we're going to see what happens when when when Christianity comes up against traditionalism and just the old ways, more specifically against those who aren't willing to hear that Jesus Christ is the son of God and savior of sinners and persecution begins to mount. And it's not so bad, like we could endure that, but then we get to the next section, and we find out that the sinners aren't just those bad people out there, but there's still sinners inside God's family, too, and it's in all of us. And how does the church, it's one thing to respond to persecution from the outside, but how does the church respond to trial and difficulty from the inside? And all of this good and bad and ugly will culminate in a young man newly ordained deacon, maybe, who also preaches his first sermon. And the result of his first sermon is not 3,000 souls converted, but a mob of angry men will stone him to death. And so that's where we're heading. But today we're still in the good, so let's at least enjoy it while we can. Would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? This is Acts chapter three. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, Look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver or gold, 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 raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he clung to Peter and John and all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed to 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, 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 he 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 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 His Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, and 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 whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be cut, shall be destroyed from the people. And all of the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers saying to Abraham and to your offspring, shall all the families 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 every one of you from your wickedness. The grass withers, the flowers fade, and yet the word of the Lord remains forever. You may be seated. So no, it's not very Presbyterian of us to only have two points in the sermon, but the sermon really unpacks pretty quickly, unfolding for us Luke's description of what happened and then Peter's explanation of what happened. So you've got the miracle and then the meaning of the miracle. And in those, I just want to point out a few things as we go through each of these portions. And they're not all equal in length, but there are probably seven or eight things that I noticed as I was just considering this passage. So first of all, it starts out in verse one that we're told that Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. So I think just from that alone, there's a couple of things to notice. One is the continuity and connection of Christianity to the Old Testament people of God, to Judaism. You know, the apostles weren't looking for some way to cut ties and completely isolate and remove themselves from Judaism. They saw and understood from Christ's teaching and from His explanation of Scripture that Christianity wasn't some new thing, it wasn't some removed thing, it was actually the fulfillment of all that God had said and promised in the Old Testament. And so it was natural for them to continue their daily habits that had been established by their faith when they were under Judaism, that they would continue in daily habits of prayer. We're told that this happened around 3 p.m. This would have been during the time of the afternoon sacrifice that would happen every single day. There would be a time of prayer in the afternoon. There was a time of prayer in the morning. There was a morning and an evening sacrifice at the temple every day. And even while the apostles are starting to understand and grasp that Jesus is the fulfillment and final sacrifice, that all the sacrifices pointed to him, they did not reject or stop going to the temple for prayer every day. And then the second thing to notice in that is that The apostles didn't see it necessary to remove or isolate themselves from those other people out there. They didn't consider being a Christian means that I'm going to stop hanging out with my former friends who aren't Christians. Like they would put themselves in places where unbelievers could see them, which sort of is alluded to in the end of chapter two that it says they had favor with all the people. And you can't really have favor with anyone who doesn't know you. And so here they are, they're going to the temple to pray, they're interacting, they're willing to be seen and for their lives to be seen by those around them. The second thing that comes throughout the whole of the occurrence is the historicity, the actuality of the event. We're not used to this because we think that all writers throughout all of time write the way modern authors write and add unnecessary details, but that's just not true. In the past, when you would make up a fictitious story, you would leave things very vague. And so the fact that the writer is intentionally letting you know, this was at the ninth hour. It was 3 p.m. You know, Peter takes him by the right hand and helps him up. These are all clues that this is an eyewitness account that Luke has recorded for us. Someone who was there is sharing about this with enough detail that you recognize, oh, this is actually an event that happened, this isn't just some story to encourage God's people, although it is also that it's just not only that it actually is an historic event. You know, we see in this the power of God, don't we? And you see that in some of the, again, more of the details that Luke fills in for us. He tells us that this man, it isn't just that he broke his legs and needed some temporary help or healing. This man has been lame since birth. He has never walked. in his life. He has been in this situation from birth. It is not something that came upon him through his own choices or through some accident that happened to him. He was born this way. And God's power is able to overcome even this situation into which he's been born. We'll find out later In Chapter 4, because Chapter 4 continues in this same day, this same event, because Peter and John will be arrested and questioned for all of this, for healing a man. Can you believe it? How dare they? And in that time of questioning, we'll find out that the man was 40 years old. which when I was younger, I used to agree, like, yeah, that's well beyond healing abilities. And now I'm like, what is the matter with you guys? Who cares if he was, that's not that old, but apparently it is. Once you hit 40, it's like, well, I don't know. How's your IRA? But here, just the power of God, even over a 40-year-old, crippled from birth, God is able to deliver him from that misery. You know, verse 8 is interesting because the way that Luke records it is very intentional to make sure that you do not miss the point that the Messiah has come. The language of this lame man leaping is intentionally tied, intentionally drawn out of Isaiah 35, which was our call to worship, that the lame will leap for joy when the Messiah comes. Luke is already giving hints before he gives Peter's explanation that what is happening here is to leave all doubt behind that Jesus is the Messiah and the Messiah has come. And those promises of the Old Testament that we're saying when the Messiah comes, these things will happen. He's saying, look, they're happening. The lame are leaping for joy. You know, one negative thing that I see here, and maybe it doesn't have to be, but I wonder why. Did you notice how many times Luke points out that this man was begging for alms? That this man, like alms are mentioned at least three times. And even when alms aren't mentioned, you know, it says, you know, he looked to Peter and John expecting something from them. And remember, he's brought daily. to the temple and laid there in front of the temple at this gate where people were going to go in and out in the mornings and the evenings for prayer. And he's laid there in front of the temple as people are going into worship, just in the hopes that a few of them, some of them, one of them might give him a little bit of money so that he can live another day. And I think that's a I feel like that is a poor reflection on the church at that time, at least on the old covenant people, that here's this man laid at the temple. God in Deuteronomy said, hey, take care of your poor. There will always be poor among you, and so you always have a heart for the poor. The priests, part of the priest's collections was for caring for the poor, for caring for those who couldn't care for themselves. And here's this man who just sits outside the temple every day, and his only hope isn't that the priests are organizing anything or that the people are regularly contributing, but that every once in a while, one person as he walks by might care a little bit about me. Can you, I don't know if I can think of a more hypocritical path to worship than if one of our own families were sitting outside the front door, begging for help, and every once in a while, one or two of us might flip them a couple dollars and say, hey, if you're still there on the way out, I'll give you some more, but right now I'm going in to worship God. It's just a strange situation. And I know that's how you might say, well, that's what the culture was at the time. Okay. Well, then the culture was broken. Can we at least admit that? That was a horrible situation that if you couldn't provide for yourself, your only hope was to be outside the temple that maybe a couple of people would care for you. Even Jesus in Matthew 23, do you remember when he pronounces the woes on the Pharisees, on the religious leaders? He says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You tithe mint and dill and cumin. And have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You're blind guides, you strain gnats and swallow camels. It's a sad picture that we see here. But notice the sixth thing, I think it's the sixth thing, I don't know. Notice that faith is the conduit through which God's powerful grace comes to us. Now here, this is interesting. not the man's faith. This is the order we often think, and it's backwards. Faith brings healing. Whether you're thinking spiritually or even physically, we all have this idea faith brings healing. But in this passage, did you notice? That healing. Brought faith. This man didn't have faith in Jesus, this man didn't know who Jesus was, even even Peter's description of it. It's a vague language, it's by faith, by faith in His name has this man been healed. And it raises the question, whose faith, Peter? And it's actually Peter and John's faith. Peter and John trust Jesus. This man is healed and then, He is healed and then goes walking and leaping and praising God. My pastor in Raleigh, he spent some time in Miami helping plant a church down there, and he was interacting with a young man. During their relationship, this young man, someone carjacked him, like shoved him over into the passenger seat, jumped in his car and started driving. And the man kind of knew that this guy was not that was not going to be the end of the ordeal. And so the first chance he had, he he jumped out of the car and darted through the bushes. But the bushes were just a median. And as soon as he got to the other side, he got hit by a car. And he was a part of a church at the time. He was really kind of wondering about faith and searching for things. He was a part of a church at the time who would regularly talk about how your faith brings healing. And he was in the hospital, and he was all hooked up with things, and he had pins through his legs. And his pastor and a group of leaders in his church at the time walked into the room, looked at him and everything that he was connected to and said to him, you don't have enough faith today. I can see already you don't have enough faith today to be healed and turned around and walked out. Now the reality of that situation, who in that room actually didn't have enough faith? It was his pastor. And I'm not saying that he would have received any healing moment. I'm saying that it was the pastor's lack of faith that caused him to turn around and walk out. And he blamed it on the man who was suffering and hurting and blamed his faith. And Peter and John come and they know that Jesus is the answer. And they know that He has promised, I'm going to do greater things through you guys. It'll be better for you if I leave so that the Spirit will be with you and in you. And Peter and John trust God. And then this man is healed. and He trusts God. Healing precedes faith. And don't we know that? We know that in our better moments. It's by grace you've been saved. It's by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourself. It's a gift from God so that no one can boast. Just one couple more things about the healing itself. Do you ever want less from God than what He wants for you? Let's think about what this man was after this day, and what God had in store for him. This man wanted to get by, and God wanted him to get up. This man wanted a dinner, and God invited him to dance. He was just looking for some help. And God brought healing. How many times are we just we just want a little help? And God says, no. How about I bring healing? How about I give you something worth dancing for? And finally, real quick, God uses changed lives to change lives. God uses changed lives to change lives. We often think that we've got to have just this, I've got to have the perfect evangelism tool, I've got to have the four laws memorized or the right questions memorized in the right order. I've got to clean myself up first and then maybe I can talk to people about Jesus. gets up and is worshiping God, and his changed life attracts others. That's all. He doesn't know anything about anything, but it's his changed life that draws the crowd You know, as one pastor was famous for putting it, he says that the gospel is simply or evangelism is simply one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. You know, come, come meet a man. Who knew everything I've ever done. And still didn't reject me. Could this be the Messiah? You know, we get to Peter's description here, his second now at least recorded for us sermon or talk. You know, the crowds are beginning to gather. You know, just overall, it's, I do find it delightfully amusing, I guess, but it's not in a, it's not a wrong thing, but it's just, it's very interesting that Peter uses every opportunity he can to point to the crucified risen Savior. Like everything that is going on in Peter's life to Peter is proof that Jesus died and rose again for his sins. You come out of the day of Pentecost, and all these people are speaking in multiple languages, and Peter comes out and he says, yeah, that's cool, isn't it? That's nothing. Did you know that your sin killed Jesus and he died and rose again to save you? I was like, what? That's, how did we, what? And then this sermon. This message, people are coming from, they're all gathering around and he's like, I know, isn't that crazy? Do you know what's crazier? Your sin killed Jesus and he died and rose again so you could be forgiven. He's like, I, that, how did we get there from the legs? I'm gonna, I need a little bit of help. But that's, like Peter, it's that old, story about how, or a statement about how, like, when we find help, wherever we find help, we want others to find that same help. Like, even as simple as you found, I don't know, you found a good restaurant to eat at, Like if you like the restaurant, you're going to tell other people, eat at this restaurant. I found good food here. You will find the food good also. When we, you know, you go and ask, you know, you go for counseling or for help with any situation, if it's a help to you, the most natural thing for you to do is tell someone else, hey, I found help here. I found help in this. Peter knows the power of God's forgiveness of sins, doesn't he? He knows personally what it means that Jesus would die for his sins and forgive him. And he takes every opportunity to point others to that truth. Jesus died because of your sin, and he has been raised so that you can be forgiven. Notice that Peter's not afraid to talk about sin. He doesn't shrink back from saying, hey, no, what you do is wicked. What you did was wicked. You did these things. Even in ignorance, it was wicked. He says, how many times does he say it? You delivered. You denied. You killed. The truth is, you do not understand how good the good news is if you don't understand how bad the bad news is. Like, I can't, like, if you get a paper cut, and I, you know, I slather it with, what's that stuff called, cortisone? Is that for cuts? Neosporin, there we go. When I was a kid, it was like the iodine that like just, yah! Anyway, that was a great salvation message there. But the Neosporin, it's much nicer. But you know, if I bring five gallons of Neosporin and dunk your hand in because you cut your pinky on a piece of paper, and then I wrap it in gauze and a bandage and tape, and afterwards say, I saved you! You're just gonna be like, not really. You've made a mess. Like, if that's all you think of your sin, it's just these little paper cuts? You know, yes, some people needed Jesus to die, and we all know who they are. But really, for me, it's sort of overkill, pardon the pun. I mean, really, a list of rules, and I'd have had it. I'm very good at following the rules. And the thing is, that's most of you, because 80% of people who will actually show up at church on Sunday are really good rule followers. It's why you're here. And if we just had better rules, I could have done it. And Peter, the Holy Spirit, through Peter, says, no. No, your sin killed Jesus. Your sin, you would have rather had a murderer. Than the righteous, holy one, God himself, then you you killed the author of life. Like that has to sink in if you're going to understand. What God did to save you. You know, that does bring up that as he's hard on sin, he's also so gentle with sinners, isn't he? He's very hard on sin, but he says, listen, brothers, he calls them brothers. He's not like, hey, yeah, I used to be like you guys. I'm so glad I'm not anymore. No, he says, brothers, he even says, I know you did this in ignorance. Isn't that beautiful that Peter says, listen, I know you did this in ignorance because Peter didn't. He says, you denied the Holy and Righteous One. And then he even says to them, I know you did it in ignorance. And is Peter not thinking, I denied the Holy and Righteous One. And there was no ignorance. I am the one who said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And when I'm confronted by a seventh grade servant girl, I can't even admit I know his name. Peter's so gentle with them because he knows how sin isolates us from God. You know, we touched on it already. You know, Peter is not ashamed to point out that this Messiah, this Jesus, is God himself, the holy and righteous one, the author of life. And he alludes to the fact that Jesus is the suffering servant prophesied in Isaiah 53, in verse 17, he calls him the servant. Then he points out how Moses and David and Abraham all point to this one Jesus, to the Messiah. You know, the passage that we use for our meditation, Moses, the Lord speaking to and through Moses, I will raise up a prophet like you. Listen to his voice. If you do not listen to his voice, you will be cut off from your people. You know, where do we get David out of this? He says, well, because in verse 24, he says, and what about Saul, Samuel and all the prophets after Samuel? And you think, well, when did Samuel point to the life of the Messiah? Well, Samuel, if you remember, was the last judge, and it was Samuel who anointed David to be king of Israel. Samuel, in his anointing of David, points forward to the Son of David, the true King of kings. At the end, in verse 25, Abraham points us to Jesus, it's through your offspring that the world will be blessed. This Messiah will come from Abraham, from David, he will be the prophet promised to Moses. And again, the response, the same response. Now this time, this time Peter is starting to learn, he's starting to pick up on like, how do you preach a good evangelistic sermon? Because in Acts 2, he got done, or he thought he was done, and the people said, well, so what should we do? And he's like, oh, yeah, there should be a close. And so this time he doesn't wait. He says, so. Your sin killed Jesus, what should you do? Repent, repent, literally says repent and return to God. It's interesting that nowhere in the Apostles' writings, or at least in Acts, there's no notion that Peter or the Apostles have that God's people, the Jews, have their path to God. And God's people, the Christians, have another path to God. And it's okay, we're both on a path to God. Peter says in no uncertain terms, you, yeah, you are the people of the prophets. You are the people of the covenants. Now repent, turn from your wickedness. If they won't listen to the voice of this one that I will send, I will cut them off from their people. Repentance is a call for everyone, whether you were born under the covenant or not born under the covenant. This is one of those things that we kind of struggle with here, don't we, as those who delight in the covenant, in the new covenant, and we delight to raise our children under the covenant and the blessings that they have in the covenant and being raised as God's covenant children. And do we forget that without repentance, There is no covenant that even born under the covenant, born under the privileges of the covenant, if I will not see my sin for what it is, worthy of death, either mine or the Son of God's. If I don't understand that, that is the central message of the covenant that God would send his son to die for your sins so that you could be forgiven and received and made whole and forgiven. God calls even the children of the covenant, Peter calls them repent. Turn back, return to God. And what will happen? Return to God so that your sins may be blotted out. It's so beautiful. Your sins may be blotted out. So the couple of places where that word is used, Revelation 21, when Christ returns, your tears will be blotted out of your eyes. Like that's how full restoration will be, all the tears that you have will be blotted out. And in that same way, your sins are blotted out. From your record. Your sins are blotted out when you repent. Also, the passage that says that their names cannot be blotted out of my book. Your sins are blotted out so that your name never will be. And it's this imagery of like erasing. And so like the ink that they used back then didn't have acids in it. So all you ever had to do if you made a mistake, it was just take like a wet rag or a sponge and you just blotted it and it would just, the ink would disappear. Like you would blot the mistake out. How incredible, how ridiculously merciful that when we repent, God blots our sin out. He takes our sin away from us. Your sins may be blotted out, you may receive from God times of refreshing. Just the gift of forgiveness, how many of us, some of you have wonderful testimonies of how when you have experienced the forgiveness of God, just the refreshing that took over your heart and your soul. And so that your sins will be blotted out, you'll receive from God times of refreshing. And this Jesus will return again and he'll restore everything. What a great promise, what great hope. And so just to, you know, not to be unlike Peter or to be more like Peter, I guess, so some connecting points, I guess. Hey, you're a sinner. And God knows that. And whether you feel like it's been done ignorantly, As Peter allows for this whole crowd. You feel like you have no excuse, it was pretty intentional. Like, I don't know, Peter. Healing. Produces faith. God isn't saying to you, hey, get get it all cleaned up. Get yourself figured out. And then I'll bring you some healing. Your desire for forgiveness is a part of that process of healing, the Holy Spirit has begun to heal you. And so trust him. Repent. Let God blot your sins out from you. And bring seasons of refreshment. Let's pray. Jesus, we praise you and thank you for the forgiveness that we have for our sins. Forgiveness that came only because of your life and death and resurrection. You have died because of the wickedness of our sin, and you were raised to conquer our sin and conquer death and pay the penalty that we owe. God, help us to. Be overwhelmed with the. The full forgiveness that we have, our sins have been blotted out. And may we poor crippled Presbyterians actually leap for joy at the healing that you have accomplished. In Jesus' name, Amen.