Jesus is the Answer - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Acts 3:1-4:4, we see Peter and John heal a man born lame, sparking faith in the man and all who were witness to the sign. Because of their attribution to the resurrected Jesus, the apostles are imprisoned by the Pharisees.
Transcript:
How many of you are familiar with the TV show Extreme Makeover Home Edition with Ty Pennington? Yeah, you all seen, most of you have seen that before. It was a, it was a popular show back in the early 2000s. I remember watching it occasionally as a kid. It was always amazing to see their incredible transformations of those homes.
And it seemed like a real blessing to those families, a gift that would restore their lives. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a curse to many. I watched a mini documentary that was released in the past couple weeks that was talking about the unexpected burden that these makeovers had upon families. Cash strapped families suddenly inherited homes with massive utility bills, increased tax rates, and very often they were difficult to sell because the homes were located in poor neighborhoods.
One family had to take over 400, 000 in loans to try to keep afloat before they finally relented and sold their dream home. They actually just renewed the series, and, but they're planning to take a much more modest approach to these make or make overs because of the reality of these burdens. We love these kinds of shows in part because we love the idea of restoration.
We love the idea of people getting back on their feet and walking into a new future. It gives us hope. If we're clear eyed, noting the sort of realities I just shared, we must admit that it is difficult to find genuine restoration in this world. It is easier to build over our problems than to truly solve them.
But what we find in the pages of Acts is not of this world. What we see brought to life in the church is God given, established by Jesus Christ. It is an other worldly transformation that breaks out in the midst of our all too worldly life on this earth. Looking first at Acts 3, we're beginning into this chapter looking first at verses 1 through 6.
We find that Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer. Now, we read at the end of Acts chapter 2 that it was common for the early believers to gather together in the temple. We must remember that they were Jews, they were Jewish and the temple was still standing and it was still a place that would have been natural for them to gather, a natural place for them to worship.
And as Peter and John are going up, they're going up at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now as they were going up, they noticed a man who was lame and he was begging. Now, this wouldn't have been a surprising sight, apparently, because this is a man who had been at the temple gate there for quite a long time.
He had made it a habit of begging at that gate. And the name of the gate was Beautiful. So you have quite a contrast here between this gate that's named Beautiful and this man that's just in this wretched state of having to beg for money. And when he saw Peter and John, he turned to them and asked them if, if they might give him some money.
But Peter and John did not give him any money. Instead, it says in verse four and five, they told them, look at us. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
So what Peter and John offer this man is something that money couldn't buy. They offer him the ability to walk. An ability he had never known in his life because he had been lame from birth, and they offer it to him not on the basis of their authority, but on the basis of the authority of Jesus Christ. They give him this command in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and and even in calling upon the name of Christ in that manner we see really the full picture of who Jesus is.
Jesus is this King. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He has ascended to the right hand of the Father. And yet, by referring to Him as Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we remember very much His human existence. His human reality. That He was a man from Nazareth, of humble origins, in His human life.
And they see this man, and they help this man in the way that God empowers them to. Now, continuing on in verse 7, gotta get back to verse 7, we see the result of that. It says, taking him by the right hand, he helped him up. And instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. So Peter offers him a hand. The man accepts and it says instantly, strength was restored to his legs. There was no stumbling along. Says that he basically jumps to his feet and he's walking and jumping along with Peter and John into the temple courts.
Now part of the reason why this is significant is, you have to understand that those who had physical deformities of that kind were not allowed to go into the temple court. They could have been in the outside area, which I'll show you shortly, but they could not go into the temple court because of a proscription against that that was given in the Old Testament.
Now we might ask that, why wouldn't God let people that have these sorts of disabilities, these deformities, come into his presence? It was part of God's work of revelation that he was trying to communicate to the people his absolute holiness and perfection. Now as we see in Jesus Christ and what happens here, it was not his intent that people would be left on the outside forever and ever, but he wanted to make sure that the people understood his perfect perfection, his complete perfection.
And the, and the divide that exists between us and God, which transcends physical issues, physical weaknesses, physical brokenness, because that's just superficial stuff that really doesn't matter as we see in Jesus Christ. The real issue is the heart, and that's what Jesus was revealing in his ministry all along.
He was criticizing the Pharisees, saying, you're all concerned about the outside of the cup. What about the inside of the cup? That's what God is really concerned about. But we have these visual reminders set out in the Old Testament to understand the perfect holiness of God. But now in Jesus Christ, this divide is being broken down.
And that's what's so wonderful about what's happening here, is for the first time in this man's life, he is able to go into the temple courts. And just to kind of orient you to the temple, and just to give you, to kind of ground you in the reality of the narrative that we have here. I just wanted to give you kind of a little quick picture tour of, of the temple precinct.
So this picture is not the temple. this is a picture of the temple mount as it is today with the dome of the, the rock on top. That's a mosque. but it covers the same area. Now the area, the point at which It's believed that Peter and John would have went in and came across this man, would have been at this gate called the Shushan Gate, right here where that arrow is pointing.
So the man was sitting there, begging. Now it's called the Beautiful Gate, and this is, and you can actually see part of it today. There's a newer version of it that's built on top of it, that's the lower part. portion of it. But the reason why it was called the beautiful gate wasn't because of the outside of appearance, because you look at that and you say, that looks pretty plain.
Doesn't look very beautiful. It's called the beautiful gate because of what was on the inside. You had these beautiful ornate mosaics on the, on the inside, on the ceiling. And so, as this man is healed, he's going through this gate, and you see those steps going up. No one, even if he could have gone up, no one would have wanted to carry this guy all the way up those stairs.
That would have been quite a lot. But he's, now he's fully able. He's going up these stairs, up into the temple precinct, and he would have emerged there. And then from there, he would have gone inside these temple courts. He could go inside there now. But it says that from there, they went to Solomon's Colonnade, which is on the other side.
So it's like you go out of that entrance, you turn right, there's Solomon's Colonnade on the far end. Would have been right in front of the main entrance to the temple courts. And this is what it would have looked like if you were gathered under Solomon's colonnade as the early believers would have.
This would have been a common gathering place for them. And this is, this is where they are as this man is holding on to Peter and John. And they're gathered in Solomon's Colonnade. And people are rushing towards them as they see this man, because they all know him. They say, that's the guy who's always asking me for money.
That's the guy who I've felt really bad for my whole life, because he's just been laying there in misery. Now he's walking. He's here in Solomon's colonnade. And so, this huge crowd forms. And Peter doesn't put this opportunity to waste. Whenever has, he has an audience, he's going to preach. The Spirit has given a sign, so now Peter's going to give the gospel message.
And as he does again and again, he's going to explain to the crowd the meaning of all this. So continuing on in verse 12, it says, when Peter saw this, he said to them, fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.
It is Jesus name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. So once again, As the apostles made clear when they offered this healing to this man, they're not claiming any of this power for themselves. They're saying, the only way that this man was healed was by the power of Jesus Christ.
And that's something that's important for us to remember, I think, in a couple of respects, when we think about miracles and the way that God might minister through us. It's not about us. So on the one hand, those who would feel like, well, I can't do much of anything, well, God can still use you. God can work through you.
The power of God can work through us to do incredible things, miraculous things. On the other hand, some of us think a whole lot of ourselves, and we have to remember is the power is not ours. It's all from Jesus Christ. Now, going from, you know, pointing out the reality that this man was healed by Jesus.
They go on to say, this one, this Jesus who has been glorified by God, well, you're the ones that killed him. Peter moves on into his message of pointing out their guilt, their sin. He offers a word of condemnation towards them. They killed Jesus even when Pilate was ready to let him go. A Gentile. A Gentile was ready to let go their Messiah, but they decided, no, we want to kill him.
They preferred it, they preferred instead the murderer Barabbas, who it's believed was maybe a member of an assassin group called the Sicarii. Very violent man. They chose a murderer, a killer over one who came to give life. In fact, the very author of life, Jesus. But this is where God's glorification of Jesus shows up.
Is that, you killed him, but God raised him from the dead. Doesn't get more glorious than that. And the apostles say, we were witnesses of this. This isn't just a legend we heard. It's not that. We found the tomb empty, and then we suppose, well, maybe he rose from the dead. No. They are witnesses of Jesus' resurrection.
They saw him. They ate with him. They talked with him. And so, this healing that occurred came by faith in this one that God has glorified. By faith in the name of Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. And they say it is Jesus name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
And this is something that's valuable for us to remember when it comes to healing. We can only receive healing if we will have faith. If we will have faith in Jesus Christ. Now that doesn't mean that we will necessarily be healed. Faith is necessary. But, this man had been lame his whole life, from birth.
He had suffered a whole lot. And it is difficult for us to comprehend the plans and purposes of God for our lives. And so we're not assured that just because we have faith that we're going to necessarily be healed. But if we will be healed, we must have faith.
Continuing on in verse 17, Peter says, Now fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus.
Heaven must receive Him until the time comes for God to restore everything as He promised long ago through His holy prophets. So Peter does allow one excuse for them. You were a little bit ignorant. You didn't think that he was the Messiah, but you didn't know that he was innocent. What they did was still wrong.
But they were still operating from a place of ignorance. What Peter is trying to point out to them, though, is that you should have seen this. Because it was God's intent that the one who would be the Messiah would in fact have to suffer, because the prophets told of this. In Isaiah 53: 3, it says of him that he was despised and rejected by mankind.
A man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we held him in low esteem. Words spoken hundreds of years earlier that sound like, right on the money, that this is Jesus. But they didn't connect the dots. Now, it's this point that Peter offers them the good news, the good part of, of his message that, okay, you, you messed up.
You killed the author of life and yet it's by the same man that you can be saved. They say, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. That offer of forgiveness that is given to the people that personally had some hand in crucifying Jesus, were around at that time and ignored him, those same people that are offered forgiveness, that forgiveness that they were offered if they would repent and turn from their sins is a forgiveness that is offered to us today.
If we will turn from our sins. If we will turn to Christ in faith, it's an offer that still stands for all of us.
Something else that's notable, just to think a little bit more about this lame man that was healed, is that his healing harkens back to the prophecies of the Messiah. This wasn't just a show of power, his healing. It was a sign. pointing towards the restoration that God means to offer to all people through his Messiah, Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah 35: 3- 6, we see how this man fits right alongside, right into the prophecy that was given about the Messiah. It says, Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear, your God will come, he will come with vengeance, with divine retribution, he will come to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. What the people were anticipating was that when the Messiah showed up, he would bring healing and restoration.
And that's what, exactly what we see in the ministry of Jesus. Everywhere he went, he was healing people. He was delivering them of demons. And we see that even as he has ascended now, his healing work of restoration continues on through his body, through the church, by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Peter tells them that they should repent, receive the forgiveness of their sins. He has come. Christ has come. They should do this, though, because He is also coming again. They should repent so that they can receive the fullness of all that God means to offer them in Jesus Christ. It says, they say, Peter says that He is in heaven until that time when He should come again.
It says heaven must receive Him until the time comes for God to restore everything. Now we ask, when is that time? Well, we don't know the time in terms of, I know the day, I know the hour, but we know what must happen in order for that day to come, Jesus says in Matthew 24: 14, and this gospel, the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
And so Jesus is inviting them to come to Christ in order that this time might be fulfilled, and that they might receive Christ in his second coming as he brings this complete restoration. Now they can't hurry up Christ's return. That's something that's set in stone. But this is what must happen. The gospel must go out and people must repent until all those who are to be gathered in will be gathered in.
But we look forward to that day because it's a day in which Jesus will, in fact, restore us and restore the creation. The Apostle Paul, in Romans 8, verses 19 through 23, says, For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would be liberated from its bondage to decay, and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to Sonship, the redemption of our bodies. The picture that Paul is painting here is that the earth is groaning out that Christ would come and renew the earth. That we as believers, we've received the first fruits of the Holy Spirit so that that work of new creation has begun, in fact, in us today. But even so, we groan. We're like, this world is still messed up. I'm still not who I'm supposed to be. Our heart's groan out come, Lord Jesus. Bring that peace, that restoration that we so long for.
This anticipation that we have feeds right into our response of repentance and it, and it should, and, and, and Peter uses this to call upon them to the repentance that's needed. Verse 22, he continues, he says. For Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.
You must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people. Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days, and you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.
When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways. It's interesting, Peter refers to a prophecy that was given by Moses regarding Jesus. a prophecy that I think a lot of us can very easily miss out on, because when we think about the prophets, we think about Isaiah, Jeremiah, but Moses has a prophecy about Jesus.
And I want to show it to you. It's, it's, it's very striking. In Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 through 19 It says, The Lord, Moses says, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God, nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.
The Lord said to me, What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
Now think about, I mean this is over a thousand years before Jesus now. And there was no prophet like Moses that followed him until we get to Jesus Christ. And what God says here, and what Peter says here in these verses, is that the people need to listen. to what Jesus has said and respond in obedience.
He says that it's not just Moses though. Samuel, the other prophets, all of them have been saying you should be on the lookout for this promised Messiah. It was very clearly Jesus. And that Jesus is the one that in fact fulfills the promise that was promised. given to Abraham. And we've spent a lot of time talking about Abraham.
So you should be very familiar with this, that God intended to use Abraham, not only to bless his family, but that through Abraham, the whole world would be blessed. And the only way that promise is realized is through Jesus Christ. If you don't have Jesus Christ and the blessing while we can give thanks for the Jewish people and other regards, the blessing is pretty limited.
It's pretty capped if you don't have Jesus. Jesus makes it all go global so that all people might turn to God and be redeemed and restored in Jesus.
And so it's on this basis that he says you need to turn, you need to turn from your wicked ways. This is the reason why Jesus has come so that you might turn from your wickedness, repent, and be saved. And there are consequences for failing to do so. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 8 and into 9, he says he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. When Jesus shows up, when it's made clear who he is, we can no longer claim ignorance, even though our ignorance itself wouldn't have been enough to save us, because we deserve punishment for all sorts of other things besides the way that we respond to Jesus.
But once we see Jesus, we need to respond in obedience, in faith, repenting from our sins and turning to Him for the salvation that He offers. So between this healing and the preaching that Peter and John were offering, they were attracting a lot of attention and it got them into trouble. Just dipping our toe into chapter 4, just the first four verses.
It says, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew to about 5, 000. So, it says that the temple guard, the priests, the Sadducees were disturbed by what was going on here. Obviously, they were disturbed because Peter and John were talking about Jesus. And the whole reason they killed Jesus is because they wanted people to stop talking about him.
Stop turning to him. But it says very specifically that they were stirred because the Apostles were teaching the people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. There's another objection that especially the Sadducees have here to the preaching that they're giving. Which is that the Sadducees deny the resurrection.
That's the difference between, the Pharisees believe in resurrection and the general resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees deny the resurrection. If you ever want to try to remember the difference between them, you just remember. Why are the Sadducees called the Sadducees? They deny the resurrection, so they're sad, you see. Yeah.
A few of you have heard that before.
So, they're upset with what they're doing, and they seize Peter and John, and they put them in jail. You gotta imagine, Peter and John probably weren't thrilled about that, although as we see moving forward in the story, they're going to be very bold. And so, they might have been, oh yeah, we're in the thick of it.
And they must have been at least happy about this, which was that, it says that the number of men who believed grew to about 5, 000. So, before I said we were talking about a number between 3 to 5, 000, Now we're certainly at the number 5, 000 in terms of believers. And there could be more than that, because it just says the men who believe maybe there's, they're not counting women and children here.
So the community of the church is growing. Now, as far as we know, those who believe from this crowd, were not lame, like the man who is healed, but this restoration they witnessed, that a man unable to walk from birth was now jumping and leaping before them was a sign pointing them to the restoration that every human being needs.
Peter and John made it clear as day. How broken and messed up must you be to reject the author of life? How blind must you be to go along with his crucifixion? Now, we should not dare to be so prideful as to imagine our hearts are any better. We are all born with the same rottenness. We have all gone astray.
The good news for the people in Peter and John's audience, and for us, is a paradox. The good news is a mystery. That God had planned all along to take what we intended for evil, the rejection of Jesus, and to use it to make it possible for us to be saved by the very one we betrayed. Like the lame man, we are invited to look to Christ in faith, to turn in repentance to him so that our sins would be wiped away, so that we might enjoy in part, and one day in full, complete refreshment.
The restoration, complete restoration of our bodies, complete restoration of our hearts, complete restoration of this earth. Jesus Christ has come to make all things new. As the apostles declare, this has been God's promise all along, and Jesus has now inaugurated its fulfillment. Salvation has appeared not only for Jewish people, but for anyone who repents and believes.
There is much strife in our world. Jesus is the only solution. He is the only one offering the complete restoration we seek. We are born slaves to sin. Jesus blesses us by setting us free from our wickedness, turning us to himself. So yes, believe in him. And if you believe in him, do not forget this. He is your answer in every trial of suffering.
And every hour of temptation. And every terrible conflict. In every great sorrow, Jesus Christ is your answer. He is the answer. And there is none besides him. Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for the complete revelation of who you are that we receive in Jesus Christ. We see your heart and your love for us. We see it in the healing of this lame man who is crippled from birth, father.
You gave him restoration and welcomed him into your presence. And father, we see that we are in need of the same restoration. Yes, father, our bodies are weak and broken in various regards, father. But more than that, father, our hearts need to be restored. Father, we give you praise that in Jesus Christ, this restoration becomes a reality and father, we are looking forward to the day when it will be made complete.
Father, we give you thanks that even today, the spirit works powerfully so that we might taste the first fruits of what you give us in Jesus Christ. So father, yes, give us repentance. Turn our hearts from sin. Father, also give us faith so that we depend upon Jesus Christ so that we will look him, look to him for the healing and restoration, which he offers and which can only come by him.
We ask this in his name, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)