Eternity Is Now Series

[2] How long is eternity? Think about it. Just how long is eternity? Can we even wrap our minds around how immeasurable the eons of time will be in eternity? I think we’re such a time-obsessed culture that it’s hard for us to imagine anything besides finite time.

Think about it, we’ve got clocks in every room of our house. We’ve got clocks in our car, on our cell phone and on our wrists. Many of us live by the dates on our calendars. Every year we celebrate birthdays, New Years Day and anniversaries. And most of our energy goes towards achieving temporary goals and attaining temporary possessions. We are so wrapped up in the hear and now.

But we as human beings are literally living, eternal souls that are temporarily wrapped in a physical body that only lasts for a century.

And there’s where the rub comes. Our eternal soul lives in a temporal body. So do we take care of the here and now temporary part of life? Or do we live solely for the eternity that’s waiting for us after this earthly life is over. I say that we need to take care of the here and now but with an eternal perspective fulfilling eternal goals.

You see, we need to understand that the earthly life that we now live is a part of the eternal life that we have. Since eternity has no beginning and no end, everything is a part eternity. [3] And that means eternity is now!

We’re living in eternity right now. We’re currently earth-side of eternity. When we die our soul continues to live on without the physical body in the spiritual realm. But both are a part of eternity.

The point is, sometimes we live this life as if what we do here is strictly for the temporary nature of life. But the decisions we make and the things we do have implications and even connections with eternity. So instead of looking at life through earthly, finite, temporary standards – look at this life as a part of the fabric of forever.

That’s what Peter wanted the people in the Temple to do when they saw that miracle happen right before their eyes. Remember what we talked about last week? Peter and John were headed into the Temple to do some evangelizing and a crippled beggar stopped them and asked for some money. They stooped down, looked the cripple in the eyes, and by the power of God spoke healing into the man’s legs.

He rose to his feet with a leap, and the three of them went into the Temple walking, leaping and praising God for what He had done. This drew the attention of everyone inside and they wanted to know what had happened. So Peter used this opportunity to direct everyone to the reality of Jesus Christ and to life and to eternity.

The first thing Peter showed the people was the [4] evidence of Jesus’ divinity.

[Read Acts 3:11-18.]

Peter uses this bonified miracle to demonstrate to the people that Jesus was in fact the eternal God. The God of all their Hebrew heroes from the Old Testament.

Peter first shows them how Jesus’ resurrection is evidence that He is God. After all, the Prince of Life was raised from the dead and they and hundreds of other people were eyewitnesses to it. And no Jew could ever produce the dead body of Jesus Christ. The claims were true that Jesus rose from the dead – something only God could do.

Peter also showed them that the miracle was done by the power of Jesus Christ proving that He in fact was God. They all knew the crippled beggar that had been at the door of the Temple for 40 years begging for money. No one else had been able to help him in the least. But by faith in Jesus Christ the power of God flowed through the man’s veins and restored his health fully – something only God could do.

And Peter also noted that Jesus’ suffering on the cross was actually a fulfillment of prophecy written hundreds of years before He was even born. (Check out Genesis 3:15, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12:10.) Jesus’ crucifixion amazingly fulfilled things written down centuries earlier about what the Messiah would go through. His fulfillment of these ancient prophecies was something only God could do.

The resurrection, the miracles and the fulfilled prophecies evidenced the fact that Jesus was in fact the eternal God whom they claimed to worship. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of the prophets. The God who healed the cripple. Jesus is God.

But since they rejected Jesus as God and actually cheered at His death, they needed to completely change their way of thinking. That would only come through a [5] repentance towards Jesus as Savior. They had to turn away from their misguided beliefs and the sins they held in their hearts and turn towards belief in Jesus Christ.