Is It Time For You To Make A Difference? Series

What kind of week have you had?

Did every day go as planned?

Were there good days and not so good days or bad days and worse days?

What happened to you this week that you could have easily done without?

What happened to you this week that you wish could happen every day?

Did anything that happened to you make a real difference in your life?

Did you make a difference in someone else’s life?

This month as part of our fresh fire programme We are considering the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts.

Last week I asked you Are you “acting” or are you acting in the power of the Spirit?

Tonight I want to ask this question: Are you willing to make a difference?

And this evening I want us to consider 2 days in the life of Peter and John.

A couple of days that really made a difference in their lives and the lives of others.

The first day was a typical Sabbath for the disciples - well as typical as it got for them -

I’m sure that this Sabbath began like many other Sabbaths.

Peter’s lying on his bed, and the early morning sun is creeping across the floor of his room.

Somewhere outside a cockerel crows and Peter cracks open one eye, to check its actually morning.

Peter still has a bit of an issue with the sound of a cockerel - although Jesus has forgiven him, he still regrets that night when he denied his lord, not once, not twice, but three times.

In the Temple in Jerusalem, there were three services on a Sabbath, 9.00am, 3.00pm and Sunset.

I don’t know if Peter went back to sleep, or if he decided to have a lie in,

or if he jumped out of bed and started his day right then - but Acts 3 tells us that at 3pm in the afternoon he and John were going to the temple.

You know what happened next, they go through the gate called beautiful and there is a crippled guy begging there.

Peter looks at him and says “Look at us” - Silver or Gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you - in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”.

And Peter stretches out his hand, helps the man up, and the man’s ankles and feet become strong and he starts jumping, and leaping and running around praising God.

And the people who are there and see this happening are seriously surprised.

Peter just opens his mouth and asks them

“Why are you surprised?”

Then he explains how the man was healed in Jesus name, who Jesus was and why the people needed to repent of their sins and turn to Jesus.

Then the day gets even more interesting - let’s look at Acts 4: Acts 4:1-20

1While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totalled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

5The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem.

6Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”

8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

13The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.