“The Power of the Resurrection”
Acts 3:11-26
A crowd has now gathered to see a man who has just been healed. Imagine that for years and years they have watched as this man’s family and friends have carried him everyday to the Temple gate to beg for money. That was his job....that was his life....sitting at the doors of the church hoping someone would provide him with his daily needs because he was not physically able to do so. There was no welfare system in place and this was the only hope he had. He was over 40 years of age and he had been this way all of his life.
He asked Peter and John for help and Peter’s response is classic....he says, silver and gold i do not have but in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And he does. But he doesn’t just walk, the Bible says he jumped up, stood on his feet and began to walk, then walking, leaping and praising God he went into the temple. I’ve seen people happy at church to be at church but I haven’t seen anyone jump up and down and shout when they came in. But it’s not a bad idea is it?
Now it was this miracle of healing that brought in the crowd. A miracle had happened at the front doors of the church and now people were everywhere.
So Peter used this as an opportunity to preach the gospel. Just like a preacher to do that. 9 years ago i was in Guatemala. About 100 of us from across the U.S. had gone there to preach the gospel and to encourage the pastors there. From the moment I arrived i wanted more details about where and when we would be preaching. I wanted to know who would be meeting me at the airport in this strange country. But I couldn’t find out. God just wanted me to trust and not ask so many questions.
When we arrived we immediately had opportunities to share the gospel door to door. We saw over 5000 people come to Christ that week. It was amazing. But when I would ask the pastor I was working with ....when will I preach, where will i preach, will there be a pulpit? I must have sounded like a broken record. I just got the same response from him over and over. I will tell you when. One evening we were showing the Jesus Film in a crowded area, a slum area. The homes had dirt floors, sheet metal for walls, no electricity, no running water in most of the homes. Many did not have a front door.
We did however find a home that had electricity and we got a very long extension cord. The homes were located on a hillside and down in the valley they surrounded there was a soccer field. Nothing fancy. Just a place for kids to play. We brought in a pickup truck with a screen and showed the film. We had a generator for lights if we lost power during the film, we could crank it up and continue. In fact they had a set of lights mounted on a cross that were ready to be used if we needed them. We stared the film and there were about 150 people there as I recall.
We were about halfway through the film when a child tripped over the extension cord and knocked the projector the ground. Crash! In the background i heard the generator start up, the lights came on and they pulled the lights around directly on me and the pastor pointed at me and said preach! So I did. 1-15 minutes with an interpreter. I gave the invitation and 18 people accepted Christ.
The gospel message is simple...we call it the good news because it is the message that God through Jesus Christ did something for us that we could not do for ourselves. When we describe the good news, one we usually describe it in 3 ways. (1) the death of Jesus on the cross. (2) His burial in a borrowed tomb and (3) we describe the resurrection. We do not believe Jesus was still alive and somehow got out; we do not believe someone stole His body. We believe that the body of Jesus was resurrected and the stone was not moved until later when an angel removed it. How did this happen? Answer? He is God!
This passage goes right along with this teaching. Here we will see His power in the past-His power in the present and His power in the future. First the resurrection shows His power in the past. V. 11-15. This is quite a picture to me..the beggar who is healed...holding on to Peter and John. Not sure why-perhaps he was hugging them, thanking them, perhaps he wasn’t sure what would happen next. He may have wondered what the authorities would say so he just hung on. They are at Solomon’s Colonnade which is a covered portico where everyone had gathered...a very large crowd.
Apparently they were all shocked. Astonished might be a better word. Peter saw their impressions and the large group of people and he said to them, men of Isreal why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if we caused this man to walk? He clearly wants them to understand the source of his healing. God’s work did not begin with Jesus. God had been working for thousands of years prior to the birth of Jesus and that is what Peter wanted to remind them of. He was jew speaking to jews about a Jewish man named Jesus. So he does some name-dropping, you know I think I’ll mention some important Jewish men from the past. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Father Abraham. They knew about these men. Romans 1:16 (NIV) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. So He says their God has glorified Jesus. But you handed Him over to be killed. Pilate had decided to let Him go but you disowned Him and exchanged Him for a murderer. You set a guilty man free and an innocent man was crucified.
But it is clear here that Peter wants them to understand so he uses several different names and titles for our Lord. Servant. Jesus. Holy and Righteous one. Author of life. This was not an ordinary man they had crucified. Jesus was the source of this healing. This is not the one they were looking for. Friday was a bit of a strange morning here at the office. A homeless woman got angry and was shouting and then a fellow came in saying Jewish words and then he announced he was the Moshiach which is the supposed messiah the Jews are still waiting for. He invited me to a meeting at the mall.
Then the resurrection shows His power in the Present. V. 16-20. He tells us that this took place in the name of Jesus. This is an important phrase Luke uses here and he uses it frequently. 33X in the book of Acts. How was this man healed? How is all of this possible? Because of the name of Jesus and the faith that comes through Him. The beggar did not have to understand the resurrection, he didn’t have to have all of his theology in tact, he just needed to know the source of this power, Jesus Christ. Peter wants them to understand this. Jesus is the source of this healing power in the past and His strength is available to us in the present.
V. 16b.
Peter then says to them, I know that you really didn’t understand what you were doing-you did it out of ignorance when you crucified Jesus and so did your leaders. They were guilty none the less but he is making the point that the crucifixion fulfilled prophecy because God had said that the Messiah would suffer. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob prophesied that this would take place.
He was basically repeating what Jesus had said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” V. 18-20. And Peter wants us to understand here that the crucifixion that has taken place is not the end of the story. This Messiah, this promised one is alive, He has ascended to Heaven and he will return. And if they will repent and return to God they will experience a time of refreshing. V. 19.
Now this tells us that the Jews would not be forgotten about. It seems to say that
Israel will repent before Jesus comes again. Until that time Jesus will remain in Heaven.
Now having announced the crime they have committed, having presented the evidence Peter now offers them a pardon. 1st he is the prosecuting attorney, then he is the defense attorney and then he sits down on the judge’s bench. What does he tell them to do? They had to repent of their sins. This means to have a change of mind about 3 things...themselves, their sin and Jesus Christ. Repentance is much more than feeling sorry you got caught or even feeling sorry for your sins. As a little girl in S.S. said it means feeling sorry enough to quit.
Feelings pass away. Repentance changes us. He tells them you must make two turns here. You must turn away from your sin and you must turn to the Lord. Peter tells them if you will do this 3 things will happen. (1) your sins will be wiped out (2) a time of refreshment will come and (3) ultimately Jesus will come back.
This also brings ut to our final point. Jesus will triumph. He is our source. He is our strength. He is our security for the future. We don’t know what the future holds but we know who holds the future. Because of the resurrection we are secure in Christ.
The gospel always requires a response. Peter wanted his listeners to do something with what he had said. They had a choice to make. In the year 1900 a killer hurricane bore down on the city of Galveston, Texas. One old bridge connected the island to the mainland and it was the only evacuation route for thousands of people. They were all warned to get out right away. But since they couldn’t actually see the hurricane, they couldn’t hear it...they chose to do nothing. When the storm hit, 6000 people were killed and the entire city was destroyed. Today a concrete sea wall stands as a barrier to keep another disaster away but it also serves as a reminder that 100 years ago thousands of people heard a message and they did not respond.
What will you do with what you have heard today?
