Overview of last week. Overview of chapter: set the drama.
From "happy ship church" to crashing on waves of persecution.
The events of chapter 3 will lead directly to persecution. Peter and John get arrested for this healing and their preaching.
Healing of the Lame Beggar (v. 1--10)
There is a huge crowd, Peter preaches a sermon (v. 11) While the lame beggar clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.
V. 13-15 Describes what they did--they had delivered Jesus over and denied him in the presence of Pilate, asked for a murderer instead, and killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.
"To this we are witnesses" (v. 15)
"you acted in ignorance." (V. 17)
What is Peter doing?
2 main things:
1. Bad news; 2. Good news
I. Bad News
He is preaching the bad news before the good news; the law before the gospel.
Asking them to admit this bad news, submit to it and then repent.
But why should they submit to this bad news, and admit their guilt? Because of God’s authority!
V.18, Key verse: "But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that this Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. "
God foretold; it was God who has written the Scriptures that the people in Acts 2 are observing. Peter is asking the crowd to submit to this authority, the authority of God who foretells the acts of history, whose revelation has broken into OUR STORY here on earth. He is asking them to bend their will to His.
Notice how Peter starts his sermon with the bad news--he wants them to feel their guilt, shame and sin. He is preaching what Calvinists call the Law.
Even back then people did not want to admit their sin, or that God was the Author of life.
Example of Jesse
He is an anarchist. Does not really believe in ethics.
The modern world does not want "right" or "wrong," but as soon as they are wronged they appeal to justice. As soon as you give up truth you should have no right to be angry at anyone for doing wrong.
Peter shows us two things about this kind of truth.
(V.18) "But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled."
It is possible to find final truth.
He does not say that they foretold but that God foretold.
(4:25,26) "who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
"’Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’ "
Words of God through David
They kept their personality, but it is clear that God spoke through them via the Holy Spirit. Psalm 2 is the word of God through David. The Bible is truth from God.
Why is this important that Scripture is truth from God not just about God?
Answer: There will not be greatness or wholeness in your life if you don’t have a Bible that is true, which you have to obey.
People want values, but must discover them by themselves.
Illustration: song lyrics from book on tape (One Night in Frog Town)
"you are all alone
With no place to call home
There’s nowhere left to roam
No one to turn to now
No one’s going to show you how
"But don’t be afraid to sing your song
When it comes from inside
It won’t be wrong
Just listen to your heart
Feel it getting strong
"The night can be so cold and blue
The moonlight hidden from view
No one to help you through
"But inside there is a place
Where tears disappear without a trace
So feel the rain falling on your face
And let your music play
Washing all your fears away."
Lots of parents don’t want to indoctrinate their kids with their morality: "I can’t tell you what is right or wrong but you can discover it for yourself." But what if the child gets out of the story selfishness? The parent at that point will impose his or her values on the child.
If we get our values by our own experience, we will always make them serve us.
What did Jesus do when he was tempted in the wilderness? Did he look inside to the music of his heart? He said, "it is written..."
When he is in pain on the cross, suffering, he quotes Psalm 22.
It is the base, the foundation of his whole life. He is always going to the Scriptures; what God has said.
In the garden He said, "Not my will by Thine." He did not want to follow God at that moment. It was not about "experience" to find "right and wrong" or he would have gotten out of there.
How did he know God’s will in the midst of agony? Scripture. And that is what made him great.
We can’t follow Christ without believing the whole Bible is true, because he believed it was true. You make a mockery of him if you don’t believe it.
If you say, "where you say this part I like, this part I don’t, this part I accept, but this part I don’t," you are saying that your will is above the Bible; that there is no will greater than yours. Your God is not a living God because he can’t contradict you.
Do you have a God that can argue with you? Who can challenge your will? You only have yourself if you don’t.
II. Good News
This cuts two ways:
1. If God can’t tell you bad news then he can’t tell you good news.
You don’t like it when he tells you about money, or sexuality, or truth telling, or kindness; that is the bad news.
My kids don’t like it when we tell them to do their homework, their chores, be kind, tell the truth, serve others.
2. But if they don’t want to hear this, the bad news, they can’t hear the good news as well; that when they suffer, God is always with them. Then when you feel worthless or shamed, or guilty, he can’t come and speak the good news.
If you don’t have a Bible that is ultimate truth then you don’t have a God that is alive.
So it starts with the bad news
(V. 19) "Repent and turn again that your sins may be blotted out."
This is the new start: forgiveness. So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (v. 20.)
This is why the chapter starts with the example of the beggar. It is the main illustration of the entire text. (v. 16) Faith made this man strong and gave him perfect health. This is a metaphor for the Christian life: when we let God override our wills; when we override our wills to obey Him and His Word.
This is the good news: we have heard the Law, now we are hearing the Gospel.
We can’t have the good news without the bad. If we can’t have God speak into our lives with the bad we can’t have him speak into our lives with the good.
Key verse, in v.22: 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.’
You shall listen. Bend your will to the Scriptures in every area, not just the ones you find convenient.
[Illustration of P90X]
Jordan: "Dad, why do you follow it if it is so hard?"
I felt like saying, "yah you’re right, why do I follow it? Why do I listen to Tony Horton?"
But I do it because he tells me too. I have decided to let him override my will, my feelings of pain. I trust him and where he is leading me.
So this is why I don’t complain or whine; when he says do something I just say "bring it."
But without that there is no blessed life; there are no results from the P90X program.
We have to see the Bible as true, coming from God in its entirety. Trust it, and just say "bring it."
(V. 21) "Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago."
Everything bad is going to become good.
But the promise is healing, wholeness, beauty.
Psalm 1:1-6: Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
How do we get all this goodness? Through a person.
(V. 26) "God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness."
You too will experience Wonder, Astonishment.
