The Power of the Name – Part 2
In the name of Jesus we have Hope
The hope of Earthly Restoration
The hope of Eternal Resurrection
The hope of Spiritual Courage
Intro
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Well, last week, we began talking about “The Power of the Name.”
We began looking at Peter and John and the situation of them healing the crippled beggar at the gate of the Temple.
We saw that that there is power in the name of Jesus
To give and use our gifts
To speak boldly and truthfully and
To find forgiveness and refreshment in our lives.
We are continuing on with the story today in Acts 3:21-4:22
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and we will be seeing what else is available to us in the Name of Jesus.
We are going to be continuing to look at the situation of the man who was crippled and healed and the circumstances that immediately followed and what we learn through Peter’s preaching and interactions with the Jewish leaders.
I want to briefly get us up to speed in our story.
Peter and John were going to the temple.
They came upon a crippled beggar.
They heal him through the power of Jesus!
In the aftermath of this healing, they speak truthfully and boldly about the saving name of Christ and that salvation is only found in him and they talk about the forgiveness and refreshment that is available in His name
Now, I want to read again where we left off last week and then go right into the rest of the text through 4:22
17 "Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you — even Jesus. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 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. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'
24 "Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. 25 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.' 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."
4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.
5 The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is
"'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Pray
Ok, One of the main things I see in this passage is that
In the Name of Jesus, We have Hope
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Peter tells the people in this text that God made a promise and God is in the process of fulfilling that promises that he had spoken through the prophets, even if the people did not see it right then. He reminds them and tells them that God is at work fulfilling His promises and there is hope.
Make it real
Have you ever faced times and circumstances when it seems there is no hope,
like nothing matters, like God is not working?
Maybe you face circumstances that seem like will never get any better.
Maybe you are moving from one thing to the next and things seem to be getting worse, not better, like God is not working.
But I am here to tell you today that
God is working and
there is hope.
This is what Satan wants for us. He wants us living without hope.
Now just having hope based on nothing is just wishful thinking. We need to have real hope, based on truth, based on reality.
Because real hope is absolutely essential to our being able to persevere through difficult times.
Wharf rats drowning illustration
There was an interesting experiment done by Curt Richter, a behavorial psychologist in the 1950’s.
Dr. Richter placed some rats in a cylinder of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes. Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time he "rescued" the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off and returned them to their cages, fed them, and let them play for a few days, and repeated the experiment.
This time, the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to days! He explained that phenomenon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had HOPE. They believed that they could survive this, because of the truth that they had done so before.
https://worldnewsforlife.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/drowning-rats-and-human-depression-positive-psychology-for-whom/
http://www.kennedy.aecom.yu.edu/core/behavioral/fs.html
Real hope based on truth.
This is one of the reasons that God has given us His word, so that we might know truth and that we might have real hope in the midst of difficult circumstances.
Romans 15:4
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For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
So what do we have hope for?
What do the Scriptures tell us that we can have hope for?
Well, Peter tells us in the text in Acts that we have
We have the hope of Christ’s Return
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Acts 3:21
21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
Peter is saying that Jesus will remain in heaven until He returns to bring restoration to the earth during the millennial Kingdom.
This can be counted on and it helps us to live now. The Scriptures teach that Christ could return at any moment. Because of that , Jesus says in
Matt 24:42 - keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
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Because we don’t know, we wait on Him. And we wait patiently in hope, even through the difficult times, because as we wait in hope, we are strengthened to live by the power of His Spirit and the hope we have.
Listen to what Paul says to Titus as he talks about Jesus and the fact that he is coming again.
Titus 2:11-13
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11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
The hope of His return, as we focus on it and think about it, gives us power to live now in a way that brings glory to God and blessing to us.
Transition
But not only does this hope allow us to live now, it really is a hope for the future.
His word tells us that we are going to reign with Him during this kingdom and this will be a time of great peace and blessing on the earth as He restores things.
Revelation 20:6
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6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
His return is truly a blessed hope. Those who are believers can look forward to the time when we get to reign with Him in His millennial Kingdom.
Transition
But that is not the only hope we have. We not only have hope for Jesus to come and restore things so we will reign with Him in his millennial kingdom, but
We also have
We have the hope of Eternal Life
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Acts 4:2
2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
This is our eternal life that Peter is speaking of and no matter if Jesus returns before we die, or we end up dying as believers in Jesus Christ, believers have the hope of spending all of eternity with the Lord in heaven!
People fear death
I think this is the fear of many people – people are afraid to die because they don’t know what is next.
This is why there is a fascination with those stories from people who have supposedly died and come back. People always ask me about these stories. I tell them the same thing.
I am not here to argue about what someone is telling me about some experience they say they had. But I am not going to base my beliefs on someone who is trying to sell a book or a movie, but I will base my beliefs on the truth of the word of God and on the One who I know died and whom I know resurrected from the dead.
His word is true. The evidence for His resurrection is abundant. He is the one I am going to base my belief on and that is the basis of my hope for my own resurrection to eternal life!
The Christian does not need to fear death. The Christian can look forward not to death, but to eternal life with the Lord.
Paul writes
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1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, 17
13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him… [and] we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
We have an eternity to look forward because our hope is in Christ.
Transition
So, we have the hope that Jesus is coming again to set up a millennial kingdom and restore all things and we will reign with him and we will be with him not just for that millennial kingdom but we will be with Him forever!
When we focus on these truths, it also gives us
The hope of Spiritual Courage
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Listen to what we learn in
Acts 4:13
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Unschooled ordinary men able to speak courageously with boldness, not because they had more knowledge than the men who were leaders in Israel, but because they had the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling them and because their hope was not in this world, while the men they were speaking with had only this world to hope in.
If our hope is here, we don’t really have much to hope in.
Hope in the here and now vs. Hope in Christ
Imagine for a moment that you are seeing this unbelievable miracle. A man who was crippled since birth who was 40 years old, healed so that he could walk and jump and praise the Lord.
You would think there would be great rejoicing knowing that God is doing something. But those whose hope is in this world, don’t care about a miracle in someone else’s life. They only care about themselves.
Listen to what they say in the face of this miracle.
Acts 4:16-17
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16 "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."
Why in the world would they want to stop this from spreading any further?
Wouldn’t they be happy if their people were experiencing miraculous healings?
Wouldn’t you want to know what this person had to say?
Not these men because they were only concerned about themselves and their life right this moment. Their hope was only in this world.
It is just like we learn in John after Jesus resuscitated Lazarus. The Jewish leaders said
John 11:47-48
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"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
If people followed Jesus or listened to the apostles and turned to Jesus believing in His name, the Jewish leaders would lose their influence and position in society.
Their hope was in this world which deprived them of acting courageously.
But the apostles found hope in Christ and had real hope that Jesus was coming back and that their eternity was secure with Him so they could be spiritually courageous and speak boldly even though they were unschooled, even though it might cost them suffering or even cost them their life.
They had been with Jesus and they had hope!
Conclusion
Where is your hope?
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Is your hope in the things of this world?
Is your hope in your career?
Is your hope in your money?
Is your hope in your kids?
Is your hope in easy circumstances?
I want to tell you that if your hope is in one of those things rather than having your trust in the name of Jesus Christ, you will find that your life is not one of Hope or power or courage in the Lord, but instead, it will be one of despair, worry, and ultimately hopelessness.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can have hope.
Real hope.
Maybe you are unsure. I know that when you don’t know for sure, it is hard to have real hope?
Well, I want to tell you that you can be sure.
Romans 8:16 says “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”
When we trust in Christ and have the indwelling Holy Spirit in us, He confirms the truth of the word and we can live in real hope in Christ.
Finish
If you are in a place of hopelessness today, we want to help.
Take a step today to know the hope that is available in Jesus Christ.
We would be glad to talk with you about who Jesus is and how knowing Him initially as well as knowing Him more, will help you experience the same hope and strength and power as the early Christians.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying
Ephesians 1:18-19
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I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That is my prayer for you today.
Maybe you are at a place that you know you need Christ and are ready to receive Him.
The Bible tells us that when we confess Him as Lord, and believe in His death and resurrection, He saves us and brings us into a relationship with Him.
It is then that we begin to know more and more “the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power”
Find your hope in Jesus Christ and experience the power of His name at work in you.
Let’s pray.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
