OUR GOD FULFILLED PROPHECY ABOUT JESUS
(Sermon of April 7, 2002)
ACTS 3: 12-20
When Peter saw this, he said to them: ?Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you dis-owned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus? name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you?even Jesus.
Dearest fellow redeemed and saints in the Lord,
Certainly you and I still rejoice and celebrate on this Sunday after Easter, enjoying the victory of Christ, our Savior over sin, death and the devil. We have before us one of the early sermons of the early apostles. We find that they follow a formula that is going to become quite familiar?a formula that states: these people sinned by putting Jesus to death, but God raised him again from the dead and their sins are forgiven. All this according to God?s plan. All this to fulfill what was to happen.
We heard in our lesson how the disciples were locked in the Upper Room, afraid on the first day of the week. We heard how Thomas did not believe until he saw Jesus face to face. We hear over and over again how the disciples were not quite sure about this resurrection. And Jesus, when he appeared to them, we?re told in the Gospel of Luke, ?He said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you: ?Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms??(LUKE 24:44). This morning we look at the fact that God fulfilled his prophecy about Jesus. The fact is that God fulfilled all of his prophecies. We consider the fact that
GOD FULFILLED PROPHECY ABOUT JESUS
I. MANKIND DENIES JESUS
II. GOD GLORIFIES HIS SON
III. BELIEVERS ARE FORGIVEN
I. MANKIND DENIES JESUS
Peter comes and preaches to the people. Now, he?s not going to let them off the hook for all the things that had just taken place. Namely, that Christ had been put to death. And we hear his words, his scathing remarks, pointing out their guilt to them. He says to the people, ?YOU handed him over to be killed, and YOU disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.? Remember, Pilate had washed his hands of the affair, couldn?t find anything wrong with Jesus, but the crowd persuaded Pilate to have Jesus put to death.
And as if that were not bad enough, we?re told, ?You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.? And Barrabas was set free, a known criminal. Then Jesus was sent out to be crucified on the cross. Peter continues, ?You have done this, ?you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.?? Peter says, ?We testified to this very fact that you killed the author of life, that you put to death he who created life, itself? We can almost picture Peter pointing his finger and saying, ?You, you, you did all of this!? Because the Jews always tried to hold themselves blameless. And yet they, who knew better because of all the prophecies that had been made, denied Jesus, the Savior. Denied him so much that he finally was put to death.
We might be tempted to say to ourselves, ?Well, I?m glad I?m not one of those members of that crowd--of that Jewish nation who has denied the Lord. And yet, when we look at our lives we realize that we, too, are ones that Peter could point a finger at and say, ?You have done the very same.? Because there are times when we have remained silent when we should have spoken up. We should have testified about our faith. But, it is easier to remain quiet, especially in a society that says there?s all kinds of religious freedom and yet, if we don?t say those things that are politically correct, we can take lots of grief because of them. We know the truth is still the truth. And so, Peter would come today and stand before us and say, ?You, too, have killed the author of life by your sins.? In Mark we are told, ?If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father?s glory with the holy angels?(MARK 8:38). These are the words of Jesus, already recognizing thousands of years ago in a society that was much simpler than ours?he calls that an adul-terous and sinful generation. Certainly it hasn?t gotten any better. Let us not be ashamed of Jesus and his words.
Still, it?s a struggle, isn?t it? It?s a constant battle between our new man that we have by faith and the old, sinful nature that we are born with. Our old sinful nature that would rather take the easy way out. Our old sinful nature would rather deny the Savior and join the crowd and say. ?Crucify him! Away with him! Release Barrabas to us.? Paul sums it up by saying, ?I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For 1 have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out?(ROMANS 7:18). On our own, we cannot do anything that pleases God. Our sinful nature just weighs us down. We, too, are members of the sinful human race. We, too, are part of mankind that denies the Savior.
This all happens because God fulfills his prophecy about Jesus. Mankind denies it, but II. GOD GLORIFIES HIS SON.
In the verses just before our text, Peter healed a man who was crippled his entire life. This was a well-known person. People had seen him and now they saw him healed. And it seemed as if Peter had done this miraculous thing. It was a miracle?the man could walk, but it wasn?t Peter. He didn?t take credit for that power. When our text began, the crowd was rushing after Peter, defying him to do more miracles. When Peter saw this he said to them, ?Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?? He was wondering why they were surprised. First of all that the miracle had taken place, and then why they stared at them as if they had done it by their goodness or power.
Peter gives credit where credit is due. He says, ?The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.? He reminded these people that is wasn?t he, Peter and the apostles with him who had done anything extraordinary; it was the power of God. And the very same God was the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?the sovereign Lord. The sovereign Lord who had made this man walk then, we are told, glorified Jesus. Well, how does that happen? Peter goes on to explain in the middle of our text, ?By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.? This man believed in the power of Jesus because Jesus had been brought back to life. He didn?t believe in the teachings of the Scribes and Pharisees. He didn?t believe in the denials of the Jewish nation, but he believed that when Peter came and preached about Christ, this Christ was truly the Savior of mankind.
In this miracle, God glorifies his servant Jesus. He says, ?It is Jesus? name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.? Peter didn?t want glory for himself; he wanted glory for God and his Son, Jesus. And through his miracle, God glorified his Son, his Servant, our Savior, Christ, the Lord.
The glory of Jesus, we see in his word. The glory of Jesus we see in his miracles. And as believers we are privileged and blessed by God?s grace also to see the glory of Jesus in his suffering and death. Be-cause, then, we see him brought back to life. In the Gospel of John in the first chapter, it talks about this Word of God becoming flesh. Namely, that Christ came to live on this earth and that there were people living in darkness and God was the light of the world but not everyone saw that light. But God glorified his servant Jesus in the flesh. He says, ?The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth?(JOHN 1:14). Even though the world might deny him and even though we deny him by our sinful actions and thoughts and words, yet, Jesus still came full of grace and truth.
When we look at the Savior, we do certainly see that he suffered. When we look at the Savior, we see that he died on the cross. When we look at the Savior, we see that he was placed in the tomb. But also when we look at the Savior, we see that he came back to life, ascended into heaven to sit at God?s right hand and God glorified his Son, our Savior. From the book of Hebrews we read, ?The Son is the radiance of God?s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven?(HEBREWS 1:3). Our God did fulfill the prophecy about his Son, Jesus, that one would suffer for the sins of the world and after suffering, would sit at his own right hand.
God fulfilled prophecy about Jesus, mankind denied him and God glorified his Son and all that for us because, then, III. BELIEVERS ARE FORGIVEN
You can well imagine the stunned silence of the crowd that day when Peter said, ?You killed the author of life. You asked for a murderer to be released. You sent an innocent man to be crucified.? And there was silence. Well, almost... they were wondering what to do. Fact is, from the second chapter of Acts we?re told of Peter?s Pentecost sermon And they sat in silence for awhile and then they said, ?Broth-ers, what shall we do?? They realized their guilt. In our text, Peter tells them what they can do, he tells them what God has done. He reminds them, first of all, that this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold throughout the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. He said you did this all, maybe unwittingly, but a little bit wittingly, knowing what they were doing, but all according to God?s plan. In order that the prophecies would be fulfilled?Christ would suffer. That wasn?t much comfort for these people, was it?
Now we come to one of the most powerful statements in Scripture that the Lord offers to those who are guilty. To these people, to the ones who were in the crowd who had said, ?Crucify him!? and ?Away with him!? he says to them, ?Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.? He tells them that now that they have seen their guilt, now that they have had a change of heart, they turn to the Lord, and their sins are wiped out, they?re taken away, they?re forgiven. And they receive times of refreshing from the Lord. He describes what that is, ?and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you?even Jesus.? Now they would be filled even more with the faith that comes through Jesus, realizing that, yes, they were sinners and guilty, guilty beyond all degree. Yet, God fulfilled the prophecy about Christ, their sins were forgiven.
You and I rejoice today and every Sunday following Easter and before Easter, realizing that Christ came back to life to provide for us the forgiveness of sins. And he tells us then, ?We rejoice by our repen-tance.? I want to talk briefly about repentance this morning. Repentance, you know, meaning a change of heart or a turning. To repent then, we turn to God because we?re turning away from sin. If we?re turning to God we can?t be turning to sin: we can?t be turning in two directions at once. And that describes repen-tance. Repentance just like this crowd when they asked, ?Brothers, what shall we do? Realizing the guilt of our life, the weight of our sins. And the Lord tells us our repentance, then, is a matter of the heart. In Psalm 51, a psalm of David where he confesses his sins, he says, ?You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, you will not despise?(PSALM 51:16,17). And, again, important in the Old Testament because the people had become so accustomed to so many offerings and sacrifices that they forgot repentance was a matter of the heart.
You and I are reminded of that in God?s word and today as we celebrate the Lord?s Supper?a matter of the heart. Jesus, out of his great love for us, gives us his very own body and blood as a visible sign and assurance that our sins are forgiven. And that, too, is a part of repentance?recognizing our sins, turning to the Lord, and then also realizing it is the Lord God who provides us with forgiveness. Listen to this from Isaiah, he says, ?Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon?(ISAIAH 55:7). Repentance is also simply this, knowing God forgives us. And, again, all because God fulfilled his proph-ecy about Christ. He did it for us, for our salvation. Not just to have a good life here on earth, but to have a great life, eternal life in heaven.
Mankind, and we?re part of mankind, denied Jesus so that he was put to death, according to God?s plan. God glorified his servant Jesus, his Son, our Savior according to his plan and prophecy. And then we find all of this for one single purpose, in order that our sins are forgiven. It reminds us of Joseph in the Old Testament, the one who was loved by his father, the one who wore the coat of many colors. His brothers sold him, and at the end when their father died, they were concerned, his brothers were con-cerned because he had gotten so much power in Egypt that he might want to take revenge and retribution. But it was all according to God?s plan. Joseph realized that. You and I realize that. And at the end of the book of Genesis, way back then already, we have faithful people looking back and saying, ?Yes, accord-ing to God?s plan, things are done, promises are fulfilled.? Joseph speaks these words, which is our last quotation this morning, which could be spoken by Jesus, which could be spoken by us at the end of our life, or by any believer, but it sums up our text, that God fulfilled the prophecy about Christ. Joseph says, ?You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the sav-ing of many lives?(GENESIS 50:20). The people intended to harm Jesus, and they did, they put him to death, but God intended it for good for the eternal salvation of many lives. We rejoice on this Sunday fol-lowing Easter because God fulfills his prophecy about Christ, our Savior. Amen.
