What Is The Purpose Of Preaching The Cross?

What is the Purpose of Preaching the Cross?

Acts 3:12-26

It is not our words, it is not our strength, nor is it our own person that has any power in the work that we do for Christ. But it is the power of God through Christ that we are enabled to do what we do and how we do it.

The sermon that Peter delivers at the temple is transcribed in Acts 3:11-26. Peter cures a blind beggar who has asked for alms while John enters the Temple to pray. Acts 3:1-10 describes the healed man leaping up to praise God. When this catches the attention of the crowd, Peter explains that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews had killed, was the source of the healing power, not them. The outcomes are varying. Acts 4:1-3 describes the unwelcome attention the Jesus-followers receive from Jewish officials but Acts 4:4 describes the faith of 5,000 men and women.

In verses twelve - fifteen:

Pilate had chosen to let Jesus go, yet some people had cried out to let the murderer Barabbas loose (John 19:1-16). When Peter said "whom ye delivered up", he implied it in a real sense. Jesus' trial and eventual crucifixion had happened not too far off in Jerusalem just weeks sooner. It was anything but an occasion of the far-off past. The vast majority of these individuals had caught wind of it, and some had partaken in denouncing him.

The religious leaders felt that they had stopped Jesus when they killed him. Yet, their certainty was shaken when Peter let them know that Jesus was alive again and that this time, they could not hurt him. Peter's message underscored that they had their religious leaders kill Jesus (3:17), that God resurrected him, and that the disciples were observers to this truth. In the wake of calling attention to the transgression and unfairness of these leaders, Peter showed the meaning of the resurrection, and God's victory and control over death.

In verses sixteen - nineteen:

Jesus, not the disciples, had received the glory for the lame man’s healing. In those days, a man's name addressed his person; it represented his position and power. By utilizing Jesus' name, Peter showed who gave him the power and ability to heal. The disciples did not stress what they could do, however what God could do through them. Jesus' name is not to be utilized as an enchantment. It should be utilized with a spiritual conviction. When we implore in the name of Jesus, we should recall that it is Jesus himself, not simply his name, who gives power to our prayers.

These predictions are found in Psalm 22, Isaiah 50, and Isaiah 53. Peter was clarifying the sort of Messiah that God had sent to the earth. The Jews had anticipated a military ruler, not a servant that would endure suffering.

John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus when he preached about repentance. The disciple’s call to salvation additionally included repenting, which is recognizing our individual sin and turning from it. Many individuals want the benefits of being called a Christian without abandoning their sin and disobedience. The initial step to obtaining forgiveness is to admit our transgression and abandon it (2:38).

When we have repented, God guarantees not to just remove our wrongdoing, but to also provide spiritual renewal. Repenting of our sins may at first appear to be excruciating in light of the fact that it is difficult to surrender specific sins. Yet, God will provide us a superior way.

In verses twenty-one - twenty-two:

The "times of restitution" focuses to the Second Coming, the Last Judgment, and the expulsion of all transgression from existence.

Most Jews believed that Joshua was this Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18:15). Peter was saying that it was Jesus Christ who Moses was alluding to. Peter needed to show them that their anticipated Messiah had come. He and each of the apostles were calling the Jewish people to acknowledge what they had done to their Messiah, to atone of their sins, and to believe in Jesus. Starting from here on in the book of Acts, we see numerous Jews dismissing the Gospel. So, the message went additionally to the Gentiles, a considerable number of whom had hearts open to Jesus.

In verses twenty-four - twenty-five:

The prophet Samuel lived during the time period when the nation of Israel changed from the judges to that of kings, and he was viewed as the first in a progression of prophets. He blessed David as ruler, establishing the illustrious line of David, from which the Messiah at last came. Every one of the Old Testament prophets pointed toward the future Messiah.

God guaranteed Abraham that He would favor the world through his line of descendants, and the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3) from which the Messiah would come. God expected the Jewish people to be a holy nation and to be separated from the world so that they would show God to the world, present the Messiah, and afterward continue his work on the planet. After the times of Solomon, the country surrendered its central goal to educate the world regarding God, and during the apostolic time, it likewise dismissed its Messiah.