Welcome to Expound, our verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. And so Father, we
commit the evening to you, the time
that we're together, these next several minutes. We also want to
understand truth and how it applies to our hearts, our
lives, our future, our present, our relationships, where we
go to school, where we work, where we live. And I pray, Lord,
that we would have a very dynamic relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We trust, Lord, that you
will direct us and feed us. In Jesus' name, amen. One of our biggest fears
is the fear of failure. Most everyone has the fear
of failing at something or failing with someone. Dream analysts even say that
the most common form of dream is what they would
call an anxiety dream. They are taking a test in the
dream, and they fail the test. They have to get up
and give a speech, and most people don't
like to do that, and they're sweating
in their dream. It's the fear of failing. And yet, wouldn't you agree that
failure is common to humanity? It's built into humanity. We are born sinners separated
from God, we need redemption, so failure is built
into who we are. In fact, one of the most common
things about us is failure. You have a long
history of failure, as do I. The first time you
tried to walk, you fell. You failed at walking the
very first steps you took. You plopped on the
ground, you failed. The first time you jumped
into a swimming pool, you almost drowned. Somebody encouraged you, you're
a little baby, a little child, they pushed you, perhaps,
like they did me, my brother pushed me. My dad caught me,
but I just remember the frightening experience. I couldn't swim. I would have died unless
somebody helped me in my failure. The first time somebody threw
a baseball toward me to hit, I missed. You didn't get straight
A's in all your classes, and if you did,
nobody liked you. [LAUGHTER] Chances are, you have let
people down in your life, you have failed. James says, we all
stumble in many things. That's probably
not a Bible verse you have underlined or made
your life verse, but it's there. We all stumble in
many things, that's just part of human nature. At the same time, that
doesn't take the sting away from our failures. Peter, and we're
reading his message here in Acts chapter 2, Peter
struggled with failure, spiritual failure. Jesus told Peter he would fail,
Peter denied Jesus three times. The last time Peter denied
Jesus, Luke tells us, and Jesus looked
at Peter, and then Peter went out
and wept bitterly. I don't know what
kind of a look it was, I can only guess it was a
sympathetic look of great love that when Peter
saw, he understood, he realized what he had done to
this one who loved him so much, and he went out and
he wept bitterly. But at the same
time, Peter's failure was a great hinge in his life. It was a fulcrum for
greater usability. Jesus said he would
be used again. Jesus predicted that he
would be strengthened again, he would be restored. And now we're reading about
that same Peter, the failure who preaches the first
sermon, the one we're reading in Acts chapter 2. He will be the one who will lead
the first Gentile to Christ, Cornelius. He'll oversee the
work and the spread of the gospel up into Samaria. I struggled with failure. I remember when my brother died,
I felt the burden of his death on me for this reason. I felt like I had failed
to lead him to Christ. I just felt so guilty that
I could have done more, could have tried harder, could
have shared other truths, wasn't a great
witness, failed to lead him to make a commitment to
Christ, and now it was over. But failure is
something that the Lord wants to use to make us more
effective in the future. So we are landing,
so to speak, right in the middle of this
message that Peter is giving. And if we wouldn't
know who it is, if we wouldn't know the
past history of Peter, we would be looking
at this sermon going, wow, this guy's amazing,
he's well trained. And we would forget that he is
the same fisherman from Galilee who struggled and failed. But we read him here,
and he's very articulate, he's very knowledgeable. He quotes the book
of Joel Chapter 2, he quotes Psalm 16, which
is a prophetic Psalm about the Resurrection. Peter even says, David, being
a prophet, foresaw this event. And he said, and
he quotes Psalm 16, you will not leave my soul
in Hell, or suffer, or allow your Holy One to see corruption. David was speaking not
of himself, but of Jesus, Peter says. And if you recall, because
Peter says, here is his tomb. It's visible to this day. And I think at the
very end of the study, I said, if you come to
Israel with us, remind me, and I'll point out where
the Jews commemorate the burial of David. But we continue now. Let's look at verse 32. Peter continues,
this, Jesus, God has raised up of which
we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted
to the right hand of God and having received from
the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit,
he poured out this, which you now see in here. Remember, they said,
well, what is this? They're drunk with new
wine, and Peter said, this is that, which was
spoken of by the prophet. So he goes then
through the scriptures, and he kind of comes
to a conclusion. I say kind of, because he's
not done talking, but he says, this, which you now see in here,
for David, verse 34, for David did not ascend into the
Heavens, but he says of himself, now watch, he's quoting
yet another Psalm from the Old
Testament, Psalm 110, but he says himself, the
Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool. Therefore, let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God has
made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. He's quoting Psalm 110:1. The Lord said to my Lord
sit at my right hand until I make your
enemies a footstool. Quoting it right
out of Psalm 110:1. Now, that is an
interesting Psalm, because that is the very same
quotation that Jesus quoted in Matthew 22 on the day when
the Herodians came to Jesus, the Pharisees came to Jesus,
the Sadducees came to Jesus, and they peppered him with
questions, hard questions. And he answered them, but
then he asked them a question. He said, hey, what do
you think of Messiah? Whose son is he? And they said, he
is David's son. They believed traditionally
that the Messiah will be the son of
David, which is accurate. But then Jesus,
quoting the Psalm, says, well then how is it
that David in the spirit calls him Lord? And he quotes Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord,
sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. So if David calls him
Lord, Jesus said, how then, do you say he's David's son? And it says they
didn't answer him, and they didn't ask
him any more questions? It was perfectly logical
and it just sort of shut up all their arguments. David would have
a son, or somebody from his physical offspring,
his genealogy, who is Jesus. He is in the lineage of David. But in this spirit,
David calls him Lord. The Lord said to my Lord. Yahweh said to Adonai, sit
at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. That famous messianic Psalm
that Jesus himself quoted, Peter now quotes. Therefore, let all
the house of Israel assuredly know that God has made
this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard
this, they were cut to the heart,
that's conviction. They were convicted
by the Lord, they were convicted of their sin. And they said to Peter and
the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Notice Peter's answer. And Peter said to them, repent. Repent and let every
one of you will be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. So Peter's giving his sermon,
he preaches the gospel. He does quite well, but
then he makes application. And that is his
goal, his goal isn't to just dispense information. Dispensing information
is not his goal. Getting them to
transformation is his goal. He wants change to occur, he
calls a choice has to be made. Repent and be baptized. Now, notice the order. He didn't say be
baptized and repent, it's repentance first,
and then baptism. Why? Because baptism is an outward
sign of an inward change. Repentance, turning
around, changing your mind, demonstrating that by baptism. So it's important
that you see this, because some people will
take this verse as proof for baptismal regeneration. Some of you have heard that
term, some of you haven't. I was raised in a
church growing up that believed in
baptismal regeneration, that you get saved by
the waters of baptism. And this was a
verse often quoted, where he says, be baptized
in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. And their arguments
are, well, it is baptism that brings
remission of sins. You're being baptized for,
and they translate for, in order that, in order
that, for in order that, or so that your sins
can be remitted. And they'll quote this verse
as one of their proof text. Here's the problem. The word for translated
in English for is the Greek word ice. And ice here could be better
translated not so that, or in order that,
but because of. I'll give you an example. If I say, the soldier was
decorated for bravery, do I mean the
soldier was decorated in order for that
soldier to become brave? No. I mean this soldier was
decorated because he was brave. He was decorated for
it, because of it. If I were to say, the criminal
was punished and imprisoned for his crime, do I mean
that this criminal was, or that man was imprisoned so
that he would commit a crime? No. It's the result of him
already committing the crime. It's for it, it
is because of it. So that's the idea here. For the remission
of sins is not so that your sins can be
remitted, but because your sins have been remitted. One shows the other, one is
a consequence of the other. That's the idea of ice or for. Be baptized in the name of
Jesus for the remission of sins and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, they had just
seen and heard a mighty work and evidence
of the Holy Spirit as the birthday of the church,
the birth of the church was on that day. They heard the rushing wind,
they observed this speaking in their own dialects,
they wondered what this is. Some thought they were
drunk, Peter explains that's not the case, and then he
preached the gospel, told them to repent, and he says,
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. Now watch this, this is
concerning that promise of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to
you, and your children, and to all who are a far
off as many as the Lord, our God will call. So I love that verse, because
if you call on the Lord today, that promise is also for you. As you call on the Lord,
that same empowering is available to you today. And with many other
words, he testified and exhorted them
saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Now, that's the same word Jesus
used in describing this world. It's the same word we discussed
this last weekend in our study in Philippians. A perverse and
crooked generation among whom you shine as
lights in this world. And those who gladly received
his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000
souls were added to them. Man, that must have
been a long baptism. [LAUGHTER] You know, I know the other
week when we had 50, 60, or if we get 70, it's like, man,
even with a whole bunch of us baptizing, it can take a while. 3,000 people. All I can just go is, man,
those apostles were tuckered out after that baptism. And then the question
is, where in Jerusalem were they baptized? What place was there to
accommodate 3,000 people in the waters of baptism? Well I hate to give
you this cliff hanger, but I need to show that to
you when we go to Jerusalem. Remind me of that when we
we're on the southern steps, and I'll point out where I
believe they were baptized. You go, not fair. [LAUGHTER] Well, and if I told
you, it probably wouldn't make a whole
lot of difference anyway. So I'd have to show
you, and I will. Then fear came upon every soul
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all who believed
were together and had all things in common, and sold
their possessions and goods, and divided them among
all as anyone had need So continuing with one
accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of hearts. Did I leave a verse out? Did I leave out verse
42 or did I read that? I read it? Skipped it. I didn't read it, I skipped it. OK, I need to go over that. And they continued steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the
breaking of bread and prayers, then fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done through the
apostles, and all who believed were together and had
all things in common. And they sold their
possessions and divided them up among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of heart praising God and
having favor with all the people and the Lord added
to the church daily those who were being saved. There's a lot there, and I just
want to point out a few things. First of all, if we're
getting a snapshot of what the very first
church was like, we need to look at these verses
a little more closely. So in verse 42, we
have a little list. These were their priorities. They continued
steadfastly, number one in the Apostles' doctrine. So we learn right away,
they were a learning church. Doctrine is one of
those words I always feel sorry for when I
read it in the Bible. I go, oh man, I feel
so sorry for you little word, because
people don't like you. The Apostles' doctrine,
didaché doctrine, teaching, instruction. And I say that I
feel sorry for it because I've heard
believers say things like-- and it's almost like their
badge of spirituality. You know, it's not about
knowing doctrine, man, it's about like loving Jesus. And I'm not into like doctrine,
I'm just into loving Jesus. And it sounds like ooh,
you're so spiritual. Because you're
like a cut above us all, because you're
not into teaching, you're not into instruction. What a sad thing to say. Yeah, man, I'm not into
good Bible teaching, I'm not into truth, I
just want to love Jesus. Well how on earth
will you love him unless you are given good
instruction on who he is and how to do it? Jesus said to the
Pharisees, you are ignorant not knowing
the scriptures nor the power of God. Or as the old King
Jimmy says, you err not knowing the scriptures. On another occasion, he
said, have you not read? See, he's talking
to leaders going, you should be Bible
teachers by now. Haven't you read that text? Don't you know what
the scriptures say? You are in error. You are ignorant,
because you don't know the scriptures
nor the power of God, and yet, and the
reason I press this, is because we live in a day and
age where Bible doctrine is not tolerated, Bible teaching
is not tolerated, and people go to church
and want just a pep rally. Somebody just to whip them
up with a little exhortation, and a cool little clever
phrase, and woo-hoo, awesome. [LAUGHTER] And so we have produced
Christianettes, [LAUGHTER] because they love sermonettes. And sermonettes are
for Christianettes who can't wait to get outside
and smoke their cigarettes or whatever. [LAUGHTER] But they devoted
themselves they were into the Apostles' doctrine. First on their list, they
were a learning church. Second thing to make note of,
they were a loving church. Notice the word
fellowship verse 42. They continued steadfastly in
the Apostles' doctrine, that's one, number two, and fellowship. You know the word, right? What is the word in Greek? Tell me. Koinonia. Koinonia, thank you. Koinonia, coyness, commonness. It is sharing in
something with someone, or sharing with someone
something that you have. Here's something I have, I'm
going to share it with you, or I'm going to share in
this activity with you. That's the idea of
participation, fellowship. So they loved one another. Fellowship is something
you can't do alone. You can't say, you know what,
I'm going to get on my podcast and have some fellowship. I'm going to my computer,
and my computer and I, man, we're going to have
fellowship together. I love the computer
age, I love podcasts, I love to listen
to them, but you can't have a rich, full
relationship with Christ without the body of Christ. You need fellowship. People say, well, do I
need to go to church? Do you need to ask that? [LAUGHTER] And if you're in a home
where somebody asks, hey, dad, are we
going to church today? It's Sunday, are
we going to church? You don't auction church off. Does the sun rise? Let's see, it's the Lord's
day, church is happening. I think we're going because we
are Christians, that's right. We're believers. So fellowship, they devoted
themselves to fellowship. You can't do it alone,
you need other people to enrich your lives. You can't be a lone
ranger, we used to say. See, The Lone Ranger
even had Tonto. [LAUGHTER] Right? He had fellowship. Not only were they
a learning church, not only were they
a loving church, but just because I'm a
preacher and I like to do this, a were a lauding church. Lauding, L-A-U-D, worshipping
church, a praising church. Notice what it says, and
in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Breaking of bread, sharing
communion together. And in prayers. Those are exercises
of praise and worship. And it goes down in verse
47, praising God and having favor with all the people. So they were allotting church. Now, here's something neat. When it says they
were breaking bread, it's not just confined to
the communion elements. In those days, they
shared what was called a love feast, an agape feast. It included the Lord's
Supper, but it also included bringing food together
to share in a common meal together. Part of their fellowship
was a sit down meal that included taking the
elements of the Lord's Supper. That was part of
their worship, which I think it's great, because
it combines worship of God and fellowship with
the body of Christ. Not only that, but
it says in verse 43, fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed
were together and had all things in common. That's that same
idea of fellowship. Now, it delineates
what that means. And they sold their
possessions and goods, and divided them among
all as any one had need. So we could say they
were a lavish church, a generous church. They pooled their
resources together. Now, some people have read
this verse or these verses and said, well, the early
church practiced communism. They sold everything
and distributed it. That's not communism,
that's commonism. And commonism is
different from communism. Communism is enforced
participation, commonism is voluntary
participation. That's something
I want to do, it's something the Lord
laid on my heart. I don't need all this stuff,
I'm going to share it with you. Now, when that's forced,
then it's communism. They're not practicing that. In fact, not everybody is
doing it, because in verse 46, it says continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from what? House to house. So evidently, some people
held on to their houses, and didn't sell them, and
didn't pool all their resources. Many did, but not all. Some maintained their homes for
themselves, for their family, but allowed it to be used by
the church for Bible studies, for fellowship. Something about this pooling of
resources of the early church. We see it here, it's a
beautiful thing to do. It seems to have been
temporary and there is a lot of reasons for it
that I really don't have time to get into, and I'll
probably mention it as we go through acts, if
we ever get through it, but it was temporary. And it had problems. Keep that in mind,
because you're going to get to Acts chapter
5, the story of Annanias and Sapphira, and
you're going to find out the kind of problems that this
beautiful system had within it. But they were a lavish
church, they shared together. And then in verse
47, praising God and having favor with all
the people and the Lord added to the church daily
those who were being saved. Now, how did he do that? How did he add to the church? Do you think it just
happened mysteriously? That the believers just sort of
sat around and unbelievers just came in and saying,
a voice spoke to me, I'm going to become a Christian? No, I believe it was
an evangelist church. I believe they
shared the gospel. They gave witness by
their love for each other, but also by their words to
the people in Jerusalem. So you might even say,
with all those L's, it was a lasting church. It was lasting, because
the Lord added daily those who were being saved. They were propagating, they
were reproducing other believers by their evangelism and
by the Lord's favor. The Holy Spirit poured out. So the Lord added daily
those who were being saved. OK, 3,000 souls on
the day of Pentecost. This is a new covenant,
the church is birthed. And the first day of the birth
of the church, 3,000 souls are saved. Now, if you were to compare
that with the first day the law was given on Mt. Sinai, you make a very
interesting comparison. On the day the law was given
on Sinai, I guess what? 3,000 people died in
the camp of Israel. You know the story about the
golden calf and the plague that went to the
land on that day, 3,000 people died at
the giving of the law. At the giving of grace,
3,000 were saved. The law kills. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came through Jesus. It's just an interesting
comparison on the day these covenants were
initiated, were inaugurated. Now chapter 3 finally. We get now to the
first recorded miracle in the book of Acts
performed by the Apostles. It generalizes it in chapter
2, many signs and wonders were done, but here's the first
described and recorded miracle. Now just a word about miracles,
please don't overuse that word. I fear some of us are
a little too generous with the word miracle. A baby was born, we
say, what a miracle. No it's not. The sun setting, what a miracle,
the sun rising, it's a miracle. No it's not. Happens everyday, it's
part of natural law. A miracle is different from
something that's awesome. We even overuse that
word, we overuse just about every word
in our language. A miracle is humanly
impossible, but divinely simple. OK, so we have natural laws
and we have natural order. A miracle is when God decides
to supersede natural law with his own law, which for him
isn't a wow moment, it's easy. So we understand
there's a principle. We work on the principle of laws
that supersede other laws, OK? Example, the law of gravity. If I drop something right
now, it hits the ground. The law of gravity says
you're earth bound. And yet, you can get in
a jet at the airport, an airplane, you can pay your
money, get on an airlines, and you can lift off from
the strip, fly in the air, and land in another city. First time I saw a
Boeing 747, I think it was the first time
I flew overseas, I looked at that thing
and I said, no way. That thing, I don't know
how much that weighs, but it's going to carry
500 passengers and 45,000 pounds of our luggage. Gravity says it's
not going anywhere, but those who are scientific and
understand the law of physics far better than I do would
say, oh, it's very simple, it's rudimentary. You just get other
natural laws to supersede the law of gravity. The law of thrust,
propulsion, aerodynamics. You put those together
in the right form, and you can get something
extremely heavy off the earth and flying through space. So certain laws
in combination can supersede other natural laws. A miracle is when God enacts
supernatural law in the midst of a natural world. These are Apostles,
but Jesus said these will follow those who believe. That they will perform
signs, and wonders, miracles in his name, so we're
seeing the fulfillment of that. In verse 1, now Peter
and John went up together to the temple at the hour
of prayer, the ninth hour. Now, please notice
that Peter and John feel no conflict going to
the Jewish temple to worship. They're believers
in Jesus Christ, but they see no
spiritual moral conflict going to worship
in the synagogue or go into worship
in the temple. They were Jewish, but they
believed in the Jewish Messiah. Now today, people
will see a conflict. You can't go to a synagogue,
you believe in Jesus. They saw no problem with
that, because they understood that Jesus was the Jewish
Messiah who fulfilled the Jewish scriptures. And they probably
would have continued going to the synagogues
and the temple, but there came a time when they
were expelled from Judaism. And by necessity, Jesus
said you can't pour new wine into old wine skins. So the churches formed. The church at first continued
with mainstream Judaism until they were
pushed out by Judaism, and forced to meet on their own. But they're going at this
point up to the temple. It says at the hour of
prayer, the ninth hour, that's 3:00 in the afternoon,
that's the ninth hour. Luke is using Jewish
reckoning here of time. So the day began around 6:00,
the third hour of the day would have been 9 o'clock, the
6:00 hour would have been noon, the ninth hour would have
been 3:00 in the afternoon. According to Jewish tradition,
the pious Jewish person, do you know how many times a
day he prayed or she prayed? Three times a day. Psalm 55, David said
evening, morning, and noon I will cry aloud unto you. In Daniel chapter
6, after the decree was that nobody could pray to
any other God in the kingdom except the King of
Babylon, it says Daniel went to the upper
room, opened his windows toward Jerusalem, and
prayed three times that day as was his custom. As a Jewish man, he
prayed toward Jerusalem in the morning, at noon,
and in the evening time. And then he got thrown into
the lion's den because of it. So it's the hour of prayer,
it's the afternoon, 3:00 in the afternoon, and
as they're going up, verse to a certain
man, lame, that is unable to walk,
from his mother's womb, so it's a congenital
defect, was carried. Whom they laid daily,
everyday, at the gate of the temple, which
is called Beautiful, that's the name of the
gate, the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms from those
who entered the temple. Now, just a word
about this gate. Josephus, the Jewish
historian, you've heard me talk about him over the
years, spoke about this gate. It was called the Nicanor Gate. It was 75 feet tall. So look up at the peak. If you can see the
peak of this building, it's more than twice the height
of the peak of this room, more than twice. It's like twice that and then
about a quarter or a half. 75 feet tall made out
of Corinthian brass. Josephus said, of all
the gates of the temple, it was the most beautiful,
hence the term Beautiful Gate. He said it was more
beautiful than any of the gold, any
of the silver, any of the engravings of the temple. This was the standout feature. It was a gate that separated
the court of the women from the court of the men,
or the court of Israel. There was this gate
and then 15 steps that went down to the lower
court, the court of the women. That's where they laid
him every single day. Now, he was lame from his birth,
so it's a congenital anomaly. It's not like he used to
walk and now he's lame, all he has known is the
inability to be ambulatory. So all of the joys of childhood
were taken away, robbed. He never had a childhood,
he was always a beggar. No muscle strength whatsoever. Now, I'm drawing
this out because I want to point something out. Jesus visited the temple, and
he went through these gates. And it says this man was laid
every single day at the gate. Jesus came, he died, he rose,
he ascended by this time. So Jesus probably passed
him a few different times. Do you get my drift? Jesus didn't heal him. I want you to understand
Jesus didn't heal everybody. In fact, in John chapter 5, he
goes to the Pool of Bethesda. How many people does he heal
at the Pool of Bethesda, John chapter 5? Anybody know? One. And yet, it says
in the scripture, multitudes of sick
people lay there. What about them? What about their needs? What about their pain? Understand that healing is
a sovereign work of God. God is sovereign in his work and
he is sovereign in his timing, and this was the time. So I'm sure as Jesus
walked by, he saw the man, but he said, not yet,
today's not the day. In fact, that's going to be
done through Peter and John in the future. Now the day has come. Now, this guy seeing Peter and
John about to go in the temple asked for alms. So he's not looking
for a miracle, not looking for healing,
does not expect one, has no faith for a
miracle whatsoever. He just wants a few coins. And fixing his eyes on him with
John, Peter said, look at us. So the guy went,
[LOOKING NOISE].. Looked right at Peter. So he gave them his
attention expecting to receive something from them. Oh, wait till you
see what he receives. Then Peter said, silver and gold
I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and lifted him up, and immediately, his feet and
ankle bones received strength. This is a little bit cool. This is written by Luke. Luke is a doctor, right? I told you he's a physician. When he says his feet and
ankle bones received strength, he's using medical terminology
for the joints snapping into place, the
tendons and the muscles instantly being strengthened. The way he writes it, it's
translated in English, but it's, in Greek,
a medical term. He's a doctor, he's
writing about it from a medical perspective. But he says, silver and gold
have I not, but such as I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Wow. In the year 1260, Thomas Aquinas
was visiting Pope Innocent IV at the Vatican in Rome. And the pope went to show
Thomas all of the wealth of the papacy in the Vatican. And I've been to the
Vatican and I can attest, it's unbelievable
the wealth they have accumulated over the years. So as he showed Thomas
Aquinas all of the wealth of the Vatican, the
papacy, he says, you see, Thomas, unlike the first
pope-- referring to Peter --unlike the first pope,
I can no longer say silver and gold have I not. And Thomas Aquinas said,
with respect, your eminence, neither can you say in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, either. [LAUGHTER] So you can boast about your
wealth, but where's the power? Peter said, I don't
have silver and gold, but I'll give you what I have. And it was the exercise
of the Name of Jesus. And then notice this,
this is important. Peter, he, verse 7, took
him by the right hand and lifted him up. Now that's faith. Anybody can say to
somebody, be healed. Anybody can pray, and I
recommend that you do, but to actually
in a public place, take someone who is
unable to walk, never has ever been able to walk,
has no muscle strength at all, but to pull that man up,
that's an act of faith. Now, whose faith was it? Whose faith was it? Who had the faith? Peter, not the lame man. Why do I bring that up? Because in certain movements
in modern Christianity, contemporary Christianity,
like the word faith movement, they make a big deal
out of your faith. If you only had faith
you'd be healed, but you're not
healed because you don't have the right kind or
the right amount of faith. But if you did, if you
can muster up that faith and speak the word, if you had
the faith, you would be healed. Well when I hear
that, I want to say, let me just borrow
your faith then. You seem to have all the
faith for the rest of us. So it doesn't take always
the faith of the person, because this person here
did not have any faith. He wasn't even
looking for a heal, he was just looking
for a handout. Peter said, I'm not going
to give you a handout, you're going to get a healing,
but it's in the name of Jesus. And Peter had the
faith to pull him up. So it's just sort of like the
paralytic that was led down in a house, some
Galilee member, they couldn't get to Jesus
because the house was filled with people. So a few of his buddies
took tiles off the roof, and took the paralytic and
lowered him down by a rope. You know what It says? It says, in seeing their faith,
Jesus said to the paralytic, be of good cheer, your
sins are forgiven. He didn't see his faith. This guy's going,
you're making a scene, I don't want to do
this, leave me alone. He saw the faith
of those friends. Enough said. His feet and ankle bones
received strength verse 7, verse 8, so he, leaping up,
stood and walked and entered the temple with them
walking and leaping. Can you imagine it? Of course he would, he's never
been able to do this before. Now he's walking around,
jumping up and down. Woo-hoo, it works. I can jump up and not fall down. Walking and leaping and what? Praising God. Praising God. He didn't forget to praise God. In Luke-- I may have
it wrong, but I'm guessing chapter 17
--Jesus healed 10 lepers. Not leopards, lepers,
men with leprosy. And he said, go show
yourself to the priest. Only 1 of the 10 came
back and thanked him. And Jesus said, hey,
didn't I heal 10? Where are the other nine? Sometimes, we are
all about the gift, and not the giver of the gift. We must always be
thankful, we must always return thanksgiving
and praise, not just walking and leaving,
yeah, awesome, I can do it, but I am praising God for it. And all the people
saw him walking and they saw him praising God. I read an interesting
article on the prayer habits of average Americans. And the little article said
that most Americans pray, but most Americans pray
prayers of personal petition. I need, I must have, I want. And they said most Americans
--this was their tag line --pray in a superficial
manner praying normally prayers of
petition, rarely prayers of thanksgiving or forgiveness. Not this man, he's praising
God, and that is noted twice. All the people saw him walking
and praising God verse 10, then they knew that it was
he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful
Gate of the temple, and they were filled
with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. That's a real healing. When it happens, it's not like,
oh, it's cool, he was healed, awesome. Oh, good. I mean, I don't
know if you've ever seen a real physical
healing, I have. I wept, I couldn't contain
myself, I jumped around, I hugged the guy who was healed. It was absolutely
mind-bending, mind-boggling. I bring this up because some of
our friends in the word faith movement will claim
healing, while showing no evidence of it. They knew this was
the dude who was lame, and they were in amazement. I remember a guy coming
up to me after a service, this was probably 20 years ago. Came up with crutches, I
wanted to pray for him. I said, let me pray for you. What happened? He goes, well, I broke my ankle. And he had a cast,
and he goes, but I want you to know,
Brother, Skip, I'm healed. I go, I don't think you are
healed, I want to pray for that and pray that your
bones will come. He goes, no, no, no
the Lord healed me. I said, Frank, you
have a cast on. You're hobbling, I see
you wincing in pain. No, but I claimed my healing. I said, listen, I appreciate
all that claiming or healing, but don't tell
anybody your healed. [LAUGHTER] He said, what do you mean? I want to give God the glory. I said, that doesn't
give God any glory, because a thinking person,
if you say you're healed, is going to think you're
God does really crummy work. If you say, this is healed,
and you're hobbling in a cast and you're in pain,
you're going to say, whoever your God is, I
don't want him touching me if that's a healing. This was a legitimate healing,
and there was the evidence. He was walking and
leaping, and praising God. They all knew that
he was the one. Now, as the lame
man who was healed held on to Peter and
John, all the people ran together to them
in the porch, which is called Solomon's [INAUDIBLE]. So they came to Solomon's
porch, it wasn't a coffee shop. [LAUGHTER] Solomon's porch in the temple
was a columnated double marble columned porch covered area
along the entire eastern side of the temple complex. Enormous. It's where Jesus
would often teach, it's where many
disciples would gather. Thousands of people could
gather on the outer court, and Solomon's porch was covered
so it was great in times of inclement weather. So when Peter saw it, he
responded to the people, men of Israel, why do
you marvel at this, or why do you look
so intently at us as though we by our own power
or godliness made this man walk? And I love how Peter does this. The God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Why does he refer
to God this way? Because he knows
his audience, he's speaking to a Jewish audience. That's how a Jewish
person refers to Yahweh, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and to the covenant God. And not only that, glorified-- look at this--
his servant Jesus. You know why Peter does that? Because that is also a man
who knows his audience. Being a Jewish audience,
especially with learned people like scribes and
Pharisees in the audience, they knew that four times
in the book of Isaiah, there was something
called the Servant Songs. Four Servant Songs. Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah
50, and Isaiah end of 52 and all of chapter 53. Four Servant Songs referring
to the Messiah who is coming. And so this is the
servant, Jesus, as prophesied by the
Old Testament whom you delivered up and denied
in the presence of pilot when he was determined
to let him go, but you denied the
Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer
to be granted unto you. Man, he's pouring it on. And verse 15 is one of the
most paradoxical statements in the Bible. And you killed the
prince of life. Isn't that an amazing statement? Isn't that a paradox? You killed the Archegos, that's
the Greek word, the Archegos, the originator of life. You killed the
originator of life whom God raised from the dead
of which we are witnesses. And through faith in his
name has made this man strong whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which
comes through him has given him this
perfect soundness in the presence of you. Oh, I love this verse because
I said it wasn't the lame man's faith, it was Peter's
faith, but even Peter doesn't take credit for it. He didn't say, yes, I have
become a great man of faith, It is my awesome faith
that has done this. He goes, I can't even
take credit for the faith. God gave me the
gift of faith to be able to see this miracle done. So it's by the name of
Jesus, it's his power, and even the faith
that I exhibited was a gift that God has given. Yet now brethren, I know
that you did it in ignorance, as also did your rulers. But those things
which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets
that the Christ Messiah would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore,
and be converted that your sins may be blotted
out so that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord. That's further
amplified in verse 21. And that he may send
Jesus Christ, who has preached to you before
whom Heaven must receive until the time of the
restoration of all things, which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the
fathers, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from your Brethren. Him you shall hear
in all things, and whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul
that will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed
from among the people. Yes, and all the
prophets from Samuel, and those who follow
as many as have spoken have also foretold these days. You are the sons of the
prophets and of the covenant, which God made with
our fathers saying to Abraham and in your seed,
all the families of the earth will be blessed. Peter's pretty good, isn't he? I mean, he's quoting
Deuteronomy chapter 18, the very famous text
about Moses saying, God will raise up
another prophet like me. Now, since Moses said
that in Deuteronomy 18, the Jewish nation believed
that their Messiah would be God's anointed, Messiah
means that, but also he would be a prophet. They looked for a
Messiah prophet. So he's quoting Deuteronomy
18, Moses saying, the Lord will raise up
another prophet like me. This is fulfilled
in Jesus Christ. Remember when John
the Baptist is baptizing by the Jordan River? They said, are you Elijah? Because the Bible says Elijah
is coming before Messiah comes. And then do you remember
the second question? Are you that prophet? Not Elijah, that
was one question, are your Elijah, and this,
are you that prophet then? That prophet is the
prophet of Deuteronomy 18 that Moses predicted the Lord
will raise up another prophet. When Philip found Nathaniel
in John chapter 1, he says, we have found the
one that Moses in the law foretold, Jesus of Nazareth. And their responses,
can anything good come out of Nazareth? How could the prophet
come out of Nazareth? To you first, verse 26, God
having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in
turning away every one of you from your iniquities. As we close this chapter,
listen to that promise. God sent Jesus Christ to turn
people away from their sins, to save people from their sins. God spoke through Moses, God
spoke through the prophets, but God has finally
spoken through Jesus. His Messiah, The Lord, The
Lord whom The Lord spoke about, the prophet that
Moses predicted. In Hebrews chapter 1, a
verse I mentioned last week-- and I'll close with
this --said, God who spoke in times past in a
variety of ways to our fathers through the prophets
has in these last days, spoken to us by his son. That verb, God has
spoken through Jesus, aorist, active, indicative. It's once and for
all, it's done. God spoke in times past,
God has once and for all spoken through his son Jesus. In other words, when
it comes to salvation, God has nothing more to say. Jesus is the final word. In the beginning, it was the
Word, the Word was with God, God was the Word,
or the Word was God. Jesus is God's final
word on salvation. I hope Jesus is the
final word in your life. I hope that you have repented of
your sins and turned to Jesus, and received him as your Savior. I hope that you're not
trusting in religion, I hope you're not
trusting in your works, I hope you're not trusting in
the upbringing your parents passed onto you, but you're
trusting in the person of Jesus and the personal work
of Jesus for you. I hope that, I pray that. [APPLAUSE] Father, as we close
tonight and we think of this
fisherman who failed, who denied Jesus,
used by Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit speaking
these words with great power and great conviction,
the demonstration of a miraculous sign that
got people's attention brought conviction to the heart. But Lord, that truth that Jesus
fulfilled the scripture and he is the one to turn people
away from their sin. Father, if there
are any here tonight you have yet to
trust in Jesus Christ personally, to surrender
their life to him, I pray they would do
that in this moment. So as we're about to end in
a song, our eyes are bowed, our heads are closed. If you're here tonight and maybe
you've strayed away from Christ and you need to come
back home to him, or maybe you've never
personally trusted in Jesus yet, you've come with a friend,
you've come with a relative, but you, yourself can't speak of
a day when you turned from sin and said, I'm making
Jesus the Lord of my life, I want him to
forgive me of my sin. I want to turn from my
past and turn to Him and get a whole new
life, a whole new start, I want to be saved. If you can't think of
a time when you've done that, then please do it now. It's a simple act of faith. And if you're
willing to do that, I want you to raise
your hand in the air, because I want to pray for
you as we close the service. I need to know who
I'm praying for. So as our heads are bowed
and our eyes are closed, my eyes are open. I will acknowledge you
as you raise your hand. Keep it up for just a moment. God bless you and you
right in the middle, and toward the back on my left. Anyone else? Right over here on my
left, and a couple of you. God bless you guys. Anybody else? Right there in the middle,
yes sir, toward the front. Right over here on my
right, couple of you. In the back, yes sir. And in the balcony,
thank you for that. Anyone else? You're with us. Right over here on my left. Awesome, you guys,
God bless you. And you, on my left. Father, I pray for all of these
whom you love so deeply, so tenderly. You have such a awesome plan
for them, a wonderful plan. Really, Lord they have yet
to discover how great it is. But Lord, as they
have raised a hand and they've indicated that
they have a need for salvation, a need to believe in
Jesus, I pray, Lord, that you would strengthen
them to follow through on the raised hand,
to turn their lives and experience peace in Jesus. It's in his name we pray, amen. Let's stand to our feet. We're going to close
with a final song. I saw hands raised all over the
auditorium and in the balcony even. I'm going to give
you an opportunity as we sing this final song. Get up right now from
where you're standing, walk down the nearest aisle. I'm going to pray with
you in just a moment as you get up here
to receive Christ as your Lord and your Savior. [APPLAUSE] As we sing, you come. [SINGING] Run into your arms,
I'm running to your arms. The riches of your love
will always be enough. Nothing compares to your
embrace, light of the world forever reign I'm
running to your Here in the balcony,
we're waiting for you to come down if you're in
the back of the room, middle of an aisle, wherever you're at. If you raised your
hand, please come. Come on, let's encourage them. [CHEERING] Yes. Smartest choice you
could ever make. Come just as you are. You see, I have
baggage in my life. I've got a lot of
stuff I've committed. Good, bring it all to the Lord. Dump it out before him
right now, right as you are. It's called forgiveness. It's called a free gift. You don't earn it,
you receive it. God bless you. I see many of you
up here tonight. Anybody else? Whether I saw your hand or you
raised your hand, you come. God bless you. [APPLAUSE] [SINGING] Run into your arms, God bless you. [SINGING] I'm
running to your arms. The riches of your love
will always be enough. Nothing compares to
your embrace, light of the world forever reign. You that have come
forward, I'm going to lead you now in a prayer. I'm going to pray
this out loud, I'm going to ask you to pray
it loud after me, OK? You say it out loud,
you say it like you mean it, say it out loud. You pour out your
heart to the Lord. This is you asking Jesus
to come into your life. So as I pray, you pray after me. Say Lord, I give you my life. Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus Christ. That he died for me on a cross. That he died for me on a cross. That he shed his
blood for my sin. That he shed his
blood for my sin. That he rose again
from the grave. That he rose again
from the grave. That he's alive right now. That he's alive right now. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I repent. I repent. I turn to Jesus as Savior. I turn to Jesus as Savior. And I went to follow
him as my Lord. And I want to follow
him as my Lord. It's in his name I pray. It's in his name I pray. Amen. Amen. [APPLAUSE] For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
