Proclaiming Christ

PRAY

INTRO: Where we are in Acts 3, a man who had been lame from birth was just healed instantaneously by the power and authority of Jesus working through his apostles Peter and John by the presence of the Holy Spirit in them.

Acts 3:11–26 ESV

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, 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. 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. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

The first question our text gives us an answer to is…

What do we do when serving Jesus draws attention? (vv. 11-12)

In this case it is positive attention. People are “utterly astounded” and gather to them at Solomon’s portico. [image]

But what does Peter do, and what must we do, when their faithful service draws attention? (v. 12)

We exalt Christ.

We redirect attention from ourselves to Jesus.

We’ll see in ch. 4, what do we when it draws negative attention? We still deflect attention from ourselves to Jesus. We exalt Christ. - So what do we do when serving Christ draws attention (positive or negative?) - “Jesus taught.... The Bible says....”

So we’ve already seen something to learn from Peter and John’s example, but also from the bulk of this passage,…

What can we learn from listening to Peter proclaim Christ? (vv. 13-26)

[Outline where we are heading today with the rest for today.]

The first three in our list we’ll discuss at length, and then the last half we’ll cover more briefly because there is overlap with our explanation from the text with the first three.

In proclaiming Jesus as Lord, we…

Connect with and correct our listener’s understanding of God and his purposes from Scripture.

The first thing Peter does is acknowledge the one true God and the unique relationship the Jews have (his audience) to God in his gracious plan, revealed in his former covenants, dating all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are the patriarchs (the fathers) who represent God’s covenant uniquely with the Hebrew people (not bc of anything in them, but by his own good pleasure, to display his glory on the earth).

So too it is from this very identity as Jews that Peter must correct their understanding, and this comprises the overall thrust of the whole message.

In fact, the whole sermon is held together by this thread: Peter’s message opens and closes with a right understanding of God overall (catered to the knowledge and experience of his audience) and of Jesus in particular, and why that matters to “you” (again, his audience). (from v. 13 to vv. 25-26)

More specifically, Peter must correct their understanding of God’s plan for the Messiah as revealed in the Scriptures. You must think you’re still waiting for God’s promised Messiah, but you just killed the Christ. However, that suffering servant was in God’s plan, and He has raised this Jesus and has exalted him on high.

Calling Jesus God’s servant [pais] (beginning and end, as we showed) comes into focus when we understand Peter’s argument. This is indeed an unusual NT term for Jesus (Peter uses it here, and the believers use it in their prayer in Acts 4 (27 & 30), but it was not an uncommon OT name for Messiah. The only other NT use is in Mt 12, but there he is quoting a text from Isaiah with reference to Jesus.

To briefly summarize: What the Jews were overlooking was the necessity of the Christ to be the suffering servant who would die for sin but rise again to be vindicated as Lord. They were overlooking that this same servant was uniquely empowered to do miracles unlike anything they had ever seen. And they were overlooking that this Jesus was indeed God’s servant to bring the promised hope to the Gentiles also.

But it is not just this term “servant” and the overall thrust of the message that offer this needed correction of their understanding. Peter will also focus attention more explicitly on the testimony of OT prophecy. So we see Peter say in v. 18…

Acts 3:18 ESV

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

And then vv. 22-23 drive home the point that Jesus is the prophet foretold by Moses.

Acts 3:22–23 ESV

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. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

There too is the warning for those who reject this prophet, especially those who of the household of Israel.

Peter continues, v. 24, that all the prophets from Samuel onward have also foretold these days. What days? The days now ushered in by the Christ, these “last days” as Peter called them in chapter 2 when quoting the prophet Joel. These are the days where, because of Christ, the Spirit is poured out on all who believe, all who become the true sons and daughters of God. Miracles such as these are proof that…

Acts 3:16 ESV

And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

So, what’s the point to his audience about this evidence from Scripture?

Acts 3:25 ESV

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

Acts 3:26 ESV

God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

But you’re not there yet without repentance and faith. We’ll head back to that in a moment.

Peter does here what we must do in order to accurately proclaim Christ, he connects with and corrects their understanding of God and his plan, and then of the person and role of Jesus in particular. He does so from Scripture.

In our situations, we have to listen well to understand what people know or think of God, and then undoubtedly offer needed correction according to God’s word.

When we proclaim the gospel, we really are only saying what the Bible says… about God, about us, about Jesus. If Peter’s audience dealt with a level of ignorance about the meaning of OT Scriptures, how much more do you think we deal with misunderstandings and confusions and misrepresentations of what the Bible teaches. Our listeners will have different misconceptions, but we must be prepared to address those.

In proclaiming Christ as Lord, we also…

Bring clarity to our culpability before God.

The Jews were mostly clear about generally being sinners who needed atonement and forgiveness for God to not crush them in his righteous wrath. Here Peter clarifies, for his particular audience (“Men of Israel”), the way that they are also guilty in the unjust killing of Christ.

So in this case, Peter intertwines their responsibility for their sin with their complicity in the death of Jesus because of rejecting him as Messiah and calling for his crucifixion. So this point about man’s culpability for sin and the true identity and work of Jesus are woven together in Peter’s public proclamation of the gospel on this day in Solomon’s Portico.

Notice how Peter again draws attention to the responsibility of his audience before God for what they have done. (End of v. 13) You delivered over and denied Jesus to Pilate, even when he had determined to release him. Denying that Jesus was holy and righteous, you instead asked for a murderer be given to you (v. 14) and you killed the Author of life.

Yikes! Peter doesn’t preach any soft-petaled version of the gospel that tries to coax people in without stabbing them in the heart with the truth of their sin, crushing them with the weight of God’s holiness and wrath. Your sin separates you from God and is destroying you and leads to your eternal destruction. God hates sin and his wrath is burning against it, and you. Your sin is so pervasive in your life and attached to your identity that you are powerless to do anything to make yourself right with God. You are at the mercy of God. The reason a perfect Jesus, God the Son, died a horrible death was because of your sin… and God’s mercy. Such is the reality that must be declared in the true gospel.

Finally, even in their ignorance they are not innocent. (v. 17) In his second movement in the sermon, which I suggest begins at v. 17, Peter acknowledges that, on some level, what they did was out of ignorance. We know that they weren’t ignorant of the fact that Jesus was uniquely attested by God by “mighty works and wonders and signs” (Ac 2:22). (And to this we could add the unique authority with which Jesus taught and talked.) They were not ignorant of that.

The context, which we spoke of already, will go on to show that their ignorance was at the level of not understanding and listening to the plain testimony of Scripture concerning the Christ. The reason Peter can be gracious here is because the disciples themselves were ignorant of these things until Jesus explained it to them (see Lk 24 resurrection appearances) and gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But what Peter does not say is that this ignorance is innocence. Romans 1:18-23 teaches that this ignorance is intentional, an unrighteousness suppression of the truth. We are accountable to God for ignoring what he has revealed. And then we are particularly without excuse when the gospel is proclaimed to us. (In this way, there is not just bad news within the good news about Jesus, but the gospel itself is bad news for those who continue to reject Jesus, bc one day he will judge according to their willful ignorance and rejection.)

When we share the gospel today, we are shining a light on the darkness of our willful ignorance. Specifically, we likely must show people from Scripture that they are sinners, that sin separates them from God, and that the result (the necessary consequence) is to be judged (death/destruction—eternal separation). Secondly then, we also help them to see that it is in fact their own sin which contributes to the need for Christ’s atoning death and resurrection.

As we continue, we see that, like Peter, our witnessing must…

Focus on who Jesus is and what God has done through him.

We already talked about Jesus being the fulfillment of OT prophecy concerning God’s chosen and unique servant (clearly Jesus this is the Christ, the Messiah), but aren’t you blown away by the other two references to Jesus from Peter in vv. 14&15?!

We should note that calling Jesus the Holy One and the Righteous One are still connected to Jesus being this unique servant, the Messiah of God. Not only that, but they are accurate descriptions of God the Son being uniquely set apart and unstained by sin. The demons he cast out acknowledged this about him:

Mark 1:24 ESV

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

He is the prophesied righteous one and indeed the only one to live a perfectly righteous life on the earth, and that righteousness was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead, and accordingly he is able to forgive sin and account others as righteous:

Isaiah 53:11 ESV

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Also, in a statement of hard-hitting irony, Peter tells his audience that they killed the Prince of life (the Author, Originator, Founder of life). In this sense it would refer to Jesus as one with the Godhead and the divine originator of life. It can also mean initiator and pioneer, which would connote Jesus as the first to go before us in rising from the dead, which is the very next thing Peter says, “whom God raised from the dead.”

What Jesus death and resurrection accomplished is the power for what you have seen take place in the healing of this man. What it accomplished is the payment for sin necessary so that you can:

Acts 3:19 ESV

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

What his death and resurrection accomplished is ushering in the times of refreshing that gain you access to the presence of the Lord, and have set in motion the age that now awaits Christ’s return and the final restoration:

Acts 3:20–21 ESV

that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, 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.

Jesus is the essence of the gospel because he reveals God and God’s plan for salvation: who Jesus is (in his divinity and fulfillment of messianic prophecy) and what God accomplished through his perfect life and atoning death and vindicating resurrection and exaltation to reign.

And now I must cover the last three things on our list arising from the text more briefly, but that’s ok bc much of these we have already touched on in other ways.

In gospel proclamation, we are (testifying)…

Testify to Christ as personal witnesses.

Peter & John and the other apostles, and still other disciples present, were living witnesses that God raised Jesus from the dead (end of v. 15). They are indwelt with the gift given them by the Lord: the Holy Spirit.

So Peter can say (v. 16) that there is a connection between their own faith (his and John’s) in the risen Jesus and the miraculous physical restoration of this man. We should notice that he didn’t even ask Peter to heal him, so it would be a stretch to think that the faith which healed him was his own.

We are witnesses to the living and reigning Christ by the powerful transformation he has brought about in our lives, awakening us from spiritual death to life. We are living witnesses of the work of the Holy Spirit in those who are spiritually alive. Gal 2:20

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ourselves as witnesses then, we aim to exalt Christ with our lives and proclaim him from the Scriptures, declaring what God himself declares about his own character and purposes, and about our culpability for sin and our inability to restore ourselves to God. And we explain God’s plan and work through the person of his Son, Jesus of Nazareth, as the only solution to our terminal spiritual disease.

Because Jesus is the only way to be spiritually alive to God, we therefore do like Peter and…

Call people to repent of sin and put their faith only in Jesus Christ.

This is a faith which is placed in Jesus, who himself is Christ and Lord, as well as a faith which comes to us through Jesus (also in v. 16), meaning that “Jesus himself imparts this kind of miracle-working faith to people’s hearts.” -Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2086.

As we’ve emphasized in recent study from chapter 2, there is a side of this faith which the Bible calls repentance, a turning from sin to God. We must repent of our love of sin and a reliance on ourselves and man-made religion, instead throwing ourselves and the mercy of God who has displayed such kindness and love through Jesus only by his grace.

That’s why Peter emphasizes to his audience in v. 19 that they must repent, and turn back (bc they have turned their hearts away from God). If even the Jews who had the law of God were sinning in their efforts to please God by their own piety, how much more must all of human efforts at religiosity fall short! Our righteousness is no righteousness at all. We need Jesus to take our sin and give us his righteousness, and by Jesus sacrifice and resurrection our “sins may be blotted out” (v 19).

In the process of calling people to repent and put trust their trust in Jesus himself, who is God, we also therefore are…

Warn people of judgment and invite them to the blessings of grace.

When Peter preaches in Acts 2, the tone for certain is a warning of judgment. It is not absent here either, as “those who do not listen to [Jesus] shall be destroyed from the people.” That is good and necessary that we know the just and righteous character and action of God against sin, which will result in eternal judgment if we do not repent.

In this sermon, without neglecting judgment, as we have seen, the tone also emphasizes the blessings of salvation. Peter begins at the second half of verse 19 to say that when we repent and believe in Jesus, “times of refreshing” begin as immediate blessing “from the presence of the Lord.”

In Peter’s thinking, the repentance and faith of the Jews will hasten God’s program of sending Jesus back to culminate the kingdom which has already begun in us spiritually. [reread vv. 20b-21]

At the present time heaven has received him, but we are richly blessed to know that there he is reigning until his return, and when he does, it will culminate in “restoring all the things” that have been promised by God in his word.

How immeasurable are the blessings of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ. So we go forward by grace through faith,…

Conclusion [title slide again]: Proclaiming Christ

… to everyone whom the Lord God places in our path. We know it is God who providentially prepares people to hear and who enables them to heed the gospel, to repent of sin and self and turn to faith in Jesus.

But we also know that we have been commanded to proclaim him faithfully. Being faithful in it means that our lives revolve around this endeavor, being set apart and sent.

Take some time to reflect, today and this week, on how you can use Peter’s sermons in the early chapters of Acts to help you grow in the way that you proclaim Christ.

PRAY

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