Accusation & Blessing

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to church this morning. We’re glad that you’re here with us this morning, whether you’re joining us here in person or online.

Wow! But we had an excellent event last week down at Payne Arena. How many of you were able to attend? How many of you were impacted by what happened there on that day?

In fact, let’s just have a quick look at this video review of the event last weekend.

[video]

There were more than 6000 in attendance and no numbers on how many decisions were made for Christ, though I would guess the numbers were high. We didn’t have nearly enough prayer team members to make contact with all those making decisions, though we reached as many as was possible with the team that we had available.

We may have some new faces here with us today, and if that’s you, we welcome you. I’d love to meet you after the service and welcome you in person, however, I caught a little something in my upper respiratory system this week and will not be able to greet you after the service. I don’t want to spread it around.

In other news, I understand that Nahum Rodriguez is on his way home after an extremely long stay in the hospital. We want to bless him but respect the family in keeping him safe and germ free as he continues to rebuild his immune system. So please keep that in mind.

We return this morning to the 3rd chapter of Acts in our series, titled The Church: Then & Now. You’ll remember our last study in Acts was when Peter and John healed the paralytic man outside the temple in Jerusalem.

Peter being a good pastor took the opportunity to give an impromptu sermon to those who had gathered to observe the results of the miracle. Let’s read Peter’s message in Acts 3...

Acts 3:11 CSB

11 While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran toward them in what is called Solomon’s Colonnade.

Acts 3:12–26 CSB

12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. 15 You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you. 17 “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. 22 Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people. 24 “In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring. 26 God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

[pray]

You may remember last time when we were talking about the healing of the paralytic that we ended our time together with prayer for some of you. I hope that you all are continuing to feel better. Some of you reported to me that you felt some relief for chronic, long-lasting pain.

I want you to know that I am always available to you for prayer. Lifting your needs up before the father is part of what we are here for, whether they be prayers for your physical needs or for anything else. Brother Joe and I are always ready to pray for you all.

Now this passage that we are studying today happened immediately after the healing of the paralytic at the Beautiful gate of the Temple in Jerusalem.

As the crowd gathered, Peter addressed those who gathered.

I should note here that just like Peter’s previous sermon on the day of Pentecost, that this is a very Jewish sermon, given by a Jew for other Jews.

You might say, “Pastor, that only makes sense.” But I bring it up, because it is a different kind of message than you might see Paul delivering later in the Book of Acts, where he is addressing a Gentile (or non-Jewish) audience.

I. Why are you surprised?

Peter admonishes the gathering by asking them why they are surprised by the healing of the paralytic man...

Acts 3:12 CSB

12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?

We can sometimes do the same thing.

Healing is a supernatural occurrence. It is defined as “curing a person of an infirmity, sickness, or injury through supernatural means.”

We are used to the natural, the common, the everyday. We are not used to the supernatural. So when we encounter it, we are often surprised. This is what the Israelites were surprised by, the supernatural healing of the paralytic beggar, a man they had seen for many years at the gates to the Temple.

We can sometimes be surprised ourselves, when we encounter God’s healing. I know that some of you who ask for prayer a couple weeks ago were surprised to feel some release from pain you had been feeling for years.

If Peter were here today, he would ask you this: “Why are you surprised to feel God’s healing touch?” This healing may be something that persists for you or maybe you’re back to hurting again. But I know that if you felt some relief after someone prayed for you that you were touch by God’s power, nothing of my own power or that of Pastor Joe.

Give thanks to God for the healing that you experienced. And if it is temporary healing, let’s pray again that you might be healed permanently.

Jesus himself said on different occasions “Your faith has healed you” (Matthew 8:13, 9:22, 15:28, Mark 5:34, 10:52, Luke 17:19, 18:42). He said it to the woman with the issue of blood, he said it to the young girl that he healed of disease, he said it about lepers and blind beggars. But what did Jesus mean when he said, “Your faith has made you well”?

The Greek word in most of these instances is σῴζω (sōzō), which Jesus uses for both being healed and being saved. It carries the sense of “being rescued or delivered from imprisonment or some affliction.”

Isn’t that an interesting connection. How many of us have felt so helpless about some physical ailment that we feel imprisoned by its presence in our lives? It restricts us. It limits our activity. Maybe we can’t do the things we like to do with the people that we love.

But healing can take us out of that imprisonment and set us free.

When Jesus made these statements about faith making people well or healing them or saving them, he was talking about the faith that they had in Him and the fact that He could heal them.

Some of these people experienced both physical healing and spiritual healing—that is healing at the soul level as their faith in Jesus Christ brought them to a saving knowledge Christ.

Another thing to notice is that all were not healed. I’m sure there were other people at the gates who needed healing. We know that when Jesus healed the blind man at the pool of Bethesda that there were many gathered there hoping for a chance at healing. However, Jesus chose one for healing, as did Peter and John. Perhaps the Spirit led them to choose the one who was ready for healing because of their faith.

II. What Have You Done?

Peter went on, as he did in his previous message, to explain the part that the Israelites had played in the murder of their Messiah...

Acts 3:13–16 CSB

13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. 15 You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.

Of course, as I said, Peter’s message was one for Jews. He made connections to the great fathers and prophets of Judaism. This was for the purpose of authenticating Jesus as their Messiah.

Peter’s words were bold in how he reminded the Jews of their treatment of Jesus. And he was doing this at the temple gates, the very home of the religious elite that had seen Jesus to His death. He reminded them of their demand to release Barabbas, the guilty murderer, so that Jesus could be crucified instead.

As one of my favorite authors, Warren Weirsbe says, “Calvary may have been man’s last word, but the empty tomb was God’s last word.”

One thing that this miracle was intended to show the people of Jerusalem was that they had been implicit in the murder of their Messiah, but his power continued in those who had followed him.

III. Your Ignorance Fulfilled God’s Purpose

Peter continued his boldness in telling the people of Jerusalem that they had acted out of ignorance. This was not an insult. It was simply to say that they acted out of a lack of knowledge about what God’s plan was supposed to be...

Acts 3:17–18 CSB

17 “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer.

In fact, God used the Jews of Jerusalem to fulfill his own plan, something that had been predicted time and again throughout the Old Testament, that the “Messiah would suffer.”

In Jewish thought, under the Mosaic Law, there is a difference between deliberate sins and sins of ignorance. The deliberate sinner is branded a rebel against God and should be cut off from the people of God (Num 15:30-31). This might be done through excommunication or death. But the person who sinned without deliberate intent might repent and seek God’s forgiveness.

That was the Old Testament. It wasn’t until Jesus’ resurrection that we begin to get a sense that both types of sinners might be able to find forgiveness.

We might not understand this. In fact, we probably cannot. But God had a plan from all eternity to provide for his creation, humankind.

IV. Repent of Your Sins

Peter had announced to Jerusalem their crime, he had explained to them their sin, and then he offered them a way to be pardoned of that sin...

Acts 3:19–20 CSB

19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.

The answer to sin is always repentance. I have said recently in our Wednesday night Bible study that repentance is not just lip service, but changed behavior. It is more than thinking, “I need to change something.” It is actually changing it.

This is like Peter jumping from the seat of the prosecuting attorney to that of the defense attorney and then into the seat of the judge to grant pardon to the accused.

Let me be clear here that we can’t have Jesus without repentance and we cannot have forgiveness without repentance.

V. Moses’ Message

Peter noted that Jesus place for the time being was in Heaven until, he says “the time of the restoration of all things.” He then went on to talk about the prophets...

Acts 3:21 CSB

21 Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.

He moved on to speak about Moses specifically...

Acts 3:22–23 CSB

22 Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.

In this passage, Moses, writing in the book of Deuteronomy, predicts the raising up of a Prophet, whom we know to be Christ, the Messiah.

Look back at verse 22. It instructs the Israelites to “listen to everything he tells you.” Then it says that those who don’t listen with be “completely cut off from the people.”

Do you remember what I told you about being cut off from the people of God? This punishment of being cut off from the people is reserved for the wilfully rebellious sinner who will experience God’s condemnation.

The Jews knew this. They did not stumble into this blindly.

Peter went on to explain how others of the prophets had foretold of “these days,” which is to say the days of salvation, fulfilled by Christ...

Acts 3:24–25 CSB

24 “In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.

God had given this promise to Abraham, that all the world would be blessed through the line of Abraham and Isaac.

Jesus fulfilled that promise by bringing the Good News first to the Jewish nation, but then expanded that message to the remainder of humanity, the Gentiles (or non-Jews).

While the blessing was offered to the entire Jewish nation, Peter was reminding the Jews that they had a personal responsibility to respond accepting or rejecting Christ.

Conclusion

Peter concluded by saying to those gathered...

Acts 3:26 CSB

26 God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

Let me be clear that this was no small gathering at the side gate of the Temple.

We can see in the next chapter that many believed and the leaders of the Jewish religious society were moved against the apostles of Christ.

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The Lord’s Table

We now move to the Lord’s Table as we remember the sacrifice and the salvific work that Christ completed on the cross. As we do regularly, we come to the table reflecting upon his sacrifice and we remember the reason that He made that sacrifice.

This is an appropriate time to reflect on your readiness and upon your personal condition before God.

[pause]

I know that a few of you come from a tradition of closed communion, which means that only members of the church are allowed to participate in communion. But here at FBC Pharr, we practice open communion. That means that we leave the decision to participate or not participate up to you.

If you are a Christian, who believes in Jesus Christ, and have taken him as your Savior and your Lord, we invite you to participate with us, if you feel it is appropriate.

Scripture teaches us that if there is any sin in your life or conflict with your brother or sister that might keep you from participating in this meal, then do not participate. If this is the case with you or if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please allow the bread and the cup to pass and do not participate.

If this is you, please do not feel guilty or compelled to participate. There is no judgment or condemnation here. However, if this is you, please seek one of us out to get answers to questions that you might have or to correct some things in your life. We are here to serve you.

[pause]

Jesus came to this world to open the doors of Heaven to us by taking our say sin upon Himself and provide a way that we might enter into the presence of Almighty God.

[distribute the elements / pray / send out the deacons]

You’ll notice that you have two cups, one inside the other. The bread is in the bottom cup. You can gently separate the two cups.

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

This is the body of our Lord, Jesus Christ, take it and eat in remembrance of His body broken for for us.

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 CSB

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is the blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Take it and drink in remembrance of His blood poured out for us.

For by eating this bread and drinking this cup, we join together in proclaiming the Lord’s life, death, and resurrection until His return to us.

Doxology

Praise God from Whom

All blessings flow

Praise Him all

Creatures here below

Praise Him above

Ye heavenly host

Praise Father Son

and Holy Ghost,

Amen