Peter’s Second Sermon - Pt. 1
ALL IN • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsDon’t get caught in the gaze. It’s not about you, it’s all about Him.
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Transcript
Review ALL IN series. Purpose for the series: how our discipleship process is just beginning like it was for them…
Review where we are: we just started a more focused look on the life of the early church after the summary in Acts 2.
Review Last Week: The Healing of the lame man…
We ended with these verses:
8 With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God;
10 and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Our focus for this morning will be the next six verses:
11 While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.
12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
13 “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.
14 “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
16 “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Pray
Last week, we established that Peter and John were out for a routine trip to the temple, for a routine time of prayer, in their everyday occurrence of life when they encountered the lame man at the gate called Beautiful.
Expand on this portion of the story, transition into:
Now, they enter the temple, but instead of a routine day and a routine prayer, they have a lame man walking and jumping around and making a ruckus.
What would you do if you were Peter and John?
What happens when God moves in such a way that it can’t be ignored, can’t be pushed aside, can’t be explained away?
I just happen to believe God will still use normal everyday people like you and I in supernatural appointments.
Talk about conversation with Wyndell (this feeling like God is about to do something big)
Tell story about seeing a skin of oil stretched to capacity just before the outpouring in 2009, and the feeling like the oil is about to flow again…
If we are looking to the early church as the pattern by which we are to live our lives as Christians, then we are expecting that at some point God will give us the opportunity to have our routine day altered in a supernatural way.
And when that time comes, We’ve got to have an answer!
What would you do? What would you say?
How would you explain it?
We established last week, there’s no formula to it, there’s no algorithm to manipulate, so how do you explain it?
Let’s look at what Peter says:
11 While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.
12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
We have to be careful that when God starts to use us, that we don’t get caught in the gaze…
There have been too many ministers who got caught in the gaze and liked the gaze a little too much…
God starts moving through them and through their ministry and all of a sudden they are celebrities…
There have been ministers that see a few healings, then all of a sudden you can buy blessed oil or holy water from them or prayer cloths…. (And with a gift of $500 or more you can also get the 3 dvd set of Minister Yahoo’s teaching on divine healing.. The power in positive thinking).
We have to be careful that we don’t get caught in the gaze…
The glory isn’t ours. The power isn’t ours. The fame doesn’t belong to us.
And the anointing is not a tool for profit!
We exist to make Him famous, to bring Him glory, and to display His power…
When God starts moving here, we must be careful that we don’t get caught in the gaze…
Speak again to the feeling God is going to move at The Shed at Provence in such a way that the community around us will gaze on us and wonder, HOW?
The thing we have to remember is this: We didn’t earn it. We don’t deserve it. It’s a sovereign move of God and only He deserves the glory…
When God blows the lid off this thing, its not because we did everything right..
It’s not because of the pastor’s ingenious strategic planning…
It’s not even because we have the best group of people in all of Oklahoma…
It’s simply this: When God get’s ready to move, He will move through any willing vessel…
Our cry is this: GOD DON’T DO IT WITHOUT ME…
I just want to be used in what God is planning…
Don’t get caught in the gaze..
12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
13 “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.
14 “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
V. 13 - remember the early church understands their faith as a continuation of God’s covenantal promise, not a replacement for it…
Peter takes a page out of Jesus’ sermon book with the same kind of contrast He had in the sermon on the mount: You’ve heard it said, but I tell you…
Peter says, you thought he was a heretic, but I tell you…
You thought He was delusional, but I tell you…
You thought He was a sinner, but in fact, He was the Holy and Righteous One…
You thought you got rid of Him… You thought you put Him to death, but He’s the Prince of Life…
You thought He was gone, but GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD!
And we saw it all! We are witnesses to this fact!
AND NOT ONLY THAT, but it’s by faith in HIS NAME that this lame man walks:
16 “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Call worship team
It’s at this point that so many believers get derailed when it comes to the supernatural…
People lose all their sense when they see the word faith and the faith becomes the focus, but look at what Peter is saying..
He’s literally telling them, this man is whole, not because of anything we did, but because of the one called Holy and Righteous… The one called the Prince of Life…
It’s in His name… it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man…
Here’s the difference… If you believe that it’s the quality of the faith or the merit of the faith or the amount of the faith that has anything to do with healing, you miss Peter’s point…
It’s not the faith by itself, it’s the One in whom our faith is based…
It’s the name by which we have all been called…
It’s not by any merit of mine, including how passionate I am or how much I believe, rather it is the Name on which I believe that makes the difference!
It is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know and the faith which comes through HIM…
Not only does Peter attribute the healing to the name, but He attributes the faith that believed for the healing to Him as well…
He leaves no room for any credit to be given back to him or John… All Glory goes to Jesus…
When God starts moving in such a mighty way here, it won’t be because of anything we have done to merit it, and we can’t take credit for it, it’s simply because God sovereignly chose this place at this time with those who are here to pour out His Glory…
It’s all in His name…
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Explain “in the name”
When we call ourselves Christian, we put on His name… We carry His authority… We are ambassadors to His kingdom…
It’s all about Him!
When we worship, it’s about Him! When we live, it’s all about Him!
When we come in here, it’s not about me and it’s not about you, it’s about HIM!
So as we begin our worship together, can we make it all about Him?
Let’s drop all the pretense, get out of our head thinking about what the person across the isle may think, and just focus on Him.
Altar Call - Focus on Him
Pray for Salvation, healing, etc. Between songs.