God Glorifying Worship - Worship that moves

Introduction

We come to the end of our short series on God Glorifying Worship. I have titled this sermon “Worship that moves.” My desire is for us to look at worship as not something that we do on a Sunday alone, but what it looks like every day. This morning, I want to pay special attention to what worship looks like as we live and tell others of our love for Christ.

Question, have you ever thought of your worship of God as an outpouring of truth to another person? As you look to God every day for guidance, wisdom, and perseverance, do you look to God as to how the worship of His name can be a means of living the Christian life to a dying world? I want us to look at this through the lens of one of the greatest sermons ever preached. It is a sermon that we may know well. It is a sermon that leads to persecution and imprisonment (Acts 4:1-21). It is a sermon that leads to further worship after the name of Christ is proclaimed (Acts 4:24-31).

Brothers, this is so important for us today! How vital it is for each one of us to worship God, not just in the comfortable places, but out in the public places as well. In order for us to look in this direction, I want to highlight three things from this text that will give us confidence as we worship God no matter where we find ourselves…

First, worship that moves is worship that is vertical (vv.11-16), second, it is evangelistic (vv.17-21), and third it is successive (vv.22-26).

I. Is vertical (vv.11-16)

Verses 11-26 follow the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate (v.2). The crowd was amazed of the healing that took place (because it wasn’t every day that healing took place). This brought forth a natural human response, an elevation of the man who performed the healing (v.12). A similar situation (astounded people elevating a man) is told of Simon the Magician in Acts 8:9-11. Chapter 3 can be summarized in this one sentence, “Worship is reserved for God alone.” Peter corrects the crowd in placing their worship, not upon himself, but upon God.

Before Peter begins to speak, he assesses the crowd. The crowd had been stirred up in an emotional sense because of the miracle that just occurred. Recognizing this, Peter must address the emotional state of the crowd before he can begin to give the gospel and direct men to repentance. In other words, the state of the crowd must be vertical in sight as a replacement to the emotional. This further emphasizes that the vertical is enduring where the emotional is temporary. Verse 12 says that Peter saw the emotional state of the crowd and his reply is an immediate retraction from any glory or praise directed to themselves. The question that Peter asks as to why there is such a gaze-given is directed at their limited horizontal view. Further, the response that Peter gives is one that is out of humility. Not false humility, but it is one that is given with the understanding that only Christ through the Holy Spirit is able to give this kind of miraculous power. It must be understood that Peter is not saying that it is Christ who gives this power because he has been given some special revelation. It is because Peter knows that it is Christ alone who is capable of such a miraculous act. Peter experienced and had a close relationship with God and his words attesting to the miraculous nature of God is because Peter knew God. The ultimate aim for Peter is to have men, women, and children to have this relationship with God. A similar train of thought follows in first Peter 1:13-16 which reads, “Therefore, having girded your minds for action, being sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holly yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” In the passage that we are looking at in Acts 3:11-26, the flow is almost identical. Peter begins with the truth as it is found in Christ and the truth, being heard, brings forth a response.

The reason that the aim of worship being vertical is so important is because human beings are prone to be wowed or amazed at the simplest of things (consider Cornelius’ rash response to Peter’s arrival in Acts 10:25-26). Here, the people truly believed that Peter was the one who did the healing. They did not think of any outside source that would be the agent for physical restoration. Think of a beautiful piece of art or a most masterful sculpture that is created. Upon seeing such wonder, to whom does the credit typically go to first? It would be the artist or the sculptor. Not that one is not due to such recognition, but who is the One who gives the gift and ability to be able to craft and create such beauty? Whether it is a person who believes in God or one who does not, the ability does not come from within themselves. Here is something we must always remember, without the creativity of God who shows His creative ways through all of creation, man, who is made in the image of God would not have one creative bone or thought in his body. The same is true for this miraculous event. Peter is not able to do it on his own. He is totally dependent upon God to be able to heal this man. And his response in verse 12 shows his subjection under God.

You will notice in verse 13 that there is only One who is glorified and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father has glorified Jesus Christ which Christ declares in John 8:54. What we need to understand is that without the glorification of Christ (Philippians 2:9-11), everything that is said after verse 13 falls apart. Peter speaks of both the Divinity of Christ in His glorification and the humanity of Christ. This he gives in a negative way saying that He was handed over and denied before Pilate. In other words, the rejection of Christ in the flesh was a real historical event. In terms of a timeline, Peter’s sermon in Acts 3 was not long after Christ had ascended to heaven. The Jews whom he was speaking to would not have forgotten that quickly of the events that took place concerning the accusation and the death sentence that was placed on Christ. However, it was necessary for them to be reminded. Shortly after the resurrection, the guards had told the Pharisees what had happened, and the Pharisees paid the guards off to tell a false narrative of what occurred (Matthew 28:11-15). If the resurrection were to be so quickly made askew by the chief priests, what would prevent them or anyone else to changing or modifying the events concerning the death of Jesus Christ? Hence the Jews needing to be reminded of what actually happened.

Verses 13-16 clearly articulate that it is Jesus Christ who is at the center of this healing and who is deserving of all worship. Now the word worship is not used, but the implication is clear. Even the false worship wrongly attributed for the people were wowed and marveled and amazed at the healing of the lame beggar. Consider what is said in Acts 14:8-12. A similar event takes place. The lame person is healed when Paul spoke to him to get up. And what is the response of the crowds who saw the act take place? They raise their voice as verse 11 says calling them gods. In verse 12 they attribute the name Zeus to Barnabas and Hermes to Paul. The people went so far with this worship that when they were restrained from offering sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas in verse 19, they stoned Paul with the intent to kill him as the Jews aided in this effort. The scripture is clear that man is quick to worship man. This is just one example that the Bible gives. In our own day we could come up with many more examples and instances with this happening. Therefore, our worship must be vertical in order to move.

To rightly worship God and to give him the praise is to be dealt some hard truths. The summary of what Israel and her leaders had done to Christ is necessary for worship to occur. You have heard it said that for the good news to be good there must be bad news that makes the good news wonderful news. That is what Peter is getting at in this summary of what the people of Israel and her leaders had done. It was never Peter’s intent to leave them to wallow in the muck and mire of their sin.

But he says in verse 16 that it is faith in the name of Jesus that this man was healed. Why would Peter say this? Because just as this man was healed from his physical affliction based on faith in Christ, so could the Jews be saved from the wrath of God based on the same faith. The true miracle here is not the physical restoration of the lame beggar. The miracle is that this lame beggar went from a blind sinner who had no hope and was brought face to face with the truth of Christ. The beggar went from looking horizontally and now to looking vertically. For it is in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene the man now walks. And this saving faith in Christ is where Peter points throughout this sermon.

II. Is Evangelistic (vv.17-21)

For every Christian in this room a sweet and most joyous worship is given unto Christ because he went to a cross, died there, was buried, and rose again so that our despicable sins would be forgiven. The amazing truth of the matter in verses 17-21 is that the very sin of crucifying Jesus Christ could be forgiven. This is critical. Why? To the unbeliever sitting in this room who believes that God cannot save him because your sins are too great and your mind too perverted, look to what Peter says about those who were guilty of sending Christ to the cross. Again, the people who were guilty of crucifying Jesus were open to God’s forgiveness in the same Savior of the world whom they crucified! Consider how great the love of Christ is to you unbeliever that even as He was on the cross-dying Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). I don’t know of a greater sin, in the eyes of man, than that! Yet, it is not an unpardonable sin!

It is true that every sinner acts in ignorance before coming to Christ. Turn to Ephesians 4 and consider what it said in verses 17 and 18… Do you see the role that ignorance plays in the life of the sinner? This text in Ephesians 4 gives a general picture of what ignorance looks like. This ignorance is rooted in sin. Might I add that this ignorance is not used in the shallow ways that we use this word today. In all four mentions of this word in the Greek New Testament, the word ignorance is always used in conjunction with the sin of man that must be repented of. Now back to Acts 3:17, this ignorance that is rooted in sin and wickedness does not go unknown to God. It was always a part of God’s plan for Christ to be the perfect atoning sacrifice that would satisfy the wages of sin that is death.

And Peter strikes a sore spot in the lives of the Jews. How? Because the very prophets in whom they had read, the Old Testament of which they abided by continually pointed to the reality that Christ, the Son of God, would suffer by dying on a cross for the sins of men. This is what he means by “all the prophets.” The Old Testament is evangelistic by nature. God spoke through men in the Old Testament to point them to His beloved Son. We will look at this more in verses 22-25. If there was one text to point to the totality of Scripture, it would be this text in Acts 3:18. There is no clearer way to articulate Christ in all of Scripture then how Peter does it in this verse. Listen! God has not hidden anything from us. He wants us to be assured that the entire Bible is about Christ and points us to Christ.

The center of the evangelistic message comes from verse 19. Here we are given two points of action and two results of the actions. God glorifying worship is evangelistic. We could spend the rest of this morning and many days after looking at the many examples of Christ and His evangelistic endeavors. Matthew 4:17 is sufficient for us this morning considering the mission of Christ. “Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”” This verse occurs at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus always had in mind repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

I don’t want to look so much at what it means to repent and return as much as I want us to see that this is an outpouring of our worship. If it were not for God doing the work of salvation and bringing us Christians to repentance and faith in Him, we would not believe. Therefore, it is also true that God uses human beings to bring forth the message of salvation, those who have been radically transformed by the gospel. Out of reverence and awe and worship of God we move forth as the prophets of old did by delivering the good news of Christ to the nations. Listen to Yahweh’s guarantee of salvation in 2 Chronicles 7:14, (speaking to Solomon) “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then I will listen from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.” One more verse for you to consider, Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Should not our love for God bring forth out of our mouths a cry to the unbeliever to “Repent ye therefore, and be converted?”

Coming back to the mission of Christ in repentance we see in verse 19 that Peter’s sermon is one that is centered on repentance. This echoes his sermon that is given to us in chapter two. But how does this repentance and returning factor in with worship? To answer this question another question must be asked. What is it that you have repented of? What is it that you still repent of throughout your Christian experience? The answer is given in the middle of verse 19. The entire purpose of repentance and returning to God brings us back to the reality that every human being is a sinner. Therefore, every human must repent for the forgiveness of his/her sins. There is no other way in which repentance is applied. Our worship of God as seen by the Word and in prayer and in song is an outpouring of gratitude for having eyes to see our need to repent of our sin. All these things are connected. I think we see this displayed in a summary sense in Acts 26:18-20. This is when Paul is giving his defense to King Agrippa and as he recounts his conversion experience, he tells Agrippa of the mission that God had sent him on. Praise be to God that Paul went forward in obedience to Christ in giving the gospel to the Gentiles of whom Paul was sent. Listen! It was God’s plan that the Gentiles would come to know Him and worship Him through the evangelistic feet of the apostle Paul. Brothers! Does this not stir within you an urgency to proclaim the truth as an act of worship to God as was done for you? This was the response of the apostle Paul. And the same is said of Peter as well. They were both radically converted to Christ and were committed to the spreading of the glorious name of Jesus Christ.

Let us turn back to Acts 3:19 once more. To repent and return brings forth the remission of sins and belief in Christ. In addition to these two things there are times of refreshment that come from being in the presence of the Lord. What does this mean for you and me? It means that as repentant Gentiles we now can come into the presence of Almighty God! The word for refreshment in the Greek language brings forth a sense of revival in the human being (Strong’s) and it is a picture of going through the fire and now being cooled off (Mounce). We have much to be thankful to God for and much to worship His name for. Let us go forth and spread this glorious news of personal revival that is only found in salvation that comes by the name of Jesus Christ!

III. Is Successive (vv.22-26)

Finally, our worship is not brand new in Christian history. Verses 22-26 are the historical backdrop of our worship. We are going to be helped by a variety of prophets and faithful brothers who have gone before us in the proclamation of the name of Christ and in faithful worship of Him. Three examples are given, although these do not constitute the whole.

It is not so much that our attention is going to be primarily focused on the prophets themselves. Primarily what is seen in verse 24 where it says, “his successors onward, also proclaim these days.” What days are they talking about? The days that they are talking about are those of repentance and trust in Jesus Christ. This message is consistent throughout history from the days of Abraham onward to the day of Christ and continuing into our day. Hence, we see that our worship of God is successive, and the evangelistic efforts put forth by the people of God are successive as well. The most obvious observation of this is found in verses 22 and 23. These are a direct quotation of Moses found in Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19.

In these verses Moses is speaking directly of Christ and His ministry on earth. It is Christ of whom Peter also speaks of in a similar manner as Moses did. What is amazing to think of here is that Christ is not the only One who is proclaimed but also the early church age is proclaimed as well by the prophets including Samuel as it is said in verse 24. In other words, worshipers of Christ under the new covenant are prophesied from long ago. Yet, the worshipers of Yahweh as described in the Old Testament are no different than you and I. Another quote from the Old Testament is in verse 25 which is a quote of Genesis 22:18. Verse 25 does not quote all the Genesis passage, but we know from the life of Abraham that he was a devout worshiper of Yahweh God. And he is rewarded for his worship. According to Genesis 22:18 Abraham is blessed because “he had listened to Yahweh’s voice.”

These verses show us that a life dedicated to Christ and a fervent worship of Him always brings forth an action or a response of some kind. Here we see this response is one of active obedience. They were given a task, that is to proclaim the truths of God. But their worship was not fixed on the moment in which they lived but they looked to a place far greater than where they lived. Verse 21 tells us that the holy prophets from ancient time spoke of Christ looking to a period of restoration. This of course, is the complete and final restoration that is found in Christ. It is the time when the ungodly are judged and believers enter their heavenly abode put together by Christ. Listen to what is said of Abraham and the others who were faithful slaves of God in Hebrews 11:16, “But now, they aspire to a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He prepared a city for them.”

Make no mistake, Paul is speaking to the Jews. But this should not discourage us in any way for this is a fulfillment of what Christ had said to the apostles in Acts 1:8. Christ said that the Apostles would begin in Jerusalem and from there spread the message of salvation “to the end of the earth.” So, when Paul says in verse 26 that it was for the Jews first of whom God had raised Christ up and sent him this, two, is according to the plan of God. Ultimately, going to the Jews first and their rejection of the gospel is what would bring the gospel to the Gentiles. God does not just want Jewish people to worship Him. For “God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30). Therefore, as it was true for the Jews so it is true for us that “God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

Conclusion

As we conclude this short series on God glorifying worship, I want to leave you with three general thoughts…

I. Your worship matters deeply to God. Regardless of where you find yourself this morning, your outpouring of worship before the Lord matters. Your time in the Word, in prayer, in song, or out and about reflects your love for God and how much He matters to you. Your worship will show your true love and obedience unto the Lord.

II. Your worship must be an outpouring of the truth of God to others. Why do you worship as you do? Is your life different from the world around you? Is your worship of God the foundation for everything that comes from your lips or the works of your hands? In other words, the way you live and speak as an offering to God should catch the notice of others around you.

III. Your worship depends upon God. In our text today, none of what was able to be done was capable by Peter, Moses, Samuel, or Abraham alone. There was no way they could have lived the Christian life on their own accord. They depended fully on God. Christian, does this bring you great hope? It should! God gives you the ability to worship Him and empowers you to worship Him in the most pleasing and God-honoring way. Praise be to God who bestows His lovingkindness in such a way as this!

Let’s pray!

Benediction:

Isaiah 30:18

“Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you, and therefore He is on high to have compassion on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who wait from Him.”