Why do you stare at us?
Acts (EMPOWERED TO WITNESS) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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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.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD
THANKS BE TO GOD
Intro:
We recently went to a birthday party for our young nephew, and when he finally got around to opening our gift, he was more taken with the bag than with the gift inside.
This reminded me of my kiddos when they were growing up.
My wife would and I, but mostly her, would go to great links to get them gifts that would challenge them and help them grow into capable and compassionate adults. But when it came time for them to open their gift, they would pretty consistently spend more time enamored with the box than the gift inside.
Understanding the care and time behind the gift, it was frustrating to see these children completely missing the point of the gift that was given to them.
Today’s Scripture reminds us that this is nothing new.
The people in this passage are like kids receiving an incredible gift, but they are only interested in the box.
Remember last week. Peter and John were sensitive to the Spirit of God in their daily routine, and it opened up their eyes, for just one more.
Through the power of God they performed an incredible miracle. They were able to speak healing and life into a man who had been crippled from birth. And it amazed these people. Look at
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?
Peter asks them why do you stare at us? We are not the power behind this miracle. He goes on to suggest that the miracle is not even the real gift, but the real gift is the gospel. And by elevating the miracle they are missing the point of the real gift for something far less valuable.
The point of the miracle is to open their ears to the gospel.
Chunk #1
Jesus heals us, just as He did for this beggar. It might not always be physical healing, but He certainly changes our lives for the better.
We have seen Him do it.
This healing begins in our hearts, then moves on to our households and finally into our community.
I’ll use my story as an example. God slowly but surely changed my heart. He deeply and profoundly, healed me.
This has moved into my household.
My marriage is stronger. My wife knows Jesus and His love. Our kids are growing in their knowledge of God and their love for Him.
Our oldest son Ryder is thinking strongly about seminary, and is discipling others within his community.
And now we see His healing overflowing into this church community.
I sit down with Nick, our brother who was just baptized, every week and we help each other know Jesus better and trust Him more.
Paul Walker’s Lent story.
Mack’s story.
Ronnie and Joy’s story.
Those life changes are miracles! But they are never supposed to point to themselves alone, but to the gospel.
Chunk #2
And where the gospel of Jesus meets us it changes us immensely.
That’s why we say at the intersection of the gospel and our stories is His church.
When He intersects into our lives, that is nothing short of a miracle. But that miracle does not point to us, it points to Jesus. When we share our stories, we help others to see who He is and how He frees us.
That’s why we ask people in this church to share their story when they get baptized.
Because we are witnessing a miracle! A dead heart has come to life! And that miracle is supposed to point us to the power of Jesus. Not the power of my preaching or anything else that we are tempted to elevate over Jesus. It is all to point to Him.
Chunk #3
Which is just what Peter is doing through this healed man. He’s saying, “you think this healing is amazing? Wait till you hear the gospel!”
And he presents the gospel by pointing to the glory of Christ, pointing to the sinfulness of man, and pointing to the only right response to the message.
First, He points to the glory of Christ.
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.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the forefathers of the Jewish faith. And Peter says, they all point to Jesus as the one who ultimately fulfilled the promise that God made to Abraham. That all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his offspring. Jesus is that blessing.
But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
Peter then tells of the character of Jesus. Holy and righteous. Which would have been heresy for first century Jews. Only one was holy and righteous…God!
This was pointing them to the divinity of Jesus.
As he’s elevating the glories of Christ, he’s also exposing the sinfulness of the crowd.
They asked for a murderer to be granted to them, referring to the Jewish crowd in the gospels pleading for the release of Barabbas, a murderer, and for the crucifixion of Jesus.
and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
You asked for a murderer, a taker of life to be granted to you, while you sent the author of life to be murdered. But Peter tells them, He did not stay dead. He was an eyewitness to the resurrection.
Remember the resurrection was a recent event at this time. It could have been disproven if it wasn’t true in this moment. The audience could have spoken up, but they didn’t. Because Christ had been raised from the dead!
And this leads Peter to teach how to rightly respond to the truth of the gospel.
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,
The only right response to the gospel is to repent and turn back to God.
But our cultural Christianity often blurs the very meaning of that gospel.
Pastor Jared Wilson says in his book, “Lest We Drift,”
That the terms “gospel centered,” or “evangelical” have become political labels that elevate some sort of tribal identity over the one true gospel.
And that we are seeing an increasing number of “evangelicals” who have no meaningful relationship with a local church or to orthodox Christian doctrine.
The 2022 state of theology survey revealed that 65% of evangelical respondents believe people are born innocent in the eyes of God and 56% believe God accepts the worship of all religions. Additionally 43% believe that Jesus was a good teacher, but not God. And 60% agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is a force, but not a personal being.
He ends by saying that one of the depressing developments of the last few years is just how many professing Christians in the public square seem to find the Bible inconvenient, quaint and even out dated.
There is a reason why the western church seems to have stalled in its ability to make faithful disciples of Jesus, while the church in other parts of the world is growing significantly.
Because we are drifting from the power of the gospel, and relying on the power of man.
We are dead in our sins apart from Christ, but in Him, we are the righteousness of God. It is His power that saves us, not our own.
The only right response to the gospel is to repent and turn back to God.
And Peter tells us why.
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.
Let’s look at these.
When we repent our sins are blotted out.
Our ultimate problem is not outside of us, but inside of us. But as we believe the gospel, and repent God wipes out our sin, in Christ. We no longer face condemnation of our sin, because Christ paid for it. So we are brought to new life in Christ. That’s the gospel.
Which leads to times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord, right here and right now.
When He comes back, His beautiful restoration will be experienced fully, but right now as we still inhabit this broken world, we can experience His refreshing presence. In Him, you can have peace. Not in yourself, not in your circumstances, but in Him alone. That’s the gospel.
And lastly, Peter says to repent so that God may send the Christ appointed for you.
Jesus will return, and when He does He will be coming for you and not against you. This is the freedom of belief in the gospel and repentance.
This is the life of a follower of Jesus. Receive the gospel. Believe the gospel. And repent or turn away from your sins everyday, so that your sins may be blotted out, times of refreshing may come in His presence, and to know that Jesus will come again for you and not against you.
Our individual stories are all part of this greater one.
Chunk #4
And what is the result of Peter and John using this miracle to preach the gospel?
Surely it’s an elevated sense of self. Surely it’s a life of health and success. Surely they were comfortable in their mansions and lived happily ever after.
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
Here at the Garden we always talk about wanting to be a people who proclaims the gospel with their voice and their life. That is exactly what Peter and John are doing here. And Scripture says that their proclamation greatly annoyed the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees. But a more accurate translation is that they greatly disturbed them. They greatly disturbed the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees.
The priests were authorities within the temple, the captain of the temple would have been the man in charge of keeping order within the temple under the authority of the High priest. And the Sadducees were a group who strictly observed the law of Moses, or the first 5 books of the Bible, but they did not believe in the resurrection.
So, Peter and John preach the gospel to these people, the resurrection of Christ Jesus. And they show them how Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses all point to Him as the ultimate authority. He is the fulfillment of the promises of God.
This greatly disturbs them. The religious powerhouses of the day, to the point that they had Peter and John arrested to silence them.
There are churches all around us who are changing the gospel message to make it less annoying and less disturbing. The gospel still greatly disturbs people today. Because it changes everything. It challenges our comfort, our money, our relationships and our ideas.
There will always be those who would rather just look at the miracle than have their ears opened to the gospel. But they will always be missing the point of the miracle. They will always be like children playing with an empty box, when a far superior gift is being offered to them.
As you tell people this, there will be those who wish to silence you, because you are annoying. But proclaim the gospel. Jesus is who He says He is. The cross proves it. The empty tomb proves it. The Scripture proves it. The miracles we witness proves it.
But do not let the world hijack the definition of blessing. It does not mean happiness and a comfortable life.
So, what does blessing mean?
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
We are blessed as we repent from our wickedness and believe the gospel. And even though many will try to silence the gospel, as you faithfully proclaim it, it will achieve its purposes.
Look at
But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
We are 3 chapters in to the book of Acts, and as of right now we are looking at roughly 8,001 people saved in a matter of weeks because of the gospel of Christ.
And this is the first moment we see followers of Jesus imprisoned for preaching the gospel. But it will not be the last.
Suffering and rejection will often be the result of faithfulness, but so also is blessing. We are blessed as we suffer because it turns us away from everything that keeps us from seeing Jesus as beautiful. And that will help others to see Him as beautiful too.
CONCLUSION
We see this whole scene take place because God went outside the laws of nature to heal this lame man. And so many of us want to focus on the fact that he healed a man who hadn’t walked in 40 years. Which is incredible!
But it was ultimately to open ears and rescue 5,000 souls through the power of the gospel. And that is the greatest miracle of all.
The book of Acts proves to us over and over again that the gospel of Jesus is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To trust in anything else is to miss the real gift.
LET’S PRAY
(PREPARE FOR THE LORD’S SUPPER IN THE PRAYER)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
What are some things at church that we tend to focus on instead of Jesus?
How has Jesus changed your heart, your household and your community?
Does being blessed mean getting everything we want?
And a follow up, how can getting the opposite of what we want at times, be a blessing?
Lastly, what are some miracles you have witnessed that have helped you point other people to Jesus?
