Acts - A Hebrew Sermon: Part 1

Last week we saw a man healed and rise…showing that rising is not constrained to Messiah, but can happen for others.

The now healed man went ‘WITH THEM’ into Solomon’s Portico at the Temple in Jerusalem

The people are utterly astonished!

Now, I want to warn you that we are going to take a look at the first half of one of Peter’s sermons.

The warning is that he is in the Temple area and preaching to Jews

So the message is going to be Jewish, and if you are unfamiliar with the Hebrew Bible, it may sound strange.

I want you to just listen, and then we are going to return to a couple of points that I want to cover today

Acts 3:11–16 NRSVue

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “Fellow Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

This is the first half of his sermon, we will look at the second have next week.

Acts 3:11–16 NRSVue

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “Fellow Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

SLIDE#1:

Why do you wonder at this?

Well, that is obvious. It is one thing if Jesus was doing it…

Now his disciples are doing it.

Which seems strange to them.

As though by our own power or piety we made him walk…

It is not us doing it…

Don’t look to us...

SLIDE#2: The God of Abraham…

You killed the author (beginning/head) of life, whom God raised from the dead

The idea is like that of a firstborn, the first, the chief, the head of life

God though, raised him from the dead…

SLIDE#3: To this we are witnesses

Here is how he was raised…

He believed in ‘The Name’

The name is not the five letters…

Perfect health is not perfect…

It is whole…