Solomon's Portico

Introduction

Before I dive into the message this morning, I want to catch you up in case you’ve missed the first 3 messages of this series. We started with Jesus commissioning his disciples to be witnesses, ascending into heaven, and telling the disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit came. Then, while they were waiting, they chose a replacement for Judas who had taken his own life. Then, the Holy Spirit comes on the church, manifests in a miraculous way, Peter preaches a message to the whole neighborhood, and 3,000 people get saved. So we pick it up there in Acts 3. Lets jump into the Word this morning.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

3 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

What an incredible story. One of the things I’ve learned about God is this, “often the thing that we are looking for is far less than the thing that God wants to do for us. Peter and John come across this guy. He’s desperate. He dependent on the people around him even to get him to a place where he can beg for money. When he sees Peter and John he asks for money. The first thing that Peter says to this man is “look at us”. Now that is interesting. Maybe Peter was wanting this man to look at him so that he realized who he was asking for money. He might have been saying, hey bud, I quit my job 3 years ago to follow around a homeless guy from a poor family. But I don’t think that was the reason he asked the man to look at him.

You can tell by the way this story is told, that this man is ashamed. Peter and John tell him to look them in the eyes. They are saying, there is no reason for you to be ashamed. Can I tell you something…shame is one of the greatest hindrances to experiencing what God has for you. There are so many people who are missing a transformational experience because they are too ashamed to come to God as they are. Peter’s direction reflects exactly what God does for us. His call is to lift up your head. Don’t let your past ruin your future.

So Peter says, we don’t have any money…we’re broke, but I’ll give you what I have. He reaches out his hand, lifts him up and tells him in Jesus name, to get up and walk!

And it says that in a moment, years of atrophy and waste are gone. This man has never walked. He was lame since his birth. He has never even stood up before. He went from being unable to stand to jumping up and down!

Now last week, we shared the story of the miraculous occurence of pentecost, when the party spilled out of the house and onto the street and everyone took notice.

Now it’s happening again. You can imagine the scene. This man who has probably been sitting at that gate trying to survive for years, is now running around and jumping and praising God. They would have recognized him. Everyone would be trying to figure out what is going on.

Here’s verse 11

English Standard Version Chapter 3

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12 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? 13 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. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

So this guy after testing out his new legs and probably dunking a basketball, he runs up to Peter and John and grabs on to them. Now all attention is focused on them.

So Peter thinks, well last time I preached and 3,000 people got saved. Let’s try it again. Here’s what I noticed. Peter’s second sermon is pretty much the same as his first. He points people to the resurrected Jesus and tells them to repent.

Can I tell you something? Every day you listen to sermons. You may hear preaching at work about profit margins and marketing strategies, you may turn on the news and hear sermons about the balance of safety vs. economic prosperity. The other day, my two year old daughter was preaching to me about the importance of watching Daniel Tiger. Even in churches, you will hear preaching on a variety of topics. Some churches preach personal piety, other social justice, others community, but at this church all of those issues are secondary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter’s first sermon, second sermon, and I’m certain many to come reflect the reason that Christ commissioned the disciples. As the apostle Paul said we preach Christ Crucified. Yes we want you to be concerned about your spiritual growth, yes we want to make a difference in the world and take care of the poor, sick, and hurting, yes we want to have friendship and relationship within the body of Christ, but none of that should come at the expense of the gospel being preached. It is our first objective and our ultimate goal.

I want us to notice a few things about the words Peter spoke on Solomon’s Porch. First of all

All the credit and the glory is for Jesus alone.

Peter says, why are you looking at us? It’s not like we have the power to heal anyone. We are just doing what God has called us to do.

Our call is to repentance. This once again is the heart of Peter’s message. It’s about who Christ is and what our response needs to be and he highlights 3 things about repentance in this message.

1. Repentance bring forgiveness

Peter is pointing out the fact that eternity is at stake. There are eternal consequences to your decision. I said this last week. You’re either a sinner, guilty of the murder of Jesus Christ, or you are forgiven. There is no in between level. You can’t use the excuse, I haven’t given my life to Christ in repentance, but I’m still a pretty good person. Complete forgiveness requires complete surrender. It doesn’t require perfection, but it does require a commitment to following Jesus above your own personal desires.

2. Repentance bring refreshing

I love reading legal thrillers. One of my favorite authors, John Grisham, began his fiction career with a novel called “A Time To Kill” It was made into a movie and tells the story of the trial of a black man in the south named Carl Lee who’s daughter was raped and killed by two men. Taking justice into his own hands, he shot and killed the men who committed this crime. Throughout the course of the trial, it is clear that Carl did commit the crime that he was accused of but when it came time to vote on his guilt or innocence, the jury unanimously voted to acquit him. The book ends with a celebration of the freedom of a man who by the standards of the law deserved to be imprisoned. Now where you stand on the topic of vigilante justice is not the point of why I’m telling this story. It’s to remind us that God’s forgiveness does not mean that we are innocent of the reasons for our condemnation. Rather, God has pardoned us in our guilt and declared us not guilty. We don’t have to endure the consequences of our wrong doing. He’s exempted us from the punishment that our sin deserves. There is so much relief in the fact that we have escaped that punishment. It’s not just the eternal forgiveness of sins. It’s the peace that comes from being forgiven. People search all over the world for peace in wealth, fame, success, even family, and other human relationships, but they will never truly find it there. True peace that goes beyond our ability to understand it only comes from a relationship with Jesus. The last thing Peter says about repentance is that

3. Repentance brings blessing.

He says something to the audience that day that is remarkable and I’m going to say it to you this morning. You are the fulfillment of a the prophecies of Moses. Peter quoted Moses saying, “The Lord will raise up for you a prophet.” Then he said “YOU ARE THE SONS OF THE PROPHET”. You are the fulfillment of the promise of God. You are the ones that will fulfill God’s promise to Abraham saying through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. You see, up to this point, Jews were the only recipient of the promises of God, but he promised Abraham long ago that it wasn’t just for him but through his descendants all the earth would experience the blessing of God. This was that moment in history when God was opening the door to world inviting them into covenant relationship with him…not the covenant that had been extended to Abraham and Moses, but now because of Jesus, a new covenant was extended and the full requirement was met for us by Jesus. This truth is for you too! You are a spiritual son of Abraham. You are they key to God’s blessing for the people around you. This prophecy thousands of years earlier was about you! What a promise!

And the story ends just like a novel with a happy ending. They all become one big happy church family…actually, it’s quite different. Let’s keep reading in chapter 4.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Wait a second Peter, I thought you said, repentance leads to blessing but you are going to jail for it. Here’s where we get it wrong church. Blessing is not comfort, material gain, or even happiness. I’m sure Peter and John were quite miserable as they sat in jail. However the blessing is in vs. 4. It says many who heard believed…5000 men came to faith that day.

Repentance may cost you a great deal, but there is not greater reward the the blessing of God’s kingdom being built through you. That is his promise for us

Before we conclude our time together in a time of worship, I would like to take a second and address our plans for the weeks to come and explain why we doing what we are doing.

This past week, we received some discouraging news from the governors office regarding their plans for places of worship to reopen. This was followed by President Trump’s announcement today declaring the right of churches to open their doors this weekend

After much prayer and thoughtful consideration, we as a leadership team have decided to stay the course on our plan to re-open our worship services with an outdoor service on June 7 and two indoor services on June 14.

The CDC has released new guidelines this week for houses of worship and we are working on a plan that we will share next week in order to safely resume services.

Now I know for a fact that there are a wide range of opinions on whether or not this is the right thing to do and I don’t expect for a second that everyone listening will agree with my conclusions and beliefs. That being said, I’m asking that we would not let the enemy drive a wedge between us with this.

It is critical that we continue to love and honor each other through this process. If you are not comfortable with returning to church yet or feel that this is the wrong thing to do, we are not asking you to ignore those convictions and we hope that you will continue to join us online, worship with us, and pray for us as leaders.

Additionally, for those of you who are in agreement, would you be respectful of those who have reservations or feel differently. It’s easy for us to blur the lines between our American standing and the fact that we are members of the kingdom of God first. It’s ok to disagree.

Finally, please avoid venting your frustrations on social media. Nothing good comes from these attempts and these posts often leave a wake of hurt and anger. This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue for us. It’s a matter of listening to the Holy Spirit and making the decision that we believe is right.

Let’s be an example of love to a world that is hurting and desperate right now. Let’s point them to the only solution to their problems. May Jesus be the reason for everything we say and do!

Now would you join me in worship this morning!