Listen to Glisten: Peter's Prominence

Introduction:

Right now I’m leaving the Matson’s living room to take care of my kids in the play room… Give you a moment to catch your breath before we started this morning...

Say hi to each small group

A little different sermon:

Overview of where we come thus far...

Jump into our short passage

Draw some points of application from the passage

First Point: Review

Where are we in this book?

First 5 chapters:

Early church mobilizing itself for mission

Jesus ascends to heaven

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

Pentecost Comes on the 12 Apostles (representing 12 Tribes) Church is now the New Israel

FIRST, summary statement: Everyone was devoted to apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer...

Perfect picture of the a Kingdom Embassy for Christ!

Peter emerges as the first major leader:

Preaches at Pentecost

4 Part mini-sermon series about the healing of the lame beggar:

Peter preached from Solomon’s Portico or Porch already!

Healing, controversy with religious leaders

SECOND, summary statement

Ch. 4: Church experienced great grace,

v.32: Perfect unity (one heart and soul)

v. 32: Perfect sharing (no one called their possessions their own)

v.33: Powerful Sermons

v.33: ‘Great grace’ was upon them all

v.34: Not a needy person. All landowners and home owners sold them and brought the proceeds to the apostles’ feet

Examples: A good example (Barnabas) and a bad example (Ananias and Sapphira)

Luke then goes back to describing the experience of the early church without any specific examples this time.

Third and Final Summary Statement in Acts:

“Great fear come upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.”

Something about 2 people falling dead because they were dishonest about how much they donated raises some eye-brows.

Early church water hole conversations:

Did you hear about you know who??

Yeah, I heard they just dropped dead?

Ananias had it coming, he never returned my shophar anyway...

Back to the Portico

Within that shadow of fear...

Fellowship, unity, grace

But ALSO trepidation, don’t mess...

v.12: Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico

v.13: “None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

It’s within this new shadow, that the Early Church meets under the shadow of Solomon’s Portico...

We have already seen Peter preach from this grand covered structure set alongside the eastern side of the Temple

“no one else”= non-believers

“them”= The Church

But the people, like the general public grew to respect this group. Instilling fear as the ability to create respect...

And although some dared not take the chance to hear Peter under the Portico, that didn’t stop this movement from growing.

14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,

From Portico to the Streets

v.15: they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them

Carried the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats for Peter’s shadow to heal them

Shadow ‘might fall on them...”= Peter’s shadow may overshadow

Used for Mary being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit

the cloud overshadowing them in Mount of Transfiguration

Imagine the scene:

“When’s Peter done preaching today...”

“Where’s the sun so we can position the cots just right...”

“If we ask Pete to walk between these stone cones right along this section of the road, then we’ll place all the cots along the street...”

All hospitals rooms are empty while the cots are being transported from the emergency room to Main Street!

Visitors going into the hospital asking which room to visit and they’re told to go check out the corner of Herod and Maccabees...

Not sure why a hospital administrator would have a New York accent...

This movement is hot as middle-eastern Harissa Sauce!

But this movement doesn’t just stay in the temple or even the streets of Jerusalem...

Outskirts of Jerusalem

v.16: “The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”

Outline:

1.8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We’re starting to see what Jesus said come to life!

Movement out and movement in and momentum building with grace, fellowship, love, but also with respect and awe and fear…

Acts 5:12-16: End of Part I of Acts: Ministry in Jerusalem

But it begins a countdown of ministry beginning to ooze outside the walls of the Temple and it starting to effect the Galilean Hillsides...

Now, when I read this passage and consider everything we’ve talked about so far, a question comes to my mind. The question is, “So, like, of course the early church blew up when you have people rub, hobble, or hop up to your shadow for healing.

Wherever Peter would walk, people would get fixed up!

Pretty good marketing strategy.

Like, if 2020 taught us anything, is that as technologically advances we think we are, our bodies remain frail and broken.

To dust we came, to dust we will return...

Imagine if, rather than ventilators and vaccines, you could just get a prominent religious leader to take a walk through town? We could get, like, a J.D. Greer to come and we could block off Martin Luther Jr. King Blvd to set up cots. He could bring his dog each day.

That would be a great strategy for growth, which would be a good thing for smaller churches like the Summit… But seriously though, didn’t the early church have an advantage over us? Like, they had signs and wonders be a regular thing!

I was talking to Danta this past week about how to apply this passage, and he said, with his more Pentecostal background, that if he just preached that Jesus wants to heal you and I’m going to prophecy that is Jesus name, that his church would explode! People are craving for that kind of hope

The temptation to promise these things is a real thing, and you can see why the largest churches in North America or those who promote themselves like a hospital: Come here and get physically healed. Why go through doctors, nurses, and insurance when you can just believe in Jesus?!

So as I consider this massage advantage the early church had in a guy like Peter, I wanted to reflect with you a couple of things:

Healing Spurred the Growth Needed at First

Singular Moment in History

ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT THROUGH THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Healing was a huge engine for the early church

The Holy Spirit remains the person who builds the church!

Because we all know what would have happened if the Spirit didn’t intervene, right?

The whole Old Testament is proof:

Israel rebelled days after Pharoah and his army were swallowed up

They rebelled even after God provided for them manna

They rebelled after God gave them water

They rebelled after Jericho.

Without the Holy Spirit, we have short term memories...

Rather than preaching in the portico, Peter would be fishing in a pond

Matthew would be back in a tax-collector’s booth

The Apostle’s would have all gone back, eventually, to the regular routines!

The movement Jesus started would have been a repeat of the Old Testament had not the Holy Spirit supernaturally imposed the POWER OF GOD!

The Holy Spirit woke up the world to a new movement!

The Holy Spirit grew the church. The Acts of the Holy Spirit grew the Church. The Healing Power of the Holy Spirit created immediate and beautiful growth!

A new creation is here.

A new Kingdom is here.

Without the writings of Paul, years before John Mark would pen the first Gospel, without the Special Revelation of God’s Word, God didn’t leave his Apostles with merely their words.

The Holy Spirit also came with signs of resurrection life!

God did this movement. Every breath and step of it.

Without the Holy Spirit, we have short term memories. With the Spirit, there is healing, power, and movement!

Secondly, the Same Holy Spirit is on the Move Today

Although our shadows may not contain a vaccine for COVID, we do have the same Holy Spirit coursing through our veins! The Holy Spirit used supernatural means to get that momentum going why?

All these miracles set the church up to be known as the place of healing—or better put, the people of healing.

Landing the Plane

We’re not Peter, and we’re not supposed to be.

But you and I are still called to be agents of healing. ALL THESE MIRACULOUS HEALINGS, THE SPIRIT USED THEM IN A SPECIFIC TIME IN HISTORY TO MAKE SURE THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD TRUMP THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

That same Spirit is in you and me...

From the beginning, the church was called to be a healing presence.

It goes back to the promise God gave to Abraham:

Through you all the nations will be blessed, God says.

How are you being an agent of healing??

What does an agent of healing look like?

Well, the first thing to know is that healing isn’t synonymous with fixing:

Even the miracles people experienced by touching Peter’s shadow was a temporary fix to a chronic heart problem!

People of Healing know Jesus: They know who these miracles are pointing towards.

So the First Thing to keep in mind is that

Non-defensive:

Defensive through “tears, pleadings, and strong statement.”

Other defend by calm record keeping

Zack Eswine: “Emotional blasting is easy to see… the second, record keeping, functions to keep everyone more comfortable, more apparently in control with detailed defense, so our ability to recognie this gospel substitute takes much longer...

“Defensiveness only proves the point of our brokenness and exaggerates our faults in the yes of others, particularly if those others already see what they want to be true about us rather than what actually is true about us. Defensiveness has no power to heal.”

A Repentant Heart

A person of healing is one who understands their own brokenness.

Kills pride

You listen for what God wants to heal, not what you want to fix!

“You were never meant to repent because you can’t fix everything. You are meant to repent because you’ve tried. Even if we could be god for people and fix it all, the fact remains that Jesus often does not have the kind of fixing in mind that you and I want.”