Acts 3 –
Notably the first miracle done after Jesus has left is healing. Not only that but it is an unmistakable gift – meaning that the man was in fact looking for something from the two of them. They in turn tell him that they do not have what he looks for, but something greater. This again displays the paradigmatic series of events that seems to happen several times when people are healed in the New Testament –
1. They are sick/demonized (this may seem like an obvious point but it is important to recognized that people must be sick to be healed, hence the word saved) Often times these people are blatantly overlooked by their own community. Though some are willing to carry this man so that he can beg for money outside the temple.
2. They look to a person for something – often times Jesus is called upon by his name, but several times he approaches and the person does not see him for who he is before he heals them – in this case the beggar wasn’t expecting to be healed
3. They are healed by the power of Jesus.
4. They respond. – “He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.”
5. They are seen. People are “filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
6. Their weakness and brokenness is used by God to strengthen others – In this case Peter preaches to them. It is worth noting that Peter does not preach 10 ways to find disciples so that they can heal you, or “How to fix your broken legs- a message of hope.” Peter preaches the Gospel.
The rest of my thoughts really come from a reflection upon Peter’s words.
First he sets them straight. Apparently he has to do this a lot at the beginning of sermons (applicable? Yes.) “Hey, stop looking at us like we did this. Jesus did.” It reminds me of two things that Raymond told me. He said that when he gets up to preach he often just states what text they will be in, and gets right to it. Why? “Because I want the first words out of my mouth to be scripture,” he sees stories as something that can compliment scripture, not the other way around. Secondly, after he preached the Gospel out of Jeremiah, he looked at me and said, “If your sermon could talk, it would ask, ‘Do I get to talk about Jesus yet?’”
Peter gets to Jesus. Fast.
He then tells them several very important facts.
1. You killed God – “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life…”(I can’t help but read that verse and feel horrible. The author of life – dead.)
2. BUT, “God raised him from the dead.”
3. “It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him,”
4. “as you can see.”
Facts- 1. You killed God. 2. He is alive. 3. His name and faith through him heals 4. You can see it. God has made known to us the “mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,” (Eph 1:9).
He then does some work on public relations and says, “ I know I know, you all are idiots. You acted out of ignorance. The good news is that God is God,” – “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.” (Gods sovereignty, our choices)
And then Peter brings them to the point where the Gospel should always brings us – repentance. “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,”
This unfortunately is where many sermons stop. The salvation is seen with a one-dimensional functionality and essentially what happens is that eternity is limited.
You should repent now, so that “times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”
But wait, that is still not the best part – eternal salvation, daily salvation, but really what we look for is “that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.”
Salvation isn’t just not hell. It is Jesus. It isn’t just a life of grace. It is Jesus. Heaven isn’t just not hell; it is the presence of God.
An interesting note on blessing (vs 26)– the definition of blessing is so often getting a tangible thing. Here it is not having to continue in sin.
d
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Acts 2:21
"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
In my effort to stop sucking at reading my the Bible, I was reading the Bible, and these are some thoughts. In the second chapter of Acts you find everyone sitting around praying. I find it interesting that the first thing they do once Jesus has gone is pray. In the lineup they list Mary the mother of Jesus, which is just a strange thing - Honestly, you just watched your son DIE a little over a month ago, then he comes back, hangs out for 40 days, and ascends into heaven. And now she is praying...to...him...
I mean, my mom cried when I went to college...yea...
Anyways, Acts 2 has the famous passage about the Holy Spirit (kind of like the inner monologue voice of God {1 Corth. 2:11), that accomplishes in many ways what He wills by strengthening and empowering people {Acts 4:31}) coming and displaying the gift of tongues. At least 12 but up to 120 people then begin to start talking. In fact they make so much noise that people from the city start to come see whats going on. They get there, and all the different ethnicities all hear their own language.
This kind of makes me think of Annandale High School. I used to love walking down the hall, because there were literally dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. As of 2006, there were 87 nationalities and 46 languages spoken. So I know the feeling of saying, "Hey! I know that language!"
The interesting thing is that it came to this- Peter preaches a sermon. The context in which he preaches is revolutionary to my understanding of preaching to say the least. In a room FULL of people that are talking about the "mighty works of God," and in front of these Jews that were coming to see, who themselves were "devout men," Peter preaches. What he says, the audience, and the time at which he preaches is (to quote a good friend) "great, thats just great."
He starts off as all good sermons should, "Whooooa whoa whoa, everyone listen up. My friends aren't drunk.Its only 9 in the morning.Here is the Gospel..."
He then off hand starts to quote Joel. Explaining that the Holy Spirit is not a hoax, but has been promised before hand, he then talks about Jesus. He says that David had spoken as to what would happen with him, and that now Jesus (who he makes clear that they knew, and that they watched to miracles, and then that they killed) is now with God.
"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
This sermon does what sermons are meant to, the audience is, "cut to the heart" and leaves them asking what they must do. It is worth noting that when the Gospel is preached, people ask questions. If the only way for people to respond is an invitation to come to the front of the church to be prayed for, or to change their lives, or to become a better person, then perhaps the gravity of the situation has been lost. "You are a sinner, and you killed God."
That kind of thing leads to questions.
"Brothers, what shall we do?"
Repent. Be forgiven. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The room is full of people speaking about the works of God (my guess would be that their were personal stories as well as a lot from the Hebrew Scriptures), and to an audience of devout and listening people. Some would say that the work was done. Peter settles for nothing less than the Gospel. That speaks volumes as to what preaching is to be. There is a supremacy to the Gospel. God died. God rose. God lives. We too must look at doing nothing less than these three things through Christ.
d
In my effort to stop sucking at reading my the Bible, I was reading the Bible, and these are some thoughts. In the second chapter of Acts you find everyone sitting around praying. I find it interesting that the first thing they do once Jesus has gone is pray. In the lineup they list Mary the mother of Jesus, which is just a strange thing - Honestly, you just watched your son DIE a little over a month ago, then he comes back, hangs out for 40 days, and ascends into heaven. And now she is praying...to...him...
I mean, my mom cried when I went to college...yea...
Anyways, Acts 2 has the famous passage about the Holy Spirit (kind of like the inner monologue voice of God {1 Corth. 2:11), that accomplishes in many ways what He wills by strengthening and empowering people {Acts 4:31}) coming and displaying the gift of tongues. At least 12 but up to 120 people then begin to start talking. In fact they make so much noise that people from the city start to come see whats going on. They get there, and all the different ethnicities all hear their own language.
This kind of makes me think of Annandale High School. I used to love walking down the hall, because there were literally dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. As of 2006, there were 87 nationalities and 46 languages spoken. So I know the feeling of saying, "Hey! I know that language!"
The interesting thing is that it came to this- Peter preaches a sermon. The context in which he preaches is revolutionary to my understanding of preaching to say the least. In a room FULL of people that are talking about the "mighty works of God," and in front of these Jews that were coming to see, who themselves were "devout men," Peter preaches. What he says, the audience, and the time at which he preaches is (to quote a good friend) "great, thats just great."
He starts off as all good sermons should, "Whooooa whoa whoa, everyone listen up. My friends aren't drunk.Its only 9 in the morning.Here is the Gospel..."
He then off hand starts to quote Joel. Explaining that the Holy Spirit is not a hoax, but has been promised before hand, he then talks about Jesus. He says that David had spoken as to what would happen with him, and that now Jesus (who he makes clear that they knew, and that they watched to miracles, and then that they killed) is now with God.
"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
This sermon does what sermons are meant to, the audience is, "cut to the heart" and leaves them asking what they must do. It is worth noting that when the Gospel is preached, people ask questions. If the only way for people to respond is an invitation to come to the front of the church to be prayed for, or to change their lives, or to become a better person, then perhaps the gravity of the situation has been lost. "You are a sinner, and you killed God."
That kind of thing leads to questions.
"Brothers, what shall we do?"
Repent. Be forgiven. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The room is full of people speaking about the works of God (my guess would be that their were personal stories as well as a lot from the Hebrew Scriptures), and to an audience of devout and listening people. Some would say that the work was done. Peter settles for nothing less than the Gospel. That speaks volumes as to what preaching is to be. There is a supremacy to the Gospel. God died. God rose. God lives. We too must look at doing nothing less than these three things through Christ.
d
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
An explanation of my absence, Morgan Freeman, and a "new" song for Ryan
The critics are out in full (aka two very nice people), which is great, because after months of listening to Driscoll I finally feel like I am getting some type of reaction from his constantly mentioned "bloggers."
Did I just make that jump? Really?
I did. It is a new blog, and it is going to be bold...with the same old spelling errors...
As for my explanation, not a defense, because I dont need one of those, it breaks down as follows.
I have had mono for the last week and a half. I recently told someone it is strangely reminicent of the last time i completely shaved my face. First I shaved a mustache, and realized that though it made my heart really glad...the world just wasnt ready...so I got rid of it all. In this case the scenario is just that at first I ended up with a sore throat, and then threw up a bunch and ended up in the ER.
Those things arent anything alike...yet...
Mono - takes 4-6 weeks to get over.
Shaving - takes 4-6 weeks to grow back
Mono - your breath is really bad and people look at you like a sick person
Shaving- people just look at you like a sick person
Mono - "people" cant kiss you
Shaving - "people" wont kiss you
See what I mean?
My life has then broken down into about two parts -
A. Things that are not blog worthy.
B. Things that are not blog appropriate.
And lets not forget, I was really sick there for a few days, so even such things the really funny nurse in the ER got put on the back burner until I was feeling better.
-------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Freeman -
After watching Evan Almighty - which might get a post to itself, or at least a post about the movies i have watched while i was sick - I am once again in love with the man. Why? He is AWESOME.
Who else can do what he does...which is SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM IN EVERY MOVIE HE IS IN.
And do it with a really cool voice. Heck, he even fixed the penguins just by narrating in The March of the Penguins, without him, they could have been lost forever.
While watching LA ink last night, which I am accepting money to fly out there in case anyone was wondering, I saw it... A sleeve - dedicated to him, and all of his amazing characters in their sweet suits. It should be good.
----------------------------------------
Ryan Burns. listen to this. it has ..."helped" with the mono.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDenAvI8tY
-------
now that post should make everyone happy.
much love
d
Did I just make that jump? Really?
I did. It is a new blog, and it is going to be bold...with the same old spelling errors...
As for my explanation, not a defense, because I dont need one of those, it breaks down as follows.
I have had mono for the last week and a half. I recently told someone it is strangely reminicent of the last time i completely shaved my face. First I shaved a mustache, and realized that though it made my heart really glad...the world just wasnt ready...so I got rid of it all. In this case the scenario is just that at first I ended up with a sore throat, and then threw up a bunch and ended up in the ER.
Those things arent anything alike...yet...
Mono - takes 4-6 weeks to get over.
Shaving - takes 4-6 weeks to grow back
Mono - your breath is really bad and people look at you like a sick person
Shaving- people just look at you like a sick person
Mono - "people" cant kiss you
Shaving - "people" wont kiss you
See what I mean?
My life has then broken down into about two parts -
A. Things that are not blog worthy.
B. Things that are not blog appropriate.
And lets not forget, I was really sick there for a few days, so even such things the really funny nurse in the ER got put on the back burner until I was feeling better.
-------------------------------------------------------
Morgan Freeman -
After watching Evan Almighty - which might get a post to itself, or at least a post about the movies i have watched while i was sick - I am once again in love with the man. Why? He is AWESOME.
Who else can do what he does...which is SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM IN EVERY MOVIE HE IS IN.
And do it with a really cool voice. Heck, he even fixed the penguins just by narrating in The March of the Penguins, without him, they could have been lost forever.
While watching LA ink last night, which I am accepting money to fly out there in case anyone was wondering, I saw it... A sleeve - dedicated to him, and all of his amazing characters in their sweet suits. It should be good.
----------------------------------------
Ryan Burns. listen to this. it has ..."helped" with the mono.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzDenAvI8tY
-------
now that post should make everyone happy.
much love
d
Thursday, October 11, 2007
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