Acts 3

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.

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