Acts 3:11-4:4 - Pointed Preaching And Marvelous Mercies
Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you. Let's dive right in.
Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are journeying through the book of Acts, and today we are in Acts chapter three, starting verse number 11. Acts three started off with Peter and John.
They came into the temple complex, and on their way in, they passed by a man who could not walk. He asked for money as was normal for people at that time.
That was kind of where those with severe disabilities sat right outside of the temple complex and asked for money so that they could buy food so that they could live. They couldn't work fields.
They didn't really have the kinds of jobs that we have today, and so this was kind of the way that they survived.
And so this man asked Peter and John for money, and Peter replies with, I don't have any silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
And he was able to walk again, and it says he went walking and leaping and praising God, and all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the beautiful gate of the temple.
So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him. So that was all last week, or yesterday, and now here's what happens. Verse number 11, while he was holding on to Peter and John, he is so excited.
He was, I can imagine shouting, he's praising God. Praise God, he has given me the ability to walk and to leap. So he's holding on to Peter and John.
All the people, utterly astonished, ran toward them in what is called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he addressed the people, fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this?
Why do you stare at us as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him.
You denied the holy and righteous one and asked to have a murderer released to you. You killed the source, the prince, the ruler of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.
And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. In this way, God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets that his Messiah would suffer.
Therefore, repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.
Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.
You must listen to everything he tells you, and everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people. In addition, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those after him have also foretold these days.
You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.
God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.
While they were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees confronted them because they were annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
So they seized them and took them into custody until the next day, since it was already evening. But many of those who heard the message believed and the number of the men came to about 5,000. Wow, what an incredible time.
We often hear about the miracle of Pentecost because it's such a big moment of the Holy Spirit coming initially.
But this revival, this turning to Christ was in an even bigger way, this was 5,000 versus the 3,000 from Pentecost and here there are some amazing things that happened. Number one, how bold is Peter here? We already kind of know about his boldness.
You have to be bold to tell the Son of God, hey, I know you have this plan to save the world, but we're not gonna do that plan. You have to have some boldness for that.
You have to have some boldness in order to do many of the things that Peter did here.
He's using his boldness for good, and he tells people there in verses number 14 and 15, you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer release to you. You killed the source of life.
He is calling people out on their sin specifically. He says, Jesus is not unknown to you. You know exactly who he is, and you as a crowd, as a city, you are the ones crying out, crucify him, crucify him.
And we have no king but Caesar. This sort of just point blank accusatory words, it is very offensive to our sensibilities.
We're not used to someone really calling us out on our sin, but here through the power of the Holy Spirit, this is what Peter is doing to the people. And he gives the gospel.
He says, Jesus, who was God, he was the son of God, he's the suffering servant that was mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. He is the promised prophet that Moses said, everyone has to listen to this prophet that was raised up from Israel.
He was of the tribe of Judah. He was one of them. He says, you have to listen to this prophet, or otherwise you're going to be cut off from God's people.
So he gives this amazing gospel presentation, and says everything in scripture has led to this point. This is who Jesus is, and the offering is not condemnation.
It is not Jesus has come, so you all better fall down on your face, or he might burn you with fire. No, no, no, the call is not simply to be in fear of Jesus, but it is to turn to Jesus, to embrace Jesus.
There in verse number 16, by faith in his name, the faith that comes through Jesus. Verse number 19, therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out.
He's here referencing, calling to mind some of the things from Psalm 51 that our transgressions, our sins, our wrongs would be wiped out through Jesus' forgiveness. What an incredible promise.
Verse number 20, that there would be seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, that our souls would be refreshed, that we would not be laden under the guilt of sin and the deep consequences of our choices, but that we would be able to
rejoice in who Jesus is and how he has forgiven us. Verse number 21, that there will be a restoration of all things that will be coming.
And verse number 26, God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.
I want us to notice today that sin is not just something that happens from us, it is something that happens in us and to us, as well as through us, that God came to save us from sin.
And it is why we are commanded to repent, to turn back so that our sins would be wiped out.
That as we turn to Jesus, as we say I'm no longer going to follow my sins and my evil ways, and instead I'm turning wholeheartedly to Jesus and I'm following the Jesus way. Man, what an incredible thing that does for us.
Because no longer will our relationships be determined by, Bryon's always a jerk to me. Bryon is always gossiping about other people to me. Bryon is always short with me.
Bryon's always lying to me. Bryon's never fulfilling his commitments. Well, it will help all of my relationships if I'm following Jesus' way, that I am loving, I am joy-filled, I am peaceful, I am patient with people, I am kind, I am gentle.
All of the wonderful things that come about as a result of the fruit of the Spirit, all of those are an outflowing of our life. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit lives in us. That we, at all points, know the presence of God.
What an incredible comfort that that is. What an incredible thing it is when we repent. We turn from our way.
We turn from saying, I want to treat people this way. I want to do this despite what God's word says.
And we say, God, whatever you say, if it's in my mind, what I think, what I meditate on, if it's what I say, what I allow to come into my ears, what I allow myself to listen to, if it's what I allow my hands to do, if it's what I do where I go, what
I do with my body. God, everything that is part of me is yours. And we commit that to him. Not that we do it and then that is our repentance.
Only if we're perfect are we able to have our sins blotted out by no means. But let us be, I think I mentioned it two days ago, let us be those that would truly turn from sin and turn to our perfect savior.
The one other thing that I wanted to highlight from this particular text is notice how he goes through verse 13, he talks about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors.
He talks about there in verses 22 and 23, Moses' statements, verse number 18, God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets.
There in verse number 25, what he said to Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring, that the whole Bible points to Jesus.
At whatever point we're reading, if we're reading in Isaiah, and reading about the suffering servant, if we're reading about Abraham, if we're reading about Moses, it's all really, truly pointing to Jesus.
So whatever portion of scripture that we're in, for this stuff, it's easy. It's directly talking about Jesus. But I want to encourage you, wherever you find yourself in Bible reading, where is Jesus?
Anything that is good, that a person does in scripture, points to Jesus, who is all righteousness.
Anything that people do that is kind of a letdown, that would be sin, that would be wrong, shows us how humans, human rulers, human prophets, human pastors and teachers and leaders of God's people, human kings, none of them can do for us what Jesus
did, in that he took all the sins of the world onto himself, died, paid for them, and now offers forgiveness. The only way that we can now die in our sins and be separated from God forever is by trampling on Jesus' gift of forgiveness that he freely
offers. God does not want you to die in your sin. He wants you to repent and turn to him entirely in faith. So, today, have you turned to Jesus entirely?
Second, as you are reading through scripture, are you looking at scripture through the lens of this is what Jesus is like, or this shows us why we need Jesus? I encourage you with those two things. Also, if you are saved, rejoice in your salvation.
Read through this passage again and see all the great, wonderful things that God has in store for those who love him, who have turned to him, wants to bless you. He wants to give you forgiveness of sins. He wants to bring times of refreshing.
He wants to bring the restoration of all things. All of that is there for the Christian.
Hope this would be an encouragement to you today and I look forward to tomorrow looking at Peter and John's answer to those who arrested them because they were, and I quote, annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the
resurrection of the dead. Tomorrow, they're on trial. Let's see how it goes.
