The Acts of the Apostles 15

Subtitle: The Power of Prayer

Acts 4:23-31. 

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday morning August 28, 2022.

Last week, we saw that Peter and John were severely threatened not to teach in the name of Jesus, and they were released from custody.  With the response that Peter gave them, they can’t hope too much that these men will actually stop.  However, it will buy them some time to craft a plan for dealing with them just as they did with Jesus.

We are going to see the importance of prayer today.  These men were full of the Holy Spirit, but they were not a source unto themselves.  In fact, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them during a prayer meeting.  Instead of responding to the threats of the rulers with threats themselves, they responded to the threats with more prayer to God.

May we never forget that all our doing must have a foundation of prayer underneath it, so that God is evident within it.

The believers turn to God in prayer (vs. 23-30)

Upon their release, Peter and John go to their companions to describe the actions of the rulers of Israel.

After hearing about the threats, the disciples turn to God in prayer.  Notice that we have that phrase again “in one accord.”  Remember that this means they were all singularly focused with a passion for reaching God in prayer. 

It is hard enough to get ourself singularly focused with passion on one thing, much less a whole group of people.  This really is a miraculous move of God that is happening among these early Christians.  O, that believers today would be moved upon by the Lord to be in one accord about reaching God through prayer.

Let’s take a look at how they pray and then how God responds.

They start out glorifying God by declaring that He is the One who created everything.  He created the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and then He filled each of these domains.  Salient to the moment, God is the Creator of those people giving them threats.  Essentially, they are appealing to the higher authority.  The men who have threatened them are accountable to a higher power, just as the disciples are.

Prayer is never about telling God something that He doesn’t know.  It is more about demonstrating that we know who He is.  Prayer is not getting God to the place where He will do what you want, it is about getting ourselves to a place where we can truly serve Him.

To glorify God is to lift our own spirits up out of the squalor of this world, and the clouds of confusion.  It is to come out of ourselves and into the presence of One who is greater than us.  It is to focus our heart and mind upon the only One who can sustain us and enable us.  Prayer gives us God’s perspective about our life and the things that bother us.  If we spent more time in prayer, then we would have a better perspective on life when we get up off of our knees and go about our day.

God is not only the One who created these men threatening them, but He has also spoken things through the prophets about just such men.  Through the prophet David, God said this very thing would happen.

Psalm 2 is a powerful psalm that clearly depicts God making His Anointed One (Messiah, Christ) to be king over the nations at the protest of their rulers.  Those rulers will attempt to throw off his rule, but God in heaven will laugh at their attempts to reject His decision.  “I have set My King upon My Holy Hill!”  The rulers are then warned that if they do not turn to the Anointed One in fealty, then they will perish when his wrath is kindled just a little. 

It ends declaring, “Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.”  This is similar to the message Jesus sends back to John the Baptist, “Blessed is he who does not fall away because of me.”  Really these are flip sides of the same coin, one positive and one negative.  To trust in Jesus is not to fall away.  Not to fall away because of Jesus is to put your faith in him.

These disciples of Jesus are actually seeing Psalm 2 happening in real time.  In fact, we are seeing the same thing today in our world.  The rulers of the world are set on casting off the “bonds” of God and His Christ.  This is what it looks like.

The question today is, “Whom do you fear, God and His Messiah, or the powerful rulers of the earth?  Our response will set the position that we will be in in the day of His wrath.

Verse 28 holds a nugget of powerful understanding that we must get ahold of and never let go.  No matter what the enemies of Christ may do, they can only accomplish what God has purposed ahead of time.  This does not mean that they are doing a good thing.  They have the power to choose wickedness, but they don’t also have the power to choose where that path will take them.  God is truth and reality.  You can’t fight reality without paying a price of your decision. 

Thus, all beings in the universe will do the will of God.  Some will accomplish His will by choosing to cooperate with His purposes and being transformed into His righteousness.  Others, will accomplish His will by refusing to cooperate with His purposes.  They become something far worse than they ever imagined, but in so doing, also accomplish the will of God.

Only God is the Sovereign over all that happens, and it is His Providence that is before us.  Christians must never think that becoming so grants us sovereignty over our own life.  The best that we can do in this life is to cooperate with the will of God and thereby to be transformed into the image of Jesus.  Yes, some of the path ahead is revealed to us through prophecy, but all of us must learn to trust God with our today.  If God had allowed Jesus to die in order to do something greater, then God may choose to do the same thing with Peter and John.  They have no guarantee exactly what following Jesus will look like, only that Christ will be with them all the way.  What matters in life is doing the will of God regardless of what the future may hold, and that will take a lot of time in prayer tuning our hearts to the heart of God.

Though they have been glorifying God, they are also building a case, asking God for His help.   They first ask that God would grant them to speak His word with all boldness.  A “grant” is in keeping with coming to a great King, but this is more than getting a title to some land.  They are asking for God’s help in doing what they know must be done.  God, whatever you have to do in me in order to do this thing that must be done, then please do it!

The content of our speech to this world and to one another needs to be the Word of God.  Yet, the boldness cannot come from a place of our flesh.  The Sadducees and the Pharisees had a boldness that came from much study, and the accolades of an intellectual system.  In fact, it takes a lot of boldness to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death even though it didn’t square with the Law of God.  Fleshly boldness will not work to lead us in what God is doing.  It only made things worse. 

At each point along the way, God in His mercy gave them opportunity to jump off this confidence in their own righteousness.  Nicodemus jumped off.  Even the Apostle Paul saw the light and turn around to the point that he later says that he considered all that previous boasting as rubbish, garbage, in the face of knowing Jesus.  The problem is not that God is wanting us to get rid of everything.  The problem is in my heart.  I so easily try to hold onto fleshly things that give me confidence instead of only holding on to the Lord.  Eventually, you will have to choose.  If something is getting in between you and Jesus, just know this.  There will come a day when it will be to hard to hold onto both.  Like a man trying to hold two horses together going in opposite directions, you will either let go or be destroyed.

The boldness they wanted could only come from the Holy Spirit within them and speaking in the moment.  This is only granted as we daily come to God in prayer, seeking Him, and seeking His will.

They also ask that God would stretch forth His hand to heal and give signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.  We see this again that they are fully aware that any miracles would be by the hand of God.  They would simply be faithful servants whom God worked through.

We are called to be a blessing to the sick and the hurting.  These things will then be signs pointing people back to Psalm 2.  We must make our peace with Jesus today because the day is coming when his complete rule will be established.

It is clear from history that God has granted seasons of healings, and signs and wonders.  It is not our job to know either way, but to pray for God to move and to work.  No number of miracles can save a person’s life.  People need Jesus, not miracles.  Perhaps the greatest miracle they will ever see is a man or woman of God coming out of the wilderness and speaking the word of God to them by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

They were not praying for miracles because they wanted to be wowed again.  No, it is a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks for signs and miracles.  No, they are praying for God to confirm that they are from Him through these miracles.  Only God can help us to make it to that pure place where we are praying for Him to move in our time, but we are not seeking things rather than Him.  They are not asking miracles for themselves, but to be done among the people in order to draw them to Jesus.

God’s response to their prayer (vs 31)

Verse 31 tells us that there was a response from heaven.  They would get up off of their knees that day knowing that God had heard them because the place was shaken with an earthquake.  We do not know how widespread it was.  It seems to be more for them than Jerusalem.  Of course, the skeptic will say it is only a coincidence.  However, such a person was not there to see the lame man dancing in the temple, nor the ministry of Jesus before.

So why did God shake the place that they were at?  In Psalm 18:6,7 it says, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.  Then, the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry.”

This is David recognizing that his victories over Saul, and the nations surrounding Israel, were not about his great ability.  It was always about God answering his cry.  This imagery is used throughout the Psalms and the prophetic literature.  When God is stirred up to judgment, the natural order is practically unable to stand it (Hills melting like wax, etc.).  It is a sign that God is angry and is not to be messed with.

This can be seen at Sinai as well.  The powerful demonstration of quaking, thundering, lightening, fire and smoke demonstrates that God is legislating the righteousness that they should be doing.  The law is a scary thing without the mercy and grace of God.  Thankfully, it was not without mercy and grace.

The Bible says that the righteous are a people who cannot be shaken, and consequently destroyed.  Here, God shakes the place to show that He is rising up, just as David spoke of it, to stand on their behalf before these rulers.  He is not happy with their actions, though He will use them for His purposes.  When we are in right relationship with God, we need not fear His judgments around us.

This is shown in Hebrews 12, where God promises to shake the heavens and the earth.  This great day of shaking no wicked person will survive.  The only way to survive it is to become an unshakeable person.  Only God can make us an unshakeable person by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Perhaps, we should remind ourselves that Satan tries to shake us as well.  In this mortal flesh, we will be tested.  As long as we hang on to faith in Jesus, we cannot be destroyed.  In fact, the devil will only succeed in making you stronger.  Yet, if we let go of faith in Christ, then we can be destroyed.  Let us receive an unshakeable faith by the help of the Holy Spirit.

They were then all filled with the Holy Spirit.  As we have mentioned before, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event.  There is a fresh pouring out of the Holy Spirit in response to their prayer.  We must see this and pay attention to it.  God wants to fill you, but He does so in the relationship of prayer. 

Public prayer times with other believers has its place, but the foundation of our walk with Christ is our private prayer time.  We cannot skip these private times of prayer and expect that the Holy Spirit will just always be there to back our fleshly minds up.  God help us to desire to be a people of prayer because it was God’s desire first, and it is His Holy Spirit even now stirring you up to want to pray.  You won’t be able to run the marathon tomorrow, but if you get up and start a little at a time, each day, over time you will develop a strong foundation of prayer that your flesh resisted at first.  Prayer is hard.  There is no lime-light, no accolades.  Our flesh shrinks back from it, but we must master ourselves and turn to God in prayer, if we want to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

It ends by saying, “and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”  I believe this is simply saying that God answered their prayer and this was the hallmark of their activity moving forward. 

O friend, we need to speak the word of God boldly.  It is the only hope that people have, whether they know it or not.  However, that kind of power is only found in a place of prayer seeking God’s help.  Let’s get to it!

Power of Prayer audio

The Acts of the Apostles 14

Subtitle: The Threats of the Powerful

Acts 4:13-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 21, 2022.

Peter and John are in front of the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem.  Last week, we looked at Peter’s response to the questions they had given them.  Now, we are going to see the decision of Israel’s top Council, the Sanhedrin.

Let’s get into the passage.

The council members confer among themselves (vs. 13-17)

Luke again gives us commentary about what was going on inside the minds of the council, to which later threats and actions give evidence.  In verse 15, they had Peter and John taken out of the council chamber while they confer among themselves.  However, they are having difficulty processing what these Galilean fishermen have done.

In short, they are amazed by the disciples of Jesus.  First, they are amazed at the healing of this man that everyone knows was lame from birth.  They are not going to be able to say anything that will neutralize the healing that has happened.  How do you convince people that this was not a good thing?

Yet, Peter’s response to the council added to their amazement.  They are amazed at his boldness.  How many men have they brought in before these powerful men and blanched at the gravity of their situation?  Yet, these fishermen from Galilee were bold.  By the way, let’s not interpret boldness as arrogance.  Peter went out of his way to put all the credit at the feet of Jesus.  It is not about him.  It is about Jesus.  Neither was he employing some kind of psychological trick or manipulation.  It was the result of the Holy Spirit within them.  We all need more boldness, and it can only come through spending time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

They are also amazed that these uneducated and untrained men are able to respond in the way that they have.  They then took note that these men “had been with Jesus.”  There is an uncanny similarity between these men and Jesus of Nazareth, whom they thought they had dealt with.

Here’s an important question for every Christian to ask themselves.  Have I been with Jesus?  If I have been with Jesus, then others will take note.  That doesn’t mean they will like it.  Have I been with Jesus?

These men hadn’t been trained and educated according to the system of the Sadducees or the Pharisees.  However, they had been trained and educated by Jesus over the last 3 ½ years, who is the best rabbi ever!  That didn’t fit in their system, the way they did things.

Let me just say that education or lack thereof is never the problem or the solution.  Peter was an uneducated fisherman, but Saul/Paul had been trained in all the teachings of the Pharisees.  For all of his education, he was blind to the identity of Jesus and he persecuted those who were see that Jesus was the Messiah.  Yet, he too came to believe in Jesus.  There is nothing wrong with education, but it cannot take the place of God’s Spirit in our hearts and minds.  If people are only amazed at my education credentials, then they will not be looking at the right thing, and most likely miss what God is trying to give them.

In verse 16, the leaders confess that they are in a tight spot.  What can you do to men who have performed an obvious miraculous sign?  The people of Jerusalem are convinced that God has done an amazing miracle through these men.

Now, the word translated “notable miracle” here is literally a sign.  It is an amazing event that points people to what God is doing.  It has meaning beyond the miracle itself.  Jesus did similar signs that pointed to the reality that at least a great prophet was in their midst, and likely that Messiah was here.  Yet, he was then put to death.  Of course, the resurrection was rumored about, but only the believers saw the evidence for it.  This amazing miracle, however, was like a neon sign pointing out that the powerful works of Jesus were back through his disciples.  Must not God be behind this?

At this point, the leaders are afraid that this teaching will spread if they do nothing.  They don’t want it to spread beyond Jerusalem to the rest of Israel.  In short, they are standing in the way of God.  God help us to work with Him and not against Him.  It is not enough to point to a pedigree, or a passage in the Bible that says you are doing what God said.  We must truly be walking in such a way that we are humbly looking for the leading of God’s Spirit, and saying yes when He speaks.

Their solution is to threaten them severely not to speak in the name of Jesus any more to anybody.  If you will not embrace the seductions of this world that use the flesh to draw us in and entangle us through sin, then the threats will come forth in one way or another.  You will get the carrot or the stick from this old world.

Yet, Jesus has shown us that we do not need to fear these threats.  In one way, they are not empty threats.  In the natural, this world and its ruler can make things very hard for a follower of Jesus.  However, God will take the very things that we fear and use them to do even more powerful things through us.  In this sense, they are empty threats.  The enemy cannot truly hurt you, in the ultimate sense.  We need boldness to walk the path, that Jesus puts before us, over the top of all the fears that the enemy will try to point out to us.  We must walk “in his name” by walking in His power and His authority.  Another way to think of that last sentence is to seek to walk in what He is empowering and to do what He is authorizing.

The disciples are further threatened (vs. 18-22)

In this section, we have the severe threats given to the disciples.  First, they are commanded not to speak in or teach in the name of Jesus.  It may be that they feel like this is a concession on their part.  “You can teach, but just not about Jesus!” It sends the not-so-subtle message.  “This thing that you are doing is only going to get you in more trouble, so go back to fishing in the Galilee.”

Peter speaks again in a bold way.  There is most likely a part of Peter that is intimidated by the threats, but another part of them cannot deny who Jesus is.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and Peter cuts to the heart of the issue.

Whom should we obey, man or God?  This is an important question that we can abuse to cover rebellion.  However, when the authority commands you to obey them rather than God, they have stepped out of bounds.  It is possible that we can try to manipulate this by saying that God wants what we want all of the time.  However, that would not be a fear of the Lord.  We are not talking about a justification of our actions.  When we focus on obedience, we can miss the fact that this comes down to whether you love the Lord or not.  These disciples are not merely obeying God.  They are following the one who has opened their eyes to the truth.  They are following God Himself.  The threats are very real, and those authorities will most likely punish, but to suffer for the sake of Christ is glory on the battle field. 

The disciples had seen and heard amazing things from the Messiah himself.  How could they not talk about it?  It is like the story in 2 Kings 7.  It was during the days of Elisha and King Jehoram of Jerusalem.  The Syrians had besieged the city, and it had run out of food.  Four lepers who were outside the gate decided to go to the Syrian camp at twilight, hoping to get some food, and yet it was empty of soldiers.  After eating food and carrying off silver and gold to bury in the field, they realized that they should go tell the people in the city.  If it is found out later that they knew and didn’t make the city aware of it, then they would be in trouble.

How can we keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard?  That is the key.  What are you seeing and what are you hearing?  Only those with ears to hear and eyes to see will hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.  We need to wake up and be about our Father’s business regardless of the threats of the world around us.

It then says that they threatened the disciples further, and release them.  Really, they are at a loss of what to do.  If they were giving credit to a foreign god, then they could punish them for heresy.  However, this is only a short window of mental confusion.  They will become more and more desperate, until they start the physical torments: whippings, stocks, imprisonments, fines, seizures of property, and even execution.  The cognitive dissonance will not last long because these are very powerful people of the world who are used to accomplishing what they want.  They will eventually turn the threats into punishments.

We need to be a people who are walking in faith in Jesus, not a faith that says, “I can’t be touched,” and not a faith that says, “I can do whatever I want.”  Rather, we need a faith that follows Jesus wherever he may lead us, be it a lion’s den, or a cross.  We can only do this by the Spirit of God.

Threats audio

The Acts of the Apostles 13

Subtitle: Arrested for Jesus

Acts 4:1-12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 14, 2022.

If Jesus asked you to be arrested and thrown into jail for his sake, would you submit and serve him through it?  Or, if he just allowed it to happen, since he has told us in advance that this world would persecute his disciples, would you even then hold the faith?

In the audio, Evangelist Joe Pyott tells a story about a time when he was arrested for preaching on the street.

Mark 8:38 says, “For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  What if you came to church and found out that your pastor had been arrested?  Some might say that they always knew he was no good.  Others might say that he could not have done anything wrong and is just being persecuted.  Others would be on the fence.  In all of this, God knows the truth.

Peter and John will be arrested for simply doing what God had told him to do.  They are still on the Temple Mount preaching to the crowds under Solomon’s Colonnade when we come to Acts 4:1.

Let’s get into our passage.

Peter and John are arrested.  (vs. 1-4)

While they are still preaching, a group approaches to take them into custody.  No doubt, the healing of the lame man, the gathering of the crowd around Peter and John, and their teaching had sent some witnesses scurrying to let the authorities know what was going on.

The problem here is not authority, or the person calling the authorities.  The problem is always whether both of these are done in honor of God and for His purposes.  Peter and John are serving the purposes of the King of kings, and the authorities here are not.  Thus, they were never authorized by God to thwart His purposes, and so their authority is null and void, in the eyes of God.

We are told who it is who arrests Peter and John.  The Sadducees is the larger group that is led by the High Priest and has many rich nobles of Jerusalem also in the group.  The priests are a subclass of the Sadducees, as most priests were, and were those serving in the temple that day.  Lastly, the captain of the temple is referring to a Jewish guard that kept the peace on the temple mount.  Of course, if things became too out of control, the Roman soldiers would make an appearance.

The terminology has a sudden connotation to it.  They come upon them and laid hands on them quickly.  There doesn’t seem to be much discussion.  They just move in, arrest them, and take them to a holding place.  It is evening by this time, so they will be held over night for a hearing in the morning.  They came to the temple around 3:00 PM, so they had been preaching for quite a long time by the time they were arrested.

What were they being arrested for?  Verse two tells us that they were arrested for teaching the people, and teaching in Jesus, resurrection from the dead.  There doesn’t seem to be any declaration of this by the captain of the temple guard.  Rather, Luke is telling us in advance.

These disciples teaching on the temple grounds was probably reminiscent of Jesus just 2 months ago.  The week leading up to his crucifixion was spent teaching in the courts of the temple.  These men were not “official teachers.”  We have to be careful that our systems and institutions do not lose connection to God and become an obstacle to what He is doing.  In fact, that care starts within each of our hearts.  Have I become an obstacle to what God is doing?  Have I come to play a wicked part in His plan, all the while thinking that I am doing good?

The second part mentions teaching resurrection in the name of Jesus.  They were definitely promoting that Jesus rose from the dead.  It is not clear that they were also teaching about the general Resurrection of the Righteous at the end of the age, but the Sadducees rejected this teaching as well.  Regardless, resurrection was a debated topic between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  This could hardly be an arrestable offense, but such is power in the hands of people that are unworthy of it.

In verse 4, Luke gives us another commentary on the event.  Though they were trying to shut down the effectiveness of Peter and John’s teaching, another large group of people believe in Jesus.  The new number is 5,000 men as opposed to the 3,000 souls on the Day of Pentecost.  The first number most likely included women- “souls” is very general.  In this passage, we have the traditional counting method.  There are now 5,000 men who are believers in Jesus.  These men would represent wives and families. 

It is not just a sexist thing.  Numbers can hide the underlying dynamics.  The 5,000 number was not inflated by large families counting children, etc.  It would be like a politician saying that they have raised over a million dollars and presenting that as a mandate for their positions.  However, when you look under the number, you might find that there were only 4 people who gave and one of them gave a million dollars.  Or, conversely, you might find that they had 50,000 $20 donations.  This number is intended to hammer home the point that many people were taking this seriously and the total number of believers in Jesus at this time was most likely more than 20,000.

These are large numbers, but compared to Jerusalem and all of Israel, it is still just a remnant.  There is a mystery behind when people put their trust in Jesus.  There will be more people joining the believers over the years ahead, but at some point, they will not continue to see thousands joining them each time Peter preached.

Let’s now look at the hearing on the next morning before the leaders of Israel.

Peter and John defend themselves to the Sanhedrin.  (vs. 5-12)

These two fishermen from the sticks of Galilee are put in front of the highest human powers and authorities in Israel, not counting Jesus.  Think of how intimidating it is to be drug in front of amazing buildings created with the people’s money, and made to face those who have the power to quash you like a bug.

The examination begins with their main question.  “By what power or by what name have you done this?

There are several different words for power.  The one used here refers to inherent power such as strength.  It is dunamis power in the Greek, and in this case, refers to the powerful miracle.  With what power did they effect this man’s healing?

They also ask by what name did they do this.  Remember from last week that a name represents more than a person’s reputation.  It includes their position, authority, and power.  Thus, the question is essentially, by whose authority are you doing these things?  Who said you can do them?  Of course, these leaders would see themselves as the ones who could authorize Peter and John to be teaching at the temple.  However, the temple belongs to Yahweh, and He is the true authority, not to mention that He had never said that only priests could teach in the temple courts.  They would simply be responsible to make sure that heretical things were not being taught.

We again see Peter doing the speaking.  It is not that John can’t speak.  However, some believe that Peter is the older one between the two.  Regardless, Peter’s earlier impetuous mouth, is being put to sanctified use by the Holy Spirit.  Peter is now a man filled with the Holy Spirit.  Let us be careful to guard our hearts and seek God each day for the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus had promised them that the Holy Spirit would help them know what to say in such intimidating situations (Luke 12:12).  This promise still holds true for us today.  The Holy Spirit can give us the words to say when we are put on the spot by the powerful of this world.

The question they are asked is a bit vague.  The power part, the dunamis, would say that the healing is the main issue.  The name part would say that their teaching is the main issue.  Peter touches on the surreal aspect of the examination by using the conditional “if,” which begs the question.  Have we really been arrested for a good deed done to a helpless man?  Is this what the great priesthood of Israel has been reduced to?  If that is the problem, then Peter has an answer for them.  He will let them know exactly what power, and what authority, led to this man being healed.

This man was healed by Jesus, Messiah of Nazareth.  These leaders hear this answer, but Peter emphasizes that all Israel needs to hear this answer.  It was the power and authority of Jesus.  It is too easy for us to hear the words Jesus Christ and simply think of Christ as his last name.  Rather, Peter is declaring that Jesus is the Messiah of God who was prophesied to come.  Lastly, he mentions Nazareth so that they will definitely understand that he is speaking of the man they executed months ago.

Just as Peter had been contrasting the actions of the crowd earlier to the actions of God the Father, so he does here with the rulers.  You crucified Jesus, Messiah of Nazareth, but God raised him from the dead.

Do you understand that no power on earth, or in the heavens, can thwart what God has determined in heaven?  Our country is trying to continue forward without Jesus, and without the word of God.  It is trying to take the blessings of those who trusted in Jesus, and dare God to try and stop them.  No matter what powerful acts the great powers of this earth, and the great powers of hell, can accomplish, they can do nothing without the decision of Jesus allowing it to go forward.  He is God’s anointed King, Lord of heaven and earth.  All power and authority have been given unto him.

Peter then quotes from Psalm 118.  It is the psalm that starts out with “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!  For, His mercy endures forever!  It then has these antiphonal phrases where a worship leader would say, “Let Israel now say…,” and then they would respond, “His mercy endures forever!”  “Let the house of Aaron now say…His mercy endures forever!”  “Let those who fear Yahweh now say…His mercy endures forever!”  Can you hear it today?  Let the Church now say…His mercy endures forever.  Let the house of Jesus now say…His mercy endures forever.  Let those who fear the LORD now say…His mercy endures forever!

This is a spiritual battle psalm.  There in verses 21-22, the psalmist prophesies that God “will become” our salvation as a stone that the builders reject, but whom God makes the chief cornerstone.  It is the most important stone of the whole building.  You can’t keep building without this stone.  It won’t work.  If you do, it will fall apart in the end.  Ask yourself today, what am I building, and with what materials?  They may have rejected the stone, but they can repent, change their mind, and turn back to faith in Jesus.  We can have a foundational stone that can hold up all of humanity if they would simply put their faith in him instead of in themselves.

In verse twelve, Peter brings the message home that they can’t have their cake and eat it too.  They must make a decision.  They can no longer remain in the positions of leadership in Israel and stand in the way of God’s plan.  They will either repent and be saved or not and lose their place.  Jesus is the only name, the only power and authority, by which we must be saved.  He emphasizes the necessity of salvation, and the exclusivity of the person of Jesus.  There is salvation in no other power or authority, no other person, only Jesus!

Listen, salvation is life.  Yes, it is eternal life, but it is also eternal life in this present life.  We have already begun eternity because we have the eternal life of God dwelling in us (that is if we have put our faith in Jesus).  Friend, in these days ahead, you will be tested more and more.  It is a grace of God that will help you to get rid of what He is not building, and to build what He wants.  We must boldly and humbly proclaim the truth that Jesus is Lord, and he has become our salvation!

Arrested audio

The Acts of the Apostles 12

Subtitle: Peter Preaches Again part 2

Acts 3:17-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 7, 2022.

We pick up Peter’s second recorded sermon this morning, which we started last week.  Let’s get into the passage.

God had sent Messiah and they killed him

Peter has outlined how they have been fighting against God in their actions.  God had sent Messiah, but they had crucified him.  They were more than simply resisting God’s directions.  They were hostile to them.

Yet, in verse 17, Peter points out that they and their rulers had done it in ignorance.  Jesus on the cross had prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  They didn’t realize that they were actually killing Messiah, but that doesn’t make what they did good.  It is simply a mitigating factor.  At many points, the rulers and people had mistreated Jesus, refused to accept the truth, and then put to death an innocent man.

Ignorance speaks to the knowledge and understanding that one has.  There are many things we simply do not know.  In fact, we are born 100% ignorant of life.  We begin to accumulate knowledge and understanding little by little.  Can we not see that the things of which we are ignorant are practically infinite?  What we do know only scratches the surface of all that can be known.  Thus, the most knowledgeable among us may not be ignorant compared to the average person, but compared to God they haven’t even reached 1% of what can be known, much less the stuff that we cannot know because God has not designed us with the capacity to discover them.  A wise person recognizes that the more they learn, the more they become aware of just how great their ignorance really is.

This brings up the subject of willful ignorance.  The truth can be staring us in the face, but we refuse to recognize it because of certain ramifications we are unwilling to accept.  Where is the line between inherently not knowing, like a child, and being stubborn and willful in refusing to accept the truth?  Only God can perfectly judge those kinds of issues of the heart.

Peter brings up the fact that God had foretold all of these things through the prophets.  They were told in advance that the Messiah would suffer in many different ways through many different prophets.  This doesn’t mean they should have had perfect understanding of what Jesus was doing and who he was, but they could have had enough understanding to be more careful.  Even John the Baptist, who demonstrated great understanding of the identity and work of Jesus, wrestled with the way things were going.

The people and their rulers could have had a better understanding than what they had.  They had become curiously incurious about certain passages and teachings of the prophets that would have at least helped them be more careful.  Yes, we can’t help a certain part of our ignorance, but some of it we can.

In fact, the most important part of this whole issue is not even our knowledge level.  It really comes down to being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Peter, John, James, and all the others, didn’t reject Jesus and call for his crucifixion.  They were able to get to that place by responding in repentance and faith at critical points in that 3 ½ years that Jesus ministered in Israel.

We are not so very different today.  The Church can be very proud about the great amount of knowledge that we have received through Jesus and the apostles.  However, that cannot take the place of sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is doing now.  Many very learned people have so systematized the biblical information that they are willfully ignorant to things that contradict their theological traditions.  Sound familiar?  We can become so enamored with the things of this world that we don’t seek God for the truth.  We can be happy with a surface knowledge of many things, or a rationale that we have adopted, but those things need to bow before the authority and power of the Lord Jesus.

Have I become a student of the Lord Jesus?  Think of it.  In the Bible we have a written document of the things that the Creator of all the universe wants us to understand, wants you to understand.  Many people who are ignorant in the eyes of the people around them will be found holding on to the Lord in the days ahead, having wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  And, many who have the most biblical knowledge will be found fighting against what God is doing, lacking wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  Jesus is working to give us a love of the Truth (2 Thess 2:10-12), so that it is love for him that will bring us through in the end, just like Peter all those years ago on the shores of Galilee in John 21.

Here is the good news.  God is still gracious.  Peter tells the crowd that they can still repent and turn to God.  In English, the word “repent” focuses on turning back to sorrow for one’s actions (for sin), as opposed to continuing forward in them.  This covers several important aspects of what the Bible says must happen in our hearts.  However, the word it is used to translate also has a meaning of a change of mind.  Of course, one must have a change of mind in order to turn back and have sorrow for sin, so I am not quibbling with the translation.  Rather, I am homing in an unseen aspect in this text.

We must have a change of mind about our life, and not just an alternate rationale created by us.  We really must adopt the mind of Christ.  We really must allow him to be the lord of our life.  This change of mind will turn us back from resisting and fighting what God is doing.  It will lead us to put our faith in Jesus, his commands, and the teachings of his apostles.  It will keep us from sacrificing Jesus for the sake of our willful way.

In this life, we will have a continual need for learning.  Thus, repentance will always be a part of the believer’s life.  It must never become a thing of the past.  Instead, it must become the daily path on which we walk.  Many are the exits that will take us off the road of repentance.  May the Spirit of God keep us on that Highway of Holiness, that good path, that we can only know through relationship with Jesus and the Word of God.

This brings us to verse 19.

Repentance will bring blessings

If we repent, then there are some good things from God that we will enjoy.  But, if we do not repent, then we stiff-arm the blessings that God wants to give to us.

Peter tells them that they need to change their mind and turn back into their sins being blotted out.  The direct result of changing their mind about Jesus and putting their faith in him will be the blotting out, or wiping out, of their sins.  It is the cancelling of the official record of our sins.  Sure, the fact that there are blots speaks of sins, but the fact of them being blotted out means they cannot be held against us before God.  Oh, this world will continually try to pin you to your past sins.  However, God offers freedom from those sins, and will not use them against you in the future.  Hallelujah!

In Isaiah 44:22, God promises Israel that, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (ESV)  Praise God that our sins can be blotted out when we repent, take on the mind of Christ, and exercise faith in the Son of God and the Word of God.

A second blessing is mentioned in verse 19, “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”  The word “may” here does not question that they will come, but rather repentance removes a hindrance that keeps the Lord from sending them.  When it is removed, then he will send them as he determines.

In this life, we cannot get very far without being refreshed.  However, don’t settle for mere refreshing of your body and mind, your flesh.  I guess we could call those “refleshments.”  We not only need our bodies and minds refreshed, but more importantly, we need our spirits refreshed by the Spirit of God.  This is what Peter is talking about.  We need God’s periodic spiritual refreshment in order to successfully navigate this life, and He knows when we need it.  Yet, the problem is that our flesh and the enemy seek to consume us with refreshing the flesh to the exclusion of our spirit.  Another problem is that His refreshment doesn’t always look like such to us.  They had destroyed the refreshment of Messiah in their midst, but here was God offering them a second chance to drink from the wells of salvation and receive the Messiah back into their lives.

This is intended for them as individuals, but also as a nation.  Salvation gives us a relationship with the Lord of Life who cares for our soul and is the good shepherd.  Yet, it is clear that Peter ties in their repentance as a nation to the next blessing- a Second Coming of the Messiah.  It is interesting that the book of Zechariah pictures a great work of repentance in Israel where they will “look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10 NKJV).  Then, in chapter 14 of that same book, God promises to save Israel from complete destruction at the hands of the nations of the world by coming down out of the heavens Himself.  This is the Second Coming of Christ that pictures his feet touching down on the Mount of Olives and splitting it in half.  What a refreshing time that will be for the nation of Israel!

Thus, the next blessing Peter mentions is that God may send Jesus back and begin the Restoration of All Things (verses 20-21).  Jesus must stay in the heavens until the time of The Restoration of All Things.  The earlier refreshments by God’s Spirit would keep them sustained until they came to that Great Refreshing that God has promised in His Word.  All the prophets pointed to a time when all that has gone wrong in this world and in the heavens will be restored to their proper state.  The Bible can be seen as a story of how everything went wrong (think Genesis), and yet how God is bringing everything back to a restored state that is even better than the original (think Revelation with its New Heavens and the New Earth).  That day is set by God.  We have a destiny in the future that cannot be avoided.  Yet, there is a sense where repentance could perhaps speed it up.

Peter specifically reminds them of the prophecy of Moses found in Deuteronomy 18 (esp. vs 18).  Moses leads up to this prophecy by warning Israel against listening to spiritists and those who practice divination.  God had not given Israel over to these lesser Elohim.  They had a greater destiny than the nations who were following the wrong Elohim.  Their destiny was to first receive the word of the One True God through Moses in building up the nation of Israel, and then later, God would send them another Prophet like Moses. 

Hebrews 3:1-6 emphasizes this connection by pointing out that Moses was faithful as a servant of God to build the house of Israel.  However, Jesus Messiah was faithful “as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (Heb. 3:6 NKJV).  This speaks of the “house” of the Church.  We don’t have time for it today.  However, this language of a house being built by the son for himself so that the Church can live with him is the wedding analogy that Jesus used so often.

In Jesus, Messiah had come to make an offer of betrothal to Israel.  As a nation, they rejected it, but Christ takes a remnant and sends them to the nations in order to raise up a bride that will be married to him at the end of this age.  All the prophets warned of this critical period, and Moses stated that those who rejected this Prophet, Messiah, would be destroyed from among God’s people.  They were in danger of losing their place, their lot, their inheritance.

In verse 25, Peter reminds them of their heritage.  They are the sons of the prophets, and the offspring of Abraham.  This means that they had inherited the writings of the prophets, and the promise of Abraham that the families of the whole earth would be blessed through them, i.e., Israel.  All that we know of God is passed to the Gentile nations through the people of Israel.  Israel is far more important than any other nation in the sense of God’s work in the world.  However, His work is for the sake of all the nations of the world.  In fact, God did not just choose Israel from among the nations back in the days of Abraham.  Rather, God rejected all of the nations, and instead, created a new nation by His own hand as Adam was created directly by God.

This is why God sent His Servant Jesus to Israel first.  They had been and still were the instrument through which God had spoken to the nations.  They were God’s witness to the world.  However, the word first, implies others.  The Gospel of Jesus would go to the nations through his faithful believers, and thus, all the earth would receive a second witness through the Church of Jesus.  Here we are today hearing these same words that Israel heard 1,990 some odd years ago.

O, how America needs a time of refreshing in which we are turned away from our sin into full faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  It will only happen as Spirit-filled believers, who are keeping in step with Jesus, interact with a people who are steeped in all manner of ignorance.  May God refresh his people today so that we can renew our battle against the works of Satan upon those around us!

Peter Preaches Again 2 audio