Acts 3:12-Acts 4:4 (Click title for audio access)
"Peter's Evangelism" • 6.5.11 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Imagine the scene. You are among thousands of people enjoying a regular worship service. There are the usual practices that are taking place. Nothing out of the ordinary.
- You are interrupted by a man that is leaping around, jumping and speaking out praises to God. You only hear him at first, but are able to see his head through the crowd as he jumps.
- In a matter of seconds the story becomes clear to you: That man was the paralyzed man that you just gave a few shekels to!
- You ask yourself two questions: How can this be and can I get my money back! The entire crowd that had clamored around the priests were now rushing toward this man.
- They couldn't stop staring at the man in Solomon's porch. With every other gaze and with mouths open, they stared with equal amazement at Peter and John.
- In the crowd's mind, they were the one's responsible for this man's new skillset. This brings us to where we are today.
- Peter is going to teach them about the meaning and implications of this miracle. While He does so, he will teach us something about evangelism.
I. He Seized An Opportunity (v.12)
II. He Identifies With Them (v.13a)
III. He Shows Them Their Personal Guilt (v.13b-16)
IV. He Opens A Door Of Relief (v.17,18)
V. He Calls Them To Response (v.19-21)
VI. He Confirms With Scripture (v.22-26)
Text
I. He Seized An Opportunity (v.12)
• Acts 3:12 : "So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: 'Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? " : In the NLT, this verse is translated "Peter saw his opportunity." This was an open door to share Jesus Christ.
- This is very similar to how his first sermon began. His first sermon came to a crowd that had been gathered after the miracle sound of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
- This crowd was gathered in the temple already, and was now responding to a miracle sight!
- Peter's words reflect a discourse that's akin to "My fellow countrymen." The phrase "Men of Israel" is an official format, preceded by a speech that might have been given by a foreign diplomat.
- He saw the attention that this healing had garnered and immediately, he perceived that the people who had witnessed it, attributed healing power to he and John.
- It's a very human tendency to look toward men of God and wish to credit them with some sort of hero status. With lesser men, it's reciprocally easy to receive that credit!
- That's not the case with Peter. He is not willing that they should give him or John any credit!
- As with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, this event is God working through them. This man's healing comes from a divine intervention of God's power.
- He points to a truth that we all know intimately: We can do nothing through our own power or godliness. Only God could do what was done and Jesus had done this before.
- It was His power that made this lame man walk. Any radical change in a person's life that can be done will only be done at the will of the Lord Jesus.
- Even in a man of Peter's stature, it's absolutely true that human beings, no matter how spirit-filled, have no power to affect true miraculous change!
- Rather, and more significantly, the power of God is not available only to these select men, but to everyone who is rightly related to Jesus Christ, who may deem to do more marvelous things.
- It's Jesus, the One who still lives today, whose power affects miraculous change. Our part is much more simple: Tell people that it's Jesus they are looking for!
II. He Identifies With Them (v.13a)
• Acts 3:13a : "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus,..." : Quickly note the commonality that Peter shares. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our people. Their God is our God!
- Peter was Jewish, He is speaking in Jerusalem to Jewish men and women. It's easy to find commality. I'm share how you have lived, as I have lived like you!
- They had common history and they shared current events. Jesus was THE news event around Jerusalem. He had the latest buzz. Peter captures their attention with this.
- I hate methods as much as anyone, but finding common ground is so very helpful in bringing the Word of God to someone, especially as it pertains to the next point.
III. He Shows Them Their Personal Guilt (v.13b-16)
• Acts 3:13b : "whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go." : Peter calls Jesus God's Servant.
- This would bring the Jewish mind back to the Messianic prophecies from their great prophet Isaiah, who spoke of God's Messiah as His elect Servant in Isaiah 42 and 49 for example.
- Their God gave weight and value to Jesus, His Servant. Jesus came to serve His Father and us with His life. God honored the one that they denied!
- They did not esteem Him in any way, but God's opinion was very different.
- Peter, as in His first sermon, pressed the people listening to understand that they were personally guilty of betraying God's servant. They had done this.
- They had betrayed and denied Him before Pilate. The NIV puts it like this: "You handed Him over to be killed and disowned Him."
- They pressed this decision even when Pilate had determined to do otherwise. The implication is pretty striking here.
- As you may remember from our study in Matthew, Pilate was not highly esteemed by the Jewish people. The man was a veritable villain!
- Peter's insinuation was that this heathen dog of a man, was able to recognize that Jesus should have been let go and he was intent to do so!
- But they, even they had stood in the way of justice and demanded that He be crucified! Peter is not done.
• Acts 3:14-16 : "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." : They denied the Holy One. They denied the One who had been God in the Flesh, set apart totally for the plans and purposes of God, blameless and undeserving of death.
- So much more, Jesus was also the Just. He was the righteous. The fact that Jesus was Holy speaks to His innocence from guilt. Being the Just One speaks to His moral perfection.
- He was not just not guilty. He was perfectly right in every way! They epitomized what this world is all about: They will choose wickedness, a murderer over the Prince of life!
- Barabbas was more infamous than famous. His name was synonymous with wickedness. These supposed righteous people aligned themselves with utter wickedness by their choice!
- The word translated "prince" is very telling. It comes rom the Greek word that is better translated "author." The word speaks to cause and origin. Jesus, the author, originator of life!
- Peter, a short time after Christ's ascension, calls Jesus God! There are those in liberal camps today who would have us believe that the doctrine of Christ's deity, slowly evolved!
- Let's be clear when we understand this: Peter declared this in His second sermon!
- Herein is another contradiction. They chose one who would take life instead of one who could give life, in fact, even the very author of it!
- This was their responsibility and this was God's response: He raised Jesus from death!
- Peter spoke of the resurrection and the power made available that day to this man. It was through faith in the name of the risen Christ, that this lame man could be changed!
- Was it the man's faith? Not at all! It was Peter's faith in the name of Christ that brought this about! Peter had trusted in all that the name of Jesus signified when he reached for this man's hands.
- Imagine now the guilt: They had pushed for their Messiah's death. They had rejected their very God, the Author of life.
- People must feel the weight of their own personal sin, looking down at the hell that they deserve, before they look to the heaven that has been gained for them!
IV. He Opens A Door Of Relief (v.17,18)
• Acts 3:17,18 : "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled." : As the crowd grapples with their failure and sin, Peter reveals an open door that will give them hope.
- What they and their rulers had done, was done in ignorance. They knew that they wanted to kill Jesus. They believed Him to be a blasphemer and simply only a man.
- They were blinded by their own prejudice and by a satanic veil.
- What they did in ignorance was actually something that God did knowingly by reversing their will! You ignorantly did this. Now I will do this in accordance with what I know and scripture says.
- They had failed to be faithful. They had failed to recognize their Messiah, but God had remained faithful. His prophets had spoken of the very suffering the Jesus endured.
- He had endured it and because of that faithfulness of God the Father and God the Son, there was hope. These people and all who yet live, need hope that God would be willing and able.
V. He Calls Them To Response (v.19-21)
• Acts 3:19-21 : "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." : What should they do? Please understand this: Our message always demands a response!
- It's not just a nice set of words that is good for someone else. It's for those I share it with!
- The message is unchanged: Repent and be converted! We have talked about repentance being a change of mind. The word implies a change of mind about direction.
- The word "conversion" says it blatantly: Repent and turn back toward God! Turn your hearts toward Him. Believe again that He is the answer to your sins.
- The promise is that if one will do this, their sins will be "blotted out." The word means to be white washed, removed by virtue of the strength of another agent.
- I read this last week that ink that was used during these biblical times, did not have the acid that clings to paper as is true of the ink we use today.
- This ink could simply become wet again and could therefore be lifted off of the page simply and permanently without so much as a single stain.
- That is God's promise through Christ for you and for I and for those that stood there on that day, guilty in their sin of rejecting Christ and His righteousness.
- They were guilty of killing the author of life. Guilty of delivering the Messiah to Pilate.
- Peter is telling them that it's good that they're guilty because God could now show His grace by blotting out their offense!
- All that has separated you and I from Him can be done away with because of Christ. There is no greater message for you and I and for the waiting guilty world around us!
- This is what God wants for the life of the unregenerate: He wants to forgive their sins based on Christ. He wants them to be refreshed. The word comes from the Greek word meaning "cooling."
- It's a blast of cool fresh air for their souls that God wanted to spread over them.
- What does this refer to? The giving of the Holy Spirit, the promise that had been given to them and indeed to you and I!
- Times of cool refreshing awaited them in that day and time, just as it has happened for all in Christ since that day.
- They would receive the Spirit that day and in Peter's mind, their reception of Jesus, would also usher in the Kingdom of God! That's what the word "restoration" speaks to.
- Had the nation believed, maybe it would have happened, but we'll see that was not the case.
VI. He Confirms With Scripture (v.22-26)
• Acts 3:22-26 : "For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.'" : Peter again calls their minds to remember the scripture that they held as sacred.
- Leaving a new convert with confirming scripture helps to solidify what has been shared with them. I personally suggest the Gospel of Mark. Let them read of their Savior from His Word.
- For the first 10,000 of these saints, they had the Old Testament and it spoke well of Christ.
- Moses had prophecied in Deuteronomy 18:15ff that Jesus, another like himself, would come to and speak to them. They should listen to Him!
- His ministry would not be temporal like that of Moses. His would be eternal! Those who failed to listen to Moses would have another prophet to listen to.
- Those who failed to listen and obey Jesus have no other destiny but to be destroyed!
- Peter is telling them that Jesus is that Prophet! The gospel is coming to the Jews. They are hearing that God through Jesus is offering forgiveness and His Spirit! What is the alternative to that!
- God had spoken it from the beginning of the book, whether it was Moses, Samuel or Abraham. God's first promise to Abraham was the promise of this man Jesus!
- Jesus was the fulfilment of God's promises both to those men, as well as their progeny.
- Now, Jesus is calling them to turn away from all of their wickednesses.
• Acts 4:1-4 : "Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand." : Remember that Peter is speaking right in the heart of the place where Jesus was rejected!
- Those same enemies had not left office after Jesus was resurrected. They were even more in control during this time.
- For the first time in the book of Acts, the Apostles face direct opposition from the religious leaders, specifically the Sadducees.
- Remember that when Jesus was around, most of the time, His trouble came from the Pharisees. Peter has now aroused the Sadducees. Why?
- Because they did not believe in the resurrection! Peter preached that Jesus had been raised from the dead and this went against everything that they did not believe in!
- The Sadducees laid hands on them, not referring to praying for them by the way, but seizing them and imprisoning them beginning that moment for the next day.
- Here is why we have come this far: However! That is the point. No matter what is done. No matter what is taken from them, God has His way!
- Many, not all, who heard the word believed! None who never hear the word will never believe! But many who heard the word believed. They trusted. They listened to their Prophet Jesus!
- How many? Five thousand men! It was customary to simply count the men.
- There could easily have been many, many more added to the church this day.
Conclusion
- As we close, I pray that you see what I see in this passage. Peter was an ordinary man, filled with God's Spirit. We can be ordinary people and we can be filled with His Spirit.
- Peter saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Eyes were turned to him and the explanation was Jesus. We can look for opportunities and we can be bold and confident to share.
- Peter spoke directly and pointedly about sin and judgment and then appropriately about hope and salvation.
- Finally, Peter confirmed what he had spoken and gave them scripture to feed on. Can that be any easier!? Let's be ones to follow and find out.
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