Acts 3:11-26

been able to join online. So here we go. I'm going to make sure the text message goes out. By the way, if you would like to receive a text message every day to let you know that this is going online, feel free to just shoot me an email, brian at sharon rpc.org and I will get that right over to you. I'll add you to the list. So good morning, good morning, good morning.
Welcome to coffee and devotions. That's where every day we get together. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make our way all the way from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. We are at a very fun passage today. Quite a surprising passage. Why don't we have some coffee? I'm actually drinking tea this morning. Why don't we have some something to drink and we'll pray and we'll get into God's word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. God, we thank you for the work that your Holy Spirit does in the hearts of your people. And we pray that as we read your word this morning, that you would give us wisdom, understanding, and insight in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. We're at Acts chapter 3, verses 11 through the end of the chapter. Let's go to God's word together now.
Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just One. 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. 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 the prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. 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 before to you, whom heaven must receive until times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. 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. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 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 everyone of you from your iniquities." Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse for this that we want to underline that summarizes this? And C, calling. What are we called to do in response to these words on the page? Well, A, what is this about?
Peter and John have just entered the temple. We looked at that yesterday. And they look at the lame man in the face and they say, you know, we don't have silver or gold, but what we do have we freely give to you. Get up and walk. And he has faith. He gets up and he walks. They go into the temple and they are praising God. And then here, everybody's amazed by it. Everybody is shocked by it. What in the world is going on? They run over to him and Peter says, whoa, whoa, whoa, pick your jaws up off the floor. Why are you gawking at us? It's not because of our power or our godliness.
But what does he turn his eyes directly to? He says that it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant, Jesus. It is his faith in Jesus, but not his faith in Jesus, it is the power of Jesus that healed him.
We need to be careful. Right? It is not our faith that has power in and of ourselves as if it's, you know, it's something in us that has the power. But no, it's because the Father has glorified the Son and the Son has sent his Spirit that these things happen. It is God who's doing this work. It's not our faith. By faith we receive and believe. But it is God's power who's doing this.
But notice, this is the same Peter. This is the same Peter that just a few days ago, you know, just over a month and a half ago, had denied Jesus three times. This was the same Peter that with the rest of the apostles was afraid and cowering in the upper room after Jesus was crucified because they were scared of the Jews.
And now do you see the boldness he has? Now do you see the power that he has? He calls them out for their sin. He says that Pontius Pilate was about to let him go and you asked for a murderer rather than the holy and just one. You put to death the prince of life. I love the titles that Peter uses here for Jesus. He is God's glorified servant. He's a holy and just one. He's the prince of life. And then he calls them to faith in his name. He calls them to put away their ignorance that they had done in killing Jesus' son because in their ignorance, they had actually fulfilled God's promises to the prophets that the Christ would suffer.
And it is this prophet that even Moses pointed towards, and he goes from Samuel to all the prophets, all of them were speaking about Jesus having to come, and that you have to believe in this final prophet. You have to believe in the one who came after Moses and make no doubt about it. Peter is specifically here saying this is Jesus that Moses was talking about. It is Jesus who is the prophet that Moses promised. It is Jesus who is the Christ who was promised. It is Jesus who is a suffering servant, Isaiah pointed out.
And it is this Jesus that removes their iniquities. What does he say in verse 19? repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. And then in verse 20, 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. This is what having faith in Jesus means. That he blots out our iniquities. He forgives our transgressions. Our sins are remembered no more because the blood price has been paid. What's the best verse to underline in this?
Well, that's a tough one. If I showed you my Bible, you would laugh at me because I have verse 12, verse 13, part of verse 14, part of 15, part of 16, part of 18, part of 19, part of... I have 22 and 23 as well as 26 underlined. I don't know. Maybe I should just get a highlighter and highlight all of it. What would you underline in your Bible? What's the best verse to get to the heart of this? Well, I think, you know, if I was to really kind of narrow this down, I would probably underline verses 18 and 19 and 26. I know, I know, it's still not one, it's three, but that's fine.
Calling. What are we called to do in response to this? Well, You know, it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved. It's in Jesus Christ we have remission for sins. And what is this passage pointing us to today? Well, it thrusts us to what Paul says in Romans 1, verse 16. For he is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and that's what Peter says here, but also to the Gentiles, also to the non-Jews, also to the various different ethnicities around the world. I'm not ethnically Jewish. I don't know, maybe you are, maybe you aren't.
But the good news of Jesus Christ is that if we have faith in Him, if we believe in Him, we will be saved. Do you believe? Do you receive and accept Jesus Christ? There is power in His name. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you that you have Given us a perfect Savior Jesus Christ God we pray that you would Lord, that you would help us believe even in times in the midst of our disbelief. We thank you for the forgiveness of our sins. In Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may God give you peace today. May you rest in Jesus Christ alone. May you have your sins blotted out as you confess them to the holy and just one. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.