The Acts of the Apostles 11

Subtitle: Peter Preaches Again

Acts 3:11-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 31, 2022.

The healing of the lame man at Gate Beautiful creates quite a stir on the temple mount as news of the healing spreads throughout the crowds.  Peter and John end up under what is variously called Solomon’s Porch, or Colonnade, or even Portico.  This puts them on the east side of the Temple mount under a roofed series of columns that was open towards the Temple.

The lame man is clinging to them.  It appears that he is excited and no doubt there are levels of hugging and not wanting to be separated from them.  Let’s say that he is most likely in a level of shock.

It is not clear how long this takes place after the Day of Pentecost excitement, but it seems to be a matter of days to weeks.  Acts chapter 2 ended with several general statements about that first group of believers that sets up this healing and preaching.  First, we are told that “many wonders and signs were done through the apostles,” and that they were meeting daily with each other in the temple.

Let’s look at Peter’s words to the crowd.

Peter contrasts their actions with God’s

Peter walks through the events with Jesus, but you will notice there is a sense that follows this pattern.  You did this and yet, God did that.  Or, we could state it as, God did this, and yet, you did that.  This will lead up to the reality that they need to repent and believe upon Jesus, but more on that next week.

The first focus is on the action of the crowd.  We are told that they are “greatly amazed” and “marveled” while looking intently at Peter and John.  They are giving more attention to Peter and John than they should be because they don’t understand the connection to Jesus.  Peter is going to be very careful to turn their eyes back to Jesus by verse 16.

This is a classic error whenever God does something either miraculous, or simply changing the order of things within a group.  We can become overly focused on the person or people through whom God is operating.  In this case, God is using a righteous man to do a good thing.  However, God can also use wicked people for discipline and to draw people to repentance.

We must not think that Jesus is inactive in heaven today.  All authority and power on earth has been given to him.  Just as we saw that it is he who was, and still is, pouring out the Holy Spirit upon believers, so too when history changes, it is by the authority of Jesus that it occurs.  We must never forget this aspect.  Whether great good, or great judgment, we must always humble ourselves and seek what the Lord Jesus is saying through the events, rather than obsessing on those through whom the events come.  When good happens, he gets all the glory.  When bad things happen (according to our perspective), we must humble ourselves before him in order to understand what he is saying, what his plan is through this.

Verse 13 points to the fact that God the Father had glorified Jesus before them.  I believe that Peter is making a similar point as he did in chapter 2 when he said that God had attested Jesus to them through miracles, wonders, and signs.  In this case, he uses the verb glorified.  We can also add to this the angelic visitations that occurred around his birth.  However, most of this was during the 3 ½ years of the ministry of Jesus.  Notice that this is what God had done.

He reminds them that this is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The same God who spoke with them and did amazing things before them, was speaking to them now.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are commended because they believed God and followed Him in faith. 

Jesus is also described as “His Servant.”  All of the righteous of any age are in simplest terms, servants of God.  Jesus had come to serve God’s purposes, and that purpose involved serving Israel, and then the Gentile nations.  Jesus had come from God to powerfully serve them, and God the Father had been faithful to make it clear to them that Jesus was approved by Him.  Yet, how did they respond to that?

They had delivered Jesus up and denied him before Pilate.  God had given Jesus to them, and they in turn, handed him over to the Gentiles for execution.  God had testified to them that Jesus was from Him, but they testified that he was not.  The word “denied” has the sense of speaking against someone.  They did these things over the top of Pilate deciding that Jesus should be released.  This is not to say that Pilate is a righteous man. 

Peter makes this point even more pointed by calling Jesus the Holy and Righteous One.  Jesus had done no sin among them, was set apart by God for His purposes for them.  Jesus was The Holy and Righteous One, but they refused to stand with him, as the Father was doing.  This was not the actions of the Patriarchs!

Even worse, they had asked for a murderer to live and for Jesus to be killed.  They would rather a wicked person live than the righteous Jesus.  Peter gives Jesus the title Prince of Life to hammer home the horrifying nature of what they had done.  The word “Prince” here is not a word that refers to a king’s son who has no power yet.  It refers to the principal leader, and has connotations that go back to Daniel 9:25, which speaks of Messiah, the Prince (or “Leading One”).  Jesus is the source of life due to the fact that he was the principal agent of creation.  However, he has now become the principal agent of salvation, which offers life to those who have become entangled in sin and its resultant death, both in this life and the next.  Jesus is not just dispensing life.  He is both the source, and the only one who can lead us into true life!

Imagine having the One who is life and leads to life being killed while asking for a murderer who is his opposite.  Also, imagine doing all this while claiming to be the righteous ones of this world.  This is not a Jewish problem either.  The irony is particularly heavy in the events Peter describes, and yet every generation that has ever faced the man Jesus must answer as well.  Who are you really?  What will you do with Jesus, his message, and his people?  No matter how many moral cloaks the nations of this world put on, they one by one fall into the same pattern as Israel in the first century.  However, we have the added guilt of having an example clearly set before us.

They had killed Jesus, but God raised Jesus from the dead.  Peter and the other disciples were witnesses to this reality.  Jesus is not dead.  He is still alive!  Their plan didn’t work then, and it won’t work today.  God was overturning their decision.  However, it is better put in this way.  They had been trying to overturn God’s decision to send them Jesus the Prince of Life.  You can’t kill the source of life.  You will only end up destroying yourself.

The decision that this world is making, to ignore Jesus and make a better world without him, cannot overcome the decision of God the Father.  He has installed Jesus as King over heaven and earth.  Not only do we fight against this at our own peril, but ironically, we reject the only one who can lead us into life, and a better world.  Rather, we build upon a foundation of murder and death.  This cannot end well.

Are we not putting Holiness and Righteousness to death in our society?  In fact, are not many religious leaders and people today joining in this through redefining what is holy and righteous?  Can we not see ourselves in this mirror that the Lord Jesus has given to the world through Israel?  Yet, the true question for all of us is this.  What am I doing in my heart and in my mind?  God help my heart to humble down and follow Jesus so that I might know true holiness, true righteousness, and the true life that only he can give.

This brings us full circle.  In verse 16, Peter ties back to the crowd looking at him and John as if they had done this.  This healing of the lame man can only be credited to this same Jesus they had crucified.  What amazing grace.  They had crucified him, but Jesus was now still performing miracles in their midst.  Jesus had given this man the ability to walk, and to leap, and to praise God! 

This sentence comes across into English a bit clumsily.  However, Peter points to Jesus in three ways.  First, the name of Jesus has healed this man.  Peter does not mean this as if saying the name works like a mantra.  This is the pagan concept of “words of power.”  Jesus did not come to reveal some kind of hidden word of power that now heals people. 

In Hebrew thought, a man’s name had the sense of his reputation, which Western culture has picked up through the Bible.  We speak of a man having a good name in the community.  However, it also included the power and authority of the person.  Thus, Peter is saying that it is the power and authority of Jesus that has done this miracle.  Let us never forget that any powerful work of God is completely by the power and authority of Jesus.  This is foundational.  Without Jesus authorizing it and empowering it, nothing can be done, even by a person who has been powerfully used by God in the past.  No man should ever be given credit, or gazed at in amazement as if they had done it.  This is a huge problem within any group.  Pentecostals can be overly enamored with those whom they believe God is working powerful miracles through.  However, even other groups can be enamored with leaders that they believe God is powerfully using in more natural things. 

Let me repeat, no person should ever be given the credit.  They cannot do anything without Jesus authorizing and empowering it.  Also, let us dispense with the idea that Jesus gave a blank check authorization and empowerment to his people to do anything that they can have faith for.  There are seasons in which God is doing different things.  Even the most righteous must learn to walk in humility before God and cooperate with what He is doing.  The Church has continued to fail in this whole category.  We can blame it on the leaders, but the source of the problem is in the hearts of the people, which tends to elevate the wrong kind of leaders in their midst.

The second thing Peter says in verse 16 is that this healing was done through faith in the power and authority of Jesus.  Yes, Peter was used by Christ to be an ambassador of the healing power of Jesus.  But, more importantly, Peter represents those who still had faith in the power and authority of Jesus, even though he had been executed.  Of course, the death of Jesus precipitated a crisis of faith for Peter.  However, the resurrected Lord not only forgave Peter, but cured him of ever thinking that he could tell Jesus what needed to happen next.  Jesus knew what he was doing.  This group of believers were marked by their faith in the person and power of Jesus, not just what he did in the past, but also in what he is doing right now!

The third thing Peter says in verse 16 is that the faith that comes through Jesus had healed this man.  In a sense, Peter is saying that even his faith in Jesus had come to him through Jesus.  Peter is taking no credit for this.  He knew himself.  He knew that he would have not done anything if Jesus had given up on him, and hadn’t faithfully taught him.  Without the grace of Jesus, Peter would still be on the Sea of Galilee fishing.

May we be a people who are letting Jesus teach us and give us faith in him, so that we might be a conduit of the power and authority of Jesus.  Whether that is displayed in healings and powerful works is not our worry.  Our only focus is faithfulness, courage, and keeping our eyes upon him.

Today, we might accuse Peter of not being sensitive to people.  Yet, truth must risk offense, especially when eternity is on the line.  Notice this contrast between what God is doing and what they were doing.  This is the point today.  Always the challenge is keeping in step with what God is doing, rather than following the figment of our imaginations in the wrong direction.

Peter Preaches Again I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 10

Subtitle: A Lame Man Is Healed

Acts 3:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 24, 2022.

In Acts chapter two, Luke describes a powerful scene, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and then a sermon from Peter.  We have this same structure in chapter three.  An amazing healing occurs, which provides a hearing of the Gospel.

Acts 2:43 stated, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”  We have here one of those amazing wonders and signs done through the Apostle Peter.  It is the healing of a man in his 40’s who has never walked, but now he instantly is able to walk.  He was the beggar who was always at Gate Beautiful. 

This miracle was undeniable, reminiscent of the things that the executed Jesus had done, and was done through one of his disciples.  However, it provided a platform from which Peter could preach to the crowds in the temple.  Acts is invaluable because it cuts through almost 2,000 years of accreted tradition, and puts in front of us a sample of the kind of teaching given by those who walked with Jesus.

For context, this scene takes place at one of the temple gates in Jerusalem.  Peter and John are on their way to the temple and they are asked for money by a beggar.  The name “Beautiful” is not attached to any of the gates in any of the first century writings that we have.  Josephus does describe a gate made of Corinthian Bronze that was particularly outstanding from the rest.  This gate was called after the man who made the donation for its creation, Nicanor, and it was between the court of women and the area where sacrifices would be made in front of the temple building.  However, the story will end with Peter, John and the healed man in Solomon’s Porch, or colonnade.  This was a covered structure on the east wall.  A question then arises on whether it was actually a gate further out and they came into the temple compound? Or did they simply go back out to Solomon’s porch?  Ultimately, knowing exactly which gate this was will not change the story.

You can do some online searching to be able to see this.  Many models have been made over the years of what is described by those from that time.

Let’s get into the passage.

The lame man’s plight in life

We do not know this man’s name.  We do know that he had been lame from birth.  Because of this, he would be carried to the temple to beg for charity from the religious people who were going in.  This would be a “target-rich” environment, to be crass, since they are on their way to worship before God and more inclined to give.

People who are born with disabilities all have a similar experience physically and mentally.  However, some factors can be vastly different.  Do they have family, and does that family love and help them?  Is the family rich or poor?  Also, there can be other mitigating circumstances that make the situation worse or better.  We know nothing about these aspects of the man’s background.

We do know that he has been given a tough situation for life, and nothing about it is fair.  It just is, and that reality is physically, emotionally, and spiritually tough.

In all of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, this man had never been in the right spot at the right time.  It seems impossible that he had not heard stories of a miracle-man healing people like him.  Acts 4:22 tells us that he is over 40 years old.  So, he has been carrying this heavy load for a long time, and, when there is hope that someone can do something about it, the man is executed.  How discouraged this man must be at the very least, if not angry at God and life in general.  However, God did care about this man and simply had another plan.

The lame man’s plea

It is 3:00 PM when the time of the afternoon prayers began.  Peter and John were probably meeting with other believers to participate in the prayers and then spend time talking and teaching in the outer court under Solomon’s porch. For them, these are exciting times. But the lame man was there that day begging for his daily food once again. 

The men who walked by him were not outwardly any different than others.  He had asked them for alms and was already looking for another person.  He doesn’t seem to know who they are and rejection is a large part of the experience of a person who has been reduced to begging.

Let me just point out that the Greek word for alms here is similar to the English word “charity.”  Charity technically means love, but can come to refer to the money that is given to another out of charity, or love.  Similarly, the word translated alms here is literally “mercies.”  The man is begging people to give him mercies.

Charity and mercy are an important part of being righteous.  The Law of Moses states in Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’”  God calls His people to help the poor and needy, and yet also states that they will never cease from the land.  This lame man is not in a position to help the poor and needy because he is poor and needy.  Those who were in a position to help needed to demonstrate their righteousness through helping them.  This didn’t make them more righteous than the poor, but was how they could demonstrate faith in God. 

This begs the question.  How does a poor person demonstrate faith in God?  They do so by not letting bitterness and anger rule them.  They do so by praising God over the top of their difficult situation.  They do so by waiting on the mercy of God, which may never seem to be enough to our flesh, but in which our spirit can be content.  They do so by not looking to people to be their answer, but recognizing that God uses people.  They do so by remaining humble even though it isn’t fair.

The lame man praises God for healing

We don’t know if the Holy Spirit urges Peter to do this, or if Peter simply thinks, “What would Jesus do?”  Christ had given his apostles power to heal and cast out spirits when he sent them out in pairs to the towns of Israel.  There is no indication that Jesus took this power back.  As long as Jesus was with them, he led the ministry.  However, now Peter is in a similar situation that he has seen before, with and without Jesus.  He had been prepared for this critical transition from being a disciple of Jesus while he was physically on the earth, and being a disciple of Jesus while he is seated in the heavens.  Jesus may have been “dead and gone” in the eyes of the religious leaders, but through these twelve men, he was alive and well.

Peter first tells the man to look at them.  He has clearly made up his mind what to do.  This would be an important moment in the man’s life.  From this moment on, he would not need to beg at the temple.  He would know that God has seen him, and had provided an answer for him.  Peter makes him look at them first so that he would pay attention to exactly what is happening.

“Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.”  The apostles did not have any money.  They had not been working since they followed Jesus, and now Jesus was gone.  However, Peter knows that he has something else that he can give the man.  Peter has been given the spiritual gift of healing.

Now, healing in the Bible is not broken down into a science.  It doesn’t give us the 5 steps to securing your healing every time.

However, it does give some principles of things that impact healing.  Those who pray for others to be healed must have faith in God, and those who need healing must have faith in God as well.  Jesus himself did few miracles and healings in his hometown of Nazareth because most of them were full of unbelief that God was working through him (Mark 6:5).

It is also clear that some Christians have the spiritual gift of healing where others do not (1 Corinthians 12:30).  All believers have the ability to ask God for healing, whether for themselves or their loved ones.  This is the dynamic of a child asking a father for grace.  God sometimes answers such prayers.  However, there are people whom God particularly works through in the area of healing.  They will see more healings than Christians in general, and even spectacular ones.  However, the spiritual gift of healing is not a kind of power that they control.  The healing comes from the Spirit of God.  The gifted person is cooperating with the Spirit and acting as the mediator of the healing.  The Apostle Paul asked God to heal him of a malady three times and yet the Lord told him, “No.” 

This means that God’s purpose and will is involved in a way that cannot be boiled down to a simple, “God always wants to heal a sick person,” or, “God doesn’t do that anymore.”  There are seasons in God’s dealing with an individual, an area, a nation, and even this world.  There are seasons where God is granting more miracles and healings than normal, but there are seasons where God is seeing what we will do with the grace we have received.

I’ve noticed this dynamic with my own group, the Assemblies of God.  In the early 1900’s when this cooperating fellowship of churches began, it was quite common to see, or hear, of amazing answers of God through the miraculous and especially healing.  Over time, these healings became fewer and farther in between.  At the same time, a social dynamic was happening in this group.  Early Assemblies of God churches tended to be on “the other side of the tracks,” and its people were typically poorer.  Today, the Assemblies of God churches are by and large on “this side of the tracks,” and its people are more middle class.  I understand that these are rough generalizations, but we need to see that there is more going on here than just the faith of the individuals involved.  God is ultimately sovereign, and all believers need to keep humble before Him, rather than building a system that goes to one of two extremes- God always wants to heal, or God doesn’t heal any more.

I believe that God still heals people.  However, more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.  We will be tested on both these things.  We must believe God enough to pray for healing, and yet trust Him if the answer is “No.”

The story is told of Thomas Aquinas, a theologian of the Church who as also a Dominican friar and priest.  He was in Rome and the pope was showing him an incredible display of gold, wealth, and precious jewels.  The pope then says, “Peter can no longer say, ‘Silver and Gold have I none!”  To which, Aquinas replied, “And neither can he say, ‘Rise up and walk in the Name of Jesus!”  This highlights an age-old problem of becoming rich, comfortable, and uninterested in the work that God is wanting to do.  God help us not to love the world and the things of this world to the point where we become irrelevant to His daily work.

There have been many charlatans with “healing ministries” through the years.  However, Peter is no charlatan who is looking for fame on TV and an empire that has a constant flow of money into its coffers.  Peter commands the man to rise up in the name of Jesus, while at the same time taking him by the hand and pulling him up.  This took a lot of faith on Peter’s part.  However, he was full of the Holy Spirit and in some way knew that this was God’s plan.

It is easy to think that the man asked for money, but received what he really needed.  This may be true, but on a deeper level than we think.  What good does physical healing do if a person does not become a believer in Jesus?  Think about the amazing medical technology that we have amassed in our world.  Who needs a healing Jesus when we can solve the maladies of the world through science and technologies developed off of it?  Of course, we can recognize that there are still sick people in our world today.  Technology is not yet the god that the world wishes it to be.  Second of all, what good does a perfect body that has never been sick do for the person who never puts their faith in Christ?  Yes, the person struggling with disease generally needs people around them that will help them, whether physically, monetarily, or both.  However, fixing the disease will only make a difference in their natural life.  Ultimately, we all need to come to faith in Jesus more than we need the troubles of our life fixed.  It is in the difficult times that we learn to trust more in God.

If I have money to give to a person who is in a difficult situation, then that is good.  If I pray for them to be healed, and God heals them, then that is even better.  However, if they do not put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then neither of those things will truly benefit them.  No amount of charitable giving, or healings, can fix the need of a soul to have its sins covered by the grace of Jesus made available through his death on the cross.

Think of it.  These weren’t even atrophied muscles.  He had never walked for over 40 years, and yet strength came into his legs, ankles and feet immediately.  This man was blown away.  He wasn’t healed in the name of Peter, or a particular ministry, or church.  He was healed in the name of Jesus.  Peter made it clear that he was representing Jesus, not himself.

They enter into the temple praising God.  The word for temple here doesn’t mean the main building where the Holy place was.  Only the high priest could enter there.  It means the temple compound, the large, flat structure upon which the temple building was built.  It is unlikely that he had ever been able to go in.  His job was to beg at the gate, but now he has something to praise God about, and he is leaping, shouting, and making no small commotion.

How many times can we indignantly look at others who are entirely too bubbly about praising God?  Yes, sometimes people can be putting on a show, but how do you know?  And, is your heart in the right place?  Excited praise is not always pretense.  Sometimes God has done amazing things in a person’s life.  Sometimes a person has learned to see the amazing grace of God that they are swimming in despite the lack of a healing, or miracle, or money.

Let us recognize that God does care about the poor and the needy even if they continue to be so.  It is not typically the rich and the healthy who are jumping up and down praising God, if they even go to church.  There is a day coming when God will wipe away every tear and restore all broken things to a pristine condition.  Where will I be on that day? 

Let’s be a people who are not so full of this worlds comforts that we have lost sight of the heart of God!

The Acts of the Apostles 9

Subtitle: The Lord Increases His Church

Acts 2:40-47.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 17, 2022.

We have come to a point where the people listening to Peter are asking what they can do.  To which, Peter responds that they should repent.  This brings us to verse 40.

Let’s get into the passage.

Many people repent (40-41)

As Peter speaks to the crowd, people begin to repent from among them.  We don’t know the size of the crowd, but it appears that a large percentage who were listening repented. 

Yet, repentance is more than intellectually believing something.  They could not deny that something real was happening with these Galileans who had been speaking far-flung languages unknown to them.  However, repentance is believing something enough to act upon it.

We are told that Peter preached many other words.  However, the message essentially boiled down to this: You crucified the Messiah, but you can repent and save yourself from this perverse generation.

The word translated “perverse” has the sense of something that is crooked and twisted.  In the context of that which is good or bad, crookedness represents something that is ruined.  It will only make the problem worse.  It cannot fix.  I don’t believe there is a society on the planet today, or that ever existed in the past, that is without a level of perversity.  Even believers in Jesus are tempted to twist their ways just enough to fit in with the culture around them.

Here's a question.  Just how much twisting, perversity, can the Word of God take before it ceases to be True anymore?  God’s Word is either truth or it is not.  But, let us not pretend that it is something we can fashion, like clay, and somehow make it better.  No, the Gospel was fashioned by God to actually save you.  You cannot make it any better, period.

John the Baptist came out of the wilderness quoting Isaiah 40:3-4. 

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth…’”

Repentance is all about recognizing that the proud strongholds of sin in my life have to be thrown down into the deep valleys of hurts in my life, and a way must be made for the Spirit of Truth to come into my heart.  God is in the saving business and we will all see it.  The real question is will you see it happen to you? 

Road building is difficult work, but the Spirit of God will help all those who humble themselves and recognize their own perversity.  If you are stuck looking at the perversity of everyone around you, you will insulate yourself from hearing the powerful word, that “You are the man!”  You are the one who needs to repent, and until you do, then no one else matters, period!

We are told in verse 41 that 3,000 souls were added that day.  It is most likely that there were some who would not soften their hearts enough to have a change of mind and then do what required doing, that is publicly identifying with Jesus.  Some of them let that moment pass for one reason or another.  Yet, the mercy of God will continue to try and reach us until that last breath that we breath in this life.

The 3,000 new believers in Jesus were water baptized right away.  Even though Luke doesn’t say it is a water baptism, verse 38 shows a clear progression in what Peter says.  They should believe, be baptized, and then they will receive the Holy Spirit, which is called Baptism in the Spirit, or Spirit Baptism.  He is clearly not saying to believe, be Spirit baptized, and then you will be Spirit baptized.  Rather, he is saying to believe, be water baptized, and then you will receive the Holy Spirit.

Water baptism is to the New Covenant like circumcision was for Israel under the Old Covenant.  It is that outward expression that a person has become a part of the believing community in relationship with God.  In water baptism, a person makes a choice for themselves.  It is not about your parents being Israelites, and you being genetically predisposed to be an Israelite too.

It is unlikely that they all trekked 20 miles down to the Jordan river to be baptized.  It is most likely that they went to the public mikvehs nearby (small pools used for the cleansing ritual before going to the temple).  Perhaps they had already been ceremonially cleansed to participate in the Feast of Pentecost, but now they would go back and be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah!

That day “about 3,000 souls were added to them.”  I mentioned in a prior sermon that Luke is using language that makes a clear allusion back to Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:28).  God was signaling to them that they were in a similar situation with the New Covenant.  At the giving of the Law, “about 3,000 of the men of the people fell that day.”  However, at the giving of the Gospel of Jesus Messiah, about 3,000 souls were added to the people of God.  There is a reversal that is happening.  Israel under the law had become a fallen and plundered people.  The giving of the Gospel speaks to God restoring that which is broken and twisted, perverse.  The temple mount had become the site where the New Covenant with God’s Messiah was established.  If they wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they would need to connect to Jesus and follow his leadership.

It would be nice to see 3,000 people being saved all at once.  Perhaps, you have been to a stadium where someone like Billy Graham gave an appeal for people to accept Jesus as their savior.  These things do happen even today.  However, we should recognize that a lot of work went into preparing the people of Israel to hear the Gospel that day and believe.  There are seasons within the heart of an individual and with cities, nations, regions, and this world.  We cannot control the seasons, but we can faithfully do the work of spreading the truth of the Gospel, watering it, and then calling people to repentance.

Church life in Year One (42-47)

In these last verses, we get a snapshot of the early Church in that first year, even that first summer.  Down the road, their situation will change in many respects, but the many things that the believers did would not change.

There was an overlap of the new Church that Christ was building and the Old Covenant institution of national Israel and the temple.  It lasted almost 40 years.  Thus, they stayed in Jerusalem and met at the temple as long as they could.  Yet, the local of our meetings is not what is important.  It is what was being done.

There are four things in which Luke says they continued to be steadfast.  This means they were focused on these things and did not leave them undone, day in and day out.

First, they were steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine, or teaching.  The apostles of Jesus were the official representatives of Jesus.  They had spent years listening to the teachings of Jesus and helping him in his ministry.  Jesus himself had said that they would be the foundation of his “called-out-ones,” the Church.  We must not fool ourselves.  We cannot follow Jesus without hearing, learning, and obeying the teaching of the apostles, which is called the New Testament of the Bible.  Of course, our salvation is not based upon our perfection in following Christ.  Rather, repentance and faith become a new way of life for a true believer.  This is a relationship with truth, yes with propositional truth, but even more, with the One who is Truth.

They also continued steadfast in fellowship.  This word covers a lot of things, but it essentially speaks to having a portion, a share in something.  Like the children of Israel received lots according to their tribes, clans, and families, so the people of God have a portion in this new people of God.  This common lot creates a kind of camaraderie among the group.  In this case, it is a communion, a relationship, with God that infuses itself in our relationship with one another.

The also were steadfast in the breaking of bread.  Some see this as only a ritual reference to communion.  However, verse 46 says, “breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart…”  It is better to see this as speaking of hospitality, and visiting in one another’s homes.  The effect of fellowship was that they often ate together (clearly not all 3,000 plus in one home).  Of course, this would include times of celebrating communion, the Lord’s Table.

Fourthly, they were steadfast in prayers.  Prayer is both a private and a group activity.  Prayerlessness in our life will open the door for a fast retreat from the edge of a repentant life.  Compromise is nursed in the life of prayerlessness.  You start with establishing a discipline of talking with God alone, and from that foundation, also participate (perhaps lead) in praying with others.

May Jesus help his Church to be steadfast in these things today.

Verse 43 mentions that fear came upon every soul.  I believe that this is connecting back to a fear of the Lord for the believing community, and a fear of the unknown for those who weren’t believing.  Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It is that reverent, respectful fear that one has in the presence of someone who is very powerful.  God is not whimsical.  We do not need to fear Him like a child would fear an abusive parent.  However, picture the perfect parent who speaks to their child about what they shouldn’t do.  A child who doesn’t have some level of a fear of disobeying their parents has not become something better.  They are not on the path to becoming an Uber Mensch. They are actually on the path to losing their soul.

The matters of the Gospel of Christ are serious matters, eternal matters.  If we don’t take them seriously, then we might find ourselves perishing in the wilderness like many did while being saved from Egypt.  They perished over the top of the overflowing goodness of God.

There is an overall lack of a fear of the Lord in the American Church today.  You can trust God’s Word.  He means what He says, but do you mean what you say?  May the Lord stir in us a sense of the seriousness of the times that men have always lived in, but particularly today for us.

Verse 46 also mentions that signs and wonders were being done through the apostles.  This is in the same manner as Israel saw with Jesus.  We talked about this earlier in this chapter and will see many examples throughout the rest of the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  Signs and wonders get people’s attention and point them in a particular direction, but they are always to be kept in the context of God’s Word.

The Word of God warns us of lying signs and wonders that will be prevalent in the last days.  2 Thessalonians 2 specifically warns us that those who have refused to receive a love of the truth will embrace a powerful delusion that God will send through the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

God has spoken through Jesus and his apostles like he did through Moses.  For 2,000 years, Christ has been building his Church like the nation of Israel had been built up following Moses for about 1,500 years.  Yet, this house of the Church will be tried in these times just as Israel was tried in her times.  Are you ready?  Make sure you are embracing the truth of God found in His Word.

Verses 44-45 are often read as if communism is being promoted there.  The problem with communism is not the phrase: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.  The problem is the State forcing something that God’s Word calls us to volunteer.  Of course, the State is not actually altruistic in this matter.  Rather, it is merely being used to leverage society into giving it more and more power.  The early Church did not abolish private property and disperse it through the help of “scientific leaders.”  Rather, it pictures that as anyone had need, those who could help would do so, even if it required liquidating some of their assets.  It was voluntary and out of love, not forced.

We should recognize that this was a unique time.  There was a sense of awe in what God was doing, and people didn’t want to miss out on that.  Like Mary and Martha, they were choosing to listen to the apostle’s teaching each day in the temple.  This is as opposed to going to work, or some even going back home to the other nations.  The day would come when Paul would exhort among the Gentile churches, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV).  We need to understand the context of what is going on and what is actually being promoted.

Verses 46-47 point out that they were daily in the temple praising God, with the apostles teaching, no doubt.  It is easy to praise God when He is moving in such a powerful way and we are on the right side of it.  However, there would be difficult days ahead, and they would need to learn to praise God in those times as well.  Though God was demonstrating that He was with His people in power, He would not protect them completely from the persecutions of this world.

We don’t just praise God because He makes our lives have no problems.  We praise Him because, even in the tough times, He is a good Father who is watching over us for our good.  We don’t always know what God is doing completely, but we can be faithful to what we do know and trust!

The chapter ends with the point that the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved.  The Church was never intended to be a static group.  Like families are in the natural, new spiritual children always require everyone else to adjust, to make room, and to help them.  It is the Lord’s work that we are called to participate in doing.

There are still people whom God wants to save.  God needs people who are willing to live and speak the Gospel to them, including the message of repentance.  He needs welcoming spiritual mothers and fathers who will come alongside of young believers in order to help them face the spiritual battles that we all must face.

May God help us to see with the eyes of faith that there really is a harvest that even today is happening.  It may not be 3,000 in one day, but then again it may be.  It is our job to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be faithful in His leading each day!

The Lord Increases audio

The Acts of the Apostles 8

Subtitle: Peter Preaches to the Crowd IV

Acts 2:34-39.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 10, 2022.

Today, we will finish Peter’s sermon at the Day of Pentecost when Jesus first poured out the Holy Spirit on His followers.  Let’s review the main points so far.

• Peter dismisses the mockers who say they are drunk.
• He then tells them that this is the Promise of the Holy Spirit that Joel 2:28-32 prophesies would happen in the Last Days.
• He then explains that this is connected to what has just happened with Jesus.
  • God had publicly approved him before all Israel.
  • He was then given into the hands of the leaders of Israel.
  • They had him executed.
  • However, he was raised him from the dead (Psalm 16:8-11), and then raised to the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110:1). 
  • There he received the authority to initiate the promised pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all flesh that they are witnessing.

This brings us to verse 34.

The Holy Spirit speaks through Peter

Peter brings up Psalm 110 verse 1 to the crowd.  It goes to the heart of just who this Jesus is.

There is much debate within Judaism today just who exactly is being referenced in verse 1.  The first issue is that the phrase, “a psalm of David,” could also mean a psalm for David.  One must solve this first, and then the issue becomes the identity of the one whom the writer address as “my lord.”

When it comes to the writer of this psalm, Jesus solves that for us in Matthew 22:41-45.  He asks the Pharisees whose son the Messiah (Christ) would be.  They answer correctly that Messiah would be the son of David.  Jesus then brings up Psalm 110:1 by saying, “How then does David in the Spirit call him, ‘Lord?’”  Notice that Jesus attributes this to be a Psalm written by David, which is the normal translation.  Moreover, Jesus points out that David is not just writing a song that he imagined.  The message of this Psalm is a revelation given to him by the Spirit of God.  David is speaking about the Messiah, and calling him “Lord.”

If this was simply a misinterpretation by Jesus, then the Pharisees would have surely put him in his place.  However, they are stumped because they too believe David wrote this psalm and that he was talking about Messiah.

Let’s look at Psalm 110 for a bit.  I will insert some Hebrew words in verse 1 to help us catch what is being said by David.  “The Lord [Yahweh] said to my lord [adoniy], sit at my right hand until I make [the imperfect tense that speaks of a process that will begin later] your enemies your footstool.”

David speaks of one who is his lord being told, by the God that Moses addressed at the burning bush (The I Am), to sit at His right hand, i.e., at his throne in heaven.  This psalm pictures a king from the line of David whom God will make all the nations his footstool.  However, the king will have to wait at the right hand of the Father until the Father is ready to begin the process of making the enemies of Christ His footstool.  The word “make” has a sense of putting, or setting.  It can be legislative as well as enforcement.  From the rest of Scripture, we know that the Father will give the go ahead, and Jesus will come back to enforce his rule on the earth.

Ps 110 pictures this unique king of Israel, who would therefore be of the line of David, also being a priest (vs 4) and a judge (vs 6).  Though David was anointed as a king and prophet, the Law of Moses kept a clear line between the priesthood and the kingship.  This is not just a son of David, but the quintessential Son of David, who would be the Messiah (anointed one) who would fix all things, and whose coming Israel longed for.

The reason Peter brings this verse up is because it is one thing to declare that Jesus has resurrected.  At least, they had had some recent evidence with Lazarus that this is not such a preposterous thing, and it was backed up with the prophecy of Psalm 16.  Yet, here is Psalm 110 speaking of the Messiah being at the right hand of the Father until the day when the Father decrees to make his enemies his footstool.  They weren’t just making up a strange story.  These things were prophesied by David 1,000 years before.

Now, back in Acts 2:36, Peter gives the summation.  The Father has made Jesus both Lord and Christ.  There is a level in which every king of Israel had been both lord and christ (messiah/anointed).  David was anointed to serve as king just as the high priest was anointed to serve in his role, and prophets were anointed by prior prophets to take their place (remember Elijah anointing Elishah).  This oil on their head represented the help of the Holy Spirit for them to do their role.  All of these kings, high priests, and prophets fell short of the perfect God of heaven.  However, God had promised David a special descendant who would be King, Prophet, and Priest.  He would so perfectly satisfy what these roles represent that it would fix all that is wrong with Israel and the nations.  Of course, each son of David who ascended to the throne held the hope of being The One.  One by one, they proved that they were not the one.  Yes, they were anointed and a lord over Israel, but they were not The Anointed, The Messiah, The Christ of God for Israel.  Israel had developed this concept of one who would fulfill perfectly what these roles represented.  He would legislate and execute the perfect will of God.  He would be the ultimate mediator between God and man, and He would be the perfect Word of God.

This is what Peter means, and it is what they would understand.  They hadn’t had a king of David’s line for about 600 years.  Herod was not Jewish, and the Hasmoneans of the 2^nd century B.C. were Levites. They had waited all of these years, and now Peter is declaring that God has made Jesus to be the one who was Anointed to sit on the throne of David over Israel and the nations.

He then hits them with the zinger, “whom you crucified.”  This phrase should come last in that verse.  The point is that God declaring someone to be Lord and Christ is an amazing thing.  Yet, they had just crucified him.

The crowd then breaks in on Peter’s sermon in verse 37.  The conviction of the Holy Spirit has pierced them to their hearts.  They recognize that they are in a precarious situation.  Centuries of waiting are now replaced with the guilt of having rejected what they had always said they were waiting for.  In John 16:8, Jesus says that one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to convict people, to prick their heart, with the truth of their sin.  Yet, we can be hard-hearted, and put to death the feeling of guilt and what the Spirit is saying to our hearts.  This will only make you harder, less sensitive, the Lord’s conviction next time.

They did not deserve a Messiah, but God sent Him anyways.  Even more so, they now did not deserve forgiveness, but nonetheless, God makes it available.  In fact, if you noticed in Joel 2:28-32, there is the promise that, “And it shall come to pass that those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Calling on the Lord is a cry for help.  It is the initial phase of one who responds to conviction by repenting.  This is exactly what Peter tells them to do in verse 38.

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  It is amazing enough that they could repent and be forgiven, but to also receive the promise of the Holy Spirit is grace beyond measure.  To repent is to change your mind.  Essentially, you are letting go of what you think, what rabbi so-and-so thinks (pastor so-and-so), and listening to what God says.  It involves a subsequent change of life, due to using the wisdom of God (Christ) instead of your own.

Here is the thing about repentance.  These were observant Jews who were in Jerusalem obeying the Law of Moses by holding the feast of Pentecost.  However, it is not enough to be doing what God told us to do in the past.  It is easy to point to a general list of things that we are doing as cover for why we are not listening to the particular thing that God is saying right now.  No matter how much Israel followed the cloud in the wilderness, if one day they decided not to follow, then they would be repenting of following God (backsliding).  Dietrich Bonhoeffer made this point regarding Germany leading up to WWII.  If we follow Christ in everything except in what he is saying right now, then we are not really following Christ.  We are simply following ourselves, or wise people that we look up to.

Peter mentions water baptism because a public association with Jesus would be a litmus test of true repentance.  They would be identifying with a man who had been executed by the “authorities.”  Yet, it would open the door for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Peter emphasizes that it would be for them and their children.  I believe this is not talking about their existent children, but to their children to come, later generations.  He also mentions that the promise is for those who are afar off.  This would immediately bring to mind all of the Israelites who had been dispersed (the Diaspora) throughout the nations.  However, it also means those who are afar off in that they have been separated from God (the Gentiles).

Let us know that until the day of making his enemies his footstool arrives, Jesus is in the business of pouring out His Holy Spirit upon the repentant remnant of this world.  Does that describe you?  It is not enough to have a checklist of all of the things you think you are supposed to do.  God is moving by His Spirit today.  He is convicting us of all the areas in which we must repent.  We need to repent of fornication, hard-heartedness, materialism, and laziness.  We don’t even want to do the natural chores of freedom, much less the spiritual chores of knowing God’s Word, and through prayer maintaining our daily relationship with Him.  Christians in America must rise up as a repentant remnant, or we will perish holding on to an old tattered remnant of a relationship with God long ago.

Peter Preaches IV audio