[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Happy Mother's Day to the Months.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darren.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's good to be with you as always.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one of the hardest parts for me of coming up with any sermon and of preparing for any sermon is the opening line.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to admit that was one of my worst.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that hook, that thing that you say right at the start of your sermon, it's supposed to grab people's attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: Often, preachers will use a joke or a witty observation, maybe a profound quote or some kind of bold claim.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sermon we're going to look at today from X3 didn't have that problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter, when he gets up to preach in X3,
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't need a story, he didn't need an illustration, he didn't need a dad drug team, he just needed to point at someone who is in front of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the man that was in front of him was doing something quite strange.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in the temple courts and he was leaping around.
[SPEAKER_00]: That man was the opening line.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to take you into that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: So come with me if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe imagine in your mind, we're in Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a few weeks after the crucifixion of Pentecost has been, it's three o'clock in the afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that time of day that Jewish people would go to the temple to pray every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on this particular day, Peter and John had it to the temple for prayer, and they come to the gate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called the beautiful gates in Acts 3, and something beautiful happens at that gate on this particular day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a busy gate where people would enter in for prayers into the temple, and before they enter into the gate, they notice a man, and the man is sitting on the ground in front of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: This man will be of for me a sight for many people.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been there every day for as long as anyone could remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man was in his 40s and he'd been lame from birth, unable to walk, unable to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And under Jewish law, his condition meant he wasn't able to enter into the court to work into the temple to worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could sit at the gate, but that's as far as he would go every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every morning its family would carry him to the gates.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the perfect spot for him to sit during the day because it was the great place to beg.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maximum foot traffic.
[SPEAKER_00]: People in a religious frame of mind heading to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he positions himself well on this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a strategy that has come to pay off for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's how he feeds himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on this particular day, he says Peter and John coming towards him and he's probably seen them before.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they've stopped in the past to offer him a coin or two.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he holds out his hand expecting perhaps a coin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter stops and John stops and they look at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts three says, they look straight at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the man looks back up.
[SPEAKER_00]: usually when people stop, it means a coin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he puts out his hands to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Peter says, silver and gold, I don't have.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, and you can imagine his heart sinking a little as he waits for this perhaps advice for his life that someone might give him.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Peter goes on and he says, but what I do have, I give you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he reaches down his hand to the man's outstretched hand and Peter pulls him to his feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And something happens in his feet and in his ankles.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's never happened in 40 years of his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Strength returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he stands.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can imagine what's going on inside of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he takes a step.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps a little nervously at first, but the strength is there and he takes another step.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Acts 3 says that he walked through the gate and he leaps.
[SPEAKER_00]: He leaps, jumping, praising God in the temple courts.
[SPEAKER_00]: What happens next?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the crowd takes note.
[SPEAKER_00]: For one, this man is leaping in the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not done.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, too, they recognise this man.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've walked past him, perhaps hundreds of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's never leaped before.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're curious.
[SPEAKER_00]: They stand and they stare at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wanting to know what is going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: What happened in this man's life that he is now
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the moment the Peter preachers.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't need no ding line.
[SPEAKER_00]: The opening line was standing there, actually leaping there in front of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says the crowd ran to Peter.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one has ever run to hear me preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they ran into here or him preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: They ran to find out what was going on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to know how this happened, who it was that was behind this hungry and ready to listen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter sees the opportunity and he preachers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what he said from verse 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk?
[SPEAKER_00]: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant, Jesus, and you handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he had decided to let him go, you disowned the holy and righteous one, and asked that a murderer be released to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You killed the author of life, but...
[SPEAKER_00]: God raised him from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are witnesses to this by faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that he is completely healed him as you can all see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, fellow Israelites, I know you acted in ignorance as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what it had for told through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer for a penthen and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you even Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven must receive Him until the time comes for God to restore everything as He promised long ago through His holy prophets.
[SPEAKER_00]: Preaching is a big part of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been reading along through Acts as I know some of you have as we've been doing this series, you know that there is these punctuations of preaching right throughout the Book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: In many ways Acts is the story of preaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see Peter preaching constantly in the first half of the Book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is his second sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Paul takes over for the second half, add to that sermon from Stephen, another one from James, and there's over a dozen major sermons in the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: On top of that, there's a number of other speeches as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you look at all of the sermons and all of the speeches,
[SPEAKER_00]: together you begin to see that a pattern emerges and we see this pattern weaving its ray through this particular sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of the sermons start with a crowd gathering together, usually because of some kind of miracle or some move of God last week we saw it in Pentecost.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a wind, tongues of fire, people speaking another language.
[SPEAKER_00]: This week it's a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been, there's others where demons are cast out, there's
[SPEAKER_00]: Or whatever happens, a crowd gathers together, and the preaching happens, and the preaching explains what has just happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: The action that's drawn the crowd is usually explained.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then death and the resurrection of Jesus approached, repentance is called for, and forgiveness of sins is offered.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the spine of most of the sermons in Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you to read through them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see some evolving of the sermons.
[SPEAKER_00]: They change a little depending on who's being preached to, but that's the spine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see it today as sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what can we learn from this sermon, from this chapter of Acts?
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing I think we should notice is that the story of the healing of the lame man is deeply connected to the preaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anything, it is the opening line and the main illustration of what Peter is talking about in his message.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, before Peter opens his mouth on this day, the gospel has already been announced.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's already been proclaimed in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: When this lame man leaps, he's literally living out something that we see in the Old Testament, the prophet of Isaiah, in chapter 35 of the book, Isaiah, speaks about the coming messianic age, and he describes it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, then the eyes of the blind will be open, and the ears of the death will be unstot.
[SPEAKER_00]: then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: For waters will burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Peter doesn't quote this particular writing from Isaiah in his sermon, but I think it's pretty clear that Luke has it in his mind when he writes down this story in Acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't perform a miracle and then switch to the real message.
[SPEAKER_00]: The miracle is the message embodied.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we're seeing here is a pattern that Lucas establishes in acts, but it's also what we see in Jesus' ministry as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Create a miracle, heal someone and a crowd is drawn, and then he explains in preachers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The healing creates a hunger for the sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: It raises questions that the sermon can answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: The healing in the preaching together are the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something real has happened, and here's what it means.
[SPEAKER_00]: People notice when lives are transformed.
[SPEAKER_00]: They noticed that 2,000 years ago on this day, they stood and stared at this man leaping, and they noticed it today as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a life is transformed, people take note, not just physical healings, but certainly those, but also things that change in people's lives, when a character changes because that person has encountered Jesus, people take notice of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: People notice when relationships are restored.
[SPEAKER_00]: People notice when people speak differently because they've met Jesus, they notice when people facing tragic circumstances respond with hope instead of despair.
[SPEAKER_00]: They notice when someone who has fallen and failed is restored and lifted up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Transformation in people's lives makes people lean in.
[SPEAKER_00]: They want to know what is the reason for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure many of you came to faith because you know there's something happening in someone else's life and you wanted to know what is going on and then you met Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before we look at what Peter says in his sermon, it's worth asking for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do we see ourselves in this story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you see yourself in this story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he was healed, had a strong sense this week that perhaps this morning there are people who are here who feel stuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you're here this morning feeling paralysis in your life in some way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're at the gate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even this morning, you watched others worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you felt you couldn't go further.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is as far as I can go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to encourage you this morning if that's you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Open yourself to the possibility of Jesus getting you unstuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bring you about a transformation in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe this morning, you are the man after he was healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Jesus has been doing something in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have experienced some kind of healing or transformation in your character, in your relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe internally you feel transforms.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe this story is asking you the question, are you willing to do some leaping?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we have these transformations in us, but we feel worried about what it would look like to others, and so we contain them.
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife often says to me, when I tell her I'm happy, why don't you tell your face?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we need to allow that transformation to show in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you feel like you're Peter or John.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter and John, they come to the temple this day and this man is holding out his hand asking for something and they have nothing to give him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they do, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have an encounter with Jesus to offer him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've been feeling the nudge over the last few weeks as we've been talking about being a witness and every time you hear that you think, well, I've got nothing to give.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've encountered Jesus, you have exactly what our world needs right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you're here this morning and you feel like you're in the crowd, just curious, just watching wondering who is this Jesus that they keep talking about here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you've got a glimpse of a transformation in someone else's life and you're curious about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I encourage you if you're curious to come closer to investigate the person of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where you see yourself in this story this morning, but as we look at the sermon, can I encourage you to hold on to that for a moment because the sermon will speak to us each differently?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the healing has happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man is leaking around.
[SPEAKER_00]: The crowd is gathering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the question is in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: what is going on here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who healed this man?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the source of the healing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Peter notices the curiosity in the crowd and he courageously speaks.
[SPEAKER_00]: The content of his sermon is very short, 15 verses, much shorter than mine today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the context of his sermon is simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says,
[SPEAKER_00]: And from the very start of his message, Peter wants to make it really clear that it is not him or John who healed the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: His opening line is, why do you stare at us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is if by our own power or godliness, we have done this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, no, it's not me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He immediately begins to point to the person of Jesus and He explains really clearly why this man is healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the same thing twice, slightly differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's by faith in the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: This man who you see before you that you know was made strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it says that again, it is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that is completely healed him as you can all see.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in the Jewish world a name means so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: It carries so much weight.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do things in the name of another person.
[SPEAKER_00]: You carry their character.
[SPEAKER_00]: You carry their authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: You carry their presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like they were there if you do something in their name.
[SPEAKER_00]: To act in someone's name is to act with their power
[SPEAKER_00]: You notice this healing that we've just looked at is remarkably similar to the healings that Jesus did, is at least two times where Jesus heals lame men.
[SPEAKER_00]: In one case, they go away walking and praising God, really similar language there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did healing just like this, but he's not here physically.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's ascended to heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: We looked at this a few weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we looked at, when we looked at the ascension, we talked about how the ascension actually is a detonation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like Jesus' presence was propelled into the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: His work exploded.
[SPEAKER_00]: No longer was he limited to being in the one place at the one time, suddenly his disciples were doing his ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what's going on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is still the healer, but it's through his disciples that he heals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what it means to say the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we often pray at the end of our prayers in Jesus name we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the presence and the power of the risen ascended Jesus, continuing his work through ordinary people who had encountered him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter immediately wants to divert attention from himself to the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he introduces the people to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he does so in this passage by giving Jesus three titles by talking about him in three different ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, as a servant, we see this word repeated in 13 and verse 26.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word there in the Greek is past, past, past, and it deliberately echoes what Isaiah says about the suffering servants.
[SPEAKER_00]: The coming Messiah will be a suffering servant.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who would come not in power but in weakness.
[SPEAKER_00]: A different kind of power, not to conquer but to give himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every Jewish person, and again, he's preaching here in the temple, so to a Jewish audience, they expected a Messiah that would overthrow Rome, that would restore Israel, that would rule from a throne.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Peter's saying here, you've misread what God's power looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's power looks like a servant.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like someone who washes feet and who goes to a cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a genuinely strange and radical idea, and it still is today.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next title that Peter gives is Holy and righteous one, says Jesus is a Holy and righteous one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, he's drawing on language here from the Old Testament that speaks in terms that the audience would recognize as speaking of the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not just talking about the character of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Jesus is holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Jesus is righteous, but he's talking about Him here as the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he uses the term author of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this term.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek word here is archaegos, which means pioneer trailblazer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think of a mountaineer who doesn't just tell you there's a summit over there and you could go climate.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes first.
[SPEAKER_00]: He finds the root, he takes the risks, he opens the way, so others might follow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus isn't just to teach our talking about life and pointing to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the one who goes ahead and opens up a way to the source of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then Peter calls him explicitly the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just in a handful of verses here, Peter is piling up more and more ways of describing who Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's building an argument who Jesus is, and it's not just an academic argument.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants this Jewish crowd to feel the full weight of who it is that they are dealing with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the midst of all of these titles, he does something else.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, this repetition of almost accusatory kind of language.
[SPEAKER_00]: She says, he got glorified his servant Jesus and you handed him over to be killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You disown him, you disown the holy and righteous one.
[SPEAKER_00]: You killed the author of life, the ultimate irony.
[SPEAKER_00]: You killed the one who is the pioneer,
[SPEAKER_00]: These are bold words, yeah?
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter is doing something courageous here.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a different Peter to what we saw, just a few weeks earlier when Peter denied an even knowing who Jesus was.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a transformed man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep in mind, this is just a few weeks after the crucifixion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of the people that would have been there on that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think that there are at least 2,000 people who heard this sermon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of them would have been in Jerusalem for the Passover.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew exactly what Peter was talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Acts 4, we see that by the end of Peter's sermon, there are religious leaders that are listening to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is speaking to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: These people who literally handed Jesus over to Pilot, they literally are responsible for his death.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's speaking to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there are others in the crowd, that day who would have been in the crowd that day before Pilot, where Pilot offered them, barabbas, the murderer, or Jesus, and they chose the murderer.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were there that day when the crowd around them, they shouted crucify him.
[SPEAKER_00]: These words would have cut deep, these are bold words.
[SPEAKER_00]: But remember Peter here isn't speaking in an arrogant way, this is Peter, who on that same weekend turned his back on the author of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not preaching from a position of moral superiority, this is a man who was broken,
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a man who knows what it's like to turn his back on the author of life, and it was brought back into relationship with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This same restoration that he had experienced is what he now offers the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's what gives this sermon incredible authority and credibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a man who is not confident in himself but confident in what Jesus has done in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unrenew and rights.
[SPEAKER_00]: When our wounds cease to be a source of shame and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, on renewing here is speaking of Jesus, but he's also speaking of Peter and speaking of anyone who proclaims Jesus who has been speaking whose speaks of their own transformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this moment, Peter is a wounded healer and I think this is something for us to keep in mind as we share our faith as we are witnesses to our world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are witnesses because we have been through something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because we know something, but because we have been transformed, we ask others to consider something that we ourselves had had to reckon with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because we are perfect, I'm not, but because we have been transformed.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what a weakness is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Peter, his words are accusatory here in many regards, but he immediately pivots and presents a way forward for those who are listening.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the very sentence he says, you killed the author of life, he continues, but God raised him from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he immediately pivots.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a pivot we again see and a lot of the sermons in the acts.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did this, but God did this, it's got to like, hold my beer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think you did something that God reversed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Peter offers an open door to the crowd on this day, and he offers a way forward, and he offers that same way forward for us, 2000 years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that he offers here in verse 19 is repentance,
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I don't know about you, but that word for me has a lot of baggage.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I think back on my life, there were times of where I was told to repent and I was told to feel guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was told to grovel, at least that's how I perceived what I was being told, but that's not what's being asked here, repent and turn to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: to reorientate your life towards God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about grouveling and endless guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Peter knows this for himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we see his moment of repentance on the beach, after Jesus resurrected, he'd denied Jesus three times.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He turned his back on the author of life, but Jesus didn't make him grouvel when he first met him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He simply asked him a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked him that question three times, once for each of the denials.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was a turning point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a punishment.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a turning point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was a moment of transformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is why Peter is able to stand up and preach with such boldness because he was transformed in this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus asks us the same question today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's been a moment this week where you've denied him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's been a moment, this week where sin has been present in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe this week has just been a week where you've just drifted along, not thinking about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: The small thing he asks you, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you turn to him?
[SPEAKER_00]: The second thing Peter does in the sermon is linked to the first, and that is to promise times of refreshing that come from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is linked to repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek word here, for these times of refreshing, is an up-success.
[SPEAKER_00]: It literally means breathing space.
[SPEAKER_00]: Literally catching your breath after you've been holding it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This week I went to the dentist, I sat in a dentist chair for half an hour, having a feeling replaced and another one added, injections, drills.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a fear of the dentist, but halfway through that appointment, I realized my hands were clenched very tightly and I was not breathing.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the appointment I stood up and my legs just wobbled and I was my head spun and I realised I'd been so tight for that half an hour and that moment of standing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a release.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's an upsukcess.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that many of us know physically, but also spiritually as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Peter knows this as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that moment on the beach where Jesus said to him, after he'd been carrying the weight of what he'd done.
[SPEAKER_00]: We said, Jesus, Peter, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he declared his love for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that was Peter's moment of Anne of Succes, the moment where the whites had been carrying was lifted off him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us know that that weight when we repent, when we turn to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't berate us in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: He lifts us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He refreshes us.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Peter is putting forward to a crowd that literally was the reason that Jesus was killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's offering them a time of refreshing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repent and turn to God, so that, times of refreshing may come.
[SPEAKER_00]: The breathing room is on the other side of turning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The exhale comes when you stop holding onto what you've been carrying and offer it to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So turn, exhale.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third thing that Peter offers in his sermon is the restoration of all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a future thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't a present thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a thing to look forward to.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek word here is Apocat Stasis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it appears only once in the whole of the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it means not just an improvement.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means a return to what was always intended to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means the universe is set back in its proper place and order.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that Peter gives, not just for the now, a time of refreshing now, but it's our future hope that we can carry through our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is particularly for those of us who find ourselves in a season of waiting.
[SPEAKER_00]: body that hasn't healed, a relationship that hasn't been restored, a grief that hasn't lifted, you prayed, you believed, and the brokenness is still there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish I had more time to explore this one today, but Peter doesn't promise in his sermon that what happened to the man will happen to everyone in the crowd that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: He promises something bigger.
[SPEAKER_00]: He points to a future, which is where all things will be restored.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Isaiah's picture of the messianic age, the blind seeing the death hearing, the lame leaping, that picture broke into the world with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it was continued through the actions of his disciples, even to this day, the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one day, it will be complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will be fully and finally complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why God doesn't heal everyone in the moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the promise of all things being restored is something that I hold onto as I await for the things that are still broken around me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today, if you find yourself in a place of waiting, I want to encourage you to hold onto that as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask the band to come up now, but I want us to return to the gate for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked you before, where do you see yourself in this story?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to go back to that place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And where did you feel a spark in Peter's sermon?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're today feeling stuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you feel the nudge to leap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you see yourself in Peter and John with empty hands, yet with the most precious thing to give.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe you're just curious like the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where you see yourself in the story or what you hear in Peter's sermon, whether it be a call to a repent to turn to God, whether it be a need to breathe, to be refreshed, whether it's the message of hope for a future restoration.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to encourage you to just spend a moment with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna sing a song now with speaks about the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called I Speak Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to sing about the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, when I just singing about someone who was a live 2,000 years ago, who said some amazing things, when we speak about the name of Jesus, we speak about one who is present, who is powerful, who accomplished great things and continues to do so today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sing about the one who healed that man 2,000 years ago and wants to bring healing and refreshing and restoration today through his spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this morning, I want to encourage you as we sing this song to speak the name of Jesus, over whatever it is in your life right now that needs to hear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I should have just taken a moment, we're just going to take a moment just to be with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: and encourage you to do something physical and just to open your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Outside the beautiful gate that day, a man opened his hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was expecting something really specific, a coin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was given something so different.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was given
[SPEAKER_00]: healing, transformation, life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord God, will you open our hands to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to put our side at our own expectations of what you might give us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You meet us each.
[SPEAKER_00]: By giving us what we need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speak the name of Jesus over each person here this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your name is power.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your name is healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your name is life and light.
[SPEAKER_00]: We give us what we need in this moment, my pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you to stand and if you would like someone to pray for you as we sing this song our ministry team prayer team will be at the front we'd love to pray for you and speak the name of Jesus over you and the situation that you find yourself in, whether it's something about healing, whether you feel like you need a moment of refreshing, whether you need someone to stand with you as you repent and turn it to him, just come forward in your own time and we'd love to pray for you and we're going to sing as we do that as well.