Acts 3:11-25
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.
The reading for Sunday, April 14, comes from Acts chapter three, verses 11 through 21. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this? Or Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety, we have made him walk, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you delivered over, and tonight in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and his name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive, until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago, he rents the reading. Let's begin with talking about the first thing that you might notice that this first reading is not from the Old Testament, it's from the book of Acts. through much of the season of Easter, our first reading is not from the Old Testament anymore. Now it's in the book of Acts. And we've been following along with the life of the church since then. And this reading begins in the middle of the story. It says, while he clung to Peter and John, the question is, who is the he and why his eat clinging to Peter? And John? The answer is simple. It comes from the story right in front of this one, Peter and John were walking into the temple, and there was a man who was born lame. He was paralyzed from before birth. And he asked them for money. And Peter goes up to the man and says, I don't have gold or silver, but what I do have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. So the man gets up and walks. Nobody has ever seen anything like this, except for those of us who know what Jesus did in his ministry, how he healed, people who were born blind, and made the lame walk and the crippled, brought back all sorts of cool stuff, right? So the people are all amazed. And this man then clings to Peter and John. And that's what's going on. So the people gathered together, and Peter sees the crowd, and he uses the opportunity. Now, what I think is really important about this, is that Peter is following the pattern that was established with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Remember, the book of Acts was written by the same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke, Luke, the one who followed St. Paul. So Peter follows Jesus's pattern. Jesus goes around and he heals. But he doesn't just heal the healings draw the crowds that allow him to preach. And we see this very explicitly. Peter and John come, they heal, and then they use that not as the main point, the main point is sharing the gospel with those who are amazed by the power. So he goes, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety? We have made him walk So first thing is, is the big deal. Peter says, It's not me guys. I'm just a guy. It's not my power. It's not my faith, it is nothing, nothing about me makes this happen. It is all about Jesus. And that, of course, is the pattern for understanding how God does miracles. And why is it's not about glorifying the human being. And so the showy things that you might see on TV that look like miracles, and there's a man dancing around on the stage, doesn't really fit the, the pattern of the Gospels, it doesn't fit the pattern of the book of Acts. It always points to Jesus. So he says, It's not about us. Then he goes, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. So this first phrase, Peter calls God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. This highlights something that's really important in these initial parts of x is that nobody thought of Christianity as a separate religion. At this time. Peter and John are making a very simple claim. Everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus, and that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through Christ. And this is the same claim the Christian church makes today. That we are, we are not like a separate religion from the Old Testament, a break off from Judaism. Judaism is actually the break off from the Old Testament, and that we are following the wishes of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So now he goes into the story, he says, You delivered Him over. And just, you delivered Him over. And in the presence of pilot when pilot had decided to release Him, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead. So he's recalling the story, right? Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he said, he is an innocent man, he even tried to get the people to choose between a murderer Barabbas and Jesus and they chose the murderer, can you believe it? And the saying you killed the author of life, and that Peter and John were there to see this. Now, here's the key point. And his name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong whom you see now. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. So he's placed in the healing in the context of the story he's trying to tell. He's like, we didn't do it. We have a story. God raised Jesus from the dead, the one that you killed, and it's by the faith in His name, that this man is made well, what they're trying to do is prove that it's through Christ, the power of God is active in the world. And this miracle is primarily there, both to give the man healing, but also to gather the crowd in so they'd have the chance to tell them. Peter continues, and now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that is Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out. that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. So Peter, gives an accusation to the people, you deny the author of life, you killed him, and you asked for a murderer to be released instead. But then he gives them the out. And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, he says, as did your rulers, which is an important idea, right? It's not just the people who shouted crucify Him who acted in ignorance. It's also the rulers. He said, God forgive them. They don't know what they're doing right. He places is in the context of the Old Testament again, when he says, All of this was foretold by the prophets, that Christ would suffer, and this is what Jesus fulfilled. Now, repent, this has happened, it's time to turn back so that you may get one times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, then when and then when Jesus returns, you may receive blessing,
because he is in heaven until he returns to fulfill all things and restore all things. And so what's what's fascinating about this for me, I think, is that we think that the real thing of this story is the miracle that happened where like, Wow, a man was given his legs back, he could walk again. But Peter is saying the real thing is not the miracle, but the message and the power of the gospel. And that's what this really focuses in on sharing the gospel with people so that they can have the Christ on their side. And I think that's an important thing for us to remember as Christians do good things in the world is that these good things that we do what however we help, it's wonderful and good and excellent, but it's not the main mission. The main mission of the church is to do what Peter and John did. proclaim the gospel to those who gather that we can gather together all of God's people and wait for the time of His return. That's all I have on Acts chapter three. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai