Ignorance And Enlightenment - [Acts 3:17-4:4]

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Well, I would invite you to take your Bibles and open them to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3, as we'll continue there this morning.
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Please be in prayer for Mike and Kim while they're gone. Mike will soon be back.
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Just a general announcement. My wife has asked me to assure you all that she's not, you know, deathly ill.
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She just can't talk and she coughs all the time. But other than that, she's fine. Just a cold.
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On May 3rd of last year, this news update, Pastor John Sherwood was arrested last week for preaching from Genesis as he explained the biblical definition of marriage in an open area near Uxbridge Underground Station.
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That's in the UK. Sherwood was forcefully removed by police from his platform for being accused of making homophobic statements and arrested under the
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Public Order Act because they said he used abusive or insulting words.
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He was released within 24 hours without any charges. Here's what he said.
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I wasn't making any homophobic, I mean, he almost has to apologize. He says, I wasn't making any homophobic comments.
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I was just defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. I don't know if he had to define what a woman is, but defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.
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I was only saying what the Bible says. I wasn't wanting to hurt anyone or cause offense.
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Of course, reading scripture is an offense.
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He says, I was just doing what my job description says, which is to preach the gospel in open air as well as in a church building.
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He confirmed reports of being roughed up and said that he has some injuries to his wrist and elbow after police forcefully removed the 71 -year -old pastor from the area.
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It's a preview of coming attractions as we have political leaders, even those running for significant offices in our
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Commonwealth, saying that crisis pregnancy centers have to be looked at because they are misleading women, as if women aren't smart enough to understand what a crisis pregnancy center is all about.
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I think that some people call that paternalism, not granting them the ability to understand things on their own, like they're too foolish to get it.
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This is the world that we live in. Persecution is coming. And here's my bulletin here in Acts.
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Persecution is going to arrive in Jerusalem on this occasion. Let's read our text this morning.
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Acts chapter 3, verses 17. Well, I should say Acts 3, 17, all the way to verse 4 of chapter 4.
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Peter preaching on the temple grounds in Solomon's portico. He says,
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And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
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But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
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Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the
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Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you. Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which
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God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said,
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The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.
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And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.
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And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaim these days.
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You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
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God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
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And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the
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Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
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And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
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But many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5 ,000.
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Well, last week, as we started in Acts chapter 3, I mean, we're moving right along.
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We'll slow down a little bit next week. Last week, we looked at Peter and John and how they went up.
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They were just apparently going to just another prayer meeting, another place where they would go and pray with some
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Jews, have some animals killed, just the usual, have some sacrifices there in the temple, and also have opportunities to evangelize the
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Jews. And on their way, if you recall, they ran into a man who had been born lame, couldn't walk, and his family and friends took him up, habitually, up to what is called the beautiful gates.
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And he sat there begging for alms. And here come Peter and John, going to their church meeting, their worship meeting.
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And they see that man there, and you remember, Peter heals him, takes him by the hand, raises him up in the name of Jesus, this man who had been an invalid.
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And the reason I couldn't stop prior to where I did stop last week, verse 16, is because he's just hanging on to them.
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He's clinging on to them. He won't let go, and he's jumping up and down and praising the Lord, and they're just walking in with him into the temple.
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What a great opportunity for preaching. And if you recall, as Peter concluded, well, as I concluded last week,
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Peter was talking about Jesus, the author of life, whom they had put to death, and then
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God raised him. And it was by the power of Jesus that this man stood before them whole and complete.
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This morning, I have six
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Gs, six Gs so that we can more fully appreciate the gospel.
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We talked a little bit about it in Sunday school, and we're going to talk more about it today. I could have entitled this message
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The Cure for Gospel Ignorance, The Cure for Gospel Ignorance, which is the gospel.
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You don't understand the gospel? Let me give you the gospel. How does that work? By the grace of God. Six Gs.
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And you're like, well, how can you do six? Well, it's easy, because four of them are guilt, grace, and then guilt, grace.
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So what you'll see as we walk through the text is guilt, grace, guilt, grace, then grabbed, and gratitude.
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First, we have guilt. Guilt, even though maybe they didn't know better.
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They were ignorant, our text says. Look at verse 17. It says, And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance.
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Well, what's he talking about, that you acted in ignorance? Well, it was when they put to death the author of life.
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They crucified Jesus. That's what he's talking about. But look at how gently, again, that he addresses the crowd.
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He calls them brothers, puts himself on the same level as they are. He says,
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I want you to know that I have a genuine affection for you. You are my brothers. But then he calls them ignorance?
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Well, not exactly. He says what they did was ignorant. I mean, there's a, you know, you can get away with that a little bit.
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They didn't know what they were doing. Does that strike you as familiar? Luke 23, verse 34.
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On the cross, Jesus said what? Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
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Didn't they understand that they were crucifying Jesus? Yes. Did they know who
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Jesus was? No. In spite of the fact that he told them.
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So now we're thinking, you know, and I know what the kids are thinking right now. This is great. Pastors tell me that ignorance is an excuse.
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So all I have to do is say I didn't know. And my parents have to let me go. Sorry, kids.
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Ignorance is not an excuse. And it's no one else's fault. They were supposed to know this.
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And so were their rulers. Look at verse 17. And did also your rulers.
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In other words, the leaders were ignorant.
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And you say, well, how could they be ignorant? The Pharisees, the students of the law, the Sanhedrin, the rulers of the
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Jewish people. How could they possibly be lacking in knowledge? Didn't Jesus tell them who he was?
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Yes. That's not Peter's point. Peter's point is. They didn't believe.
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The Holy Spirit hadn't caused them to be born again, so they didn't get it. Now, did
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Jesus on the cross, when he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Was he giving them absolution based on their ignorance?
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Is Peter offering that as well? You guys didn't know. So you're forgiven. No. What Peter's doing really is just kind of killing them with kindness.
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Because here's the situation for the Jews. In their minds, if somebody was ignorant and did a wrong thing, that could be forgiven.
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But if you knew something was wrong and you did it anyway, then the penalty is all yours to bear.
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And isn't that kind of true? You know, getting back to the child illustration a little bit. If we genuinely understand that they didn't know better, don't we give them a little more mercy?
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Yes. So Peter's essentially saying, you and your leaders did not understand that Jesus was
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God's anointed one, his Messiah. So you can be forgiven for putting them to death.
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It's not that you didn't sin. It's just that you didn't know better. But he goes on and basically, you should not have been ignorant.
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You shouldn't have been ignorant. Look at verse 18. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his
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Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Make no mistake about it.
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They're guilty. They stand completely condemned. God had announced that his
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Christ would suffer before it happened. And then look, it says he thus fulfilled. God brought it to pass.
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They were ignorant by choice. They were ignorant by choice.
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Peter tells them the prophets had told them of this suffering Messiah last week.
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I briefly mentioned Isaiah 53, so I'm not going to go back there. I'm going to give you some other examples from the
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Old Testament that they should have understood. Listen to these and tell me. Well, don't tell me.
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You can tell me later that these don't sound like exactly what Jesus went through.
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Isaiah 50 verse six. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pulled on the beard.
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I had not my face from disgrace and spitting. He went through that very thing.
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Jeremiah 11, 19. But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.
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I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying, let us destroy the tree with its fruit.
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Let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more. This was the whole purpose for which the
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Jewish leaders went after Jesus. They figured if they took off the head of this organization, this new sect, that his name, that is to say, everything to do with Jesus would be remembered no more.
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Zechariah 12 verse 10. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy so that when they look on me on whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.
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And we bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
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I can't help think as I was reading that, just studying that. And I thought, what must it be like to be there?
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I mean, I think especially on Pentecost and their response. What must we do to be saved?
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You know, or, you know, what can we do now, brothers? They say they want to be forgiven.
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I think there were many tears as they recognized their guilt. Zechariah 13 verse 7.
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Awake, O sword against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me, declares the Lord of hosts.
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Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Psalm 22, 6 to 8.
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But I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
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All who see me mock me. They make their mouths at me. They wag their heads.
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He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him.
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For he delights in him on the cross. He trusts in God.
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Let him rescue him. These exact words come back again and again.
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If you recall, after the resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus met Cleopas and another disciple.
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And he interrupted a discussion between the two of them. And Cleopas asked if he was the only one,
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Jesus, was the only one who didn't know about the things that had happened. And Jesus responds like this in Luke 24.
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And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
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Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
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And what would those scriptures be? The Old Testament, he tells us right here. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the things pertaining to himself.
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Cleopas and his companions should have known as should the disciples. Remember, those two go back and they meet with the disciples in the upper room,
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Jerusalem. Luke 24, later in the chapter, then he, Jesus, said to them,
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These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the
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Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them,
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Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
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And listen, this is what's going on in Acts, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
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He's teaching them after the resurrection. Peter's there, and this is like Peter was taking notes finally.
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So many clues given during his ministry. Listen to John 3, 19.
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And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
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Why did they cheer on Barabbas? Why did they want him freed instead of Jesus? Because they hated
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God. They love their sin. They listened to the leaders who wanted him put to death.
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And again, as in Acts 2, verses 22 and 23, we see that his suffering was not merely foretold by God.
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It wasn't just something they looked down the corridors of time and saw. It was his plan and purpose.
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The Jews did it. They were responsible. But God ultimately caused this whole plan to take place.
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He fulfilled the words of his prophets. God sovereignly decreed what would happen and brought it about through the sinful deeds of guilty men.
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And these men are no less guilty for crucifying Jesus. Yes, it was God's plan, but they willingly took actions
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God foreordained. I read it this morning. I'm not going to go through the London Baptist Confession of Faith, but it's their free choices and God does no violence to that.
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They do it. It's their own nature that causes them to sin. No one can say
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God made me sin. Let me just read from the Bible. James 1, verses 13 and 14. Let no one say when he is tempted,
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I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself, listen, tempts no one.
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But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
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We act according to our nature. Unredeemed people act like unredeemed people.
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Peter established that his entire audience, everybody he's preaching to, had sinned against God.
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Our second G, grace. First guilt, then grace. Unlike Acts 2, remember,
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Peter just kind of, at the end of Acts 2, he just cuts off. No, you know, sinner's prayer.
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No call for redemption. No, nothing. It's just done. And then the Holy Spirit moves in the people, and they want to repent.
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But here, he does call for a response.
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He wants them to repent. Verse 19. Repent, therefore. It's as if he's saying, you don't have to stay in your sins.
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You're guilty, but you don't have to remain there. To repent is, should be familiar, is to change one's mind about yourself, about your sin, about God.
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To hate what you once loved, and to love what you once hated.
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Kistemacher says this, he says, Because repentance affects the totality of man's existence.
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It teaches the inner depths of his, or it reaches the inner depths of his being, and touches all his external relations with God and with neighbor.
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Think about that for a minute. How do you know if somebody's really repentant? You know, somebody says, well, I'm sorry for what I did.
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How do you know if they're really repentant? Because their attitude about their sin is transformed.
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No excuses, no blame shifting, and there's a humility about them. Whatever you say about me is not only true,
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I'm probably worse than what you think. When the relationship with God is restored, when the relationship with God is right, then the relationship with other people can be right.
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First, the vertical relationship is restored, and then the horizontal relationship is restored.
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Think about it this way. Can your relationship with God be right, if your relationship with those you've sinned against is not?
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In other words, if you've not made the effort to restore yourself to them. This is why Jesus says what?
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If you have something against someone else, go to them before you worship. Leave your offering at the altar.
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Go and make it right. There's nothing more important than that. So repent.
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Then he says believe. You say, well, where's the believe? Look at verse 19. This is interesting. And turn back.
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Right? If we understand repentance is to turn, then what's he telling them to do? Then turn back?
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Turn away from your sin, then turn back to it. No. The NAS says, instead of and turn back, it says and return.
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The NIV, I actually have to give points to the NIV here. It hurts. Says turn back to God.
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And that's the implication here. Even if the word to God isn't there, it's repent.
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Turn from your sin. Turn towards God. And then. Right. It says turn back to God.
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Just emphasize that. You were ignorance. You didn't understand the prophets.
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You didn't know who Jesus was. So you sinned against God. And Yahweh, I mean, think about the irony of this.
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They're there to do what? Like I said, they're there to pray to Yahweh, the covenant keeping
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God. They're there to offer sacrifices for sin. To Yahweh, the covenant keeping
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God. And that same God is the one you've betrayed. You put his
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Christ, his Messiah to death. So repent and believe. Put your trust in Christ.
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Turn from your sin and rest in Jesus. Then he tells us what happens if you repent and you believe.
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Verse 19. That your sins may be blotted out. That's the purpose.
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You repent, you believe, and your sins are blotted out. That word is so good.
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Means to remove as if to leave no trace. Destroy or obliterate.
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Would you like to have your sins obliterated? You're guilty of murdering
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Jesus. Repent. Trust in him. And God will obliterate every sin you've ever committed.
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And even as I thought about the obliteration of sin. Had to throw in a plug for Ephesians 4 .32.
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Listen and just think about this. If God obliterates the sins of those who trust in Christ.
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Listen. Be kind to one another. Tender hearted. Forgiving one another.
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Horizontal. As God in Christ forgave you.
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God obliterates our sins and we want to do what? Weaponize the sins of those who sin against us.
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That should be shocking to us as we just think about how bad our forgiveness is.
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Should also shock us. What a merciful and gracious God we have. Peter also offers refreshment.
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This is a difficult section. So watch how I duck and dodge.
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There seem to be a couple of keys. One is now that it applies now. Look at verse 20.
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He says that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Now, there are a couple of ways
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I could look at this. I looked at one. I just thought, what does this mean? The presence of the Lord is, you know, judgment.
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And now you're getting refreshment. Maybe. Kistemacher says, he says. This literally reads that there may come seasons of refreshing from the face of the
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Lord. But if we think about it this way. Repentance. Trusting in Christ.
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Forgiveness of sins. The obliteration of our sins. Leads to time of refreshing.
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Respite. A time to catch your breath is what the word means. So we just think about that when we think about our sins being forgiven.
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How do we feel? I don't know about you, but I feel pretty good. I feel a lot cooler than I do right at this very moment.
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As the heat builds. All of your sins.
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Do they ever plague your conscience? Do you think back at night as you go to sleep and you just think about sins?
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Maybe you committed years ago. Do you regret what you've done?
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Do you wish you had a little time capsule? You could go back in time. What Peter's saying is.
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That time of refreshment of just going, you know what? What's done is done. But God is gracious to me.
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I don't deserve it. And trust me when I say I don't deserve it. But I have those times are refreshing that in spite of who
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I am. God has forgiven me in Christ. Jesus. Is obliterated by sins.
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So there's comfort now and there's comfort for the future. Verse 20, the second half of it.
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And that he may send the Christ appointed for you. Jesus. This is definitely a future action, right?
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Whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke.
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By the mouth of his holy prophets. Long ago. Now we don't know when
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Jesus is returning, but I don't know about you. I could settle for right now. Some hold that this passage here is a sure indication of post -millennial eschatology.
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This is really catching. You know, beginning to be popular that the world's going to get better and better.
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And then the Lord Jesus will return. They has to retain. He has to remain in heaven.
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Exalted at the right hand of the father. Until all things are restored. Others hold that the day
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God restores all things. That's when Jesus will come back.
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When God has restored everything. Kind of an all male view. His return is the consummation of all things.
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Others see this as the promise of the beginning of the millennium. That Jesus will set things right.
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So here's my conclusion. I don't think Peter's explicit enough in his eschatology for us to be sure.
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Miss me. What we know with certainty.
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Is that when the Lord returns and he will return. Those who love him will rejoice.
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And he will set things right. So guilt. Then grace and then guilt again.
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I mean, like a good preacher. What do you do? You repeat. So he goes back to the well.
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Says Moses prophesied of Jesus. Look at verse 22. Moses said, the
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Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Well, who's
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Moses? The first prophets of the Old Testament. The one who interfaced with God.
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I like to use those cool words. Interfaced. Spoke to God for the people. He pled with God.
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He received revelation from God. And Peter applies the words of Moses to Jesus.
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Listen to Deuteronomy 18. And then I'm going to read verses 15. And then I'm going to read verse 19.
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And see if it doesn't sound like what Peter is going to say here. The Lord your
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God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. From your brothers.
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It is to him you shall listen. Verse 19. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name.
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I myself will require it of him. In other words, this future prophet must be obeyed.
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That's what Moses was told by the Lord. The penalty of disobedience will be severe.
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Now listen to what Peter says. As he says, anyone who does not obey will be destroyed.
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Verse 22. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.
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Well, what does it mean to be destroyed from the people of God? Some of you are sitting there going, it's not good.
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No, it's not. Can't be good. And it ultimately means you're not one of the elect.
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You're not one of the chosen. That you're not a believer. Now, is
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Jesus greater than Moses? Is he the one that Moses was told about?
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Is he the one that God spoke of? Hebrews 3 verses 3 and 4 would give us the answer to that.
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For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.
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For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is
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God. In other words, ascribing deity to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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When the people of God disregarded Moses, there was judgment. How much more should there be judgment for those who disregard
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Jesus? Remember the judgment for disregarding Moses? Korah's rebellion.
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I love to listen to that sermon by Phil Johnson. Number 16.
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You know, if you think numbers is boring, when you get to number 16. Korah has expressed his or will express his opinion here.
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They assembled, verse 3. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
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And said to them, you have gone too far. For all in the congregation are holy.
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Everybody in this congregation. Everybody in the assembly. Everybody in the nation is holy.
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Every one of them. And the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the
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Lord? And I'm going to skip to the end here. Because there's a lot of details in between.
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But let me just read verses 28 to 33. And Moses said, hereby you shall know that the
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Lord has sent me to do all these works. And that it has not been of my own accord. In other words, these accusations are false.
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If these men, the people who are following Korah, die as all men die.
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In other words, if they die of old age. Or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind. They die of some disease.
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Then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new. And the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them.
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And they go down alive into Sheol. Then you shall know that these men have despised the
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Lord. And as soon as he finished speaking all these words.
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The ground under them split apart. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up.
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With their households and all the people who belong to Korah. And all their goods. So they and all that belong to them.
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Went down alive into Sheol. And the earth closed over them. And they perished from the midst of the assembly.
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That will put down a rebellion. And explicit in Peter's words back in Acts.
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A warning. Believe in Jesus or what? Be destroyed. You're not in the new covenant.
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If you don't believe in Jesus. You might be resting on your Jewish heritage.
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But it's of no value to you. You put Jesus the prophet greater than Moses to a gruesome death.
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You crucified him on a tree. You are guilty of great sin. And it wasn't just Moses.
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All the prophets told of this coming Messiah. Look at verse 24. And all the prophets who have spoken.
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From Samuel and those who came after him. Also proclaimed these days. In other words the day of the
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Messiah. Essentially Peter is burying them with the testimony of irrefutable witnesses.
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You can't argue against Moses. You can't argue against these prophets. You know that they were men of God who spoke for God.
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And you were obligated to know better. They were even obligated to tell the nations.
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Look at verse 25. You are the sons of the prophets. And of the covenant that God made with your fathers.
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Saying to Abraham. And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
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How are they going to be blessed? If the Jews just kind of kept the word of God to themselves. And weren't evangelistic.
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And the answer is they weren't. Thus the plan of God. To start the church.
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Romans 3 verses 1 and 2. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
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Much in every way. To begin with the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. They had the word of God.
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Here's the message of Peter and of Paul. They're guilty, guilty, guilty.
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They're found wanting as it were. The good news is there's grace.
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Look at verse 26. God having raised up his servant again. References Jesus sent him to you first.
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To bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Now that did not happen in their lives.
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Or in the life of Jesus. Right in the ministry of Jesus. They weren't turned from their wickedness, but here they are.
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Getting as it were a second chance. Just as rejecting him initially was a great sin.
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And so rejecting him this day would be a great sin. Believing in him. Is a great blessing.
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See that it says to bless you by turning you. That's what Jesus does. He turns you from your wickedness.
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The father sent the son to live a perfect life. In obedience to the law. Die a death.
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To pay the price of sin and to be raised on the third day. And that Jesus is able to save every single person from their sin.
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This is the picture of a God -given, God -initiated repentance. Our fifth
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G. We've had guilt, grace, guilt, grace. See the outline was easy for me, so that made it good. And our fifth
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G is grabbed. Grabbed. And I had to put this in here. Ultimately, who came for them?
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The brute squad. Verse one of chapter four. And as they were speaking to the people.
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The priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. Now, it's interesting there.
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If you notice, this is the first time we've seen this. That they were speaking to the people.
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Not just Peter. It's they. We already know the man who had been healed was shouting, jumping up and down.
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But we presume that he quieted down while Peter's preaching. But it says they. We must infer that John also spoke.
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And that Luke, for whatever reason, only reported Peter's sermon. Maybe because Luke was very meticulous.
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Maybe he had Peter for his source here. And Peter said, well, this is what I preached.
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Maybe he didn't remember what John... Or maybe they were talking at the same time to different groups. We don't know. But in any event, the whole squad came after them.
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Who were they? The on -duty priests. Likely charged with conducting the services.
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Doing all the sacrifices. And they wouldn't like the fact that these unschooled, unlearned rubes are instructing the people.
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They've got this big crowd. They wouldn't like that at all. Also, the captain of the temple.
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He was like the high priest's assistant. Kind of the high priest in training.
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The second in charge. He was going to succeed the high priest one day. And he could have even seen this as a threat to his future.
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I mean, maybe one of these guys is going to take my spot. Finally, the Sadducees.
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They were powerful. It's interesting. They didn't believe in the resurrection. They kind of had, it's odd to me, because they accepted only the first five books of the
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Bible. Those written by Moses, the Torah. They didn't go for the other books.
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But they thought that this life was all that there was. Which makes some sense when you think about it this way.
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That they were wealthy. They were powerful. They were well connected to the Roman Empire. And so when
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Jesus comes along, they were quite pleased when he was taken out. Because Jesus, in their minds, represented a threat to the status quo.
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They liked the status quo. They liked having Rome there. Why? Because that preserved and protected their holdings.
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So on this day, here's Peter and John, these troublemakers. And they're stirring up the crowd again.
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They don't want the crowd stirred up. They like everything to just stay the way it is.
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In fact, what's interesting is, historically, after Jerusalem is sacked in 70
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AD, that's pretty much the end of the Sadducees. We don't hear anything more from them. They're not recorded after that in history.
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So this whole group comes up to John and to Peter. Why? Because they're offended by the teaching of the resurrection.
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Look at verse 2. They're greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
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The Sadducees would have considered this blasphemous. The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection, certainly did not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.
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But the message of John and of Peter implicates the leaders of the Jewish people in the murder of Jesus.
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He was dead. Now he lives. He was dead by the hands of you folks in the crowd and also of your leaders.
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So what do they do? They arrested him. Verse 3. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
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And if we think about this brief period of time, from the resurrection to the ascension to Pentecost and now to this, so maybe 60 days, something like that.
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Brief period of time of church growth without persecution, without opposition. They're just seen as an odd little group of people.
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But now they're arrested and Christianity is no longer a curiosity. It's a problem.
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And our 6G, gratitude. They grab these guys. But I wanted to close with this because it really does show that the word of God continues its work in spite of the fact that they're arrested.
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Look, but many of those who had heard the word believed. And the number of the men came to about 5 ,000.
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So the idea, I mean, there's some dispute among the scholars, but here's the way I take it. There are now 5 ,000 male adult believers that would not include their wives.
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So there are more than this number of believers. And you say, well, that's a lot of believers. Well, let's keep in mind what's going on here.
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We've had Pentecost. There's still people in town. So ultimately what's going to happen is these people are going to do what?
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They're going to return back to where they're from. They're going to tell people about Jesus. How do you start the spread of Christianity?
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This is how. Jesus said it would start where? In Jerusalem. And then it would spread from there.
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Guilt, grace, guilt, grace, grabbed, gratitude.
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Ignorance ultimately is no excuse, right? We're born ignorant. It's only the word of God that opens our eyes, that causes enlightenment.
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And only God, even as we speak or even as we think about these people, they knew the word. They knew what the prophets had said.
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They didn't believe it until Peter spoke. They didn't believe until the
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Holy Spirit opened their eyes. Then they believed. God was pleased to cause them to believe.
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5 ,000 men. 3 ,000 on Pentecost. There might have been 60 or so,
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I don't know exactly, before Pentecost. And now there are 5 ,000 men who believe.
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Only God, only a powerful God can bring that about. Well, let's pray.
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Father, we thank you this morning, even as we look to the beginning of persecution against the church.
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And Father, over the centuries, the church has been persecuted.
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The church has wandered. But your son has continued to build his church.
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He has continued to bring people to faith, even sometimes in the face of death.
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Even as we think about the people listening on that day, we think about their guilt, about the depth of it, putting the author of life,
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Jesus Christ, the creator and sustainer of all life to death. They did this out of ignorance.
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Father, if they could be forgiven for that, anyone here, anyone listening can be forgiven for all their sins.
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Father, do not let anyone here wallow in their sin. But Father, I pray that you would convict, that you would be gracious, that you would cause them to be born again, to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone is salvation.