Fear and Healing in Jerusalem: Acts 5:12-16

How's your week? I've been called some names this week that I just thought, one of them

I had to look up in the dictionary. And then I thought, you know what, if they really knew me they'd say worse.

So, I'm thankful for that. I think one of the, by the way, open your

Bibles if you have one to Acts chapter 5. Bob just about gave me a heart attack.

He said, you know, aren't you just up to like 4 verse 30 or something? And I'm going, did

I skip a bunch of verses? Scary. We're in Acts chapter 5, we'll be in verses 12 to 16.

And as I thought about this passage, I thought, you know what, one of the most misunderstood doctrines in all of scripture is the doctrine of the

Holy Spirit and specifically healing, casting out demons. And a lot of people, sadly, use that as sort of an entryway, as a little bit of a wedge to then steal from people.

And I looked up, you know, I like to find historical lists. You know, I was like, what are the worst, you know, fake healings of all time?

I didn't find that list. But I did come up with the worst televangelist products of all time.

Just five of them here. Number one, the faith seed. The faith seed is simple.

I mean, just think about these things and, you know, run them through your biblical prism. Try to figure out where these come from.

You know, the faith of a mustard seed, I guess. You give a televangelist your money.

Now think about the context. Does that have anything to do with it? No. And then you miraculously have more money.

You give to get. This is true because, quote, when you let go of what is in your hand, listen to this,

God lets go of what is in his hand. So it appears that God likes to sit around the house with Benjamins in his hands.

That's what this guy said. Like, well, wrong on a multitude of levels, but we don't need to go into that.

But here's the promise. You'll be blessed financially. Your debt will disappear and it will be blessed in 58 different ways.

I won't go through all of them, thankfully. Number four, worst televangelist product scams of all time.

Prayer packages. The prayer package is one of the greatest scams ever. The product is simple. You pay someone and they pray for you.

I'll pray for you for free. Just tell me what the issue is and I'll do it for free. Here are the promises.

You will be healed. Can anybody promise you that? No. You will receive an anointing from God.

You should know automatically that's false. And third, you will have financial success.

Third scam, prayer cloths. This is yet another scam claiming to provide a touch point, which is the same as a point of contact.

The unique thing is that they're sent out as free products. That's awesome. Except then you are harassed endlessly until you give money.

The prayer cloth has been advertised to do anything from heal people to make them rich. And he says, personally,

I'm not buying one until it can make me taller and have the tone of a bodybuilder. OK, number two, miracle spring water.

It promises this miracle spring water will allow you to have all of God's riches and blessings bestowed upon you.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, people. If he gives you everything, then what? You know, it will heal your body.

You will receive checks for no reason in large amounts. The IRS will subsequently show up at your door.

Number one, this is it's called Miracle Mana, Miracle Mana, and it's right up there in route 12.

No, no. Every bite of this heavenly cake, you'll feel you'll feel empowered and encouraged to move into all

God has for you. Based on the claims from this video, Miracle Mana is cake from heaven that empowers you to do

God's will. According to the testimony from fake people in the video, it also causes people to write large checks to you for reasons unknown.

Then all your dreams will come true. Now, just think about that quick list there.

What do they all have in common? First of all, they promise physical needs or desires.

You know, you're going to be healed. You're going to have lots of money. And that's in exchange, of course, for money.

But what do they also do? They provide money to false teachers. These are, you know, the worst pyramid schemes in the history of pyramid schemes.

But what's missing? The gospel. Jesus. Biblical teaching.

Miracle Mana? Sure, it was a miracle. But it appeared to, you know, it arrived for the

Jews out in the wilderness. I don't want to be out in the wilderness. I don't want to be wandering for 40 years.

No, thanks. I'll pass on the Miracle Mana. This morning, as we turn to Acts chapter 5, we're going to see what actual signs and wonders, what they're for, what they accomplish, why the

Holy Spirit does them. And as we look at this, I want us to just, you know, in the back of your mind, just be thinking about these false teachings that really are very popular.

And they're popular because they appeal to our kind of more base instincts.

These are things that we want. Acts chapter 5 verse 12.

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles.

And they were all together in Solomon's portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord. Multitudes of both men and women.

So they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on the cots and mats that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Now, the last time we were in Acts, we were in chapter 4 verse 31 all the way to Acts chapter 5 verse 11.

And we broke it down this way, talking about the power and the person of the Holy Spirit.

Number one, that the Holy Spirit brings unity and holiness to the church. Number two, the

Holy Spirit sanctifies believers. And number three, the Holy Spirit purifies the church. And we had the case of Ananias and Sapphira.

The Jerusalem church was unified in a way that believers were habitually, joyfully, and without compulsion, giving to meet the needs of other believers in the church.

Contrary to what some unbelievers say, this wasn't socialism. It wasn't everything given to the church and everybody sharing everything all the time.

We could debunk that, but it's not true. We could study further in Acts, we would see that people still had houses, they still had other things.

More importantly, it wasn't compelled in any way. Nobody was forcing Christians to give all that they had.

The church was growing, it was learning, it was being sanctified, growing in Christ -likeness.

But that wasn't happening to everybody. Ananias and Sapphira, they acted as if they were doing what others had done.

They sold a piece of property, they brought it to Peter. Well, Ananias did anyway.

He acted as if he was giving all the proceeds of this property to the church, but he wasn't, because the two of them had conspired.

That is to say, they'd made an agreement beforehand that they would hold some of it back, but they would make it look like they'd done that.

Sadly for Ananias and Sapphira, the Holy Spirit was not fooled, and informed

Peter of their plot. Back to verse 3, but Peter said,

Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

Now just quickly, just to point out, you can't lie to a force. You know, the way some people talk, the way some people deal with the

Holy Spirit is, it's as if he's a force. They whip him around with their coats, they throw him around, they do different, they command him to do things as if he is a mere force, but he's a person.

You need to be a person to be lied to. You need to be a person to know that somebody's lying to you.

But Ananias and Sapphira are struck down instantly, dramatically, by the power of God, the

Holy Spirit. And we concluded with Luke's summary of the situation. It's understandable.

Verse 11, and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things.

Imagine the buzz going around, you know, West Boylston if one or two people just, you know,

Pastor Mike's up here and says, oh, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. Boom! Where do we get around? There'd be great fear upon the whole church.

We'd be like, okay, let's not lie anymore. This morning, the apostles, in our text, the apostles are the subjects of the actions of the

Triune God. He established them as his representatives so that they could carry out his commission.

If you remember Acts 1 .8, but you, Jesus speaking, he says, but you will receive power when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

What better proof could God provide the gospel than by working through the power of the

Holy Spirit through these men, these simple, mostly fishermen, these apostles, these men traveled with Jesus during his ministry.

They were there at his arrest. Then they saw Jesus after the resurrection and they saw him ascend into heaven.

And by the way, because of the conditions, the requirements for being an apostle, they can't be an apostle today.

If somebody says, I'm an apostle, move on because that person is a liar. So we have three

C's, you know, pastor Mike has pretty much set the bar. If I don't have some kind of alliteration, I can't preach.

So we have three C's this morning. The apostles confirmed. Secondly, the apostles caused rifts.

I had to use, you know, some, a little stretch there. And number three, the apostles cured, not meaning they were cured, but that they cured others.

So first the apostles confirmed God's power is on display in verse 12.

Look, it says, now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people.

Now they had already been arrested and tried for doing one wonder when they arrested the man who'd been lame since birth.

Let's look back at Acts chapter three, because this it's just one case, but it's instructive.

It helps us to understand what it means to see God's power on display.

Acts chapter three, verses four through nine. And Peter directed his gaze at him at this man who had been born lame, who was sitting out there at the beautiful gate.

Peter directed his gaze at him as did John, the two men looking at him and said, look at us.

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said,

I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong and leaping up.

He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising

God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Now I say this is instructive.

Well, how so? First of all, this miracle, this wonder is done in the name of Jesus Christ.

In other words, it's by the power of the risen savior, the second person of the Trinity that this man is made whole, not because of Peter.

Peter in and of himself is not the source of the healing. Secondly, the healing happens as our text said, immediately, he immediately begins walking and leaping.

And notice also that he praises God and remains with Peter and John. Why? Because the purpose isn't simply to heal the man.

It's to indicate that Peter and John are truly apostles, messengers of Jesus Christ, that they're truly ordained by God and that they have the power of the

Holy spirit. And that this man is evidence that these two men,

Peter and John can be believed in what they say. Signs and wonders are done by God for his glory, not for the glory of some guy on television and to affirm the message and the

In other words, the gospel message in this case and the apostles you want to show that, or God wants to show that the apostles are commissioned by Jesus and that Jesus is

God, that he does miracles through these men. And again, just think about your, your first century

Jew, you're at the temple for a prayer service. This man who's been lame since birth gets up and starts leaping around because of the actions of Peter and John.

And they say that it's by the power of this man that you know was put to death.

He died on the cross. And now they're telling you that this man not only died on that cross, but he was raised on the third day.

Do they have credibility? I think they do. I think they do.

Now in scripture, they're basically, you know, to get away from this idea of the normality.

I mean, here, here's the idea, or here's kind of a conundrum, normal miracles.

You know, if miracles are kind of God intervening in the space time continuum and doing only things that God could do, that is interrupting the natural processes or doing something extraordinary.

Then, you know, the idea of a normal miracle, you know, show up on a Friday night for the miracle service.

Wrong. But if we look throughout scripture, there are basically 100 years in which most of the miracles of signs and wonders, the acts of God, the wonderful acts, the acts of God that defy natural explanation are concentrated in about 100 years.

That would be the era of Moses and Joshua, the era of Elijah and Elisha, and then the era of Jesus and the apostles.

And it's always, the miracles are always done to give confirmation that God was working in and through these men.

Listen to Peter, familiar from Acts 2 .22, as he's preaching on the day of Pentecost.

Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man, what?

Attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

In other words, you want to know who Jesus is. You want to know why he's the son of God. You want to know why he's the second person of the

Trinity, or you want proof. You've seen proof, the miracles that Jesus did while he was on earth.

And our text says the apostles were regularly doing them. This is a way of expressing the tone of the verb.

God was giving ample testimony that these men, disciples of the crucified Jesus, were his post -resurrection messengers.

And all of Jerusalem would have known their works. And thus it says, among the people, that's the idea, that they were doing these things throughout

Jerusalem. Everywhere they went, they were doing these wonders and miracles. God's power was on display through the apostles.

And it says, our text says, continuing in verse 12, by the hands of the apostles.

And I wanted to just make two quick points here. First of all, hands doesn't mean that it was by touching their hands or that they necessarily had to lay hands on you.

What he's stressing is that it was through them that God was doing these things, not necessarily just by the hands, but through their persons.

But secondly, he's stressing that it was not just Peter who was performing these wonders. All the apostles were engaged in this or the text would say, by the hands of Peter.

Instead it says, by the apostles. Also notice that God's people gathered together again in verse 12, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.

Now there are a number of commentators who take different positions on this, but it seems wisest in light of the boldness of the church here to conclude that there were regular gatherings of roughly 5 ,000 believers on the temple grounds at Solomon's portico.

So that's our first C, the apostles confirmed that they were indeed the messengers of the

Lord Jesus Christ and that their message should be believed because of those signs and wonders. Now, secondly, the apostles caused rifts.

The apostles caused rifts. We see that some of the people were afraid. Look at verse 13. None of the rest dared join them.

None of the rest dared join them. So you have these church people gathering together at Solomon's portico for instruction and for worship.

It's just impossible to imagine that this has to do with believers, that there were believers that wouldn't get together with other believers because they were afraid.

I think this is unbelievers. And again, just think about the reputation of the church. Jerusalem is by no means,

I mean, it's a large city for those times, but it's not a big city area -wise.

Word's going to get around. What else would you talk about other than, did you hear about the church service where two people wound up dead?

I mean, that would be pretty dramatic. I mean, just imagine there's a couple that are unbelievers.

They hear about this meeting at Solomon's portico and the husband says to the wife, hey, you want to go check out that new church in town?

And she says, yeah, me and the one where Ananias and Sapphira died. The husband goes, yeah, you know, maybe we'll just wait a little while, slow our roll, you know, just kind of see how it goes.

Maybe wait till they get some plays going or something. I don't know.

I'd probably want to wait a little while. But unbelievers are staying away.

But notice, even though they stayed away, the church and the apostles were held in great respect, the text tells us, but the people held them in high esteem.

They were afraid. They didn't fully understand the power of God, but nobody was out to get the

Christians. Nobody was out to persecute them. They didn't try to break up the meetings at Solomon's portico.

Nobody was concerned about the Christians, except really the Christian leaders, or I'm sorry, the

Jewish leaders. And does that sound familiar? This is exactly like Jesus. It was not the people who were out to get

Jesus. It was the leadership. So some were respectful.

Some believed, some ended up believing. Look at verse 14. And more than ever, believers were added to the

Lord, multitudes of both men and women. I love commentator

Simon Kistemacher. He says here, Luke has lost count of the number of Christians in Jerusalem.

After Pentecost, he tells us there were 5 ,000. Here, he just goes, you know what?

There were multitudes. I mean, there were a lot. I don't know exactly how. And I imagine, I don't think

Luke was frustrated, but I mean, you could just imagine because of the precision, if you recall even what

Pastor Mike said, and the intro to Luke, and the intro to Acts, just the nature of Luke being a physician.

He probably sat down and tried to figure it out, and then just thought, I can't. It's just a lot. When these people heard the gospel, they joined the church, even though they'd heard about Ananias and Sapphira.

I mean, I'm sure, you know, going back to that same conversation between the couple, I'm sure there were some couples that said, well, okay, we'll go, but let's make a deal.

If we decide we're going to give something, let's just give it all, you know, none of this half -stepping stuff.

But notice also that Luke, contra the culture of the day, kind of going against the grain, makes sure to include the fact that women were also being added to the church.

Now, you know, I could say something like, I'm sure that was a relief to the men of the church, but you know,

I mean, it would be a real bummer if there were no women in the church. But in that day, you didn't, women were kind of an afterthought.

They were assumed to just follow their husbands. So it's good to see, even here, that Luke makes a point out of it.

He says, yes, men and women were joining the church. Now, when we talk about rifts, the apostles causing rifts, yes, there were believers.

There were unbelievers who respected the church, and then there were new converts. So there are separate groups.

So we've seen the apostles confirmed, the apostles caused rifts, and now the apostles cured.

The apostles cured. There were definitely sick people. Look at verse 15, talking about people who joined the church so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats.

I mean, what does that give you a picture of? They're taking these sick people who obviously can't walk on their own, they're very sick, and they're bringing them out into the streets and laying them on cots and mats.

Makes you think that there's both hope that they might be healed, and desperation, because these people can't move on their own.

Hope because of what these men have been doing, and desperation because there has to be a little bit of a fear of missing out.

What if they stop healing people? What if the apostles leave Jerusalem? What if they get arrested?

These are all possibilities. What if they're put to death by the Romans? But these are people, these

Jews in Jerusalem, who know their Old Testaments. They know the Creator can do anything, and they trust that He will through these men.

So look at this, verse 15, second half of it, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

Again, if you recall, just even the woman believing that by grasping the garment of Jesus, what did she say?

That she thought she would be made whole. And Jesus said, what?

Your faith has made you whole. He healed her. Certainly God is not limited in how

He heals someone. He does not need to work through the hands of the apostles. He does not need to work through these points of contact that these frauds sell.

But the idea that even His shadow might fall on somebody and might heal them, the idea is just this, that if we even think about Mary being overshadowed by the power of the

Holy Spirit, and Luke, you know, sent kind of the same idea, this idea that the shadow of Peter might, in fact, contain some of the power of God, that he might be able to work through that.

They were very hopeful that God would heal. And this hope spread throughout the surrounding area.

Well, what does that mean? Look at verse 16, the people also gathered from towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick.

So the word goes out that these men are able to heal. What happens?

People from outside of the city start bringing people in. Now, if we think back to what the

Lord commanded the disciples, the apostles, to do, they were to take the gospel to what?

Jerusalem, and then in all of Judea and Samaria, and then beyond. So here's the point.

The point is, the gospel is starting to spread, even if it's just the word of the miracles. The miracles are starting to draw people to the truth.

Now, what do we know? We know that one day, disease will be no more, but for today, we still have it.

We read Isaiah 53, verse 5, we'd read this, but he,

Jesus, was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, for our sins.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And listen, and with his wounds, we are healed.

Now, some take that and say, well, that's a physical healing. So we can claim physical healing.

Well, let's suppose it's a spiritual healing, meaning simply that all of our sins are forgiven. How does that give us hope?

Well, ultimately, we understand that all of our sins being forgiven means that in heaven, no more sickness, no more illness, no more death.

Revelation 21, verses 2 to 4, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their

God. Listen, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

No death, no pain, no illness.

Why? Because illness itself, every illness, comes to us by virtue of the fall.

Our corrupted bodies, our corrupted world, ultimately leading to our death.

And it's not just physical death that we have to contend with. There are also spirits.

Look at this. This is so interesting. I said the spirit infested, but I want to make clear it's a lower

S, not a bigger S. 16, the second half of it, and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

In other words, they're bringing not just the people that are sick, but the people who are afflicted with unclean spirits. As one commentator noted, he said, listen, if we look at the times where scripture speaks about people being tormented by demons, by unclean spirits, it seems to rise when what?

When the miracles are on the rise too. So there's this kind of spiritual warfare in which people are involved.

But it says here, by the power of the Holy Spirit, even those who were demon possessed, that is to say afflicted with unclean spirits, were made whole.

Now let me get a real practical here for a few minutes. There are no healing ministries today.

I'm not saying that God cannot heal. I'm saying that nobody has the gift of healing.

God can. He's certainly able. I believe that he can do that at any moment, as many times as he pleases.

He's God. However, there are no apostles today. No one. No one can meet the conditions of an apostle.

You can go back to Acts 1 and read it for yourself. Therefore, there is no message and no messenger to confirm.

Right? There's no new message. We don't have new revelation from God. The canon of scripture is fixed.

So we don't have signs and wonders. We don't have miraculous healings done on a regular basis.

And the idea of deliverance ministries, which is to say deliverance ministries are typically now, which

I find very odd, casting demons out of believers. Casting demons out of believers.

And I'm just going to say to you, that is 100 % bogus, fake, fraudulent.

Turn for a moment to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And this is a passage that we use most often to talk about why you shouldn't date or marry unbelievers.

Interestingly enough, that has nothing to do with the context, but that's what we use it for. I'm not really sure why. Well, because it's easy.

2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 to 18. Again, talking about how the Holy Spirit works, casting out demons, all these kinds of things.

We can't do an exhaustive study of that, but I thought this was helpful for us to just think through a few principles here in 2

Corinthians 6. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. There's the principle that people use, and that's true, right?

It has to do with marriage and almost any kind of relationship, business, etc. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what accord has

Christ with Belial? And now we're really getting into the nitty -gritty, as it were.

How can the second person of the Trinity sort of have a deal with the prince of demons?

Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

I mean, we're reading through Isaiah. We read through Hosea. Over and over again,

God condemns idolatry. This is one of the initial commandments. For we are the temple of the living

God as believers. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their

God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the

Lord, and touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you. And listen, verse 18, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the

Lord Almighty. Now, if Christ and Satan have nothing in common, and they don't, and they're not at peace, and they're not, they don't share.

They don't share us. All people are either in the kingdom of darkness, or they're in the kingdom of Christ.

They are either ruled by Satan, or they're ruled by Jesus. They're either inhabited by the

Holy Spirit, or they are not. So, in light of that, just think about these deliverance ministries where you go to a church, and they say, well, you have the demon of pornography.

You have the demon of drinking too much. You have the demon of, no, those are sins. You need to repent.

You don't need to have that demon cast out of you. If you're a believer, can you have demons? And the answer is no.

The Holy Spirit doesn't, you know, kind of scoot over a little bit and let a demon in. There's no warrant anywhere in Scripture to see that those whom the

Spirit has brought to life can be possessed by demons. You say, well, what about Ananias? Doesn't it say, why is

Satan in your heart? You know, why did you let that happen? Two things. One is, it could be simply this, that Ananias was deceived by Satan.

Doesn't mean he was possessed by Satan. The other possibility is, he wasn't a believer.

But again, think about this idea of demons entering Christians. Does that sound something that a father would do in light of 2

Corinthians 6 .18? Does that sound like something Jesus would permit in light of the fact that he is your king if you belong to him?

Does that sound like something the Spirit would permit as he is your seal? I think the answer is no.

So back to Acts. As we read verse 16 again, the people also gathered from towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

All the sick, all those afflicted with spirits, they came seeking the power of God.

Not the power of men, but the power of God. And we have every reason to believe that these people came to faith.

Why? Because our text tells us that they're all healed. The point was to deliver the children of God from their afflictions, from the domain of darkness, and into the kingdom of his dear son.

Not to just put a temporary band -aid on their physical condition, or their temporal condition in this world, but to seal them for all time and all eternity to the

Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Luke was unable to count the multitudes that now were in the church.

This morning I read something on Facebook I found extremely distressing, and I thought,

I'll just mention my friend Terry. I've known him for 30 plus years, and his wife posted today, as far as I know,

Terry's not a believer. He's dying. He's at home on hospice, and he's dying both from cancer and from dementia.

And I thought, you know, if we could heal Terry, would we? And I thought, well sure, of course.

But if we heal Terry, and we leave Terry in his sin, what have we done?

Temporarily we've saved his life, but eternally we've done nothing. In this case, in this text,

I think it's clear that the goal here was to build the church, and it was to build the church not on the basis of picking the best, you know, let's, the apostles didn't go, hey, let's go raid the seminary and see if we can get some, you know, some of these wonderful learned

Jews to join the cause. These were kind of the people on that social outcast.

You stayed away from demon -possessed people. You stayed away from the sick. And finally, just by way of caution,

I also want to say just a word about just some horrific churches, so -called churches,

Bethel Church in Reading, Hillsong, these churches where they profess to be

Christian. They write all these songs that fill the airwaves of Caleb, and they fill churches.

But when you read what they actually do, what they believe, what they practice, they teach doctrines of demons.

They teach falsehoods. We need to run from those kind of things.

Part of the problem with the church today at large is that we want the spectacular.

We joked before I came out here, you know, Spencer said, would you like the, you know, the fog and stuff?

And I said, no, I'd like the, actually, I'd like the lightning effect if you could do that, you know. So a little

Moses action here this morning. Healings, casting out demons.

Wow, can we see that? That'd be so great. We're too focused on the problems of this world.

We all have a sin problem. That's the issue. We come here every week. Why? Because we're sinners who are saved by the grace of God.

And we rejoice in that. But it's our sin that initially separates us from God.

Our sin keeps us from being heaven bound. We need a savior, a sin bearer, somebody to take away our sin because no imperfect thing can enter into the presence of perfection.

Jesus, eternally the second person of the Trinity, took to himself human nature, lived the perfect life, died a substitutionary death.

He is our representative. He is the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus fulfilled the law like we never could.

And we get that perfection imputed to us, counted to us when we believe our sin was placed on him.

God raised him on the third day to vindicate his sacrifice. That's what we should be about in the church, not worried about the spectacular, not worried about healings, casting out demons, or even lightning effects.

Well, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the examples we have in the apostles and how you work through these flawed men.

Help us, Father, to be open to be willing to even be eager to show people not that Christianity is the answer to their temporal needs, to their immediate wants and desires, not even for their physical healing.

But Father, it's ultimately for eternity. It's for that picture and revelation of living together with Christ forever and ever in a place where there are no tears, where there is no sorrow, there is no suffering, where everything has been removed but the glory of God.