Revive Us Again | Week 3 | Acts 3

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November 12, 2023 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN

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Revive Us Again | Week 4 | Acts 4

Revive Us Again | Week 4 | Acts 4

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If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to Acts chapter 3.
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Acts chapter 3. Oh God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we do ask that you, through your
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Spirit, will speak to your people through me. There's times throughout the week where I do not see how this can be possible, but Lord, I plead with you to use me this day to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, to grow those in holiness who are yours, and to convict those who repent and believe who are not.
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So please, in the name of Jesus, use me this day.
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Amen. All right, so this is our third message in the book of Acts.
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As mentioned, we have put a pin in our regular exposition to the gospel of John, and we're going through the book of Acts, focusing primarily on gospel presentations, right?
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We want to see what the apostles were preaching. We want to make sure that we align with what they were preaching.
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You know, what was the apostles preaching, and are we doing this?
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Are other churches doing this, right? This is the whole thought process behind this.
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Our overarching theme through this book as we're going through it with this in mind is revive us again.
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We want to know what is revival, and we want to be able to tell if revival is taking place among us, or if it's going to take place among us, and when it does, we want to be able to recognize what revival looks like.
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There should be no mystery to anyone who is a part of the church that the church needs revival, right?
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This should not be a mystery, right? If you've been a part of the church for any length of time, you know that something's not connecting, right?
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It is as if the brain is telling my left hand to move, and my right hand's moving. Like the connection is not being made.
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We see what the scriptures say, and we look at what's going on around us in the church, and something's not adding up.
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And what revival does, it wants to take the church, and it wants the church to look like what the
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Bible says. Our world does not respect the church because the church is not serious about the
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Word. The church is not serious about God. How can we expect those non -believers to respect us when we're not respecting the
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Word, right? Amen? That's what
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I see taking place. A lot of religions, let's say the
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Muslim religion, gets more respect than Christianity because they take serious their faith, their false faith.
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They take it serious, and the world respects them, and the church doesn't get respect because its people don't take it serious.
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We need revival, and revival is not something you plan, like next week we're going to have a revival.
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We're going to get a tent, we're going to sit up outside, and people are going to gather. That's not revival.
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True revival takes place in the pulpit, and it catches fire, and it spreads.
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If it's not happening in the pulpit, it's not going to spread.
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So that's why we're going through the book of Acts. What did they preach? How did it catch flame?
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How did it spread? What was the air? A fire needs to breathe.
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Who was fanning the flame? Amen? I am convinced the best way to understand what revival is, is to look through the book of Acts, hence why we're here.
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The baptism of the Holy Spirit caused ordinary men and women to turn the world upside down.
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The reform movement has become jaded towards the third person of the
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Holy Trinity, and it has run from her duties to,
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I'm going to say this, some people might twitch, Julie, change the world.
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We are called to be world changers, and yet we're afraid to say that because certain denominations have misused it.
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It will not be in the streets if it's not in the pulpit. Romans chapter 1, verse 16 and 17 says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the
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Jew first, and also to the Greek, for in it, speaking of the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
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When was the last time you heard a Presbyterian, I mean a reformed Baptist or a Presbyterian say we are called to be world changers?
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I've never heard it. Let me be the first. We are called to be world changers, to finish the work of Christ by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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That's what we're called to do. Let us not fear.
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We have the power of the Holy Spirit that's accompanied with the power of the gospel.
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The power of the Holy Spirit gives us the boldness to go out and proclaim Jesus Christ, and the power of the gospel changes a dead man into a living man.
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I don't have that power, but he has given me the power to proclaim a message.
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Only God can take a pig and change it into a man. I don't have that power, but I do have the power to proclaim the message.
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Now is there fear? Absolutely. A lot of y 'all know that I'm a real big martial arts fan.
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I grew up in martial arts and boxing, and I'm really big into the UFC, and I watched the fight last night.
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Tom Aspinall, if you don't know him, he beat this guy named Severus Papavich.
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This big Russian knocks everybody out within the first round. And Tom only had two weeks to train for this fight, and Tom admitted afterwards, he said, man,
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I was scared to death. I only had two weeks. This is the most feared man in the heavyweight division, and I was scared to death, but I had a job to do.
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And Tom knocked him out in the first round, the most feared man in the heavyweight division.
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And he admitted, I was afraid of him, but that fear drove me to do what
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I was called to do, this purpose that I had on earth that I know that I'm supposed to do. And listen, when we go out and evangelize or anything that we do, whether it's in the store or on the streets or wherever it is, there is fear.
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There is fear. I tremble, but I have to do what
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God has put me here to do. We have allowed those who treat the
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Holy Spirit like our drunk uncles at a family reunion to keep us from fulfilling the great commission of preaching the gospel.
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As Reformed Christians, we tend to speak a lot about reformation, and I spoke about this at Pastor Cal's house
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Friday, Friday night, that the next reformation that needs to take place is the reformation of taking back the
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Holy Spirit. It's not theirs, it's ours, it's yours.
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The Reformed church has to take back the Holy Spirit. We got to be willing to stand on what the
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Bible says and says, that's not true. This is, this is what the work of the
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Holy Spirit, this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is what we're called to do. Our theme for this
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Lord's day is the healing of a lame beggar. Our theme, as we will go on to see, sparks a healing ministry through the apostles.
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It sparks controversy because of this healing ministry through the apostles.
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And that spark is still controversy to this day.
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And it's why we think they treat the Holy Spirit like our drunk uncle at a family reunion that stands in the corner that knows everything.
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He's the loudest talker in the room. And if you ain't careful, he'll pick a fight. Starts right here in chapter three.
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My proposition is this, everything we are called to do is to be done in faith.
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This reformation I'm talking about, it's to be done in faith. You should do nothing that is not done in faith.
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We are called to finish the work of Christ by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in faith.
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You say, but Jeff, I fear you're in good company because I fear, but like Tom Espinel said, he has a job to do.
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He knows what he was put on this world to do. And he's going to do it even though he is afraid.
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And when he said that, I thought about myself and I thought about every one of you and everyone in Christianity, past, present, future.
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The fear will not go away, but we're called to do something.
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Faith is how the righteous are supposed to live. Over and over the
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Bible tells us that the righteous are to live by faith. Paul in Galatians chapter two, verse 20 says this,
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I have been crucified with Christ. He's saying that when
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Christ died, he died. When he died, I died.
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When he was nailed to the cross, I was nailed to the cross. That's what Paul is saying. And it is no longer
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I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life I live, excuse me, in the life which
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I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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Those that receive Christ by faith are the righteous.
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Have you received Christ by faith? You are the righteous and you are to live by faith.
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The righteous are to live by faith and not by fear, faith, not fear.
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We are not called to live in fear. Second Timothy chapter one, verse seven says this, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, that's fear.
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He has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self -discipline.
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What's the power? Holy Spirit and the gospel. What's love? We love
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God by believing in the name of Jesus Christ and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
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Well, how do we do this? It takes self -discipline, self -discipline.
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And these are the things he has given us. We are to, but to live in the power, we are to love and we are to be self -disciplined.
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Now that I hopefully have your attention, let's go to our outline. In our outline today, we're going to see
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Peter and John move in the power of the
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Holy Spirit. So as we're walking through this and you're seeing this, the story take place, understand they are moving, the book of Acts is moving in the power of the
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Holy Spirit, not in the power of Peter, not in the power of John or Paul as we will see, it's the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Well, how's that done? They're living in faith. When you live in faith, you are moving in the power of the
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Holy Spirit. We're going to see the miracle, the message, and the call.
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Point number one, the miracle. Point number two, the message. And point number three, the call.
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And as we transition, I'm going to focus back on chapter two, beginning in verse 40.
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Look with me. Chapter two, verse 40, and with many other words, he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved, be saved from this crooked generation.
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So then those who had received his word were baptized.
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And that day there were added about 3 ,000 souls. I want to preach a message to our 3 ,000 people who received
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Christ. Verse 42, and they, they who, these 3 ,000 souls, were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread in prayer.
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And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
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And we're about to see the first sign written in the book of Acts.
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Now what's taking place here is that they are being added to the church, the new covenant.
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Through the preaching of the gospel, they are being added to the church, to the new covenant.
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And as new covenant members, they were serious about these four things.
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Really five, but this text here names four things, and we'll get to that fifth one. So serious that they devoted themselves to these things, and that is the teachings of the apostles' fellowship with one another, breaking bread and praying.
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And Colossians and Ephesians will tell us that when they gathered together, they spoke to one another and sung hymn, spiritual songs that they sung and made melody in their heart.
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You ever wonder why we do what we do? Why do we gather together once a week?
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Why do we stand and sing songs, whether they're psalms or hymns?
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Why do we do these things? Why do we gather in fellowship with one another?
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Why do we pray? Why are you sitting there while I'm up here speaking? They devoted themselves to this.
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This is what, in the Reformed circles, we call the ordinary means of grace. This is how we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
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They devoted themselves to a man standing behind the pulpit explaining what the
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Bible says. They devoted themselves to this. They devoted themselves to fellowship with one another, to know, to cornonelia, to have real relationship with one another.
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They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. This is the Lord's Supper, and it's also feasting around a table with one another.
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That time where we're able to talk theology or make fun of one another, right?
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That's what family does. They devoted themselves to praying publicly with one another and privately for one another.
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And they spoke to one another in psalm and in hymns and spiritual songs.
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They sung as they were collectively gathered and made melody in their heart.
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This meant something to them. The devotion of these five things is the work of the
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Holy Spirit. It's devotion. They're not going to miss it if they can help it.
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As a matter of fact, if they start to miss it, they start to shake. They start to feel the conviction.
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They know that this is where they're called to be. Ladies and gentlemen, this is revival.
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It starts in the pulpit. Point number one, the miracle.
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This is taken from verses one through ten. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.
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And the man who had been laying from his mother's womb, theologians believe this is the he could have been around 40 years old, was being carried, was being carried whom they used to sit down daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
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Beautiful, in order to beg alms from those who were entering the temple.
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And when he saw, and when he saw Peter and John about to, saw
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Peter and John going into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.
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But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, look at us.
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And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
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But Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold.
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But what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ, the
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Nazarene, walk. And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.
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And leaping, he stood up, he stood upright and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising
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God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.
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And they recognized him, that he was the one who used to sit at the gate, at the beautiful gate of the temple, begging alms.
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And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened.
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If you have, for any length of time, been in church, this story should be very familiar to you.
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And in this story, we see that the apostles, through the Holy Spirit, they were able to perform miracles.
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The ability to perform miracles is the one thing that the church has been in consistent, constant disagreement over, and has been for a very long time.
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It is my opinion in the Reformed position that God's purpose for miracles is to validate the message and the messenger.
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God's purpose for the miracles is to validate the message and the messenger.
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Being that you are here today in a Reformed Baptist church, I think it's safe to assume that we either believe the same or it's pretty close, right?
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We have somewhat of a close connection in this concerning the sign gifts, meaning that you and I do not have the ability, through the
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Holy Spirit, as we see here in the text. However, if God sees fit, through His sovereign will, to heal someone, through our prayers
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He can do so, and if He does so, it's through the same Holy Spirit like we see in our text.
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What we have here is continuity and discontinuity. Continuity between then and now, basically saying the things that are the same, right?
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The continuity, things that are the same between then and now, is that healing can only be done through the
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Holy Spirit. It can only be done through the Holy Spirit. If Peter did not have the
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Holy Spirit, he could do nothing. If you do not have the Holy Spirit, you can do nothing. Healing is done through the
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Holy Spirit. The discontinuity is between then and now, things that are not the same, is that the apostles were able to perform such miracles at will while you and I pray to the
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Lord to heal someone. Peter could say, silver and gold I do not have, but what
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I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, stand up and walk. You do not have that power.
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I do not have that power. I don't possess it. I am told to pray for you.
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Pray that the Lord will heal you. There's a difference. The Word of God is what validates the message for us.
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The miracles validated the message for them. For you and I, the
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Word of God validates our message. How do you know if someone is truly of God?
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Well, are they speaking what God has said? You want to know if I'm truly a minister?
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Am I saying what the Bible says? Because if I am not, then
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I am not from God. I'm not speaking forth from God. But if I am saying what the
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Bible says, you can know without a shadow of a doubt that I am a messenger for God.
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I don't need a miracle to validate me. It's the message.
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Hence why we are going through the book of Acts. Hence why we're speaking of true revival.
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I don't want y 'all to have a doubt. I want y 'all to test me.
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Has Jeff been preaching the right thing? He's repetitively always saying the same thing.
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Why? Why does he keep saying the same thing? Okay, so what's taking place here in the book of Acts is that there's a lame man from birth, like I said, that theologians believe is about 40 years, and his friends are carrying him to the gate called
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Beautiful. And in verse 1, during the hour of prayer, which means that many would be many religious people will be passing by him to enter into the gate for the hour of prayer.
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This would have been important concerning their works -based religion. Remember, the old covenant is a covenant of works.
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Do this and live. If you cannot do this, you do not live.
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If you cannot keep the commandments, you have to sacrifice an animal. No animal sacrifice, and there's sometimes if you bring the wrong animal sacrifice, you can still be condemned.
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Your sins will not be forgiven. You blaspheme, you commit adultery, so on and so forth, you're dead, they'll kill you.
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It's a covenant of works. Do this and live. Many of men would have been going through this gate called
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Beautiful, and they would have believed it was a good idea because you had this man here begging for alms to give to him.
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And so in one sense, you can say that this man, this lame man is taking advantage of this religious system, hoping that people will have pity on him.
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He's taking advantage of the religious system. We see this quite often too.
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Sometimes there'll be a big old church, which I've seen, and you have homeless people at the end of the church as people would leave or go through, they're begging for money, hoping that as they're entering into the church, they'll feel bad and have pity and give to the homeless person.
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And I'm not saying don't give, that's not the message here. What I'm saying is that just like that man there taking advantage of people's religion, hoping that as they're entering into the gate
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Beautiful or to their church, they'll see the need for a good deed and perform the good deed.
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That's what's taking place in our text. Peter and John catch eyes with him and give to him not what he's begging for, but what he truly needs and his need in this moment is the ability to walk.
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The Bible says if a man does not work, he does not eat. It's kind of hard to work if you cannot walk.
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So because he doesn't have the ability to work, he cannot provide for himself, so he needs others to provide for him.
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Hence why he's at the gate Beautiful taking advantage of the religious people.
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And what you and I can take from this is that God is not our personal genie in the bottle.
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We cannot rub it three, we cannot rub the bottle. God pops out and grants us three wishes.
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This is not what God is about. It does not give the man what he wants, silver and gold.
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He gives him what he needs, the ability to walk. So with that,
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God gives us the things that we need, not the things that we necessarily want.
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And my wants and my needs are two different things. If you're a parent and you have children, your children want a lot of things, right?
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If you're a regular average Joe like me, you cannot give them all their wants, but you do provide for their needs.
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Same goes here. The man is healed and begins to walk and leap as he enters the gate and he becomes recognized by those by his
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Jewish brothers who were in amazement. These people were witnessing a miracle and it draws the crowd.
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They witnessed a miracle and they go and see what's going on.
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Oh, something's going on. I see this guy. He's always begging. Now he's leaping, he's jumping up and down.
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What's going on? That miracle draws a crowd. The message was preached and the miracle validated the message and the messenger.
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That's what's taking place in our text. Peter does a miracle, draws the attention of men, and then he preaches a message as we will see in this next point.
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Point number two, the message. The message is taken from verses 11 through 16.
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Verse 11, and while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico called
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Solomon's, full of wonder. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?
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Or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety, we made him walk?
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The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant
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Jesus, whom you delivered and denied in the presence of Pilate.
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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, but put to death, listen, the author of life, whom
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God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
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And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus, which has strengthened this man whom you see and know in faith, which is through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
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As the crowds were passing and looking at Peter and John, they,
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Peter and John, had a split second to respond before someone saw them as special.
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We'll go on to see that in the book of Acts, that certain people began to worship certain apostles and the apostles tear their clothes at the anger of what's taking place.
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We're just men, we're just men, do not worship us.
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They had a split second before these people turn and begin to worship them, thinking that they were something special and not willing or not wanting the glory.
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They point to God, they point to Jesus, and they point to faith in Jesus. They point to God, they point to Jesus, and they point to faith in Jesus.
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And to explain why I believe Peter does this, I want to explain real quick Peter's journey.
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Peter was an uneducated fisherman from Galilee. Remember Galilee, it's like the, you know, the backwoods, the trailer park, the ghetto in Jerusalem, right?
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They didn't think anything good come from this area. These people could barely speak their own language, much less do other things special, right?
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He was an uneducated fisherman from Galilee. In this sense,
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I so see myself as a Peter. And what's clear in the gospel is one thing that Peter is really good at, is that Peter is really good at sticking his foot in his mouth.
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He's really good at getting in trouble, right? As you read the gospel, Jesus is always getting on to Peter. Peter's just always saying things, getting himself in trouble.
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And outside of the confession of Peter, when Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Son of the living God, the main thing that Peter is known for is denying Jesus three times.
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Over and over, as Jesus is in the courts, as Jesus is about to be sentenced to death, they would recognize him because of the way that he spoke.
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This man's a Galilean. He's a follower of Jesus. And Peter will reply, I do not know this man.
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I do not know this man. A follower of Jesus. Peter is depicted as a weak and pitiful man.
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And now in the book of Acts, filled with the Holy Spirit, he stands bold as a lion.
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Before the Holy Spirit, I do not know this man. Filled with the Holy Spirit.
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In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk. You who crucify, you who put to death the author of life.
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Peter knows that it's not by his power, but by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Give me men and women who know that, and we'll have revival.
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We'll have revival. God's not up there just waiting for certain periods to where he can, you know, kick you in the butt to get you going.
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The kick in the butt was when you received Christ and you were filled with the Holy Spirit. But we suppress that Holy Spirit by not doing what the
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Bible tells us to do. You have the power. You don't need it. You have it. You have the
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Holy Spirit. You have the power. Speak. Speak. Speak.
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Speak. Peter knows. He knows that it's not by his own piety, or by his own holiness.
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It's not by his piety, but it's from the holiness that he has from above. Peter is holy.
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He is righteous in Christ. outside of Christ, still a weak and pitiful man, a man that you should pity.
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In Christ, he's holy and he's righteous and he's as bold as a lion.
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And when you view yourself in this way, you can only give God the glory.
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Peter knew who he was before Christ, before the Holy Spirit. That's why whenever this miracle happened and these people were gathering and he knew he had just but seconds before they started worshiping him or looking to him as something special, that it was not him but it was
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Christ. It was God in him, the hope of glory. The message of the gospel preached was simply beautiful.
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He tells them that they denied Christ and chose a murderer instead in the presence of Pilate.
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And we touched on this last week, right? Pilate said, who do you, who do you want, your
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King Jesus or Barabbas? Barabbas was the murderer. And they said, give us
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Barabbas. What do you want me to do with your king? They said, crucify him. This group right here were a part of that crowd who said, crucify him, crucify him.
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And what they didn't understand is that Barabbas was a representation of them. It was a representation of you.
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You were Barabbas. You were set free.
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Christ died in your stead. And Peter is using this.
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He says, they denied the holy and the righteous one.
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Peter is taking something that actually, that they actually partook in to show them their sin in hopes that they would, that it would bring them to repentance and faith.
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He tells them that they, the Jews, put to death the author of life that is
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Jesus, the Son of God. Meaning, he who created all things.
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Then he moves to the resurrection and how men were healed by faith in Jesus Christ.
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As you read this, it's kind of, the theologians go back and forth, even in the reformed circle.
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I think it's clear that when Peter spoke the name of Jesus, this man believed in the name of Jesus and that he could walk.
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You think that this beggar didn't see Jesus in real life?
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He was at the gate, beautiful, every day. And for some reason, Jesus passed by him, maybe weekly, and did not heal him.
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He didn't heal him for this purpose that's taken place in chapter 3. The man saw
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Jesus. He knew about Jesus. He knew what had taken place. Peter looked at him and said, in the name of Jesus, the
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Nazarene, stand up and walk. That man believed in his faith in Jesus.
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He was healed. Question, what was the message preached?
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Answer, the author of life came to his own. His own denied him.
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His own people put him to death. But God raised him from the dead and that life and healing was in the name of Jesus.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that is the message. Point number three, the call.
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This is taken from verse 17 to verse 26. Verse 17, and now brothers,
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I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also, but the things which
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God had announced beforehand by the mouth of the prophets that his
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Christ would suffer and thus fulfill. Listen, therefore, therefore what?
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That the Christ would suffer and thus fulfill. Therefore, because that has happened, because the prophecies were fulfilled, verse 19, therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the
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Lord. And that he may send Jesus, the
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Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which
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God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets from ancient times. Moses said, the
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Lord God will rise up for you, a prophet like me from your brothers.
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To him you shall listen to everything that he says to you, and it will be that every soul that does not heed what that prophet shall be uttered, destroyed from among the people.
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And likewise all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel to his successor onward also proclaim these days, it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which
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God made with your father, saying to Abraham and to your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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For you first, speaking of the Jews, God raised up his servants and sent him to you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.
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He calls them to repent and to return to God, to repent and to turn back to God.
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And we know that this is by putting your faith in Jesus. He tells them that they acted in ignorance, meaning that they just did not know.
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It was not clear. They must have not really studied the scriptures. And their denial in putting
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Jesus the Christ to death. That this was God's predetermined plan to happen.
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We looked at that last week. That was about the message that we saw last week. So we see that this is a continuing point that Peter makes.
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That what happened on that cross was God's predetermined plan, and it was written, it was spoken by the prophets.
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The example that he gives here is Moses from Deuteronomy chapter 18.
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In Peter's first message he spoke about David. So his example was David and how David being a prophet looked ahead and he looked ahead and he spoke of Jesus.
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And in this message he's speaking about Moses and how Moses prophesied the first coming of Jesus.
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And we looked at this prophecy concerning the gospel in the Gospel of John. So if you look back with me in the
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Gospel of John real quick, look at John chapter 5. John chapter 5.
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Let's look at verse 38 to 47. John chapter 5,
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John 38 through 47. Verse 38. And you do not have, so Jesus is speaking to the religious
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Jews, and you do not have his word abiding in you. Imagine saying that to a group of Jews who had the
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Bible memorized. And you do not have the word of God abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he sent.
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You search the Scriptures, that is his word, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these, the
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Scriptures, that bear witness about me. And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.
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I do not receive glory from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourself.
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I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
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How can you believe when you do, when you receive glory from one another?
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And do not seek the glory that is from the only
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God. Do not think that I will accuse you to the
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Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, speaking of the law, and, excuse me, is
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Moses, in whom you set your hope. Verse 46. For if you believed
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Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
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The Jews were, in one sense, you could say there was some kind of a
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Moses worship taking place. Their whole life was wrapped up in Moses.
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And he's saying, you don't believe Moses. Moses spoke about me. You don't believe Moses. And what writing of Moses did they not believe?
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It's Deuteronomy 18. And in the context of Deuteronomy 18,
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Moses is telling them who not to listen to. So like if you go there real quick to Deuteronomy 18, verse 9 says, when you enter into the land which
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Yahweh gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the nations.
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So in Deuteronomy 18, he tells them who not to listen to, and that is the surrounding nations who are committing abominations.
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And then in verse 15 of Deuteronomy, he tells them who to look forward to and to listen to.
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Look at verse 15. And Yahweh, your God, will raise up from you a prophet like me.
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So Moses is speaking. A prophet like me from among you, from among your brothers.
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You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you have asked from Yahweh, your
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God, in Herber, on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh, my
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God. Let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.
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Speaking of when God descended on the mountain as a fire, and if a beast touched the mountain, the beast was to be stoned.
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They were afraid. They feared God. They didn't want anything to do with God. They told Moses, you go to him.
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We'll stay here. And God has given them their wish.
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Look at verse 17. And Yahweh said to them, they have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you.
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This is Hebrews 2, speaking of Jesus. He had to be made like his brothers in every way.
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And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
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And it will be that whoever will not listen to my words, which I shall speak in my name,
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I myself will require it of them. John chapter 12, verse 44 says, excuse me, 49 says this,
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Jesus speaking, for I did not speak for myself, but the
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Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment what
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I, what to say, and what to speak. Fulfilling Deuteronomy 18.
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In order to do, they had to listen. And this is true of you and I as well.
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In order for you and I to do, we are called, what we are called to do, we must know what we are called to do.
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How do we know? We must listen. Peter is telling them that the prophets spoken, that the prophets spoken by Moses, the prophecy spoken by Moses came true, excuse me, and it came to you, the prophet that Moses spoke about, this prophecy, he came to you, and you put him to death.
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Therefore, repent and return to God. That means believe in the prophet.
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Returning to God in the context is not undoing what was done, but it is to believe what the prophet has spoken.
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And this prophet is Jesus Christ. Peter takes it back even further than Moses, and he, and he's pointing them, as well as you and I, to the promise made to Abraham.
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And you know this really well, right? So look back real quick at the, at Acts chapter 3.
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We're about to close Acts chapter 3. Look at verse 25 and 26.
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And he says, It is to you who, excuse me, it is you who are the sons of the prophets, right?
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Speaking to the Jews, and of the covenant which God made with your father,
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Santa Abraham. He's about to show this covenant that's made with Abraham, and in this covenant, a promise is given.
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In your seed, which Galatians tells us, this seed is Christ, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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For you first God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.
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The prophet, the prophecy was that through your seed, through the seed of Abraham, which is
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Christ, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. What seed of Christ has blessed all the nations?
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Jesus Christ. He is that seed, and by faith in him the nations will be blessed.
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Jesus came to his own. We see this in John chapter 1,
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John chapter 1 verse 11 and 12. Speaking of Jesus, he came to what was his own, and his own did not receive him.
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So that was to them first, but also to the nations. Verse 12, but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.
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Real quick, turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st
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Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st Corinthians chapter 2, 1st our faith. Lord, I pray right now as we are about to partake in the supper,
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Lord, I pray that for those who might have been living in sin this week,
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Lord, that they will confess their sins to you. And that as they partake in the supper, they will be able to do so in a good conscience.
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And Lord, I pray that as we partake in this meal, that you will use this meal just as this message and as everything we've done here today to grow us closer to the image of Jesus Christ.