Peter's Sermon After the Lame Beggar was Healed - Part 2

Let's take our Bibles and let's turn back to Acts chapter 3, verses 11 to 18. Last week we got started in these verses and we got started in this sermon that Peter preached and we know this came after he healed the lame beggar. And I believe that we all know and understand three things that come out of these verses and out of this teaching that I think it's important to repeat and to hold on to as we continue in this study. First, that is that this is the first apostolic miracle recorded by Luke in the book of Acts.

In Luke's brief description of the early church in Acts 2 42 to 47 he tells us that many wonders and signs were being done by the Apostles. And then here in these verses verses 1 to 10 of chapter 3 he tells us the story of one of those miracles. And as we progress through the book of Acts we're gonna see more miracles, more signs, more wonders, and this reminds me of the fact that I have said that the book of Acts is a book of action and a book of adventure. And I don't know about you but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was adventurous in this miracle and the sermon here with this miracle is adventurous as well.

Second, I believe we all know the reason for those apostolic miracles. God enabled the Apostles and certain ones close to the Apostles to perform signs and wonders for the purpose of drawing people to the message of the truth of God that all these men preached, the fact that Jesus was God's promised Messiah, and that salvation can be found in no other name and no other person than Jesus. One thing I didn't mention last week it needs to be seen the signs and wonders that they performed validated all these things. These miracles validated the Apostles as being from God.

Those performing the miracles, the message of Jesus that they preached everything they did was validation for them, for the people. And as we see the progression and growth of the church as seen in the New Testament and the giving and the development of the Scriptures as God enabled these men to write the Scriptures we will see clearly less and less apostolic miracles. Third, I believe we all know that we do not believe in apostolic miracles today. We do not believe in apostolic succession. So that means that the apostolic gifts died when they died. But we certainly believe God can heal today if he chooses.

If he chooses to heal or not to heal God does so according to his glory and his good purposes on earth and all throughout eternity. Now last week we got started in this sermon and these verses and I said that we see two basic things here in the verses. First the content of Peter's preaching which is what we covered last week. Simply Peter preached Christ but he did more. He preached the person of Christ and he did more than that. He exalted Christ and he did more than that. He did all of those things in a unique way by emphasizing the names of Christ.

And then second out of these verses we see how Peter made personal application of these things which is what we will cover tonight. Simply Peter personally made personal application of what he preached and in his personal application he made application that was pertinent to his audience, the Jews. So let's read our verses again verses 11 to 18. While he clung to Peter and John we know who this was, the healed Lane Beggar. All of the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. Now all of these people are these Jews and when Peter saw it he addressed the people, men of Israel.

Why do you wonder at this or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety, that's another way of saying godliness and holiness, we have made him walk. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. You can say he is saying forefathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you kill the author of life who God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses and his name by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now brothers I know that you acted in ignorance as did also your rulers but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he thus fulfilled. Now again we need to look at this immediate context of these events. Context always helps us I have said this over and over through the years context is key.

Verse 11 tells us that after the lame beggar was healed and after he had been leaping and walking around and praising God there with Peter and John there in the temple he clung to Peter and John. The language and picture here is of this hill beggar firmly and tightly clinging to Peter and John and we can understand why. Sure he was very very grateful and while this was going on the people who saw what happened they were astonished and running to Peter and John and the lame beggar there in Solomon's portico. But remember who else we see here besides Peter John and the hill beggar we have this crowd of people that had gathered.

We don't know how many but they crowded to them and Peter addressed them. Verse 12 Peter addressed or spoke up to the people and he called them men of Israel and what this tells us is that Peter's audience were definitely Jews. The fact that they were there at the temple also tells us that they were Jesus as well and the fact that Peter addressed them as men of Israel all of this comes together to show us who these people are. Now I mentioned this lesson last week and I need to mention it again. When we teach God's Word we must understand our audience and we teach accordingly. Let me give you an example.

If you ever find yourself teaching our little boys and girls in the life of our church remember their children they're not gonna sit still they're not gonna pay attention like you would in what we call big church. They're little boys and girls and they're gonna act like little boys and girls. Of course we want to teach them how to sit down and how to be quiet and all those things but a five year old is not gonna act like a 13 year old. A five year old is not gonna act like an adult. We understand our audience. Another example is when we teach our teenagers.

I think most of you know I teach the teenagers on Sunday night in small group ministry time and I'm a lot more laid back with them. I let them talk. We interact about life. Lots of times the lesson will go left and right. It becomes hijacked by just them being teenagers. I faithfully teach it but I let them be who they are. I let them be who they are. I meet them where they are and the lesson and the word is still taught. I'm trying to show you we must always understand our audience and meet them where they are with God's Word.

Now let's get into how Peter made application to these things and I want to point out three ways that Peter applied what he preached. The first one will be a little longer and the second two will be a little shorter. But I want us to see that he confronted them with the fact that number one they denied Christ. They denied Christ. Now notice what we have here in these verses. Verses 13 to 14 or really all of them. In verse 11 we have the hill beggar holding tight to Peter and John. While at the same time he was praising God with great joy we can understand why.

And while he was following them into the temple a great crowd of Jews gathered to Peter, John and the beggar. Then verse 12 tells us that we see that Peter made sure to say that this was not them who healed the beggar. He emphatically shared that he was healed by the power of God. Now let's read verse 13 to 14 and notice how he begins his sermon. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.

Now notice two times Peter uses this word translated denied. The New American uses a different word, the word disowned. The English standard says denied, the New American says disowned because this word here in the original truly means to deny, like to deny someone, to disregard, like to disregard self someone or something. Think about an awful illustration that helps us capture the meaning of this denied. Think about what happens when a husband or a wife leaves their spouse. They deny them, they disregard them, right? You probably say, "Well pastor, they deny and disregard them and a lot more." Yeah.

Well that is a good example, as awful as it is, that helps us see what these Jews did here. Peter confronted them with the fact that they denied and disregarded Christ Jesus. But notice how the content of Peter's preaching put teeth into the application and the teeth of his application came from the content of the preaching. And I think you'll see this as I progress. Last week we saw that Peter started with a description and presentation of God that they knew.

He said men of Israel, which means he addressed him as Jews, he said the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God of our forefathers, this God has glorified his servant Jesus right before your eyes. Last week we saw that Peter explained that all these things he was preaching were thoroughly biblical. By starting off his sermon in this way, he was connecting all these things concerning Jesus to God's faithfulness to his covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he was purposefully beginning his message by showing them that what he was preaching came from the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures that they knew.

And we saw that Peter used two names or titles, servant and Jesus. By using this title servant, Peter was connecting Jesus to the Old Testament Scriptures which spoke about God's promised Messiah as God's servant. He was literally echoing Old Testament Scripture that they knew. Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53. Throughout the years in my study, I have run across scholars who literally called the book of Isaiah the gospel of Isaiah because it has so much prophecy and teaching concerning the promised Messiah.

Now by using this title Jesus, Peter was using the word in their language which literally means God is salvation, the Lord is salvation, and Jehovah is salvation. But there's more. Peter stated that Jesus was the holy and righteous one. By using this title holy one, Peter was stating that Jesus was set apart. He was separated by God and for God and he was connecting this again to Old Testament Scripture. Psalm 16, 10, spoke of God's promised Messiah and the Psalmist called him God's holy one. And by using this title righteous one, Peter declared that this Jesus that they knew of was right and righteous.

He was and is the righteous one in who he was, how he lived. Now a question, what does this tell us? Peter presented this Jesus that they knew of. He presented him as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. He presented him as the fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the entire nation. He presented him as the one spoken of in all of the Messianic promises and prophecies that they all knew. And when Peter used this language, these words, these descriptions, and these titles for Jesus, the Jews knew who these things came from, where these things came from.

They knew the Old Testament Scriptures and they knew that Peter was referencing the Old Testament Scriptures. And in understanding the context of Peter's sermon, how he preached and what he said when he preached, this helps us see the depth and the breadth of their utter rebellion in their denial of Jesus. Simply they denied, disregarded, and disowned a lot of light and a lot of truth. Peter literally took their very own precious Old Testament Scriptures and he preached Christ to them clearly, but they denied him. And my point is this, the very evidence that pointed to the validity of Jesus as their Messiah, they denied.

The very person of Jesus as their Messiah, they denied personally. Now a question, how does this apply to us in our day? Look at what people deny, disregard, and disown today when they refuse to savingly believe in Jesus. People know more than you realize. Lost people know more than you realize. First, the Scriptures tell us in Romans chapter 1 that all men have the testimony of God in the very creation that they live in and enjoy. This means that man and mankind instinctively knows that there is a creator God behind the world that they live in. But what does lost humanity do?

Romans chapter 1 tells us that they suppress the knowledge of God that is evident in the creation that is all around them. Second, the Scriptures tell us in Romans 2.15 that all men have the law of God written on their hearts. This means that men and man instinctively know that it is wrong to dishonor their father and mother. They know instinctively that it is wrong to murder and to commit adultery and steal and lie and so on. But what do men and man do? They suppress the knowledge of God's law and they deny, disregard, and disown God's law by breaking God's law in thought, word, deed, even in motivation.

Third, Ecclesiastes 3.11 tells us that God put eternity and the knowledge of eternity in men's hearts. This means that man instinctively knows that he is an eternal being. He instinctively knows that he is not like the beasts of the earth and the fish of the sea. He is an eternal being. What does lost humanity do? Men and man suppress the reality that they are eternal beings. Man denies, disregards, and disowns that fact. And then one day they leave the earth and they go into eternity. So look church, look what lost humanity denies, disregards, and disowns lights of truth, lights of light, truth and light from God. Now let me pause here.

Do you see the light and truth that all men and men have? Do you see that? That's not even opening up the Bible now. People know more than you know. But let me ask another question. Let me get more specific. How much truth and light does a person deny and disregard when they do have a knowledge of what the scriptures say? When they hear Bible preaching? When they are in a church for years? How much truth and light does that person deny? I thought about it like this today. You know some of the hymns that we sing are very rich in truth, doctrine, theology, gospel. Some of the modern hymns are and some of the old hymns are.

But I think about people who were born and raised in the church and they live their whole life in church sitting in the pew and they sing songs that we take for granted. There's power in the blood. They sing that Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday, all their life and they reject the truth that's in that song. What am I trying to show you? How much truth and light does a person deny and disregard when they have a Bible, they go to Sunday school, they hear preaching and teaching, and they exist in the church for years. How much truth do they deny? How much light do they deny? And this is my point.

Men and man deny, disown, and disregard a lot of truth and a lot of light. And when we witness to them and we need to share the gospel with the lost, we need to share truth and when we teach and preach we share truth but we desperately need to show the lost how much truth and how much light they are denying, disowning, and disregarding. Look, I have shared this before. This is a part of my testimony. I'm so thankful that when I was lost there was someone who understood, yes, the gospel but they knew how to apply it to me personally. They knew their audience. That person looked at me and they called out my sin.

That person looked at me and they called out my sinful condition. They looked at me and they said, "You live like this, you talk like this, you act like this because of who you are." They articulated exactly what I was, why I did what I did. I didn't like it. I can't repeat to you what I said. I shared this part of my testimony one time and I made the comment that I cursed back at that person. Well, one of the families went home and their son looked at him and said, "Mom, I didn't know the pastor cursed." I apologized to the parent for that and they said it's okay. They don't know what those words are.

But what I'm trying to show you is this, that person personally knew how to personally apply the gospel to me personally. I know that sounds redundant but I think you get the point. Now let me pivot here. One of the things that I think God didn't enable me to do well with my girls in raising them is I was able to preach the gospel to them in the home, not just behind the pulpit. I dealt with them personally. I dealt with what they said, how they acted, their personal attitudes. I dealt with who they were. What I was doing was trying to show them who they are in light of the gospel. You see? A Numa audience.

And I personally applied the gospel to them personally. Now let me continue. Number two, he confronted them with the fact that they delivered Christ over the Pilate to be crucified. Number two, they delivered Christ over the Pilate to be crucified. Now let's go back to verses 13 to 14. Peter says to these Jews now, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers or forefathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murder to be granted to you.

Now right here I want to point out how they delivered Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion. But there's more to this delivery that we may see at first glance. But notice, first they delivered Jesus over to Pilate, the text says. Here Peter confronted these Jews with the damning fact that they had delivered Jesus over to Pilate and the Romans. But for what? For crucifixion. Now we understand that and understand those things from our knowledge of the Gospels, but we need to ask what this means. Simply the nation of Israel was an occupied nation.

Although Rome allowed a certain amount of self-governance, Israel as a nation was really ruled by Rome. But although the Jewish leaders were able to make many governing decisions, they did not have the right to carry out capital punishment, crucifixion. So the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people exerted a tremendous amount of pressure on Pilate and the Romans to put Jesus to death. So they delivered Jesus over to Pilate and to the Romans and basically forced them to put Jesus to death. Simply they delivered Jesus over to Pilate and they knew full well what they were doing. They were delivering him over to the Romans for crucifixion.

You can say it like this, they wanted Pilate and the Romans to do their dirty work for them. Then second, they exchanged Jesus for a murderer. You see to make matters worse, they not only delivered Jesus to Pilate to be crucified, but they exchanged the innocent Son of God Jesus for a convicted murderer. So here we see that these Jews delivered this Jesus that they knew. They knew of Jesus to Pilate for execution in exchange for a murderer. And then third, they did this all while denying, disregarding, and disowning Jesus. Notice this damning reality here.

They delivered Jesus to Pilate for crucifixion and they exchanged Jesus for a convicted murderer, all while denying, all while disregarding, all while disowning Jesus. Simply they denied, disregarded, and disowned a lot of truth, a lot of light, and they delivered that truth, that light, to be crucified all while exchanging him for a murderer. So notice how this all comes together. Peter confronted these Jews with the fact that they denied, disowned, and disregarded this Jesus that they knew and then they delivered him up to Pilate and they forced them to crucify him and then they exchanged him for a murderer.

This leads me to some rhetorical questions. Think with me. What do people exchange for Jesus? Salvation in Jesus, in Jesus' lordship over their lives today. People do that today. What do people exchange for Jesus? What do people exchange for salvation in Jesus? What do people exchange for Jesus' lordship over their lives? Those Jews exchange Jesus and salvation in Jesus for a known convicted murderer. What do people do today in our day?

And more personal, if you are lost and outside of a saving relationship with Jesus, if your family is lost and outside of a saving relationship with Jesus, if your neighbor, your son, your daughter, we can keep going on, you need to see that that person, and if it's you exchanging Jesus for someone or something else. This reminds me of someone in my family that I was ministering to years ago. I'm very disconnected from them now, but I was engaging them in their sin and where they were in life and I dealt with them in their sin and dealt with them about their lostness and I pointed them to Christ. I pointed them to salvation.

I talked about how God had saved them and that person looked me right in the eye and they said, "I like the alcohol, I like the drugs, I like the women, I like my life." Right there he said, "I'll exchange Jesus for sin." I've also seen people come face to face with salvation in Jesus and they exchange their family for Jesus. See, they know and they come to the crossroads where they see and know that if they choose Christ and trust in Christ and come to faith in Christ, it could cost them their relationship with their mother or their father, their brother, their sister.

It could change their entire family dynamics and relationships and I've seen people come to that crossroad and back up. I've seen people have relationships maybe before they're married, a dating relationship, I've seen females be involved with the wrong guy, I've seen guys be involved with the wrong girl and they come to that crossroad, they come to that crossroad, they have this sinful lifestyle tied to that person in that relationship, they come to that crossroad and they choose that relationship over Christ. The list can go on and on and on. You see, people do today just what they did in Peter's day.

Then number three, he confronted them with the fact that they crucified Christ, they actually crucified Christ. We see this in verse 15. Now here we can see that Peter moves on. Have you figured it out? Peter's not trying to win friends and gain influence. He moves on from you deliver Jesus over the pilot to be crucified to you crucified Jesus. Let's look at verse 15 but I want to start back with verse 13.

He says, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate and when he had decided to release him but you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead." Now notice that it is plain to see that Peter held those who were listening personally responsible for killing Jesus but look at how Peter said it.

He said to them, "You killed the author of life, the creator of life, the giver of life." He confronted them with the fact that the very one who gave them life they killed. There's another layer here. I ran across this in some Matthew Henry material and then as I continued to study I saw it in several different commentators that I looked at.

But notice Peter confronts them and he says, "You killed the author and the giver of life all while working to preserve the life of a murderer, one who destroyed life." Peter confronts them and says the very one who was sent to give you true spiritual life and eternal life you killed all while preserving the one who took life and can give you nothing. So notice what we have here. Peter confronted them with the fact that God held them personally responsible for killing the author of life and they did this all while they were exchanging the author of life for a murderer and someone who deserved to die.

Now notice what we have here in application. Although we were not a part of the Roman officials and soldiers who actually crucified Jesus, although we were not a part of the Jewish leaders and the Jewish people who delivered Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified, in a sense we certainly did deliver Jesus over to be crucified, in a sense, and in a very real way we certainly did personally crucify Christ. You see, you're born again, do you see that he went to the cross for your sin? So in a sense we really did crucify Christ. There is a sense in which we are guilty of crucifying Christ. Let me say it like this.

If we had been a Roman official or a Roman soldier we would have done the very same thing outside of the grace of God. If we had been a Jewish leader or are part of the Jewish crowd outside of the grace of God we would have done the very very same thing and my point here is this. In our personal evangelism when we are sharing the gospel with law sinners we need to press home the fact that those that we are witnessing to are certainly guilty of crucifying the very author of life. And you know what? We can humbly say I did the same thing.

Law sinners need to be confronted with the fact that the very one who created them and gave them life they crucified in exchange for filling the blank. Filling the blank. You see? Now in closing look what we see here. Peter's sermon after the lame beggar was healed. This is just a part two. God through Peter and John and all that was going on there healed this beggar who had been lame since his mother's womb. And through the great excitement of this miracle God brought a crowd of Jews to them to see what had happened. And then Peter stepped forward and preached Christ to them.

He knew his audience and he preached Christ Jesus as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, the promised Messiah of the covenant that God made with Abraham and the nation. And as he preached and exalted Christ to his fellow Jews, Peter personally applied all that he was preaching personally to them. He confronted them with the fact that they denied this Jesus that they knew, that their Old Testament spoke of, he confronted them with the fact that they delivered Jesus over to be crucified in exchange for a murderer. And he confronted them with the fact that they crucified Christ they put him on the cross.

And notice the next time we are in our study in the book of Acts we will continue with the sermon because Peter continues to, let me say it like this, turn up the heat. Turn up the heat. Now let me say this and then we will close out the message and look at some prayer needs. Folks we have to understand that there is the good news of the gospel and the bad news of the gospel. If we're not careful we can gravitate to the point and the place where we really want to share the good news and skip over the bad. We can't do that folks. We must share the bad news, the bad news, and the bad news is summarized in this.

We look at sinners and say you crucified the author of life. You're guilty. You will lose friends. You may be reviled. You may be hated. But if you do not, if we do not share the bad news of the gospel we will get people to pray cheap little prayers. We'll get them to make cheap little decisions and that does not save anybody. As a matter of fact it confuses and hinders people from truly coming to faith in Christ. So we share the gospel with lost sinners. We share the good news and the bad news, the bad news and the good news. Never in a hateful way. Never in an arrogant way. No. In a bold way yes. In a loving way yes. Kind and merciful yes.

Sometimes in tears yes. But truthfully, truthfully.