Welcome
Let’s pray . . .
Our verses today are
“The Love of Christ” and
“Jerusalem”
The Love of Christ comes from Romans 8:35-29 which says:
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now listen – who in their right mind would ever try and first put this number of verses to music (we would) and who would have the ability to do it? (Mallory would).
Why?
Because committing them to our minds is vital to growing in faith. So don’t just passively allow them to come and go – try and bring them in. They are NOT her words, they are scripture!
We’ve no problem memorizing the lyrics to Sergent Peppers Heart Club band give the Word of God a try.
The second set of passages come from Matthew 23:37
It’s not the most uplifting number but Jesus was not uplifted when He spoke the Words.
His own people and nation had rejected Him and He knew what this meant – judgment. It caused Him to weep over the city and their future plight, just hours before going to the cross.
The passage has Jesus say:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
And when we come back we will continue our verse by verse through Acts chapter 3 picking it up at around verse 16.
Acts 3.19
November 29th 2015
Milk
So last week Peter, using the healing of the man born lame, speaks to a crowd of Jewish men there in the temple.
We ended with Peter telling them that they had “killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.”
Peter continues at verse 16 to preach to this crowd, hoping to break through the walls around their hearts.
Our content today – as are other parts of Acts – is written in a manner that is difficult to pin down in terms of chronology. At one point it seems like Peter is speaking of things to come and then at another it seems like he is speaking of things that are present – its quite confusing.
So we’ll work through them together to arrive at clarity.
So having told they that they killed the “Prince of Life,” Peter says:
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Okay back to 16 where Peter continues his thought and after saying that “they killed the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead and whose resurrection they(the apostles) were witnesses,” Peter adds something that is really confusing to me, saying:
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
First of all, whenever scripture uses the phrase “his name” or “by or through His name,” it is the same thing as it saying, “He.”
Again, the word “name” is often used by Hebrews, especially when speaking of God, to be the same thing as He.
Contrary to public opinion it does not mean that there was any efficacy in the mere name of Jesus, Yeshua, Iesous that would heal the man, but that it was done Him and through his authority and power.
That being said I’m sure there are instances in life where the mere mention of the Name of Jesus things happen but again, the actions are carried out by Him and not just the name.
We will read later in Acts 19 a really interesting story where some people assumed that using the name without faith in the person was possible.
This is what it says
13 Then some of the “itinerant Jewish exorcists” undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.
15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 And the man (in whom the evil spirit was) leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and “the name of the Lord Jesus” was extolled (meaning the Lord was extolled and NOT just His name).
So the crowd was looking on Peter and John as if they had done the miracle and Peter says:
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Now, we know that the lame man expressed no faith in Jesus at all. So we know that Peter is not speaking of faith that he possessed.
The King James is cumbersome in this translation so let’s appeal to a few others:
(ASV) And by faith in his name hath his name made this man strong,
(RSV) And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong
(WNT) It is His name– faith in that name being the condition—
(WEB) By faith in his name has his name made this man strong
(MNT) “And his name, on the ground of faith in his name, has made strong this man
I want to make this first line understandable.
First we know that the lame man had no faith on “the name” or “the person of Jesus” so we are not including him in the passage at all.
Second, we know that Peter and John did (have faith on Him) and used His name in the healing.
So I would translate this passage to say:
“And He, through our faith in Him, causing us to use His name, hath made this man strong.”
Peter continues with another somewhat cumbersome line
“whom ye see and know (through years of watching him beg at the temple gate) ”yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
Simply put, Peter is saying that the “faith which came about by Jesus has given this lame man his perfect soundness in their presence.”
The Word Peter uses (that is translated, perfect soundness here) is HOLO-KLAYREA) and it isn’t found anywhere else in the New Testament.
Remember when we said that when God heals it is perfect and complete and total. That’s what HOLOKLAYREA means – the man was free from all defects and was totally complete and perfect.
They had seen him lame for decades. They could now examine and judge for themselves his condition. He was living conclusive proof of what?
Jesus and His power and purpose.
Now last week we talked about how Peter was tossing down on them to try and break into their hearts.
He was using the Word as a hammer to break through the Wall. Now he seems to take another approach – gentleness, understanding, and he begins by associating himself with them as brothers, saying
17 And now, brethren . . .
Years ago on live television when we would get calls from seeking LDS people and we would have a great conversation I would end the call by saying something like:
“Okay, take care my brother.”
And I would get emails from Christians saying, “Don’t refer to them as your brothers – they are not your brothers.”
I never stopped calling the LDS callers my brothers for two reasons. First, we are all brothers and sisters in the brotherhood of Man which is a reiterated biblical concept. But the second reason was while I know they are not yet my spiritual brothers, they are brothers from my first faith – similar to the Jew – and to acknowledge this kinship goes a long way in keeping hearts and lines of communications open.
I mean last week we read that Peter accused these very men of killing the Actuator of Life and now he too refers to them as his brethren.
But he does not stop there. He says . . .
“And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it (killed the Prince of Life), as did also your rulers.”
Now, last week (as mentioned) we heard Peter sledgehammer the walls of defense, telling them that they killed the Holy and Just One – remember?
Here we are introduced to the other side of sharing Jesus – actually sharing the truth – with anyone – love.
I am convinced that we can honestly talk with anyone on earth about anything IF they know you love and care about them.
Anyone can call anyone out on sin. That’s easy. But it doesn’t mean it will be effective or purposeful.
Who cares if we are right if the end result will only be alienation and someone rebelling more against God.
At the same time we cannot speak untruths. What is the biblical happy balance? It’s right here in this situation with Peter and the crowd.
They were not innocent. But they acted in ignorance.
400 years before Christ Socrates said something to the effect “that if we truly understood all the facts about a situation we would never sin.”
This seems to be Peter’s meaning. I say this because Matthew 27:18 clearly points out that the Jews had Jesus killed because “of envy” but from what Peter says here, they still did not know what they were doing.
(beat)
How many of us truly and fully understand the ramification of our sin? Even if we sit down and try to calculate it all out – we will all somehow be lacking in the totality of its consequences –
Whether they relate to this world and the ripple effects of our actions or to the eternities and the pain and suffering they cause Christ and others.
Most of us sin without fully understanding the earthly or eternal ramifications of our actions. Peter seems to be tapping into this fact, and the knowledge of it allowed him, in a moment of love, to softly, gently help his brothers looking on him understand.
(beat)
So while yes, while we are all lead by our desires and flesh and self-will when we sin, just as the Jews had Jesus killed for envy, hatred, jealousy, and due to their own self interests, they acted in ignorance, not fully knowing who He was or His innocence – and we do the same.
After years of my hard heart simmering in a pot of the Holy Spirit I began to shift from accusing people of evil to seeing them as failing to see or understand the facts of their actions and behaviors.
The seeds of this perspective hit me early when a girl in my English class took on the entire Edison High School football team over a weekend binge of sexual depravity only to sit next to me at the back of the room Monday morning and silently weeping non-stop .
They came when my oldest daughter as a teenager sat on my lap crying on the beach over a failure to comprehend the depth and breadth of sin prior to committing them.
They come every time I’m able to talk with any person – from imprisoned criminals to sold out believers – and hear of their short-sightedness and failure to grasp the ripple effect of their every act.
We are guilty of killing him, we all did so ignorantly – to some extent or another – the Jews included.
This verse is a remarkable instance of tenderness in appealing to people in sin.
Peter had jackhammered their hearts open with condemnation. Now it was time to pour in the love.
We strive to remember that people are melted to contrition, not by reprimands but by love.
Last week between the services I was rushing to buy some an aspirin and came to a line of cars.
Looking around them was a Volvo stalled in the intersection and had two very gruff characters sitting in it.
The line was not moving. So I whipped around them to the left and just when I was coming up to the men in the stalled car another car in the line laid on their horn.
The guys in the car thought it was me who honked. Due to the stress of his situation and the added tension of the honk he went ballistic – on me.
“Roll down your effin window effin idiot! He screamed while pounding on the steering wheel. Are you blind! I’m broken down here!”
I pulled away, did a U-turn, parked and walked toward them. He jumped out with a look of terror and anger on his face. He started to scream and I said to him very calmly:
“I didn’t honk at you. I’m here to help you push.” Immediately, his face relaxed, his tone changed and his posture shifted.
“Oh… hey thanks. I’m sorry I thought you were the one who honked.”
Paul asks in Romans 2:4
“Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
(beat)
Because of lack of time I ran into the Chevron station to grab an aspirin pack
and a woman exited from the building.
As I approached her she said, “I’m really sorry but you got the blame.”
I said, “for what?”
She said, “I’m the one who honked. I was just so frustrated that those guys in that care were just sitting there.”
And the cyclical system of Christian empathy, sympathy, love, forgiveness opened up to me. He came to save us ignorant sheep who wander and stray not knowing the dangers ahead. It’s a system that began when Jesus said on the cross,
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do,”
And it continues on every time we realize neither we nor those we judge know what we are doing either.
Peter here even gives the Jewish leaders the benefit of the doubt saying that they too killed the Holy and Just One in ignorance.
This fact is supported later by Paul who said in 1st Corinthians 2:7-8
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory (Ready) which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
The insight of Socrates gives a lot of hope for most people in this world because it does seem like we are all (to some extent or another) laying in the gutter of ignorance relative to our attitudes and actions that work against God.
We are not innocent, but neither are we entirely culpable.
Having said all of this scripture is terrifyingly clear that in situations where people are informed and aware and willfully sin against the information they possess there remains only judgement and the forgiveness of sins is not available to them.
I bring this out to illustrate the reason we get together, pray, study and sing the Word – to enhance and increase and fortify our faith, all of which serve as an inoculation against faithlessness.
Listen carefully (and contextually) to Hebrews 10 where the writer plainly states to believers (listen):
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Now granted, this admonition was to the believers of that day who could see “the day of judgment upon Jerusalem approaching.”
For us today the day approaching is our own deaths, as Hebrews 9:27 reiterates:
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
But then after saying:
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
LISTEN to what the writer says next! (Ready?)
26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Without going into all the Greek to explain this what verse fully says I think we can say that if a person has received a genuine understanding of the truth (this means of “Jesus,” who Himself said that He is the way, the truth and the life) and such a person voluntarily decides, in the face of what they have come to know, to become an opponent to it, there remains no sacrifice for sins but only judgement which will consist of a zealous indignation which will in some manner eat their opposition as fire eats dry grass.
So back to Acts. After Peter says:
“And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it (killed the Prince of Life), as did also your rulers.” (in verse 18 he adds a But to the grace he has extended to them, saying)
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
In other words “in all the things related to what Peter has described, his life and his death and resurrection and God glorifying Him, as spoken of by all of his prophets, even relating to His suffering, Christ has fulfilled or completed.”
They have all occurred.
It’s like while Peter has given them some grace, telling them that they acted in ignorance in His death, that nevertheless, everything that was ever said of Him – by the mouth of all the prophets – did occur. And so where they were not fully cognizant of such things when they had Pilate put Him down, they were still guilty.
And then he adds (verse 19)
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
We’ve already covered the fact that Peters call to the Children of Israel to repent is not the same call Paul gives throughout his epistles to the Gentile world.
The children of Israel in this day and age were guilty (LISTEN) collectively and in some cases individually, for rejecting the Messiah and sending Him to death.
All through their history when one of the them sinned the whole group was often subject to punishment – we see this in the story of David and in several other places.
It’s on this basis that when Jonah was on the ship and the storm was thrashing them that the crew started asking about each individual person so as to determine who the rat was so they could get him off the boat and save themselves from destruction.
Same thing here – the Nation of Israel as a whole were on a storm tossed sea – and the situation was only gonna get worse.
Peter is telling them to repent and abandon ship – the waves are gonna get bigger!
If you want to understand repentance for the Jew in that age (in comparison to the Gentile) go back to the CAMPUSCHURCH.TV archives and watch the Milk teaching on October 18th of this year.
So, getting back to Peter here and now, he tells them that in the face of all that has been said for them to therefore repent – be part of the Nation that has seen the light and turned from your culpability by . . . CONVERTING.
“Repent, therefore, and be converted,” Peter says.
The word used here for convert is a compound term – EPI-STREPHO.
And it means to turn, return, change places, a literal or figurative “about face.”
Epi means “put it upon you” and strepho means “twist or turn.”
Repent means change your mind. Convert means change your position or stance. “Put upon you an about face!”
Now, the King James makes this seem like a very passive activity – “repent and BE converted,” is what it says.
Not too good. The order of the words is good because in genuine relationship the mind turns first and then the action.
But it’s not good in its passivity, “be converted,” like it happens through some exposure to an alien force.
But the word Epistepho, in other places in scripture shows it requires active engagement rather than passive manipulation.
For instance,
In Matthew 24:18, where Jesus in warning his apostles how to survive the end of days says:
“Neither let him which is in the field return (epistrepho) back to take his clothes.”
Or in 1st Thessalonians 1:9 where Paul says:
“For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how “ye turned to God from idols” (epistepho) to serve the living and true God;
So instead of saying, repent and be converted it would better read,
“Repent, and turn . . .” Peter adds, “that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
“that your sins may be blotted out.”
Okay. This passage and passages like it have caused millions of religious fellows to teach that in order to be forgiven of our sins, and to have them erased from the Books that God is apparently keeping on all of us, a person needs to
“Repent, turn (and by the way, the Ethiopic translation of the Bible adds, “and be baptized”) “THAT your sins may be (may be) blotted out.”
It is a VERY easy (and quite frankly) it is very convenient thing to teach. It serves religion well and just reading the Bible will lead many people to accept this formula as the proper way.
But taking the whole of the Word of God – especially Paul’s epistles to the Gentile believers who were NOT under the Law nor where we in this audience – we must remember that procedures of repentance, turning and reformation procure our pardon of sin before God and get Him to erase them from the proverbial books.
Again, this is what religion wants us to believe.
The cause of our forgiveness is God’s grace base on our faith. Our faith in what?
In the life death and resurrection of His Son.
For it is by grace that we are saved, not of works, lest any man should boast,” Paul clearly states.
Changing our minds and turning back in a very literal sense is a work we choose to do because we have been saved. To reverse it – meaning to tie our BEING saved to our choosing to change our minds and then actively twist ourselves toward God – could be a cause for boasting, so we KNOW – we KNOW that there must be another way to understand these passages.
And that way is context.
Under the Law, as a Jew, as a member of the House of Israel they were told many times that in order to have their slate cleaned, it would come by repentance.
Unless there was a change of mind and a turning from their iniquity the sin would remain on their account.
Psalm 109:14 says:
“Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.”
God says in Isaiah 44:22
“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”
Having the Law, and the Prophets, and having the Messiah come to them (in that day and age) meant that to survive the judgement that was going to fall on them collectively (because some of their own put the Messiah to death) they had to personally repent for this specific crime and the heart that allowed them to be complicit in it taking place.
Coming their way – and if not their way the way of their children was judgement for these very crimes and Peter is telling them to “change their minds” about what the Nation did to the Messiah, “turn back to God fully,” and have this (and every other sin) blotted out from their account.
Now stay with me – this will come together if you do.
Last week I explained that without a posted or revealed law there is no sin or crime.
Creators of designer drugs know this and fabricate all sorts of dangerous substances that are totally legal until laws are legislated against them.
Additionally, unless there is a law posting the speed limit all speeds are lawful.
Paul was the apostle to the part of the world who were never been given a direct law from God (other than our conscience to which we are subject) but he teaches what the presence of the Law does in a person’s life.
In Romans 3:20 he says:
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Did you catch that? “By the Law” (which the Jews were under when Jesus came to them) “is the knowledge of sin.”
When sin is present, due to the presence of Law, there is a need to repent, turn, and have that sin “blotted out.”
The Jews as a nation were told, warned, promised and given all manner of signs that God was sending them the Messiah.
They were under the Law and He came and fulfilled it on their behalf – and it was encumbent on them to receive Him.
They didn’t. Under the Law they had sin on their account. The ONLY substance that could wipe the slate clean was the blood of the Redeemer – which was applied to them by their acknowledging their sin, repenting of who they thought He was, and turning from their former ways.
And Peter preached this TO THEM – but not to us. Paul has a very different message for all of us who were never given Laws by God written in Stone and reiterated by prophets.
Paul said in Romans 7:8
“For without the law sin was dead.”
He said clearly to gentiles in Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
He reiterated in 1st Corinthians 15:56:
“the strength of sin is the law.”
And John the Beloved says in 1st John 3:4
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
So . . . here’s the deal.
These men had something they needed to get off the books – their killing the King, even if they did it in ignorance.
Peter has made their culpability clear.
I could be wrong on this but I don’t think Paul ever lays Jesus death at the feet of the Gentiles. Indirectly we contributed to it by sinning, and on the cross He paid for all sin but the sin was on their account – because of National culpability and in some cases individual.
He came for the House of Israel. He died for the House of Israel and for the sins of the World. But the crime of His death was on them – and judgment was going to fall for this sin – unless they repented.
A final question lingers – if we are not under the law, and the presence of the law is knowledge of sin – what sins did Jesus pay for on our behalf, as Gentiles?
Apparently we are all given a number of laws that are presented to us throughout our lives – laws in our conscience, calls to believe in God through manifestations of Himself in nature – these alone convict us or rebellion and sin.
But in the case of the Jew before the destruction of Jerusalem, judgment was going to fall on all who did not repent and turn from what they did to their King.
Questions?
Comments?
Prayer
