Acts 3:11-26  Times of Refreshing

 

What comes to your Mind – Hear this statement:

Take the Nestea plunge.

A)Popular 80’s commercial –

 

B)Being an ice tea Fan – Panera – Rubios

1) Liked that commercial

 

C)Great add – on a hot day – nothing more refreshing to me – cold glass of ice tea.

 

What comes to your mind – Refreshment?

A)Cold glass water/ ice tea – Refresh thirst

 

B)Beach in Maui – Refresh mentally

 

C)Good night sleep – refreshed Physically

 

But what about your Soul and Spirit being refreshed.

That is most important!

A) Because you see you can be refreshed – Thirst

Mentally – Physically

1)But still be an absolute mess – If things are not right Spiritually

 

B)Today we are going to look at Peter’s 2nd sermon – remarkable sermon –

1)Peter addresses this issue of spiritual refreshment

  

Consider the setting of this Sermon:

A)Last week we looked at the first physical miracle in the book of Acts:

 

B)The instantaneous healing of a lame man who, waiting at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, had asked for money from Peter and John as they went up to pray.

 

C)Silver and gold? no! – but what I do have I give …. 1)And taking him by the hand he lifted him up, and the man's feet and ankles received strength,

 

D)Walking leaping and praising God  around the temple courts.

1)Now, Luke tells us what followed immediately, beginning in verse eleven of chapter three:

 

11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed.

A)Picture this scene: This lame man now healed – is filled with Joy - - leaping praising –

 

B)He held on to Peter and John – clung – with both arms. They are trying to get away, but he will not let them go.

1)The Greek is very strong -- it means that he clung to them with great strength.

 

C)The people around, seeing this commotion, rush over to Solomon's porch of the temple,

1)and, recognizing the former lame man who sat at the Beautiful Gate,

 

And when Peter looked at their faces, he saw two things: He saw this astonishment

A)the fact that they were bug-eyed with amazement at what had happened;

 

B)But he also saw that they were sort of Star Struck

1)a sense of hero worship toward him and John was developing.

 

C)This is a danger to be avoided in Christian circles 1)We can have the tendency to focus on Christ’s servants rather than Christ

2)focus on the gifted rather than the giver of the gifts.

 

D)Peter and John were very quick to counter this reaction:

 

V.12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

 

Peter asked two questions #1 Why Marvel men of Israel? -

A)Why should you be surprised – God would heal – the history of our God is filled with Miraculous

You know your history, how God parted the Red Sea, provided manna from heaven, used a slingshot to kill a giant.

A)Our God is the God of the miraculous. Why, then, are you surprised that He healed a lame man?”

 

B)God of miracles – Pray for big things – Bryan Newberry

 

C)Pray like it!

 

2nd Question – why are you looking at us.

A)Not our Power or our Piety that did this!

 

B)We didn’t do it – we don’t deserve it! – Not our strength or our standing

1)All God – it is all grace.

 

C)Peter wants this focus to be on God – not on men.

 

So that is the setting for this Sermon: V.13 -26 make up this second sermon. 3 point sermon

#1 A word of truth.

#2 There is grace.

#3 There is Hope.

              

Acts 3:13-15

 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.

14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

 

Peter speaks the truth here:

A)God glorified his servant Jesus – but you V.13 Delivered him .v.14 You denied Him V.15 you killed Him.

 

B)Names for Jesus – God’s Servant, the Holy one, The prince or author of life. – All messianic terms –

 

C)You in question: That Jewish generation

1)This generaton delivered, denied, Killed the Messiah- Wow!

 

D)Pretty intense moment

1)Peter speaks the truth - Truth reveals guilt

 

Now, why would Peter do a thing like that?

A)Why start out with making these people feel this terrible load of guilt?

 

B)Psychologists tell us today, guilt is a destructive force in human lives.

1)We cannot live with guilt. Every one of us has experienced it.

 

C)The fundamental characteristic of fallen man is that he feels guilty.

Guilt produces other emotions – Such as fear

A)Remember when you were little, and you did things that did not please your parents, and felt guilty about it?

 

B)You discovered immediately your reaction was to hide, because you were afraid.

1)Same reaction as Adam and Eve – nothing changed

 

C)So guilt always moves to fear, and fear is an unpleasant companion to live with.  

 

 

To deal with Guilt some people run and hide takes the form of escapism.  {Avoid the feeling.

A)Seek to escape guilt – by escaping into other pursuits.

 

B)Pleasure: Drugs / sex / Hedonistic behavior

1)Mask the pain – band aid – Pleasure treadmill

 

C)Possession treadmill – accumulation – of stuff

1)Buy to feel good – Charge to take away pain

 

D)Others even – Performance treadmill

1)Personal achievement at work –

2)Or in relationships – they want to be liked

3)Religious performance.

 

E)All in an attempt to escape for the feeling of guilt.

1)But you can’t – leads to despair – even hostility.

 

Peter starts with the truth – that leads to guilt because before we will confess that we need a doctor we need to come to grips with the fact we are sick.

A)So Peter says when you should have recognized  Jesus as the Messiah { You didn’t

 

B)Instead  u delivered, denied and Killed the Author of life.

 

C)In his indictment of them – he says something so powerful – V.13 mentions Pilate.

1)Pilate who was a pagan, gentile, who didn’t have their theological background

 

D)Pilate could see that Jesus was innocent!

1)Pilate wanted to release Jesus – gave you a Choice

Jesus or Barabas - a murderer!

 

E)You Chose Barabass instead of Jesus!

 

In other words: You rejected the giver of life and Chose a taker of life instead.

A)People are still doing that today – Jesus described Satan in this way – John 10:10 He is a thief and robber who comes to kill to rob and to destroy!

 

B)He is a taker – Satan is like a spider – he offers you things – pleasure – possessions – lure you into his web – trapped – drain the life right out of you.

 

This is going to make me happy – give me life – reality – opposite is true – takes our life.

A)Life is short to begin with folks

 

Billy Graham was asked "What has been the greatest Surprise of your life" His answer "The BREVITY of it"

 

B)You don't think you're really that much Older on the outside because you still feel so Young on the inside.

 

C)There are certainly tell tales signs that one is GETTING OLD.

* You know you're getting old when all the names in your little Black Book end in "M.D."

 

You know you're getting old when you get Winded PLAYING CHESS!

 

You know you're getting old when you try to Straighten the Wrinkles in your Socks   ...and you're not  WEARING ANY!

 

You know you're Getting Old when your Pacemaker accidentally opens the Garage Door,

 

You know you're getting old when you Bend over to Tie your Shoes and you wonder WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO while you're Down there.

 

D)We are all getting older – folks

1)Where is our focus? – Giver of life or are we being seduced by the taker of life.

Insight from the great author C.S. Lewis

"God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing!"

 

Augustine who wrote “You formed us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

 

I want to encourage you today – not to make the same mistake that they did – reject the giver of life for the taker of life.

 

Peter Spoke the truth – First step to Spiritual refreshment – is we have to be honest with ourselves.

A)David prayed Psalm139:23-24

 

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

 

 

B)Show me where I am guilty!

 

C)First step to becoming whole!

 

 

#2 Remember there is Grace

16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

 

Jesus name that healed this man – brought strength where there wasn’t – wholeness – where broken!

A)You delivered, denied, Killed

 

B)But you did it in ignorance!

 

C)Jesus prayed from the Cross – father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.

1)They knew in their hearts – wrong – injust

 

D)But they were blinded by religious Zeal

 

E)Paul persecuted the Church – in ignorance – blinded by religious devotion and zeal.

 

F)They were blinded in the same way: Pride and ignorance – a dangerous cocktail.

 

D)But in this we see the grace of God

 

 

 

 

That is, by the means of human stupidity and ignorance, God's purposes were nevertheless worked out.

A)That is grace, that through all the blindness and the folly, the foolishness of human life, God is still working out his purposes?

 

Peter spoke the truth but seasoned it with Grace –

A)All truth with no grace is Brutality

 

B)It has to be both – Jesus filled with Grace and truth

 

#3 There is Hope.

A)Hope and refreshment come with repentance.

 

B)Two fold aspect – immediate and future.

1)Personal and national – individual and global

 

C)First immediate/ personal{ Hope in a suffering Messiah

18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

 

Prophets prophesied – Messiah would suffer!

A)All part of the plan of God to pay for sin –

 

B)He suffered instead of us- Thru His death would come life.

 

C)His suffering was designed by God – Ransom for many – take the wrath

Life refreshment for all who repent and believe!

Acts 3:19-21

19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,   21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

 

Repent: Change your mind – Change your direction: A)Change the way you were thinking about Jesus!

 

B)Peter’s message is if you CHANGE your mind RIGHT NOW

1)If your thinking ALIGNS w/ the truth of who Jesus is

 

C)You will first of all experience your sins being blotted out!

 

This is a vivid word.

A)Ancient writing was upon papyrus and the ink had no acid in it. It therefore did not bite into the papyrus like modern ink, but simply lay on top of it.

 

B)To erase the writing a man simply wiped it away with a wet sponge; so God wipes out the sin of the forgiven man.

 

Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus “purged” our sins like a Dr. who removes a cancerous tumor and then cleansing the wound and binding it and bringing healing

You will not only experience forgiveness of sins

You will experience “refreshing” that comes from the “presence” of the Lord

A)Refresh = given new breath!

 

B)Running on pleasure treadmill/ performance …

Possession treadmill –

 

C)Out of breath -  panting –

 

There is refreshment found in Jesus

A)Spirit refreshed – given new breath

 

B)It happens when we repent

 

C)Change our mind – about sin – about attitude

Change our direction –

1)Moving away from the Lord – moving to

 

Repentance is more than remorse or regret

Regret in itself, is a useless emotion. It produces nothing.

It’s like putting a car in neutral and revving the engine. There is a lot of noise, but no progress (

 

Regret focuses on what can never change!

 

While on the other hand, Repentance focuses on what has to change!

It’s putting the car in gear, and making ground.

This is possible!

Repentance is when you detect and destroy the rationalizations that lead to your sin.

 

There are NUMEROUS rationalizations

#5 “Just this once, I can handle this!”

#4 “I’ll hide it, I’ll cover it; no one will know!”

#3 “Every body else is doing it”

#2 “It can’t be wrong if it feels so right”

#1 “I’ll just do it, then ask God to forgive me!”

It’s changing your mind about those lies.

 

That is the personal and the immediate Change that happens to everyone who repents

A)Sins blotted out – Refreshed – spiritual

 

B)Taking the Jesus plunge.

 

C)But there is also a future aspect to this promise

National for Israel –

1)Global for the world –

                                             Read v. 22-26

 

Times of restoration:

A)Israel as the pp of God –the promise to Abe his seed –

 

B)Global – Millenium – Lion lamb – peace

 

C)Early Church – Anchored moving forward in the immient return – Jesus soon

1)Earthquakes/ Economy – God is getting our attention

 

 

With repentance comes times of refreshment:

A)Times of refreshing is literally a Fresh breath.

 

B)Like we were panting – out of breath – running in this world

 

C)Talked about the Possession treadmill – running after materialism

 

Others running on the Performance treadmill – Religious routine and ritual

A)Trying to please God that way.

 

B) It is all God – it is all grace –

 

 

Others running on the Pleasure treadmill – One new experience after another

A)Out of breath –

 

B)When we change our mind – direction – come to God – heart to Jesus

 

C)Fresh Breath –

 

Sins blotted out

This is a vivid word. Ancient writing was upon papyrus and the ink had no acid in it. It therefore did not bite into the papyrus like modern ink, but simply lay on top of it. To erase the writing a man simply wiped it away with a wet sponge; so God wipes out the sin of the forgiven man. It will affect the future; it will bring times of refreshing. Into life will come something which will be a strength in weakness and a rest in weariness.

 

Present and Future Fulfillment to this Promise. V.21-26
A)Immediate refreshing of the Spirit – that take place sins forgiven – guilt removed.

 

B)What Jesus does when he comes to a heart

 

C)But also what he is going to do when he comes back again to the earth – 2nd coming

 

Restoration  of all things – Promised thru the prophets – Moses / Samuel etc

A)Put things back – lion / lamb – but also the standing of Israel

 

Living in the last days  Earth quakes –

 

God is trying to get our attention.