Brown's daily word

It seems that our world is full of tragedy. We hear countless stories every week of tragedies that have taken place all over the planet. So many, in fact, that the disaster has to be pretty extraordinary to hold our attention for more than a few minutes. It isn't that we no longer care about the hurts of people, but simply that we hear about so many things that we tend to become sort of numb.However, our attention is sometimes held captive by the story of someone whose tragedy has turned to triumph. We like to hear about the bad boy turned good, the poor man who became prosperous, or the nobody who became somebody. The account that we are considering today is just such a story. Acts chapter 3 tells us of a man who had experienced a terrible tragedy in his life, one that would perhaps depress and defeat most people. Fortunately, this man was graciously granted deliverance. Peter the preacher, after his explosive first sermon at Pentecost that demanded decision for Jesus, went with John to the temple with John to pray at 3 p.m. On the way to the temple Jesus used two of servants to perform the first miracle in the name of Jesus, the Risen One. This astounding miracle created a poisonous and explosive controversy with the religious leaders. That led Peter to preach his second sermon. As we look at nature and the content of Peters's second sermon and compare and contrast it with his first sermon they are the same. We know from experience every preacher has only one sermon, though he preaches it differently at different seasons.
When Cambridge University student Thomas Bilney bought a Greek New Testament, his interest was purely academic. However, when Bilney opened God’s Word, he encountered the Gospel and his entire life was transformed. Bilney felt led by God to join himself to a group that shared his beliefs. This occurred during the Protestant Reformation, so Bilney joined the Cambridge Protestants. He began preaching and teaching, but was arrested in 1527 and threatened to keep silence. Bilney would not be silent. He could not keep quiet the gospel that burned in his heart. He was arrested, and later released with another warning. In 1531, he was arrested one last time. Condemned as a heretic, Bilney died at the stake for the gospel of Christ. Like Thomas Bilney, the apostle Peter simply could not keep quiet about Jesus. The opportunity arose to address the crowd that gathered there in the temple courts and Peter seized it. You see, Peter was ready when the opportunity arose. Peter had a divine appointment that day at the beautiful gate with a lame man who was healed. Then God provided Peter the opportunity to preach to more than 5,000 people gathered there in the outer court of the temple. Like Peter, we need to be ready to share Christ with others as the opportunity arises. Paul instructs his protege, Timothy, to this in Timothy chapter 4, verse two, which reads – 4 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
Maybe you will have the opportunity to teach a crowd; maybe you won’t. Maybe you will get the chance to share Christ with one of your friends, or co-workers, and in God’s economy, you sharing Christ with one is just as important as sharing Christ with a huge crowd. God’s work is measured in hearts, not in numbers.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? 13 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. 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. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 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. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ’The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ’And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." Peter spoke the truth in love to the crowd gathered there. He didn’t let them off easily; he hammered his points home, and he didn’t really care if his message was “politically correct”, or whether it offended anyone. God’s Word is not something that we should compromise on. God’s Word is that standard by which we should live our lives. My professor at Princeton, Dr. Bernard W. Anderson used say, "To understand the Bible you need to stand under the Bible". We preach and stand under the authority of the Holy Spirit and Holy Scriptures and above all under the authority of Jesus the Lord of the church. So when Peter faced crowd and crisis, trusting Jesus Christ as the Christ of every crisis, 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? The apostle Peter started off with a question. He saw that the crowd had gathered there because of the miracle that had just taken place. One thing that I notice right off is that Peter took the very first opportunity to direct them to Jesus - not to himself, or to the man that was healed, but to the healer. Jesus was a very famous (or infamous) figure in Israel around that time, depending on whom you asked. Many people had thought that Jesus was the Messiah, and that He would kick the Romans out, and set up an earthly kingdom. Once He had been crucified, however, this hope quickly faded. These people had been looking for a king, and a military leader. In fact and indeed, He was a king, but He came this time as a suffering Servant. Peter told them that they had traded their Savior for a murderer. By doing this, Peter saed, they sealed Jesus’ fate. The Prince of Life was killed because they had asked for a murderer to be released to them rather than Jesus. But, this didn’t stop Jesus. It was not a big deal to the God of the Universe. No, Jesus was raised from the dead. Peter and John had been witnesses to this fact. Not only Peter and John, but over 500 other people were witnesses. Peter and John had also seen the Lord ascend into heaven, to be taken up to the right hand of the Father. Jesus had healed people while He was on the earth doing His earthly ministry. The people gathered there knew about the miraculous healings that Jesus had performed. People brought sick from miles around, and word of that quickly spread around. It was little wonder then, that if Jesus could heal people on earth, then He could still heal people now that He had ascended into heaven. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Some in the church today believe that miraculous healings ceased with the death of the apostle John. Hebrews 13:8 tells me different from that. Jesus can heal people on earth, He can heal people after He ascended, and He can still heal people today. I am the living proof of His healing power even today. 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. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Jesus had risen from the dead.
That was a fact the Peter and John had been witnesses to. The crowd had to be feeling pretty guilty at this point. They had condemned the Savior. Peter presented them with the explanation of the man’s miraculous healing; it all stemmed from faith in Christ. Miraculous healings are a gift from God – totally. If He chooses to heal, then we need to get out of the way, just like Peter was doing here. If He chooses not to heal, that’s His prerogative, and it has nothing to do with our own faith. I have seen accounts of this that devastated people that weren’t healed. They think that somehow their faith wasn’t strong enough. This is sad, and it misrepresents God.These people were eyewitnesses to the perfect healing worked by the divine will of Jesus Christ. This resulted in a total healing of the man, by the total will and grace of God. Even though they had killed Jesus in ignorance, it was not a surprise to God; it was all part of His plan. It was God’s plan all along. God’s plan was foretold by His prophets down through the years. We see Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, Zechariah, and Daniel, among others, foretelling the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and reign of Christ. I would imagine that the folks in the crowd were wondering, “What should we do?”, just like the crowd we saw back in Acts chapter 2. Peter’s general pattern for the gospel message is the same though, from his earlier evangelistic message and this one. Peter first tells them the bad news – that the killed the Messiah, Jesus. Then he would proceed to give them the good news, and that was that forgiveness was available to them by God’s grace. 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. Verse 26" God having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you, in turning every one of you, from your wickedness".
The Risen Lord is at large in the world to bless every one who turns to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He will be present during the Franklin Graham Festival, which will start This Friday at 7 p.m., at the EVENT Center of the Binghamton University. He will be there to bless people by thousands. He will forgive, he will restore, and He will refresh. He will find the lost and encourage the found.
Thanks be to Jesus. He is the same, yesterday, today, and for ever.
In Him,
Brown