The Lame Shall Leap Like Deer Pt. 2

If you remain standing, we'll turn to God's Word. We'll be reading from the book of Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 3, I'll be reading verses 1 through 26.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 26. Listen now, because this is the holy and inspired Word of God.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer,

the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth, was being carried,

whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful

gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive some alms.

Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us.

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hands and raised him up. And immediately his feet

and ankles were made strong and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered

the temple with him, walking and leaping and praising God.

And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the

one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms,

and they were all filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished,

ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.

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 we have made him walk?

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 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.

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.

Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your rulers,

but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would

suffer and is now thus fulfilled.

Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.

The times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord that he may send

the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time

for restoring of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every

soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from his people.

And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him

also proclaimed these days, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant

that God made with your father saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall

all the families of earth be blessed.

God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning

every one of you from his wickedness.

This is the word of the Lord. You can be seated.

Let's pray together. O Lord, our God, maker of heaven and earth, we ask now that,

you would give us your spirit that as we go through this passage,

we would hear not just the words of a preacher, but the words of Christ and be called to him.

As we listen to Peter's sermon, Lord, help us to respond even the way the people

there did with repentance and faith and hope in Jesus Christ alone.

In whose name we pray. Amen.

As we go over Peter's sermon, when I read through the sermon,

it reminded me of maybe you've experienced this when someone comes to you and

says, well, I have good news and I have bad news.

And you might even have the person say, which do you want first,

the good news or the bad news?

I don't know. It depends on the kind of person you are, I guess.

Sometimes I want the good news first so I can understand the bad news.

Sometimes I want the bad news first so I can get a grip on, you know,

I want the good news to counteract it.

It's fascinating. And in Peter's sermon this morning, he doesn't just say there's

good news and there's bad news.

What he does, and he does it masterfully, it's amazing really when you start

to look at the sermon and pick it apart and analyze it, he actually teaches

and preaches the whole good news all the way through, that Jesus Christ died

for sinners, that he loves sinners.

But he also weaves together without ever extracting them, without ever pulling

them apart, says basically there's no understanding this good news without the bad news.

And there's no accepting this good news without accepting also the bad news. They go together.

It's not either good news or bad news. It's together. We are sinners worthy

of damnation and destruction.

The sermon also struck me, as I'll mention throughout, as not apropos for our times.

In days of safe places and microaggressions, Peter starts out by going for the

juggler, You killed Jesus. Ouch.

So he didn't read, what was that? How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies.

Is that Zig Ziglar? I forget now, long old book. He didn't read that.

Or if he did, he put it aside for a moment to preach the gospel.

Because preaching the gospel involves the good news that we are terrible sinners,

that we're probably worse than we think, and we are worthy of death,

damnation, and hell. Whoa.

But, and you'll see this all throughout the sermon, Peter says,

you killed, but God brought back to life. You hated, but God loved.

And he preaches this sermon with full-on power, both sides of the same coin.

You are sinners, God loves sinners, and he'll save you if you face your sins and repent.

It's a very powerful sermon in so many ways.

Before I get to the sermon, I want to back up a bit and go back to the context.

Remember, last week we preached on the sermon where the lame man was made to walk.

And we focused very carefully on the structure of that so that it wasn't so

much that the miracle was about the lameness or the crippledness,

but on the forgiveness of sins.

Remember, he's outside the gate, unable to enter the gate because of his crippledness.

Peter causes him to walk, forgives him of his sins, just like Jesus did.

It's the same miracle that Jesus performed in Luke chapter five.

I won't go over the sermon last week, all of it, but my teacher always used

to say, repetition is the mother of learning. So I wanna repeat a little bit.

Remember from Luke chapter five, the story of Jesus So the crippled man is let down from the ceiling.

And it's a little nicer to say that. They literally ripped off the ceiling.

It wasn't like there was a hole. They made a hole, ripped it up,

plaster or whatever would have been falling down from the ceiling.

They bring him to Jesus. And the first thing that comes out of Jesus' mouth

with regard to this man was, I forgive your sins.

And it provoked a controversy among the Pharisees. They said,

who is this guy who thinks he can forgive sins?

You know the story, which is easier, it says, to forgive sins or tell the lame man to walk.

So that we're needing to see that when Jesus pronounces that this lame man can

walk, he is forgiving his sins because Jesus is rolling back the curse that came from sin.

They were amazed, it says, and they glorified God and were filled with fear

saying, we have seen strange things today.

So Peter performs this same miracle. Remember from last week,

and I want to keep making this connection,

we are supposed to see, when Luke wants us to read this book,

we're supposed to see that the

resurrected work of Jesus Christ is now continuing where? In the church.

In the church. Where? In the church.

The church is the central location of the grace and work of Jesus Christ in

this world today and until the end. It is the church of Jesus Christ.

So Peter performs this miracle.

When Paul goes to the Gentiles, guess what? He performs a similar miracle. Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

When they were preaching the gospel there in Lystra, a certain man without strength

in his feet was sitting, a crippled man from his mother's womb who never walked.

This man heard Paul speaking. Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith. Same thing.

Look at him. He looks at you. You look at him. You speak this.

And said with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet. And he leaped and walked. Same response.

Remember from the passage from Isaiah, we said, the lame shall leap like a deer.

Of course, that's their response. This guy couldn't walk from birth.

He's healed. And what's his first response? Praise the Lord. He's dancing.

Maybe he even did the, what's it called? The moonwalk. He's just doing all,

he's praising the Lord. He can't control himself.

And so as these men are forgiven of their sins, remember the man is now able

to enter into the temple of the Lord.

He was outside the gate. As soon as he was healed, he goes into the temple.

What's the point? The point is that the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ

gives us access to God through Christ.

It's gonna be a theme through the book of Acts. It's a theme that we see even

in the Old Testament, by the way.

This is forecasted for us in the story of 1 Samuel 9 when Mephibosheth,

remember I mentioned him last week, who was a crippled son of Jonathan,

was called by David to come in and to sit at his table in spite of his lameness.

Then he bowed down himself and said, what is a servant that you would look at such a dead dog as I?

The lame man who's brought into the presence of the table of the king praises

the Lord like all of these people.

So now when we look at Peter's sermon, just with that in mind,

the setting here is at the portico or the porch.

The word stoa in Greek, it's a porch. It's the column, the columnated porches

covered that were common places for discourse.

There was even a school of philosophy in the ancient classical world called

the Porchites or the Stoics is the name.

It comes from that word Stoa, where they stood on the porch and discoursed and

spoke their philosophy.

So Peter is standing at this public place. Many, many people begin to gather.

Perhaps thousands are gathered.

And he begins his sermon rather boldly. Men of Israel, which is like what he

said in Acts chapter 2 as well, addressing them directly.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Men of Israel. And then he starts out with a sermon in verse 4 by saying.

This is a phrase that Peter begins his sermon with, hearkening back to Moses'

introduction to the burning bush.

Acts 3, verse 13. Peter says,

Acts 3:13

I want you to focus on that contrast that Peter is always using.

It's a teaching technique he's using.

Something happens bad, God reverses it with good.

Again, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he

had decided to release him.

You know, right away, by the way, that Peter goes for the juggler.

I just, you know, I'm back from America not too long, and I've discovered this

thing called microaggressions.

You've heard of a microaggression?

I actually Googled it. Let me tell you what Dr. Google says.

He says, a microaggression is a statement, action, or incident regarded as an

instant of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination,

particularly against marginalized groups.

Notice that, an unintentional, indirect, or subtle. Guess what? Peter was none of those.

He just looks right at him and said, you are fools, all of you.

Again, he didn't read Zig Ziglar, and he wasn't really concerned about insulting them.

This was beyond a microaggression.

This is Peter saying, you fools killed Jesus.

I was reading also that people today in America are so sensitive to verbal statements

that major universities actually call for the creation of safe spaces.

You all know about it. I think this is a hilarious thing.

Safe spaces. Imagine that. Even some campuses have hired service dogs so that

our little university students can have something to cuddle with when they get

offended by microaggressions.

Guess what? Peter wasn't aware of this yet.

And Peter begins to preach the gospel in a powerful way in an environment where

he says, you fools killed Jesus, where Jesus loved, you hated,

where you killed, Jesus brought back to life. He goes for the juggler.

This is not subtle or unintentional. This is intentional. This is part of the

presentation of the gospel of the apostles where they go straight at the heart of man.

You are foolish. You are dead in your transgressions and sins and you need help.

By the way, this reminds me of, we live in such a strange environment that it

reminds me of the Charlie Kirk thing.

After he was assassinated, people said, Charlie Kirk was full of hate.

What did he do? He just debated people.

He debated people, said, I think you're wrong. Let's talk about it.

It's a bad argument. It's a good argument.

And so Peter was unaware of all the safe spaces needed.

And by the way, there is no safe space with the gospel.

If you want a safe space in this church, you won't have it unless you're willing

to do what Peter is saying to do, confess your sins, acknowledge them.

Then you'll find the ultimate safe space.

You'll find the ultimate hope in Jesus Christ who forgives your sins and covers

all your transgressions with great mercy. As you look at the sermon also, I mentioned contrast.

Peter uses contrast throughout the sermon to make us aware more and more and

more of the love and grace and kindness of God through Jesus Christ.

You delivered up, he said, and disowned in the presence of Pilate,

even though Pilate wanted to release him.

By the way, keep in mind, these are people who more than likely would have been

there shouting, crucify him, kill him, give us Barabbas. These are the same

people, most likely, certainly a few.

It says, you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to

be granted to you, but to put to death the prince of peace. You notice the contrast.

You wanted a murderer freed. You wanted to be like him, like a murderer,

in order to murder an innocent man.

The contrast, you put to death who? The prince of life.

What an incredible evil Peter is pointing out to them.

There could be nothing worse. it's bad enough to kill an innocent man,

but to kill an innocent man who came to love you and save you and cover your

sins, that's the tragedy of tragedies, an incredible evil.

They killed, says Peter, the author of life. They made themselves murderers

with them, with a murderer that they wanted released.

Can I say, as my English teacher used to say, an understatement,

this is bad. This is bad news.

And it's ironic that liberating Barabbas a murderer, they made themselves also

a murderer. So Peter could say, you're all murderers.

Again, this is way beyond a microaggression. This is like full-on macroaggression.

Very similar to Peter's sermon in Acts chapter two, when he'd already preached,

he says in verse 23, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge

of God, you have taken with lawless hands and have crucified and put to death.

Now listen to the contrast, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death

because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

God took the cross, the quintessence, the worst human sin of all and reversed

it and transformed it into the greatest blessing of all.

Peter's sermon has good news and bad news connected together.

The bad news of sinners is connected together with the good news that Jesus loves them.

In fact, the good news is amplified by the bad news.

There could be nothing worse they could have done than killed Jesus Christ,

the worst crime in history.

And yet there's good news. God uses it. What a contrast. And you'll notice he

says too as well, it's through faith in Jesus Christ that this whole gospel message is received.

Verse 16, chapter three, and his name, by faith in his name,

he made this man strong who you see and know.

And the faith that is through Jesus has given this man perfect health.

This is not a generic faith. Another cultural note as I'm going through this,

not only is Peter a macro aggressor, but also Peter denies the idea that having faith is good enough.

That's all I'm hearing lately in this culture. Just have faith,

people of faith. I'm not, by the way, and neither are we people of faith.

We are people of the faith, the one true faith, the only true faith.

All other faiths are false faiths, false religions. There's no such This thing is a generic faith.

We was even thinking about this recently when I was thinking about some of the

children's songs, even in Bible stories, one of my favorite,

I'll have to admit it's my favorite. My grandson's here, he can testify.

It's the Prince of Egypt, right? We watch that together and sing the songs and enjoy it.

And there's a song that fascinates me because of, you never wanna watch a Disney

movie with your grandpa when he's a preacher, it's just bad, big mistake.

And I don't bring it up, but I'll bring it up now. It's like,

there can be miracles. The song when Miriam's, there can be miracles.

You know what? I won't sing it. I'm not going to sing anymore. When you believe.

So it's a beautiful song, right? Very beautiful song.

And I like it. And I like the way Miriam sings it and wanders through Egypt

as the people are slowly gathering together and trying to gather hope as they go.

But in the song, it says, many nights we prayed with no hope anyone could hear. What?

What? They were praying to whom? It doesn't really matter.

Just believe. That's all that matters. If you believe, you see, you'll have miracles.

It's not true. It's actually a really insidious lie.

It says, not generic faith. By faith in his name, this man was made strong.

And the faith that is through Jesus Christ has given this man perfect health in your presence.

That's the faith. All other beliefs, all of the belief systems are false and damnable.

It's not generic faith that brings miracles. The Bible rejects generic faith

as false and not hopeful.

But rather, Peter says, tells the people, they killed the author of life.

Without him, there is no life.

Ours is an exclusive faith, not a generic one. And Peter's sermon is chocked

full of what the ancient fathers used to call the regular fide.

I want us to look at apostolic preaching because it's very important.

The things when you're studying the book of Acts, you see some things that come

forward, like miracles and tongues and signs and wonders.

And those things cease with the age of the apostles.

But there are some things that are central to the apostolic faith that continue

with us. And that is preaching the rule of faith, preaching the doctrine.

Remember, that's the life of the church. What did they do? They came together

and they studied and were of one mind in the doctrine of the apostles.

And this sermon is chock full of doctrine. Jesus came, he was a man.

He lived, he died, and he rose again on the third day. That's a fact.

And that's the reality of what the apostles preach. That's why they can preach

it with such power and confidence.

It's not a generic faith. It's not a belief of someone somehow may be listening.

It's that Jesus Christ came, died for sinners, took our place,

rose again on the third day, and he ascended into heaven, and he's sitting there

right now, and he will judge everyone.

But you'll notice that the way Peter's sermon ends, it's so beautifully crafted.

He talks about Jesus Christ's inauguration into heaven, sending of the Holy

Spirit to the church, and the beginning of a new refreshing age, the kingdom of God.

Verse 19, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.

Peter's always ending on the good note.

There's grace, there's mercy, there's hope. If you repent and turn away from

your sins, your sins will be forgiven. They'll blot it out.

Notice what he says, verse 20, that times of refreshing may come from the presence

of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you,

Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring of all things.

Notice, it's not just a sermon about getting people saved.

It's a sermon about the inauguration of the kingdom of God itself,

the new age, the age of the Holy Spirit, the times of refreshing.

When Messiah comes, he would bring these wonders to the people to introduce

that the kingdom of heaven has come.

I don't know what, you know, we don't spend a lot of time studying.

Are you premillennial? Are you all millennial? Are you postmillennial?

Are you, what's the word, panmillennial? Everything will pan out in the end.

What millennial am I? What position do I have? I'll tell you,

I can narrow it down for you.

Whatever millennial position you may take, are you preterist?

Are you partial preterist? Are you this or that? Let me tell you,

the kingdom of God has come, okay?

Maybe that puts you in an all millennial or a postmillennial.

I don't know part preterist.

Don't know. But listen, Peter is saying when Jesus Christ was raised from the

dead and seated in heaven, he was seated to reign.

And he was sending his spirit to begin this new age of Christ's kingdom rule.

And Christ would rule primarily through the power of the preaching of his word in the church.

And when this begins, a time of great refreshing would come.

Peter preaches to them what Luke has already informed us, that Jesus rose and

ascended and the kingdom has come.

Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. Notice, by the way,

you say, well, is he reigning? Is the kingdom now? Is it going to be a thousand years?

The best way to solve, at least for me, some of these questions about millennial

positions is take the simpler things in scripture and then interpret the more

difficult ones in light of them.

One thing I do know is Paul says Jesus is reigning.

1 Corinthians 15, 24, it says, He shall reign until the fullness of his kingdom

is accomplished. Kingdom is here. The kingdom is going to come in its fullness.

Then comes to the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father,

when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power,

for he must reign until he has put his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says all things are under

him, it is evident that he who put things under him is expected.

Now, when all things are made subject to him, Then the Son himself will be subject

to him Who put all things under him That God may be all in all The kingdom of God has come,

It's here You say well that doesn't look like it pastor There's a lot of bad

things happen We don't look at that We look at the scripture We look at Peter's

sermon that says If you're going to repent You're going to repent And as you

repent You're going to bring in this time of refreshing.

Again, it doesn't matter whether you're amillennial or postmillennial or an

optimistic amillennialist, whatever you want to be.

But this passage tells us, as many others do, that when the Holy Spirit came

to the church, the kingdom of God was inaugurated with the rule of Christ.

Even earlier than that, actually, when Jesus was casting out demons, what did he say?

If you see the Son of Man casting out demons in the name of God,

you know that the kingdom of heaven has come.

And it's come. We're in it. The kingdom element of the gospel message gives its power even today.

Sometimes it's lacking. You'll notice in many day modern preachers are always

begging people to do things.

Please, Jesus has done all he can do. The rest is up to you.

You know, he's thrown you the life. What is it? The life preserver.

Just grab it and you'll be. Peter doesn't preach like that. You'll notice that.

He doesn't say you're locked in a prison. Jesus has opened the door.

All you have to do is walk out. No, it's command form. Repent.

Repent because of what has happened. He does say that there's mercy.

You did it in ignorance, okay, but now the days of ignorance are over.

We're gonna hear Paul say that later in Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

There was a time when Jesus overlooked, which by the way, you might think,

well, maybe I would have liked to have lived in the days of the apostles or

in days of the Old Testament.

One thing's for sure. If you reject the message of Jesus Christ now,

there is great judgment for you because we are at a time when great revelation

has been given to us. Great growth of the church has happened in history.

In Christ, the kingdom of God has come, is coming, and will continue to come

until Christ has put his enemies under his feet.

I don't know what millennial category that puts you in, but maybe,

and maybe it puts you, maybe you can shift, but that much seems to be true.

In Christ, the kingdom has come, it is coming, and it will continue to come

until Christ reigns forever.

Acts 3.22, he goes on, Peter says, Moses said, the Lord God,

by the way, Here's Peter connecting all of the doctrine that he's teaching to the Old Testament.

I've said it before, but I'll keep repeating it. There is no New Testament message

of the gospel that stands alone. It all comes from the Old Testament.

It's all been foretold. It's all been prophesied. It's all been given in types and shadows.

So in Acts chapter 3, 22, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every

soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people,

and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel to those who came after him

have proclaimed these days.

We're actually seeing in our story a proclamation in the sermon of the fulfillment

of all these Old Testament prophecies.

What's Peter talking about? Peter is almost directly quoting Deuteronomy 18,

22, which says, Moses said to the Lord, God shall raise up for you a prophet

like me from your brethren.

The Jewish audience, by the way, they would have immediately recognized this quote.

It was commonly understood. And it shall be that every soul that does not heed

that prophet will be utterly destroyed.

This was the prophet of all prophets, Jesus Christ, who was foretold in Deuteronomy.

This was the hope of the Israel, the Jews.

This was the hope of the people of Messiah. This is also our hope.

The full text says, the Lord will raise up a prophet like you.

And it goes on to say what they say is good. I will raise up from them a prophet

like you from among their brothers.

I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him.

If anyone does not listen to my words, to that prophet in my name,

I myself will call him to account. There's judgment.

And notice Peter is always connecting the thread of judgment with the hope of the gospel.

When God was about to bring the people of Israel into the land of promise,

He warned them through Moses not to live as those who were in Canaan.

He warned them to avoid the false gods of those peoples and to expel them from the land.

Through the failure of both the prophets and the people, they were constantly

pushed towards the need of this future prophet to come, of the hope that was to come.

People were always terrified at the holiness of God. They were always pushing it off saying, you go up.

Exodus 20, remember the story? They saw the thunder and the lightning and the

fire and they said, Moses, you go up. I don't want to go up there.

You go up and be threatened by this terrifying holy God.

In quoting Deuteronomy 18, Peter has a two-pronged impact. First,

he wants to remind Israel of their guilt.

He's always connecting that, isn't he? He doesn't just take one side of the

good news or the bad news. He always connects them and links them together.

You never hear in the apostles preaching your best life first or whatever Olsteen says.

You never hear that in the Bible. You don't hear it from the apostles.

It's always, guess what, guys? This prophet is reminding you of you did this.

It was your guilt. It was your sin. They had done the exact opposite of what

God commanded Israel to do through Moses.

When the prolonged promise of Messiah finally did come, they killed him. They hated him.

Peter's warning also includes a partial quote from Leviticus 23,

29, which says, any person who is not afflicted in soul on that day shall be

cut off from his people. The proper response is,

this word is to be cut to the quick like they were in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Literally like a knife cut into the heart saying, we did this,

which is the proper response of the gospel.

This is apostolic preaching at its best. This is the apostles coming and saying,

you people, you people are terrible.

You people are full of hate. You're full of violence. You're from a twisted

generation, but guess what?

God who is rich in mercy will save you. All you need to do is repent of your

wickedness and come to Jesus Christ.

And in you, Acts 26, 326, in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

God, having raised up his servants, send him to you first. Think about that.

The people most responsible for the murder of Jesus are the first people God sends preachers to.

You people did this. And now Peter's saying, you can be the first to repent.

You can be the first to recognize it and the first to glorify

God and the first to receive all the grace because that's

what's here you see in this sermon as he we don't like

it in our culture we don't like to be told that we're wrong we don't like to

be told our ideas are different we're always offended at everything and yet

that is the heart of the gospel the gospel many times is called a scandal an

offense a rock of scandal on which you trip and fall but if you will fall if

you will submit if you will repent,

then Peter is saying there's blessings and blessings and blessings.

When you're full of hate, God is full of love. When you're full of violence, God brings peace.

When you murder, God brings life. That's the story of our lives, is it not?

Yes, we weren't the ones who literally screamed to crucify Him,

but it was our sins that held Him on the cross.

All of us are similarly guilty in this way. Jesus Christ died for us,

our sins on him and his righteousness to us.

God will bring worldwide salvation through this Jesus Christ,

the hope of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now the hope of the whole world.

Not only do we see Jesus Christ actually accomplishing these blessings here

through the ministry of the apostle Peter and Paul, but we sit here this morning

recipients of the same grace and blessings.

Christ continues to heal the lame and cause the blind to see and the deaf to

hear and the dumb to speak as he brings salvation and forgiveness of sins.

You and I here sit this morning because of this great story,

because this is not a story disconnected.

This is our story. Remember, we are that lame man.

When you don't disconnect it from the lame man, you think we are the person

sitting outside the temple, unable to enter into the presence of God.

But God who is rich in mercy, heals us, raises us up and says, enter the temple.

It's grace, grace, and grace. Even when there's bad news, when you're told you're

a sinner, the good news is repent and God will save you.

Blessings upon blessings upon blessings that come to the name of Jesus Christ. This is our God.

This is our savior. In spite of the bad news that we don't deserve it,

it translates into good news.

All the more reason to give praise to God. We all sit here and we should all

wonder, why does he love us?

Why would he love something, someone such as I am? Why would he save a sinner such as I am?

Full of whatever sin you're harboring or struggling with or challenges you,

if you will but repent and come to Jesus, there's blessings upon blessings upon blessings.

So come wherever you are. If you've already said, yes, I believe in Jesus,

but you're struggling with the sins, do the same thing. Repent and come to Jesus.

What a great way to come to the Lord's Supper as we close to seal our service.

We come to the one who loves us so much, he died for our sins.

And this is his character. Let me close by simply quoting one of my favorite

Psalms, Psalm 103, which outlines the character of God, the grace,

mercy, and goodness of God.

It says, bless the Lord on my soul and forget not all his benefits,

who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love to those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far as does he remove our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those

who fear him. Amen. Let's pray.

Oh, Lord, our God, we recognize this morning that we are sinners in need of

your grace, in need of your mercy.

Help us to recognize our sin. Lord, help us not to flee to any safe space except to Jesus Christ.

And we thank you, Lord, for the bold and confrontational and even harsh way

that Peter addresses our sins. We need it.

We need this, Lord. We need to know how bad we are in order to know how great

and good you are to us as our Savior.

So as we come to this table, Lord, help us to be thankful we don't deserve your

grace, let alone like Mephibosheth, we've been invited even to eat at this feast,

crippled and lame and sinful as we are, a dead dog as we are, as Mephibosheth said.

Yet the Lord said, come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

So as we eat and drink this bread and this wine, Lord, help us to feast on the

grace and goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.