The Gospel to the Lame

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Good morning.

My name is Vaughn Woodson.

Today's reading is from the book of Acts, chapter 3, verses 1 to 26, as printed in the liturgy.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at 3 in the afternoon.

Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful,

where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

Peter looked straight at him, as did John.

Then Peter said, Look at us.

So the man gave him his attention, expecting to get something from them.

Then Peter said, Silver or gold, I do not have.

But what I do have, I give you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

He jumped to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful.

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

While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.

When Peter saw this, he said to them, Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you?

Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.

You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.

You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.

We are witnesses of this.

By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.

It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders,

but this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

Repent, then, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

Repent, then, and turn to God so that he may be wiped out.

That times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus.

Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.

For Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.

You must listen to everything he tells you.

Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.

Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days,

and you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers.

He said to Abraham, through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.

When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.

Amen.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

You can be seated.

Thank you for that, Vaughn.

Good morning, Christ Church.

My name is Andrew.

I'm the director of pastoral care, and it's good to be with so many of you this morning in worship, in our in-person worship.

It's good to be with you online.

Why don't we go to God in prayer as we come to hear what he has to say to us in his word.

Father, we are here to come before you as the everlasting God,

and to hear a word from you as we wait on you for the salvation that our hearts so long for,

that we've experienced in part, but that we know is still a long way coming.

We ask that you would grant us faith as we hear your word this morning.

So be honored in the preaching of your word.

Be honored in the listening to your word.

And we pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen.

Again, happy Lord's Day, everyone.

Happy Mother's Day.

Not the same thing, but very important things.

We're going to continue our series in the Book of Acts now.

Now, we're continuing the series, and Jonathan and I, we've been praying that this series would really,

really inspire our church family as we seek and figure out what it means to be Christ Church East Bay again.

Especially after, you know, all the volatility that our church family has experienced over the past two years.

Jonathan and I, our staff, our elders, our deacons, we've been praying that this same spirit that supercharged the first century church

as passionate and powerful witnesses of the kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth,

that this same spirit would do the same amongst us.

That we would not waste the catastrophes that God has written into the story of Christ Church,

but that we'd emerge from this season of really intense pruning with an abundance of fruitfulness.

What we're looking at in the Book of Acts, I mean, look at what happens in the early church.

This early church had this spirit, right?

And they saw the Lord add to their numbers in one city 5,000 people.

5,000 people embracing the unbelievable good news of the crucified and yet risen Christ.

And my question for us today is, Christ Church, why not also here?

Why not also in Berkeley, Oakland, the East Bay?

Why not also here?

What are we expecting from God in this season and in the season to come?

What do we really believe that the Spirit of God is able and willing to do here?

Day in and day out amongst us.

You know, and if we really do believe the Spirit is able and desiring to do immeasurably more than we could ever imagine,

and my question for us then is, don't you want to be a part of that?

Don't we all want to be a part of that?

Christ Church, what if we, filled with the same Spirit as the early church,

believed and lived as though our good and loving Father was able and willing to ordinarily do the extraordinary

amongst us by His Spirit and in the name of His Son?

I mean, even if you have trouble believing this, can I just ask, don't you want this to be true?

Don't you want this to be true?

Don't you want this for the world?

Resurrection power that makes the lame to leap, that turns beggars into brothers,

a world in which the extraordinary is ordinary in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, last week we left off with a snapshot, right?

A snapshot of a basic day in the life of the early church.

They had these predictable up, in and out patterns in the early church,

every day devoted to the Word of God and to prayer and to fellowship with one another

and to serving each other and their community with signs and wonders and generosity.

And people were just like flocking to this vibrant and joyful community

that was simply living out of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ's Spirit.

Every day, all they were doing was just being the Spirit-filled church.

And so I love how our text starts today in verse 1.

It says, one day, like the extraordinary was so ordinary to them,

like, oh yeah, that man who was lame and sat outside the temple for over 40 years,

that guy, oh yeah, he was able to walk one day.

He was able to leap for joy one day.

And all of a sudden, after 40 years of being outside the temple,

he was inside the temple praising God and hanging out with Peter and John and everyone else.

Oh yeah, really just another day in the life of the Spirit-filled church.

Now yes, there was a special quality to the apostolic age

when God laid down some very unique foundations for the church,

but we must not assume, Christ's church,

that the apostles were any less dependent upon the Spirit's power and guidance than the rest of us.

Sure, the apostles knew Jesus' command to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth, but they didn't know the exact plan for that.

They were living day in and day out, up in and out, with their God, with each other, doing simple things.

They were simply doing what they knew.

They were being the church, again, up in and out, drawing people to God by their simple lives of faithfulness.

Just seeing God draw more and more people to himself through their simple living.

And I wonder if this is a word for many of us in the season that we are in,

many of us who are constantly feeling paralyzed, without a plan, without clear direction,

particularly in our cultural moment of intense activism.

For those of us who want so much for this world, right?

And we feel so responsible, and yet also like we don't know where to start.

And then in our paralysis, we just end up neglecting to maintain the basics.

Walking with God, walking with his people, bearing witness to Christ, to our neighbors in simple but not insignificant ways.

In a sense, the apostles, they were keeping it real simple.

Again, up, in and out, predictable patterns in their church family, and they just let God do the rest.

He would open doors, and then he would close doors, and they would be prayerful and sensitive to the Spirit's leading,

and then they would just walk through the doors that he opened, and not try to force open the ones that he closed.

And the doors that he did open, though, they were incredible.

And I think that's what's happening here in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

And I want us to picture this scene, okay?

Picture this scene in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Peter and John were up to their same spiritual rhythms.

They're on their way to the temple, 3 in the afternoon, to pray, right?

With hundreds of faithful Jewish people, Jewish worshipers, all also walking to the temple gate.

And there at this temple gate, it was called the Beautiful Gate, right?

The Beautiful Gate of the Temple of God sat a lame beggar.

Now, just picture this contradiction, right?

Maybe even this indictment of God and God's people.

At the beautiful gate of the Almighty's dwelling place is a lame beggar who had been sitting there for over 40 years,

living off meager alms, the meager alms of an oppressed Jewish community in Jerusalem.

Imagine this ironic picture, this indictment of the power and presence of God,

a contradiction that the people probably all just got used to, right?

After 40 plus years of a lame beggar sitting at the gate of the Temple of Yahweh,

this gate that was supposed to be called Beautiful.

For most of the visiting worshipers, for even this lame beggar, it's just another day living in this irony.

Just another day living in this irony.

But for Peter and John, who are filled with God's Spirit, what to everybody else is just another day,

while everybody else had become calloused to the contradiction of a lame beggar at the beautiful gate of the Almighty Yahweh,

for Spirit-filled followers of Jesus Christ, this became an occasion.

An occasion to bear witness to the truly beautiful and strong name of Jesus.

So verse 3 says that the lame beggar, he saw Peter and John.

He saw him among the hundreds of others walking in, and this lame beggar, he just does his due diligence.

You know, he got to make that ass to everyone who passes him, trying to make a penny.

He asked them for some money, probably with little to no expectation,

just like those unsheltered people we drive past all the time,

who see, you know, 99 out of 100 cars drive past them every day without anyone even recognizing their dignity as human beings.

This lame beggar probably expects more of the same from these two disciples of Jesus.

A penny, if anything, probably nothing at all, and certainly not health, and certainly not salvation.

And yet, verse 4 says, Peter looked straight at him.

He looked straight at him, and I love that, because that's what Spirit-filled people do.

He looks straight at him.

Peter sees his humanity, and he invites him to look back, and they share this personal eye contact,

so much more than the mechanical drop of a penny in the can that this lame beggar is used to, right?

This guy has probably never seen someone look at him at this gate like Peter looked at him this day after 40-plus years of begging.

He's never seen anything like this.

Someone who really saw him and his humanity and his worth and his dignity and even his dreams and his hopes.

Someone who really saw in him a bright future.

And as their eyes locked in this special way, the lame beggar who was finally seen by another human being was filled with a tiny bit of hope.

And he thinks, verse 5, that maybe he'll get two pennies instead of one.

A gold coin instead of a silver.

But Peter has neither.

And yet, he has everything.

He has everything that this man needs.

No silver, no gold, and yet everything.

And Peter says in verse 6,

Silver or gold, I do not have.

But what I do have, I give you.

And it turns out that what Peter has is way better than what this lame beggar ever could have imagined.

Something even more powerful than the gauntlet of Thanos.

Something more valuable than gold or silver.

What I do have, I give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

And verse 7 says,

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up.

And instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

And he jumped to his feet and he began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

What Peter had, he gave to this formerly lame beggar.

And what did he have?

Christ church, he had the gospel.

He had the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

Peter's good news to this lame beggar was,

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

In other words, he was saying,

You shall walk by faith.

Faith in the strong and powerful name of Jesus.

And this man, he did so.

He walked by faith in the name of Jesus.

As Peter explains in verse 16, this was by faith.

It wasn't a magic trick, guys.

Verse 16, Peter says,

By faith in the name of Jesus,

This man whom you see and know was made strong.

It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him

That has completely healed him.

It's so important to notice this.

Peter doesn't just give him a law.

He doesn't just give him a command.

Walk.

No, he gives him the gospel.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Walk, he said.

Because in his name, in Jesus' name,

And only in Jesus' name shall anyone ever be healed.

And this is what Peter had to give.

Again, not a magic trick.

The gospel.

The gospel of salvation.

For there is no other name under heaven

By which we are saved.

And when I say salvation,

I want to be very, very clear.

Because this word salvation

Can easily become a kind of, you know,

Christianese, right?

And sounds so esoteric and irrelevant.

Like, it's just about, you know, avoiding hell.

But no, this man experienced what I like to call

A holistic salvation.

A salvation of his whole self,

His whole being.

Walking and leaping.

He experienced a physical salvation.

Able-bodied and probably now able to work,

He experienced economic salvation.

Look, he was walking into the temple

With Peter and John

And all these faithful Jewish worshippers

Who had previously just walked by him,

He had received social salvation.

And yet, most importantly,

After 40 years of sitting outside that temple,

Hoping only in the scraps and crumbs

Of countless worshippers of God,

This man became a worshipper of God.

He became what he was always meant to be.

This is what salvation was about.

He was walking and leaping

And praising God, it says.

A fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.

The prophecy of new creation

In Isaiah chapter 35,

Isaiah 35 · chapter mention

Where it says that the lame would leap

Like a deer

And enter Zion with singing,

With everlasting joy,

Crowning their heads,

Gladness and joy overtaking them,

And sorrow and sighing,

Fleeing away.

You see, this is what Peter had to give.

This is what Peter had to give.

And so much more than a miraculous healing,

It was the gospel.

Through his gospel declaration,

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

Walk,

He was inviting this man

To get a foretaste

And to become a sign

Of new creation itself

By faith in Jesus.

See, this is what the Holy Spirit does,

Christ's church.

This is what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit,

It reaches,

He reaches into the future.

He reaches into new creation.

And He pours it into this present age.

This present age.

As a sign.

And He gives us a taste

Of this new creation reality

That was inaugurated

By the risen Christ

Who is ascended and seated

At the right hand of God

And is still yet coming

At the very same time.

It's a reality

Only seen and experienced by faith.

Remember what Apostle Paul says

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17

He says,

If anyone is in Christ,

This is new creation.

New creation is here.

That's what the Spirit does.

It pours new creation

Into our experience

Of this present age.

As Christians,

We have to understand

This tremendous reality

That we possess

In Christ

By His Spirit.

And so I want to challenge us

To really consider the question,

What do we have to give?

What do we have to give?

And yes,

Some of us do have

That silver and gold

And I hope that we do give it.

But if we are in Christ,

We must be convinced

That at the very least,

We have the very most.

In Christ,

At the very least,

We have the very most.

For at the very least,

What we do have to give

Is the good news

Of the resurrected Christ.

The good news

Of the Spirit

Of resurrection power.

The good news

Of new creation

For a broken

And battered world.

And I guess

That what I'm trying to say

Is that

We have to believe.

We have to live out

This truth,

Christ's church.

That the gospel

Is enough.

That Jesus is Lord.

That there is power

In the name of Jesus.

To break every chain

And to heal every disease.

To right every wrong.

And to even raise us

From the dead.

And therefore,

What this also means

Is that his beloved church,

His bride,

His body,

Which he is tasked

With bearing witness

To the world

Of this super,

Super good,

Good message.

That it's worth

Investing in this church.

With our time.

And with our talent.

And with our treasure.

And not by managing

Our scarcity

By imagining

What God wants to do

With his own abundance.

This week,

I was able to sit in

On a Project Peace

Speaker series.

It's a three-part series.

I encourage you to go

Watch the next two.

I'm looking forward to those.

And the title of this

Speaker series is called

Abundance Versus Scarcity.

And again,

I want to invite you

To tune in this coming Wednesday

Because it's so important

For us as Christians

To internalize this.

That we Christians,

We worship a God

Of creative abundance.

The pandemic

Is nothing to him.

Even as he grieves with us,

It is nothing

To a God of abundance.

And as theology professor

At St. Mary's,

Dr. Michael Barham

Was saying in this

Speaker series,

He said that abundance,

It's not about optimism.

It's not about optimism.

It's about resurrection hope.

It's not mere

Wishful thinking,

But it's rooted

In what God has done.

And what he is doing.

And what he's going to do

In this world.

And so I want to ask us again,

Don't you want to be

A part of this?

Imagine this,

Christ Church.

Imagine with me,

What if we,

As a church,

Here in the East Bay,

What if we actually

Believe Jesus' words

When he said,

Very truly I tell you,

Whoever believes in me

Will do the works

I have been doing,

And they will do

Even greater things

Than these.

Because I am going

To the Father.

Because I am sending you

The helper,

My spirit.

Might it be that God

Wants to do a work

In us

So spectacular,

So provocative,

That people run

To witness it

Amongst us

As they did

At this temple.

Right?

Verses 9 to 11

Said,

They recognized this man,

This man who for so long

They just accepted

Would be a living

Contradiction to the

Beautiful gate

Of the temple

Of the Almighty.

But all of a sudden

In the name of Jesus

Whom they had crucified

Something beautiful

Had actually happened

At the beautiful gate.

Are we becoming

Too comfortable

With the irony?

Too comfortable

With the contradiction?

Or do we want

To believe

And see the spirit

Make beautiful things

Beautiful

In the name

Of Jesus?

Might it be

That God wants

To do

That God wants

In the words

Of our deacon

Beth Todd

That God wants

To do a thing

That God wants

To do a thing

Here and now

To rest us

And our neighbors

From our complacency

And our growing

Comfortable

With our broken

Status quo.

Could it be

That God desires

To use us

Just like he used

Peter and John

And the early church

To call people

To faith

In the name of Jesus

For their good

That they might be

Healed

Body and soul

Inside and out.

Remember this wasn't

Just Peter's

Apostolic gift

To give

Every follower

Of Jesus

Also has

The gospel

To give

We all have

The spirit

Dwelling within us

Desiring to use us

To bear witness

To a new creation

In Christ

Male and female

Young and old

Strong and weak

It doesn't matter

Because it's not about us

And this is the gospel

Right?

This is the gospel

That salvation

And the realization

Of new creation

Does not rely on us

Or our power

Or our godliness

But only on the

Strong name of Christ

Peter says here

In verse 12

Fellow Israelites

People who confessed

And worshipped

A God who

Delivered their people

From Egypt

You know

Saved Noah

From the flood

And brought them

Back to Jerusalem

Out of exile

He says

He says

Why does this

Surprise you?

Why does this

Healing of this

Lame beggar

Surprise you?

Why do you stare

At us

As if by our own

Power or godliness

We had made

This man walk?

He was saying

This wasn't me

At all

It was all God

It was all God

Don't you see

He says in verse 13

The God of Abraham

Isaac and Jacob

The God of our fathers

Has glorified his servant

Jesus

This is all

God's doing

In order to bring

Glory to the risen

Son

Jesus

Because that's

What it's all about

And that's what

God's all about

To quote Beth Todd

Again

God is doing a thing

He wants to do a thing

He's glorifying his son

And he's using

The most unexpected

Unlikely

Undeserving

People

Like you and me

To do it

As he fills

And empowers us

With his spirit

Now I know

I've spent a lot

Of my time today

Talking about

Talking to the church

Talking to Christians

I mean this is

A Christian sermon

From the Bible

But I'm also aware

And we're super thankful

That some of us here

Listening in

Viewing

Attending here today

Might be skeptical

About all of this

Skeptical about

The power of God

Skeptical of God

Himself really

And thus

Skeptical of the resurrection

And of miraculous healings

Maybe you're here today

And you're mad at God

Maybe you're mad at God

Precisely because

You did believe

You did ask

To see his power

And things didn't turn out

The way that you wanted

Your mom's cancer

Didn't go away

Your grandma

She didn't get better

Your children are still not

Where you want them to be

You're still lonely

Your mental health issues

Are still there

And even if you believe

In Jesus with all your heart

It's hard for you to hear

This challenge right

To believe

In the power of God

And if I can be honest

With you

To be honest

I don't know

That I have a personally

Satisfying answer for you

An answer to explain

Why God does what he does

When he does it

But something that's been

Helpful for me to realize

Is that when Peter said

To this lame beggar

In the name of Jesus Christ

Walk

This man very well

Might not have walked

And yet Peter

Was speaking the truth

He might not have walked

And yet everything

That Peter said to him

Was true

In the name of Jesus Christ

Of Nazareth

Walk

Again this wasn't

A superhero magic trick

Of Peter the apostle

Right

Like some comic book

There were three possible scenarios

As I understand this

Okay

Peter could have preached

This gospel to him

In the name of Jesus Christ

Of Nazareth

Walk

And the lame beggar

He could have rejected

The gospel

He could have not believed

And he could have met

This gospel with doubt

And skepticism

And therefore not walked

Or there's scenario two

Which is what happened

Scenario two

Is what we see happen

He believed

And he did walk

Praise God

Glory to God

This is new creation

Breaking in

But there is a scenario three

And I think it's a scenario

That we're all

Very very well acquainted with

Right

One I imagine

That we are very very familiar with

And we've heard this version

Of the gospel before

People have said to us

They've prayed over us

In the name of Jesus Christ

Of Nazareth

You know

Be rid of your panic attacks

In the name of Jesus Christ

Of Nazareth

Be rid of your addictions

And your cancer

And your loneliness

And your depression

And your heartbreak

But here so many of us are

Right

Truly believing in Jesus

Truly believing in his power

And his ability

To get rid of

All these afflictions

In our lives

What's going on

Christ Church

What's going on

Is God a liar

Is his power a sham

No

No it's not

And I know that

Without the eyes of faith

You'll probably receive

What I'm about to say

As a cop out

But the confession

Of the Christian faith

Is that salvation

And healing

In the name of Jesus

Even as some truly do

Experience it immediately

By the Spirit's

Inbreaking of new creation

Into history

For many and maybe even

Most of us

It's more of a

Not yet reality

Than an already one

New creation

Was experienced

Already in a real way

By this beggar

Praise God

And for many people

Throughout the world

Who see miraculous things

Like this

Praise God

God is very clearly

At work

But the not yetness

Of new creation

Christ Church

Doesn't make it

Any less real

It doesn't make

New creation

Any less real

One might argue

It makes it

Even sweeter

The gospel message

In the name of

Jesus Christ of Nazareth

Walk

Is the truth

Whether we walk now

Or whether we will

Walk later

And even if it is later

It is still

The power of God

And so

So relevant

For us today

Christ Church

This is our hope

This is the hope

Of the world

And I know that

So many of us

Might still

Be skeptical

Of course he's telling me

It's not here yet

Of course he's telling me

That

What good

Does that do

For me

Well I want to

Challenge us

I want to challenge us

As Peter challenged

The crowds

To investigate

This claim

To really dig

Into the word of God

Peter says

Look at what has happened

Is this not what

Moses had written about

Is this not what

The prophets

Had written about

What God had foretold

For many years

Have you ever seen

God not fulfill

His promises

Even if you have to wait

Didn't we just sing today

He's the everlasting God

His time horizon

Is wider

Longer than ours

We will wait on him

We're just saying that

To him

I will wait on you

I will wait on you

As Peter says

In verse 22

For Moses said

The Lord your God

Will raise up for you

A prophet like me

Among your own people

You must listen

To everything he tells you

And this prophet

Was Jesus Christ

You think it was hard

To believe in the prophets

Of the Old Testament

Well it shouldn't be hard

To believe in Jesus Christ

The one who loved us

The one who gave himself

For us

This is where it all

Stands or falls

Will we listen

To the one God has sent

The prophet

Jesus Christ

And I know this begs

The question for some of us

Well why should we

Why should I trust

This prophet Jesus Christ

This supposed son of God

And this is where I'd like

To end with two reasons

From Acts chapter 3

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Why I'd hope you'd consider

Listening to and trusting

In Jesus Christ

This one who we confess

That God has sent

Even if you are fed up

With the not yetness

Of his new creation promise

And the first reason is this

Jesus Christ

God himself

The author of life

Peter calls him

The author of life here right

He is not unacquainted

The author of life himself

Is not unacquainted

With the not yetness

Of new creation

He is not unfamiliar

With the brokenness

Of the world

He is not unfamiliar

With the long and hard

And painful waiting

That God calls us into

For those of us

Who await

Our not yet new creation

Reality

As Peter reminded

This crowd

In verses 13 to 18

Jesus the holy

And righteous one

The author of life himself

He was disowned

And rejected

And killed

And traded in

For a murder

A murderer

But none of this

Was in vain

And none of it

Was without a purpose

And none of it

Was outside

Of the plan of God

Peter says of Christ's

Sufferings in verse 18

But this is how God

Fulfilled what he had foretold

Through all the prophets

Saying that his Messiah

Would suffer

Do you understand this?

Might it be

That just as God

Allowed his only begotten son

To suffer

And to wait

For the coming

Of new creation

At his resurrection

Which implied his death

Might it be

That he might also have

A similarly glorious

Plan for us

Suffering was not

Beneath Jesus

Why is suffering

Beneath us?

And if Jesus

Could wait

And hope

And trust

In resurrection

Why shouldn't we?

Why shouldn't we

Wait and hope

And trust

In new creation?

Why can't we trust

God's plans

For our good

And his glory

That are yet to be fulfilled

And unfolded?

And the last thing

I want to say

The last reason

I'd commend to us

For why we can

And should trust

In Jesus

This Jesus

That Peter proclaimed

Even when salvation

Seems so

So distant

New creation

So so far

And irrelevant

Is this

I just want to say

Christchurch

Look at his heart

Look at the heart

Of God

Look at the heart

Of Jesus Christ

Look at the heart

Of God

In Acts chapter 3

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Even as Peter

Is going for the jugular

Man

He doesn't hold back

His punches

Right?

He calls these people

Murderers

Rejecters

Of the author

Of life

He says

You need to repent

Because you are so wicked

You are so sinful

That he had to die for you

To wipe out your sins

The beauty is that

He's calling them

To repentance

Verse 19

Repent then

And turn to God

So that your sins

May be wiped out

That times of refreshing

May come from the Lord

This is what God

Wants for us

This is his heart

For us

For our sins

To be wiped out

He wants us

To be refreshed

To these murderers

Of the Lord Jesus

These murderers

Of the Son of God

The heart of God

For them

Is for their sins

To be wiped out

For their sins

To be wiped out

And we know he's done it

Through his suffering

At the cross

At the cross

By his blood

This is his word to us

This is the gospel

Verse 26

When God raised up

His servant

The author of life

Whom we all crucified

And rejected

And who were all

Prone to doubt

Even today

Even the most faithful

Of us

Verse 26

When God raised up

His servant

He sent him first

To you

To bless you

To bless you

By turning each of you

From your wicked ways

And this is the gospel

Christ has come

To bless us

To bless us

And that's the message

Of the cross

That's the message

Of the scriptures

That's the heart of God

The heart of God

Is desiring

To bless the wicked

In the name of Jesus

Christ Church

New creation

Is coming

And it's breaking in

Even now

And even when we don't see it

As we might want to

We have a savior

Who understands that experience

And not only that

But his heart

Is still to bless us

His heart to bless us

Will never fail

It will never fail

For his people

This is God's word to us

This morning

Let's pray

Lord God

We pray that your church

Would live

What we sang this morning

That we will wait on you

It will dawn on us

That we are living before

The everlasting God

And your time horizon

Is so much greater than ours

We thank you

That you sympathize with us

In our sorrows

And we just ask

That you continue

To bolster our faith

Lord God

Bolster our faith

That we might trust you

We might believe

This new creation promise

That you've given to us

The hope of the world

This is what we have

This is what you've given us

And would you make us bold

To give it to others as well

We pray these things

In the name of Jesus

Amen

Amen