Leftovers - Acts 3:1-4:31

Happy Tuesday. Tuesday.

Feels feels weird to say but usually dropping this on Monday.

It is Tuesday took Memorial Day off yesterday and you, you went

like off grid yesterday, which is good.

I'm not like knocking you for that.

Where did where did Chris go? Where did Chris disappear to

you? But like you took your day off.

Oh, I was really gone. Well, and and I can't take a lot

of credit for that because, you know, there's this kind of like

thing of, Hey, you need to definitely have a day, right,

Sabbath, Sabbath matters. But I don't get to take credit

for that because what I tend to do and how this works in my life

is that like I will just tell people who will hold me

accountable, like my family, my, my wife, God bless her.

She's she's so good at that. She's like, what are you doing?

What are you doing? Are you, you working right now?

And I went, no, no, no, no, not at all.

Of course not. So when I told them like, Hey,

the holiday is the holiday. Let's, let's, let's take that

off. I knew that if I'd even like

peeked at a text message or like tried to respond to something

like in a meaningful way, dude, I was, I was definitely going to

get called out. Wow.

All right. Well, good for you.

I'm glad you have that accountability in your life.

I did. I did very little yesterday and

even the IT seems like work things, but it's really, it's

really not. I taught, I taught a couple.

I talked to Eric and wow, I can't say words.

I taught Derek and Chris or Oh my goodness.

Wait, who are we talking? About Derek and Grace

Hendrickson walked them through how to change guitar strings

yesterday. Which like whatever fits in fits

into the part of my job that I do for music at work.

But it was more of a skill for that since they're both playing

guitar. Like they just, they knew how

to, had to know how to learn how to do this because you have to,

if you didn't know, you have to change the strings on a guitar

'cause they get old, they get oily, they get dirty just by

touching them and stuff. And your guitar never sounds

better than with brand new strings on it.

It's just, it sounds, it sounds bright and crisp and that the

strings are like, they have like a softer texture to them, like

they're just it's, it's a delight.

It's never a better time to play a guitar than with brand new

strings on it, so. OK, as I hear you describe that,

I'm just relating that to me because, you know, playing a

guitar, I've attempted a couple times and it's just painful.

Like it's just it just it's painful on your hands and I'm

like, that doesn't sound pleasant, but OK, sure, do your

thing. But the only way I could relate

that potentially is like putting on a brand new pair of shoes is

like the best feeling ever. I'm like, I don't care that

they're not broken and they're brand new.

They smell like new shoes. I'm a weirdo.

Like, I, I love new shoes, right?

Anybody who sees me on a Sunday, like, you know, I'm rotating,

you know, between 15 and 20 pairs of shoes.

It's just a thing I have. Can't help it.

But like, I don't know, like on an electric, OK, I can, I can

get it with like an acoustic because you just got this hollow

sound and you, you only have the strings in like that hollow

space to create the noise, right?

Noise is probably the wrong word.

I'm sorry. But but with an electric, like

dude, there's no, there's no like hollow box on.

It's just, it's just electricity.

It's just, you know, well, I don't even get how that works.

Well, the fair assessment, fair assessment there, you're right

there is like more resonance with an acoustic guitar because

it has the, it has the body, it's it's echoing and making

sound of that. The electric does that same

thing with those little, those little like square rectangles or

sometimes they're single coil ovals kind of.

But those are basically microphones.

Those those are basically amplification of the strings

that are lying over them. So the strings still are making

their own sound. You're right though, they're

going through like effects or a pedal board or or things like

that that are adding sound or distortion or or reverb to the

strings. The strings themselves still

have like some merit of tone, just on their own.

So I mean, that's fair. It just, it sounds like, you

know, you play an electric without being plugged in and

you're like, OK, that was that was that was meaningless.

OK, I, I, I get that. I on an electric especially,

it's more of the feel of them. Like especially for guys that

are that are soloing, playing more than just chords.

If you have, if you have dirty grimy string like you can, you

can feel kind of like the tackiness of them.

You can, you can feel. Oh man, how do I even I don't

even know what to relate this to.

I feel like, I feel like used guitar strings have a very

distinct feel like I guess imagine like a rusted nail like

it would could you versus like a smooth nail, I guess, yeah, that

would be the biggest thing. Not that there's usually like

rust on guitar strings, but there's there's a tackiness,

there's there's some extra residue on dirty guitar strings

that just isn't exactly as pleasant.

To touch, you know what I just immediately thought of?

I thought of like, OK, so I don't play a lot of video games

anymore, but when I did and I had little kids, they got these

sticky little fingers and then the buttons start to stick and

I'm like mashing this button and I'm frustrated because now I'm

dying in whatever game. And it's like, it's because this

is, yeah, these are sticky and they're not great.

And like it just it's not clicking the way it's supposed

to, right? That's yeah, that's pretty much

the same thing. That's fair.

I can live with. I can live with that

explanation. I can understand that much.

Yeah, Beyond that, we were, it was, it was board game weekend

this weekend, apparently. We taught, we taught Oliver

settlers of Katan. Do you say Katan or or Katan?

You know, even you saying Catan, just you don't have a nasally

voice, but you can't say Catan. It's like, I don't know, man.

It's like that Catan. Oh my goodness, come on, man.

Like, no, I don't think it's pretentious to say Catan.

It just sounds better I feel. Like that I played Settlers of

Catan this weekend. I feel like that's just like

you. Almost have to have like a

British accent. Settlers of Catan that that was

terrible. That was, that was so bad.

That was so bad. Yikes that was.

I feel like you were caught between like.

That's terrible. Some some Asian accent and like,

I don't know, and English were like all you were trying to do

all and I don't know what that sounds.

Like, see this, This is why. Like, had I even attempted to be

an actor, they'd have been like, Oh no man, like we're not even

going to try an accent with you. It's over.

Like, just like, you know, I think Kevin Costner did Robin

Hood, who's obviously an English character and he just, he, he

could not do the English accent. There's no way.

Right. So he.

Yeah. All right.

Well, we learned something about it today.

I want to try again, but I'm not.

I'm not going to. I'm not going to try again

because it was terrible. All right.

Well, in in interest of of piling on to things that you've

said. I actually I asked that question

in in jest for you brought up the contrast between bags.

Oh gosh. Or the yard game bags or

cornhole and and announcements on Sunday.

And there was I got a weird, the room got weird when you asked

about cornhole. I don't something there's, you

know, I, I understand that in certain weird circles that would

not be a phrase appropriate for a large audience, but like I

just, I just heard people call bags cornhole.

And so I was just like maybe 'cause when I said bags, nobody

like reacted. Not that I expect like, Oh yeah,

let's go, but like. They didn't seem to know it.

They didn't seem to know what I meant, so I said cornhole.

And then I got a very different reaction from our audience and I

was like, oh, but now I've said something inappropriate.

Great. You can't call it that.

Apparently not. In church you can't.

I don't know. Oh man, I don't know either.

I'm not seven years here, but I'm not a native Iowan so I

would think if we called if the alternate name for bags was

cornhole anywhere it would be here.

Nebraska. Where's the We need a

geographical regional map for the the title of Yeah, bean bag

toss. I mean the United.

States they show it on like ESPN.

What does ESPN call that game? I have no idea.

That's right, this professional, I feel like they just call it

bags. Do they call it bags?

I don't know. So if I showed up on ESPN as

like an announcer, which would be a terrible job for me, But if

I did, 'cause I would try an English accent that sound cool

or a British one, it would go. It would.

It would go awesome. You would have to be TOFA

though. Right tofa tofa tofa.

The outside at the cornhole tenement.

You can do it. I believe in you.

But you're doing it shockingly well.

Like where did you pick up a British accent?

I don't know, I I. You just, you just watch a lot

of British TV like. Sometimes I feel like, yeah,

really. No, not really.

At all. I just feel like actually

Pirates of the Caribbean, which is probably not a great model

for British accents, but I don't, We talked, we talked

about, I feel like we've talked about our OK three weeks in a

row. We've talked about our wives

now, but maybe nicknames or or last week.

Yeah, last week we were talking about affectionate.

Oh yes get affectionate like hatred face.

I don't know why and I I actually don't even I should

look up what it actually means, but the oh man, now I'm going to

get myself in trouble. I need to look up what it means

before I share this actually. Is it like did it?

Is it a phrase that came out of those?

Pirates. It's an OK, It is a term of

endearment. I just wanted to make sure.

Yeah. In the first movie, they're

looking for Elizabeth and she's hiding and one of the pirates

just looks in and says ello poppet.

I very often greet Emily with that when she comes back and,

like, she comes home. I just ello poppet.

Like that's amazing. Dude, I don't know, I just got a

super cool insight into like you guys's relationship.

Like hello, poppet. Like so I do say that pretty

regular in the British accent. I don't.

Wow yeah well cuz it sound it would sound weird if you said it

like normally. Hello Poppet.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't.

That's not as great. That's not great.

Yeah. So nobody's entertained by that.

British British phrase for hello sweetheart or yeah, beloved

person so. Oh yeah, wow.

So that's probably what I don't know.

I think that's mostly why it's just like readily available for

me. OK, you're right.

If I was also a sportscaster, I feel like the British accent

would just be the way to go. If you could, man, if you could

consistently pull it off, you, you have, you have a new second

career ahead of you. Like it's, I think it's strong.

You should. You should give it a go, man.

Oh man, thanks. I'm glad you're in my corner on

that. Well, but here's the thing.

Like, OK, so like if you listen to preachers from wherever, like

in this, maybe it's just me, but like there's a there's a

preacher who has like AI think it's like a Scottish accent.

And I'm like, I could say the exact same thing as him.

It sounds way cooler when he says it.

Or like, you know, we had a guy at my last church, he's from

England, and I begged him. I was like, can you always read

the text before I preach? And he was like, what?

Well, he didn't say it like that, you know, because he's got

an accent. But I was just like, dude, it

sounds so much better when you say it.

And I think I weirded him out like.

I feel like I feel like it's fair that he got weirded out.

You were like reverse profiling him for like your your voice

that you can't change. Dang it, it's just the way you

are like but it sounds majestic. I get.

It like it does, isn't. That an American person thing

too. Like just English or or

Australian accents, like just sound somewhat.

They're speaking the same language, but it sounds like

they're just way cooler than we. Are way cooler.

Is it way cooler in the same way that I think like if you're

raised above what they used to call the Mason Dixon line versus

below that like we sound, no offense, I'm so sorry.

Oh my goodness. But I'm going to, I'm just going

to go on a limb and say, like, you can be the most intelligent

Southerner of all time, but if you speak with a long, slow

draw, I'm sorry, man. Like it's, you're going to have

to convince me of like, you know that.

Like you've got a lot of, I don't know, you know what I'm

saying. And it's terrible and I

shouldn't have said it, but I it's already out there now and

Matt can't even respond. But but yeah, in the same way,

in the same way I feel like, like it's English, it's

terrible. I'm, I'm a not a nice person,

but like, you know, so like in the same way that I would feel

just sound wise superior to somebody who's got a deep

southern accent. I think the English accent

British is seemingly superior to.

Like the regular American? Yeah, yeah.

I'm not sure I'm sorry. I think.

I think that feeling is there anyway, wow.

We have already fully derailed. We are going to get into some

more substantive Bible things in just a minute.

Now we're going to jump through Acts chapter 3 that we kind of

Acts 3 · chapter mention

skipped over in our sermon series, but we want to recount

some of the events that happened in chapter 3.

We'll go over and recap my message from Sunday Acts Chapter

Acts 4 · chapter mention

4, the prayer for boldness for the church and and for

Christians and the disciples. But before that, we'll have our

weekly Would you rather? And the question this week is,

would you rather be constantly tired no matter how much you

sleep, or constantly hungry no matter how much you eat?

This is terrible. Assuming, and this assumes you

don't have the health problems, like you're not, you're not

actually sleep deprived and you're not actually starving,

you just feel tired or hungry. OK, well, I, I, I often, and

again, you know, I often times do that to myself almost

intentionally. Like I stay up too late knowing

that it's like, well, you have this thing that you need to be

at in the morning and you need to be present and then where?

And, and so I often feel that way and it's not a great

feeling. There's like this, you know,

you, all of you listening, you can probably understand like

there's this kind of like haze, a little fogginess and you're

like, man, I just don't feel quite as sharp and that's

terrible. Yep, not a good feeling.

But the other side of this, the hunger, I think it would be, I

think it'd be a really weird sensation to be constantly hung.

Like we're used to feeling hungry and then eating something

because we're hungry, but to be eating something and not have

that feeling go away, Wouldn't you just keep eating?

Like wouldn't you just constantly stuff yourself?

Yeah, I OK, So have you experienced like authentic

hanger, hungry, angry, you've experienced it like you get

super like. Moody off of that too, not just

sleep deprived but hunger, hunger deprived you can just be

on a little bit more of a hair trigger or just get annoyed by

yeah and just. Yeah, well, I so I had a recent

experience of that on Sunday after church.

You know, church is great, go to the gym, Haven't really eaten

anything all day unless it's like we need to shop for

groceries because now there's four humans in our house instead

of two and we actually have to go shopping.

That's weird, but OK, let's do that.

So do all the things before that.

And now all of a sudden, like I'm walking around grocery

stores looking at aisles and aisles of food and like, I can

feel myself getting annoyed with everything.

Like everything is making me angry now.

So like the person just innocently pushing their cart

and I'm just like, oh, I'm just, I don't like that person.

I don't, I don't like so authentic hangry kind of moment.

Well, we get to, so I'm, I'm like at my wit's end.

Like even even like minor traffic in Davenport has now got

me like ready to jump out of the car.

And so like, we get to Costco and I was like, listen, I'm

going to use the restroom. And like on my trip to the

restroom, I walk by and of course, of course, you know, you

can get a hot dog and A and a soda for $1.50.

I'm like, oh, I'm making a stop because otherwise I, I don't

know, like I'm not a good person right now.

So I did it, you know, I did that.

And then all of a sudden, like I'm back to normal.

And it was great. And like, you know, people can

get in the way and you're shopping, you're like, oh, it's

fine. It's great.

So yeah, the hangry thing, that's real for me.

So I I think I would just have to be sleep deprived.

So you're not. You think you're less irritable

when sleep deprived? Because I think both of these

could lead to escalated annoyance in your life.

Yeah, but dude, that experience I had a couple days ago,

seriously, I was, I was like fit to be tied because I was so

hungry. I was just I, I don't know if I

could live that way. So because of reason, it's it's

more real for you, the hungry thing.

You might have to dismiss that. Yeah, where are you at?

I I hear that I receive that I think I'm more often experience

and maybe adults parents, which probably a lot of you are.

Aren't we already constantly tired?

Aren't most of us just walking around in a in a moderately

sleep deprived you're? Just walking zombies.

Isn't the first part of this question just my life as it is

right now? You.

Have no choice. So.

So maybe a different line of reasoning to get there.

I think my answer is the same as yours.

I think I would rather be constantly tired.

That's what you chose, right? You'd rather be constantly

tired. I don't want to blow up to like

£300 because I'm always hungry. Right, I just, I think you might

be right. The the annoyance of hunger is

possibly greater than the annoyance of tired.

I don't know that I'm annoyed when I'm tired.

I'm just like you said, like just kind of foggy checked out.

Blah. A little lethargic maybe?

Yeah, but also with thinking about like I, I think I might

constantly be tired already anyway, so I don't know.

I don't know. I'd rather not all.

I think even if I was constantly hungry, I might constantly also

be tired. So I think I have to choose the

I would rather be constantly tired and take care of my hunger

because I think I might already be constantly tired.

Yeah, that I, if you have a different opinion, I'd love to

hear it, but I think that that feels like the way to go.

Yep. I think that's it.

All right. We are turning to ACT Chapter 3.

We didn't talk a whole lot. I referenced a little bit of the

story in summary in my message on Sunday, but we're going to

read through the text and just kind of highlight the events

that were happening, how the Holy Spirit's moving, the words

spoken and preached through Peter and John, and recap the

message from Acts chapter 4 a little bit as well.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

But for now, I'm just going to read through this first part of

chapter 3 and we'll kind of talk about what we see here, What was

going on in the early church Acts chapter 3, starting at

Acts 3 · chapter mention

verse one. Now Peter and John, we're going

up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th 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 alms. And 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 to give you in the name of Jesus

Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.

And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong, and

leaping up he stood and began to walk and enter the temple with

them, walking and leaping and praising God.

And all the people who saw him walking and praising God and

recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the

temple asking for alms, they were filled with wonder and

amazement at what had happened to him.

It's ridiculous. Wow.

Yeah, that's insane. So cool moment, awesome moment.

I talked about it on Sunday that this actually comes to a point

where the religious leaders, the teachers of the law, they, they

were telling Peter and John to stop doing this, to stop doing

miracles, to stop preaching the name of Jesus, but they couldn't

actually arrest them or punish them for healing.

This man, This guy, some some scholars and commentators would

would guesstimate his age to be in his 40s.

And if he was this way from birth, who knows how long that

daily he was brought that the whole community, the whole

temple community would know this guy as the guy who was laying in

front of the gate every day, right?

So for him to all of a sudden be healed and walking and leaping

even as much whatever propaganda or or shifting or or denial that

the religious leaders wanted to put on that they, they couldn't

undo that right? They they couldn't convince

people that that didn't happen. Well, you know, OK, So if you've

ever spent any time in like bigger cities, what you'll find

is like people who, you know, they're, they beg, right?

You know, they're, they're asking for things.

They have their usual spots. Even in Davenport, you can see

it. So depending on what street

you're coming up on during especially the warm weather

months, you'll see the same person there over and over

again, day after day because like that's kind of their spot.

And so this man clearly had a spot picked out and had been

consistently there for who knows how many years, the entire

community. And what's really kind of neat

about this is the entire community had been supporting

this man for all of that time. And they know who he is.

And you know, hey, when I come up to the temple, I'm probably,

you know, he's going to ask. And so here's how much I have to

give him today to kind of support him.

And, and that's what that community did.

So to have him running and jumping and leaping and praising

God as he like skips into the temple is pure insanity for

anybody who's probably been dropping change at this guy's

feet for the last 10/15/20 years.

It's crazy, you can't deny it. So the other part of this that I

wonder and we don't see, we don't know for sure.

The text doesn't tell us for sure, but I love Peter's

response in verse 6. 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 now.

Yes, Peter and John, this is after Pentecost indwelt filled

up with the Holy Spirit commissioned to go do miracles

and healings and and things just like this.

But I wonder, I wonder if the beggar knew I I wonder if these

people he was there for money. He was he was there for people

to give to him, right? I wonder though, he was there

this often were the people going to the temple, Were they just

throwing coins at his feet day after day and not telling him

about this Jesus about like were they not caring for him with the

thing that he ultimately most needed in this and and and in

some ways a little personal conviction on yeah, those that

we sometimes do pass in in the car in in the city looking for

aid. Even if I don't have cash or

money or a or a a go bag a giving a giving bag.

Some some people make Ziplocs of commodities and simple.

Simple things. To hand out to even if I don't

have one of those things on me, what I do have, right?

What I do have with me constantly at all time, I, I, I

could pray or encourage or or even speak the truth that I know

to this person, right? Do we?

How often do we fall short of that?

And I again, not in a that's very law, that's very, that's

very guilt ridden maybe, but but I see it here, Peter, that's

Peter's response. I don't have the things you're

looking for. I don't have a 20 to give to

you. I don't have food with me to

give to you. But what I do have this I give.

Well, and how many people, I suppose.

Wow. How many people do we know who

are spiritually destitute, Right.

And I have something to give you, yet I don't give it to you.

Instead, I, I kind of, you know, I, I give you things that you

already have or that you don't actually need, you know, but

you're spiritually destitute. And I have this thing to give

you. But no, I think I'll keep it to

myself because my faith is very private.

Very private or we feel like we might be an annoyance like.

I talked about, yeah. We have, we have fear of fear of

rejection, fear of whatever that might be.

Isn't that, isn't that crazy that we might have a fear of

rejection of a complete stranger or even a stranger in need even.

And we have a fear of rejection or awkwardness that's mild like.

That is, but it just, it just shows you how powerful the fear

of man is versus the God that we should fear, right?

One is infinitely more powerful in our hearts and in our minds,

and it's not the right one usually.

And so like, yeah, that's, that's heavy, but that's

probably real for the vast majority of us that we, that we

feel that social pressure to fit in or to make people like us or

to not cause any waves. We definitely feel that.

But clearly John and Peter, like, yeah, we don't care.

We're we're going to do what God tells us to do.

And in this moment, God is prompting us to tell this man,

stand up because you've done this long enough.

And he doesn't just stop there. I love the response too, and I

love the the words contained in Luke's account here and and

leaping up. He didn't didn't stand up the

word like he bolted. He over the top, out of control,

leaped up, he stood and began to walk, entered the temple,

walking and leaping and praising God.

So this wasn't just, it wasn't just a conventional

run-of-the-mill that his response is.

This guy is making a real scene because imagine, you know, even

modern day, like you and your family, you're walking in from

the parking lot in the church and everybody's like, oh, we're

dressed nice and we have a pleasant look on our faces.

Can you imagine somebody, like, jumping up and down, slapping

the window on their way by as they're coming back?

Yeah, I'm here to praise the Lord.

Woo. And, you know, they're just like

jumping up and down while people are trying to drink coffee.

It's it's unreal. But I think that's the response

that we like secretly want all the time too, right?

Like that's, that's the response of praise and affection and

attention that we want to give to God at all times.

I, I think if we're honest with ourselves, if social, social

propriety and jubilant awkwardness aside, like if we

could, if we could quell those things we want this response to.

Be yeah, absolutely our response.

And I, I, I, I feel that on certain Sundays, you know, for

sure, like man, God is, God is doing good work through his

word. And, you know, there's a

proclamation of grace and truth and peace and freedom.

And like, you know, that gets moving in my soul.

It's stirred in such a way. And, and I just want everybody

to kind of join me in that, like joyful insanity.

And, but like, that's not the culture we live in, right?

Well, it's, it's just not where we are.

We're not like up in like woo, you know, and, and I understand

too, like biblically, like when we meet together, we are there

to be in community and fellowship and learn and

understand and, and take in something really important.

But at the same time, like man, to have this like expression,

this physical expression of joy where you just literally cannot

contain it. That's that's remarkable.

And it's always fun to see that. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

And it and it goes on verse 11. While he clung to Peter and

John, all the people, utterly astounded, 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 power or piety we have made him walk?

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 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 1 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. Wow.

Heavy words. He's Peter he's mad Peter might

be hangry in this in this moment.

We got to get this guy a Snickers it It's interesting to

me that their that their reaction, which Luke says in

verse 10. They were filled with wonder and

amazement and Peter is somehow his reaction is somehow

annoyance or or anger or irritation at why are you amazed

by this? You should know this.

We have we have history the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

the the people to which you claim to be a part of.

We have a history of the the amazing deeds that this God has

done. You all were the ones who

crucified Jesus. You told Pilate to punish him.

You released the murderer. You killed the author of life

and Peter just you should know better right Like that's that's

what these words. It's a it's a chastisement of

you should know and you know what this is what we're

preaching. This is what we're witnessing.

You're amazed by this. This is this is normal.

This is life in the author of life whom God raised from the

dead in your presence. You seeing this this this should

be expected. Almost, is his response.

And that's, that's a cool thing. And I think that's why Jesus can

say, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move

this mountain. I, I don't think, gosh, we, we

don't necessarily take that saying of Jesus literally, but

maybe we ought. Because as Peter and John walk

up to this guy, what kind of, what kind of confidence, what

kind of faith did it take for them to be able to say, all

right, get up and walk? I mean, there's no doubt in

their mind, there's no division in their mind that when they say

that in the name of Jesus, this dude's going to stand up and

walk. Like, no question about it, they

had sheer and utter and complete confidence that God was going to

do this. And you know, this is, this is

the same God who parted the sea. This is the same God who raised

Lazarus from the dead. This is the same God, you know,

and you can go on and on and on. And I, I have to wonder, and I

mean this for me too. I have to wonder, like, man, how

big or how small is my faith that I don't do this because,

you know, I, gosh, just put yourself in John and Peter's

shoes. What kind, what kind of courage

and what kind of faith does it take to say, all right, man, get

up, like I'm not playing get up. And then I, I don't know, man,

that's, that's I, I, I, I wish I had that.

I hear what you're saying. I really do.

It makes my faith feel small. It does.

Because yeah, either that or why do I believe that God doesn't

act that way anymore? No, I, I don't, I don't believe

that the Holy Spirit can't move in a healing way like this, even

even in that instant. But yeah, so where's the,

where's the minutiae of why not me?

Is it, is it a me problem? Which I think is what?

Your and that's what I'm asking. Is it a my faith problem 'cause

I and I don't know that it 100% is.

I think sure, we could be on a proper faith level and for some

reason, maybe we just aren't in some contexts where that is

glorifying to God more than more than me or or or or or in in a

way that is for the glory of God.

Because I think that's also what Peter's getting at here.

This, this is at no point he says it's not, it's not our

power of piety that we made him walk.

This is this is all God again, not the not the Kingdom of we,

not the Kingdom of me, the Kingdom of God.

He's pointing all to that. So I don't know.

I don't I don't have a good answer.

I wonder too, if there was just like, you know, because I do

think you can be sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit

and, and you can also be wildly unsensitive to that in the sense

that like I just block it out. And, you know, God, God through

the Spirit has asked me to have these conversations several

times and I just kind of always quench that fire.

And so now I just, I don't hear, I'm not sensitive to hearing

God's movement. And you can only imagine that,

like, these two in particular must have been so wildly

sensitive to every minuscule movement of God inside their

hearts as the Spirit is prompting them to do something.

They're just so used to saying, yes.

Now that, like, man, even at a slight prompt, I mean, imagine

like, this thought goes through your head.

Like, yeah, I don't, I don't really want to give this guy

money, but it'd be awesome to see him walk.

And then God's like, do it. And it's just that subtle little

do it that, that, that still small voice in the back of your

in your in your head that says, well, then just do it.

And they just respond. They just absolutely respond in

real time. And maybe that's what that is.

I'm not sure. Yeah, I love that.

No, that's what if. I don't know, but I'd, I'd like

to see this guy. I want to see this guy walk.

And what if? What if in that moment, that

little whatever that thought or that prayer spoken back from

Peter and John, I, I want to see this guy walk.

It was not God's response, at least at least in this moment.

I want that too. And that and and then and then

it's and then it's played out. So law filled words, Peter,

Peter's annoyed and accusatory of of the people.

But then verse 17, Grace comes back into the conversation.

Peter says. And now, brothers, I know that

you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that

is, Christ, would suffer, He thus fulfilled.

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted

out, 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 for restoring all

the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy

prophets. Long ago Moses said, The Lord

God worries up for you like 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 what the prophet to that prophet shall be

destroyed from the 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's saying to Abraham.

And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be

blessed. God having raised up his servant

and sent him to you first to bless you by turning everyone of

you from your wickedness. The message of grace abounds

here. Peter reminds them, yes, you did

these wrongdoings. You chose Barabbas over Jesus.

You chose Jesus to be destined to die at at Pilot's hand and

well, Pilot washed his head. But.

Yeah. Jesus to be sentenced to die and

Peter turns it around and reminds them that God's promise

hasn't changed right. He chose you long ago all your

father's and that people you still are the same people.

So turn repent, come back into the fullness of this plan.

God actually has blessing for you.

He sent Jesus here first to bless you that you would know

1st and and turn from your wickedness.

God wanted to save you first from all of this, so respond.

It's an amazing thing to watch Peter just use what we call law

and gospel so effectively. So like, hey, here's here's what

your sin looks like. Here's where you have morally

and ethically failed over and over again.

But but there's still something out there that is greater than

your failure. There is this Christ who has

been prophesied from the beginning, from the beginning of

time, God knew what he was going to do.

This was his definite plan, as the Bible says.

And so to know that like, regardless of my failure,

regardless of my infinitely small faith that I don't use

properly, that I don't speak well enough, there's still God

who's on my side, who's cheering me on.

And he does that for all of us who, who are putting our faith

in our belief in him, regardless of how many times we failed.

And to have that level of forgiveness, to have that level

of somebody who deeply loves you, no matter how flawed you

are. I, I really, I really, really

believe to the extent and to the degree that we can understand

how deeply loved we are. And human words just don't do it

justice. But to that same degree, like

man, there's, there's power in that, there's confidence in

that, there's the ability to just speak truth in that.

And that's what the Gospel gives us.

Amen, Amen. It's so good.

And you're you're absolutely right.

Law gospel. We don't just say that because

it's a cliche thing. We see it lived out in, in how

scriptures, even like Paul, we can get into that, his contrast

between convicting and grace and and and those things and Peter

right here, same thing hitting them hard with with the guilt.

And but God steps in and has already not even steps in.

He already stepped in. You ignored him and he's still

there waiting for you to turn back and repent.

Yeah. That's awesome.

Chapter 4 comes upon us and we covered, I covered pretty

extensively. We're we're kind of going back

and recapping Chapter 3 because I didn't have a whole lot of

leftovers. Honestly, from what I reached on

in, in chapter 4 verses 23 through 31, I know I went long.

It was almost 40 minutes and I didn't leave a whole lot out.

That's maybe why it was that long because I didn't leave any

leftovers for the podcast. But we do want to kind of recap

how we got to that. Point so I wanted to bring up

because I just, you know, it's it's so cool when that happens,

whether whether that's from a spiritual point or like a a

public speaking point. I think there's something so

cool about having an illustration that carries the

whole way through and it seems kind of silly.

But like this, this game show you brought up who wants to be a

millionaire? Like the the safe points like

that hit me right across the head and I was just like, oh

man, like that is so true. And that's, and that's why it's

an effective illustration is because that's so true.

That idea of having like, OK, I made it this far.

Good enough for me. No more boldness needed.

I, I think I have what I came for and that's good enough.

And Oh my goodness, the fact that we do that in our spiritual

lives. Yeah, I know Jesus.

I'm, I'm good. I've been baptized.

I'm good. Like, I don't, I don't need to

pursue this thing further. It's what we warn confirmation

students of, isn't it? Like, hey, you've, you've

learned a lot. You you shouldn't have a, a good

understanding of what the gospel is now and how many of them are

like, yeah, I'm good, I'm good. I can just yeah, I'm fine.

And and we don't push, we don't pursue.

We don't. We don't, man, I said a couple

weeks ago. We have a very big God, but we

ask very small things of him. And that's our mistake because

he wants to do incredible, amazing things in and through us

and in our lives and in the lives of the people that we care

about. But no, I'm good.

I'm glad. I'm glad that landed for you.

I thought it might have been a, an old reference or a weird

reference, but yeah, that wasn't the point of that game.

The point of this Christian life is the point of that game is the

$1,000,000 prize, right? Is, is, is the work done, the

harvest fulfilled that that part of it, not these sort of safe

spots where we could just bank this and turn around and go home

for the day, right? So I'm glad, I'm glad that

landed. I thought it was so powerful.

Yeah, I really did good. Yeah, so upon before before we

get to that, just recapping the response from the leaders and

the and the Sadducees here in response to all this, Peter

making a call to repentance, the crowd's reaction to their

miraculous healing of this beggar.

Chapter 1. Chapter 4, Verse one.

As they were speaking to the people, the priest and the

captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly

annoyed because they were teaching the people and

proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next

day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard

the word believed, and the number of the men came to about

5000. Oh my goodness.

Yeah, to be greatly annoyed, that Greek word, it's it's

burdened as of somebody has greatly disturbed you, burdened

to the point that you feel greatly disturbed.

You know, I don't know, I when I'm hangry, I get greatly

disturbed at stupid things. But when I'm my normal self, it

probably takes a lot to like actually disturb me, like down

to my core. And that's what happens.

They see this guy rejoicing the name of God, which you would

think, man, where can I get some of that?

And instead it greatly disturbs them, like down to their bones.

They cannot handle this. It just it rubs them raw and

they hate it. And it's like, how can you hate?

How can you be deeply disturbed that this man, man who couldn't

walk, is now jumping up and down and rejoicing and praising to

God that you proclaim to love? How can you be disturbed by

that? It's madness.

It it is madness and that yeah, Peter and John, these guys are

really making the healing beggars and stuff.

How dare, right? Yeah, like, oh, come on, man.

It's yeah, I I love that moment that greatly annoyed.

I think that's that that speaks directly to the heart position

because that's the thing, like, OK, when when somebody's annoyed

or upset, is it about what's happening around them or is it

about the position of their heart and how they're reacting?

We hear that all the time in like popular psychology or

whatever, Like, hey, it's not about what they've done, It's

about your reaction, right? Because your reaction says

something about your heart position, your thought process,

it has far less usually to do with the thing itself, and

usually more to do with you. Yeah, and it's the the reaction

that we kind of enter into this courtroom scene now the the

elders are examining them and asking them more details about

it. And verse 8 and chapter 4 says,

then Peter filled the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of

the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning

a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has

been healed. Let it be known to all of you

and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ

of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by

him, this man is standing before you.

Well, and this sets him off in another way.

Peter's doubling down. This is what I said.

This is my story. I'm sticking to it and and you

can't change my mind in this verse 13 when they saw the

boldness of Peter and John and perceive that they were

uneducated common men, they were astonished.

They recognized that they had been with Jesus and seeing the

man who is healed standing beside them, they had nothing to

say in opposition. Their only chance at this point,

remember, they are greatly annoyed.

They I, I, I feel like at this point they almost wish that

Peter and John were just claiming to be some sorcerer

magicians who want to say, Yep, no, you know what I did that I

healed this man. I think, I think the church

leaders would have more readily accepted that at this point.

Right. Like that's what they wanted to

hear more so than Nope. It was the power of God.

It it was Jesus of Nazareth whom we proclaim doing this.

And that's just crazy to me that they would have wanted Peter and

John to. I feel like that would have been

more of a threat if there were these two crazy healer magician

guys going around. Why?

Why would you want that? And they charge the verse 18.

They call them and charge them not to speak or teach at all in

the name of Jesus. And Peter and John are just

like, Nope, pass, but not going to keep proclaiming the name of

Jesus actually. So that gets us to the point of

this prayer for boldness. They were released.

They kind of recounted what happened to to their close

friends, those in the church close to them.

And this and this prayer for boldness that we talked about in

verses 23 through 31 comes up. So just a wild kind of sequence,

Peter and John remaining faithful and obedient to what

was tasked with them, filled with the Holy Spirit and, and

acting that out. They, they did the preparatory

work beforehand. They received the gift of the

Holy Spirit. And once they had that gift,

they, they didn't waste it, right?

They didn't. They didn't let it, just they

didn't squander it. Yeah, one of the things that we

see sometimes that's really helpful is to read what's not

being said. So and I you, you brought that

up on Sunday a little bit to the extent like, what are they not

praying for? Oh, they're not praying for

safety. They're not praying for Lord.

Can you make sure that they don't throw us in jail again?

No, they're like, give me more of what you already gave me so

we can keep pushing hard. And I think that's an amazing

thing. And and it's true like you, you

said it so well on Sunday, I would have to listen to it

again. But you brought up the Lord's

Prayer. Like that first part of Lord's

Prayer has nothing to do with my physical needs.

And that's how we start. And ultimately that's how we

finish. Like man, it is really about the

power of God, and if I'm trusting and believing in that,

then I can trust and believe that even when things get

difficult, even when I feel like resources are short, God knows.

He knows that like, so it's not bad to ask for safety and

resources and the things we need.

But like ultimately, like if our heart is fixed on God's will and

our heart is fixed on his power and his agenda, the other things

are going to be taken care of, right?

Seek his Kingdom 1st and all of these things will be added to

you. And so I mean, that's dude,

that's just solid advice. Seek his Kingdom 1st.

And Jesus isn't joking. He's not messing around.

Like, just do that and let me handle the rest.

I'll handle the little details and I'll also handle the big

ones. But I want you to want the big

things. I there was a phrase from I

can't remember what podcast it was this last week that I was

listening to, but this guy said, he said, show me, tell me about

your cares. Show me where your cares are and

that's where your Christ is. And are we wrapped up in the

things that we need in the things that we're short on, in

the things that we're worried about?

If we were more fixated on the goodness of God, the greatness

of God, his Kingdom, would those would our cares with those

secondary things, would we be as worried about them?

Would we be as focused on them or distraught about them if we

just focused on Father? Holy is your name, your Kingdom

come, your will be done. Like those sort of things.

Maybe our needs, maybe our worries would pale in

comparison, right? I think that's the model that we

see here. Well, cause in Paul, Paul's

going to get into that, you know, you know, the, the, the

troubles and the worries and the hardship and the torture I've

endured here, they're nothing compared to the glory of God.

They're nothing like it doesn't, it doesn't even, it's, it's not

even a wind that moves my hair. It's nothing to me like, and I

just, you know, I think that that kind of mind state though,

that kind of frame of mind and way of thinking that like, yeah,

you, you really can't do anything to me that's going to

shake me because I'm so Kingdom minded.

That is hard for people to engage with.

We don't know. We don't know how to react to a

person like that, because I've met people like that and I'm

like, I don't, I don't know what to do with you.

I, I feel, I feel like you're so, you know, I've heard this

before, but you're so heavenly minded.

What good are you on earth, right?

We say that or we think that subtly, and it's like, but if we

were all more focused that way, imagine what we could get done.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I'm not, I don't think we're

trying to say that it's just a a switch you can flip.

That's I mean it is in in in some ways, but it's also day at

a time. It's what I was, it's what I was

talking about towards the end of the message too.

If there's, there's habits, there's things that restructure

the psychology of your brain, even even even the physical

nature of, of your brain and your attitudes.

When we, when we stay and dwell in these things in the word of

God and in a prayer life even, or an attitude towards God, that

is him first, not me first. That's going to that's going to

reshape your thinking and you're probably not going to feel it on

the first day. You're probably not going to

feel it on even the second or third day.

But after a week, after a month of, of recalibrating that way, I

think it's just a, a snowball effect.

That's that's just all of a sudden this is your attitude

towards God. You are much more focused on his

things, not your things. And along the way, he's probably

taking care of your taking care of your things a lot better than

you were anyway. Right.

Like ironically, no. Yeah.

So we just get we get caught up in our in our selfishness in

ourselves and that anything else from you kind of in response or

recap or questions you want to. No, I just, I do think like it.

It's a moment of like light hearted truth of like, I really

want to be annoying for Jesus. That would be fun, right?

I really want to be annoying for Jesus.

That's a light hearted way to say that.

But like, man, there's a lot of truth to that.

Like, I don't know, we probably even as Christians, we've

probably met the like, what we think is, Oh my gosh, they're

way over the top. You know, all they talk about is

faith. All they talk about is Jesus,

Jesus, Jesus, you know, and it's like some of us again, even as

Christians, we're like, man, I, I don't know if I that's too

much. I don't know if I have the

energy for that guy today. And it's like, but why wouldn't

I want to be that guy? Because that guy, he is on fire.

And guess what? He doesn't care about what you

think. What?

You think about. Like that man is living in real

gospel freedom. And again, to the extent that

you could have nearly an entire community of people like that

all of a sudden, like we just don't consider the little daily

things all that meaningful. Whether it's the stuff I own

going back to chapter 2, like, yeah, I don't care.

I can sell half a field. And now five people are taking

care of like, I don't need that. Like God's going to provide for

me anyway. And so everything going back to

cross, everything going back to grace, everything going back to

the gospel all of a sudden, if if that's really where we can

stay. And I think it's possible

because, again, I've met very flawed humans who are like that.

And it's like, OK, there's a real shot at this.

Just like there's a real shot at creating that Acts Chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

church. We got a real chance at this if

we really embrace the gospel message and we really live that

out in freedom. That's powerful.

It's cool. Well, friends, thanks for

hanging with us and taking in some more conversation.

And well, I don't know what that was at the beginning of the

show, but I have. Hopefully.

I'm sorry to everybody who has a Southern accent.

I love you guys. I love you guys.

You're the best. Hopefully you stuck with us to

this point to to hear that. And yeah, so we'll be back next

week. I think you're getting into our

first important person. Do you have impactful person?

How did you label I can't I can't think of your you outlined

the whole pivotal person. That's what you use.

I like the alliteration there the first pivotal person in in

the story of Acts. We might be getting into some

Steven next week and it's going to how the Lord worked through

him well. Because you know, up to this

point, it's all been fun and games and healing and oh, look

at this. And, and now it's about to get

really real in a, in a very difficult way.

So kind of looking forward to that.

Yeah, continuing on in Acts and multiplying Church.

Thanks for hanging with us for a bit.

Hope you have a blessed week.