Show and Tell (Acts 3:1-25)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.120 I read with me, beginning at verse one of acts, Chapter Three, 2 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:06.719 says. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the 3 00:00:06.759 --> 00:00:11.310 hour of prayer, the night hour, and a man lame from birth was 4 00:00:11.429 --> 00:00:15.070 being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, that's 5 00:00:15.070 --> 00:00:19.789 called a beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. And 6 00:00:19.910 --> 00:00:23.140 seeing Peter and John About to go into the temple, the ASS to receive 7 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:27.780 alms. Well, Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, 8 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:32.179 and said look at us, and he fix his attention on them, expecting 9 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:36.770 to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and 10 00:00:36.929 --> 00:00:40.969 gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of 11 00:00:41.049 --> 00:00:47.250 Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took him by 12 00:00:47.329 --> 00:00:50.719 the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were 13 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:56.399 made strong and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the 14 00:00:56.439 --> 00:01:02.600 temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people 15 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:04.870 saw him walking and praising God and they recognized him as the one who sat 16 00:01:04.870 --> 00:01:08.069 at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms, and they were filled 17 00:01:08.109 --> 00:01:14.109 with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Well, while he 18 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:17.629 clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the 19 00:01:17.670 --> 00:01:23.180 Portico called Solomon's, astounded and when Peter saw the addressed the people, men 20 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:26.019 of Israel. Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare 21 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:30.299 at us, as though, by our own power or piety, we have 22 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:34.609 made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the 23 00:01:34.689 --> 00:01:40.489 God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant, Jesus, 24 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:45.370 whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of pilot when he had 25 00:01:45.409 --> 00:01:49.200 decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one, and 26 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:53.599 as for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author 27 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:00.000 of life, whom God raised from the dead, and to this we are 28 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:04.709 witnesses. and His name, by faith, in his name, has made 29 00:02:04.750 --> 00:02:08.189 this man strong, whom you see and know. The faith that is through 30 00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:13.069 Jesus has given the man this perfect health and the presence of you all. 31 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:15.699 And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as it 32 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:21.020 also your rulers, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets 33 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:24.939 that his Christ would suffer. He thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and 34 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:30.129 turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing 35 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:31.889 may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the 36 00:02:31.969 --> 00:02:37.889 Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive, until the time 37 00:02:38.090 --> 00:02:42.689 for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy 38 00:02:42.729 --> 00:02:46.360 prophets long ago. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you 39 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:50.479 a prophet like me from your brothers, and you shall listen to him and 40 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:53.719 whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not 41 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:59.349 listen to that Prophet shall be destroyed from the people, and all the prophets 42 00:02:59.349 --> 00:03:01.710 has spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days. 43 00:03:02.389 --> 00:03:06.909 And you are the sons of the prophets and of the Covenant that God 44 00:03:06.990 --> 00:03:10.990 made with Your father's saying to Abraham. In your offspring shall all the families 45 00:03:10.990 --> 00:03:15.419 of the Earth be blessed. So God, having raised up his servant, 46 00:03:16.139 --> 00:03:22.259 sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from 47 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:27.409 your wickedness. And this is the word of the Lord. It's absolutely true 48 00:03:28.370 --> 00:03:37.569 and it's given to us because he loves us. Miracles the pyrotechnic part of 49 00:03:37.610 --> 00:03:40.129 the Christian faith. Miracles. You read about him in the Bible. They're 50 00:03:40.129 --> 00:03:45.960 a little bit vexing to read about because you think it would be awesome to 51 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:50.960 experience miracles like the apostles did. The people around Jesus Ministry in the early 52 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.909 days of the Apostles Ministry it had to be pretty stunning every day to experience 53 00:03:55.949 --> 00:04:00.030 the kind of things that they experienced. Healing of a man who's more than 54 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:04.629 forty years old, who has never walked, and he not only gets better, 55 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:11.500 he's able immediately to have the coordination to run and jump having been healed. 56 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:14.780 And that's astounding. It says everybody was amazed. I would have been 57 00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:18.899 amazed too, but miracles are weird right. We don't see him enough. 58 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:26.410 It's hard not to be a little skeptical by miracles and you wonder what's really 59 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:30.970 going on and why don't we see miracles so much? We try to define 60 00:04:30.009 --> 00:04:33.569 them. You know. It's things like sin. This is when God works 61 00:04:33.730 --> 00:04:40.439 outside normal or natural means to do what he wants to do. Right he 62 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.600 works directly. It's not the his normal way of working. It's what he 63 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:48.800 does abnormally or unusually when he decides to intervene with a miracle and they still 64 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:53.509 happen. Like we all see things that we recognize the hand of God and 65 00:04:53.709 --> 00:04:59.350 we think that's that's not normal. That's something that catches my attention as something 66 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:01.509 God seems to have done, but we don't see very many of them. 67 00:05:01.550 --> 00:05:06.579 And usually when you see something where you think it's miraculous, you think there 68 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:11.699 could be a natural explanation for that too. You know, you kind of 69 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:16.860 wonder. But the thing about miracles is they're not abnormal in the Bible. 70 00:05:17.899 --> 00:05:20.889 In some ways, of miracles of Jesus are. They are the most normal 71 00:05:21.009 --> 00:05:28.009 thing you ever see in the Bible, because the miracles put on display the 72 00:05:28.129 --> 00:05:34.959 new healed world that Jesus is bringing people aren't supposed to be lame from birth 73 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.959 and having to beg and being cut off from the temple and cut off from 74 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.800 work and their families and things, and Jesus says I'm not content with that. 75 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:45.879 I'm going to put an end to that and I'm going to give you 76 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.000 a glimpse of that now in this miracle. This is the way things are 77 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:51.509 supposed to be. This is what normal is. It's when your body doesn't 78 00:05:51.509 --> 00:05:56.230 work against you, when you are in alienated from everybody and everything. The 79 00:05:56.389 --> 00:06:00.149 miracle puts normal on display in a world where we never see anything that's normal. 80 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:08.379 Do you remember and young Frankenstein, which I can use as an example 81 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:14.860 because I'm a guest minister? The when Dr Frankenstein sent igre to go get 82 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:17.500 a brain for his Frankenstein Monster? He broke the one he was supposed to 83 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:21.329 get and he got one. He said that was just as good. It 84 00:06:21.490 --> 00:06:27.370 was someone named Abbey. The sign in front of the brain in the VAT 85 00:06:27.490 --> 00:06:33.759 said a be normal and happy someone named Abbey Normal. I'm sure it'll be 86 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:42.639 fine the abnormal brain. But honestly, with our experience in life, who, 87 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.079 who's brain in here, could you put in a VAT that shouldn't have 88 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:50.709 a sign in front of it that says a be normal, because nothing's normal 89 00:06:50.870 --> 00:06:57.430 from our brains on out. The War of independence we've waged against God has 90 00:06:57.589 --> 00:07:00.860 broken our life with him and it's broken everything else, and we live in 91 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:04.939 a world under God's curse now, all the collateral damage of our war with 92 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:10.819 God and Jesus said I'm coming and I'm going to fix this. I'm going 93 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.540 to fix the world. You broke my good creation. I'm going to make 94 00:07:13.579 --> 00:07:15.290 a new heavens in a new earth, and I'm going to fix you in 95 00:07:15.449 --> 00:07:20.329 it and I'm going to fit you to live with me in that beautiful new 96 00:07:20.449 --> 00:07:24.689 world. I'm starting now, but it's not going to be finished till I 97 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:30.000 return right. So this is a Christian hope is that will be well one 98 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.439 day and the earth will be well, our psychos will be well, our 99 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:38.680 relationships will be will everything that we broke will be well, flowing out from 100 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:43.040 a relationship with God that's been healed, a war with him that's been ended 101 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:47.709 and a new relationship with him that's full of sweetness and peace and not angst 102 00:07:47.949 --> 00:07:53.990 and anxiety and shame and Gil. So that's what we look forward to and 103 00:07:54.069 --> 00:07:57.750 I want us to look at this passage kind of under these two parts of 104 00:07:57.829 --> 00:08:01.100 Jesus's fix and the world. One it's his fix of the whole world and 105 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:05.939 then his fix of us in it. So first his fixing the whole world. 106 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:11.459 Wouldn't it be good if we could do miracles like the apostles did in 107 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:18.250 these early days? They'd be fun for one thing and it would be great 108 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:22.649 for marketing, right. You know, it'd be easy to get an audience 109 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:31.199 with questions at least curious. Right. Some say they can, but I 110 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:37.159 don't believe them. I think come on over to banner with me this afternoon 111 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.080 and let's get something done. If you really can do miracles on command. 112 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:46.549 But no one does that. If you say, why don't you do that, 113 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:52.309 it usually well, people would be healed miraculously. They're just doing it 114 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:54.350 wrong right. They just don't have enough faith or something, and that just 115 00:08:54.429 --> 00:09:01.220 seems a mean to blame somebody. I don't know how much faith the guy 116 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:03.980 at the lame man of the gatehead. They said look at me and he 117 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:09.539 looked at them. That's all we know. He had faith after that, 118 00:09:09.009 --> 00:09:11.769 but I don't think he would had some impressive faith that God his legs. 119 00:09:11.809 --> 00:09:18.009 Well, God usually doesn't act this way. Usually doesn't fix things completely. 120 00:09:18.169 --> 00:09:24.799 Now it's rare and temporary when he does fix something completely. Now this guy 121 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:28.519 died. Right, he may be walked for many years, but then he 122 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:33.159 died because he's still under the curse. The world still broken and God hasn't 123 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:37.039 promised to fix this all that way. Yet every once want to he'll do 124 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.590 things for us that way, and it's it's really kind, but it's not 125 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:43.629 what he's promised to do. It's even it's even rare in the Bible. 126 00:09:43.549 --> 00:09:48.230 You know, you kind of lose track of this because every time somebody's about 127 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:54.259 to write authoritatively for God, God seems to vouch for them by doing miracles 128 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:56.659 around them. And so a lot of what you see written in the Bible 129 00:09:56.740 --> 00:10:01.580 has miracles around it. But, but miracles are rare even in Biblical Times. 130 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:05.100 Most people who lived in the time of the writing the Bible never saw 131 00:10:05.179 --> 00:10:09.769 many miracles. They were kind of focused around particular periods. Even the apostles 132 00:10:09.929 --> 00:10:13.730 who, like you know, it talks later in acts about Peter just walking 133 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:20.009 past people in his shadow hits them and they get well. Well. Later 134 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:26.360 the Apostle Paul is riding to timothy, both of whom presumably have pretty good 135 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.200 faith, and Timothy's sick, his stomach hearts. And what does Paul say? 136 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.590 had drink a little wine and my help whoa wait a minute, drink 137 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:41.070 a little wine. I I'm looking for the shadow in the handkerchief and whatnot. 138 00:10:41.389 --> 00:10:48.070 I want to be well now. Later he's rinning in Thessalonians and he 139 00:10:48.309 --> 00:10:54.940 was doing ministry with a man named Trophius and Trophemus and and he said, 140 00:10:54.980 --> 00:11:00.740 I had to leave him in my lead us because he was sick. What 141 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:07.330 you Paul, the apostle that does miracles, had to leave him because he 142 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:15.529 was sick? Yeah, because miracles are unusual. They're unusual, it's not 143 00:11:15.690 --> 00:11:18.679 what God usually does, our promises to do. And when he was doing 144 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.039 miracles in his own life, Jesus was and when he was having his apostles 145 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.679 do these miracles, he was doing a very peculiar thing, which was putting 146 00:11:28.679 --> 00:11:33.509 on display the show part of show and tell, the fix that he was 147 00:11:33.590 --> 00:11:37.110 bringing to the world. The world's broken and I'm not content with that. 148 00:11:37.350 --> 00:11:39.870 I hear the cries of the press, I hear the cries of those who 149 00:11:39.950 --> 00:11:46.509 grieve. I take seriously the rebellion of those who live autonomously. I'm coming 150 00:11:46.710 --> 00:11:50.340 to redress these things, I'm coming to set things back to rights, and 151 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:56.980 that's what the miracles show. In Verse Twenty One, he says that heaven 152 00:11:56.139 --> 00:12:01.529 must receive Jesus until the time for restoring all the things which the prophets spoke 153 00:12:01.570 --> 00:12:07.730 about, like Isaiah when he said, when when God's redemption comes, when 154 00:12:07.769 --> 00:12:13.529 his rescue comes, the lame will leap like a deer all right, in 155 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:16.440 his sends. See, it's already starting to happen. Life is breaking out 156 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:24.519 everywhere. Jesus is and his resurrection is it's already happening. These are intrusions 157 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:28.279 of the future, these miracles, but little glimpses of the future, not 158 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:33.230 permanent fixes, but glimpses to say, Oh, yeah, that's what's normal. 159 00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:37.710 This is abnormal and it's not always going to be this way. Jesus 160 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:41.549 is going to fix things, he's going to set things right. And so 161 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:43.700 competer looks at him. They're all looking at him like how did you do 162 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:48.419 that? What is going on? And he's like, he's not David Blaine, 163 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:52.379 saying, well, a good magician never tells his secrets. He's he's 164 00:12:52.740 --> 00:12:54.340 what are you looking at me for? Right, I didn't do that. 165 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:00.730 That's Jesus. Yeah, that Jesus. Yet, the one that you betrayed 166 00:13:00.730 --> 00:13:07.250 and crucified, an opposed that Jesus did this. And this isn't like the 167 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:11.129 start of something new, some new religion. This is this is just the 168 00:13:11.289 --> 00:13:16.399 continuation and culmination of everything that's been promised to us all along, ever since 169 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:18.960 God told Abraham, I'm going to fix the world and I'm going to use 170 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.000 your family to do it, and all the nations of the world be blessed 171 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.639 through your family. Just like Moses said, I'm going to send you a 172 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:31.190 prophet like me, but a Greater Moses, and you're to listen to him, 173 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:37.110 and that's Jesus. And he references Isaiah, that the Messiah must suffer. 174 00:13:37.149 --> 00:13:39.070 He says, look, this is this is not anything new. This 175 00:13:39.230 --> 00:13:43.139 is where the whole trajectory of your faith has been leading to. This Messiah 176 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.460 who's comes, Jesus, and now he's going to fix the world. And 177 00:13:46.740 --> 00:13:52.139 so that's what's going on here. We're not doing something tricky, we're not 178 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:56.690 doing something new. What you've always longed for is actually happening now. But 179 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:03.330 that creates problems for you that will come back to in a minute. But 180 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:07.450 basically, what we're being told here is that what God did for Jesus and 181 00:14:07.490 --> 00:14:11.799 His resurrection, he's going to do for the whole world. Jesus body is 182 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:16.120 the first permanent part of the new creation. Right, he has a body, 183 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.759 like we will have one that works right, one that's truly human again, 184 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.190 and that's the first fruits of the new creation, we're told. And 185 00:14:26.470 --> 00:14:31.029 because he's now raised from the dead and reigning in heaven, life is beginning 186 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:35.789 to break out all over the world. Just like when they saw the snow 187 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:41.620 falling off the branches a little bit in Narnia, in the land of the 188 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:45.460 white witch under her curse, where it was always winter and Never Christmas, 189 00:14:46.860 --> 00:14:50.659 they knew as land is near all right, and so when this man is 190 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:56.129 healed, people realize, Hey, the redemption is near, the Messiah is 191 00:14:56.250 --> 00:15:01.210 near, it's started, it's on, and that's what they understand. So 192 00:15:03.090 --> 00:15:07.320 that's where we live now, though. It's begun, it started, but 193 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:09.600 it's not fully here yet. We still live in a broken world. Every 194 00:15:09.639 --> 00:15:15.399 day, broken lives. Ourselves, our relationships, our brains, are environment, 195 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:20.509 our life would God, is all fraught and still with troubles. And 196 00:15:20.669 --> 00:15:24.149 that means that, if for a Christian to live in this world means you 197 00:15:24.309 --> 00:15:33.190 have to be dissatisfied every day. You have to be dissatisfied every day because 198 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:37.100 you can never embrace the status quo in a broken world. You can never 199 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:45.139 be conservative in the sense of being content with the way things are in a 200 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:50.250 broken world. Jesus, who died, must be satisfied and Earth and heaven 201 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:56.370 be one. He's not satisfied yet, and neither should we be. All 202 00:15:56.370 --> 00:16:00.529 right, so we are agents of discontent and resistance in the world. We 203 00:16:00.690 --> 00:16:07.799 know that out of the crooked timber of human nature, nothing straight can never 204 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:14.840 be built, as Manuel Kant said. We know the timbers crooked in human 205 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:19.149 beings and in human life. And every person we meet in the world is 206 00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:25.350 suffering under the curse of God on the world. And as people who receive 207 00:16:25.470 --> 00:16:29.470 mercy, we look on other people suffering under the curse with empathy. You 208 00:16:29.549 --> 00:16:33.299 don't meet anybody who's got it together, you don't meet anybody who's okay, 209 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:37.860 you don't meet anybody who's a normal every person you meet is suffering under the 210 00:16:37.899 --> 00:16:41.860 curse and you look at them knowing it shouldn't be this way and it doesn't 211 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:47.019 have to be this way. And so God sends you into the world as 212 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:51.129 his people who've been reconciled to him. Your war with him has ended because 213 00:16:51.129 --> 00:16:53.690 you're Christians, and now he sends you out in the world as his agents 214 00:16:53.809 --> 00:16:57.730 to go push back against what's broken, to go push back against the curse 215 00:16:57.809 --> 00:17:02.440 on the world right that mean? This is what our calling is, in 216 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:06.960 our relationships with people, in our work, in our neighborhoods. We're here 217 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.000 to push back against what's broken, to bring order out of chaos or to 218 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:17.589 shine a light on what's beautiful and praiseworthy, the good things in this life 219 00:17:17.750 --> 00:17:19.710 that give us hints about how great the real world is going to be. 220 00:17:22.309 --> 00:17:25.710 And so you've been given job. Some of you clean up the mess of 221 00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:29.990 the curse. You take care of sick people, you arrest people that have 222 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:37.059 to be arrested. You do accountancy to make sure people can live together and 223 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:41.940 do business together, bring order out of chaos. Others of you are artists 224 00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:45.769 and build things that are beautiful. Practicing for the new creation, when we'll 225 00:17:45.769 --> 00:17:51.009 get to build things that are stunning, will be to paint things that are 226 00:17:51.009 --> 00:17:56.210 astounding, where will reflect the true beauty of human creativity. Some of you 227 00:17:56.410 --> 00:18:00.799 have jobs where you have hard time explaining what you do. That helps anybody, 228 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:08.160 but you're not the king and you're posted where the king wants you. 229 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:14.190 And you know, I'm not a military person because I'm not that discipline, 230 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:17.069 but I know good and well that when you're just when you're assigned to your 231 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.910 post by your superiors, you just shut up and go to your post and 232 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:23.109 you figure they have a good reason for it. You hope they have a 233 00:18:23.150 --> 00:18:26.789 good reason for it. As a Christian, you know the king has a 234 00:18:26.829 --> 00:18:30.619 good reason for it. He's put you where he's put you to do what 235 00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:36.700 you're going to do. As Milton said his famous poem, they also serve 236 00:18:36.819 --> 00:18:41.059 who only stand and wait. So you think a king has people who just 237 00:18:41.299 --> 00:18:45.410 wait on him and they're not doing anything until he tells them something to do. 238 00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:49.289 But that's a good job, right to stand and wait on the king. 239 00:18:51.089 --> 00:18:52.569 That's what some of us are given to do. But we're here to 240 00:18:52.690 --> 00:18:56.599 do his bidding and seek his mission in the world, to push back against 241 00:18:56.599 --> 00:19:02.680 the curse. Dissatisfied, never content here with the way things are. At 242 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:10.950 the same time, though, we're not cynics, because we have this wildly 243 00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:18.269 romantic hope that human potential isn't just a tease, human beauty isn't just fleeting 244 00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:27.059 like the flowers of summer, that life with God can be unbelievably robust and 245 00:19:27.180 --> 00:19:33.339 full of joy and peace and happiness. Actually with God. We believe these 246 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:38.329 things. We experience what he says in Verse Twenty Times of refreshing that come 247 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:45.170 from the presence of the Lord now, while we wait for the restoration of 248 00:19:45.250 --> 00:19:49.170 all things later when Jesus returns. But we experience times of refreshing now and 249 00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:52.680 we're meant to shine a big light on that in the world, to put 250 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:57.279 on display the beginning of the healing that God has done in the world. 251 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:03.720 And we say, even though human nature's crooked timber and nothing straight can be 252 00:20:03.799 --> 00:20:07.710 made out of crooked timber, we also know what Thomas Watson said, the 253 00:20:07.789 --> 00:20:14.630 old Scott Puritan, the Lord striketh straight blows with crooked sticks. Right, 254 00:20:15.190 --> 00:20:18.910 God takes our crooked timber and makes us useful for him in the world and 255 00:20:19.869 --> 00:20:23.380 gives us hope in the world so that we look at people, every one 256 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:26.779 of them, suffering under the curse, and we don't give up on them 257 00:20:26.859 --> 00:20:33.140 or think that they're too far gone to be redeemed to inhuman, to ever 258 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:40.609 be human again. We don't start praying for people, we don't stop pushing 259 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:44.289 back against the curse, even in places where it seems hopeless, so Christians 260 00:20:44.329 --> 00:20:48.289 can do social work without crumpling under the weight of it, because we have 261 00:20:48.450 --> 00:20:52.519 hope that the king is ultimately going to set things right and I don't know 262 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:53.960 what I'm going to see in this world and I don't know how much difference 263 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:56.440 I'm going to make in this world, but I can press on because I 264 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:03.759 have a hope that guards me against cynicism, which is a big deal for 265 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:07.390 honest people to live without cynicism in the world. It's a great benefit were 266 00:21:07.430 --> 00:21:11.309 given. So God's fixing the world, where his agents and that, but 267 00:21:11.349 --> 00:21:17.309 he's also fixing us and a lot of what Peter says in his sermon really 268 00:21:17.670 --> 00:21:21.859 points and presses on that. The tell part of what happens here in a 269 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:23.700 sermon. It's kind of a mean sermon. I don't know if you know, 270 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:29.500 like the sermon and Pentecost and acts chapter two. That's a pretty mean 271 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:33.289 sermon. He didn't give you any like tiger woods illustrations or as land or 272 00:21:33.329 --> 00:21:37.890 any that kind of stuff. He's just like you killed Jesus and that's a 273 00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:42.970 huge problem. I mean that's the point of his sermon. You killed the 274 00:21:44.049 --> 00:21:49.599 author of life. You are the crucifiers of the holy son of God and 275 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:55.160 you conspired with the Romans to do it. He doesn't pull back in since 276 00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:57.240 then, you continued to be autonomous, to oppose him, to live in 277 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:04.150 selfrighteousness instead of appealing to His mercy and grace for you. And because of 278 00:22:04.230 --> 00:22:12.150 that, I'm here to say that God hates you and damned you. So 279 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:18.019 what he said and said you crucified the Holy Son of God. You conspired 280 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:22.339 with the Romans to do it. You Gasp for the murderer to be released. 281 00:22:22.460 --> 00:22:32.170 Instead you did this, and there's mercy for you. It's crazy. 282 00:22:33.369 --> 00:22:37.809 You're the biggest enemies, you know, the poster children of God's enemies in 283 00:22:37.849 --> 00:22:42.490 the world. And the message for you from the healing of this lame man 284 00:22:42.769 --> 00:22:47.759 is there's hope for you, that the savior, whom you denied and whom 285 00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:51.680 you killed, came to rescue you and he's willing to have you home, 286 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:55.880 he's willing to let you come back, he's willing to forgive you, to 287 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:59.710 bring you back in a relationship with him. and WHO's given the sermon? 288 00:23:00.509 --> 00:23:03.390 It's Peter, the betrayer. Right, if anybody knows what it means to 289 00:23:03.509 --> 00:23:07.950 not deserve to be loved by God and welcome by him, it's Peter. 290 00:23:07.789 --> 00:23:11.269 And so he goes to these people and says you people are the worst, 291 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:17.819 and I know a little something about that. And if there's hope for me, 292 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:22.180 there's hope for you. You can repent. Always think of the word 293 00:23:22.259 --> 00:23:26.099 repent. Kind of mean right, you need to repent, change your ways, 294 00:23:26.849 --> 00:23:33.009 which is not false, but he says it end of a sermon. 295 00:23:33.089 --> 00:23:37.009 God, God sent Jesus to bless you by turning you from your wickedness. 296 00:23:40.450 --> 00:23:45.039 The turning from wickness is God's blessing. It's like it's super generous what he's 297 00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:51.240 saying. I'm willing to actually change you in ways that you could never imagine 298 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:53.960 changing. I'm willing to have you back when there's no way you can really 299 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.029 believe that I would have you back. Knowing you as I know you and 300 00:23:57.150 --> 00:24:00.750 knowing what you've done as I know what you've done, no one would ever 301 00:24:00.829 --> 00:24:07.150 assume that God would cause his face to shine on them and be gracious to 302 00:24:07.269 --> 00:24:12.500 them. If they're honest. I mean if you're if you believe the you 303 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:18.019 know, the puffy posters from elementary school about how gray you are and what 304 00:24:18.059 --> 00:24:21.779 your potential is. You may not get this, but if you're honest about 305 00:24:21.819 --> 00:24:25.089 human nature, this is hard to believe. If you, if you ever 306 00:24:25.529 --> 00:24:29.930 were a part of one of the MILGRIM experimenter experiments. You remember that one 307 00:24:30.009 --> 00:24:33.009 where they the movie was experiment or stand. The milgrim did the experiments where 308 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:37.849 he's seeing it. Have they could get people to shock each other and and 309 00:24:37.009 --> 00:24:41.039 they you know, under the under is sort of a study of authority. 310 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.359 Are you willing to follow authority and turn up the shock which seems to be 311 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:48.359 badly hurting your fellow human being in the other room? And it was amazing 312 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:52.029 how willing people were to shock each other and their run that thing all the 313 00:24:52.069 --> 00:24:56.150 way up to full blast. One of those things that makes you say, 314 00:24:56.190 --> 00:25:00.109 Hey, I may not be as good a person as I thought I was. 315 00:25:00.509 --> 00:25:06.029 My timber may be pretty crooked, sort of like a I don't know. 316 00:25:06.069 --> 00:25:11.940 I think we evaluate our own goodness and morality the way American math students 317 00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:21.099 estimate their own ability and math when they do studies about children self image about 318 00:25:21.099 --> 00:25:23.289 math. How good are you at math? The Americans do fantastic. We 319 00:25:23.410 --> 00:25:26.009 think we're awesome at math. When they do studies about how we actually do 320 00:25:26.089 --> 00:25:30.289 it math, we're not good at all, but we think we're awesome. 321 00:25:32.809 --> 00:25:38.079 And I think morally we're pretty much the same way. The timbers more crooked 322 00:25:38.119 --> 00:25:45.279 than we like to think, and if you've broken your life in any real 323 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:48.720 good, hard way, then you feel that more than other people do. 324 00:25:49.950 --> 00:25:56.349 If you're still living under the romantic illusion of your own goodness, there's not 325 00:25:56.470 --> 00:25:57.750 much in the good news of Jesus Christ that you're going to be able to 326 00:25:57.789 --> 00:26:03.460 hear. So this is for broken people. Addicts know it, sexually broken 327 00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:10.660 people know it, hoarders know it, people who are so bitter they can't 328 00:26:10.660 --> 00:26:14.740 have a relationship with their family know it. Angry people know it, bigots 329 00:26:14.819 --> 00:26:19.650 know it. Sometimes good church people have a hard time knowing it. But 330 00:26:19.769 --> 00:26:25.569 the timber is crooked. But the news is good, I had the news 331 00:26:25.730 --> 00:26:29.410 is good that you're being blessed by being turned from your weakness. It means 332 00:26:29.410 --> 00:26:30.970 that you can actually change in the ways that you think you're never going to 333 00:26:32.049 --> 00:26:37.680 change. And shoot, there probably some things about you that you'll struggle with 334 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:42.920 until the day you die. I mean, I would say for sure you're 335 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:47.119 going to struggle with pride and selfishness until the day you die. You never 336 00:26:47.190 --> 00:26:49.869 going to be fully healed of those. But other like more embarrassing sins that 337 00:26:49.910 --> 00:26:52.789 you think you know grown up should be able to not to do anymore. 338 00:26:53.910 --> 00:26:57.950 Even with some of those things we experience healing now, these times are refreshing 339 00:26:59.029 --> 00:27:02.460 that come from the Lord Start to change us and we see I'm not as 340 00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:06.339 selfish or lecherous as I used to be, and it gives me hope that 341 00:27:06.420 --> 00:27:11.779 one day I won't be at all, but I'll live as a beautiful human 342 00:27:11.819 --> 00:27:15.019 being one day, and I do a version of myself. It will be 343 00:27:15.099 --> 00:27:19.690 a tremendous shock to Julie to see it. But he says if you turn 344 00:27:19.730 --> 00:27:25.970 to Jesus, your sins will be blotted out, blotted out things that you 345 00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:27.690 can never blot out of your own mind, the things that keep you up 346 00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:32.440 at Waken at night cringing, the things that you would go back and change 347 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:37.200 if you ever could. He says I can blot them out like you can 348 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:41.839 get an ink out of papyrus, and it's just not there anymore. Your 349 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:45.670 past is going to be blotted out. Your regrets, your shameful failures, 350 00:27:47.869 --> 00:27:52.269 your cringe moments are going to be gone. That the hope of repentance is 351 00:27:52.470 --> 00:27:56.750 that who you really are is not who you have been up until now. 352 00:27:56.869 --> 00:28:00.259 Who you are is who you're going to be when Jesus is through with his 353 00:28:00.339 --> 00:28:03.220 working you, and so you're defined by your future, not haunted by your 354 00:28:03.259 --> 00:28:08.180 past, and now you live with this crazy hope and crazy joy that you 355 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:11.740 shouldn't have if you're being honest about your life. But because you have this 356 00:28:11.819 --> 00:28:15.130 hope in Jesus, you have this stupid grin on your face because you know 357 00:28:15.809 --> 00:28:22.569 you're haunted by the future and the news is going forward is good. The 358 00:28:22.690 --> 00:28:26.920 news going forward is good, and all that baggage of shame and guilt that 359 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.599 you carry around and wasted potential and frustration with the decisions you've made in your 360 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:41.279 life, all that's going away. All the ways you've betrayed and been unfaithful 361 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:44.230 to Jesus, the ways you've been a bad Christian, as good as Christian 362 00:28:44.269 --> 00:28:45.589 as you should have been, as good as he's been to you, and 363 00:28:45.829 --> 00:28:49.990 all you owe him that you haven't done is just not going to be a 364 00:28:51.109 --> 00:28:56.019 part of your relationship with him at all. That's why you're a ministers. 365 00:28:56.420 --> 00:29:02.380 And do you know how good a minister you have? My goodness, Chris 366 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:06.819 Chopka is so impressive. I hope you're thankful for him. But God puts 367 00:29:06.859 --> 00:29:10.569 his ministers and authorizes them with his own authority to stand in front of you 368 00:29:10.690 --> 00:29:14.769 every week when you leave church, to tell you what God thinks of you. 369 00:29:14.809 --> 00:29:18.970 Now, because of Jesus, rescue and that is the Lord bless you 370 00:29:18.089 --> 00:29:25.839 and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious 371 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:27.559 to you. Not The Lord turn his face away from you because he's embarrassed 372 00:29:27.559 --> 00:29:33.039 to look at you. You, but he makes his face shine upon you. 373 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:37.589 And because your consciences are so unreliable, he authorizes a minister to stand 374 00:29:37.589 --> 00:29:41.670 here and say that to you in his stead. So you'll believe it and 375 00:29:41.789 --> 00:29:47.750 you'll leave church without ringing in your ears that you have times of refreshment that 376 00:29:47.869 --> 00:29:56.579 come from God, because Jesus is merciful to people like us. First summer 377 00:29:56.579 --> 00:29:59.140 here to sign. I've been here about two years. I S still don't 378 00:29:59.180 --> 00:30:06.980 understand it, but I'm learning. I didn't understand why they called these birds 379 00:30:07.099 --> 00:30:15.609 mourning doves, because they warble all day. It's not just in the morning. 380 00:30:17.089 --> 00:30:19.329 What's the deal? These loud, loud birds go all there. Why? 381 00:30:19.410 --> 00:30:22.319 You call him a morning dove and someone said, idiot, it's mourning 382 00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:29.359 mo you are in mourning dove. Oh Oh, okay, well, I 383 00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:36.589 see now, and now they've become this sign from God for me because they 384 00:30:36.670 --> 00:30:38.869 wake me up every day. You know, they're loud. Don't know your 385 00:30:38.910 --> 00:30:45.869 how they're louder on our house every morning and they're singing about the ache of 386 00:30:45.990 --> 00:30:52.619 the broken world, their mourning the broken creation. I'm feeling a little poetic 387 00:30:52.700 --> 00:31:00.220 with this. Go with me. The they're reminding every day that you're waking 388 00:31:00.220 --> 00:31:03.220 up into a world that is not the way it's supposed to be. It's 389 00:31:03.289 --> 00:31:07.930 broken. You're waking up broken. Everybody run into today's going to be broken. 390 00:31:08.730 --> 00:31:11.529 Things are not the way that they're supposed to be. It's a protest 391 00:31:11.730 --> 00:31:17.289 song of the morning doves, a resistant song of the morning does for the 392 00:31:17.369 --> 00:31:19.799 saying it's not okay, it's not right. Yet we're still here, we're 393 00:31:19.799 --> 00:31:27.319 still singing because it's broken and we're dissatisfied. But they're singing and you sing 394 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:32.950 when you have hope. You Sing when you have hope, because their song 395 00:31:32.990 --> 00:31:37.950 also says it won't always be this way, it won't always be this way. 396 00:31:38.190 --> 00:31:41.509 So now you're going to listen to those morning doves and think about it 397 00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:45.190 a little differently. Now they're they're singing the protest song but they're singing because 398 00:31:45.230 --> 00:31:48.259 it won't always be this way. And then, when you hear him singing, 399 00:31:48.420 --> 00:31:52.339 get up dissatisfied, brace yourself for a fight. You'RE gonna have to 400 00:31:52.380 --> 00:31:56.220 repent first thing you do, because you're not well yet, and you're going 401 00:31:56.259 --> 00:32:00.420 to walk out into a world that's broken and hurting, suffering mean, and 402 00:32:00.579 --> 00:32:07.529 you going to brace yourself for that too, but also get up and be 403 00:32:07.690 --> 00:32:14.289 refreshed by God and hear the music of protests that says it will not always 404 00:32:14.369 --> 00:32:17.079 be this way, and you can go out and start pushing back against the 405 00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:22.720 chaos and pushing back against the curse until the king finally comes back and fixes 406 00:32:22.759 --> 00:32:24.119 this. Now let's pray