Sunday Re Cap (22nd July 2012)

Jesus Name Made This Man Strong-Part 2

Acts 3:1-16

There are five exaltations of Jesus—that's the essence of this sermon, to magnify Jesus. He is

1. The long-awaited servant of the Lord;

2. Glorified by God;

3. The Holy and Righteous One;

4. The Author of Life; and

5. Raised by God from the dead.

This ought to be the pattern of preaching of the gospel. It must always start with exalting Jesus; who He is, what He has done…but it does not and must not end there as we see the other part of this sermon. The other half of the sermon, as at Pentecost, is to show the listeners how utterly far they are from the truth and how dishonoring they have been to the worth of Jesus.

Four Devastating Charges against the People

The first two are mentioned in verse 13: "The God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up [that's the first one] and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him [that's the second one—they even went farther than the pagan Pilate in denying Jesus' truth and worth]." The third indictment comes in verse 14: "But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you." You traded infinite righteousness and holiness for a murderer. This shows how suicidal it is to reject Jesus. Finally, verse 15 says, "And you killed the Author of life." He gave you life and you killed him. Peter's point in these four charges is to drive the point of the insanity of rejecting Jesus: it is taking the life of the giver of life, and worse, it is asking for takers of life to be released on the world instead of the giver of life. Rejecting Jesus is utterly anti-life. It is murderous and suicidal.

How does it apply to us?

Firstly, when we do not exalt Jesus in our conversations, testimonies and preaching then we will begin to slowly but surely stray from the truth. Eventually we may even begin to reject the truth that is found in Christ. It is a slippery path to destruction to reject Jesus.

Secondly, when we begin to exalt Jesus, then there will be true conviction firstly in our own hearts of how far we are from the truth and this will lead to genuine repentance and not repentance for the sake of our conscience or having been caught “red handed”. It’s an Isaiah 6:1-5 experience!

Next, exalting Jesus will cause the hearts of the listeners to turn to him in genuine faith and repentance. Acts 2:37; 3:19

Good News Acts 3:19: "Repent therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord."

This is a pattern for us to follow when we preach the good news. By the way, Acts 4:4 says that about 5,000 people are converted by this message! )

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