feet and ankle bones ******* Acts 3:1 – 26 ~ Our Spiritual Safari resumes today after a brief hiatus in the Book of Acts. In our last report we saw the birth of the church and we learned it was a day that can never be repeated – the Day of Pentecost; just as the events that occurred in Bethlehem could never be repeated. The day before Pentecost there was no church; the day after Pentecost there was a church. The Holy Spirit has become incarnate in believers and has filled those who will accept and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. The Holy Spirit fills us with His love, power and He blesses us for service. That is the very important place in history we are at in this report. Today, the Holy Spirit is in the world; convicting the world and restraining evil – and indwelling us as believers! ~ 1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mothers womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; ~ This ninth hour would be the hour that the high priest would go up into the temple to pray. Of course, we learned in Matthew that Zechariahs wasn’t really the high priest but he did go up and serve at the golden alter at this time. The golden alter of incense speaks of prayer. That means, at this time, there would have been a large group of people in the temple area praying! So, here comes a man that was born in a terrible condition; and this was not a beautiful man that was placed by a gate called Beautiful! The ‘’Beautiful gate’’ was a work of man and a man who was marred is brought to it. Man can make beautiful things but man cannot improve himself! Of course, a man can trim his hair, take a bath and wear a five thousand dollar suit but he can never change that old nature that he has! What a contrast we have here! Begging for help was how this man made his living…. 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. ~ It is very revealing that Peter and John are going up to the temple – AFTER the Day of Pentecost! They’re going up there to pray. Remember, this crowd is one hundred percent Israelites. More accurately, they are proselytes; all continuing to go to the temple in prayer! Well, this poor crippled man certainly thought that these two apostles would be able to give him something. When Peter and John instructed this man to look upon them he definitely thought he would be receiving something. One of the early saints in Rome walked into the church one day where the Pope was counting the money. When the saint saw he had intruded upon something that was obviously private he turned to walk back out. The Pope said, ‘’no longer can the church say, ‘silver and gold I have none.’ ‘’ The saint, without even blinking, said, ‘’but no longer can the church say to an impotent man, ‘arise and walk!’ ‘’ Today, the church has wealth beyond imagination. If you combined the church holdings regarding properties and assets of all denominations and non-denominations across the globe it would far surpass the wealth of all major corporations combined! The problem is that the church today has become impotent! ~ 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: ~ Remember, this is Dr. Luke writing and when Luke wrote we got many details that we wouldn’t have received anywhere else. Luke is very specific about what happened! I suppose there were no muscle tissues or nerves left in the ankle bone region at all after all of these years. Don’t miss the word ‘’leaping’’ that has occurred two times in the same verse because we’re going to find something quite remarkable in this chapter: Peter is going to offer the kingdom to the nation again; because, at this time, the church is one hundred percent Jewish. There are NO outsiders in this group whatsoever! The church began at Jerusalem, as Jesus had told them to, and is now to go to the ends of the earth. What we are studying is the Jerusalem period and NOT some other dispensation; we have too many hyper-dispensationalists running around making that claim. Well, what see here is a period of transition – it is not another dispensation. The early church didn’t go out and begin at the ends of the earth! Alright, the nation is going to be given the opportunity to receive the kingdom again now. This will be their final opportunity. We are told the mark of that kingdom establishing opportunity will be that the lame shall leap! In Isaiah we find that, in conjunction with this, the desert will blossom as the rose. Isaiah 35:6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart…. This is no accident here! This is a miracle because this man LEAPED! Every instructed Israelite in the temple marveled at this because they understood that this could very well be the beginning of the kingdom! All they needed was their Messiah Who had been crucified and ascended into Heaven – but – if they would have received Him then He would have come at that time! Some of the people there were wondering if this would be the beginning of the kingdom again – great things were certainly happening. In the past several weeks they have seen the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection, His ascension and the Day of Pentecost. The learned Jew was amazed at what was happening. However, I’m afraid most of them, as with most students of Scripture today, simply haven’t caught the significance of the record we have here in front of us at this time! ~ 10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. 11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomons, greatly wondering. 12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? ~ In this marvelous sermon Peter is speaking to ‘’ye men of Israel’’ – not ye men of America or wherever! This is the Jerusalem period, I cannot stress that enough! The church is going to move out but it hasn’t moved out yet. No one in Rome has heard a single word of the Gospel at this time! America doesn’t even exist yet and England was totally in the dark at this time. I wish that people reading the Bible would bring to it the same common sense that they use when reading other literature. The far out assumptions that are made in God’s Word is appalling to me; and it should be to you, too! Peter is directing these men back to the Old Testament in verse twelve. They were all well acquainted with Zechariah chapter twelve at ten: Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. These people were in total rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ and they had not repented. This prophecy had not – and has STILL not - been fulfilled by the second coming of Christ. Peter is telling them the kingdom would come at this time if they would only turn to Him! Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Isaiah 12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. 4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This all speaks of the worship during the time when the kingdom is here on earth! The people present at the time we are studying should have seen that, in this plain man, they were beholding a miniature for the entire nation if they would only have turned to God! ~ 13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. 14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. ~ Neither Simon Peter nor Paul will ever preach a sermon without the mention of the resurrection. Today, unfortunately, we rarely hear a sermon that DOES mention the resurrection – and usually only once each year at Easter time! That man that leaped represented what they would do in the kingdom! The only question is: do you really want the Messiah to return? Do you truly desire to receive Him? ~ 16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; ******* Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. ******* 20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: ~ The question remains: IF they had accepted Jesus would He have returned to the earth at this time? – The answer is yes because Peter says here that He would have returned. So, what would the program of God after that be? Well, I am going to let you know something I hope you won’t tell anyone else: I have no idea what His program would be if this had happened at this time! Let’s bear in mind; however, that neither does anyone else – except God Himself! Let’s forget these ‘’iffy’’ questions because what I DO know is this: they didn’t believe and this DIDN’T happen at this time. That’s the only satisfactory answer to those iffy questions. All of the wildest speculation in the world won’t even get you close to an answer…. 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. ~ This brings us to the verse that is used by those who believe everyone will ultimately go to Heaven. ‘’All things’’ just happens to be ‘’all things spoken of by the prophets.’’ That is, all things which are the subject of restitution! Paul said, ‘’I have suffered the loss of all things.’’ Paul didn’t mean all things in God’s universe; Paul meant all the things he had to lose he had lost! What we are talking about are all things that are to be restored; and Scripture makes it abundantly clear that not all things will be restored…. 22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. 24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. 25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. ~ Our safari leaves off with Israel on the verge of a tremendous judgment; and in 70 AD Titus will be coming along and will literally level Jerusalem! Over one million perished and the rest were sold into slavery throughout the Roman Empire. Judgment is coming friends! These people are being given one final opportunity to accept the Messiah. This has been a relatively dry report but it is a transitional period that is absolutely critical to correctly understand. When Paul makes it onto the scene as the apostle to the Gentiles this will all change. No longer will the Messiah come based on the belief of this nation! They will have had their opportunity to turn to Christ and they will have turned it down. Whatever would have happened is all speculation as we have said. They didn’t turn to God at this time; but, even so, this all works out according to the plan and purpose of God – Who is never surprised by what man does! God’s purposes are never frustrated by mankind’s rebellion and sin. God is sovereign and all things work out in connection with the plans and purposes that He has established according to His will. We just saw that in the Book of Ruth and now we see it again here. We can expect it to be true in our own lives and in the time we live in, too. We’re going to see some outstanding truths of prophecy as we move along now. So, in the next report we will see the results of the second sermon that Simon Peter will give! ~
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 02:51:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015