WHO IS JESUS?
Acts 3:12-18
Introduction: There was a story in the news a few weeks ago of a
snake handling pastor in Kentucky who was bitten by a poisonous snake during a
worship service, and then later died when he refused medical treatment. Such a
tragic misapplication of Scripture poignantly illustrates the truth that wrong
theology can be deadly, it really is a matter of life and death. If handled accurately, the Word of Truth, the
Bible, is the source of sound doctrine.
At the center of the Bible is Jesus, and it is essential that we have
correct belief concerning who He is. Jesus
is the Head of the Church, the revelation of God, the object of our faith, the
Eternal Son, and the source of our life. We talk a lot about “believing” and
about “faith” but what exactly does that mean, what does it entail? Believing
in Jesus means understanding correctly who he is, acknowledging his character
and his attributes, and trusting him alone as your hope for life. Most cults
err either in not fully acknowledging who Jesus is (denying His deity for
example) or they err is how His work is applied in our lives.
Setting: The miraculous healing described in 3:1-11 set the
stage for the apostles to point away from themselves and to point to Jesus. John
the Baptist earlier had said “He must
increase, I must decrease,” and that is the attitude of an authentic
Christian.
Big Idea: It’s all about Jesus: Because of who He is and
because of what He has done we have hope and life.
I. It’s all
about Jesus: the Promised Servant
(12-13; See Isa 42:1; Isa 53).
“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 own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 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” (Acts 3:12-13).
The
people were “utterly astounded” and “greatly amazed” by the healing of the lame
man. Think about it, we learn later
that this man was over 40 years old. He had been lame from birth, and was now
leaping and praising God. That got their attention! But rather than looking
heavenward and focusing their thanksgiving on God, they were looking at Peter and
John as though by some power, intrinsic in themselves, they had healed the man.
And immediately, Peter directs their attention to where it belongs, to the one
who had healed the man.
Notice Peter says “Don’t look at us, look up!”
He draws on common ground with his Jewish brothers and sisters by referring to
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:
the God of our Fathers.” He points them to the Word of God written as the
foundation of what was happening now before their very eyes. They were not promoting some kind of new
“religion” but were pointing to the fulfillment of the Old Testament hope. When
speaking to a Jewish audience the appeal to the Scriptures was very important:
this was not some novelty that appeared out of nowhere. The message preached by
the apostles was that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures, He was the
One to whom they pointed. On the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection, Jesus
said to the two disciples on the way,
25 And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the
Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and
all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27).
Later when He presented himself to the eleven He said,
44 Then he said to them, "These are my words
that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written
about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled." 45 Then he
opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, "Thus it
is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the
dead, 47 and that repentance
and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning
from Jerusalem (Luke 24:44-47).
The idea of a
suffering Messiah was woven into the very fabric of the Old Testament. One
aspect of that is alluded to in the next title used for Jesus.
Peter says that God “…has glorified His servant, Jesus…” It seems certain that the servant referred to
in this context is the messianic servant who appears in the second half of Isaiah.
For example we read in Isaiah 42:1-8,
“Behold my
servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my
Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up
his voice, or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning
wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be
discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands
wait for his law. 5 Thus says
God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out
the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and
spirit to those who walk in it: 6
"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the
hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for
the nations, 7 to open the
eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the
prison those who sit in darkness. 8
I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to
carved idols.”
Notice
that the Lord is speaking of His anointed “servant,” He is the Creator, who
calls in righteousness, who sends light to the nations, and then He makes that
emphatic statement in v.8, “I AM Yahweh,
I give my glory to no one…” Peter
says “…God has glorified His
servant Jesus.” The implication seems to be that the Servant is also
Yahweh: Jesus claimed as much as we saw in John’s Gospel: He is the great I AM. The substitutionary suffering of the Servant
is then laid out in detail, almost shocking detail, in Isaiah 52:13-53:11,
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be
high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you- his appearance was so marred,
beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of
mankind- 15 so shall he
sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that
which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they
understand. [Isaiah
53:1] Who has believed what they heard
from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a
young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that
we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by
men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide
their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and
afflicted. 5 But he was
wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was
the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are
healed. 6 All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has
laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a
lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is
silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who
considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the
transgression of my people? 9
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD
to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD
shall prosper in his hand. 11
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge
shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and
he shall bear their iniquities.
If
Jesus is “the Servant,” we remember the admonition of Paul in his letter to the
Philippians, “Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus… who emptied himself, taking the form of a
servant…” We serve Him by serving
others, by looking out for their interests, by loving them as He has loved us. We
can do that when we get our eyes off of ourselves and onto Him. After all, it’s
all about Jesus: Because of who He is and because of what He has done we have
hope and life.
II. Jesus is
the Righteous and Holy One who created life and who gave His life, and was
vindicated in the resurrection (14-15).
“But you denied the Holy and
Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of
life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”
The irony of what Peter states here is
striking, and it had to cut to the heart of his hearers. First of all he says,
·
“You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked
for a murderer to be granted to you…” Peter is speaking under the
inspiration of the Spirit, and he knew that at one level he was guilty too:
After all, he had denied the Holy and Righteous One as well, not once
but three times! He knew his sin and He also
knew God’s grace. He had repented and been restored. As a nation the Jews had
gone further in their rejection of Jesus than had Peter: they not only rejected
Jesus as Messiah, but they chose Barabbas, a criminal, to be released in his
stead!
·
The second
statement is even more painful since they had done the unthinkable, they “…killed the Author of Life…” The very
giver of life, our creator and sustainer, took a human nature, knowing that He
would be rejected and killed. They had killed Him, but God raised Him to life.
The conviction had to be overwhelming – they acted unjustly, unrighteously,
unholy, doing the opposite of what God would do.
At
the same time there is hope here, grace, light in the darkness: The One who
they had killed is the One “…whom God
raised from the dead…” The resurrection of Jesus offers hope: Jesus
defeated death, proving who he is, and showing that death will not have the
final word. It’s all about Jesus:
Because of who He is and because of what He has done we have hope and life.
III. Faith
in Jesus is the means toward healing and life (v.16). “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.” The
language here seems a little awkward, but the idea is clear enough.
The phrase “…his
name…” of course refers to the person, to Jesus, as He is, in all of his
characteristics and attributes. The name
represents the person. A little
further on in the context Peter will say, “There
is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved…” The exclusiveness implied in that phrase may
be offensive to some, but it is truth. The point here, in Peter’s sermon in
Acts 3, is that Jesus is alive and working. He had healed this man. As surely
as He did this miracle, He alone is the One who saves.
The
second principle that we want to notice is the phrase, “by faith.” Kevin DeYoung [Daniel and Terry’s former pastor from
Michigan] is coming out with a new book: Taking God at His Word: Why
the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and
Me. The title caught my
attention since it is pretty close to my simplistic definition of faith:
believing God, taking Him at His word. “Faith in His name” implies trusting Him
based on who He is, what He has revealed himself to be. That is at the heart of Peter’s sermon – He
wants his hearers to know Jesus as He is, as He has revealed himself to be. It’s
all about Him! Because of who He is and because of what He has done we have
hope and life.
IV. Jesus suffered for us: Will we put our trust
in Him (17-18)? 17 "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in
ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18
But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would
suffer, he thus fulfilled.
We see again the juxtaposition of
seemingly contradictory concepts: human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Up
until now, they acted in ignorance. He
is not saying they were not guilty, or that they were not responsible for what
they had done. They simply didn’t have the full light of the gospel. Remember
Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, they
know not what they do.” So as Jesus came and presented himself to his
people, we see in Acts, Jesus being presented, first of all to his kinsmen, his
fellow Jews. The offer before them was plain: you acted in ignorance before,
but now the Cross is history and the empty tomb is irrefutable truth. What
will you do with Jesus?
The truth and grace of the gospel was foretold
in the Scriptures, including the prediction of a suffering Messiah. God wove a
cord of three strands through the Old Testament: 1) the sacrificial system
spoke of the necessity of blood being shed for the remission of sin. 2) the
suffering and rejected King of the Psalms set forth a scriptural tension
between the promise of an eternal reign, and the idea of the King, also called
the Son of God (cf. Psalm 2:7; 22:1ff. etc.), being hated and rejected and
ultimately crucified. And 3) the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, spoke of one who
would be rejected, and willingly take the punishment for the sins of the
others. These brush strokes in the
Scriptures which alone could look confusing and unclear, together paint a
portrait of the Son of God who came in the fullness of time to take away the
sin of the world. Peter’s desire, unquestionably, would be that his hearers
would recognize the truth, repent of their sin, and turn in faith to Messiah
Jesus. The question for them and for us is the same: what will you do with
Jesus? Who do you believe him to be?
What is God
saying to me in this passage? It’s
all about Jesus: Because of who He is and because of what He has done we have
hope and life.
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage? If you have resisted acknowledging the truth, know that He is who He
claimed to be, and trust Him as your Savior and Lord. I don’t think we have any snake handlers in
our midst. But be warned: bad theology can be deadly. Jesus is the Way, the
only Way, the Truth and the Life. Do you
believe that? The key question we have to answer is “Who is Jesus?” And “what should we do, how should we respond
to Him?” The call of Peter’s sermon and
of the entire New Testament is to BELIEVE in Him, recognize who He is, trust in
what He has done. And then, to submit to His Lordship. If He really is who He claimed to be, how
can we do less? We come together
and worship Him as we well should. We also live our life every day in His
presence, recognizing His authority, submitting to His Lordship. The protestant
reformers used a Latin phrase, Coram Deo,
in the presence of God, in the sense of living life in recognition of the truth
that He is with us always, we live before the face of God. Here and now, when
we leave here, when we wake up tomorrow morning, He is with us. Do our choices
reflect that understanding?
Think about that, AMEN.
Hello Pastor Steve and Mary Ann Nash. I am so glad to know you through your profile on the blogger. I am glad to stop by your blog " Pastor's Corner" and the post on it "Who is Jesus"? Acts 3:12-18. Very thoughtful sharing and the application part is appealing. Well let me take this chance to introduce myself to you. I am also in the Pastoral ministry for last 34yrs in this great city of Mumbai, India a city with great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor live. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of Christ to bring healing to the broken hearted. We also encourage young people as well as adults from the West to come to Mumbai on the short /long term missions trip to work with us during their summer vacation. We would love to have young people from your church youth group who are interested in missions to come to Mumbai to work with us during their summer vacation. We do have young people coming from different denominations. I am sure they well have a life changing experience. My email id is: dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. Looking forward to hear from you very soon.
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