Who is Jesus? Acts 3:12-18

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.