Sermon – Acts 3:12-19 - Repent and Turn to God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Acts 3:12-19 - Repent and Turn to God

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Third Sunday of Easter

April 22, 2012

We have been looking at how God planted the first church. Churches get planted just like potatoes and corn and gardens. I have been planting azaleas and flowers in the gardens around the Dickinson Memorial Manse. These plants need good soil, water, sunshine, and fertilizer all of which God provides. So we should not be surprised when God uses preaching, the Holy Spirit and miracles to plant a church. We will see how this works this morning, but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Last week we heard how God got the first church started. He sent his Holy Spirit into the hearts of the Apostles giving them the ability to preach the good news that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead with the promise for all who believe of eternal life. The Holy Spirit then used this proclamation to work in the hearts of the people who heard it to bring them them to faith. Those who then believed were baptized into faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit which sealed upon them the promise of eternal life. This led to the formation of a church that was unified with one heart and one mind.

But how did God get people into the church so that they would hear the proclamation and be transformed by the Holy Spirit? According the Book of Acts God used a miracle to make this happen. You might think that the miracle God used was the resurrection, and that certainly was a miracle. But only a few people saw it, just some women and the disciples. Everyone else heard about the resurrected from the preaching of the Apostles. But God used a different miracle, one that everyone in Jerusalem would instantly recognize as a miracle to bring people into the church. It worked this way. One afternoon two of the apostles were going to pray at the Temple. (Prayer, by the way is essential for a church to grow.) As they entered the temple gate they noticed a beggar who had been lame from birth being placed on the ground next to the gate. This person had no other way to make a living and had to depend on the generosity of those going to prayer. He had been doing this his entire life for decades. When Peter and John saw him they wanted to help. But what could they do? They didn't have any money to give him. But there was one thing they could do. They could pray for him. They could pray that Jesus would heal him. They had seen Jesus heal many people while on Earth, but would the resurrected and ascended Jesus continue to heal? They must have asked this question, but they were filled with faith so they boldly told the man in the name of Jesus Christ to walk, and he did.

Everyone in Jerusalem knew this man. They had seen him sitting at that gate for years. Many had tried to help him. But when the word went around town that he had been healed and was walking they were amazed. We know how fast news spreads around Pocomoke when something happens. Just imagine how fast this news spread around Jerusalem. It didn't take long for the news to reach nearly everyone and a large crowd assembled at the temple gate to see for themselves whether or not the story was true. And when they arrived at the gate they saw something that had to make their jaws drop. A man, disabled from birth, unable to walk, was dancing in front of the gate. As they stared in amazement Peter said to them.

Acts 3:12-19 12 …. "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. 17 "Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

The astonished people who came to the temple gate that day did not understand what was going on. So Peter, in his sermon, had to make sense of it for them so that they would come to belief. The first thing he told them was that they were mistaken about the source of the miracle they had witnessed. The people had supposed that Peter and John somehow had extraordinary healing powers. Even today we idolize people who have somehow tapped into the universe's power to heal. They are the faith healer we find at revivals or the self improvement counselors we watch on TV. We read their books and buy their DVDs. We want to learn their secrets and use them for ourselves. We search for the right words, technique, formula or product that will give us exactly what we think we need to make our lives right. But Peter says that we have got it all wrong. It was not Peter's power, Peter's knowledge, Peter's technique or formula. It was about God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this God was the healer. God is the source of our healing and restoration.

The second mistake the people made was to assume that brokenness was to be expected, while healing was extraordinary. We see this today. There is a general belief that God either doesn't exist or at least doesn't interfere in the the normal course of things. We are genuinely surprised when a miracle like healing occurs. The crowds that day in Jerusalem were drawn to the gate because the healing was so unexpected. But Peter tells us that in a world after Easter healing and restoration are what we should expect because they are as common and sunshine and rain.

And the third mistake the crowd made that day was their reaction to this event, astonishment. Whenever we see God at work in the world, bringing a cancer to remission, restoring a broken relationship, ending wars, feeding hungry children we too are filled with wonder and joy. We are amazed. But Peter tells us that this reaction is not enough. Whenever we see God's handiwork we must go beyond astonishment all the way to repentance. You see it is not enough just to be pleasantly surprised when God blesses us in extraordinary ways. We need to repent, change directions, and follow God as citizens of God's kingdom.

So how did God get the first church started? He equipped it with the Holy Spirit and preachers who could proclaim the resurrection from the dead and the promise of eternal life. When everything was ready God performed a miracle. This attracted a large crowd who were told that God is the source of their blessings and for all who believe in the resurrection heavenly blessing are no longer extraordinary, rather they were expected given the resurrection of the one who was able to perform miracles, Jesus Christ. The crowd was called to repent, to give up their old ways not of anticipating God's blessings, and join with a community that celebrated God's blessings every day. This was really good news. And that church grew rapidly.

Peter then invited them to join with him and the other apostles as they studied the Hebrew scriptures and reinterpreted them in light of the life and ministry of Jesus. They started getting together on Sunday mornings, before work, to find in the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament, a better understanding of who Jesus was and what he did. And we are still doing it today. We still, 2000 years later, gather each Sunday morning to examine the scripture and talk about Jesus. Why do we do this? I think we are still here because we still experience God's miraculous blessings in our lives every day. We experience joy everyday and we have come to expect it. And we hunger for meaning to understand what we are experiencing. So we come to church, to hear the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead with the promise of eternal life. The Holy Spirit fills us with faith. And we leave here expecting see God at work in the world and to align ourselves with God's mission to that world.

The reality that God is blessing the world is the key to evangelism. Most of the people we meet are unable to see God at work in their world. They believe that miracles are a thing of the past. Occasionally they witness something extraordinary, but they have no way of understanding what is happening. The reaction is astonishment. They are momentarily amazed but they quickly return to their dreary lives. You have the ability to help them break free from this prison. You can help them to see God's continuing blessings and miracles. You can help them understand what is going on. You can invite them to church for Bible study, prayer and worship where they too will learn to recognize God's blessings when they occur and understand what they are all about. This is a great gift that you can give to others in this community. Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank you for blessing us so richly. We know that all of this was part of your plan as spoken to the prophets and revealed in Jesus Christ. We pledge our repentance and our promise to align ourselves with what you are doing in our community. Help us to help other recognize your blessings when they occur. Help us to explain to others what these mean. And help us to help others come to repentance where they too can recognize all you are doing for them. This way pray in the name of the one who made all of this possible, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.