Acts 3

In Acts 3, Peter and John encounter a man who had been crippled from birth and sitting at the temple gate. Through the power of Jesus Christ, the man is miraculously healed, causing amazement among the crowds. Peter uses this moment to point people not to himself, but to Jesus—the risen Savior who brings restoration, forgiveness, and new life. This message explores how God still works through ordinary people to demonstrate His extraordinary power and invites us to place our faith in Christ, who makes all things new.

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holt. I want to welcome you to the Road Church podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.

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Good morning and welcome to the road. It's great to be with you all this morning. Great to see you all this morning. My name is Joey Follett. I get to be the youth and young adults pastor here at the road, which is a lot of fun. Pastor Steve is uh out of town this morning, and so um I get to share God's word with all of you. Well, we're gonna be continuing our study in the book of Acts this morning. So if you have your Bibles, would you please turn with me to Acts chapter three? We are finally out of the first two chapters. So we're moving into chapter three this morning. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in a seat back in front of you so you can follow along with us. So while you're turning there, I'm going to pray. Well, God, thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. We thank you that your word speaks to us, that it's fresh, that you have fresh revelations for us every time we open your word. So, God, as we open your word corporately together this morning, would you lead us and guide us? Would you speak through us through the reading of your word? In Jesus' name, amen. Well, everyone loves a good redemption story. A good redemption story. Uh, history is full of them, culture is full of them, books, movies, TV shows. We love a good redemption story. And even as I say that, there's probably a few that might come to mind for you. And some of the ones that come to mind for me are from history, someone like Oscar Schindler, who uh was a greedy Nazi Party member at the beginning of World War II, who eventually realized the evil that was in front of him and changed direction, ended up being responsible for saving over twelve hundred uh Jewish lives. Or a favorite story of my kids is uh the Grinch who stole Christmas, right? The beginning of that story was uh was selfish, greedy, self-centered, grumpy, mean. And then by the end of that story, complete change of heart, right? Complete change of heart was charitable, was generous, was loving. Or from sports, I love sports. What about the 2018 Virginia Cavaliers basketball team? Uh they became the first NCAA basketball team as a one-seed in the March Madness tournament to lose in the first round. It was a huge deal. They lost to a 16 seed, uh, super embarrassing, never happened before. The very next year, they come back as a one seed again and win the whole thing, win the national championship the very next year with the same exact group of guys, um, minus a few. So, so redemption right there. Our hearts are often drawn to redemption stories. They're drawn to redemption stories because they show us that it's never too late. They give us hope. They show us that your story can change, it can flip, it's never too late, something good can still happen, you have time to rewrite it, to change direction. There's hope in a redemption story. Well, the Bible is also full of these stories. You know, people like Jonah or Paul on the road to Damascus come to mind. Uh, there's one that's been unfolding right in front of our very eyes in the first couple of chapters of Acts, and that's the story of Simon Peter. Simon Peter, a close friend, disciple, and apostle of Jesus, we read about Peter a lot in these first four chapters of the book of Acts. Now, Peter was one of the more famous disciples, right? We have twelve disciples who walked closely with Jesus while he was on earth, but the three that were the closest to him, spent the most time with him, were Peter, James, and John. And we read about Peter in the Gospels, and Peter is often picked on. And we're often very quick to pass judgment on Peter because there's some well-documented shortcomings of his in all four Gospels. And we're going through the book of Mark, currently with our young adults group on Tuesday nights. And as we go through the book of Mark, one thing that's kind of I've been noticing since we're also going through Acts is the story of Peter. And the Gospel of Mark is actually Peter's account. Uh John Mark, who who wrote it, wasn't one of the twelve disciples. And so most of what he wrote in the Gospel of Mark was the eyewitness account of Peter, and he spent a lot of time with Peter writing down his view. So even in the book of Mark, which is which is Peter's perspective, he doesn't look great. And there's some moments that aren't great, right? And we see a couple of them, and um, you probably some of them come to mind as well, but he had some low moments, like walking on water. Initially that was really good, right? Peter steps out of the boat in faith, he walks on water, but then quickly takes his eyes off of Jesus and he starts to sink. Or what about when Jesus was arrested in the garden and Peter quickly draws a sword and cuts off a soldier's ear? Not the best moment. Or then the most famous one where he denies Jesus three times, but even before that, Jesus told him, You're gonna deny me, and Peter denied that he was gonna deny Jesus. And then we get, you know, moments later to his ultimate denial. And we're always quick to kind of judge him and point the finger at Peter and say, How could you do that? I would never do something like that. How could you, you're so close to Jesus, how could you deny him like that so openly? And and what I like to point out is it was not a snap judgment decision for Peter. It didn't just happen, right? These things don't just happen, it's a slippery slope. There's things that lead to them. So let's take, for example, his his biggest blunder, which would be denying Jesus three times, right? The most famous account of Peter falling short. It didn't just happen, right? Peter was keeping his distance from Jesus. Intentionally. He was distancing himself from Jesus. Jesus was going through this process of being arrested and being tried, and Peter intentionally was in the courtyard watching from a distance. So he had distanced himself from Jesus. That's one. The second thing he did was he's trying to blend in with this group of non-believers in the courtyard. He's trying to blend in with the world. Now these two decisions, seemingly small, seemingly small, led Peter to do something he never thought he would ever do. And that was deny Jesus. And if we do the same thing, like if we look inward, if we intentionally distance ourselves from Jesus, if we try hard to blend in with the world, then we too could find ourselves like Peter doing something we never ever thought we could possibly do. It's a slippery slope. These are intentional decisions. But here's the cool part. I think what we get to see here in the book of Acts, especially in the first four chapters, is the redemption of Peter. The redemption of Peter. And it's a powerful story of redemption. And even before that, if you want to turn there, you don't have to, but it'll just be a few pages to the left. In the book of John, we get to see Jesus first redeem Peter. After he was crucified, he rose from the dead, he came back, he got to spend some time with his disciples. And in John 21, starting in verse 15, he says this to Peter. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said it to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. So just as Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus gave Peter the opportunity of redemption to tell him that he loved him three times. And so it starts with Jesus. We see him give Peter an opportunity for redemption. And then the rest is up to Peter, right? In that moment, Jesus has redeemed him. You tell me you love me, we're good. But now, what's Peter gonna do with it? What's he gonna do with that redemption? And man, that's the cool part. That's the cool story. The rest is up to him because he had a choice to stay down, to stay defeated, to stay in the shame and the guilt and the grief that he was walking through. Um, but instead, we get to see him in Acts here walk in victory, walk in freedom, and walk in uh a new discovery of who he is. And we see that in chapter two that the Pastor Stephen, Pastor Al covered with Pentecost and and the mighty work of God that happened there because Peter boldly spoke the gospel. And we're gonna see more things unfold here in his redemption story in chapter three. But the point is, no matter what your story is, we have the same choice that Peter did. We have the same choice that Peter did to allow the Lord to move in us because he is the God of beautiful redemption stories. So we don't have to stay there, there's always a choice to move forward. So with that context in mind, let's look at chapter three of the book of Acts, starting in verse one, says this. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. I know we just started, but I'm gonna pause there because I first want to point out where they're going, because this is really important to what's gonna happen in the rest of the chapter. Where they're going. It's significant for three reasons. The first is this they were continuing a Jewish tradition after the resurrection of Christ. So we have Peter and John, two of Jesus' closest disciples, who were Jewish, um had grown up Jewish, grew up in Israel, um, and now believed in Jesus. And so there's a bit of this transition period that they're gonna find themselves in. But Luke, who wrote Acts, he points out that they're going to the temple in the hour of prayer. The hour of prayer, not the hour of sacrifice, which would have happened right before the hour of prayer. So they didn't do that because they believe in the new covenant. Jesus came, he was the sacrifice. We don't have to sacrifice animals anymore, which is great news, right? I appreciate that. So we don't have to do that. So Jesus was a sacrifice, but they're still choosing to go to the temple to pray. So they're figuring out what kind of traditions are we gonna hold to, what is no longer necessary, what are the previous ways we want to do. And they decided that prayer was important, it was an important daily rhythm that they had before, and that was also modeled by Jesus. Right? Jesus, so much through the gospels, if you read about Jesus so often was Jesus taking time to pray and was encouraging his disciples to go and pray or to pray with him, constantly modeling this idea of prayer. And so Peter and John are continuing that on, and it's important. And the second thing is significance and emphasis of prayer. So they're continuing this tradition, and they're there's the significance and emphasis of prayer, they're prioritizing prayer. It was an important daily rhythm before, and it's one that they're continuing, and again, they saw it modeled by Jesus throughout his time here on earth. They saw it modeled by Jesus. So they're choosing still to hold on to this idea of prayer and practicing it regularly. Third significance here is the significance of the ninth hour. Now, this is just a smaller note, but I think it's pretty cool. The ninth hour is the same hour that Jesus was on the cross, cried out, it is finished. And so maybe that's why Peter and John were choosing to pray at this specific time of the day. Maybe not. Either way, I think it's a cool point and I wanted to point it out. But here's why we paused after verse one. I think verse one is pivotal for all the verses that come after it. In fact, I'm not sure the rest of the chapter unfolds the way it unfolds if verse one didn't happen. If verse one didn't happen. That's how important it is that they were taking the time to pray, taking the time to do what they do is an important daily rhythm, is spending time with Jesus in prayer. All right, let's keep reading. Verse 2 says this A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate, the temple which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked for alms, and fixing his eyes on them with John, Peter said, Look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he leaping up, stood and walked, and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all of the people saw him walking and praising God. They knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Okay, four things we can learn from this miracle. Four things we can learn from this miracle. Peter and John, after they're done praying, they go to the uh go to the temple on their way to prayer. First one is this prayer is important. Write it down anyways. I know you know it. I know it seems really, really simple, but uh it's it's our first point. Prayer is important. Write it down anyways. All right, why is prayer important? Because of this daily rhythm that John and Peter had, the the habit that prayer was in their lives, the priority it was in our lives. If we desire to see miracles happen, if we desire to see signs and wonders happen and mighty works, then we must be living a life of prayer and spending time with Jesus. If we desire to see miracles, we must be spending time with Jesus. These two things go hand in hand. Peter and John had spent time with Jesus physically, right? They got to walk this earth with Jesus for multiple years. And now they were still doing that with the power of the Holy Spirit. They're still spending time with Jesus. This time, the rhythm, the daily habit, that habit, that's why they were able to see miracles happen. Because they were hearing from God. They were close to him, they were in tune with his spirit. It's a relationship. Spending time with Jesus, our relationship with God, it's a relationship. Relationships take work. We know this, right? Relationships take work. If we want to see fruit from a relationship, we have to put in the work. That's true with friendships, romantic relationships, parents and kids' relationships. All of them, they take work in order to see fruit. Peter and John got to see the fruit from their relationship with Jesus right here in the form of a miracle. Because of the time they spent with Jesus, because they were in tune with his spirit, because of the power of prayer. They didn't have the physical presence of Jesus with them anymore. He wasn't standing right next to them, but they had the Holy Spirit. And they continued to operate the same way with the power of the Holy Spirit and actually in different and more effective ways. So that's number one, prayer is important. The second thing we can learn from this miracle is expectation equals faith. Expectation equals faith. In verse 3, Luke writes that Peter and John fixed their eyes on this man. They stopped and they looked this guy in the eyes. This man was a lame beggar. He was put here on the temple steps every single day. How often do you think people blew right by him without making eye contact? Probably all the time. He was probably used to that. People ignoring him or maybe just throwing some change and continuing to walk, not making eye contact. How often do we do the same? How often do we intentionally not make eye contact with somebody because we know we can't help them? Or worse, how often do we not make eye contact with someone because we can help them but we don't want to help them? And I'm not just talking about those who are needy that we might pass by on the street or in our car, but what about someone that you see that, oh man, if I make eye contact with them, we're gonna have a 15-minute conversation and I don't have time for that right now? Right? How often does that happen? We make this decision often because it's powerful. Locking eyes with somebody is powerful, it's meaningful. And sometimes it's all that is needed. It's important because when you do that, you're saying, I see you, I care about you, I love you, I know you, and that's how this man felt when Peter and John stopped and looked him in the eyes. His whole day shifted. And his whole life's about to shift too, but his whole day shifted in that moment when they looked at him. When the eye contact was made, it says the man looked at them and he expected to receive something. He expected to receive something. And maybe that's why we avoid eye contact, right? Because we don't want someone to expect to receive something from us, because that causes some added pressure if we know that someone's expecting something from me. But let me tell you something about the God that we serve, the heart and the nature of the God that we serve. He wants you to look at him the same way that lame man looked at Peter and John. God wants you to look at him with hunger and expectation. Why? Because that's exactly what faith is. Faith is looking at God hungry, expectant, and saying, Lord, I'm praying, I'm trusting you with this thing, and I'm expecting you to move. That's what faith is. When we come to God and pray with expectation, we're demonstrating our faith. Here's the crazy part, the cool part. This lame man was expecting money. That's what he wanted that day. He was expecting money, and God gave him something far, far, far greater. Far greater. Often God has something else for us in mind. We pray and we expect one thing, and then he blesses us with something else. Ephesians 3.20 says, Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. Abundantly, exceedingly more. He can do more than we can even think of. Healing was probably not on that man's radar that day. He was just hoping to have a good day, bringing a lot of money so he could eat, right? He was not expecting to get healed. But God did more than he was expecting. So what about us? Are we asking, are we believing God for the big things, the right things, or are we settling for lesser things? Low expectations or misguided expectations can actually lead us astray, can distract us. So submit them to the Lord. Even praying like this, God, I don't know how to pray, I don't know what to pray for. I'm not sure what this situation should look like. Will you help me believe and pray for big things for the right things? Partnering with the Holy Spirit in prayer. The miracle that happened here was a transformation of this man's life. Not some spare change to get him through another day, but a complete transformation of his life. Expectation and faith were demonstrated by both the layman and Peter. Right? Peter had to have a lot of faith too. He reached down, picked this guy up by the hand, and said, Stand up and walk. That he's expecting him to stand up, right? Not expecting to have to hold him. Like he's expect so he's demonstrating his faith through expectation as well. So that's number two, expectation equals faith. Number three, third thing we can learn from this miracle, let praise be the reaction. Let praise be the reaction. Look back at verse 8. Says, so he leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. This man was miraculously healed, and he immediately walks into the temple with Peter and John praising God. He immediately starts using what the Lord gave him. He wasn't previously able to leap and walk, so he's using that gift that the Lord just gave him and turning it back to him, praising the Lord. That was his immediate reaction. Are we using the gifts the Lord has given us to praise him? Are we using the gifts the Lord has given us to praise him? He immediately recognized it was God. His immediate reaction was to praise God. Even though the miracle wasn't what he was expecting. Because again, he was expecting money. He didn't get healed and say, This is great, guys, thank you. Do you also have some cash for me? Right? No, he recognized the gift that the Lord gave him and immediately started praising the Lord, even though it wasn't what he expected. And his immediate reaction was praise. His immediate reaction was praise. Recently, um, my dad had a pretty serious health scare. It's a long story, I'm not gonna tell the whole story, but the short version is he ended up in the hospital in a foreign country with a heart problem and needed a procedure done. Uh, lots of prayer took place. My family was praying. We had uh pastors here, our small group was praying as well. Um, a lot of prayer happened and the Lord moved and answered so many different prayer requests. And so I was so intentional, I remember thinking, like, man, I just really, really want my reaction to this, to seeing God move, to seeing God heal, be praise back to him, right? And so, even in like text messages updating people, I was intentionally trying to be like, praise the Lord, right? God move, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. And I think sometimes it's an intentional reminder because sometimes we just get excited and we want to move on, but it's like, no, are we pausing and thanking the Lord and praising the Lord for what we saw him just do? When we see God come through and it's obvious that it was him, give him the glory. Even though, what happened when it's not obvious or when it's not what you were expecting? And that's what we got to see this man do, right? His immediate reaction to praise God, even when what he received wasn't what he was expecting. It's a beautiful reminder to always respond to God with thanksgiving and praise. Number four, fourth thing we can learn from this miracle miracles opened the door for the gospel. Look back at verse 10. Says they knew that it was he who sat begging alms, the beautiful gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. This miracle caused a scene, it caused a Temple is a busy place. People coming up and down the steps, they recognized this guy. They saw him all the time. Suddenly he's leaping and jumping and praising God. Like people notice there was a scene, and Peter and John now had the attention of the people in this area. And they're going to use this opportunity to bring people to Christ. Signs, wonders, and miracles are for God's glory and can be used to bring people to Christ. Should be used to bring people to Christ. It becomes a powerful testimony and it can increase people's faith. So let's read about how Peter and John handled the attention of this moment that occurred after this man was healed. So we're going to pick up the story again in verse 11. Now, as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to him on the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? I love how Peter reacts here. And this is his redemption story on full display. There's a crowd of people greatly amazed. They're all looking at Peter, right? They saw they know this guy, they've seen this guy begging every single day. He's now jumping and leaping and praising God, and there stands Peter and John. The eyes are going to be fixed on Peter, like, what did you just do? Right? And so in that moment, he humbly points to the Lord, points to Jesus. We see that in verse 12. He noticed the people were watching, he would quickly respond, he jumps on this opportunity, and his humility is on fur uh full display. He gets it. It's not about me. It's not about Peter, it's not about Luke, it's not about John, it's not about any of these guys. It's about God. And he immediately sees this opportunity to point people to God and the work that he did in this man's life. So let's continue reading the rest of what Peter had to say. We're gonna go ahead and read the rest of this chapter, and Peter starts preaching. So he jumps on this opportunity and he starts preaching, and we get to read a little mini-sermon here from Peter. So as we're reading this, I want you to notice what he says and remember who he's preaching to. So keep the audience in mind. And these are Jews heading to the temple to pray. So they believe in God, and uh they mixed missed the mark on Jesus here a little bit. So so he knows his audience. So let's read. We're picking it up in verse 13. Peter says this the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him his perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who has preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the peoples. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those you follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God with our fathers saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. In this short sermon, Peter recognized four important things that shaped what he said. He saw his audience, he understood the situation, and he and he recognized four things. We should be intentional about who we're speaking to, know our audience. Peter did this so well here. So the first thing he noticed is that there's a difference between amazed and saved. There's a difference between amazed and saved. Amazed is good. Amazed is good, but it's just the beginning. The goal is to get people saved, right? Amazed means that there was a recognition of something extraordinary. Peter knew that, and he jumped on this opportunity. But the goal is for people to be saved. Miracles are great, healings are great, signs and wonders are great, but the ultimate desire for all of us should be that people come to know Jesus and that they're saved and they accept his free gift of salvation. That's the main thing, and that should be the focus. And Peter recognized that very, very well, which leads us to number two. The second thing Peter recognized and noticed is that the emphasis needs to be on Jesus. The emphasis needs to be on Jesus because God deserves the credit. Paul spoke to this effect in the letter to the Galatians in chapter six. He said, But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter wanted it to be abundantly clear that he was not the reason this man got healed. He was not the reason. It was Jesus, not Peter. We do this in the church, so we often get fixated on a man, on a person, instead of the God inside of the person. And we like to idolize and look at these pastors and ministry leaders and focus on them and what they're doing, but but recognize that the work is actually happening because the God who lives inside of them. It's not about the man, it's about the God inside of the man. And what we see Peter do here is deflecting the credit. And that's a phrase I love using and something I try to live by. Deflecting the credit. And what a beautiful example, right? And it's a phrase I like to use in whatever complimented or praise, just deflecting the credit to God, right? Like praise be to the Lord, thanks be to God. It's not about Peter, it's not about me, right? It's not about any of that, it's not about the man, it's about the person inside the man, right? And so Peter's showing the power of humility. And this is a lesson we know he doesn't just get because of what we're reading here in Acts. If you read the letters of 1 Peter, he talks about humility as well. First Peter 5, 5 through 6, he wrote this: Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Love the humility of Peter. He understood who it is really about. So Peter is emphasizing Jesus in this sermon, and he's connecting Jesus to the God of Israel, the God that these Jews believed in, which brings us to point number three that he noticed is the balance he needs to have a balance between conviction and love. Conviction and love. And this is a tough line to walk sometimes. And sometimes we have a tendency to lean to one side or lean to the other. And if we lean too heavily with love, then we could possibly come across as accepting of people's sins or encouraging people's sin. But if we lean too far the other way, when it comes to conviction, we can come off as harsh and mean and rude and turn people away, and we don't want to do that either. So it's a tough balance of walking that middle line. And sometimes you do need to bring a conviction, but do it with love. 1 Corinthians 13 says, anything you do, do it with love, or it's just gonna be noise and it could be damaging. So we have to walk that line. And Peter does a great job of that here. And he tells the crowd some hard truths. He tells the crowd some hard truths. He says, talking about Jesus, he says, You delivered up and denied Jesus and you led him to be killed. That's a harsh thing to tell somebody. He also says, You asked for a murderer to be released instead. Barabbas, right? Pilate was trying, he actually defends Pilate here. He said, Pilate was determined to let this guy go, and you're standing there saying, no, we want Barabbas instead. Then he says, You killed the Prince of Life. Imagine saying that to like people. He said that to a crowd of people. You killed the Prince of Life. But so he's explaining and connecting, right? He's explaining and connecting. You remember Jesus, the one you accused, you denied, you killed. He's the reason this man got healed today. He's trying to connect it in their minds. The guy that you just killed that happened, like, he's the reason this man got healed. So he's delivering some convicting, powerful truths. But look at verse 17, he uses the word brethren. Brothers. That's where the love is coming in. He calls them brothers. Even in the midst of a powerful, harsh, serious conviction, Peter calls them brothers. He's showing connection and he's showing love. He didn't call them terrible people. He didn't call them horrible people. He didn't call them the worst. He called them brothers. Why? Because the truth that Peter realized is he realized he was right there with them. He realized that he was no better. And he realized that he had been there. The conviction that he was delivering, he had also felt it. The minute that rooster crowed and he had realized what he had done, he felt that same conviction that he's delivering to these people. So he recognizes that he's right there with them. So he gives them the benefit of the doubt. He says, I know you did this from a place of ignorance. So here's your second chance. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. Here's your second chance. Take it like I did. That's what Peter's saying. Take it like I did. He's speaking from a place of personal conviction, from testimony, from his own story. He's saying, and he's also providing some hope too. He's saying, Yes, you killed him, but but it's actually supposed to happen this way. There's prophecies that point to this. It was supposed to happen. The prophecies have been fulfilled, therefore repent. And that leads us to number four. He provides a call and a warning. He provides a call and a warning. In verse 19, Peter gives a call to repentance. You see, the goal should never be to just convict. The goal should never be to just convict. Peter didn't want to just convict them and then just sit, you know, let them sit there and feel bad about it and then walk away. He didn't do that. He provided a path forward. Saying, yeah, here's what happened. You need to realize what happened. You need to realize the bad things that you've done, but don't stay there. Here's how you move forward. And again, Peter had to make that same choice after he denied Jesus. Am I going to stay here or am I going to move forward? So he wanted them to repent, to be converted, and be forgiven. And he laid out the steps for them. He said, Your sins will be blotted out. All the evil things he just mentioned, right? Denying Jesus, asking for Barabbas, killing the Prince of Light, all of those things can be blotted out. Even the guilt of being responsible for the death of Jesus can be blotted out. Colossians 2, verses 13 through 14 say, And you being dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Then he spoke of a promise from God. He says, Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. After you've received repentance, after you've turned from your ways, the Lord will refresh you. And I was reflecting on that and in refreshment. And my wife Allie is from the Midwest, and every summer we take a trip to Michigan. I grew up here in Colorado, so I do not do humidity well. And I now understand why the Lord put a lot of lakes in the Midwest. Because you have to use them. It's the only way to cool off. It's terrible. But it's a lot of fun. But it's refreshing, right? In a hot, humid, 100-degree day in the Midwest, getting into a lake is incredibly refreshing. And that's physical refreshment. In Jesus, we can be spiritually refreshed. Spiritual refreshment. We need that too. We don't just need our body to be physically refreshed, we need spiritual refreshment. Just as much. And it also made me think, this verse made me think of Psalm 23, where David writes, The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He leads us to green pastures, still waters, he refreshes and restores our souls. So Peter gives a call for repentance and salvation by presenting the gospel and saying there's refreshment that awaits for you. But then in verse 22, he also provides a warning. And he warns of the coming judgment and destruction that's coming to those who don't repent and believe, which has been prophesied. Love the example of how he lays out this quick little mini sermon that I'm sure did not take him long to deliver, but uh, you know, moving in things like conviction and love. And I'm right there with you, and here's my testimony, and also a warning, but also repentance, and there's refreshment coming. And Peter does such a great job with this message. And I wish we could keep going into chapter four, but we're almost out of time. So read ahead in chapter four, and you'll see how the people respond to this message that Peter delivers and what they recognized about Peter and John, but we'll get into chapter four uh next week. But as we as we close here, as we wrap up chapter three, I want to give you three reminders from this chapter. I've given you a bunch of different lists this morning, so I might as well give you one more. So three reminders from this chapter. Um, first is redemption. I want to circle back to this idea of redemption that we saw unfold from Peter uh throughout this chapter. And we're currently um finishing our basement. Our basement was unfinished, it's been unfinished for years, and so we're slowly kind of when we have uh some resources and time, we're we're starting to finish it. So the drywall was done recently, which means it's time to paint. So I spent most of the last two days painting uh my basement. And as I was doing that, I was thinking about that and redemption and this idea of like, man, fresh paint can do a lot to a wall, to a house, to to whatever. It it wipes things away, it provides this idea of redemption. And and my wife, she loves to like redo things and she can see potential and stuff that I cannot. Like we'll be driving by a house that looks like you could just push it over, and she's like, Oh, I just need some paint, right? Like paint can do a lot. It can redeem. It can redeem. And Peter walked in a wonderful story of redemption. He didn't let his past define him, stop him, or weigh him down. He walked in the fresh start he was given, and the impact was immense. The preaching he was able to do, the miracles that he saw happen because of allowing the Lord to redeem him and work through him, the impact was immense. And maybe this morning you feel like you need some redemption. You need some fresh paint, you need to turn the corner in the direction your life is going. That is all available to you through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number two, a second reminder from this chapter is prayer and miracles. These two things are connected. So be walking closely with Jesus, be engaged in prayer and conversation with Him. It's a relationship. It's a relationship. Expect big things and pray for miracles. And number three is salvation. Third reminder from this message we heard Peter preach on salvation, there's salvation from Jesus Christ alone. We need Jesus, the world needs Jesus. Share the gospel boldly with those in your life and pray about those who need to hear the gospel and pray about how Peter delivered it, right? Are there some convictions, some truths that you need to bring up? How can you do that with love? How can you love people well? How can you make eye contact with people? We saw Peter demonstrate great ways here of how to get the foot in the door to present the gospel and how to do it with grace and love, but also truth.

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Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.