Sometimes things happen in our lives that we don't explain, or we can't explain, we don't know how to explain them. And when those kind of things happen, a lot of times, we're asking other people about them, can you explain this? Or we're looking on the internet and we're typing something into Google, or we're going to YouTube, or today, we're asking AI if they can help explain the things that we don't understand that have happened. Well, that's nothing new. There have been things that have been happening forever that people can't explain and wonder about and look for help in explaining those things. This was the situation that many of the Jewish people found themselves in 2000 years ago at the temple in Jerusalem. We read about it last week, if you were here in Acts, chapter three, verses one through 10, there was a lame man who had been lame since birth, and he was over 40 years old, and he sat at this temple gate called Beautiful every day, begging for money. And he has this encounter with Peter and John, two of Jesus's disciples. And all of a sudden, this man is walking and he's jumping and he's praising God all throughout the temple. Well, all of these people knew who this man was, and they were watching him now, this guy that they had known, who had been lame for 40 years, who was walking and jumping and praising God, and they needed an explanation. How can this be? We know that he was lame, and now he's not he's able to walk and jump. And so can anyone explain this to me? Maybe it was Peter and John. He's hanging on to them in this moment. Maybe there's something special about them. Well, Peter and John can see it on their faces and and prompted again and empowered by the Spirit, because they're living life in the Spirit. Now they recognize that here is a moment. God has used this situation to grab people's attention. Again. We saw this happen in Acts chapter two, and now they recognize it's an opportune time to explain what's going on and share the good news about Jesus. And that is what Peter steps up to do. Here's what we see, Acts, chapter three, verse 11, while the man held on the lame man who had been healed, held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the temple, called temple in the place called Solomon's colonnade. Solomon's colonnade was a covered portico on the east side of the temple. It was a it was a huge area. It was roughly three football fields, I mean, 300 yards long. And so this was a big place that could fit 1000s of people. It was often a place that was used for for commerce and and conversation, discussion, that kind of thing, and, and this is where Peter and John and the lame man were. And so the people saw this happening in this area, Solomon's colonnade, the portico, and came running over there, astonished. In other words, we need an explanation. We don't understand how this happened. Can someone tell us what is going on? Verse 12, when Peter saw this, he said to them, fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness, we made this man walk. He's deflecting the attention off of them. They came running up to them. Tell us more about this. Tell us more about who you are and how you made this happen. And he says, no, no. Why do you look at us? Now you may remember if you were here last week when we looked at what happened with this man? He was begging for money, and Peter said, Hey, listen, we don't have silver or gold, but what we do have, we'll give you in the name of Jesus, Christ of Nazareth, walk in His name. It was in his name, and his power, in his authority that this man was healed, Jesus had done this miracle. Jesus had healed this man through Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, so this is what Peter is going to explain to them. He is He Jesus did it through the power of the Holy Spirit. But rather than come right out and say it and just tell them, Okay, it wasn't us, it was Jesus, there's some explaining he needs to do. Explaining, not explaining, right? He's got to explain some things to these people, and notice who these people are. It's. Fellow Israelites. So these are Jewish people. He is one of them, and we see that even more in the way that he addresses God here in the next verse, he says the God as He now begins to speak to them, 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. And so we see the way that he references God. He's the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now you may remember in Exodus chapter three, whenever Moses encounters a burning bush, and he walks over to it, and he encounters God through that burning bush, that the way that God introduces himself to Moses is, I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And now Peter, standing before fellow Israelites, is saying, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. What's he doing? He's trying to connect what he's about to explain to their God, to our God, he's saying the one that we worship, the God that we know, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that God, our God, he says, has glorified His servant. Key word, right there, servant, Jesus. Now this was language that most likely they would have picked up on, because right here is Messiah, messianic language. There's a section in Isaiah that is being prophesied where Isaiah is prophesying about the Messiah who would come, and he references him as the suffering servant. And so this is a way of talking about the Messiah that was prophesied about. As a matter of fact, let's look at the very beginning of this section of Isaiah, where he's talking about him as the suffering servant, the Messiah that would come one day see my servant, God talking, will act wisely. He will be raised. He will be lifted up. He will be highly exalted. This is what will happen to him now. He goes on from here and talks about his suffering. So first he will suffer, but he will be raised up. He will be lifted up. He will be highly exalted. And so this is what Peter is trying to get them to see about Jesus, before he plainly tells them that it was Jesus that healed him, that God sent the suffering servant, that the Old Testament prophesied about was to come, and that that's Jesus, and he's been lifted up, and he's been exalted. He's been glorified, is the way he said it in Acts chapter two. And it's because of that, because he's now been raised up, because he's been exalted, because he's sitting at the right hand of God with authority and power, and he's still alive, ruling and reigning. He can now heal. It was by his name that he'll say directly in a little while, but just bringing him up, he references that this is who he is, the servant, the suffering servant, but you handed him over to be killed, and he gets into that even further, trying to establish their their guilt in the matter you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you again, messianic language, the Holy One, the Righteous One, you disowned him, this one that was talked about and prophesied about in the Old Testament. He's come. He's the suffering servant. And listen, he suffered. The reason he suffered is because you asked that a murderer be released to you. Pilate was trying to let him go, and he said, No, no, don't let that guy go. Jesus. Let'slet the murderergo, the one who deserved legitimate crimes that needed to be punished and crucified for. And so he's connecting all of these things. And then he even says it in this way, and in verse 15, now you killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. You recognize that JESUS, THE. Suffering Servant, the Holy One, the righteous one, the one that was prophesied about, is the God who is the author of life. He's the source of all life. He came to give new life, to provide the life that we've been missing since the garden, ever since sin entered the world. And so he's connecting this to Jesus, him being the resurrection and the life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that He came to give us new life, and that they they killed this one that was coming to give this new life in this way. But again, because he's alive, because he's just mentioned that, because He's the source of life, the author of life, and because he's seated and exalted at the right hand of God. It's only Him, only Him who could have healed this man. Don't look at me. Why do you look at us? He's saying it's the author of life, the one that you killed, but now has been raised up and prophesied about. It's only him that could do this. And so now he's ready, after explaining and giving them some history and connecting those things to Jesus, now he's ready to declare and explain to them what they're now seeing and had just seen happen to this man, verse 16, by faith in the name of Jesus, this man, whom you see and know, was made strong. He was healed. It is in Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you all can see. So this is the explanation. This is what he was trying to get at. But rather than just come right out and say it, he was trying to make sure that he connected it to the suffering servant, the holy and righteous one that had been talked about. They killed him, but because he's the author of life, then he's the one who healed this man. They Peter and John just had faith. They had faith that he could do it. Why? Because they knew him. They spent three years they saw him do this kind of thing. They recognized him as the author of life, the source of life, who had healed people. And so, of course, they had faith and believed that Jesus, and in his authority, this man could be raised, and now this lame man has faith too. He saw the faith of Peter and John that was in Jesus to heal him. He experienced that, and now he's put his faith and trust in Jesus as well, because he's running around praising God, not praising Peter and John. And so this man's life had been transformed and changed. So now that he's given them this explanation, Hey, you want to know how this guy was healed. It was Jesus, and he's connected him all along the way. Now he wants to move on and apply it to them right now, though, okay, this is what we're explaining and happened to him, but here's what can happen to you. Let's apply it to you and where you're at right now. And so look at how he goes on in verse 17. Now, fellow Israelites, again, brethren, you guys are we're in this together. I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that this Messiah would suffer once again. Peter is connecting Jesus to the scriptures, connecting him to the prophets God's plan that was revealed all throughout the Old Testament, but they missed it. They got it wrong, and they stand guilty, even if they were acting in ignorance. It wasn't a blind ignorance. Evidence was all in front of them. They just didn't see it. They didn't get it in their their guilty. But now that he's established their guilt, he's established the bad news, he's helped them start to connect the dots from the old testament to what was happening right before their eyes. Now he can share the good news, and that's what he does in verse 19 and 20, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. So then is really the word, therefore. So therefore, as a result of you having killed the Holy One, the Righteous One, the suffering servant, the one who healed this lame guy who had died but now has been raised up and exalted His glorified servant since you missed it and acted in ignorance. Then now,therefore, as a result of that repent.What does repent mean? To change your mind. You didn't believe this, you acted in ignorance because you believed one. Thing to be true about Jesus. So change your mind to the truth about who Jesus is, that he is the resurrection and the life, that He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. So we repent, we change our minds. He's saying, If you will do that. He says, Look, what will happen. Change your minds. Metanoia, so that, why would I do that? Here's what will happen. He says, first of all, so that your sins may be wiped out. Wiped out, this Greek word that is translated wiped out here is used of the way that they would wipe ink off of paper. Ancient ink didn't have whatever the substance is in it that we have it today that allows it to kind of of soak into it. Is it acid or something? I don't know what it is, but it soaks into paper today. It didn't soak into paper back then. And so what would happen is sometimes they would need to reuse the paper that they had written the ink on, and you could just take a wet cloth and you could kind of wipe off the things that were on the page, and then it would be blank again. In other words, the image is that all their sins were written down. There was evidence of their guilt standing before God. It was all written down right here before them so that they could see how they were guilty. But if they will repent, if they'll change their mind and put their faith and trust in Jesus, he'll take a wet, damp cloth and he'll wipe all of that stuff off of that paper so that it will be completely white and blank. It will be obliterated and wiped awaya clean slate.This is the same thing for any of us. Whenever we put our faith and trust in Jesus, our sins are wiped away. They're erased completely from the page so that you don't see them. It's just white. It's it's blank. There's nothing that's there. When we talk about life in the Spirit, what this series is all about, what does life in the Spirit looks like? It looks like walking in Jesus's complete forgiveness? Why? Because you have it. And yet, so many of us who have life in the Spirit aren't walking in a way where we're walking in that complete forgiveness. Our sins no longer stand between us and God in any way. They've been wiped out. We don't have to make up for our sins or do something to get back in fellowship with God. We have complete forgiveness. They've been washed, erased all the way away, and so you and I can just be with God and enjoy him forever. That's what he's trying to say here to these guys. Okay, this is how he was healed. This is who Jesus was. Now, this guy was healed, physically and spiritually. You too can be healed by having your sins completely wiped away, but that's not it. Secondly, it's so that if you'll repent and change your mind, times of refreshing may come that word refreshing there in the original Greek is also interesting. The word refreshing there literally means recovery of breath, as one might experience as relief from the heat when one is revived by fresh air. In other words, this is Texas. In the summer, we'veexperienced 104 105106 degree temperatures sometimes. And on top of that, the humidity is off the charts. And so when you walk outside and it's 105 degrees, and there's so much humidity in the air, it's like the air is so thick that, not only is it hot, I mean, you're like, I can't even breathe out here. Like, I mean, it's so thick I can't even catch a deep breath. But then all of a sudden, every now and then, there'll be a cloud that comes over the sun, and there'll be a cool breeze that begins to blow, and it, it hits your skin at first, and you you feel refreshed, and you start to get cooled off a little bit, and you're actually revived and and even in that moment, you can actually begin to catch a little bit more of a deep breath and say something like, oh my gosh, I feel like a new man right now. You've been revived and refreshed in that way when we put our faith and trust in Jesus. That's what it's like before Jesus. It's 105 degrees a. 100% humidity. You can't catch a deep breath all of a time, because our life on the inside is is dry, it's lifeless, and that's what life feels like. But all of a sudden, when you repent, when you change your mind about Jesus, you put your faith and trust in Him, not only are his sins completely wiped off the page, but now there's this refreshing, this reviving, this new life that comes in such a way that you can breathe deep, live vibrantly, live abundantly, because you have this new abundant life in Christ. So repent, change your mind, and number one, your sins will be completely wiped out, blotted away, obliterated, too refreshing will come from the Lord and and three, so that He may send the Messiah who has been appointed for you, so that if you are in Christ, and your sins have been washed away in the times of refreshing, you have this new life In Christ, Jesus will come back again, and he will restore all things. And because you're in Christ, you'll get to experience that time when all things will be restored, which is what he highlights next in verse 21 heaven must receive Him, Jesus, until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his prophets, heaven must receive him well in Acts one, what did we see? Jesus, after his resurrection, His death on the cross, and His resurrection, he was meeting with the disciples. Wait in Jerusalem. You receive the Holy Spirit and power is going to come on you. And then what happens? They watched him ascend back to heaven. What was happening in that moment? Heaven received Him, received Jesus. He's sitting at the right hand God. But there will come a time. There's a time coming now, since that's happened, where Jesus will come back, where God will restore all things. And it's not like it was something new. It's been talked about. It's been promised long ago, throughout his holy prophets. Once again, he's got a Jewish audience. He's got to connect it. Don't you see that this is just a connection, a continuation of the plan, the story of God that he's been writing ever since creation and sin entered this world. And so that is what happens, and will happen if they'll just repent, change their minds about Jesus, complete washing away of sins, times of refreshing, and then this assurance of a restoration of all things for those who are in Christ. For Moses, he's still connecting it. For Moses, said the Lord your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. You must listen to everything. He tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from his people. There was this, there was this expectation from the Old Testament and Moses on, that there would be a prophet like him, similar to him, that would show up. Well, what did Moses do? Well, he helped rescue God's people bring them freedom from bondage, from slavery, right? Well, Jesus is that prophet like Moses. He frees us from the sin and bondage of sin and death that we're all in, that slavery to those things. And so he's just continuing to connect Jesus and the healing and what's offered to them to who God said He would send all along. But he does give a pretty stern warning here too. He's making sure that okay. I'm telling you plainly and clearly who this is. I'm showing you that that's how this man was healed. This Jesus, who I'm talking about, who you admit you missed, is offering you salvation. If you'll repent, you'll change your mind. But if you don't, if you don't, anyone who does not listen to Him, obey Him, as far as receiving the free gift, believing in Him for salvation will be completely cut off from their people, cut off from God, cut off from their people. But if they'll turn to Him, they'll repent their sins, will be wiped out. They'll be born again, refreshed, given a new nature, he'll be moving them in not just wicked ways, but holy ways, as he kind of gets into and what we see next indeed, beginning with Samuel and all the prophets who have spoken and foretold these days. And you are the heirs of the prophets and the covenant of God made with your father, she said to Abraham, through your offspring all. Peoples on earth will be blessed when God raised up his servant. Here we go again, the suffering servant. He sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways again, over and over again, pointing them back to Jesus being a fulfillment of the promises of God made in the Old Testament. In this time, he even takes them all the way back to Abraham, I mean Genesis chapter 12, where we see the Abrahamic covenant God shows up and says, I will make you into a great nation. And through your offspring, through that great nation, I will bless you, and I will bless all people through you. And so he's connecting that again, to Jesus. He's the offspring. He's the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah that has shown up and is going to bless all people. But it's first and foremost for you. It's for you as the Jewish people. And he's wants to bless you by turning you from your wicked ways. If you'll again receive His forgiveness and His new nature, then he move you from wicked ways and into holy and righteous ways. And after hearing this speech, after this explanation that Peter gives, he's he's provided the tangible help. It caught their attention. He's shared the gospel with them and helped connect the dots on what the Old Testament says with who Jesus is now, and we see how some of them respond. Chapter four, verse one, the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people proclaiming, in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. We'll talk about this much more next week, but here's what happened. But many who heard the message? What message? The one that Peter just preached about, the one that he just explained to them what happened to them. They believed. They repented. They changed their mind about who Jesus was, what they thought about him. They believed the truth about him. They put their faith and trust in Him. And so the number of men who believed grew to about 5000 it's incredible. I mean, just a few pages ago from Acts, when the Holy Spirit came, there were only 120 of them, and now there's 5000 or more of them. But even more so about the numbers, which is huge thing for us to discuss, and what God was doing in this time. Don't miss what just happened. 2000 individual people had their lives transformed and changed forever. 2000 individual people had their sins wiped away, experienced refreshing in that moment, the breath of God breathing on them, and had the assurance of being a part of the restoration of God and that they would share in it.Their families were most likely changed. They became better spouses, better moms and dads, better brothers and sisters, better neighbors and friends. Why? Because they had a new nature, and now, through their new nature, the spirit was going to produce things like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control in and through them, so we can't just gloss over. They go, Oh, cool. There are now 5000 people, 2000 individual people had their sins wiped away. They experienced the breath of God blowing on them assurance of salvation. In their lives were differently. Their behavior was differently on the other side of that, why? Because someone taught them the good news about Jesus. They shared it with them. And so when we talk about application today, that's the first thing that we need to talk about, is how these people responded. Can be the same way that you respond. They received salvation. And so how does this apply to us? For some of you here today, watching online today, receive salvation from Jesus, how, by placing your faith in Him, you repent, you change your mind about whatever you were believing about Jesus, and now you believe the truth about him, and put your faith and trust in Him, as they responded here. When that happens, all your sins will be completely wiped away, blotted out and obliterated, and you can live in complete forgiveness. You'll experience this time of refreshing, where God's breath, the Holy Spirit, will come upon you, and you'll be regenerated and born again, and you'll have the assurance that when. Jesus comes back and restores all things, you will be there to enjoy that with him forever. And so whether you're a kid in the room, whether you're an adult in the room, a mom or dad, a grandparent, if you can't point to a specific time that you've put your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, then none of that applies to you. Your sins have not been washed away. They're still written on the page, and you still stand guilty before God. You do not have a new nature. You have a sin nature which will produce sins in you and through you, and when Jesus comes back again to restore all things, you will not get to participate in it, because it doesn't matter if you show up and you come to church every Sunday because your mom and dad believe because they've been baptized. That doesn't make you a Christian. You have your own individual choice to make about how you are going to respond to receive that. And so would you do that in this moment today, no matter who you are, where you've been, or what you've done, or how old you are, if Jesus is leading you to respond, and we respond in this way, well, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, and you have complete forgiveness in him, and you've received that new life, then how does that apply to you today? Well, how about we live in the complete forgiveness and the new life that we have in Christ? Why? Because it's been my experience at times in my life, and what I see in other people's lives that we don't live in that freedom that we live through performing religious duties, constantly trying to show God that we're sorry for our sins, constantly trying to do things to make up for them, so that in hopes we'll feel better about ourselves, and if we feel better about ourselves and things that we're doing, then surely God feels the same way about that too, and he's a little less angry with us when that happens. That is a work of Satan who is out to steal, kill and destroy and rob you of living in and experiencing the complete forgiveness in the new life that you have in Christ. Don't let Satan do that to you. 2000 people in this day, their lives were changed forever, and they begin to live in this way. And you and I can live in it too. But then finally, as we live in this complete forgiveness, in this new life in Christ, How did life in the Spirit look like for Peter? How does that apply to us today? We look for the Spirit to lead us and empower us to share thegospel with others.We said last week, if you were here, that what Peter and John were doing was providing tangible help in eternal hope, tangible help they healed a guy well, tangible help may look like us praying for someone's healing, and maybe Jesus decides to heal them, or it may mean that we're meeting some other kind of need in their life, and as we meet their need, then it gains their respect and their attention, and we have an opportunity In that moment to do what Peter did to respond to go, Okay, well, bless you. I'm glad your life, you know, is tangibly better today. Now go on about it and still spend eternity in hell. Now that I've got your attention, now that I could bless you in this way, can I share something with you that will bless you even beyond the way you've tangibly been helped today. And then we connect it to them. Jesus connected it to his audience. I mean, Peter connected it to his audience. Says Jewish people, maybe it's not Jewish, someone that's Jewish, but whatever it is in their context. And he leads you to tell simply your story. How did you come to know Jesus? How has he changed your life? How does that make any real difference in your life today? And how it can make a difference in their life today, if they'll repent, change their mind, turn receive it in their life as well. So life in the Spirit will lead us to tangibly help people. And whenever we get their attention, or he does through them, he's going to lead us to share the good news with others. That doesn't mean that it always has to be a sermon. As a matter of fact, most of the time it won't. Life in the early church, as we look like earlier in Acts two, was allowed around a table, a dinner table. A lot of the gospel was shared over dinner conversations. What we see in Acts chapter two as well. And so this is the way that it applies to us. We trust the all powerful Holy Spirit who dwells in us to live in the complete forgiveness and freedom we have to then tangibly help and serve other people and then share the Good News of Jesus with them so that he can transform and change their lives in the same way he did for us. Let's pray.