As we close this chapter, listen to that promise. God sent Jesus Christ to turn people away from their sins. To save people from their sins. God spoke through Moses. God spoke through the prophets.
But God has finally spoken through Jesus. His Messiah, the Lord. The Lord whom the Lord spoke about. The prophet that Moses predicted.
From Acts 2 and shows you how Jesus is the final word from God. Now here's an opportunity for you to learn more about the martyrs of the Christian faith who came before you. Christian martyrs of past centuries and featuring stories of contemporary martyrs around the world. This compendium of heroes from the first century to the 21st century. From Europe to Africa and from Asia to the Americas is sure to inspire you to courageously stand up for your Christian faith just as they've done for countless Christians around the globe. The new book of Christian martyrs comes as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to keep messages like this one today on the air for you and others equipping you to know God's word and follow his will with courage and conviction. So request your copy when you give today.
Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. All right, we're going to be in Acts 2 as Skip begins today's teaching. According to Jewish tradition, the pious Jewish person. Do you know how many times a day he prayed or she prayed?
Three times a day. Psalm 55. David said evening, morning and noon.
I will cry aloud unto you. In Daniel Chapter six after the decree was that nobody could pray to any other God in the kingdom except. The king of Babylon. It says Daniel went to the upper room, opened his windows toward Jerusalem and prayed three times that day as was his custom. As a Jewish man, he prayed toward Jerusalem.
In the morning at noon and in the evening time. Then he got thrown into the lion's den because of it. So it's the hour of prayer. It's the afternoon tree in the afternoon.
And as they're going up verse to a certain man, lame, that is unable to walk from his mother's womb. So it's a congenital defect was carried whom they laid daily every day at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful. That's the name of the gate, the beautiful gate to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Now, just a word about this gate. Josephus, the Jewish historian, you've heard me talk about him over the years, spoke about this gate.
It was called the Nicanor Gate. It was 75 feet tall. So look up at the peak. If you can see the peak of this building, it's more than twice the height of the peak of this room. More than twice.
It's like twice that. And then about a quarter or a half, 75 feet tall, made out of Corinthian brass. Josephus said of all the gates of the temple, it was the most beautiful, hence the term beautiful gate. He said it was more beautiful than any of the gold, any of the silver, any of the engravings of the temple. This was the standout feature. It was a gate that separated the court of the women from the court of the men or the court of Israel.
There was this gate and then 15 steps that went down to the lower court, the court of the women. That's where they laid him every single day. Now, he was lame from his birth, so it's a congenital anomaly. It's not like he used to walk and now he's lame. All he has known is the inability to be ambulatory. So all of the joys of childhood were taken away, robbed. He never had a childhood. He was always a beggar.
No muscle strength whatsoever. Now, I'm drawing this out because I want to point something out. Jesus visited the temple and he went through these gates and it says he was laid, this man was laid every single day at the gate. Jesus came, he died, he rose, he ascended by this time. So Jesus probably passed him a few different times.
You get my drift? Jesus didn't heal him. I want you to understand Jesus didn't heal everybody. In fact, in John chapter 5, he goes to the pool of Bethesda. How many people does he heal at the pool of Bethesda, John chapter 5? Anybody know?
One. And yet it says in the Scripture, multitudes of sick people lay there. What about them? What about their needs?
What about their pain? Understand that healing is a sovereign work of God. God is sovereign in his work and he is sovereign in his timing and this was the time. So I'm sure as Jesus walked by, he saw the man but he said, not yet. Today's not the day. In fact, that's going to be done through Peter and John in the future.
Now the day has come. Now this guy, seeing Peter and John about to go in the temple, asked for alms. So he's not looking for a miracle, not looking for healing, does not expect one, has no faith for a miracle whatsoever. He just wants a few coins and fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. So the guy went, looked right at Peter. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
Oh, wait till you see what he receives. Then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give to 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.
This is a little bit cool. This is written by Luke. Luke is a doctor, right? I told you he's a physician. When he says his feet and ankle bones receive strength, he's using medical terminology for the joints snapping into place, the tendons and the muscles instantly being strengthened. The way he writes it is translated in English, but it's in Greek a medical term.
He's a doctor, he's writing about it from a medical perspective. But he says, I don't have silver, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Wow. In the year 1260, Thomas Aquinas was visiting Pope Innocent IV at the Vatican in Rome. And the Pope went to show Thomas all of the wealth of the papacy in the Vatican.
And I've been to the Vatican and I can attest, it's unbelievable. The wealth they have accumulated over the years. So as he showed Thomas Aquinas all of the wealth of the Vatican, the papacy, he says, you see Thomas, unlike the first Pope, referring to Peter, unlike the first Pope, I can no longer say silver and gold have I none. And Thomas Aquinas said, with respect your eminence, neither can you say in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk either.
So you can boast about your wealth, but where's the power? Peter said, I don't have silver and gold, but I'll give you what I have. And it was the exercise of the name of Jesus.
And then notice this, this is important. Peter, he, verse seven, took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Now that's faith. Anybody can say to somebody, be healed.
Anybody can pray, and I recommend that you do, but to actually in a public place, take someone who is unable to walk, never has ever been able to walk, has no muscle strength at all. But to pull that man up, that's an act of faith. Now whose faith was it? Whose faith was it? Who had the faith?
Peter, not the lame man. Why do I bring that up? Because in certain movements in modern Christianity, contemporary Christianity, like the word faith movement, they make a big deal out of your faith. If you only had faith, you'd be healed. But you're not healed because you don't have the right kind or the right amount of faith. But if you did, if you could muster up that faith and speak the word and you had the faith, you would be healed. Well, when I hear that, I want to say, let me just borrow your faith then. You seem to have all the faith for the rest of us.
So it doesn't take always the faith of the person because this person here did not have any faith. He wasn't even looking for a healing. He was just looking for a handout.
Peter said, I'm not going to give you a handout. You're going to get a healing, but it's in the name of Jesus. And Peter had the faith to pull him up. So this is sort of like the paralytic that was let down in the house in Galilee. Remember, they couldn't get to Jesus because the house was filled with people. So a few of his buddies took tiles off the roof and took the paralytic and laid him, lowered him down by a rope. You know what it says?
It says, and seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. He didn't see his faith. This guy's going, you're making a scene. I don't want to do this.
Leave me alone. He saw the faith of those friends and upset. His feet and ankle bones received strength.
Verse seven, verse eight. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping. Can you imagine it?
Of course he would. He's never been able to do this before. Now he's walking around, jumping up and down. It works. I can jump up and not fall down.
Walking and leaping and what? Praising God. He didn't forget to praise God.
Luke, I may have it wrong, but I'm guessing chapter 17. Jesus healed 10 lepers, not leopards, lepers, men with leprosy. And he said, go show yourself to the priest. Only one of the 10 came back and thanked him. And Jesus said, hey, didn't I heal 10?
Where are the other nine? Sometimes we are all about the gift and not the giver of the gift. We must always be thankful. We must always return thanksgiving and praise.
Not just walking and leaping, yeah, awesome, I can do it, but I am praising God for it. And all the people saw him walking and they saw him praising God. I read an interesting article on the prayer habits of average Americans. And the little article said that most Americans pray, but most Americans pray prayers of personal petition.
I need, I must have, I want. They said rarely, and they said most Americans, this was their tagline, pray in a superficial manner, praying normally prayers of petition, rarely prayers of thanksgiving or forgiveness. Not this man, he's praising God, and that is noted twice. All the people saw him walking and praising God, verse 10, then 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. That's a real healing. When it happens, it's not like, oh, it's cool, he was healed.
Awesome, good. I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen a physical healing, a real physical healing, I have. I wept, I couldn't contain myself, I jumped around, I hugged the guy who was healed. It was absolutely mind-bending, mind-boggling. I bring this up because some of our friends in the Word faith movement will claim healing while showing no evidence of it.
They knew this was the dude who was lame, and they were in amazement. I remember a guy coming up to me after a service, this is probably 20 years ago, came up with crutches, I wanted to pray for him. I said, let me pray for you, what happened? He goes, well, I broke my ankle, and he had a cast. And he goes, but I want you to know, brother Skip, I'm healed. I go, I don't think you are healed.
I want to pray for that and pray that your bones will come. He goes, no, no, no, the Lord healed me. I said, Frank, you have a cast on, you're hobbling, I see you wincing in pain. No, but I claim my healing. I said, listen, I appreciate all that claiming your healing, but don't tell anybody you're healed.
He said, what do you mean? I want to give God the glory. I said, that doesn't give God any glory. Because a thinking person, if you say you're healed, is going to think your God does really crummy work. If you say this is healed and you're hobbling in a cast and you're in pain, you're going to say, whoever your God is, I don't want him touching me, if that's a healing. This was a legitimate healing, and there was the evidence. He was walking and leaping and praising God.
They all knew that he was the one. Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's Greatly Amazed. So they came to Solomon's porch.
It wasn't a coffee shop. Solomon's porch in the temple was a colonnaded, double marble-columned, porched covered area along the entire eastern side of the temple complex. Enormous. It's where Jesus would often teach. It's where many disciples would gather. Thousands of people could gather on the outer court and the temple.
Solomon's porch was covered, so it was great in times of inclement weather. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this or why do you look so intently at us as though we by our own power or godliness made this man walk? Now I love how Peter does this. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, why does he refer to God this way? Because he knows his audience. He's speaking to a Jewish audience.
That's how a Jewish person refers to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and to the covenant God. And not only that, glorified, look at this, his servant Jesus. You know why Peter does that?
Because that is also a man who knows his audience. Being a Jewish audience, especially with learned people like scribes and Pharisees in the audience, they knew that four times in the book of Isaiah there was something called the servant songs, four servant songs, Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, and Isaiah 52, and all of chapter 53. Four servant songs referring to the Messiah who is coming. And so this is the servant Jesus as prophesied by the Old Testament 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 unto you.
Man, he's pouring it on. And verse 15 is one of the most paradoxical statements in the Bible. And you killed the prince of life. Isn't that an amazing statement?
Isn't that a paradox? You killed the archegos, that's the Greek word, the archegos, the originator of life. You killed the originator of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses. And in 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 this perfect soundness in the presence of you.
Oh, I love this verse. Because I said it wasn't the lame man's faith, it was Peter's faith, but even Peter doesn't take credit for it. He didn't say, yes, I have become a great man of faith. It is my awesome faith that has done this.
He goes, I can't even take credit for the faith. God gave me the gift of faith to be able to see this miracle done. So it's by the name of Jesus, it's his power, and even the faith that I exhibited was a gift that God has given.
Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as also did your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ, Messiah, 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.
That's further amplified in verse 21. And that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the time of the 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 and whatever he says to you. And it shall be that every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken have also foretold these days, you are the sons of the prophets. And of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Peter's pretty good, isn't he? I mean, he's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 18, the very famous text about Moses saying, God will raise up another prophet like me. Now, since Moses said that in Deuteronomy 18, the Jewish nation believed that their Messiah would be God's anointed, Messiah means that, but also he would be a prophet. They looked for a Messiah prophet. So he's quoting Deuteronomy 18, Moses saying, the Lord will raise up another prophet like me, this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Remember when John the Baptist is baptizing by the Jordan River? They said, are you Elijah? Because the Bible says Elijah is coming before Messiah comes.
And then do you remember the second question? Are you that prophet? Not Elijah, that was one question.
Are you Elijah? And they said, are you that prophet then? That prophet is the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 that Moses predicted, the Lord will raise up another prophet. When Philip found Nathaniel in John chapter 1, he says, we have found the one that Moses in the law foretold, Jesus of Nazareth. And the response is, can anything good come out of Nazareth? How could the prophet come out of Nazareth? To you first, verse 26, God having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
As we close this chapter, listen to that promise. God sent Jesus Christ to turn people away from their sins, to save people from their sins. God spoke through Moses, God spoke through the prophets, but God has finally spoken through Jesus.
His Messiah, the Lord, the Lord whom the Lord spoke about, the prophet that Moses predicted. In Hebrews chapter 1, a verse I mentioned last week, and I'll close with this, said, God who spoke in times past in a variety of ways to our fathers through the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his Son. That verb God has spoken through Jesus, aorist, active, indicative. It's once and for all.
It's done. God spoke in times past. God has once and for all spoken through his Son, Jesus. In other words, when it comes to salvation, God has nothing more to say. Jesus is the final word. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God.
God was the word, or the word was God. Jesus is God's final word on salvation. I hope Jesus is the final word in your life. I hope that you have repented of your sins and turned to Jesus and received him as your Savior. I hope that you're not trusting in religion. I hope you're not trusting in your works. I hope you're not trusting in the upbringing your parents passed on to you, but you're trusting in the person of Jesus and the personal work of Jesus for you. I hope that.
I pray that. That's Skip Hyten with a message from his series Expound Acts. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. We love to partner with friends like you to share God's life-changing truth with people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Through your generous gift to support this ministry and keep this program reaching you and others around our nation and all across the globe, you can take part in this life-changing work today. To make a gift to help grow this ministry and continue to share God's love with more people, visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.
800-922-1888. Thank you for helping change lives. We hope you'll join us tomorrow to hear about how Jesus began to build his church on the day of Pentecost. Well, that fire has long gone. However, though the fire that was once on their head has gone, the fire that is in their heart still remains.
They have a burning heart. And we pick up the story of after Peter's sermon, Peter and John going into the temple with burning hearts. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
