May it please the Lord to bless
us as we continue our meditation in the Acts of the Apostles,
chapter 3, and this evening we'll consider the verses from 12 to
18. When we finished last Friday, on the
earlier verses in this chapter, we noted that the people had
come together and they'd run together to Behold Peter and
John to understand really what had happened to this man. This man who'd lain at this gate
for so many years, indeed since he was born, and now had been
wonderfully cured and healed so that he was leaping up and
running and praising God. And so the Apostle Peter now,
as they are wondering at what happened, He immediately comes
and draws their attention and directs them to who it was and
how it was that this had happened. And so we read, and Peter, when
he saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel, why
marvel ye at this? Well, why should they marvel? Perhaps today we may sometimes
marvel. Why should we marvel? We have
a great God. we have an almighty God. We might
marvel perhaps at that hurricane in the Philippines and realise
what almighty power it was. Something that poor puny man
could not possibly really produce in the way it did. Well it was
because it was ordained by God and God brought it to pass. And
we must realise that we stand here today before that same almighty
God, that God who powerfully healed this man, in the same
way that God powerfully brought about that hurricane. Indeed,
what a blessing it is that we realise this, and we don't marvel.
The question was here, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so
earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we
had made this man to walk? But he wanted to show them very
clearly that He was just an ordinary man. There was nothing particularly
great about him or the Apostle John who was with him. He wanted
to detract from any attention that might have been given to
John and himself. And so, he now comes and speaks
and tells them very clearly the God of Abraham. Now remember,
he was speaking to the Jews. They were familiar with who Abraham
was. the God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers. He gives a full list
to rightly impress them. And he says, the God of our fathers
hath glorified his son Jesus. And of course, he was glorified.
He was crucified. He was raised from the dead.
And he was raised in that, it's a glory, as he ascended to his
father. Now here, Peter is addressing
it in this way. And now he turns to them. He turns to the people. He points
to them, so there might be an application, so they realise
their condition. What a blessing it will be if
you and I tonight realise our condition. He wasn't allowing
them to pass it off. He wasn't allowing them to assume
they had no responsibility. He directs them so very forcibly
and he says, whom ye delivered up and denied him. in the presence of Pilate, when
he was determined to let him go. Now you and I know in our
hearts, whether that's true, of you and me, that we have denied
the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean by this, we've denied
Him as our Saviour. We've ignored His Word, and by
ignoring His Word, we've really been denying His claims. The
truth which He spoke upon the earth when He was here, and the
record that we have tonight, my friends, that we denied the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we haven't denied Him, the
reality is, have we acknowledged Him? as our Lord and our Saviour. We really stand on one of two
positions. So here was this sleepman here,
whom ye delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate
when he was determined to let him go, but ye denied the Holy
One and the just didn't beat about the bush, he
reiterated it so that they were under no consideration that it
wasn't relevant to them. Here was the point, here was
the important thought, but ye denied the Holy One and the just. I wonder if any of us can claim
not to have done that. I'm sure we have, in our life,
by our actions, solemnly, sadly, terribly, we have denied the
holy and the just one. Well, how do we stand tonight?
Are we still denying this grace and blessed and holy God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and desire, a murderer, to be granted unto
you? They wanted Barabbas to be freed
instead of the Saviour. Why? Because the Saviour meant
nothing to them. In actual fact, they couldn't
stand to view the Saviour. Because they were condemned as
they realised the words that he spoke had entered into their
hearts. They were condemned. They couldn't
bear to have the Lord Jesus still alive. They cried out, away with
him, away with him. They wanted Barabbas and they
said that his blood be upon us and upon our children. Oh, what
a sad, what a solemn statement. And killed the prince of life,
the one who gives life. We're dependent upon this Prince
tonight? Is our life dependent upon what
He has done? Do we desire tonight to honour
and glorify this great and blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ? Or have we said, away with Him?
Have we said, I will not have this man to reign over me? I'm
not going to submit myself to His laws, to His commands. I'm not going to go that way,
I'm going to rebel. What we're really saying is,
we desire Barabbas rather than the Saviour. We've killed the
Prince of Life, whom God has raised from the dead, whereof
we are witnesses. Now the Apostle was able to declare
this so powerfully. He was a witness. He'd seen the
risen Saviour. He knew it was true. He knew
what he was speaking was verily true and there was no doubt about
it. And therefore he tells them that we are witnesses. Yes, they
were witnesses, my friends, today. Perhaps we, all of us, none of
us have been witnesses to the physical resurrection. But we
can bless God if we are witnesses to the power of that resurrection
in our lives. So that we today can say, we
are witnesses. We know it's true because of
the effect that the risen Lord has had in our lives. And His name, through faith in
His name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know."
Here was this man. They were aware of what he was
like. They knew he was there at the beautiful gate, and that
Peter and John had told him to look on them, and what had they
said, those beautiful words. fasting his eyes upon them with
John. John said look on us and he gave
heed. Then Peter said silver and gold
have I none but such as I have give I unto thee in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And there was power brought about
by God and that power is brought about because of that faith given
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is. Whom ye see and know,
yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness
in the presence of you all. How relevant it is to you and
me today. that we may be blessed with light,
precious faith. That gift of God, how essential
it is that we possess this light faith. Perhaps not for the healing
of our bodies, my friends, for the healing of our soul. How
important it is. And now, brethren, I want that
through ignorance He knew that it was through ignorance he did
it, as did also your rulers. And so we have been very ignorant. My friends, are we still ignorant
tonight? Are we still ignorant tonight? But those things which
God before showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ
should suffer, He hath so fulfilled." We have not time tonight to go
through some of those statements, but you can just to a measure
think of Galatians 3.15, that wonderful prophecy that the Lord
gave about the Lord bruising, crushing Satan's head. The wonderful
prophecy in the 22nd Psalm, about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go home and read it. A wonderful prophecy in the 69th
Psalm. Again, beautiful words. Go home
and read it. The words in Daniel, chapter
9, verse 26. Go home and read it. And then
also in Zechariah, I think it's Zechariah 12, I think it's verse
10. All those words, all the prophecies which were now Peter
was able to say, have been fulfilled. My friends, today we bless God
for the fulfilment of prophecy. It's a wonderful favour and it's
a wonderful blessing. And here we see the fulfilment
of it. How is it fulfilled? By the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's Son, giving His life, dying upon that cross
at Calvary, shedding His most precious blood in order to atone
for the sins of all His people. How needful it is, how essential
it is, that all of us here tonight know that we are redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. Nothing less than that will do.
Nothing less than that will get us straight home to glory. But
my friends, it's a blessing if we have the evidence of the work
of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that we know that we are resting
in nothing less than this great blessing of being found under
the blood. There is only safety under the
blood. Let us not shelter anywhere else. And may we tonight know, in our
own souls, the gracious, blessed application of that blood, as
we ponder the great truth we have here. But those things which
God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that
Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. To the glory of
God. Amen.