[0:00] I want us to think for a moment of what things have the power in our lives to dictate what is worthy of our attention.
[0:13] In other words, if our attention is given to something, if we fixate our eyes upon something, what qualifies that as worthy?
[0:26] What draws our attention? Well, for us, I think it could be something simple as hearing sirens in the neighborhood and all of a sudden we appear as the creepy neighbors going down to our end of our driveway, peering around what's going on.
[0:39] And then all the neighbors start coming like ants and we're all looking around the neighborhoods. You know, it could be events that draw our attention and are worthy of receiving our attention.
[0:51] It could be, you know, they say one thing, you know, you can't turn away, can't stop looking at an accident. And, you know, those things, those big events that happen around us could very well draw our attention.
[1:06] It could very be maybe the affection for other people that draws our attention, that for our family members or our spouses or our children are worthy of our attention, undivided attention.
[1:23] Or maybe the adulting responsibilities. If there's any college students or young adults here, you know, those adulting responsibilities like chores and studies.
[1:35] And for all of us, probably work, those responsibilities that call for our attention. Or maybe it's just sheer boredom.
[1:45] We live in a culture that just seems to be mindlessly scrolling through social media. We probably all found ourselves in that routine or maybe another game, daily game of Wordle, if that is your chosen weapon.
[1:58] For some reason, I really like Wordle. I've been really engaged with that game. Maybe it would be vengeance that would draw our attention on sort of like the other side of all these good things in life other than our boredom.
[2:16] Maybe vengeance. That when you see injustice in life, that you would turn towards that, give your attention, and that act of injustice would be worthy of your attention.
[2:31] Or maybe it's anger towards someone else. That when someone hurts you, that all of a sudden you fixate your mind upon that hurts.
[2:42] That's calling for your attention. Well, the passage today is going to challenge us in the direction of our attention today.
[2:54] The priority of our attention and the quality of our gaze. It's going to happen in a couple different angles, and we'll work through all those. But when we invest our attention, God gives us parameters.
[3:10] And we often miss Him doing great things in our midst on behalf of our misguided attention. Because we're focusing on the wrong things when God is working the most.
[3:23] And I'd be lying to you if this passage hasn't challenged me this week in studying. And even studying with friends. And I believe it has the power of challenging all of us today.
[3:35] So let's continue to see the unfolding promise of God spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
[3:50] And as we do, let us consider how God intends to guide our attention in our lives. And we're going to see this in three different sections within the bulk of the passage we read.
[4:01] We're going to see first the miracle, the mix-up, and the message. And I want to pray before we do. Let's pray. Lord, we give this time to you.
[4:13] Your word is a lamp unto our feet. It is a light unto our path. So, Father, direct our path this morning according to your word alone.
[4:26] We praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, the first section, as I said, is the miracle. We see this miracle laid out in this first section between verse 1 and 11.
[4:41] And the verse starts out with talking about Peter and John. They're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a lame man who is dropped off at the gate's entrance called Beautiful asking for alms who would ask for people who are entering the temple.
[5:01] So we see two paths intersecting in this time. It's a providential intersecting at that moment. You know when you run into people at the grocery store that maybe you have like a grudge toward or something like that or you're struggling with?
[5:18] And then you're like, yeah, Lord, you would put them right in the same aisle looking for mac and cheese just like me, right? And God has a way of guiding our paths significantly to cross.
[5:30] And that happens at this very moment between Peter and John and this disabled man. And Peter and John have a trajectory of walking and entering towards the temple. And this disabled man is begging outside of the temple.
[5:45] And what's the unifying aspect of their paths crossing? The hour of prayer. This is about three o'clock in the afternoon. It's a time of which the second Talmud was offered.
[6:00] A Jewish sacrifice. There were two offerings that happened throughout the day. And this was an everlasting, a perpetual offering. This was a permanent offering.
[6:11] Daily burnt offering which was sacrificed in early morning and also in the evening as prescribed in Exodus 29 and Numbers 28. So this is the unifying component.
[6:23] And this narrative is off. It's taken off the tarmac and the plane is setting air. And so seeing Peter and John in verse 3 about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alums.
[6:38] And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John. And said, look at us.
[6:52] And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. I would imagine if you were in any sort of need, that if somebody comes to ask for your undivided attention and you need a car payment to be paid coming up or things like that in your life, and somebody says that's walking towards the temple, that if they're walking towards the temple, they at least have something together, perceivably together, as they're going into worship God at the hour of prayer.
[7:32] And so maybe this person is, this is their lucky day. I will receive something here, right? And so he would be expecting something significant.
[7:47] Attention and attentiveness. Both those things is a powerful component of human communication. Attention and attentiveness, isn't it? But in order to have a conversation with somebody, you've got to pay attention.
[8:01] Or else you just kind of like, yeah, yeah, oh, cool, yeah, you know, this process, you're talking, you're thinking about what's happening in the football game in that whole conversation.
[8:13] It's a daily battle if you have young kids around. We're constantly fighting for our kids to give us undivided attention. Right?
[8:24] Amen. First amen of the morning. Les didn't even give it. Amen. Right? Our undivided attention to look at us.
[8:36] I was reading this passage and it brought to my mind just that you have something you want to communicate so clearly to somebody else that you just say, look at me.
[8:48] Give me your undivided attention. And when we give something our attention, we are saying by giving our attention to that, that that thing is worthy of our time and attention.
[9:03] And what does Peter say? I have no silver and gold. I don't have the alms that you're looking for. I don't have anything.
[9:15] Honestly, we just talked about last week of that common commonality in the New Testament church that they would be giving. It was a constant outflow.
[9:25] And in their giving, they would naturally be receiving care. And so it was a natural outflow. They didn't have anything at this point. He said, no silver and gold.
[9:36] 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 hands and raised him up.
[9:51] And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. What a day for this man. Perhaps the best gift this man learns isn't material possessions at all.
[10:09] That the faith that he had in to receive the common grace of God to get him through to another day was at this moment revealing to him a salvific message that penetrated his heart as he is called by these apostles to rise up and walk.
[10:29] And within an instant, this man who had been born disabled, out of the womb disabled and unable to walk, received a gift for the first time in his entire life that took care of his need that no money could ever buy.
[10:49] This was a significant moment that this man was attentive for. Immediately, without hesitation from the millisecond, the words, I would imagine, escaping Peter's mouth to rise up and walk.
[11:05] This man was healed supernaturally like that. This is the first miracle of the apostles recorded in Acts. And look how this man responds.
[11:17] It's no ordinary day indeed. Verse 8. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and praising God.
[11:30] And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the gate beautiful of the temple asking for alms, begging.
[11:41] And they were filled with wonder.
[12:11] Spread. And the man went in leaping and praising God.
[12:45] This is the court of women, also known as the treasury. This was past the court of the Gentiles through the 60-foot-wide gate called Beautiful and into the gate of women.
[12:59] And this is not a bank. It's known as the treasury. But there were 13 receptacles all around where this would be a voluntary benevolent offering from the Jewish people. And it's at this moment and this place, a place where even Jesus Christ preached a sermon and talked to the Pharisees there at that time.
[13:19] And he received the greatest gift that money could never buy. You see the irony of the location and the gift that this man actually received versus what he was expecting.
[13:33] A location once marked and known as a treasury now is known by this man's triumph. A location once marked and known as a treasury now is known by this man's triumph. A location of God's provision.
[13:44] What a miracle. Wouldn't you say? This isn't some voodoo stuff that, you know, you see maybe on the street of stretching someone else's leg and, you know, making sure that that's all taken care of.
[13:57] This is literally, this man was bound and unable to walk since birth. And he was instantly able to walk again. What a miracle. What a benevolent offering from God.
[14:13] This is the God we serve. God is a God who restores. He can do the impossible.
[14:25] He can do the supernatural and make all things new. This is the God we serve, the God we worship. And this could be great, fantastic news to anyone who has been suffering similarly from birth.
[14:43] Because within an instant, God can, within an instant, make you well, make you whole. And we see something, that even if healing doesn't come until the last breath upon this earth, how much more does our contentment deepen, knowing that if God could act miraculously, supernaturally, make all things new, and doesn't do so, it is well.
[15:12] Because we serve him without contingency plans. Salvifically speaking, talking about salvation, I believe that if you're a Christian in this room, you probably share more with this disabled man than you might want to admit.
[15:29] This ought to bring to our minds the great wonder of God's initiative in our lives, specifically in salvation.
[15:41] Consider the scene and the location. Once we were unable to enter into God's presence, because God is holy and man is everything but holy.
[15:54] Actually, the antonym of man is unholy. Anything that God is, man is not. We were created in the image of God, but that was distorted. And we're constantly doing evil.
[16:06] We are fallen. There is no unrighteous. No, not one. And once we were unable to enter that temple, but after God restores us from the inside out, we see that we leap for joy in the temple of his presence.
[16:27] Using language from Isaiah 35, 6 of entering into the temple. And the truth is, before God's miraculous intervention in our lives, we are disabled beggars.
[16:41] Congenitally disabled beggars. Spiritually disabled beggars. Begging, looking at our lives before Christ, was once a daily occurrence in our lives.
[16:56] Constantly begging for the world to fill a void that only God was meant to fill. To, as we turn to drugs or substances or pornography or sex.
[17:10] Anything that would get us through the next day what beggars we once were, apart from Jesus Christ. But when God intervenes, he calls us by name.
[17:25] He says, look at me, sinner. Full attention. And he awakens our lifeless souls to the power of his grace.
[17:38] And the gift we receive isn't anything that we've ever been searching for, asking for at the temple of any gates. It exceeds our expectations.
[17:51] It exceeds anything that we could comprehend nor deserve. This is grace. This is God's grace. Maybe you're not a Christian or sort of wavering in your faith this morning, whether in here physically with us or maybe on the live stream.
[18:08] Maybe God's speaking to you specifically. Because might God of the universe, the creator of all things, whether on heaven or on earth, invisible or invisible, whether rulers or authorities or principalities, all things.
[18:28] Might God of the universe be calling you to look at him. And only now you will be able to understand the miracle that God is working in your heart.
[18:42] Might God be calling to be revived today as he restores you, as he calls you to draw near to the throne of grace by your faith in him.
[18:54] We have to remember by his stripes we are healed. He paid the penalty. And that has nothing to do with our quality of life here and now. That has everything to do with the healing of sin in our lives, of atonement for our sin, so that we may receive the inheritance that lay waiting ahead.
[19:14] This is grace. We'd be doing well if we asked ourselves at this point of why in the passage.
[19:28] Luke has recorded this to provide an orderly account to a man named Theophilus of the spreading of the gospel in Jerusalem into the ends of the earth and the foundation of the church.
[19:41] And we'd be doing well and it would be beneficial for us to ask why. Why this miracle that's recorded?
[19:51] Why would Luke include the first healing from the apostles? And I would believe that we will see very clearly that these apostles were on their way to the temple for something.
[20:07] They were on their way to preach, to give a message within the temple at this hour of prayer. And what do they need along the way?
[20:19] A sermon illustration for this sermon. So let's continue and see how this unfolds in the life of the crowd within the gates. So we see a little mix-up in section 2, starting in verse 12.
[20:35] I'd imagine after just seeing all of that that just transpired, this man who's been sitting there at the gates all his life, begging, is now walking, leaping, for that matter, in joy and praising God.
[20:49] I'd imagine that if any of us were there at that time, if any of us were transported back, we would share similar wonder, similar amazement, similar astoundment as we ran to interact with these followers of Jesus Christ.
[21:07] If that those sirens down the way to the church, if that those sirens down the way to the church, if that those sirens down the neighborhood draws our attention out of our houses like little ants, definitely this would have the power of drawing our attention. And it would be worthy of our attention that it was.
[21:20] Let's see that in verse 12. We see that. And when Peter saw it, all these people coming out of their metaphorical houses like ants, after he saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?
[21:39] And why do you stare? Or why do you stare at us? As though by our own power or piety, we have made him well. We're introduced, church, to two groups of people.
[21:50] We have the people who are under wonder at this moment. And then we have these people who are kind of just like staring. And Peter makes sure.
[22:04] If there's any confusion that's on the table at this moment, he gives credit where credit is due. And addresses this wondering and staring crowd.
[22:16] That God initiated everything. Look what he says. Yes. And quite sharply, he says it. He says, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he decided to release him.
[22:42] You denied the Holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.
[22:55] To this we are witnesses. In other words, to that they have that was worthy of their attention to see such rejection of the people of Israel who put Jesus on the cross.
[23:11] And what does he say in verse 16? And by his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.
[23:23] And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And so the sermon illustration is brought into this courtyard through the temple gates.
[23:38] And at this hour of prayer, Peter starts preaching. And he uses this man to communicate something. He highlights the good news and the bad news of the gospel.
[23:52] He says clearly that you denied the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and our fathers. You denied the holy and righteous one by killing the author of life.
[24:05] But the good news, faith in his name makes all the difference. This faith has restored this formerly disabled man to wellness.
[24:17] That faith in his name has restored this man completely. Not just one foot, but two feet to be able to leap for joy. And it would be safe to say that the attention these apostles were receiving was quite unbalanced.
[24:35] He says, why do you stare at us in verse 12? And you see that this brings about, this should bring about some tension in the passage. Because it rests on the problem of attention.
[24:48] Because their attentiveness was misdirected. Misdirected. They were staring at, who are these guys? They're followers of Jesus. We just took care of Jesus.
[24:58] You want us to take care of you too? And we have all this wonder and amazement and people clinging to Peter and John. All this attentiveness was completely misdirected.
[25:11] And those who stare at the apostle were likely the same ones who chanted, crucify him. Crucify him. As Jesus stood, completely ripped to sheds next to Pilate's.
[25:23] And Peter addresses their misguided attention. And that is driven by pride. It's driven by sinful intentions. But the good news is, God saw it fit to allow these men to providentially serve God's sovereign ends.
[25:40] We see in verse 17. And now, brothers, after your denial, after your rejection, I know that you acted in ignorance.
[25:51] As did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
[26:04] Repent, therefore, and turn back. In other words, knowing the horror that caused Jesus Christ to suffer greatly was an act of ignorance on the behalf of this crowd, some people in this crowd.
[26:25] Peter gives this onlooking crowd a second chance. Adjust your attention. Look at something deeper laying within the surface of what's going on here and also what you are responsible for.
[26:44] Today, how many of us have forgotten that we can look at this passage and say, yeah, they're the problem. But also understand clearly that we are the problem as well.
[26:55] If we were there at that time, we would be chanting crucify him. And that is the hard reality that we must grapple with today.
[27:08] How many of us might either be attentive to our ignorance of the gospel even in our lives? Because the gospel, by definition, means good news.
[27:19] However, it wouldn't be good news without the bad news. And when our attention is to be fixated upon the gospel, it must have both balanced in view.
[27:32] That it's not just a gospel of good news, but it's a gospel that the bad news caused. That in order to know what health feels like, you have to be sick to experience that.
[27:45] And so we understand that it's a balanced understanding. It's a balanced attention. A gospel full of only good news without bad news is a lie.
[27:56] A gospel full of bad news without good news is a lie on both sides of an unbalanced pendulum. But when we give our attention to a balanced view of God's wrath, the bad news, and God's grace of the good news, this is a message of truth.
[28:13] No lie is attached. A life-changing truth. A miraculous working truth in our lives and in our hearts. A truth that deserves our utmost attention and allegiance.
[28:26] And so we see that this mix-up is sort of being sorted out with this crowd. And it leads into the message.
[28:38] The meaning of it all begins to unfold in verse 19. It says, Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
[29:07] Moses, he talks about Moses, he talks about Samuel, he talks about Abraham, and on. And he tells these men to repent.
[29:20] Repent. Turn back. The prerequisite of our legal record to be erased is to repent.
[29:33] To turn from our idols. And to serve and to worship the living and true God. Peter calls upon this crowd to do what has become utterly offensive in our day and our culture today that would need a little trigger warning attached to that call to repentance.
[29:53] I don't want to offend you, but I'm going to ask you to repent. It might not feel good and stir up all this trauma in your life, but, you know, we'll work it through, but you got to repent.
[30:05] No. No trigger warnings. I'm sorry to caricature, but, boy, this culture is confused today. He says, repent. It's not up to your opinion to repent or not.
[30:19] It is a call from God to repent from your sin, whether you agree with it or not. You are guilty. And that is a prerequisite of understanding God's grace.
[30:32] Peter calls upon this crowd to repent, to change, to turn away. In other words, the path that you're leading, whether you want to admit it or not, whether it feels good to you or not, or whether it makes you have good vibes, is not the way that you should be traveling.
[30:49] It's wrong. You're traveling in unbelief. You're traveling in denial. And guess what? They're begging. All through it all, in their sin.
[31:03] When you're serving an idol, you're begging for an idol to give you what only God can give you. Idolatry. Beggars. Here's where the illustration comes into play.
[31:16] You ready for it? Because the begging man with these crowds have a shared problem. They have a problem that stems to their birth.
[31:27] They are spiritually disabled from birth. They are literally begging from the world to give them purpose, to give them identity, to give them meaning, all of which we find in being created in the image of God.
[31:42] They're outside the temple. While they may be physically located inside the temple, their hearts are truly outside the temple in their spiritual condition. They share the same problem.
[31:54] But they also share the same solution as the lame man. That faith changes everything. Faith changes everything.
[32:05] That we're healed not on our best efforts. Not on our good days. Not on just our bad days. We're healed in Jesus' name. Outside of ourselves, we are healed.
[32:18] And we find that restoration. It is initiated by Jesus Christ in our lives. And we share not only the same solution, but the same promise.
[32:29] A promise of restoration. A promise to enter into the temple with joy. Leaping in praise to God.
[32:42] Church. This is our problem, solution, and promise of what that illustration serves to the crowd at this time.
[32:55] If there is anything to marvel at and be amazed in, it's about this miracle and the emblematic problem of man and the promise of God.
[33:07] And not only just a once in a while, like, you know, maybe he'll have a good day or a bad day. This is the sure promise of God. And this is why Peter goes on to say, all these guys, the hall of faith.
[33:22] He goes back to Moses. He taps into the historical trajectory. Any Bible students in here? The historical trajectory that started long ago with Moses.
[33:33] The warning that was given from Moses to the people of Israel. The stiff-necked Israelites were warned of their destruction if they continue in their unbelief. He mentions in verse 24, all the prophets from Samuel and on.
[33:49] A warning against stiff-necked religious Israelites of their coming destruction unless they turn and repent. But what exists all along?
[34:01] It's like the umbrella. If you have all this disobedience and rebellion against God under here, under the umbrella is God's covenant to his people that is sure, steady, and so sure to come.
[34:18] We see the descendants of Abraham in verse 25. But a promise remains from a forbearing God to utterly futile people.
[34:30] God keeps his promises. Blessing awaits.
[34:43] This man begging outside the temple is justified by faith. Those who think they have it all together inside the temple are also justified.
[34:58] Not by the robes, the cool robes and hats they wear and all the alms that they give to the benevolence fund. But by faith alone, they're justified. You see, the miracle versus the message, the refreshing and restoration this formerly physical disabled man experienced is a foretaste of the refreshing and restorative power of God in salvation here and now.
[35:26] And if there's breath in our breath, if there's breath in our lungs right now, if we have air to breathe, the promise is for you by your faith.
[35:36] In other words, God is still making all things new. He's promised it. And God never once has broken his promise to his people.
[35:52] The psalmist underneath the umbrella of his covenant. Psalmist has cried out, how long, oh Lord, in Psalm 6? Psalm 5, until you restore me.
[36:03] Psalm 51, restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Psalm 119, I have suffered much, oh Lord.
[36:14] Restore my life again as you promised. Not only that, but the prophets pleaded. Jeremiah pleaded with God. Turn me again to you and restore me.
[36:26] For you alone are the Lord my God. Lamentations 5, restore us, oh Lord, and bring us back to you again. And the apostles, even in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 13, your restoration is what we pray for.
[36:43] The aim of restoration. This is the God that we serve. This is a message worthy of our attention.
[36:54] And the best news is yet to be said in verse 26. Look with me. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
[37:17] Notice it doesn't say that your best efforts will turn you from your wickedness. So that God, he would bless you, turning every one of you from your wickedness.
[37:35] By the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is the power of salvation toward a sinner. God has repurposed the curse of sin for the blessing of salvation.
[37:49] He has completely turned the world upside down. God sent Jesus Christ first. Isn't this a good thing? He sent Jesus Christ first according to his promise to restore.
[38:03] Isn't that pretty good news? Whereas we don't deserve anything but death. Right? Eternal suffering. And God's love came to us first before his judgment.
[38:15] So that when his judgment does come, it doesn't fall upon humanity. It falls upon Jesus Christ. For those who are in Christ. It's a call of liberation from our wickedness.
[38:27] From our rebellion and denial. What a wonderful reminder for Peter's crowd and also for us today. Though we are broken by our sin. We are utterly beggars spiritually.
[38:40] God restores us by our faith. What a message, church. As we kind of end our time. I want us to think about how we may struggle in life of marveling at the forbearance of God's love and grace.
[39:01] Do you ever struggle at various times to recall God's grace and his forbearance in your life? That it becomes, you know, you've been a Christian for what, 40, 50 years?
[39:14] And you know all the songs. You know all the verses. And you know communion. You come to church. And that's just part of life. And that's ingrained within your being. But somehow within the time that you came and the awakening that occurred in your life then has kind of lost its flavor in your life now.
[39:41] I want us to never lose the wonder of God's forbearance of God's love and grace. That despite our sharp rebellion against God, his mercy flows abundantly in Christ.
[39:59] Within the providential unfolding of God's plan, we intended to allow the pride of man to cause the son of man to suffer once and for all. And it was the son of man who suffered the penalty for the pride of man.
[40:14] It was a substitute on our behalf. We should never lose the wonder of the cross. And so this would provide for us, I believe, a challenge in two different ways.
[40:26] Number one, when we're on the other side of the cross and sanctification, growing, assumedly growing in our lives, striving in this road of progress and regression and backsliding and more progress and then backsliding, this time of sanctification.
[40:48] The gospel message ought to stir up fruit in our lives, even if that's fruit of conviction, because our lives are not aligning to the grace that we have received. It's not producing fruit in our lives that testifies to the waves of God's grace in our lives as we confess our sin ongoing to our God.
[41:09] To think that the many in this crowd held such great assurance. I mean, they got it in the bag. They're the Jewish people. They're God's people, man. Like, they don't have anything to worry about.
[41:21] As long as they do that sacrifice and follow his commands, they got it in the bag. And to think that they held that great assurance that they knew God.
[41:32] They were very, quote, religious. But there is something that Peter indicates that lays within, deeper than skin level, deeper than the cool hats they wear, the robes that they wear.
[41:44] And he calls attention to an interlining problem. And I believe this ought to challenge us equally, as Peter challenged the crowd of religious folk, right?
[41:58] Are we too concerned, church, with looking religious and actually being religious? Because religion isn't necessarily a bad thing.
[42:11] True religion is taking care of widows and the poor and serving for those in need. And might our perspective that people perceive become our actual God and our idol in our lives?
[42:27] That we are justified in how many Sundays we attend or if we've been baptized or how much we serve in the church becomes our source of justification.
[42:39] And we are denying Jesus Christ by our word, action, or deed. Well, this is childish faith. This is not faith that propels us from the cross.
[42:54] This is a moment that our ignorance is unmasked when we receive a message like Peter provided to these religious people. And there's only two roads that can follow from such sharp, sharp conviction that Peter provides.
[43:11] It can either be these people will continue the way that they've been going and be arrogant, or they will continue in this path and become forgiven. There's only two roads that they would be able to travel from that moment of receiving that conviction.
[43:26] So how many of us need to end the childish games of ignorance and testing God's forbearance in our lives, taking his grace for granted? We can't forget the quote from Thomas Watson.
[43:39] As he says, Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet. You can only play being a Christian for so long. And if you have breath in your lungs, I call you to repent of that time of ignorance, because we are now without excuse to be making progress in our faith as a result of the work of Christ in our lives.
[44:03] And the second is I want us to, I know I'm going a little bit long today, but focus. This is the second aspect of this reflection.
[44:15] I don't want you to miss the wonder of the message in exchange of the wonder of the miracle.
[44:26] I'm telling you, sermon after sermon all around this area is looking at this lame man, how he jumped up, and you got churches going out and saying, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and completely not following through.
[44:43] Remember, the people aren't being healed. Nobody is not drawing any crowds. And they're looking at this and prescribing this as an aspect of faith. And they're missing the wonder of the message.
[44:55] Because God never promised to restore us from all of our sicknesses. But God has promised to restore us from all sin. God never promised to restore us from every disease.
[45:09] But God has promised to restore us from the curse of sin. Our God is a God of restoration. And the message is worthy of all our attention today.
[45:21] A promise of pardon. A promise of forgiveness by our faith. And what God has promised, if illness is to come into our lives, so be it.
[45:32] It is well with our souls. And what we know is that if this is the promise keeping God, that he will keep us in our illness.
[45:43] What God has promised is to repurpose the evil disease in our lives for his glory. What God has promised is to sanctify us in our difficulties.
[45:53] What God has promised is to supply all of our needs. And what God has promised is to use us mightily to draw people to the cross.
[46:07] If that promise seems unrealistic, may your attention be drawn to this. That God has not forgotten you, regardless of the situation you're facing. He has not forgotten your name.
[46:19] He has not forgotten the moment that you first prayed your prayer of repentance to him. And he received the glory that was due to his name.
[46:31] He has not forgotten his covenants. And nor will he ever forget his covenants and the movement of Acts 1-8. From Jerusalem to all Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
[46:43] What we must not forget is that his forbearance will hold back his wrath and judgment for only so long. Yes, God sent Jesus Christ to atone for our sins, receive his wrath.
[46:58] But that forbearance will only hold back for so long. It has an expiration date. And he has called his church to be witnesses. To be calling attention, just as Peter did, to these crowds.
[47:12] To the problem of sin in their lives. And to call to them to repent. To offer the world gospel attentiveness. Let's not be misguided ourselves wherever you are in life.
[47:27] Whether you're a husband or a wife. A spouse. Single or widowed. Young or old. You are all qualified to bring gospel attentiveness to those around us.
[47:40] Let's refocus our attention. And get as many people to see the hope and treasure that we have indeed found in Christ. Let's pray. Let's pray.