The Beautiful Gate and Better Gift (Acts 3:1-10)

The Beautiful Gate and Better Gift (Acts 3:1-10)

INTRODUCTION We have a tendency toward being shortsighted in identifying our needs. This translates into the church’s mission. We can try to take the quick path: give money, alms, or some other quick solution. These are not necessarily bad things as we walk beside someone going through a tough season of life. However, earthly provisions will never satisfy the deeper needs. The Fall brings eternal consequences. The Fall brings deep spiritual problems. The Fall demands a divine solution. The man at the Beautiful Gate appears to have a financial crisis, but something bigger is at stake. What is the bigger issue? THE SCENE SETTING The church is gathering, praying, and growing. The apostles head to the temple at the 3 p.m. hour of prayer. This is a reminder that, as the sacrificial system is concluded, there is a precedent where the Apostles still use a building to facilitate fellowship. As the apostles enter the temple for a 3 PM prayer time, they walk through the beautiful gate. This would most likely be the Nicanor gate, which was a rather impressive gate. There is a shift in focus. We look at the way from the gate, and we see the irony of the gate. We see a human being who is crippled from birth. The gate’s name is almost cruel. Here is a man situated before a gate that celebrates beauty only to see a stark reminder that this fallen world is cruel. We might assume this man has done something to deserve this suffering. However, we must remember that a fallen world is far more complex than simple cause-and-effect connections. The Lord is angry with Job and the counselors for promoting such simple ideas as the righteous always receive blessings and the sinners always receive judgment. The Fall makes our lives more complicated. We do not know why this man is crippled, but we know that God will be glorified. We know that this man will be made whole. THE INVITATION TO FIX THEIR GAZE Peter calls the man to look at them. We might think that Peter is doing this to build a cult of personality around himself. Peter could be calling the crippled man to find his hope in the apostles. We need to be careful not to build the church around personalities, and this is not what Peter is doing. Peter is inviting this man to see that they hold out something greater than alms or a charismatic personality. They hold out the Gospel. Their miracle is not testifying to their power, but to their credibility. Miracles testify that the apostles have the same authority as Moses. Moses was given miracles to testify to his credibility. When he asks, “How will they know you sent me?” The Lord gives him miracles. Miracles do not testify to the man, but to the true Lord who sends his man to be his mouthpiece. Moses was sent from God, and so are the Apostles. They both testify to the same Gospel message. Peter heals this man in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This echoes back to the blind beggar in Luke’s gospel who knows that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David. Life is not in the Apostles, but in the Apostolic Gospel that testifies to Christ being the Christ or the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Truly, the apostles and prophets stand together testifying to the same glorious gospel message. THE GLORIOUS RESULT The man doesn’t just walk, but he leaps. A man who has never used his legs can now use them to their full potential. Peter does not prescribe physical therapy or training to help him make his legs whole. No, this miracle testifies that our wholeness comes in Christ. And he praises God, not Peter and John. The miracle accomplishes its purpose: credibility for the apostles as Gospel vessels. The man properly points his focus, giving glory to Christ. The crowd’s wonder mirrors Acts 2. The man who was most conscious of his brokenness most clearly understands the gospel’s gift. This means that we need to understand our brokenness to see that we need the Gospel gift. The miracle pictures the whole intention of Christ. Christ does not come to tear down, but to build up. The gospel makes us whole, no matter how broken we are. CONCLUSION What is the bigger issue? What were the apostles truly offering? The gospel. The crippled man thinks that he really needs a temporary provision: money, but he sees the greater provision: life. The Apostles do not merely bring poverty relief or simple social solutions, but the redemptive work of Christ. Christ’s work makes broken people whole. The church’s call is to bring the gospel first, then to share one another’s burdens. We walk alongside people, resisting hasty judgment, remembering that apart from grace we are nothing. Acts keeps pressing this point: in Christ we have life, joy, and restoration. The Gospel goes out to broken people. We were once not a people. We have been made people. Let us live for that Redeemer as we walk in His power. The Beautiful Gate and Better Gift (Acts 3:1-10) Pastor Paul Lindemulder Download [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53dd2688e4b0219ea2c81007/t/6a1eeb2d800e82332c9345b9/1780411441732/06+The+Beautiful+Gate+and+Better+Gift+%28Acts+3_1-10%29.m4a]

sons of God (LD 13; Romans 8:12-17)

Introduction People bring criticism against the Reformed people’s love for doctrine. People claim that if you go to a Reformed church, you will see that we are people concerned with the head, not the heart. That our catechisms and confessions are cold documents. These are documents fueling intellectual exercises that keep doctrine tidy but leave the soul unmoved. That we know about God without actually knowing him. The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 13, communicates to us that God is very personal. In fact, we are brought into the Lord’s family. We are adopted as sons for the sake of our faithful Savior. We were the estranged children who had been brought near to God through the faithful son. So, is it fair to say that we are people who love doctrine and not the Lord? Is it fair to say that the Reformed faith makes one distant in relation to God? Children by Adoption The catechism is careful to distinguish between Christ's sonship and ours. Christ is the Son from eternity who is not created, not adopted, but of the same essence as the Father. When we confess the only begotten Son, we are saying that Christ is of the same nature as the Father. He has not sinned or done anything wrong. He is eternal, having the same attributes and nature as the Father. We are sons by adoption. And we need to be very encouraged by this. In the ancient world, adoption was not a consolation prize. In Roman law and in the Old Testament background, an adopted son received full inheritance rights. Abram understood this in Genesis 15, when he offered Eliezer of Damascus as an option to be an heir. Eliezer was not merely a faithful servant, but Abraham requested him to be the heir. Abraham is offering God an easy option, and not the challenge to bring a son through two elderly people without children. And Paul presses this further in verse 14. He declares that all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. This language is important because all in the Spirit are sons possessing full inheritance. Note that firstborn sons are the ones who receive the greatest portion. Whatever your gender, whatever your genealogy, if you have the Spirit, you share in the inheritance of the eternal firstborn Son of God. You have done nothing to earn it. You have done everything to forfeit it. However, Christ, as a faithful son, secured His people to be coheirs with him as firstborn children. This love that the Father has for his children goes clear to the core of our heart. Why Submit to God? The Freedom of the Redeemed Our culture does not love submission. Even the word sounds like loss. But Paul reframes the question entirely in verse 15: you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Paul has already named the alternative. Living by the flesh is death. We see that in the fall. No, they did not fall dead, but they immediately broke fellowship with God. They were naked and ashamed. They thought they would find freedom in their rebellion, but they discovered that being estranged from God is a problem. Christ, washing the disciples' feet in John 13, says something remarkable to Peter: “ You are already clean.” Christ makes this declaration even before Christ is raised from the dead. Christ’s work is so certain that he assures his disciples of its benefit before it is officially confirmed. The disciples consciously know who Christ is, but they need to rest in his cleansing. John Murray captured it well: in Christ, we have moved from the courtroom to the family room. The legal question is settled. Yes, affirming with the head, but resting in the heart. Honoring God without Terror If submission sounds like an obligation, honoring God can sound like performance. We can think that we better make sure we earn our Lord’s favor. We have to make sure that we are doing the right things to prevent the Lord smiting us or harming us in some way. Paul does not want people to have this mindset of the Lord’s grace and mercy. He tells us in verse 15 that we have received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry Abba, Father. This is the same word Christ uses in Gethsemane. This is the time of his greatest anguish, of going to the cross. Christ is vulnerable; this is his darkest moment as he is about to face hell, and in this time of need, he cries out, “Abba.” We call on our heavenly Father as Christ calls on His Father. This is more like Dad rather than “master” or “Father.” It is communicating to us that we are brought near in the family in such a way that we have God’s attention. The reason we want to honor God is not out of dread. Rather, when we consider the inheritance, we see that we are: heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ. Not servants who have earned their way up. Not subordinate sons who receive a smaller portion. Fellow heirs. Co-heirs with the one who never sinned, never failed, and never rebelled. Christ does not gloat over his success, but rather freely shares everything he has merited with those who deserved none of it. Yes, we do consciously profess this with our minds, but the Spirit works in our hearts to see the joy of the new life. So, we cannot divorce the head from the heart. Conclusion The Heidelberg Catechism seeks to bring out the implications of being brought near to God. The Heidelberg Catechism is not a cold document. It is a document written for people who need to know who they are. People who feel the weight of sin and ask whether God is really on their side. People who wonder whether submission to Christ is freedom or just a nicer version of slavery. The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes Romans 8 with the assurance that you are not a servant who performed well enough to be elevated. You are not an orphan who has been adopted by an abusive or lonely father. You are an adopted child of the living God, a co-heir with his faithful Son, indwelt by the Spirit who prods you toward life and away from death. We honor God, then, not because we have conceded that a terrible master is preferable to a really abusive one. We honor him because he is ours, and we are his, and the inheritance is already secured in the one who went to the cross knowing exactly what the wrath of God costs. He knows the cost and went anyway. He did so in order to make sure we all share in his inheritance. Our life lived before the face of God is not an obligation, but a joy.

Devoted to the Apostolic Gospel (Acts 2:37-47)

Introduction There is a question that lurks underneath in the book of Acts. What happens when Christ is gone? Does he still work on His people, or are we abandoned in this world by a frustrated redeemer? Luke’s Gospel lays out the ministry of Christ on this earth. Acts lays out the ministry of Christ after his ascension into heaven. The Spirit has been given to the church, but how do we know that the Spirit really ties us to Christ and works out our redemption in Christ? I. Their Reaction The crowd's anguish is not performance. These are people who, not long ago, stood in Pilate's courtroom and chanted to crucify Christ. Peter does not let them appeal to peer pressure. They cannot defend themselves by saying they were victims of mob mentality. He addresses them as a group and individually: you all did this. Peter understands this kind of guilt personally. He is the man who looked at Christ when he denied Christ the third time. Peter also knows the awkward breakfast where Christ asks Peter three times if Peter loves him. Peter is not rebuked, but commissioned to care for Christ’s people. And that is precisely why Peter is the right man to preach this sermon. The crowd is cut to the heart. This is a stabbing pain. This leads them to ask the question: What shall we do? This is a vulnerable question. On one side, it reflects genuine contrition where they want to make this right. On the other hand, it carries a dangerous temptation: the hope that maybe they can balance the ledger themselves. The reality is, there is no way for them to undo their sin in their own strength. II. Peter's Solution Peter does not cite Deuteronomy 19 to condemn them. This is a real option. Moses prescribed that false witnesses receive the very punishment they sought for another. These people falsely accused Christ and handed him over to death. They bore false testimony against Christ. Peter could have called for a mass crucifixion. This would be the legal way to make it right. They wanted Christ to die on a cross, and so they could die on the cross. Instead: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Repentance here is not simply a change of opinion. It is a reorientation of the whole self. It is adjusting convictions to align with the Lord’s purpose. And notice the scope of the promise Peter gives them: "The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off." Peter is making a deliberate echo of Genesis 17:7, of the covenant God made with Abraham and his household. The community is set apart by the Spirit, and we would expect the Spirit to be present in the covenant community. The church is a covenant people, structured like a family, with children included in its promises. This is how it has always been since the Lord gave his first promise in Genesis 3:15. Baptism does not save, but it is the designation of a community set apart in Christ. Baptism is the sign of the people who have passed through the sea or the flood. It is the sign that the Spirit dwells in the midst of God’s covenant community. III. The Church Continuing: Luke tells us that three thousand are added to the fellowship of believers. This is amazing that this one sermon leads to such a commitment. We learn how this community functions: they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. The word devoted implies a continual commitment to the Apostles’ teaching. They are going to learn more and more about the implications of the Gospel. They hear the Gospel, but they do not definitively know the Gospel. The Gospel is not a one-and-done message. We might be able to say it, but living it out is the Christian struggle. They also devote themselves to the fellowship of believers. The church family is not just casual fellowship. The community is members like two people in a business venture (Luke 5:10). This means bearing one another's burdens, contributing when others have a need, and a true commitment to one another. One is not on the outside looking in. The breaking of bread is communion of the saints. This would include the sacrament of communion, but also the sharing in the fellowship with one another. They share the common commitment to the devotion to the apostles’ teaching. The fellowship also continues to pray for one another. This is how the community bears with each other. The community is committed to seeing their fellow sojourner arrive complete in the goal of heaven. Conclusion Peter preaches a sermon that cuts these people to the heart. Peter is a hypocrite who denied Christ three times. However, the Lord still uses him. It is not because Peter is so eloquent, but because the Spirit works through the gospel. The Spirit comes to dwell within his people. We know that Christ has not left us, and he continues to work on us. We raise our families in the Lord. We sit under apostolic preaching that we will never exhaust. We bear one another's burdens. We pray. And we know that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church because the Lord who adds to his church is the Lord who has already overcome. Let us be a people devoted to the apostolic teaching.

Built Together in the Rejected Cornerstone (I Peter 2:4-1-; LD 12)

Introduction Was the cross a plan B? We might dismiss this question, but it is an important question. On the surface, the ministry of Jesus looks like a series of setbacks. The reality is that Christ is rejected by the religious establishment that He has come to establish. Christ is not only rejected, but handed over to Rome in a Kangaroo court. He is then sentenced to death by the demands of his own people. And yet it is this same Peter, the author of this letter, who tells us that we should see Christ’s mission as a success despite this major setback. This is shocking because this same Peter once told Christ that he did not have to go to the cross. In fact, Christ rebukes him and associates Peter’s words with Satanic temptation (Matthew 16:23). So, why would Peter see the cross as a mission success rather than a failure? God's Intention: The Rejected Stone Peter introduces Christ in verse 4 with a striking image as a living stone. Calling Christ a living stone is a strange assertion. We know that stones are many things. They're useful, durable, and some are even valuable. You can build with them, polish them, and set them in a wall. But we don't look at a stone and expect life from it. We would never see stone as a living thing. Peter identifies Christ as the living stone. A living stone is a stone that not only possesses life, but also gives life. Peter is telling us that Christ is the stone that keeps the new temple square. Christ is also the stone that gives the temple life. Peter appeals to Isaiah 28 to establish his claim. In the context of Isaiah 28, Isaiah reminds us that Israel has made a covenant with Egypt, trusting a foreign superpower to protect them from Assyria. Isaiah rebukes it as a covenant with death. He says it is a covenant with Sheol. The people have looked at the geopolitical realities around them and decided to trust what they can see rather than the Lord’s protection. The Lord gives the assurance, “I am laying in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone.” The cornerstone is the stone that establishes the angle of an entire building. The Lord is not only going to build a new temple, but he will keep the building square. The Lord is not only a shield and defender for his people, but he also continually nourishes his people as a new temple (Isaiah 28:16). Peter adds to this with Psalm 118 and Isaiah 8. Peter applies Psalm 118 to Christ as the stone that the builders rejected, and Isaiah 8:14 tells us that this same stone is the rock of offense, a stumbling stone. Isaiah 8 is telling us that those who will not trust in the Lord’s stone will see the stone as a stumbling stone rather than a life-giving stone. Peter shows from these three texts one argument: the rejection of Christ by men was not an accident, but the means that the Lord intended to use to build his building. As we are in Christ by the Spirit and faith, we are part of this building. Christ's Submission: The Anointed One Our catechism in Lord’s Day 12 presses us on what it means to call Jesus Christ, the anointed one. Christ is from Christos in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew. It means he was set apart and empowered by the Holy Spirit for a specific mission. But the catechism is also clear that this anointing was not simply ceremonial. At his baptism, the Spirit descended on him literally, actually equipping him to fulfill his mission. Christ will live up to the words at Baptism and the Transfiguration that the Father is well pleased with His Son. And what does an anointing require? Submission. Every anointing in Scripture is simultaneously an empowering and a binding to submit to the Father’s will. Christ is submitting to the Father’s will. We know that as a prophet is anointed by God, the prophet does not deliver his own words. He delivers the word of God. A priest anoints the temple ministers according to what God has prescribed. A king anointed to rule rules for God's glory and the people's good. Christ, as our prophet, fulfills this: he reveals what was hidden. What the prophets spoke in shadow, what was veiled in Isaiah and the Psalms, is now made plain in Christ. Christ shows the clear intention of the Lord’s prophetic word. The mystery has been revealed because the prophet has spoken, and the incarnate Word, Christ, has confirmed the prophet’s word. He submitted to the Father’s will. Our Anointing: Living Stones in a Living Temple Calvin puts it plainly: as long as Christ remains outside of us, he is of no benefit to us. This is why Christ has to be the cornerstone and the living stone. He holds the building together, and he gives the building life by uniting the stones to him. Verse 5 assures us that we are that building. Christ’s people are part of the new and living temple united to the cornerstone. The cornerstone that was rejected, suffered, and raised to life. Now, that cornerstone gives life to the whole temple, making us the Lord’s spiritual house. This is what Peter is teaching in verses 4-8. Peter says that we are living sacrifices. Does this mean that we are living sacrifices called to finish Christ’s work? Well, Peter is not calling our attention to sacrifices that take away sin. The sacrifice that Peter alludes to would be thanksgiving offerings. These are sacrifices that people would give if, say, for instance, a child recovered from severe illness, whose harvest exceeded all expectations, whose life turned out better than expected, and the examples continue. The sacrifice of someone who looks at what they have and says simply: I don't know how this happened, but thank you, Lord. Peter is calling us to see that our lives are that offering. We are not finishing Christ’s work, but we are the garnish to the work. Our sacrifice is not the substance of the offering, but a display of thankfulness and joy that we are set free in Christ. Then, in verses 9 and 10, Peter reaches back to Exodus 19. At Sinai, the Lord told Israel in Exodus 19:5-6: if you obey, you will be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. It was conditional and future. There is a radical change in Christ. Peter picks up that same language and transforms it: “You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation.” What Moses announced as a future possibility has become a present reality for those built on the cornerstone. Now, we have become what God’s people were promised to be. And notice the final word: once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Peter is assuring us that the people who were distant from the Lord’s promise are now recipients of the promise. We have received mercy. This is not by our merit, but the Lord’s mercy. This is why we live as thanksgiving offerings or out of gratitude as we walk in the Spirit by faith. Conclusion Peter begins this entire section asking whether the cross was a failure, and he ends it with those who were no people at all becoming the building blocks of God's new temple. This is all done by the Lord’s mercy. So the Christian life is not a heavy list of obligations designed to earn what Christ has not yet finished. It is the life of someone who has been placed in the building, aligned to the cornerstone, and is now living out of the sheer gratitude of that reality. It is a story that does not end in death, but in life. Christ is the living stone, giving life to the stones in the living temple. As we take hold of Christ by faith and walk in the Spirit, we are the temple people. Let us live out who we are: living stones, built on the living stone, in the temple that God is raising to his own glory.

Christ Alone (Heb 7:25; LD 11)

Introduction Wouldn't it be something if Christ kept an earthly office. It would be great if we could knock on the door, make an appointment, and bring him our questions face to face. We instinctively want something tangible. And yet the Christian faith calls us to do something that seems unwise: put all our eggs in one basket and trust in a savior that we cannot see. We are called to trust in Christ alone. No backup plan, no supplemental mediator, but only Christ. So how do we know that this basket is safe and wise? Christ Has the Power to Save His name tells us everything. He is called Jesus. His name literally means “Yahweh saves” His name tells us that that we need to be rescued, and that God himself provides it. Hebrews 7 builds on this by contrasting Christ's priesthood with the old covenant priests. Those priests died. Their ministries expired. Their successors were not always faithful. Christ, however, holds his priesthood permanently. Christ is in the order of Melchizedek. He has no recorded beginning or end of days. We read about him once in Genesis. There is no genealogy to communicate his beginning. There is no record of his death. The implication is that he lives forever. Levi, in Abraham’s loins, paid the oath to Melchizedek when Abraham paid the tithe. This means Melchizedek is superior to the other priests in every way because the priests in Levi’s line honored the superior priest by paying the tithe on the spoils. The point of this is that Christ's priestly ministry is in the line of Melchizedek. This means that Christ saves us because he lives up to his name, Yahweh Saves. He has the power to save because he is in a priestly line that has no beginning and no end. He is truly an eternal priest. Christ Saves Us Completely Hebrews uses the language of "To the uttermost." This means that nothing can hinder Christ from finishing what he has begun. Satan, who once stood before God to challenge Job, could not undo God's purposes then, and cannot undo Christ's saving work now. We take comfort in that Christ represents us in the most holy place. He resides there by his own merits, he has offered himself without first cleansing himself, and he represents us in the most holy place. Christ is not fragile like the priests of old. We must remember that Christ is our perfect priest without any human frailty. Yes, he is God and man joined together in person. He took on the flesh to offer himself. He completed his work. The result is that Christ saves to the uttermost. His work never expires, and he never needs a successor. He alone is sufficient to represent us. Christ Intercedes for Us Personally Not only does Christ save completely, but he prays for us continuously. He does not simply give us a boost of grace and step back. He does not merely secure us and then retreat into heaven. But He lives to intercede for his people by name, in the Most Holy Place. Christ’s mission is to see to it personally that each one arrives at the fullness of glory. Christ is the priest who cleanses. We do not get our lives together before we draw near to him. The invitation of Hebrews is to come as we are with our failures and imperfections. We lay our sins, burdens, and struggles before our priest. He has cleansed us, and represents us in the most holy place. This is not a model, like the temple, but the full glory of heaven. As he reigns in glory, He continues to prod us and purify us sanctifying us to be the people He desires. We know that He sympathizes with our weakness, intercedes on our behalf, and upholds us to the end. Conclusion Christ alone is not a gamble. He is the only basket that truly holds. He offered himself once, without needing a cleansing ritual or an animal substitute. He was raised, he ascended, and he now resides in the glory of heaven. He is not passive not passively, but actively interceding, saving, and sustaining. When we gather for worship, we are not merely going through a human routine. We are being called into the presence of the living God, joining with the heavenly assembly, drawing near to the priest who never quits and never fails. Rest in him. Bring him your burdens. He is able to save you. He saves you completely, personally, and to the uttermost.