Will you turn with me in your Bibles, in the book of Acts, chapter three, verses 11 through 16. As we continue our study together of the book of Acts. I'll be reading the word of God. Estoy leyendo la palabra de Dios. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly stunned ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel, Why do you wonder of this or why do you stare at us as though by our own power and piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorify his servant Jesus whom you deliver over and deny in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. but you deny the holy and righteous one and ask for a murderer to be granted to you. And you kill the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To these we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man the perfect health in the presence of you all. ¿Por qué nos miran a nosotros como si con nuestro poder o piedad hubiéramos hecho andar a este hombre? El Dios de Abraham, de Isaac y de Jacob, el Dios de nuestros padres, ha glorificado a su siervo Jesús, al cual ustedes entregaron y negaron ante Pilato, a pesar de que él había resuelto soltarlo. But you denied the holy and just, asked him to give you a murderer, and killed the author of life, whom God has risen from the dead. Of this we are witnesses. And the name of Jesus made strong, by faith in his name, this man whom you see and know. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that as we come together and read your word, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to understand it and believe it. And as we consider these verses, we're so thankful to read about the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We see ourselves as sinners represented there in this passage. We know that our Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross because of our sin. But we know that our Lord Jesus Christ is victorious and He is our King. And that through faith in Him we have eternal life. We pray that as we consider these verses, that you will fill our hearts with great joy. That you will give us understanding of what you have done, what we have done, and your grace. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So where are we in our study of the book of Acts? We know that the disciples We know that the disciples were doing the will of God, proclaiming the gospel. We know that the church was just starting. We call the early church. And we know that Christians, new believers, many who have trusted in Jesus and were baptized, they had all things in common. They were devoted to the apostles' teaching. They were devoted together to take the Lord's Supper. And they were devoted to proclaim the gospel to those who haven't heard the gospel. So it was a very strong community of believers. You have to just to think about the fact that many of them, not all of them, but many of them, have sold their possessions and they have brought their proceeds to make sure that nobody had need in the community of believers. But they have understood, especially the apostles have understood, that they needed to get the gospel out. That they didn't need to just to stay together and enjoy the fellowship of believers. But others needed to hear the good news of salvation. This is what the church is today. It's a community of believers that is devoted to the teaching of God's Word, that is devoted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and also baptisms when new believers come to the church, and is devoted to proclaiming the Gospel to those who have not heard the Gospel. And as the apostles understood that they needed to continue proclaiming the gospel, we read last week that Peter and John went to the temple at the hour of prayer. Why did they go to the temple? They went to the temple to proclaim the gospel. Those who were at the temple, they believed in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of their fathers. And they were expecting the coming of the Messiah, but they did not know That the Messiah had already come. That even they had crucified the Messiah. And that that was part of God's plan. Because that was the way that the Messiah would save his people. So Peter and John go to the temple to preach the gospel. And when they are at the temple they found this man. A man lame from birth, more than 40 years, he has lived under these circumstances. And as they both, Peter and John, encounter the man, there is this conversation between them. When the man is expecting to receive money for his support, But Peter and John had something better to give to them, to him. You might think that that thing was just that he would be able to walk. But he received something much better than being able to walk. And I want us to look at this together. What this man received besides being able to walk. Because think for a moment. Being able to walk after 40 years on this condition, it was an amazing thing. This is why people were filled with wonder and amazement. They were utterly stunned. But this man received something much better. This man received something that you and I have received if you have believed in Jesus. And it is not so obvious in the text when we read it. We just see a miracle there. And we might be tempted to think this man was only able to walk. And that's good enough. But again, this man got something much better. And that's what I want us to look at on these verses today. So Peter, in this moment, is preaching his second sermon in the book of Acts. He preaches his first sermon after Pentecost to explain to the people Why Pentecost happened? The fact that people were speaking in other tongues. And people were wondering, what does that mean? Therefore here Peter is doing something a little bit similar. He is explaining what does it mean that this man is able to walk. There are four parties Yes, four Paris characters in the text. And I want us to consider four of them. These are the apostles, the crowd that witnessed the miracle, including the man who was there and received the miracle, and including us. and the man who received the miracle. This group is one party. The third party is God himself, God the Father, and then our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us start with the apostles. So, our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. The only instruction was, stay in Jerusalem. They didn't need to do something special or in particular to receive the Holy Spirit. The only thing that they needed to do was to wait. They didn't even know when would that happen. So it means that they have no control. It was God doing His work. But they were obedient. They stayed there and waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit came upon them and empower them to witness about Jesus. Their mission, their ministry, was not to witness about themselves. It was not to make disciples for themselves. It was to make disciples for our Lord Jesus Christ. And they needed the power of the Holy Spirit. only to proclaim the gospel. And the signs that they were doing, they were doing them through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the purpose of those signs were to point people to the author and giver of life, our Lord Jesus Christ. So, as we have considered before, the book of Acts is the book of Acts of our Lord Jesus Christ. is the continuation of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when they go to the temple and they interact with this man, they wanted to make sure that this man knew And those around this man, that they had nothing to offer. That there was no power that belonged to them. They told the man, I have no silver or gold. And that's the only thing that this man wanted for them. That's the only thing that this man thought that they had more than he had. Therefore, with those words, they were telling to the man, we have nothing to offer it to you. But when they said, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, raise up and walk, they were saying, look at Jesus. If you remember last week when I talk about this part, I was saying that their words were almost as if they were saying, would you believe in Jesus? Because we learned that through verse 16, That it is his faith in Jesus what made him well. It was not that they have some magic words that make this man choose to be healed. immediately. But verse 16 says, in his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong. And this is the faith that is through Jesus. So again, what are the apostles doing, Peter and John? Pointing to Jesus Christ saying, don't look at us. Now, it is interesting that they actually said to the man, look at us. But they say, look at us to say, we have nothing to offer to you. Now, they will say something that is opposite in these verses that we read today, but it means actually the same. So, the man who was healed was there with Peter and John. And it says that all the people were utterly stunned. Yeah, they were filled with amazement and wonder. And if we read before, if you read before, they were praising God for what happened. Yet they were looking at Peter and John. They were looking at the instrument of God. And it was important for Peter and John to point people to Christ. So they asked this question or these two questions to the crowd. The first one is, why do you wonder at this? If I would have had the chance to interrupt Peter in the middle of his question, before he says, why do you stare at us? I would have said, Peter, don't you see? This is amazing. Don't you think that we should wonder? Anybody should wonder of seeing a man who haven't been able to walk for 40 years and now is completely healed. But I think in a sense when Peter is asking this question to the crowd, he might have been saying, don't you remember all the things that Jesus did? He raised Lazarus. He multiplied the bread and fishes. He healed so many people with great illnesses. And you were witnesses of all what He did. Because these people at the temple were the people that were around Jesus when He did His ministry in front of them. So in other words, Peter is saying, are you really surprised that Jesus did this? The second question is, why do you stare at us? To the lame man, he said, look at us. And to the crowd he said, why do you stare at us? And it's for the same reason. Look at us, we have nothing to offer. Why do you stare at us? We didn't do this. As though by our own power and piety we have made this man walk. So what was the role of the apostles? The role of the apostles was to point to Jesus. They were just witnesses. They were just messengers. They were just empowered by the Holy Spirit to lead people to Christ. Second, the role of the crown the lame man and I will say all of us. Peter speak pretty directly to those who were there. He didn't try to be politically correct or he didn't try to sugar coat what he was saying to them. And think about this, it's just Peter and John there. And you have all the multitude there, all the people at the temple. So, in a sense, he should be concerned what they could do against him. Especially what they have done against our Lord Jesus Christ. So, he said to them that they did three things. They deliver up over. You deliver over. It's by the end of verse 13. They deliver our Lord Jesus Christ to Gentiles in order to crucify him. They deny the holy and righteous one. The holy and righteous one means the only one who is perfect, set apart, holy above all. And the holy and righteous one means that the only one who have never sinned. The only one who is innocent. The only man who has been innocent in the history of the whole world. And I think that Peter does a contrast there in order to make them realize how bad was what they did. They deny the holy and righteous one, while at the same time they asked to set free a murderer, Barabbas. And then at the end, at the beginning of verse 15, he said, you killed the author of life. John 1.3 says, all things were made through him. And without him was anything made that was made. Jesus is the creator of everything that exists. And Jesus is the author of life. And he was saying to them, or Peter was saying to the crowd, you kill the one who created life. And I think, again, that's a contrast. First you deny the righteous one in order to take a murderer. And then they kill the one who gave them life. they could not have imagined that Jesus was the one who created the world. And they killed the one who created them. I think that it's important or what was important for Peter to declare to them, besides this being a fact, That they have done this to Jesus Christ. That these people that were the people of Jerusalem have done this to Christ. That this show how terrible was their sin. But that includes also the layman. And I would say that includes all of us. Because even though we were not present then to say crucify him, even though we were not the ones who delivered Jesus into the hands of the Romans, The reason why Jesus went to the cross is because of our sin. He died taking our place. So what was their role or what was their part? What is our part? What do we bring to the table? We bring life full of sins, and we need to be safe from ourselves. Third, what did God do, or what was God's role? God the Father. So where is Peter and John? They are at the temple. Who were the people going to the temple? People who knew about God. People who were looking for God. People who were looking forward to see the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. They just didn't know that the Messiah was our Lord Jesus Christ. And because they are at the temple, Peter speaks to them and says, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. The God of our religion. The God that you came to worship today. He's speaking to them, to those who were at the temple. Those who went to pray at the hour of prayer. The God that you came to pray, he has glorified his servant Jesus. And this speaks about two things. First, of Jesus' humiliation, because Jesus is God's servant, the Father's servant, because he emptied himself to take the role of a servant. And his service to God was to come to the world to die for us on the cross. But we know that God the Father but we know that God the Father vindicated Jesus. He glorified Jesus. Verse 15 says, you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead. In Jesus resurrection, we see God the Father glorifying Jesus. And we see that also in his ascension. God raised him from the dead, but he also raised him up and brought him to the right hand of God the Father himself. Now when we see also God as being the one who sent the servant, we see God the Father playing a role in our salvation as well. He is the one who sent the son. And the son submits to the father in order to come to the world. Fourth, what did Jesus do or his role in the plan of salvation? First of all, when you read here, it doesn't seem that you see Peter speaking about Jesus doing something in particular. But you can see that indirectly in the text. Again, we see a first as we talk about Jesus being the servant of God. You can think right away in Philippians chapter 2. When Jesus emptied himself to take the form of a servant. The form of a servant is the form of a human being. Because all human beings are servants of God whether you like it or not. Then Jesus is taking the form of a servant. But when he goes through being denied, when he goes, Jesus goes through being exchanged instead of being delivered, Jesus delivered Jesus, but deliver a murderer, Barabbas. And when he is killed, What this really means is that he gave his life. Remember when Jesus is at the cross? He says, in thy hands I commit my spirit. He was always in charge of his life. He gave his life. Now, when we go down to verse 16, and he says that by faith in his name has this man made strong, we know that when this man had faith in Jesus, he received more than just being healed. Because faith in Jesus implies that you are believing what Jesus did on the cross. To say that you believe that Jesus is God, and you say that Jesus helps you in your problems and circumstances, and that Jesus is a good man, but not to believe that Jesus died on the cross, it is an incomplete gospel. But in the case of this man, when this man is putting his faith in Jesus, he's putting his faith in the crucified Lord Jesus Christ. who was raised on the third day. Now this is the greatest miracle that this man received. Because this didn't come from him. It says in our text, the faith that is through Jesus. And I love when Juan read the Spanish version. Can you read that in Spanish? Okay, so what this meant there, la fe que es despertada por Jesus, is what he just translated. What we have here translated as the faith that is through Jesus, our Spanish version says, the faith that is awakened by Jesus. Who gave this man the faith to believe? Remember when Peter and John says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, raise up and walk. There was something internal that happens in this man's heart. Faith was awakened in this man. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you need to be born again in order to see or to enter into the kingdom of God. And that's what happened in this man's heart. This man believed in Jesus. Believed in what Jesus did. If we summarize what we just looked at together, what did the apostles do? They just witnessed about Jesus. They had no gold or silver. They had no power on their own. The power, the glory belongs to Christ. What did the crowd do? They crucified the author of life. And even when they did that, they were doing that according to God's plan of salvation. Because when they deny the Holy Righteous One, And they killed the author of life. They were functioning as an instrument of God to bring salvation to the world. What did God do? He sent His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our salvation. And what did Jesus do? He gave His life on the cross. so that through faith in Him, we could be saved. When we partake together of the Lord's Supper, that's what we remember, that Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross, so that through faith in Him, we could be saved. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness and grace. We are filled with wonder and amazement. We are utterly stunned of your grace that you look at us, sinners, deserving eternal condemnation, and gave us new life through Christ. We thank you that you awaken faith in our hearts. And we do pray together for those who are in this place at this moment. For anyone who might hear this sermon, whether it's online. that you might send the Holy Spirit into their hearts, that they might believe in you and be saved. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We are going to partake together of the Lord's Supper. Every time we partake of the Lord's Supper, we do this in remembrance of Jesus. We remember the gospel. We remember that we are saved today, that we have eternal life, because on the cross, Jesus Christ gave his life for us. We remember that we were the ones who deserved to be on the cross. But we remember that Jesus took our place there on the cross. Also, we announce the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we heard this morning on our morning sermons, this is a season of the year. that we look forward to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we look back on the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we look forward to Jesus Christ returning in glory. And every time you partake of the Lord's Supper, you are also spiritually nourished by these elements. It is important that you know that you have to take the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. And in a worthy manner means that you discern the body of Christ. That you have real faith in Jesus. And that you have been baptized. which is an external sign of our internal faith. So if you are not yet a Christian, we encourage you not to take these elements as they pass by you. But we encourage you to use this time to meditate in this offering of salvation that can be yours if you believe in Jesus. Let me pray as we prepare our hearts to take together the Lord's Supper. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you sent our Lord Jesus Christ because you love us. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you came and died on the cross for our salvation. Father, we thank you that you raised your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, from the dead. giving us hope of glory. Father and Son, we thank you that you send the Holy Spirit into our hearts. We thank you that we can come together to partake of the Lord's supper. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.