Yeah, we're in Acts chapter three today. following Acts chapter two. And you know, I don't know, Sister Etta, if I answered your question last week sufficiently, but should we do it or should we not? Well, it's however the circumstances dictate. And we'll see that through Acts. As far as the church growing, and that's what we're in, is Acts chapter three, the church grows. Situations and circumstances seem to dictate how the local church responds, and so it's not cut and dry. One of the terms I think that is not understood quite as much as the keys to the kingdom in Matthew chapter 16, they've given the keys to the kingdom to unlock that which the local church will be able to do. We become autonomous, and therefore, as the situations and circumstance dictate, that's how we respond as a church. Here's an example that we were looking at for the last two years, that in our new Constitution, it mentioned as far as the qualifications and selection of a deacon, that they should be familiar with certain things concerning what you would do to maintain a building in Alaska, which you wouldn't have to have in some other, you know, in Southern California. You wouldn't have to have some of that knowledge of, you know, putting salt in your softener and changing the filters for your Water on a Kenai Peninsula and etc You wouldn't have to certainly know you wouldn't have to know that there and that certainly wouldn't be a qualification but here we consider in the new Constitution we were putting that in and Somebody who was looking at the Constitution just giving it a once-over and said well, that's not biblical. You're adding to the Bible and No, we're not. What we are doing is what we are doing, and I told Brother Willie this, I said, we should keep that in, because it's particular for our local congregation. We're not saying that it should apply to every congregation, but it is something that's somewhat needed. The deacons who are ministering, and when we get to Acts chapter six, and we see the selection of the deacons, that though they were waiting upon tables, their ministration was to relieve the apostles and the elders of the church for the word of God, doctrine and prayer. So that as they have more time to do that, then because of what the deacons were doing. And so if that meant the deacons that lived in Alaska 2000 years later, can do things that allow for their pastor or teaching elders to be able to pray and study the word of God, then that's very functional and very appropriate. And so that's one of the things, when Lisa left for California for four months, and I don't hardly get on Facebook, as some of you who, if you're on Facebook, you know that I'm not hardly on there. I did post this thing because, you know, the Lord has given me a wife that doesn't teach a Bible study. She doesn't get into the Sunday school class with the young people. She's not involved in a lot of things that are going on in the church where some people might look at the wife of the pastor as doing so, but she ministers to the body of Christ at every local church we've been into because she takes care of me in such a way that I have plenty of time for prayer and study the word. She takes, keeps the house in such a way that I'm hardly ever involved in a lot of things so that I could minister to the congregation. So even though she doesn't do quote unquote, a lot of things that a pastoral wife, and I'm glad she's not here to hear this. She said that she cried when she read my Facebook posts, I think, but she does those things for your benefit. And so for that, And she cleans fish. Oh, there you go. And you know what? I would obliterate, as Larry can tell you, and even Buzz, seeing my filleting skills, they could tell you I'll obliterate a fish. And Lisa, that's why Lisa does it. She says, and that's why she cleans. She says, I like it a certain way. And if I'm going to eat this fish, I want to cut a certain way. And then she takes those scrapings and makes those salmon cakes too. She scrapes those bones to where, you know, that, I guess that's why the Yupik love her. They said, man, you use everything. And so anyway, getting back to where we are, Acts chapter 3, hopefully we'll see some things here today in these few verses that we have, 26 verses. I know I got it here somewhere. So Acts chapter 3 and verse 1, it says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. Remember the sixth hour and the ninth hour coincide with the morning and evening sacrifice, the morning and evening oblation from the King James Version. When they sacrifice the daily, the the morning and evening sacrifice, that also the time of incense, the time of prayer. That's what Zechariah was doing, Zechariah was doing in the days before John the Baptist was born. A lot fell upon him in Luke chapter 1, and being of the house of Aviyah, Abiyah, Abijah, that he was burning incense. So the prayers, that was the time, so it was considered the time of prayer when the incense was burning and the sacrifices were made. Now also, another thing to point out, between chapter two and chapter three, we don't really know exactly how much time has elapsed. At this particular point the next time marker that we'll actually have historically will be the stoning of Stephen Which is still iffy as far as someone put in a distinct date on it which they don't know exactly when, but they know approximately time when the persecution started. Fox's Book of Martyrs presents Stephen as the first martyr in Acts chapter 7. But as far as the time, there may have been months that have gone by between the end of Acts chapter 2 and this particular point right here in Acts chapter 3. One thing I do know is as far as the birth of the church, I'm somewhat, I'm not dogmatic about it as far as you have to believe this, but it's pretty clear historically Jesus's ministry started at 28 AD. And here's the problem with some of the people that date. They want to date Jesus's birth by the census. But there were so many censuses taken, not just in Jerusalem, and they were taken all over by the Roman Empire. And there were at least two of them that we know of, possibly three. And so they try to date it by the census. which is not the way they should date it. In Luke chapter three, it shows when Jesus's ministry started when he was about 30 years of age. If he's exactly 30 years of age to fulfill scripture because the priesthood starts at 30 and ends at 50, Jesus being the fulfillment of all scripture. And Luke tells us in Luke chapter three and verse one, it was the 15th year of Tiberius. Tiberius Caesar, in all history books, there's not one that denies that his seat as Caesar began in 14 AD. So if it's the 15th year, 14 years have elapsed, that would make the time of Luke chapter 3, 28 AD. Jesus' three and a half year ministry would put his crucifixion at 32 AD. which coincides with the archaeology of Sir Robert Anderson from the book The Coming Prince who took everything and aligned it so that 32 AD actually does make sense because he discovered that by a Hebrew calendar and the lunar calendar and the archaeology and the history of when the decree for building the wall and the temple in Nehemiah's day, it would be exactly the 69 weeks of years to the Wednesday, March 6, 32 AD, when Jesus was crucified. That's in the book that was written in the 19th century, The Coming Prince. I didn't get the 32 AD from that. I just looked at my scriptures and I know what history says as far as Tiberias. 14 AD, add 14 years to it because it's the 15th year. That makes it 28 AD, Brother Mike. Exactly right. Or round it up to 2000. So I just give the basic 2000, yeah, 2000 years ago. Because by a lunar calendar, 1988 might actually be 2,000 years on a lunar calendar. Because the Jews add months in order to coincide with our solar calendar. Anyway, that's a long explanation on verse one. Verse two, exposition, excuse me. Verse two, and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them and entered into the temple." Now he's lame from his birth. He may not have been laid there from his birth because that would be child abandonment. But at some point in his life where he could beg for alms, he was there. And we find out from Acts chapter four that he's 40 years old. And so he's been laid there daily, so we can presume that Peter and John, if they had a habit of going in at prayer, that they'd pass by this guy several times. The Lord Jesus himself I somewhat estimated, and on a conservative estimate, in his three and a half year ministry with being seven days for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, first fruits, one day for one day or so, for the Feast of Pentecost, and then eight days, at least, possibly actually going for 15 days if Jesus was there in the Feast of Tabernacles, plus the Feast of the New Year or the New Moon, Yom Teruah, which is the Feast of Trumpets. Then the day of Yom Kippur, which is in the seventh month, the 10th day. And then the Feast of Tabernacles starts the 15th day of the month. He may have been there for almost the entire month. Plus John chapter 10 shows him being there for Hanukkah. So there's an eight day celebration where Jesus, if it was his habit to go to the porch of Solomon to teach, he may have passed by this guy 500 times in and out. and the gate beautiful. Now that's not to say that he didn't go through some other gates, but that's a conservative estimate. Jesus passed by this guy some 500 times if he was there for three and a half years, which more than likely, if he's 40 years old, he probably was. Peter and John probably passed by him, and so did all the other apostles at one point or another. On the day of Pentecost, they passed by this guy a couple times going in and out. So that's just a point in passing. In verse three, who, this lame man, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him, and John said, look on us. And he gave heed, in verse five, unto them, expecting to receive something of them. He was expecting to receive some alms. That's what he was there for. That was his purpose. which is interesting in this idea of felt needs in the church. Oh, we need to form this whole purpose-driven thing in order that it be geared towards felt needs. Well, his felt need was alms. It wasn't even healing. So he wasn't even expecting that. He was expecting some money, because that's how he made his living, on the mercy of others. In verse 6, then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. I should have suggested that one. We could have sang that one. I think I could play it on the guitar. In verse seven, and he took him by the right hand, that's Peter taking him by the right hand, and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. And in verse eight, and he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. Verse nine, and all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. See, there's some of those verses that corroborate what I'm talking about as far as this guy was a familiar person. They recognized him because he was such a monument and a figure at the Gate Beautiful that when he was healed, there was no mistake that it was him that was there that had been begging for alms every day at the temple for at least some time. And that is a marvelous picture of what we see, what God does. He makes, when he is working something, there's no back room that you need to go to to find some secret file. When God does it, he does it so that it is known that it wasn't anyone else that did it. Our flesh will go to that, as we'll see in chapter three. Our flesh will try to draw those conclusions, but God makes it pretty clear that This is a miracle that was done upon this particular man, not somebody else. Verse 11, and as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And you can see that I divided it up as far as for the outline. Peter and John go to pray. I broke up the chapter into two parts. Occurrence at the beautiful gate, and then occasion for the blessed gospel. The lame man wanting alms in verses 1-5, and then the lame man walking and praising God in verses 6-11. The opportunity for a miracle, if you will, and then the the occasion of the miracle in verses six through 11, that he was actually healed. He received something that he wasn't looking for. He was looking for money, and he got a miracle instead. Verse 12, and when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go." Now, we can see the reason why the man was healed in the first place, and being filled with the Spirit as apostles, and going in at the hour of prayer. They didn't even get to the praying, they went straight to preaching after the miracle. And so, Immediately, Peter points to Christ, as we see as a witness again and again in the gospels, that really, that's all we do. John is very good and very clear at that throughout the whole gospel of John, as we've been seeing on Sunday nights, that that's all the disciples were doing, is that they were leading people to Jesus. They were pointing to Jesus, taking people to Jesus. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus. John the Baptist disciples started following Jesus and and and getting other disciples Oh here you got to meet this guy and that's what we do as a witness. We are always pointing to Christ or leading them to Christ. There's no salvation in us Salvation is in God alone And so Peter has this opportunity and he occasions it by the gospel in verse 14, but you denied, now he's getting into the nuts and bolts, the very heart of the gospel, but you denied the holy one and the just or the righteous one and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses, verse 16. And his name through faith, And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong Whom you see and know? Uh, yea the faith which is by him hath given him the perfect this perfect soundness In the presence of you all so it wasn't actually even the man's faith that healed him It was their faith to be obedient unto the holy spirit because this was the holy spirit's work um because Peter already preceded it. See, taking the verses out of context and removing them and isolating them is what sometimes brings up some false conclusions. Well, see, you gotta have faith is what some people will say. You gotta have faith. You gotta just believe. Well, this guy didn't have to believe. He wasn't even looking for that, he was looking for money. And so a lot of these people that emphasize this health, wealth and prosperity doctrine and these miracles, well one, they're wrong when they say it depends upon you. Faith is a gift of God, it's the grace of God. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. Your faith will do you nothing. You need faith from heaven above. the gift of God, the powerful faith, the fruit of the Spirit. It's the ninth fruit, or excuse me, the seventh, what is it? Seventh fruit, sixth or seventh fruit of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter five. Yeah, can you have the faith to believe and can you have the faith to do these kind of things without the Holy Spirit? Well, no, if it's the fruit of the Spirit. That's the kind of faith that you need. So it was in the faith that was in the apostles, but notice what this faith brings out. Not the primary truth of the healing, because he pointed to it. It wasn't by our own power that we did this, he says in verse, what verse is that? Verse 12, that's not by us. It's in verse 13. So he's not bragging on the faith as this health, wealth, and prosperity doctrine people will also point to. Well, you don't have enough faith to believe that that person can be healed. Well, it's not based on that. Again, we've got to go to the scriptures and see what it says. And now the proclamation, the uh the continued proclamation verse 17 and now brethren i want that through ignorance you did you did it as did also you your rulers verse 18 but those things which god before had showed by the mouth of all the prophets that christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled so he says this is just a a fulfillment of scripture from Christ and through Christ and in faith in his name that we're even here so that it was done to bring your attention to this. Verse 19, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things. which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Verse 22, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And verse 23, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from, verse 24, and yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. Now remember, as far as the context of this, the church that was born in Acts chapter two and continues, they're all Jews. There's not a single Gentile in the bunch. These are people, and also being in the temple, more than likely, There is a good, you know, it's pretty obvious and obvious, probably obvious to Peter, but still it's the Holy Spirit that brings this forth. He's talking to a group of people that know the law of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 18, where he brings up that a prophet was to be raised among you, Deuteronomy 18, that Moses said would come that would be like unto him. And so he's basically just quoting Deuteronomy 18. that a prophet would be raised up like unto him, him you shall hear, and whoever doesn't hear, it will be required of you, as if to not hear him is to not do the law. Brother Mike. He was the law giver, the law keeper, the law fulfiller, and yeah. like Moses, because he was the one who gave the law to Moses. And when he comes, he is the law giver, like as in the Moses. And also that the miracles, what he's pointing out as far as for the miracles is the thing that we're seeing in John chapter six on Sunday night, is that where Jesus points to the miracles and he says, I'm the bread of life. You said that Moses, Moses didn't give you the manna that came from heaven, God did. And so when I break this bread for you, I'm God. I am the bread of life. And the same thing here, Peter's mentioning that prophet is God because he's, God did the miracles. Moses was only the leader in order for the miracles to come forth, the law, but he, and they say, well, Moses gave us the law. Many of the Jews say, well, Moses gave us the law. And I've corrected some Jews that I know. I said, no, Moses didn't give you the law. God gave you the law, Moses only received the law. And so in that sense, Jesus fulfills both of them because as the perfect man, as the law giver becomes the law keeper, he is also the law receiver as he submits, willingly submits himself and humbles himself to keep the law by his reception of the law. And so, yeah, that's a, it's many layered, and it's one of those things that we're, when you have a conversation with somebody who is of a Jewish background, wherever you have two Jews, you have three opinions. Yes, but, or yeah, but, they put those yabbits in there. Yeah, but. So you gotta watch it, because they know the word. In verse 25, you are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Now watch this in verse 26. Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in the turning away every one of you from his iniquities. That's interesting, isn't it? Unto you first. Peter says to these Jews, he's like, like prefacing what Paul would say in Romans chapter one, isn't he? It's unto you first that there's a, as Jesus said in John chapter 10, that, that there are sheep that are not of this fold. And I think I even actually posed the question in this here. Preaching, question number three, preaching to the Jews at Solomon's Porch. So they're in Solomon's portico in verse 11, we understand. Peter said the blessing of God's risen servant, Jesus, was unto you first in verse 26. What did they mean by that? That there would be Gentiles saved. And in verse 26, it says, unto you first is Jesus the servant of God. I believe that he is saying the same thing that Paul is saying in Romans chapter one. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It goes to salvation is of the Jews and having been fulfilled, But salvation from before Abraham was called was God's plan to bring salvation to the world. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. So basically we have, there's that thing there as well. Notice that the In Acts chapter three, I have this consider the verse as far as the pattern. Going back to the patterns that we saw in Acts chapter one and verse two, or Acts chapter one and Acts chapter two, in part two on your handout, it says patterns for consideration. From our previous lesson, we saw that the proclamation of the gospel must be preceded by the power of the Holy Spirit, and heavenly power comes by obedience to Christ, as we see in Acts chapter 1 verse 4, they said, wait in Jerusalem. So they waited and they were obedient. Prayer, Acts chapter 1 verse 14, as they gathered, they were continually giving themselves over to prayer for those 10 days between Christ's ascension and the giving of the Holy Spirit in the temple. And then, and the word of God, Acts chapter one, verse 20, as far as the word of God, they understood what the word of God said. Judas had expired, had killed himself. He had, and his office needed to be fulfilled according to scripture. So they cast lots as old Testament saints. And so these things were working together. And now Acts chapter three, does this follow the same pattern? And so I said, well, if yes, how so? And if not, why not? But we'll just, I'll just kind of present this. They went to the temple to pray at three o'clock in the afternoon, the ninth hour of the day, but they never made it to prayer, at least at that particular point. It doesn't finish off, but when we get to Acts chapter four, we find out that they don't because they're called into the Sanhedrin. They never make it to the business of prayer, but does this mean that they weren't praying? They had been praying because prayer that verse in first Thessalonians chapter five is just pray without ceasing It means that it's a lifestyle of prayer. We're in constant communion with God as believers and so therefore the the actual act of prayer is not as Say Sometimes we give the act of prayer rather than the continued communion with God in prayer. You know, just walking along. You don't have to raise your hand, but who here hasn't been driving along and been praying? Or even got close to hitting the moose and then praising, praying with praise to God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for, I didn't hit a moose. I can say I've prayed that prayer several times. But this but you know actually getting on your knees or the time of prayer we give such credence to that and we should it's important But we they they had prayer Away from the temple. They had prayer At home, they had prayer in the upper room, they had prayer as they were going, they were communing with God. So the act of prayer, they never made it to. But they were not any less prayerful, is what I'm getting at. And the proclamation of the gospel happened. Why? Because they'd been praying before. They were in the temple before this. I suggest that there were probably at least some, maybe some days, weeks, months, months that it were going on between Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 3. And so consider this verse when you're pondering the pattern. Remember that in Genesis chapter 24, And he said, this is Eleazar of Damascus now, who is supposed to fetch a bride for Isaac, his master, Abraham's son. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth, I being in the way. The Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." Now, I being is, or being in the way, is italicized being, actually being. The way isn't I the way, is actually what's in Hebrew, but the context of putting being in there is appropriate. I being in the way, in other words, as he was going, that which was fulfilling the prayer, or that which was the answer to the prayer, was taking place. In fact, Sister Vicki mentioned that this Wednesday when she was talking about... I think she was alluding to this verse, she didn't mention the scripture reference, I being in the way. That as you're going, because you do pray, because you are saved, that God's purposes and plans are being fulfilled in your life. And so for you to be that witness of Christ, maybe not in such a dramatic way as Peter and John here in Acts chapter three, but it's going on. It is happening. You being in the way. So anyway, we have the fellowship meal coming up, but any questions or comments on Acts chapter three? Oh, if you all didn't get that, Brother Mike asked, don't you think that Abraham was back home praying for Eliezer of Damascus too? Sure, sure, absolutely. Which is, when Peter and John went to pray, were there any other disciples with them? It doesn't mention, it just mentions these two. Maybe some others were out doing some other things. They're ministering to those others in their homes. Or maybe there was people in Solomon's porch. There were certainly people, hey, Peter and John are going to pray, let's pray for them. And that's one of the great marks that we see in the book of Acts of this first century church. They were a prayerful bunch of people. Sister Etta. Your first comment on the lame man being there since birth, or being lame since birth and being there, he was about 40 years old, and that Jesus had passed by him multiple times. I was trying to think back on The first thing came to my mind was where you know, Jesus healed all the sick and the lame, but that was in Galilee Mostly he didn't do many healings in Jerusalem. It seemed like he just did specific one type of healing He did do quite a bit. In fact, if you refer back to John chapter 3, remember that Nicodemus himself says, no one can do the miracles you do. And it also mentions, I think in John, is it the end? Yeah, excuse me, John chapter three, but also in John chapter two, after the wedding feast of Canaan, he goes to Jerusalem. He did some miracles there at the beginning because it was referenced later on in John while he is in Galilee. and also in the other Gospels of the miracles that he did in Jerusalem. So when he went back up and he was in Capernaum and all the places around the Galilee, they came because of the miracles that they saw of him in Jerusalem. So his ministry throughout entailed miracles. John chapter 11 will, even though it's not in Jerusalem, is very close to the miracles in Bethany, like Lazarus rising from the dead. It's very close. It's, you know, within a couple miles. In the, I guess where I was looking, it talked about how in Galilee he was healing everyone that came to him. And from there, his fame had spread also. I mean, people from Oh yeah, but it was going like from everywhere. Each time that he did a miracle, it started with the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, and each time he did a miracle, it was just going everywhere. Brother Buzz. You've done all these things, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it has to be going on during that. Right. And there are some things too that we got to take as we take the scripture as a whole, we recognize that there are certain instances like when it says that when he was in Nazareth, not many people, he did not heal many people because they just didn't come to him because they said, well, we grew up with him. His brothers and his brothers and his sisters are with us. He's the carpenter's son. We know who he is. He reads in this. He read in the synagogue all the time. And so a lot of people didn't come to him. That over-familiarity with him caused the rejection among many. All right, and um, well, we'll close in prayer because we got the I got to get lisa and pick her up actually, but um our gracious and loving heavenly father We thank you lord for the uh, blessed truth of what you've done and who you are Uh in your beloved son. We heavenly father. We pray that um You'll bless this. Uh, uh this study as we look at church history and Remember that we'd be reminded that we're looking at the history of the church But also, as we're looking at Scripture, Lord, that you'll open it up to us and that we'll have a blessed time in seeing your truth expounded unto our hearts by the Spirit. We love you and thank you and pray for our services upcoming. In Jesus' name and for his sake, we do pray. Amen.