Redeemer Community Church

Joel Brooks: 00:00

If y'all would open your bibles to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3, or you could look in your bulletin. It's printed there for you. Last week in Acts 3, we looked at the miracle that god had worked through Peter and John when he healed the lame man that was sitting at the gate called Beautiful by the Temple. And tonight, we're gonna look at the sermon that Peter preached immediately following that.

Joel Brooks: 00:30

So acts 3 beginning in verse 11. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded, 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 at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety, we have made him walk?

Joel Brooks: 00:58

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 had decided to release him. But 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. To this, we are all witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, has made this this man strong whom you see and know.

Joel Brooks: 01:36

And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health and the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that this Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn again 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.

Joel Brooks: 02:21

Moses said, the lord god will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him and whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days, you were the sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Pray with me.

Joel Brooks: 03:14

God, the words we have just read are so rich. We cannot possibly mind the depths that are here. So Lord, I ask that you would empower me just to present this as clearly as possible for me to get out of the way so that you might move and that you might work here in our midst. We want to hear from you God. And we believe when we are reading of your word that we are hearing from you.

Joel Brooks: 03:47

So Lord, let now in this moment, my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. The Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This past Friday Saturday, the staff elders or wives, We took a mini retreat just to get away and pray for one another, pray for the church, seek the Lord's heart, vision for this church here.

Joel Brooks: 04:22

I know that a lot of you were praying for us during that time and and thank you. It was it was a really good time, even though one of our elders got a concussion and probably doesn't remember any of it. So we, we just kind of slid through a lot of items that we really wanted to get past that we knew he would not remember. One of the things when discussing the vision of our church and what should the vision of our church be? Obvious things were brought up.

Joel Brooks: 04:49

We, we need to be a close community that cares from one another. We need to be a welcoming community. We need to be a church that is outward focused. We need to be a Bible believing and Bible preaching church. And and all these things were brought to the table as to what our vision for the church should be.

Joel Brooks: 05:10

And then after we discussed these for a while, God was very good to remind us that those are important, but above all else, be a Christ exalting church. See the supremacy of Christ in everything. Yes, you, you, you are to be a community. Yes, you're to be a community that loves one another. Yes, you're to be a welcoming community.

Joel Brooks: 05:42

Yes, we're to be outward focused. Yes, we are to be Bible teaching. But the reason we do all of these things is because we want to see Christ exalted. We want to declare the supremacy of Christ in all things. That's our vision.

Joel Brooks: 05:54

That's our heartbeat. And so we want Christ to be exalted in our homes and not just here on Sunday evenings. We want Christ to be exalted in our workplaces. When we get up in the morning, when we have breakfast, when we drink our coffee, we want Christ to be exalted, Christ to be glorified in those times. That there is no part of our life that we detach from the centrality and the supremacy of Christ.

Joel Brooks: 06:22

That's what we want our church to be about. Our kids start school this week. I know a number of you are teachers and you're, you know, you're frantically getting ready. We're trying to prep our children as well. Natalie is my 5 year old, and she'll be learning to read this year, and she already knows a number of words.

Joel Brooks: 06:45

And I know it's inevitable that she's going to ask me at some point, daddy, why why do I need to learn how to spell the way that miss Stephanie tells me I need to spell? I mean, people know what I'm talking about. If I spell school with a k instead of a c h, People understand that. So what is so important about learning how to spell the right way? I know she's going to ask this because Caroline asked this, who's her older sister.

Joel Brooks: 07:15

And when she asked me this, I have a number of different roads I can go. I can tell her, Natalie, you've got to do this. You've got to learn how to spell school. Right? Because if you can't spell school, right, you're not gonna get good grades.

Joel Brooks: 07:32

If you don't get good grades, you're not gonna get a good college. You don't get any good college, you're not gonna get a good job. You're not gonna be able to provide for yourself. So just buckle up and and learn it. And I would be right that that's all true, but it is not Christ exalting.

Joel Brooks: 07:52

Christ is nowhere in that. He's not central to that. A a a better answer would be, hey, Natalie, you know what? The God we worship and serve is a great communicator. And communication is something we have to learn because we want to be like him.

Joel Brooks: 08:14

And we need to work on our spelling because not only do we want to be like him, we want to be able to communicate him to others. So that's why we do this. Now, that's Christ exalting, that's Christ as central to something as simple as, why do we have to learn spelling? And that's what I want for us as a church. In every little thing, which is huge in God's eyes, but the things that are little in our eyes that we see Christ as central and Christ as supreme.

Joel Brooks: 08:50

And that's worship. And one of the things that I love about the passage we're looking at tonight is Christ is central and supreme all throughout Peter's message, All throughout it. He he begins his sermon by telling everyone, don't look at me. Look at Jesus. So he begins it.

Joel Brooks: 09:13

Look at look at verse 12. It says, and when Peter saw it, he addressed the people and he said, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? It just kind of seems like a dumb question. How many of you have just saw somebody healed, a lame person jumping up who's been lame for 40 years, how many of you would stare? Come on.

Joel Brooks: 09:34

Alright. You you would all stare, so that means he's speaking to us right now. Okay? Why are you staring at this? Said as though by our own power or piety, we have made him walk.

Joel Brooks: 09:56

Peter tells the people staring at him and says, hey, don't make the mistake of thinking that that this man was healed because of some some power that I have. I've got nothing. I cannot help this person. The power does not come from within us to heal anybody. And also, don't make the mistake of thing that thinking it was God who healed a person, but the reason he did so was because I am such a righteous one.

Joel Brooks: 10:23

That God listened to me because I've been walking the straight and the narrow. I've been doing all the right things. I, you know, I had my quiet time this morning. And so and so God, you know, he he did what I said. So that's not how that's not how it works.

Joel Brooks: 10:40

That's not how god operates. My piety had nothing to do with the reason that this person was healed. And what he's saying is, we don't relate to God how other religions try to relate to God. In which you think, well, we just live a really good life. We try really hard.

Joel Brooks: 10:59

We try to obey the rules and then we expect God to bless us, God to use us to change the world. That's how it works. And Peter is saying, no. That's not at all how it works here. That's worthless religion.

Joel Brooks: 11:11

So the the Bible teaches us this, God saves us. God saves us. God's someone who heals despite us. That this person is walking not because of any merits of my own. I'm not saved from any merit of my own.

Joel Brooks: 11:30

It's all about Jesus and his grace. I guess if you, really needed to summarize this, you would say that Jesus saves. Jesus saves. You should probably coin that. Maybe bumper sticker t shirts or rainbow hair and, and proclaim that.

Joel Brooks: 11:55

But that's what it teaches here. And in verse 16, Peter really, he unpacks this, verse 16, is just, it's loaded. It's a very dense verse. It actually reads a lot like one of Paul's letters, which, you know, it seems like a letter that you can read over and over, not just preach because it's, it's so dense here, but let me read this. Says, and his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know.

Joel Brooks: 12:35

Of you all. So he says faith in the name of Jesus has healed this man. And by, by name, he's saying, by the person and the power and the authority of Jesus. So he's saying by faith in the person and in the power and the authority of Jesus, this man has been healed. But then he, after he says that he unpacks it even more.

Joel Brooks: 13:00

And he says that the faith that is through Jesus has given this man his perfect health. The faith that is through Jesus. He does not say here the faith that is in Jesus has given this man perfect help. He says the faith that is through Jesus. There's a big distinction here.

Joel Brooks: 13:27

The faith that Peter had to do this, to heal this person came from outside of him. Jesus gave him the faith he needed to heal this person. So what Peter is saying is I I wasn't walking up to the temple and I see this person thinking, I just gotta believe. I just gotta kind of muster up belief here. Come on.

Joel Brooks: 13:51

Come on, Peter. You could do it. Come on. You can muster up enough faith. You know, we can move mountains.

Joel Brooks: 13:55

I remember god saying that. Let me have enough faith. You know, there is no spoon. You know, you're just you're trying to convince yourself that you could do these great things. He said, No.

Joel Brooks: 14:06

He was walking, he was going into the temple, and then God put faith in Peter. Said, here is faith through me. Peter said, I'm gonna heal this person. So so Peter is saying, even the faith that we have is a gift from Jesus. Once again, if you wanna take anything away from this story, take away this, Jesus saves.

Joel Brooks: 14:34

Jesus saves. And then in verse 19, Peter tells him that if they turn to Jesus, they will be saved as well. Their sins will be removed. And, and there's no one more aware of this than Peter. When he says your sins will be removed.

Joel Brooks: 14:59

No one. I'm I'm not sure if you caught this when we were reading through it. This is one of those texts you have to read slow, But but when Peter begins, it's not really a sermon as so much as an assault on people. You preach this in public, you get arrested. When you start accusing people of all the horrible things they've done.

Joel Brooks: 15:22

And when he begins his assault, something just just pops out when you read it. Let's look at verse 13 and 14 again. It says, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and 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 had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life. Do do you understand what Peter is accusing these people of?

Joel Brooks: 16:07

You denied Jesus. How dare you deny Jesus? Peter's saying that. You say, when when Jesus was on trial, you should've stood up and said, this is unjust. He should be set free.

Joel Brooks: 16:23

When Jesus is on trial, you should have stood up for him and said, no, I can testify on behalf of this man. He didn't do those things. Peter's accusing them of denying Jesus. Peter, who denied Jesus to a little girl. Irony really isn't isn't the word there.

Joel Brooks: 16:45

I'm not sure what it is. But Peter Peter's words were not hollow though. They were not. Peter could do this. He could accuse the people of what they've done, and then he could also also offer forgiveness Because that same thing had happened to him.

Joel Brooks: 17:07

He was a denier and Christ saved him, forgave him, and restored him. And that's what he is presenting to these people. He's saying, I know from experience your sins can be wiped away. Absolutely wiped completely clean because it was done with me. Having so rich is the grace of God.

Joel Brooks: 17:37

But up to this point, Peter has been declaring these things. He's saying it's not about us. It's not about me. It's all about Jesus. Everything's about Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 17:49

The faith is about Jesus. There's a person's will because of Jesus. It's all about Jesus. And now he's going to unpack and say, actually, all of the scriptures are about Jesus as well. Peter is aware that there's gonna be a number of people who are probably feeling pretty bad out there listening to the sermon and thinking, gosh, you're you're right.

Joel Brooks: 18:11

But but I didn't know any better, Peter. I mean, I I really, I didn't know he was god's son. If I knew he was god's son, I mean, certainly, I wouldn't have denied him. And so they're going to plead ignorance. And Peter says this in verse 17, And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as it also your rulers, But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that this Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Joel Brooks: 18:46

So Peter responds here saying your ignorance won't fly. Your ignorance is not an excuse. You should have recognized Jesus because all of the Bible proclaims him. So you have no excuse. All the prophets testify about Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 19:12

He says this later in in 24, it says, and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel for those who came after him also proclaimed these days. So so scripture's clear and we should have recognized it. And notice in verse 18 who Peter says is doing the speaking. He says, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that is Christ would suffer. He says that when when we read the Old Testament scriptures and we we read this, we're not reading what the prophets say about god.

Joel Brooks: 19:56

We are reading what god says about god, speaking through the prophets. These aren't just people telling us facts about God. God is speaking through the mouth of the prophets. And so when we read through our old testament, we're hearing God tell us about himself. He's speaking.

Joel Brooks: 20:18

And, and, you know, I don't, I don't think you should picture, you know, Samuel there, like, okay, some right, the the Lord, Lord. You know, he's, he's not, it's not that. Their personalities are still there as they're writing these words, but God is giving them the words to say. And so when we come to people like Moses, when we read the Bible, we recognize these not just as Moses's words, but as God's word to us. And what Peter says here is it's astounding.

Joel Brooks: 20:51

He, he says that every word spoken by God through these prophets is about his son, Jesus. All the prophets have spoken concerning Jesus and his death. All of them. Basically, you think of this Jesus is called the word of God. And so as God speaks through his word, he's declaring the word of God, Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 21:22

And I realize I just threw a lot at you. I just kinda like threw a chunk of meat out there, and you're probably gonna have to sit, digest that for a little while. So, I'm gonna spend the rest of the time unpacking that, that God is always proclaiming Jesus to us in the Bible. You were right. You know, I don't know how many of you grew up in Sunday school.

Joel Brooks: 21:49

I don't know if you've heard the joke, you know, what's what's, you know, fuzzy and small climbs trees? Jesus. Because Jesus is the answer to every question in Sunday school. And in some degree, you're you're right because really, he is at the heart of every story. And so I want us to look at the old Testament.

Joel Brooks: 22:11

I want us to look at, we'll pick Moses because that's who Peter pulls out in verse 22. In verse 22, he says, Moses said, the Lord, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him and whatever he tells you. And so Peter says, when we look at Moses, Moses points us to Jesus because Jesus is going to look like Moses. He's he's that prophet like Moses who comes later.

Joel Brooks: 22:40

So if you want to turn in your Bibles to do Exodus 14, we're gonna look at probably the the most famous passage in all of scripture. And look at the parting of the Red Sea. Let me set the stage. God has just freed the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, after doing the 10 plagues. And so he sets them free.

Joel Brooks: 23:12

They're they're leaving Egypt. He takes them right to the Red Sea, up to the bank. And when pharaoh hears, alright, all the all the Israelites are trapped. They're at the bank. They can't go any place else.

Joel Brooks: 23:25

Pharaoh sends his entire army to pursue them, to crush them. And, we can all picture the scene. I can't, I don't know if you've, you've watched the 10 Commandments. I, it's hard for me to get Charlton Heston out of my mind, wearing the bathrobe that the wind blowing his hair. It's it's a fantastic scene.

Joel Brooks: 23:48

That that's what's about to to take place here. I've I've heard this story preached a number of ways. I mean, I've heard it preached about God's power. God's deliverance, the civil rights movement picked up this theme and preach about how God is, is against slavery, but he wants freedom. And, and I believe you can preach those things from the story.

Joel Brooks: 24:19

I think you can. It's in there. But if that's all you preach, you've missed the central part, which is a declaration of Jesus. So you can certainly preach about God's power, his deliverance. You can preach about, you know, against slavery and wanting for you could preach that here.

Joel Brooks: 24:36

But ultimately, if you if you don't see this text through the lens of Jesus and understand that this is actually preaching to us Jesus, you miss the primary point. So let's look at Exodus 14. We'll begin reading in verse 10. It says, when pharaoh drew near the people of Israel lifted up their eyes. Behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly.

Joel Brooks: 25:04

And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you what have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians.

Joel Brooks: 25:27

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you only have to be silent. Then the lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me?

Joel Brooks: 26:02

Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

Jeffrey Heine: 26:16

Okay.

Joel Brooks: 26:19

So pharaoh has these people pinned in, and they go delirious with fear. It's kinda funny. You know, in verse 12, they're like, didn't we tell you to leave us alone that we could be slaves? Go look in Exodus. They never said that.

Joel Brooks: 26:40

Never. Did it cross your mind? They're pleading the whole time, get us out of here, get us out of here, get us out of here. They're they're delirious with fear. And so they're crying out to the Lord.

Joel Brooks: 26:51

They're crying out to all these accusations. And Moses, I mean, I love this moment. He stands up there and he says, fear not. Trust the Lord, people. That's what he says, trust the Lord, people.

Joel Brooks: 27:06

And then god says, hey, Moses, can I talk to you for a second? Moses, will you quit crying to me? They're like, Moses gets rebuked. I mean, Moses is like, trust the Lord. God says, come here.

Joel Brooks: 27:27

Will you quit that? Quit crying to me. And what you, what you hear is just, such a beautiful picture. In which, Moses has been a prophet, but now God is raising him up to be a mediator. A mediator.

Joel Brooks: 27:46

And at this point, as a mediator, Moses is so identified with the people of Israel. So identified with them that their sins are on his head. Their sins are his sins. Yet he is so tied to God, that God's power is gonna work through him to save them. He's in he's in 2 worlds.

Joel Brooks: 28:15

He's this bridge. Their sins are his sins, but God's power is his power for deliverance. And Moses later prophesies this, God's gonna raise up somebody like me. Can you think of anybody like that? Can you?

Joel Brooks: 28:34

Can you see how this story points us to Jesus? Jesus who wasn't just identified with sinful man, he became man. And he took our sins completely on him. Yet through the power of God, since he was also 100%, God worked through him for our deliverance. Not from pharaoh and his chariots, but from sin and death itself.

Joel Brooks: 29:01

This points to Jesus. Right after this, Moses goes to Mount Sinai. He gives them the law. Now the law is great rules to follow. The 10 commandments are great rules and you could preach them as good rules that you should follow.

Joel Brooks: 29:21

But if you see those rules apart from Jesus, you miss the point completely. The Ten Commandments lead us to Jesus. You thou shalt not murder. We we see that God's heart is that there shouldn't be murder. And so we can actually hear Jesus saying, I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it to the full.

Joel Brooks: 29:47

And how Jesus raises people from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. Jesus brings life, not murder. Thou shall not steal. Jesus never saw.

Joel Brooks: 29:58

He gave freely of his time, freely of his resources. He'll feed 5,000 people for nothing. Thou shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his home. Jesus didn't even have a home. He didn't want that.

Joel Brooks: 30:15

Over and over. You go you go through these, thou shall not commit adultery. No one has loved his bride more than Jesus. No one has loved the church, his bride, more. And he has been faithful to us in a sacrificial, endless love.

Joel Brooks: 30:30

And so when we read the Ten Commandments, we see it speaks of Jesus. And even when we come to, you know, there's there's prophecies that, you know, just really, or there's prophecies that don't seem Jesus doesn't seem to be anywhere. Speaks of him. We'll look at one more that Jesus himself pointed to. People were crowding around Jesus one time, and they were saying, yeah, you've done a lot of great things, but give us a sign, Jesus.

Joel Brooks: 31:03

You know, pull a rabbit out of a hat. Do something for us that we might believe are the messiah. And you could just kinda picture Jesus sighing like, oh gosh. Like, then he says this, he goes, you know, it's in Matthew 16. He goes an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except for the sign of Jonah.

Joel Brooks: 31:31

And so Jesus says, you wanna sign? You want me to prove you want you want me to prove to you I'm the Messiah? Read Jonah. There's your proof. Read Jonah.

Joel Brooks: 31:43

He testifies about me. He points to me. He is a signpost going, Jesus is the son of god right there. But if you read through the book of Jonah, you're not gonna find Jesus, his name, anywhere. And so Jonah's a lot of time preached about how we need to obey God.

Joel Brooks: 32:05

You really need to obey God, not turn your back on God. And once again, that's there. You can preach that. But if that's all you see, you've missed the point, proclaims Jesus. And so when we see the story of, of, of Jonah and how God says, I want you to preach that the Ninevites and he says, is Ninevah's that way?

Joel Brooks: 32:24

Okay. I'm going this way. I'm gonna hop in a boat, and I'm gonna go to Tarshish. And he goes away, and so god sends a storm. A storm so fierce that seasoned sailors are throwing things over, and they're like, we're all gonna perish.

Joel Brooks: 32:40

And that these sailors recognize this isn't just a storm, this is the wrath of god because of some great evil. The wrath of god is being poured out on us. Jonah, what should we do? Jonah says there's only one way to appease the wrath of God. One way.

Joel Brooks: 33:01

You've got to pick me up and you've got to throw me in it. Throw me in there. And god's wrath will be abated. And so they pick up Jonah and they throw him into the ocean. They throw him into that storm and the moment he hits, peace.

Joel Brooks: 33:23

Jesus said, you wanna know what that story is about? It's about me. Because someday, you're gonna nail me to to the cross. I'm gonna be thrown into the wrath of God. That you might have peace, and you might have forgiveness, that the wrath of god might not overwhelm you.

Joel Brooks: 33:39

And just as Jonah was in the belly of a fish for 3 days 3 nights, I'm gonna have to be in the belly of the earth. I'm the center of that. And so we we we see all of scripture through the lens of Jesus. I hope that's encouraging to you who, you know, maybe you run across some, some obnoxious, theologians or, you know, recently graduated seminarians who who like to throw around words like superlapsarianism and and just ridiculous theological terms, and you think I can never understand the Bible. Know Jesus, and you're gonna know the scriptures.

Joel Brooks: 34:19

You're gonna know start with Jesus and who he is, and then read All of the Bible proclaims his sovereignty, his supremacy and the redemption that we find in him. And he is central not just in the scriptures, he is central and he is supreme in everything. So so whether we're gathered here together and we're singing, or whether we're gonna go home and do some spelling, Christ is supreme. And even the very faith that we have to worship him has come from him himself. He is exalted in all things.

Joel Brooks: 35:06

Pray with me. Christ, I do pray. You would be exalted here. That when we think of Redeemer Community Church, and what do we want to be, what is the vision for this place, we wouldn't think of technical things. We wouldn't think about, what do we want the music to be?

Joel Brooks: 35:28

What do what do we want home groups to look like? What what do we want this community to look like? We would think, we wanna be a people that exalts Jesus, that sees him as supreme overall. We wanna adore him, we want to treasure him. We wanna hallow his name because it is by his name that we are saved.

Joel Brooks: 35:49

So Holy Spirit, I pray even in this moment, you would press that in on

Jeffrey Heine: 35:56

us. Press and press and press.

Joel Brooks: 36:01

Pray for those here who need to be restored, may you restore them. Those who need to be delivered, may you deliver them. Those who need to be convicted, may you convict them. Jesus, have your way with us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.