Turn to Life

Acts 3

In last week’s sermon I talked about Peter preaching in the temple courtyard, right in the backyard of those who had manipulated events so that Jesus was arrested, beaten and crucified. I asked if his preaching was bold, foolish or stupid and the conclusion was that because God had orchestrated the event and created a situation in which he was being pressed for an answer, it was an act of boldness.

Why do you think God wanted Peter to preach the Gospel at that moment at that place? If you think this is a silly question, then why was it that Jesus did not preach and confront the religious establishment in other years when he went to Jerusalem for one of the annual feasts? Particularly in John’s gospel, it is clear that there was a time when it was not the time for Jesus to reveal himself and confront the Sanhedrin. Then at that last Passover feast it was God’s time and Jesus spoke out more directly to the people in Jerusalem.

So why did God want Peter to preach the Gospel that afternoon he healed the man born lame?

The period of church history recorded in the book of Acts was an explosive period. The church grew from just a hundred or so followers of Jesus to 3,000 men to 5,000 men after Peter’s sermon and in the next thirty years the church expanded throughout the eastern part of the Roman Empire all the way to Rome. The preaching of the Gospel was accompanied by signs and wonders that caught the attention of a world ignorant of Jesus and brought increasing numbers into the church.

It was God’s purpose that Peter heal the man born lame and then preach to the people drawn to that miraculous healing because God intended to grow the church. God is constantly at work growing the church, but there are times when there is a growth spurt and the growth is accelerated. We call these growth spurts revivals.

When God works to revive the church, the church needs to be pure in order to participate with God in this effort. If the church is polluted with impurity, it will miss out on what God is doing and impede God’s efforts. It is not a coincidence that revivals have started with prayer meetings when sin began to be confessed. A pure church can respond to God’s call to work with him for the revival of his church.

In the growth spurt of the early church in Acts it is clear that it was not only boldness God wanted to encourage. God also sought purity in the church.

In a few weeks we will be looking at the story of Ananias and Sapphira who sold some land and then lied to the church leadership when they said they were donating all the proceeds but secretly kept some of it back for themselves. It seems quite harsh that God struck them dead for this deception and we will look at this more deeply later, but on the surface, it is clear that a message was sent to the church that purity was required.

I believe we are coming into a time when God will revive his church. We are coming into a growth spurt in the church and if we are to participate with God, we need to be bold and we need to be purified.

Are we ready? Are we pure? Let me take off from Peter’s sermon and use this as a way of challenging ourselves this morning.

Who killed Jesus? Who put Jesus on the cross?

If you read Peter’s sermon in Acts 3 it seems the answer is pretty clear. Peter spoke to the people who gathered in the temple courtyard to see the man born lame who was healed and jumping up and down and making a lot of noise. To this crowd he said,
You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.  14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.  15 You killed the author of life,

Jerusalem was a city of about 50,000 people. The Jews who gathered in the temple for the afternoon were the most religious of the Jews. There were Jewish leaders in the Temple who were among those who led the cries to crucify Jesus and there were those who had plotted for Jesus to be arrested and crucified.

So Peter stood there and pointed his finger proclaiming the guilt of those listening to him.

Why did Peter do that? He could have been angry. He had good reason to be angry. The crowd had been blind to who Jesus was and ignored all the signs that indicated that this was a man sent from God. They were blind to the healings and deliverances that took place. They conspired to arrest Jesus in the night and manipulated a judgement against him and then manipulated the crowds to force Pilate to condemn him to death.

Peter could have been angry with this crowd and the Jewish leaders who chose their selfish interests over the good Jesus brought. They disowned the Holy and Righteous One. Pilate tried to have Jesus set free and selecting the most despicable murderer he had on hand, he offered the crowd a choice between setting Jesus free or this terrible murderer – and they chose the murderer. They killed the author of life. They killed the one who rose from the dead and continued to heal as he had done with the beggar who had been lame from birth.

Peter could have said, “To hell with all of you!” and kept on going, preaching elsewhere. But Peter was not pointing his finger at anyone out of anger. Peter was not standing on any self-righteousness. He knew what it was to turn away from Jesus, to desert Jesus. Three times he had denied knowing him and after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter was a different man. Peter now carried with him a sense of humility.

Peter preached to the crowd because he knew what it was like to sin and be forgiven. Now he was ready to take the message of Jesus to sinners who needed to be forgiven. Peter did not point his finger to accuse. He pointed his finger to call people to repentance.

If Peter were here today he would stand up in this pulpit and speak to you of his story. And he would point his finger and say, “You put Jesus on the cross. You drove the nails into his hands and feet. You killed the author of life.”

And you would say, “What do you mean? We weren’t there. We weren’t even born. All this happened two thousand years before we were born. How can we be held responsible for what we did not do?

But Mel Gibson who made the film, The Passion of Christ, would understood. In his film, when the nails were being driven into the arms and legs of Jesus on the cross, Gibson filmed his hand holding the nails. Gibson understood that it was his sin that put Jesus on the cross.

You say that you were not there but I tell you that it is your sin that put Jesus on the cross. Who killed Jesus? You killed Jesus and I killed Jesus. Our sin drove the nails into the flesh of Jesus.

How did you kill Jesus? When you make your living from prostitution you kill Jesus. Some of you make a living as pimps, controlling a number of women and renting out their bodies to strangers. You walk around with your gold and platinum jewelry and think you are doing well, but you are greasing your path to an eternal hell.

Why do you come to church? Do you really think God does not know what you do? Do you really think God does not care about the way you degrade and abuse the bodies of the women in your stable? When you come forward for communion and I give you the wine and tell you, “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you,” do you realize when you drink that wine you drink judgement on yourself?

How dare you make a mockery of the death of Jesus for your sins! Repent! Turn away from your sin. Today release the women under your control and end this degradation. Today let salvation come to your house.

Some of you are women and men making your living as prostitutes. It may be that you were forced into this. It may be that you don’t think you have a choice. But I call you to repent and turn away from this sinful, destructive life.

You may say to me, “If I don’t prostitute myself, I will starve,” and I tell you it will be better for you to starve and give yourself to Jesus than to deny Jesus with your disobedience and face an eternal hell.

When you give yourself sexually to others you harden your heart so you will not be hurt by the abuse you receive. I appeal to you to allow God to slip in through a crack and begin to bring love and healing to the pain you have experienced. Decide today that you will not return to the life of sin you are living.

How did you kill Christ? When you refuse to forgive someone who has hurt you, you kill Christ. What could someone possibly do to you that would be worse than what you have done by sending Jesus to the cross? Someone betrayed you? Abused you? Talked about you behind your back? Did not invite you to a party? Stole from you? Laughed at you? Mocked you?

When you come forward for communion each month and eat the bread and drink the wine, if you come forward and have not forgiven someone who has hurt you, you eat and drink judgement upon yourself.

Not forgiving someone leads to a hardness of heart that leads you away from God. Repent and turn to Jesus who has forgiven you.

How do you kill Jesus? When you work with a gang that makes money from carrying drugs or stealing, you kill Jesus. The gangs in Rabat have a powerful influence and many are involved with them. These gangs are pulling you away from God. They are doing the work of the devil and you need to step away from them. Coming to church is not an antidote to the work you do with these gangs the rest of the week. Coming to church will not save you. Only Jesus can save you and you cannot continue to work with these gangs and be saved by Jesus. You have to step aside. Step away. Turn from the gangs and come to Jesus.

How did you kill Jesus? When you go home from church and turn on the computer and with a couple mouse clicks are into the world of pornography, you kill Jesus.

Men and women are created in the image of God. They are God’s creation and it is God’s desire that they willingly turn to him to give adoration and praise and to receive into their lives his love. Men and women are not created so that we can use them for our own selfish, personal enjoyment.

Repent! Turn away from this sin. Sign up for one of the accountability programs that exist that informs a friend of any questionable sites you visit. Have a friend hold you accountable to help you resist this temptation.

How did you kill Jesus? When you ignore the suffering of the world around you, you kill Jesus. When your concern is only for your home, your family and you are indifferent to the suffering of the widows, the orphans and aliens around you, you kill Jesus.

God did not give you your talents and opportunities to make money from your talents only so you could live a comfortable life and take nice vacations. If your money is not being used for God’s kingdom, you are in danger of living a superficial Christian life that will have no saving effect.

Open your heart and your pocketbook to the needs of God’s kingdom. This does not mean you give to everyone in need every time. But it does mean you need to take on Jesus’ heart for the world and participate with him in caring for those who have needs.

How did you kill Jesus? When you have sex with someone who is not your wife or husband you kill Jesus. Sex is a wonderful gift God gave but it is also a dangerous gift. You have hormones raging and the desire is very strong but when you allow yourself to be in a situation where you are alone and you kiss and your passion takes you to sexual intercourse with your friend, you are acting in disobedience to God. Your sexual passion is revealed to be more powerful than your desire for God. It feels good at the moment, but do you think it is wise to defy God for the sake of your human passions?

Repent! Decide today that you will no longer be sexually active until you are married. Take today a step toward purity that will benefit your marriage if and when you are one day married.

How do you kill Jesus? When you become absorbed with your respectability and good moral choices, you kill Jesus. You look around and are disgusted with the lives some others live. You watch the TV or read the news and shake your head when you hear about the terrible things people do to themselves and to each other. You are hard on the sins of others but remarkably easy on your own sins. You might not admit to it but you really believe you are better than most in the world. If people in the world were more like you, there would be a lot more peace. This is what you think. But you need to see that you are a sinner, living in rebellion against the all-powerful creator of the world. When you come to stand before him in judgement, you will be amazed at how quickly your veneer of respectability will fade away and you will be on your knees begging for mercy.

Repent! Throw off your sense of respectability and see clearly the sin in your life. See how desperately you are in need of the mercy of Jesus. Repent and turn to life.

We are all sinners desperately in need of a savior and thanks be to God, Jesus is the only one who can save us. Turn to him today.

Peter preached that day and said:
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,  20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.  21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.  22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.  23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

A day is coming when you will not have a chance to repent. That day may be years from now. It may be this month. It may be today. You don’t know how much time you have left on earth. A month ago I saw a young woman laying under the wheels of a flatbed truck, her body crushed and the fluids of her body flowing on the pavement. You don’t know when your life will end. Listen today. Repent today. Listen or you will be completely cut off.

There is a heaven and there is also a hell. In the judgement that is coming there will be a sorting that takes place and you will spend eternity in the presence of Jesus in heaven or you will spend eternity in the absence of God and all that is good. Heaven or hell, that is the choice that stands before you today.

In the Bible images of the judgement day those who are not in a relationship with Jesus are described as running and trying to hide behind rocks and in caves, trying to escape the great and dreadful day of the coming of the Lord.

These same people the day before the coming of the Lord were parading their wealth on the streets. They were going about their business, proud of what they had accomplished, relishing the power they had over others, satisfied they had beaten the system and were making their way in the world.

And then the next day they ran away to hide behind the rocks as their judgement came.

Flee from your sin so you will not flee when Jesus returns.

There needs to be a shaking and sifting of the church here in Morocco so we are prepared for what God will do. We need to be purified, rededicated, ready to serve.

I am not impressed by the number of people who come to church each Sunday. In the Godfather movies, there is a scene when the Godfather is in church for the baptism of his nephew and as he answers the questions of the priest, renouncing Satan and choosing Christ, his gunmen are assassinating his opposition. He stands in the church while his murderous plans are being enacted.

This is not the kind of church we need. We need a pure church, not a large one. We need people in the church who are dedicated to Christ and serving him all week long, not just a pretense of serving Christ on Sunday in front of everyone else.

Revival is coming and we need to be prepared. I would prefer to have twenty Christians who are dedicated to Christ and living out their Christian life than two hundred casual Christians who come to church but then go about their lives with disregard for Christ and their approaching judgement.

Let today be a day when you turn from your sin.

The good news is that with Jesus you can begin today to be a new person. There is no spot or stain that cannot be made pure with the cleansing power of Jesus. You are not without hope. You can make a change today.

It does not matter if you live five years, fifty years or one hundred years on this planet, those years will be insignificant in light of the eternity you will live after this life is over. Don’t make choices based on how you will be served in this life. Those choices may make you happy for a few years but you put yourself in danger if you are not thinking about how your choices will affect you for all of eternity.

Listen, I like life. I like the comforts of life. I like pleasure. But I know that it needs to be enjoyed in the moment. Enjoy good times and good food. But don’t desire pleasure or comfort or they will take over and rule your life. Don’t envy what someone else has. Enjoy what you have been given and enjoy the moments you have but when you look into the future, look ahead to an eternal existence. Anything else you look forward to will disappoint you. You may think what you long for holds the key to your happiness but it will fail you. You will be disappointed.

Hold on to your eternal future and you will not be disappointed.

When Charles Spurgeon prayed for revival a little more than a hundred years ago, he prayed
God, send us a season of glorious disorder. Oh, for a sweep of the wind that will set the seas in motion, and make our ironclad brethren, now lying so quietly at anchor, to roll from stem to stern!

He prayed for wind and fire. I pray for wind that will shake us, disturb us, make us fearful of holding on to what this world can offer. I pray that we will be shaken and sifted. And I pray that the fire of purity will fall on us. We are impure. We are stuck in sinful patterns. We need to be released. We need to be set free.

I invite you now, Holy Spirit, to come and shake us. Convict us of our sin. Drive us to our knees in repentance. Break our will that prevents us from seeing the truth and living it. Help us to empty ourselves of our sin and then fill us with your presence. We need your love. We need your power.