Acts 3:

2018 04.15 Acts 3:12-19 12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. 17 And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out. 1

The Church Also Rises Spring is here. I don t need to see it with my eyes or feel it in a warm breeze. I sense it with my nose, which alternates between stuffy and runny as soon as April arrives and the trees and flowers spring back to life. Seasonal allergies have been a part of my life since I was in elementary school. But that aside, I welcome the arrival of spring, especially the brief but brilliant beauty of the cherry blossoms. Every year at this time it seems that someone asks me the English name for 벚꽃 [SLIDE], those trees that explode with color at the start of spring like fireworks unfurling in super slow motion. When I answer cherry blossom, they tend look at me with skepticism. Maybe they expect cherry blossoms to have actual cherries on them, but that s a different type of tree. But, of course, a cherry blossom by any other name would still bloom just as beautifully. That s a paraphrase of Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet (which every high school freshman in America is required to read), Juliet laments that Romeo, the man she loves, is also her enemy simply because of his name. Romeo belongs to the Montague clan, who have a long-running feud with Juliet s family, the Capulets. Early in the play, before the tragedy to come gains pace, Juliet gets philosophical about the whole concept of names as she ponders her love for Romeo [SLIDE]: Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. What s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O! be some other name: What s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; 2

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. If it were called cauliflower, or pancake, or skyscraper it would still smell the same. The name is just that...a name. It is not the thing itself. But in today s passage from Acts, it is a name that matters most of all. It is the very name of Jesus that makes a lame man walk. Today s reading drops us right into the middle of the story. Verse 12 begins [SLIDE], When Peter saw it, he addressed the people (Acts 3:12a). We know that something has just happened, but what? The it being referred to is the sudden gathering of a crowd around Peter and John and a man whom Peter has just healed. Peter seizes the opportunity presented by the rushing crowd to preach a spontaneous sermon. The story of the man s healing comes just before today s reading, in verses 1-10. As Luke, the author of Acts, tells the story, Peter and John are going to the temple to pray when they spot a man who has been lame since birth. He is someone who could be found in the temple every day begging. When the man sees Peter and John, he asks them for money. That s when they do something surprising...they look at him. Not a passing glance but an intense gaze. When we encounter a beggar on the street, or even just someone who is homeless, often our tendency is to immediately avert our eyes. We look away for fear of making eye contact. Once we ve made eye contact, it s much harder to ignore the person and pretend we never saw him. But Peter and John look at the man intently. What s more, they tell the man to look at them. He does so eagerly, no doubt expecting to receive some money from them. But Peter says to him, I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk (Acts 3:7). Peter takes hold of the man s arm and helps him up. Miraculously, the man finds that his legs are sturdy, so sturdy that he begins to walk. For the first time in his life 3

he feels the full weight of his body on his feet. After taking a few steps, he leaps for joy and praises God. He walks with Peter and John through the temple gate. He is still clinging to them when Peter explains to the people what they just witnessed. The setting for this passage is the temple in Jerusalem, actually a section of the temple known as Solomon s Portico [SLIDE]. A portico is an architectural structure with a roof supported by columns. From beneath the portico Peter addresses his fellow Jews [SLIDE]. He even uses the term Israelites, which is notable because at this time there is no Israel and there are no Israelites. What was once Israel is now the Roman province of Judea, but Peter doesn t address his fellow Judeans but rather his fellow Israelites. It s a smart rhetorical move. Peter is reminding the people of their common bond as the people of Israel who worship the God of Israel. It is that God who has healed the crippled man. Peter makes it clear that it was not by his own power or piety that the man was healed and is now able to walk [SLIDE]. It was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors (Acts 3:13a) who did it. This same God has glorified his servant Jesus. Yes, the very same Jesus who was crucified. This is a startling claim, especially given Peter s audience. It s quite possible that some of the people in the crowd listening to Peter may have been among the crowd that called for Jesus execution. The question going through their minds is, How could this Jesus, who was publicly executed in a horrific way, be said to be glorified by God? He wasn t glorified; he was crucified! We saw it with our own eyes. The people in the crowd are wrestling with the seemingly contradictory evidence before them: they saw Jesus crucified, but they ve also just seen a man healed in his name. They may have been among those who rejected Jesus, but how can they reject what their own eyes have just witnessed? 4

Let s focus for a moment on this word rejected [SLIDE]. Peter uses it twice. He wields it as an accusation, accusing everyone in the crowd of having handed over and rejected Jesus (Acts 3:13). His tone only grows harsher when he tells the crowd, But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you (Acts 3:14). It would be easy all too easy to hear Peter speaking as a Christian missionary who is condemning all Jews for having rejected Jesus. Much to its shame, that is exactly how the church has too often interpreted this passage and others like it. We must resist that temptation. The sin of anti-semitism is the original sin of the church. It s been with us since day one and it is still with us to this day. Peter is not a Christian who is condemning Jews for having rejected Jesus. Peter is himself a Jew, as were all of the original twelve disciples. He is a Jew speaking to Jews about the death and resurrection of another Jew...Jesus. This is an internal Jewish debate about the identity of the Jew Jesus of Nazareth. A man has been healed in his name, and yet he was rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, by many of the people in Jerusalem, and seemingly by God as well. In using the word rejected Peter seems to be showing a stunning lack of selfawareness. For it was Peter himself who rejected Jesus, not once, but three times! Has Peter forgotten that inconvenient bit of information? Actually, I don t think that he has. In fact, Peter might even be referencing it [SLIDE]. The Greek word that s translated here as rejected is the same word that s used for Peter s own denial of Jesus on the night of his arrest: Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, This man also was with him. But he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him (Lk. 22:56-57). 5

Peter denies Jesus, i.e., he rejects him. He claims not to know him. Jesus? Why, I don t know anyone by that name! And yet it is in the name of Jesus that Peter later heals a crippled man. And it is the name of Jesus that Peter proclaims to the crowd in the temple. Testifying to the power of Jesus name, Peter says, His name itself has made this man strong (Acts 3:16). What could account for Peter s dramatic change of heart? What has transformed Peter from a denier of Jesus to being on fire for Jesus? On the night of Jesus arrest, after Peter denies him for the third time, he goes out by himself and weeps bitterly. He is devastated. He is a wounded man, a broken man. That is the last we hear of Peter until the resurrection. Speaking of which, if you remember two weeks ago when we read from Mark s Gospel, we heard the angel in the tomb tell the women to go and tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. Peter was singled out. The angel wanted to make certain that Peter would learn that Jesus had been raised. It wasn t the first time that Peter was singled out. During the Last Supper, shortly before his arrest, Jesus turns to Peter and says [SLIDE]: Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers (Luke 22:31-32). Strengthen your brothers. Peter was singled out so that he would become that which Jesus had predicted of him the rock upon which Jesus would build his church. What we see early on in the book of Acts, including here in chapter 3, is Peter at last becoming that rock. 6

But it wasn t an easy transformation for Peter. He didn t simply will himself to be someone to whom others looked for strength. For Peter to become that person, he had to go through much pain and suffering. He had to confront the darkness within himself. A darkness that led him to reject his teacher, his friend, his Messiah. Peter didn t think that he was capable of such cowardice. He had assured Jesus, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death! (Lk. 22:33). And so he did go to his death. That Peter who had been full of boldness bordering on recklessness, that Peter who spoke without appreciating the consequences of his words, died the night that he denied Jesus. We never hear from that Peter again. The Peter of the Gospels had to die if he was to become the Peter that we meet in the book of Acts. The Peter who three times denied knowing Jesus had to die if he was to become the Peter who proclaims the name of Jesus to the crowd gathered in the temple. Peter had to become as dead as a stone if he was to become the rock upon which Jesus would build his church. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the focus of Easter, but it is not only Jesus who is raised. After the darkness of Good Friday, yes, the Son rises, but with the rising of the Son also comes the rising of the church. On Good Friday the fellowship of the disciples was dead. They had no more life left in them. And none of the disciples embodied that death more so than Peter. But Peter was also the first of the disciples to be resurrected. After the despair of Good Friday, with the resurrection of Jesus, Peter s hope was resurrected. After the doubt of Good Friday, with the resurrection of Jesus, his faith was resurrected. After the death of Good Friday both Jesus death and his own spiritual death Peter was raised to new life. A life not of cowardice but courage. A life not of faithlessness but faithfulness. 7

Like the risen Jesus, who invites the disciples to see and even touch his wounds, Peter still bears the scars of his own self-inflicted wounds, each denial having pierced his heart. For each denial, Peter bears a scar. But a scar is more than an indication of a wound. A scar signifies healing. Scars are never pretty, but they tell a story. And Peter s scars tell the story of a man who was wounded but who has been healed. A man who was dead but who has been raised to new life in Jesus Christ. As a sign of that new life, the Peter who was wounded is now the Peter who heals others who have been wounded. He is the wounded healer. It may not seem like it, but this story here in Acts 3 is more than a story of healing, it s a story of resurrection [SLIDE]. After Peter commands the crippled man to stand up in the name of Jesus, Peter took him by the hand and raised him up (Acts 3:7). The word for raised is the same word that the angel in the tomb speaks to the women who come to anoint Jesus body: You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised (Mk. 16:6). If you live long enough, and I imagine that everyone in this room already has, you will be wounded by sin. Sin wounds us. It cuts. It stings. It burns. It bruises. It cripples. And many of these wounds are self-inflicted. We are wounded with guilt, with shame, with envy, with anger, with doubt, with fear. The wounds are real, but so too is the healing that is offered to us in Jesus Christ. What happened to the crippled man s legs can happen to our broken hearts, our broken spirits. There is healing and hope in the name of Jesus. As Peter offered his hand to the crippled man, Jesus extends his hand to us and invites us to rise by the power of his name. By his name in which there forgiveness for sin. As the Son of God was raised to new life, so too is the church. 8