Acts 3:11-26

December 9, 2001  

God’s Restoration of Our Broken Lives

Christmas is a season of restoration. As the days grow shorter and colder, as the starkness of the landscape cries out for hope, we surround ourselves with evergreens and flowers, we decorate with lights and break out festive treats. The longing of every age seems well illustrated with the same desire to return to a better time, to push forward to the past. For so many people Christmas is about recapturing what they once had, or perhaps more honestly, what they think they should have had.

Restoration. That is what we cherish when we pull out the old decorations which evoke pleasant memories. Restoration is what we desire when we watch It’s A Wonderful Life again and again. We crave restoration, so that even if the past is filled with hurt from families who seemed unable to love, we wish that for this one time of the year, the house would be filled with filial devotion rather than rancorous discord. On a lighter note, restoration is what will take place in the days following Christmas as super-glue restores broken toys, the tree is put out on the curb and fallen needles vacuumed up, as decorations are restored to their place in the basement and attic.

Restoration is what our passage is all about this morning, restoring not just what once was, but how it ought to be. Restoration is so much a part of Christmas, reaching into the past, but always with an eye to the future, because try as our culture might to shake the off the Christian metaphors and symbols, each and everyone of us longs for restoration, to have the one who made us in his image glory, remake us once again for his glory.

Acts 3 begins with a living illustration of God’s restoration. Last week we examined how Peter and John acted compassionately toward the paralyzed man who, day after day, extended his hand to receive some pittance from those who worshipped at the Temple. The compassionate Apostles lived out the truth of the gospel that afternoon. Yet living the gospel demands explaining the gospel as well. As the crowds swelled in amazement to see a man paralyzed since birth now leap through the Temple, it was necessary for Peter to explain what all this means.  READ Acts 3:11-26

The crowds wonder is noticeable as they press forward to see for themselves what has just taken place. There, on the Temple mount, as the pious come to pray, Peter is pressed to speak, but what he says immediately points not to himself, nor to the man once lame. Peter begins by giving all credit to Jesus.

Rather than announcing a whirlwind 25 city tour featuring testimonials of the lame man and Peter, rather re-enacting the miracle so more would be dazzled by the events, Peter shifts all attention from himself to Christ. The man’s restoration is a pretext for the restoration we all need.

We need restoration because of our guilt   vv13-15, 17-18

We are guilty because we have rejected the One God endorsed.

Knowing the crowd is predisposed to hero worship, Peter quickly dispels their adoration by telling them to cease with the wonder as though such a miracle came about by their own power or piety. Peter does not need to warm up the crowd, rather he knows they need a cold shower. He extinguishes their enthusiasm with a dose of reality.

He begins by invoking God’s name, specifically the covenantal name, which spoke of their history, their heritage. The listing of the name would evoke pride of their ethnic heritage. Like the politician who begins his speech with the Pledge of Allegiance in order to get the audience on his side, Peter speaks of the God of our fathers, but he then quickly turns the table.

This God, the God who called Abraham and established a nation, who protected Israel from enemies and who rescued them from their own sin, that God glorified his servant, Jesus.

Peter begins with what God has done, but then quickly moves to what they have done. Peter compares God’s pleasure placed on Jesus with the affliction heaped on him by those who were rejoicing with the lame man now restored to health. “The one God glorified, you killed,” he tells them.

The one God gave to you, you gave over to death. Pilate tried to release him, but you denied any allegiance to him. He was the Holy and Righteous One. That too you denied, treating him like a common criminal. With striking irony Peter juxtaposes their choice: you asked for a murderer to be given to you so you could murder the one who gives you life.

But surrounding that indictment stands what God has done. God glorified his servant, God raised him from the dead. Peter and his fellow Apostles are witness to this fact. Like a witness for the prosecution, Peter delivers a stinging accusation to his audience. He doesn’t mince words.

Peter’s harsh words are absolutely necessary if restoration will ever take place.

The man at the gate begging for a few coins did so because he knew his need. He was all too aware that without other’s help, he would die. But the crowd were wholly unaware of their plight.

We are often like that crowd. Perhaps celebrating the restoration of others to God’s good pleasure, but completely blind to our own failings. We mouth the words of our confession each week, picturing in our minds all those to whom this would do some good. Peter indites not just those Jerusalem Jews 2000 years ago for the crucifixion of God’s servant, Jesus. Those stinging words must hit our hearts as well.

We are guilty even if we don’t know it

The problem with guilt is that, while many of us wrestle with guilty feelings and remorse at times, we are often callous to the liability we face. We are unaware of the guilt have. If the guilt you feel at times is enough to make you squirm, what is truly on our records would crush us.

Christmas is a great time for guilt. Real and imaginary. Your mother may be a travel agent for guilt trips, packing your bags on another excursion on the shame train, causing you to lapse into self ridicule with but a word. But as painful as that may be, you and I can never know the worst of it. Peter explains why in v17. We acted in ignorance.

At first it appears Peter is soft peddling the gospel. He has his listeners in a choke hold, ready to pound them to oblivion with God’s law ... and then he seems to excuse them. 

What Peter does is a wonderful lesson for us as well. Peter went to the bottom of the wound, but now he begins the healing. As Jesus prayed on the cross for those who demanded his death, so Peter points out that all is not hopeless. There still is pardon left, our stubbornness, our rebellion is not so willful that it exceeds God’s kindness.

In his book, Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, successor of Sigmund Freud at Vienna, argued that the "loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect on man." As a result of his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Frankl contended that when a man no longer possesses a motive for living, no future to look toward, he curls up in a corner and dies. "Any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in camp," he wrote, "had first to succeed in showing him some future goal." With the gospel, that hope is now theirs.

But Peter’s reason for kind words comes from the Bible’s understanding of guilt and pardon.

In Numbers 15 the law prescribes sacrifices for sins that are unintentional verses sins with a high hand. The latter are sins which are well calculated and predetermined, knowing full well what is done and what are the consequences. For these sins, there is no sacrifice. The person is to be cut off from God’s people. There is no hope. But sins done without a full understanding are not just dismissed as mistakes, they are sins, but for those sins there is a means by which we can be declared acceptable by God.

So God’s grace extended to them, for they did not fully understand what they were doing. But now, hearing of all God has done, they certainly stand culpable before God. Outside of repentance and turning in faith to God, there is no hope. 

We receive restoration by God’s grace   vv16, 19-21

God’s grace restores us through faith  v16

How does God restore, how does he heal the tremendous division which came about because of our refusal, our inability to obey him? The first hint is found in v16. Here Peter returns to the reason the crowd has gathered – the lame man who now walks. How did his restoration come about?

Taken by itself, it would seem that Peter used hocus pocus to make the man well. Peter dismiss this by pointing to Christ, specifically the name of Jesus as the reason for this man’s healing.

But rather than a magic formula, the name to which Peter refers in v16 is the name which is defined in vv13-15. Remember, Peter begins with the covenant names of God. These names point not only to their sordid past, a past full of failures, but more so to a past of God not only promising, but fulfilling his promises again and again.

• Not only that, but the one whom the Father has gloried is his “servant Jesus”

This uncommon title for Jesus is used a few times and only in Acts and has a dual meaning of “child”. With this word Peter points to both the person and work of Christ. As God’s Son, he alone could become the perfect sacrifice for sins. This is the promised suffering servant of Isaiah 52:12-53:12.

• The name of Jesus is also the Holy and Righteous One

In terms of God redeeming and restoring his people, the name “Holy One is used in Isaiah 41:14. In Isaiah 53:11 this servant is called the Righteous One. 

• Jesus is also called the Author of Life

This name is not easy to translate. Author here is arche, which means either the one who originates life or is the leader in life. So Jesus is described here as the one who gives us life or leads us into new life. The one who can save us is the one who has power over life, who controls all life. That name and that name alone can help us. 

So, the name, the name which serves through suffering in our place, who is set apart by God, perfect in respect to God’s Law, who has authority over life – that one and that one alone can save. But, v16 is hard to understand. The construction in English as contorted, but our translation here well captures the nuances.

This man was healed by the full orbed power of Jesus’ name. It was his authority that healed him, authority what was received by faith. It was Jesus’ name (all he is and has done), together with the faith that comes through him, that this man is now restored.

What is necessary for us to be restored? Two components which can not be separated:

The person and work of Christ is absolutely necessary. It is not just that there is faith, not just the feeling of trust and belief will remove the stain of our sin, our offense before God can not just be removed by an emotion of trust. Rather, the name, that is, the authority of God’s Son is what will secure the needed restoration. But trust must operate – faith must attach itself to all God has done.

God’s grace restores us through repentance  v19a

Up to this point, Peter describes the problem – there is alienation between them and their God, but God has provided a means of restoring that relationship, of healing the division between them. It is through faith in Jesus that they can be made whole. What does that faith look like?

Peter describes the dual action of faith in v19: repent and turn again.

• There must be a change of mind. Repentance means to think differently. No longer must Peter’s audience think that Jesus was merely a misguided and hapless fool who thought himself God.
• There also must be a new direction to their life. It is not enough to get rid of the wrong perceptions of Christ, but they must adopt the right thinking. The second term describes the about face that must take place in our lives.

So with us, we must not conceive that God’s grace demands nothing of us, that his restoration is irrespective of our response. Faith that receives the name of Jesus must exist. That faith must see the need and see Christ as the only solution.

God’s grace benefits us with restoration   v19b-21

Peter at last describes the restoration which takes place in terms of three benefits available.

• First, there is removing of the barrier between us and God

When Peter says that God will blot out our sins in v19 he is using a term with which his listeners would be familiar. In ancient writings – on papyrus, ink had no acid. It did not permeate paper, but laid on top. So it was easy to reuse paper, just rub a bit and the previous writing is gone. Like our modern wipe-off boards, a dry rag removes any remembrance of what was written there before. In this way, our sin is removed. But that removal has benefits

When I was in college there was a custom for the guys to haze those who got engaged while at school. They would be dragged from their room wearing the legal minimum out into the plaza and tied to a light poll. There the worst imaginable gunk would be poured over his head. One guy on our floor worked for the kitchen service, so he would be sure to bring the worst of the worst. After a few moments of torture, the doomed victim would return to the floor

When does a shower feel the best? After you have become the most grubby and filthy. There are often times people wish they could have an internal shower to wash away all the guilt, the regrets, the dirt which fills our minds and hearts. Unfortunately there is no medication, no therapist, no activity which makes us clean. There is nothing we can do. But there is something God has done. Christ’s work on the cross cleanses, purifies, blots out the stain of sin in your life. The guilt is gone and when we allow it to return, we know where we can go to find the cleansing we need. There is no spot or stain which Jesus can not remove.

• The second benefit are the refreshing times sent by God.

It is wonderful to have the filth removed from our lives, but God promises more. The work of Christ not only removes what is offensive to God, we also receive God’s pleasure poured out on us. V20 calls this “times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”

So many of us struggle with what life in Christ means. We know that our sins are pardoned, but we still feel trapped in a prison, unsure if God’s pleasure is ours or if there are some additional hoops through which we must jump.

Here we have the promise or rest, relief, satisfaction which can be our.

Have you ever seen in the summer an adult peddling a bike towing a yellow carriage attached to the back. Inside comfortably sits a small child, enjoying the summer breezes, the cool shade of the carriage, confident that his dad will safely get them home. That is the picture from this word. The term means a cool breeze and in the hot Middle East sun, that breeze is very important.

That pleasurable renewal comes not only in the future, but can be ours as we know the restoration that is our as well as the final completeness that is to come. You and I, by God’s grace, rest in the shadow of our heavenly Father.

• The final term points to complete restoration for which we hope.

There is the promise of Christ’s second coming and with it the final restitution, the complete and full promises of God’s grace poured out on us. This aspect of the final restoration is what we await. If we forget that more is yet to come, we can mistakenly conclude that God’s promises are shallow and ineffective.

The full effect and all the benefits of our redemption, our justification and adoption are yet to be seen. That comes only with our Lord’s return. We hold the gifts in our hands, our names are written on the tags. They belong to us. But they are not yet fully unwrapped.

We can easily get caught up in the celebration of the Christmas season considering our Lord’s first advent that we forget that there is a second. If the world still seems broken, in need of further restoration, if conflicts throughout the world cause distress, if your own health leaves you wondering whether God’s love is there for you, if the remnants of the old man disturb you with sinful thoughts and actions – remember this truth: Christ rules in heaven and he will come again for us. We have forgiveness for the past, joy for the present and hope for the future.

Peter concludes his message in v26 with words of hope, words we must cling to, that God has raised his servant, Jesus and has sent him to us for but one reason – to bless us. How, by turning us away from ourselves, from our wickedness. God is not about to write you off, dismiss you with a wave of his hand. God’s grace is there to save us, in spite of ourselves. God will restore us, reshape us. One author put it this way and with this I close. In describing God’s restoration work in us, we are like homes remodeled, so that, as one author writes:

Portraits of hurt will be replaced by landscapes of grace. Wall of anger will be demolished and shaky foundations restored. God can no more leave a life unchanged than a mother can leave her child's tear untouched. It's not enough for him to own you; he wants to change you. Where you and I might be satisfied with a recliner and refrigerator, he refuses to settle for any dwelling short of a palace. After all, this is his house. No expense is spared. No corners are cut. "Oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him" (Eph. 1:19). This might explain some of the discomfort in your life. Remodeling of the heart is not always pleasant. We don't object when the Carpenter adds a few shelves, but he's been known to gut the entire west wing. He has such high aspirations for you. God envisions a complete restoration. He won't stop until he is finished. And he won't be finished until we have been shaped "along the...lines...of his Son" (Rom. 8:29). (Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado)