"Devoted" - Preaching at Harderwyk - Acts 3 - April 28, 2021

Resources For "Devoted" Series From Each Harderwyk Preacher

I. New For This Week

Your Whole Bible Is About Jesus - When Peter says, "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified Jesus" in Acts 3:13, he is speaking about what Jesus showed his disciples in passages like Luke 24:27 & 44-45.  If we ever hope to properly handle the stories in the Bible, we must first grasp the story of the Bible.  CLICK HERE to read this full post from The Gospel Coalition.

The Book of Acts Tells How The Multiethnic, International Church Grew - The Bible Project - The Bible Project makes an interesting connection between the Temple of Jerusalem and God's New Temple, Christ's Church.  In Acts 3-5 we see the Church of Christ fulfilling all the functions of the Lord's Temple - worship and teaching but also healing and generosity to the poor.  The picture (from the bible project video / poster) shows how this is laid out in the text.  CLICK HERE for the video.

All My Heroes Are Sinners Too - There are no perfect people in the Bible or in history, except One.   CLICK HERE for a short blog post about why we must be honest and yet, in the Gospel, hopeful about this.

II. From The Commentaries On This Passage

From Acts for Everyone by NT Wright

"With all this, it's not surprising that Peter goes on to insist on the central explanation for how the disabled man was healed.  He adds just one new note, which is enormously important in early Christianity.  It is the name of Jesus, through faith in his name, which has done this.  He repeats the point to rub it in.  Using the name of Jesus isn't a matter of a new kind of magic, mumbling a secret word, a kind of abracadabra, which will make things happen automatically.  There has to be faith, faith in the one who speaks the name, faith in the one who hears it.  Other names, used in magic, keep people enslaved to the power of the name itself and the one who invokes it.  The name of Jesus makes people grow up, become whole people, rinsed out and renewed, standing on their own feet literally (as the lame man now was), morally, spiritually and personally.  That what we find in verse 16, where Luke uses an unusual word to mean 'complete wholeness.'  That's what is on offer through the gospel message which announces the powerful name of Jesus.  Believing in him and in the power of his name is the way to wholeness, in the twenty-first century just as in the first."  (p. 56)

From Warren Wiersbe in “The Bible Exposition Commentary” on Acts 3:1-10:

It is easy to see in this man an illustration of what salvation is like. He was born lame, and all of us are born unable to walk so as to please God. Our father Adam had a fall and passed his lameness on to all of his descendants (Rom. 5:12–21). The man was also poor, and we as sinners are bankrupt before God, unable to pay the tremendous debt that we owe Him (Luke 7:36–50). He was “outside the temple,” and all sinners are separated from God, no matter how near to the door they might be. The man was healed wholly by the grace of God, and the healing was immediate (Eph. 2:8–9). He gave evidence of what God had done by “walking, and leaping, and praising God” (Acts 3:8) and by publicly identifying himself with the Apostles, both in the temple (Acts 3:11) and in their arrest (Acts 4:14). Now that he could stand, there was no question where this man stood!

From The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture

John Chrysostom the Archbishop of Constantinople (347-407) wrote in his Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles,  “‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. Such was also the way of Christ. Often he healed by word, often by an act, often he also held out his hand, when the people were somewhat weak in faith, so that the cure should not seem to occur by itself. ‘And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.’ This act made manifest the resurrection, for it was an image of the resurrection.”

III. Ongoing Resources

1) Spiritual Formation Resources Page - CLICK HERE - This is still a work in progress, but be a part as we look to build the Body of Christ with these resources.

http://harderwyk.com/sunday/resources

2) Scotty Smith’s Heavenward Daily Prayers - CLICK HERE to see the daily prayer blog of Scotty Smith.  You will see an option to have them delivered to your email inbox each day as well.  

3) Simple Lectio Divina Overview - CLICK HERE for a simple introduction of the spiritual practice of a more personal way of experience the Word through contemplation and reflection.