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JESUS OUR MODEL — JESUS OUR MOTIVE
Acts 9:32-35
We left off in our last study in Acts 9 with this statement:
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria
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had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of
the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
The Church had faced 3 years of persecution and now they were
experiencing peace — the KJV called it rest. We noted how the
church in Jerusalem dealt with this change in the contour of its
circumstance.
The church was being built up. They didn’t take a vacation. Instead,
all of the energies and resources that had to be used in surviving
persecution were now re-directed into the building up of the
church. They were in the Word, they continued to pray, they were
in fellowship, they went fishing for men and made disciples.
The church was walking in the fear of the Lord. No matter how the
contours of our personal lives and our church life might change;
this is a constant; a non-negotiable. It is essential to the Christian
life. In persecution and in peace — the Authentic Church lived as
though God truly is the infinite, holy, and omnipotent creator who
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is infinite in love and grace and mercy, and that He was watching
their affairs.
Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord
appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk
before me, and be blameless,
Abraham was not to walk before the Lord and be blameless in
order to earn right standing with God. He had already been made
righteous through faith (Genesis 15:6). He was to live as though he
was living before the God of the universe, Who loved him and had
justified him. It is the fool who lives as though God isn’t watching.
It is the fool who doesn’t make the best use of his time.
Ephesians 5:15-16 Look carefully then how you walk, not as
unwise (KJV = fools) but as wise, 16making the best use of the
time, because the days are evil.
The church was walking in….. the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Again,
this is supposed to be a fixed and essential element to Authentic
Christianity and Authentic church. They survived persecution
because they didn't walk in the comfort of material things or the
comfort of calm circumstances. They LIVED in the comfort of the
Holy Spirit in hard times and in good times. Jesus called the Holy
Spirit the comforter. DON’T run anywhere else for the comfort that
only the Holy Spirit can give to you.
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HUGE STUFF — It is THE LIE of the serpent in the Garden that life
can be found apart God. That lie claims that created things can
give life; give comfort. The TRUTH is that whenever we seek and
serve the creation the outcome is always conflict and chaos — not
comfort and peace.
The product of this life — it (the church) multiplied. Acts is the
record of AUTHENTIC Church. Here we see the AUTHENTIC
MODEL for church growth. Healthy sheep beget sheep. They
reproduce their faith. They fish for men.
We closed by noting another change in the contour of the church.
Saul moves off the scene and Peter enters it. For a brief season the
Holy Spirit takes the spotlight off of Saul and places it on Peter.
The point for us is that God changes his workmen, but His work
still goes on. We are the new workmen who get to be a part of all
that Jesus is continuing to do in the proclamation of the Gospel
and the redeeming of lost men and women.
Let’s pick up in verse 32.
Acts 9:32-34 Now as Peter went here and there among them
all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
There
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he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who
was paralyzed.
And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ
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heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose.
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they
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turned to the Lord.
Though Paul is in the spotlight for the great majority of Acts, the
Holy Spirit shows us an amazing parallel in how he used both men
in extraordinary ways.
Both healed cripples. (Acts 3; 9:32-33 / Acts 14:8-11)
Both were arrested and put into jail and were miraculously
delivered (Acts 5:19 / Acts 16:26)
Both were treated like gods (Acts 10:25-6 / 14:8-18)
Both gave bold witness for Christ before the authorities. (Acts 4
/ Acts 22; 24; 25)
Both had to confront false prophets (8:9-24 / 13:6-12)
The Holy Spirit does this to illustrate the truth He inspired Paul to
write in 1 Corinthians 12
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the
same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of service, but the same
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Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God
who empowers them all in everyone.
1 Corinthians 12:6 NLT God works in different ways, but it is
the same God who does the work in all of us.
DON’T MISS THIS — Peter went here and there among them all
he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
JESUS OUR MODEL in serving.
Peter remembered the words of Jesus — As the Father sent Me,
so I am sending you. Peter remembered the way Jesus lived for 3
years. He remembered how Jesus was relentless in doing the will
of the Father; in expressing the gracious, merciful, redeeming heart
of the Father.
Authentic Christian life is a life that will look like Jesus because it is
not merely a way of living — it is a life derived from Jesus. It’s a
life informed by the Words of Jesus
Mark 9:35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said
to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and
servant of all.”
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Luke 22:26-27 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest
among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one
who serves.
For who is the greater, one who reclines at table
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or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I
am among you as the one who serves.
It's a life informed by the Works of Jesus.
John 13:14-17 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I
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have given you an example, that you also should do just as I
have done to you. 16Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not
greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the
one who sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if
you do them.
in Acts 10 we’ll read Peter saying
Acts 10:38 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing
all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Authentic Christianity is Jesus living through the believer — Jesus
continuing to work through the agency of His church. That means
that the Authentic Christian is not a pew potato!
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HERE’S THE POINT — The Authentic Christian should be on the
go because Jesus was. We should be like Jesus who was totally
taken up with and totally occupied with doing the will of the
Father. Authentic Church should be on the go because Jesus is still
on the go. Not just pointless activity to get people involved in
the church, or some pragmatic plan of action to get certain man
made results. The activity of Authentic Church was modeled by
Jesus and LED by the Spirit — and EMPOWERED by the Spirit.
Bottom line — The Book of Acts is a book of action.
QUOTE: CHARLES SPURGEON — He is no Christian who does
not seek to serve his God. The very motto of the Christian
should be "I serve."
I want every member of this church to be a worker. We do not
want any drones. If there are any of you who want to eat and
drink and do nothing, there are plenty of places elsewhere
where you can do it. There are empty pews about in
abundance; go and fill them, for we do not want you.
As long as there is breath in our bodies, let us serve Christ. As
long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we
can work, let us serve him. Let us even serve him with our last
gasp. And, if it be possible, let us try to set some work going
that will glorify him when we are dead and gone. Let us scatter
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some seed that may spring up when we are sleeping beneath
the hillock in the cemetery.
We can be sure that Peter did much more in Lydda than heal
Aeneas.
Lydda was about 24 miles North and West of Jerusalem. There
would have been believers scattered there by means of the
persecution of Saul. Jesus had commissioned Peter to care for the
sheep
John 21:15-17 “Feed my lambs.”
my sheep.
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“Tend my sheep.”
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“Feed
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I believe that Peter would have been strengthening the believers
because Jesus modeled that shepherd’s heart. Most students of
the Bible believe Mark’s Gospel is Peter’s eyewitness account of
the life of Jesus recorded by John Mark.
Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he
had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without
a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
We see Paul and Barnabas shepherding the flock of God this in
Acts 14:21-22
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When they had preached the gospel to that city and had
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made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium
and to Antioch,
strengthening the souls of the disciples,
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encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that
through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God
strengthening means; to establish. The prefix epi = upon and the
suffix sterizo = set fast, to turn resolutely in a set direction, fix. The
core of pastoral ministry is seeing people set fast and fixed in their
faith by the teaching of the Word of God. Pastors are about the
business of making sure that professed believers are turned
resolutely in the direction of Jesus. We will see this modeled in
Paul’s ministry. It’s the business of the pastor to see how the
believers are doing.
Acts 15:36 And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us
return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed
the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”
MAKE A NOTE OF THIS — The Holy Spirit calls those who have
believed the Gospel saints —
….the saints who lived at Lydda
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JESUS OUR MOTIVE in service. Follow me here!
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This divinely given title is actually a description of the believer. It is
not a description of their religious performance. A lot of church
goers think of the title “saint” as a post-mortem accolade for those
select few men or women who lived extraordinary Christian lives
(St. Francis). They are always depicted as having halos. Listen — If
we went back in time to Lydda in search of Christians and we
hoped to recognize them by their halos we would never find them.
Saint is not the LAST thing that you are called as a Christian — it’s
the FIRST thing you are called. It is not a description of their
religious performance — it’s a description of their relationship to
God — which is at the very core of Authentic Christianity. It is a
REALITY that takes place between an individual and God and the
individual and the world
persons who belong to God…. the focus is not upon a particular
state of holiness, but upon a special relationship with God1
being dedicated or consecrated to the service of God2
1
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of
the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of
the 2nd edition.) (124). New York: United Bible Societies.
2
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English
lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature
(3rd ed.) (10). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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consecrated, devoted, sacred, holy, meaning set apart from a
common to a sacred use3
There is an essential difference between the Christian and the rest
of the unbelieving world. Authentic Christianity is not about a
philosophical shift or a shift in moral values. At the core of
Authentic Christianity is a shift in worship. It is recognizing the
infinite worth of Jesus. It is recognizing that He alone deserves all
that we are — all that we do — all that we could ever hope to
become. That leads us to dethrone the idols we had once lived for
and worshipped. That leads us to repent of our Kingdoms of One
that we set up against the Kingdom of God and the will of God —
and consecrate our lives to His Kingdom and His Will for His glory
resulting in our joy! That is what it means to be a saint — and
that divides the whole of mankind into 2 groups — “saints” and
“aints!”
That makes the Christian different! Not different as some legalists
and religious people would define different (as in style of dress
[women can’t wear make up or wear pants] or styles of music).
Before believing the Gospel we believed the lie of lies — that life
can be found apart from God. We believed that created things
3
Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary: New
Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
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could give us life. So we loved and worshipped things and used
people to get them for our glory. But when our hearts are
captured by the grace of God (God sending His Son to redeem
and reconcile this world - you and me - that is living in rebellion
against Him and His Kingdom) we are motivated by a love for our
Creator, Redeeming God. We begin to use things — our time,
talents and treasures, to express our worship of God and express
God’s love to a lost and broken world. That is what it means to be
a saint — where you live, work, and go to school; where you shop
or just hang out! That is radically different from the world that is
organizing itself without God and against God.
That is how the early Christians, who were a very small group of
people, were able to have such a powerful impact on a totally
pagan world! It wasn’t a matter of organization — it was a matter
of consecration. It was not about what they had — it was about
what they were! They were SAINTS.
HERE’S THE POINT — A lot of Christians and a lot of local
churches think that the only way to draw people to church is to
show them how much fun it is to be a Christian. We don't simply
want to see men and women come to church. We want to see
them come to worship Jesus! When you live like a saint (in the
Biblical sense of that word) you become a radically powerful
witness to the transforming power of the life and love of Jesus!
People in your neighborhood, your peers at school or your
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workplace are going to see that you have a totally different
relationship to your time, talents and treasures than they do.
They’re going to wonder how it is that the things they live for
don't give life, while you use those same things to love, worship
and serve God and love people for the glory of God. You get to
tell them why you’re different! You get to tell them that Jesus is
your motive because Jesus gave His life for you and gives His life
to you!
There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight
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years, who was paralyzed.
And Peter said to him, “Aeneas,
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Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And
immediately he rose.
And all the residents of Lydda and
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Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
Again — We see Peter following the example of Jesus. Peter
remembered how Jesus loved to choose the most desperate
patients — how he sought out those who were incurable by man’s
standards. Even the greatest enemies of Jesus understood this
about Jesus.
Mark 3:1-2 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was
there with a withered hand. 2And they watched Jesus, to see
whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might
accuse him.
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QUESTION — Why is it that when it comes to you and me we
think Jesus is going to act differently — that Jesus will pass over
you or me because we’re so broken and so needy?
The miracles of Jesus were REAL miracles seen and recorded by
eyewitnesses. We shouldn't be chasing after signs and wonders
but they should be following us (Mark 16:17). Jesus is still in the
business of healing — all that Jesus began to do and teach is
continuing through the agency of His church.
REMEMBER — The very real miracles performed in the Gospels
had spiritual significance — they were signs pointing beyond the
actual healing to Jesus and to all that He does in saving us.
Romans 5:6-11 For while we were still weak, at the right time
Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a
righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one
would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore,
we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we
be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were
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enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by
his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation.
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Jesus Christ heals you
The expression Jesus Christ makes you well is a kind of third
person command. In some languages the equivalent is “Jesus
Christ will make you well right now” or “Jesus Christ causes you to
become well.”4
Here is the TRADEMARK of the man God uses. He understands
that Kingdom work is Jesus work! He understands that Jesus is the
Savior; Jesus is the healer! He depends upon Jesus; gives glory to
Jesus.
There is zero presumption here. Peter was convinced that Jesus
wanted to heal this man.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 7To each is given the manifestation of
the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the
Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of
knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by
the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to
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4
Newman, B. M., & Nida, E. A. (1972). A handbook on the Acts of
the Apostles. UBS Handbook Series (199). New York: United Bible
Societies.
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another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another
various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit,
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who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
We see here the gift of faith in operation with the gift of healing
And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise
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and make your bed.”
We see here the RESPONSIBILITY of the individual to RESPOND to
the work of God. Jesus makes us whole — He alone saves and he
alone heals broken lives, broken hearts. But faith in Jesus demands
that we respond to the promise of the Gospel; respond to the
Word of God, and get up and walk with Jesus.
And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they
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turned to the Lord.
They turned to the Lord. They did NOT turn to a newly formed
religion, but to the Lord
Authentic Christianity is not about turning to a church; turning to a
new set of moral values. Don’t misunderstand me — Jesus loves
the church and the church is important in the economy of the
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Gospel. God does put in our hearts a love for holiness and a
hatred for sin. But at its core Authentic Christianity is all about
turning to Jesus. These people turned to Jesus who is alive from
the dead and who had healed Aeneas.
The Gospel essentially commands men and women to turn to the
Lord.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they themselves report concerning
us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
and
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to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
HUGE — Everybody in this room, along with the rest of humanity,
is going one of two directions. You are either headed towards sin
or you are headed towards Jesus. You are either facing sin as a
friend or you are facing Jesus as a friend. You are either turning
your back to sin as an enemy or you are turning your back to
Jesus as an enemy. Repentance says — “I’m walking away from
sin. Repentance says that I want to spend my life facing Jesus —
pursuing Jesus — knowing Jesus — loving Jesus — serving Jesus
— being with Jesus.
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Metro is here to help you walk towards Jesus — walk with Jesus —
worship Jesus and serve Jesus in the proclamation of the Gospel
and the making of disciples.