Welcome to Books of the Book.
I'm Pastor Mark Howard. I'm a
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pastor in the Michigan
Conference of the Seventh-day
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Adventist church and I'm here
with my brother, my co-host,
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Jim Howard who also pastors in
Michigan. We have been studying
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in the book of Acts. In our last
time together we were in Acts
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chapter 3 and we were looking
at the very first healing in the
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New Testament church since
Jesus' ascension to heaven.
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Of course we see all the
healings of Christ but we then
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came across the first bonafide
miracle, Jim, of the New
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Testament church where Peter
heals the man at the temple gate
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the lame man who was lame
from his birth. Now we followed
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through that story and cut off
at our last session together and
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in chapter 4 we're picking up
on some of the aftermath of that
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story. Before we go into
scripture I'd like to just begin
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with a word of prayer. I'm
hoping you have your Bibles,
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our viewers have their Bibles
with them. We're going to pray
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and ask God to guide
our study of his word today.
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Father in heaven, we do thank
you for your word and we thank
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you for the Spirit of truth that
you've given to guide us into
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truth. I pray that you
would send him to give us
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understanding as we study
today. In Jesus name, Amen.
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Now I actually want to pick
up just before chapter 4 in the
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last verse of chapter 3. Of
course, Peter has healed the
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lame man and when the people
are astonished... One of the
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things we mentioned last time
is the people are astonished by
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the healing. Peter is not
astonished. Peter has this
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attitude that's like hey what
are you guys so surprised about?
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Isn't this what we would expect
from the Lord Jesus. And we see
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this expectant faith of Peter.
Then he takes an opportunity
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to share with his hearers that
this healed man is an evidence
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that Jesus of Nazareth that
was crucified, that many of them
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has shouted crucify him, crucify
him was indeed the Son of God
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and their Messiah and of course
they're brought to a point of
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repentance. It's interesting as
Peter closes chapter 3 he says,
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to you first God having raised
up his servant Jesus sent him
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to bless you in turning
away every one of you from your
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iniquity. So he gives them this
opportunity here for repentance.
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It's amazing to me that just
prior to this in the verse just
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before he quotes what God said
to Abraham, In your seed all the
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families of the earth
shall be blessed. And he is here
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pinpointing that Jesus was that
seed and first and foremost he
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was to be a blessing to them,
those same ones who shouted
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crucify him, crucify him. Here
we find that he was intended to
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be a blessing to them. Isn't
that a large-hearted thing to
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say to this group who were
so opposed to the works and
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teachings of Jesus. But here the
promise is still given to them
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that if they would
turn, they could be accepted.
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That's right. So we see the
heart and the compassion of God
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for his children wherever they
may be. These are ones who had
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openly rejected. Like I said,
many of them had been shouting
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crucify him, crucify him,
but God's heart goes out to them
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for their salvation. Now what's
interesting as we come into
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chapter 4, verse 1 it says,
Now as they spoke to the people
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the priests, the captain of the
temple and the Sadducees came
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upon them being greatly
disturbed that they taught the
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people and preached in Jesus
the resurrection from the dead.
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Now the gospels teach us that
the Sadducees did not believe in
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the resurrection. What's so
interesting here is that the
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Sadducees in light of this
miracle, and we're going to go
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on in this chapter and see that
this was an unrefutable miracle.
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I mean everybody had to
acknowledge that this was a
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miracle of God. And yet the
Sadducees were so disappointed
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that their belief, their opinion
was contradicted, somebody had
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a different Bible opinion than
them, they were so disturbed by
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that that they overlooked
all the evidence of power and
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miracle and just wanted to get
to silence this message because
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it was going contrary to what
they taught. So it says as they
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spoke to the priests, the
captain of the people and the
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Sadducees came upon them, verse
2, being greatly disturbed, and
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then verse 3 says, and they laid
hands on them and put them in
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custody until the next day for
it was already evening. However,
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many of those who heard the word
believed and the number of men
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came to be about 5000. Now it's
interesting here. The number of
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men, we're not counting women
and children, and the Bible does
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this in many places, so the
church is growing quite a bit.
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Before we get into that though,
it's interesting the language
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here of verse 2, they were
greatly disturbed, I'm sorry
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verse 1 it says, the Sadducees,
the priests and the captain of
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the temple came upon them.
I think of the language there,
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they came upon them. What does
that conjure up in your mind?
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They came upon them... Pardon
me guys, could we uh-huh have a
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conversation with you? No. Came
upon them. In other words, it
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tells us that they were very
disturbed, but this is a very
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forceful and forcible approach
to the apostles and it says in
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verse 3, they laid hands on them
so they took them violently.
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This is a characteristic that we
find. It's interesting that they
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don't come to Peter and John and
say now listen guys, let's look
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at scripture and look at what
you guys are teaching. They can
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not refute their teaching
and it's characteristic when a
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person can't refute from
the word what they disagree with
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that they turn to
argumentiveness and violence.
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So they took them by forceful
hands and it says they put them
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in custody until the next day
for it was evening. It was too
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late to do anything and so they
put them in jail. Think about
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this for a minute. Peter and
John are taken by the religious
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leaders and put in jail. What is
going through their minds here?
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What are they on the heels of.
They just preached about that
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the crucifixion of their
own Master. So they're in jail
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awaiting a decision the next
morning which is likely in their
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minds going to be death. And
this is where you're going to
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pick up in a little bit here,
but we see in verse 4 however...
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It's interesting, however, in
spite of all of the opposition
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from the leaders we see the
church growing to be now about
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5000 men not counting the women
and children. So the church is
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exploding. We see the power of
God growing the church in spite
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of some of the opposition.
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It seems as though the more
forcible they were the more the
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church grew. It just wasn't a
good argument. It wasn't a good
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way of handling it and people
were smart enough to see the
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evidence of the Holy Spirit and
the evidence of God in what was
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happening with the apostles
and they could clearly see that
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there was nothing that the
priests and rulers could do to
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refute that. So they are brought
to another forcible situation.
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This is really perhaps the
highlight of this chapter here
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in chapter 4. Beginning in verse
5 we'll read there. It says, and
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it came to pass on the next
day that the rulers, elders, and
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scribes as well as Annas the
high priest, Caiaphas, John and
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Alexander and as many as were
of the family of the high priest
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were gathered
together at Jerusalem.
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Now you read this list and there
is not really too much left out,
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right? I mean, this is all
the religious leaders, all those
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with authority. Right.
I was looking up some of
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the names and Alexander
is a name, for example, that
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commentators aren't quite sure
who he was. John was a man who
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was a very influential leader in
Jerusalem in those days and the
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surrounding area. So the idea
we get is besides the religious
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leaders, the highest religious
authorities in the church, you
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have other people that are
men of reputation which is very
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significant here.
That's right. And in verse 7
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they put Peter and John in a
very awkward situation. It says,
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They set them in the midst. They
asked by what power, by what
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name have you done this. So they
set them in the midst, right
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here in the middle. You can
imagine the spotlight, as it
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were, was upon them and all
of the power and authority to do
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with them what they would was
surrounding them. And you can't
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help but think back to the
trial of Jesus. And Peter here
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especially has to be,
through his mind, experiencing,
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re-experiencing, revisiting what
happened at the trial of Jesus
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when first Jesus was taken
rather forcibly and then he was
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taken to the judgment hall, and
as he was taken to the judgment
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hall Peter followed, John
followed, but the Bible says
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that John followed right in with
Jesus but Peter followed at a
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distance. It's never
safe to follow at a distance.
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You know, it's interesting too,
Jim, I've looked this up on all
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of the synoptic gospels, Matthew
Mark and Luke. It tells us that
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Peter followed at a distance.
In other words, none of them
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left that detail
out. That was significant.
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It was important because of the
fact that that seemed to be the
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reason or the
cause for Peter's denial.
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Yeah. It tells us something
about Peter and his character
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there. That's
right. So Peter enters in
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at a distance and of course
we recognize that Peter was told
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prior to this by Jesus that
he would deny him three times
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before the cock crowed twice.
And sure enough, Peter is asked
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by a girl and in one case it
even says that he's asked by the
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servant of the high priest who
he is and isn't he with Jesus.
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It's interesting to me
that Peter denied Jesus to this
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servant of the high
priest, someone who was really
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relatively low authority in
comparison. But now here he is,
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not before the servant of the
high priest and a girl, but here
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he is before Annas, Caiaphas, as
you said renowned leaders, the
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rulers, the elders. Peter is
brought back into this situation
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Now previously when Peter was
in that situation he cared more
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about his reputation than he
actually was a man of character
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at that point. He thought of
himself more than he really was.
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So it was that when the time
came he denied three times and
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after that happened the Bible
says that the Lord turned and
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looked right at Peter. You can
imagine what happened when the
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Lord turned after Peter denied
him that third time, the Lord
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turned and looked at Peter and
Peter was broken and the Bible
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says that he went away and wept.
So then we had the crucifixion
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of Jesus. We have that beautiful
story of the restoration of
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Peter. You know, I
think about that for
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a minute. I think about times,
and I hate to say it, where I've
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had situations in my life where
I maybe in high school was with
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a group of friends who didn't
like one of my friends and they
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were a real friend of mine but
I was in that group and when the
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pressure was on and they were
talking negatively I joined in
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and then the friend that
was being talked about found out
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what I said. You know, I never
intended to hurt my friend but
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the point is I caved in because
of that love of reputation and
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when they found out and I saw
what it did to them and how it
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hurt them you know I remember
how it made me feel. That's a
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pale comparison to where Peter
was where Jesus eyes meet him
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right in the midst of his denial
and the rooster crows and then
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the Bible says in Luke that
Jesus looked right at Peter.
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And in that moment here's Peter
denying his master with cursing
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and swearing and while the
swearing is still on his lips
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Jesus looks right at him
and it pierced his heart.
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But now Peter has, after going
through that experience, had to
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also be reinstated and you
remember that Jesus met him
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during those 40 days after his
resurrection when he appeared
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to the disciples and he asked
him three times do you love me,
00:12:32.96\00:12:36.76
do you love me, do you love me?
And Peter received once again
00:12:36.79\00:12:41.75
the assurance that he was a
disciple of Christ. But yet it
00:12:41.79\00:12:46.06
still weighed upon his heart
that he had denied his Lord.
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So what we see here is a very
eerie similarity to that trial
00:12:51.11\00:12:55.72
of Jesus. And Peter is here
being given a second chance.
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How will he respond when, as he
stated earlier, it appears that
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there's no hope, there is no
opportunity, no out. As far as
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he can see there's no evidence
that he's going to get out of
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this. Just like Jesus
was crucified after his trial
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Peter now what is he going to
do? Is he going to try to skate
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out of it, is he going to try
to evade it? That's what he did
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before. But this is the new
Peter and we're about to see
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one of the most miraculous
changes or conversions seen and
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expressed here in the
answer of the apostle Peter.
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Absolutely. And we're going
to see it after we break. We're
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going to take a short break here
and I hope you come back with us
00:13:36.29\00:13:38.56
as we look at this
transformation that God gave
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in the life of the apostle
Peter We'll see you in a minute.
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