The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - Peter's Message / Israel's Response Part 2

[0:00] a significant amount of the early chapters of the book of Acts, and we will be asking you to follow along in whatever Bible you have. I trust you have a Bible with you.

[0:10] If you don't, you may have a person next to you. Be kind enough to share their text with you. We will be looking at several portions in early Acts, and we will attempt to regain the continuity of our current study relating to the Jewish final solution to the world's problem.

[0:30] And I say to retain or regain our continuity because we haven't been engaged with this material for the past couple of weeks, so there will, of necessity, be a little bit of review, but we will be moving very, very rapidly through these early chapters.

[0:48] And I have some propositions for you to consider before we actually get to the text, so let me just get these on the table, if we may, before we begin.

[1:02] We talk about the Jewish final solution to the world's problem. What is the world's problem? The world's problem is this. The world is broken. It is in desperate need of a thorough rehab program.

[1:16] The brokenness of the world is dramatically reflected in the lives of broken people, all of whom are under the sentence of death for our several moral infractions against God and each other.

[1:33] These moral infractions the Bible calls sin. And the result not only in spiritual death, but in physical death as well.

[1:47] Spiritual death separates our human spirit from our physical body, and physical death separates our human spirit from our human body. God, solely as an act of redemptive grace, promised provision for our broken world and its broken lives, via the redemption, to be accomplished by a Redeemer.

[2:13] We saw this promise given to Adam and Eve as soon as the need for redemption occurred, following their original sin. God assured our first parents that a Redeemer-Deliverer would be a direct descendant of the woman, and he would effectively neutralize the effects of sin via this divine human Redeemer, becoming a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the entire broken world, and all of its residents of all time.

[2:47] This Redeemer was later promised via the seed that was to come through Abraham.

[2:58] No one dreamed that God would wait 4,000 years before sending that promised Redeemer. Then when he came, the only question in the minds of the Jewish people through whom his promised coming would be realized was whether or not this Jesus of Nazareth was truly that promised one God said he would send.

[3:28] John the Baptizer said he was. The Twelve Apostles said he was. The voice that was heard from heaven at Jesus' baptism said he was.

[3:41] The demons said he was. The dying thief on the cross said he was. The Roman soldier at the crucifixion who was involved in carrying out the physical crucifixion of Christ said he was.

[4:03] Well, who was saying he was not? It was the Jewish hierarchy of the high priest, the chief priests, the Sadducees, and others of the 70-member ruling Jewish Sanhedrin who said he was not.

[4:26] They said they would not have this man to reign over them. He did not have the credentials that they thought the Messiah should have. So they soundly rejected him.

[4:41] Jesus enjoyed, and this is a very important distinction to make. Jesus enjoyed popular support, but never received official support.

[4:55] Official support, or lack thereof, determine the direction of a body politic unless grassroots movement arises to overthrow it.

[5:08] There is in place in virtually every institution, be it a nation or whatever, a hierarchy, a leadership that is established, and they are in the position of making policies, passing laws, etc.

[5:22] And officially, their word goes. And the people have to live under that. Unless there is sufficient displeasure and disregard and unhappiness about it all, and there is a popular grassroots uprising among the common people who rise up and overthrow that, that's the way it's going to remain.

[5:47] That's officialdom. And by the way, we are all familiar of there being a number of popular uprisings that have come to the fore and have overthrown the powers that be.

[5:58] Our own nation was birthed in a circumstance like that when the public cried out to King George and said, enough is enough, and we ended up going to war over that, otherwise known as the American Revolution.

[6:16] Numerous regimes throughout the world have been overthrown in a coup or a riot or a rebellion where kings have been tossed off of thrones, queens have been beheaded, and the populace have taken over in a popular kind of way and established a new government, a new law and order.

[6:34] So this isn't anything new. Even though our Lord was received, not merely received, but enthusiastically received by the common people and the population in general, that grassroots movement was never able to significantly gain numbers so as to be able to overthrow the establishment.

[7:02] And a principal reason that this never happened, you've got to understand the political dynamics that existed in Israel at the time, but it was partly because the Jewish hierarchy, and I'm talking about Sanhedrin, shakers and movers in Israel, chief priests, Sadducees, etc.

[7:20] That was the Jewish hierarchy. They enjoyed the official support of the Roman government that was occupying at the time, and any attempt to overthrow the religious heads of Israel would be met by Roman military authority.

[7:41] Larger than that was the overarching sovereignty of God that causes all things to work after the counsel of God's own will. And how God meshes human responsibility and culpability to his own sovereignty, we can scarcely understand.

[8:00] But make no mistake, he does. So all of this brings us to our currently impending crisis, and it is a crisis that we have developing here in these chapters of the book of Acts.

[8:15] This crisis that is found in these early chapters is going to be very significant and play a key role for what is happening in the world even today as we speak, particularly in the Middle East.

[8:27] Be reminded that while the time-space history of the Acts of the Apostles transpired over a 30-year period, you read the 28 chapters of the book of Acts, and if you are a fast reader, you can read the 28 chapters in 45 minutes without any difficulty at all.

[8:50] But you've got to remind yourself that these events that are being described in those 28 chapters took 30 years for them to develop. Great effort, and this is really, really important, I'll please pick up on this.

[9:06] Great effort should be used to avoid Christianizing these early chapters of Acts because everything in these chapters will remain very intensely Jewish, not Christian.

[9:32] That is really important to understand. for Christians, yes, contributes to our understanding, absolutely.

[9:44] But are these chapters revealing Christianity? Not really at all. It is revealing a more graduated Judaism, and by that I simply mean it involves a number of Jewish people who are embracing Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, as the one that God promised.

[10:10] But it is still very, very Jewish. And think of it this way. The Acts of the Apostles, especially the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, is really nothing more than a continuation of the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Luke.

[10:29] Dr. Luke, who is a very observant and fastidious recorder, wrote both the book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke. And the continuity between the events that conclude the four Gospels and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles is very brief indeed.

[10:50] In fact, there's only ten days that separate them. From the time our Lord ascended in the presence of the Apostles as they watched Him go up, He'd given them orders and said, Remain in Jerusalem until you are endued with power.

[11:06] They didn't know when that would be. And they didn't know what the occasion would be. But what God had planned all along was for the soon arriving day of Pentecost that was scheduled on the Jewish calendar would be upon them in ten days.

[11:22] And that would be the time that God is choosing to reveal Himself through the Holy Spirit and the miraculous signs that accompanied it. So all of this is intensely Jewish.

[11:34] Don't try to make these people Christians. They weren't Christians. And this isn't Christian baptism in Acts 2.38. It's Jewish baptism. It's John's baptism.

[11:45] It's the baptism with which they were already familiar. And it's the baptism that many of them had earlier refused. Because some in that crowd to whom Peter preached on Pentecost did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

[12:02] And when Peter preached I'd give anything to know how many people were there. As I've often told you and so say I now again because I want you to understand this. We become so enamored with the 3,000 that believed and were baptized and thank God for every one of them.

[12:19] I can't imagine what it would be like preaching to a crowd of 3,000 people. Believing. But how many were there? We don't know. If you understand the significance of this day Passover it literally meant any Jew who could possibly do it would be there in that temple complex on this day.

[12:47] In fact the law of Moses even required them to be present if they were 20 years of age and upward and were at all possible to be there. They were to be there on the feast of Pentecost the feast of Tabernacles and the feast of Passover.

[13:01] And it was a feast. I mean they pulled out all the stops the food was incredible the wine flowed freely it was a time of joyous celebration and everything that went with it. It was a real happy time. Big celebration.

[13:12] A huge celebration. The equivalent of a 4th of July and Labor Day and Memorial Day and everything all thrown in together for Israel.

[13:23] It was just a really big deal. And it was all Jewish. And all of those people who are listed as having arrived there from all over the Mediterranean world they were all Jews.

[13:34] That's why they were there. Not only was it all Jews Gentiles were not allowed. They had no business being there. This was sacred to the Jews. And all of these people gathered together who knows how many we aren't told how many there are.

[13:49] But I want to remind you the Temple Mount the Temple Mount encompassed a physical size equal to 12 football fields.

[14:02] That's a big area. And that's how large it is today by the way. If you go there as a visitor you can see this is how Cain Herod expanded the whole thing.

[14:12] It was an enormous building project that he undertook. So how many people were there I don't know but I would bet the farm there were a whole lot more than 3,000.

[14:26] And out of those who were there there were already a number who were believers in Jesus as the Messiah. So they didn't have a decision to make they'd already made one. But out of those who previously rejected Jesus as being the Messiah when Peter preached that message in Acts 2 it hit them like a thunderclap.

[14:45] Peter connected the dots and all he had to work with was the Old Testament. But that's all he needed. And when he warmed to his subject and revealed to these people that Christ was the one Jesus of Nazareth was the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets and began connecting those Old Testament dots and those passages and throwing them out there these people were saying themselves God this man's right I can't believe this it all connects that must be the way it is we have been wrong we really blew it I can't believe we didn't see it he's right it all fits now I see I get it now what can we do man's crucified we killed him what can we do now Peter said you can be big enough to reverse yourself do you have enough courage do you have enough moral stamina to be able to say

[15:52] I have been dead wrong about this and I need to change my thinking because this information requires it and 3,000 of them did what can we do Peter says you can repent you can change your mind and you can be baptized in the name of the one who you refused to be baptized in his name before and if your repentance is genuine you won't have any problem submitting to water baptism and 3,000 did and I don't know to this day what the mood was I don't know Presbyterians say they were sprinkled and Baptists say they were immersed and Lutherans say they were poured we don't have any footage that we can rerun of that and see exactly how it was done and some even go so far as to say it was a kind of self-administered baptism where they stood in water up to the waist and dipped themselves down under the superintendency of John who was there and oversaw the whole thing so the jury is still out on that but we do know that it was whatever they regarded baptism and it was

[17:02] H2O so Peter's second sermon begins in Acts chapter 3 now this is a follow up and it is very close to the time frame of chapter 2 but we don't know exactly how close because as you'll notice between chapter 2 and verse 47 we have that the people were praising God having favor with all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved we don't know how much time lapsed between the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 which says now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour the hour of prayer this was 3 o'clock in the afternoon Jewish time and I'm not going to take the time for time's sake to read the verses that follow having to do with the healing of this man who had never walked a day in his life and he was over 40 years old and the consequence of that act drew a crowd drew a huge crowd because nothing draws a crowd of people like a crowd of people when anyone sees a crowd of people they always wonder what's going on over there and everybody starts running over there because nobody wants to miss out on whatever it is that's happening and this crowd is building and gathering and they're all looking at this guy and somebody points out hey that's that's so and so somebody's not him he can't walk but it is him I tell you I know he's been there for years and they start talking about this guy and the word went around like wildfire that this guy is jumping up and down looking at his feet and his legs and he's kicking and he's gone and he runs over and he hugs Peter and then he runs over and he hugs John and he's just absolutely elated and all this crowd is building looking on and all this what is this what's going on here what's this all about anyway and Peter capitalizes on the opportunity verse 11 says while he was clinging to

[19:16] Peter and John wouldn't let go of him all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon full of amazement and when Peter saw this he replied to the people men of Israel boy I can just see him thundering out that big fisherman that booming voice of his men of Israel and everybody calms down and starts to listen why do you marvel at this or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus the one whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he decided to release him but you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you this sounds very much like his first Pentecostal message in chapter two and in essence it's just a continuation of it but probably with a lot of different people and no doubt some of the same people were there so you've got some of the old crowd and some of the new crowd but they're hearing all of this and he goes on to explain verse 19 he's got a fiddle with one string on it what is it repent repent repent repent and he gives them reason to repent and the reason is they've got new information they didn't have before didn't understand before now they do now you need to change your mind this is a message that never goes out of style and by the way it needs to be understood that repentance is not only for unbelievers repentance is for

[21:00] Christians anytime you change your mind about anything and it doesn't even have to do with a moral or spiritual issue as I explained before anytime you change your mind that's effectively repenting it means you reverse yourself from a position you previously held and it isn't necessarily anything to do with religion although that's the way the term is generally used people associate repentance with something religious that you do but all it means is the Greek word is metanoia it is a mental process you change your mind and you always have the same reason for changing your mind that is you now know something that you didn't know before and it causes you to take an entirely different approach to something it's getting new information that's what the basis for repentance is and Peter is saying I've just given you the information I've just showed you I've given you the full scoop now what are you going to do about it and a whole lot of people were big enough and honest enough with themselves to say this guy's right and I am wrong some of the hardest words you'll ever have to utter

[22:14] I am wrong it's my fault I blew it I need to change that is so therapeutic and it honors God in a way that nothing else will repent wow what a message hmm and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord what is he saying is he saying their lack of repentance is preventing the times of refreshing coming from the Lord yes that's exactly what he's saying and he is addressing exclusively a Jewish audience it is their repentance as a Jewish people for the Jewish Messiah that would bring this time of refreshing and what is a time of refreshing it is synonymous with the rule and reign of

[23:21] Christ it is synonymous with the millennial reign of Christ it is synonymous with the return of Christ it is synonymous with being the Jewish final solution to the world's problem and what Peter is saying is the only thing that is staving off that is holding off the final solution to the world's problem is Israel's lack repentance what are they going to repent about what are Jews today going to repent about same thing the Jews repented about 2000 years ago Jesus was God's Messiah and we crucified him you will not find very many of our Jewish friends today who believe that they are candidates for repentance the time will come when they will believe it and do you know what will happen when they do

[24:22] I'm talking about nationally now not a paltry 3000 or 5000 I'm talking about the nation of Israel when they repent the times of refreshing will come from the Lord that's what God is waiting for that is key that is why we're doing this series this is so germane this is so center of the bullseye for the plan and program of God what he is doing through the nation of Israel that's why Israel as a nation today is so key and so strategic and many people throughout the world have some kind of an inkling that something somehow some way is going on with Israel and that there is a special significance with Israel but they don't understand it and they don't connect it with the Bible they just know that that's something really extraordinary and I tell you everything about

[25:23] Israel is extraordinary if you stop and really look at it beginning with their mere existence and the rebirthing as a nation that's extraordinary but all of this is key this is all germane even though what we are talking about now is history but understand history is the only explanation of the present we should be lovers of history not bored by it history is significant history is his story really that's what history is this is all moving forward so look at Israel's response repent therefore in return that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times he goes on and makes his case and then look if you will at verse 24 chapter 3

[26:26] Peter says and likewise all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also announced these days they told you about this they told you it was coming it is you and he's addressing this crowd I can see Peter pointing at a big bony finger pointing to that crowd it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father saying to Abraham and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed for you first God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways well are you going to turn or not that's what he's saying and please understand this I want to inject this this is really really important Peter is making it crystal clear here in his message that

[27:28] God has still a very vested interest in Israel he has not written them off do you know who has written them off most of the Christian community because they take the position and this is historical this goes back a couple of thousand years almost they take the position that when Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah and demanded his crucifixion God said to Israel that's it I'm done with you you're cut off permanently for good I want nothing more to do with you that is not true and the Bible doesn't say anything like that but here is where there is an invalid assumption that is made by most of Christendom and that is this that the Old Testament and up to the time Jesus came that's Jewish but once the

[28:29] Jews saw to it that their Messiah was crucified then entered Christianity so when you open the New Testament many of them make the line of demarcation Matthew 1 1 when you open the New Testament that's the beginning of the Christian faith no it isn't no that is the continuation of the Jewish faith and everything Jewish that's why Jesus was circumcised he was a Jew that's why he observed the Sabbath he was a Jew all of his ministry was carried out under the auspices of the law of Moses and he made it very clear he did not come to overthrow it he came to fulfill it now follow me very carefully because this is so critical when we move from the Gospels to the book of Acts that too is a point in the minds of many for a demarcation and they say this is the beginning of

[29:30] Christianity on the day of Pentecost and nothing could be further from the truth it is a continuation of what was promised through the prophet Joel and Peter tries to make it as clear as he can when they ask what's the meaning of this Peter says this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel but to hear so many believers today well-meaning believers who know and love the Lord to hear them tell it Peter would say oh you don't know what this is oh well this is the beginning of Christianity this is the Christian church and this is by the way this is Christian baptism too nonsense it was what they always knew it to be it was the baptism of John and it wasn't the beginning of anything Christian although it was laying the foundation through the death burial and resurrection of Christ what would become known as Christianity and

[30:30] Christianity you must understand is rooted in based upon built upon flows from Judaism this is why it is so often referred to as the Judeo dash Christian concept because Judaism was the birthing of what was going to become Christianity and this is why Jews who come to faith in Jesus as their savior prefer to refer to themselves as completed Jews rather than converted Jews because that's actually what they are it is a completion so I want you to look now Peter has delivered this compelling message they've got the history of the 3000 who were saved on the day of Pentecost and now he's preaching this same message to some of the same people but no doubt different people and I want you to notice what their response is chapter four maintain the continuity there should be no break here because chronologically there is no break and while

[31:39] Peter is saying for you first God raised his servant sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways and as they were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them who are they they are the hoi polloi they are the shakers and movers they are the authorities in the issue you could tell just by looking at them the garments they were wearing these were people of status and prestige and influence and power and they see Peter preaching to these people and they start wading into them being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead well now wouldn't that normally be a wonderful thing of course it would but not if you're a member of the opposition party not if you're one who has earlier repudiated

[32:49] Jesus being the Messiah not if you were absolutely convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah he was an imposter how are you going to see yourself if you're in a position of authority and here are all these people and Peter is preaching this stuff of nonsense to about Jesus and the resurrection what's your responsibility your responsibility is to wade in and save these uneducated people from these heretics who are proclaiming this nonsense they are grieved oh no look what these guys and these gullible people they'll believe anything and he is rather persuasive in what he's saying but we know that none of this is true so they accost them and verse 3 says they laid hands on them that is they physically confronted them this is the captain of the temple guard and by the way Jews you're not going to find any Roman soldiers having anything to do with the temple these are all

[33:52] Jews these temple guard they are temple police they are the temple security detail they put them in jail till the next day for it was already evening but many of those who had heard the message believed and the number of the men came to be about 5,000 I take it that means we can add another 2,000 to the 3,000 who believed on the day of Pentecost and assuming that they were probably all men because they usually didn't count the women as an act of officialdom but no doubt there were a lot of women there as well we don't know how many and maybe fascinating account well it came about on the next day so what is this this is the day after

[34:53] Peter has preached this message that followed the healing of this man laid at the temple gate same day next day next day the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem okay we got to call an emergency meeting we've got a situation developing here and we've got to deal with and I'm sure they had the Barney Fife mentality nip it nip it nip it we got to cut this thing off right now so it doesn't grow any further all who were priestly descent and when they had placed them in the center that is Peter and John they began to inquire by what power or in what name have you done this and Peter look at this Peter filled with the Holy Spirit this is not meek scared intimidated

[35:54] Peter of old this is a new Peter this is a Peter after the resurrection a Peter who knows what he knows and he knows that he knows it and you're not going to talk him out of it you're not going to intimidate him or threaten him out of it either and Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said unto them rulers elders of the people he's addressing the shakers and movers of Israel you can just look at this crowd and see how they're dressed and they stand out like a sore thumb from all of benefit done to a sick man as to how this man has been made well let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead by this name this man stands here before you in good health and he is the stone which was rejected by you the builders but which became the very corner stone and there is salvation in no one else for there is none other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved boy

[37:22] I'd love to have heard this message and as they observed the confidence of Peter and John there's no timidity here no reluctance no tentativeness on Peter's part he's not stuttering and stumbling around for words he is boldly uttering and speaking forth in confident tones and they're listening to him it is as if they're saying this guy has been under somebody's influence whose was it well of course they know who it was they understood they understood they were uneducated untrained men they were marveling how is this guy speaking like this he said nobody what what do fishermen know anyway but fish where is he getting this and they are astounded that he's able to speak as he is and that's simply because they know nothing about the power of the spirit of

[38:24] God coming upon someone as Peter was experiencing here my oh my I love I love this response when they had ordered them verse 14 seeing the man who had been healed standing with them and you know I'm sure that some of these had to also recognize that guy they didn't have to be told who he was these people were frequenters at the temple all the time and this man who was healed had a prime position for begging he had it staked out right there and he was there every day that was his choice spot they were used to seeing him as all the time they came there there's old so-and-so sitting there begging 42 years old lame from his mother's womb never walked the day in his life and as they look and they hear Peter and they look at this man and he's standing there on two good strong legs what are they going to do the evidence is right there in front of them they had nothing to say in reply but when they had ordered them to go aside out of the council they began to confer with one another and this is one of the most pathetic conversations that ever took place and saying what shall we do with these men translated to today's vernacular what are we going to do with these guys what shall we do with these men for the fact can you believe they're calling it that a fact facts are stubborn things the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in

[40:28] Jerusalem and we cannot deny it you almost get the impression they are saying God I wish there was some way we could deny it but we can't the word's out and everybody knows it we can't deny it we can't say it's a ruse we can't say it's a set up we can't say it's a con everybody knows this is true we cannot deny it now the thought of accepting it and the consequences that go with it never occurred to them because this is an unrepentant heart we're talking about here so what are they going to do well we've got to keep this thing from spreading it's already spread more than we wanted to but in order that it not spread any further among the people let us warn them to speak no more to any man in this name that is the name of Jesus when they had summoned them they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of

[41:37] Jesus and Peter and John are not about to say well gee we wish you didn't feel that way but we don't want to offend anybody so we'll just shut up we'll just keep quiet about it we'll just keep it to ourselves after all religion is a very private thing anyway none of that Peter and John said whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God you be the judge if God tells us to do A and you tell us to do B which do you think we're going to do which do you think we ought to do we cannot stop I love this he doesn't say we will not that would be strong enough he says we cannot we cannot we cannot stop preaching in this name we just can't it's almost like even if we wanted to we can't we have to get this word out no matter what cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard and when they threatened them further they let them go not because they wanted to but they didn't have any grounds for holding them they let them go finding no basis on which they might punish them and look at this on account of the people that's the masses the common people because they the people the populace were all glorifying

[43:29] God for what had happened and the attitude of the establishment toward the common people was they're just a bunch of ignorant peasants they're easily fooled easily controlled easily influenced they're no match for these guys but of course we are and that was their attitude the man was more than 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed what we have in place here is a continuation of Israel's leadership answer to the death burial and resurrection of Christ and to their embracing him as their Messiah and as the record will continue to unfold which we will pursue in our next session we will see that their unbelief continues apace it will end up they'll be in prison they'll be released from prison and then and let me make this point very very clear then the persecution will ramp up and it's going to become more and more intense and a fellow will rise to the surface who is going to be especially strategic in the persecution of these

[45:02] Jews who had embraced Jesus as their Messiah his name of course will be the chief persecutor we could call him we could call him the Jewish Gestapo his name is Saul of Tarsus and he's going to lead the pack in the persecution of these people so the answer and the response of Israel will go on and we'll cover that in the next two chapters moving on to the stoning of Stephen and then we'll get into some middle age history regarding the nation of Israel and what they have suffered looking forward to the coming of Christ and the ultimate repentance of the nation we will take about maybe three or four minutes for questions or comments anybody have something that you'd like to share get our roving microphone going here if there are no questions we'll just dismiss but if there are I don't want to overlook them anyone you're thinking

[46:09] Sunday dinner aren't you okay well may we stand please father as we see these things revealed here in scripture we are just reminded of the awesome power of spiritual blindness and how it prevents people from really seeing issues as they are it's so easy to live in an unreal kind of world with unreal positions and not even know that we have them but your word is provided for us to give clarity and reality to life's issues both temporal and eternal and we're so grateful that it does each time the word is proclaimed there is an opportunity for it to penetrate human hearts and our prayer is today as much as

[47:13] Peter's prayer must have been the same thing for the opening of hearts to receive the message of truth and we would pray that even now for those it's entirely possible that everyone here is already a believer in the Lord Jesus but there may be those among us who never come to know the joy of sins forgiven of being cleansed and pardoned by a gracious and loving Savior and our prayer for them is that they might be willing to open their heart and mind and say Lord Jesus I've received information that I didn't know or understand before but I understand it now and I know I want you to be my Savior I want to put my trust and my confidence in you rather than anything else so I give myself to you and ask that you take my life and make of it what you want

[48:16] I want to be your willing servant thank you for the privilege believing in you if you've made that your prayer let me or someone else know because there are ways that we can encourage you and help you in your newfound faith thank you heavenly father for what you've provided for us thank you for each one here to be available to the word and we pray it will bring forth the fruit in each life that you desire in Christ's name Amen