For our scripture reading, we turn to the book of the Acts of the Apostles. We read the third chapter and the first four verses of chapter 4. The book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3, verse 1, to chapter 4, verse 4. Let us hear the word of God. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gears on him and said, Look at us. And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold, But what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk. And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up. And immediately, his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap, he stood upright and began to walk. and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why do you gaze at us? As if by our own power or piety, we had made him walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. The one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know and the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled. Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and 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 time. Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To him you shall give heed to everything he says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also announced these days, It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, 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. As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until 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 five thousand. Amen. May God bless to us His Word. This evening I want to bring together two verses from different chapters in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. They're not that far apart. The first is in the second chapter, and the second in the chapter that we have just read. The verses are Acts chapter 2 and verse 24, and Acts chapter 3 and verse 21. Let me read them to you. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. And Acts chapter 3 verse 21 reads, 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 time. Now we will find, I hope, that these two statements can be associated with each other without either of them being forced against their meaning to do so. And the very fact that that can be done, and not only from chapters like Acts 2 and 3, but from Genesis 1 and Revelation 22, is an indication that the ultimate author of Holy Scripture, these 66 books is none other but the one God of truth himself. What I want to do is to mention two or three ways in which these two verses can be linked with each other and to see what can be learned from them. And beginning at the very primary and obvious level, they can go together because, of course, it was one and the same person who uttered these words. Namely, Peter, Simon the fisherman, preaching in Jerusalem to the Jews, both in the record that we have in chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, and then a little while afterwards preaching to the same people, well, some of the same people at least, In the same city, in the third chapter. Now let's ponder that fact for a moment. That here we have Simon the fisherman. Or the apostle Peter, as he now was. And if we think of him individually, as a disciple, now an apostle of Jesus Christ. then the very fact that he was the one who made these unambiguous assertions has something to say to us. What it has to say, of course, is about the great difference, the transformation that the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ had made to Simon Peter by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here was the untrained fisherman whom the Jewish rulers regarded as not having had the benefit of a rabbinic education, Acts 4.13, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And yet, in spite of the fact that Peter did not have the advantage of such an education, here you find him making the most immense and profound doctrinal statements. We oughtn't to think for a moment that when, toward the conclusion of his second epistle, he referred to the beloved brother Paul, who had written in his epistles some things that were hard to be understood that Peter was thereby saying of course I'm not a theologian as the Apostle Paul is he had no difficulty in understanding what he'd read of Paul what he was saying about him and his writings was that the unstable and the ignorant twisted their meaning to their own destruction here then is Peter the theologian and we need to rehabilitate him in our thinking in that regard like John, like Paul Peter too was a theologian of the Christian faith his understanding had become informed and enlightened by the revelation that Jesus Christ had given now brought home to him by the enlightening ministry of the Holy Spirit but then of course there is another level on which we can think of him isn't there Here is the disciple who denied the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who was sure that he would, far from denying him, doubtless die for him. Go to prison with him. Die with him. If that is what he were called upon to do. Well, he learned something of his own weakness, you remember. Denying the Lord three times with oaths and cursing. And he went out and he wept bitterly when the eye of the Lord Jesus Christ, passing to his trial and to his crucifixion, fell on him and I met I. Peter not only realized what he had done, but he realized that in spite of that, the Lord still loved him. And that is what broke his heart and made him weep bitterly. But here he is in Jerusalem of all places, not in the corner of a courtyard. Here he is standing openly, not skulking and hiding away. Something's happened to the man, hasn't it? He has a knowledge and an insight, a clarity, confidence and a certainty. And that is the hallmark of a New Testament Christian. A knowledge of who Jesus Christ is, a certainty about him. A confidence that he has been raised from the dead, his work of atonement completed, accepted, salvation secured. The one who has disowned and rejected has been accepted by God and enthroned by him at his right hand and for Peter here in Jerusalem the invisible was more real than the visible the heavenly more real than the earthly this is that boldness that we thought about a little while ago and that is to characterize the Christian diffidence, hesitation, uncertainty, doubt, apprehension is antithetical to true Christianity. And so I ask you, as I ask myself this evening, do we know anything about this certainty and this boldness before a world that more and more is marginalizing the Lord Jesus Christ and the church? We should. And so these statements have that to say to us. But then we can think of Peter as the representative spokesman of the Christian church. Because this is what we find in the early chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. To him, you remember, as the representative of the disciples and the apostles, the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given, by which the door into God's mercy, pardon for sin, was either opened through the proclamation of the gospel or closed against the impenitent. And that's what he's doing. He's calling upon those who are hearing him to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Life, the Christ of God, their Messiah, and to turn to that offer of pardon and salvation which is found in him alone. And remember that he was doing it to Jews. He was doing it to the covenant people of God in the outward sense at the time. In spite of all the privileges that were theirs, Judaism was a corruption of the Old Testament faith and practice. Now, if Peter proclaims the gospel to them, then the gospel is to be proclaimed to everyone. If Jews need to believe in Jesus, as they do, in order truly to become part of the Christian church and to enter into life, then Buddhists do, Muslims do, Hindus do. Practitioners of any religion or a mixture of them all, such as the paganism that is current at the present time. And the Apostle Peter speaks specifically, directly, you did it, your sins, turn, repent, pardon. So must all men and women and boys and girls be addressed. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Now we could spend the rest of our time with prophet looking at Peter on the individual level because of what we could learn for ourselves as witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ or on the representative level in terms of what the church is to say to the world in the name of Christ. In connection then with that ongoing and assigned task of mission. Go ye into all the world. But let's just point up the questions. What am I like as a witness to Jesus Christ? What are you like? What is the church like? What ought we to be like? I'll leave it at that. Now, let's move on a little to another way in which these two statements can be associated. And they can be brought together in terms of who was being referred to. Not now who was speaking, but who was being spoken about. Because it was one and the same person who was being spoken about just as it was one and the same person who was doing the speaking. And the one, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the focal point of the believer's life and of the church's message. Let's remind ourselves of these verses. Acts 2.24 God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. And then Acts 3.21 Whom heaven must receive until the period of the restoration of all things. The first statement, 2.24, refers to his resurrection from the dead, whom God raised up again. The second in chapter 321 refers to his relocation in heaven and to the restoration of the whole universe at the end of time. You put those together and you have a composite presentation of the central truths, the chief glories of the identity and the ministry of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, raised from the dead. He returns whence He came. And from there, He will come back to restore, to renew all things permanently and eternally. Wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So happens that there are three R's here. They're not reading, writing, and arithmetic, nor are the Spurgeon's three R's of ruin, regeneration, and redemption. But there are three basics, three centralities about the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Let's just think of them a little in turn. First of all, his resurrection from the dead, Acts 2.24. Now more is said about death in this verse than resurrection. But of course, you can't have a resurrection worth talking about without a real death. It is only when death has taken place, when, if you like, when death has done its worst, that resurrection appears in all its greatness and in all its glory. And the Apostle Peter is under no doubt as to either. He did die and he was raised. What he says relates on the one hand to the factual level, to the historical event. He refers to the form of the death that he died. He refers to the cross in verse 23. He refers to those who plotted it and to those who carried it into effect at their instigation and their encouragement, all on the human level. It was godless men who at the instigation of Jewish people crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. But it isn't only on the historical plane that he speaks. He talks about death in relation to the one who died. Not merely those who actually inflicted the punishment. He speaks about the agony of death. He speaks about Jesus coming under its power. And he combines there two pictures. On the one hand he refers to the experience of being dragged down the cords of death. as the psalmist spoke of realizing that one is being confined caught brought low unable to break free in the day of one's death no one has power and so it was with the Lord Jesus Christ Just in terms of his experience, he tasted that downward, dragging, binding power of death. But also, not only does he refer to the bonds of death, he refers to the pains of death, the pangs, the agonies of death. And for him, that was not merely suffering pain of body, pain of mind, as he looked at his mother, as he looked at his followers, not merely as he experienced all the physical agonies both prior to the cross and upon the cross, But there was in addition the manifestation of the just anger of God which brought an agony into his soul that he had never ever known before. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. He said by way of anticipation even unto death time and again he had been comforted by the Father's presence. When misunderstood or misrepresented by his foes or forsaken by his friends, he said, you will leave me alone, and yet I am not alone. The Father that sent me is with me. But there came a time when he was alone. And the Son of his Father's presence, S-U-N, of his Father's presence, No longer warmed and bathed and comforted his spirit. Instead of which he knew the father's displeasure. As he was bearing the sin of his people. He entered into that. Because he was being made sin. He experienced, he tasted, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says. Not meaning that he sipped. He tasted, he experienced death for each and every one of his people and his brethren. That's what the Apostle Peter is saying here. As he describes how the Lord Jesus Christ came under the power and the pain of death. But that of course was the prelude, the necessary prelude to the glorious resurrection. God raised him up again. This wasn't a resuscitation. It was a resurrection out of death. His body was taken down, lifeless from the cross. The soldiers verified that he died. And when Joseph asked for the body to bury it, Pilate sent in order to make sure that death had taken place, Suspected that an attempt might be made to recover some hope and prospect for the future out of a disaster. He really wanted the work done and final. But the message came back, no, he had died, so he gave permission. Jesus did die. It wasn't an appearance. It wasn't a swoon. It wasn't a fit of unconsciousness. He was the one who magisterially dismissed his own spirit into the hands of his Father. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Now the way in which Peter refers to the resurrection here is very striking. It's a very daring metaphor that he uses. We've been thinking about the downward dragging, binding, painful power of death. And instead of using one word for the pangs of death, he uses the word birth pangs. You remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said with regard to the process of giving birth. Sorrow would result in joy. Those pangs are the herald of life. And that is the term that Peter uses. Immense theologian that he's become. Caesarea Philippi, this shall not be unto thee. Perish the thought. It's preposterous. You're the Messiah. Remember who you are. But now he sees it. This is the way in which God's Messiah accomplishes salvation. Enters into his glory. And so the lowest point in the experience of the human Christ becomes the presage, the prediction, the prelude to the highest exaltation. The birth pangs of life, the pangs of death. As he tasted death, he killed it. He put death to death by dying and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And that's what Peter is talking about. Great resurrection. He rose the third day after he died having conquered sin and death and hell. The next thing that he says is whom the heaven must receive. Where is he now? As has been said in many places today the tomb is empty. Where is the body? In heaven. That is where that body is. Whom God raised up from the dead. The one who was raised was the one who had died. Those who had been with Him before He died recognized Him raised as the one they'd previously known. And that one that was with them for forty days, They saw ascending to heaven, bodily, as bodily as he was resurrected bodily and was crucified bodily. There he now is, in heaven at the right hand of the majesty on high, and heaven has received him. The gates have been opened, lifted high. The King of glory has entered into His Father's side. Angelic hosts have acclaimed Him. The glory that He had with the Father before the world was, now suffuses His human nature and body. And He is the glorified God-man forever and ever. That's where he is. We wouldn't have him back here, would we? That's the second note that Peter strikes. The third is this. Whom the heaven must receive until. Until the times of the restoration of all things. You see, the events that we've been remembering today, His death and His resurrection are not the sum total of truth that ought to fill our minds and condition our lives, characterize our conduct and our expectation as we live below and look forward and upward to our eternal home, whom the heaven must receive until, just as there was a time, When he who had been with the Father before the worlds were created stepped into time. Made of a woman born under the law. Just as there was a time when he offered up himself without spot to God through the eternal spirit. Just as there was a time when He ascended and returned whence He came, so there is a time, and it is coming nearer, when He will come back. Not as he came before. Not to do what he came to do before. Not in order to deal with sin. Not in the form of a servant. But he comes back to subdue all things unto himself. He comes back to effect that total renovation of the universe. removing from it all that offends, everything that decays, all evidences of sin and the fall, a new heavens and a new earth, the restoration of all things. He comes back and He brings with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him and their bodies are raised to meet their ransomed spirits and those that are alive and remain will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord and all the former things, all evidences of sin and the fall and the curse will be completely obliterated and removed. There will only be that place beyond. That other realm, that outer darkness, that bottomless pit, that lake of fire, where God is not absent, that would be the wish of everyone who does not believe in Him, to be forever without Him. it is impossible to be in hell is to be in the presence of God without a mediator not to be banished forever outside the realm and reach of His holy majesty and just this pleasure Jesus Christ will return and renew and restore and subdue and structure and order permanently. There will be no rerun of the temptation in Eden. This is eternity. This lasts forever. Destinies are distinct and unending. Where will you be on that day? What think you of Christ? Is He to you the One who died for your sin? Who rose for your acceptance with God? Is He the One who is at God's right hand for you now? Acting as your advocate, sustaining you by His providence? Is He the One who is going to come back to take you to be with Himself forever? Heaven is your home. it's not otherwise now is the day of salvation now is the appointed time and that's this vast, harmonious profound, immense depiction of the Lord Jesus Christ that the fisherman presents to us there's one other thing I want to say and it's this The third way in which these two statements come together. One and the same person said them. They were spoken about one and the same person. The third thing is this. That Peter used the same kind of language in speaking about the resurrection the relocation in heaven and the restoration of all things look at Acts 2.24 but God raised him up again putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. Then, whom heaven must receive until the period of the restoration of all things. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying the resurrection was inevitable. So was the relocation in heaven. Just as the tomb could not retain him, heaven could not refuse him. And then he makes this tremendous leap forward. Whom the heaven must receive until the time of the restitution of all things. By which he means that there will come a time when heaven will have to release him. Just as the tomb had to release him. And as he emerged triumphant from the dead. He will return triumphantly from heaven, and every eye will see him. The resurrection has taken place. So has the ascension. So will his return. And it's these assertions that Peter is making to an unbelieving people. We need to make them face to face with a secular age or a pagan world. What is it that we're saying? To what level does our faith rise? Is what we are able to say something like this? You can't disprove that he rose. You can't disprove that he is in heaven. I have a right to believe that. And you can't say me nay. That's not enough. To be able to say that. is valuable and important. But it doesn't rise to the height of Peter's faith and confidence at this point. Nor to say to the world, because you can't disprove it, try it. See if it works. Peter goes further than that. He looks at these events not from the standpoint of human beings, not even from the standpoint of historical events, the two that have taken place. He looks at these events from the standpoint of God and His purpose, and the identity of Jesus Christ. And what he's saying is this, because He is the Christ of God, because He dealt with sin, which is the precursor of death, and dealt with sin to the satisfaction of God, keeping the law, bearing the punishment. Death's sting has been extracted. Death is powerless because sin has been conquered. How then can the grave contain Him? It is impossible. Atonement has been made. Sin and death and hell have been conquered. It is inevitable that He is going to rise from the dead. And so it is impossible for heaven not to receive him, isn't it? All that the Father asked him to do, to take human flesh, to live on earth, to keep the law utterly, totally, to bear the penalty of its having been broken exhaustively, he did. Here was one in whom perfect holiness could rest satisfied. He magnified the law and made it honorable. He bore the curse and exhausted it. He lived and died to the satisfaction of God. The gates have to open. The throne has to be occupied. He must be welcomed. So he was. It is impossible for heaven not to receive him. But it's also impossible for heaven to contain him. Why? Because here on earth his name is blasphemed. His work is denied. His law is rejected. His gospel is slighted. His name is dishonored and blasphemed. And He is Lord. And we are creatures accountable to Him. And this universe is His. It was brought into being through His powerful activity. He upholds it. Everything is in His hands. It is impossible that there should be a realm that exists in defiance of Him, of His saviourhood, of His Lordship. He is Lord of all authority. He must return because not everything has yet been put under His feet, but it will be. When he returns, Satan will be cast out. The impenitent will be judged. Varnished along with the one whose promptings they have followed. And Jesus Christ will secure the unwilling submission of everyone, everything. Heaven, earth and under the earth. Because he is Lord of all. He'll come. He's on His way. And one day you and I will look back at the whole scene, the whole track of history, and be able to look at it, or be able to begin to look at it from the same standpoint as God envisaged it, as He looked and saw the fall. And as he determined to save and formed a plan and secured the willing cooperation of Father, of Son and Spirit and they set about it and they moved toward Calvary as Abram and Isaac moved up Mount Moriah to the sacrifice to the time when it was said it is finished. And then everything works out by way of application, mysteriously, wonderfully, progressively, ultimately, climactically. And we'll be able to begin to see it all. You know what will happen, don't you? We'll say, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Salvation unto our God who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Let us pray. Help us, O Lord, to be worthy or worthier of the name we bear the one who loved us washed us from our sins in his own blood made us a kingdom and priests unto God our Father help us to serve him confidently, humbly, gladly wholeheartedly day after day and use us to make his name known we sanctify he shall reign and never be dethroned and we shall reign through and with him forever Amen