What is the L-RD saying? (Part 2)

0:00 I don't have much to update you on in, in regards to the war in Gaza other than there still remain greater than 130 hostages that remain in captivity that remain, I, I don't know. Maybe we don't think about this. Maybe we do, I don't know. But basically, in all likelihood, they're about in solitude confinement, and they have been now for greater than a hundred days.

0:49 I think it's important for us to remember that solitary confinement is what has been used for centuries as a means of torture to, to break someone's mind. And, and if that's not enough, one of them is a baby just turned one, the whole family is still in captivity. These are things that, and, and what I've just described is probably the best case scenario. And I, and I mean that in all senses of the term

1:37 because the reports from the, the hostages who have been released is not that they were left all alone the whole time, but that unspeakable horrors were committed to against them while in captivity. And it seems to me almost unreal that today all you hear is about the horrors that Israel is committing. And no one ever makes a comment, even in passing that there's still over 130 hostages.

2:22 The war would be over simply if the hostages were released. I think there's enough pressure now that, that even if that one thing happened, Israel would drop the war even if they didn't abolish Hamas. I just, I think there's enough world pressure now for the worst. I'm, I'm telling you, that's for the worst. And the reason I'm telling you that's for the worst is because Hamas has been acting as the government. Now, let me just tell you, the legitimately voted in in a democratic process, government of the land of Gaza. They were voted in, was it 15, 18 years ago or something like that?

3:09 In 2007, whatever your math majors, y'all can do that one, whatever that is, they were voted in to be the political representation and the governing body of Gaza through a democratic process. And guess what? They have not done since, had a democratic process by which to vote again. It's unfortunate, but the reality is, is they were voted in by the people. It doesn't mean that they represent all of the people. Just like in America, I could take this either direction,

4:00 it doesn't matter which government is in power, but it doesn't represent the entirety of the United States of America, but it is the government and they are in charge. The reality is what was done on October 7th was not just an atrocity, but it was an act of war by one government against another. And the unfortunate thing is Hamas has been doing things like this almost every year for the last 15 years.

4:46 You know, they'll send over 10,000 rockets at a time. By the way, we throw these numbers out, none of us have ever, well, maybe not all of us, very few of us have ever lived in a state where rockets are coming down or we get an alert on our phone and we have somewhere between 10 and 90 seconds to seek shelter. None of us have lived in this state of being. And the reality is it begins to affect you inside. But the world doesn't say anything about that. They just say, Israel is overreacting. Israel's committing genocide.

5:32 By the way, I, I hear, I hear terminology thrown around all the time, and I'm pretty sure people don't understand what the definition of a word is, because if that were the case, Israel would just go in and kill everyone. That's the definition of genocide. Not going in and surgically removing the terrorists and in the process, having people of their own die for the sake of saving the civilians that are in Gaza. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what dictionary you look up genocide, and that's not the definition.

6:18 I don't know, maybe I use too many knots there. You understand what I mean? So I don't know. I I, on some level it's, I don't know. I, I feel I like the world is, uh, yeah, shuga, that's, I, I don't know. Uh, is is deceived. Uh, maybe that's the best way I can call it is deceived is crazy. But the reality, this is not the first time I, I think I can say our lifetime because there are some people in here and

7:04 or watching that re that we're alive. But this is not the first time in our lifetime that things like this have happened. It happened in my grandparents' lifetime. And at that point, the idea was if you tell a lie loud enough, long enough, and the lie is big enough, everybody will accept it as truth. And I think that we're at, we, we are now at that stage in the war in Israel because the lie is that Israel is committing genocide. That this is, there's no reason for this. I can't tell you how many articles I've read recently that Israel, they shouldn't exist as a nation.

7:49 They should just be Jewish people everywhere. And then on the same, in the same article, the response is also, let's just wipe them out everywhere. And I, and I think to myself, you're stating contradictory statements and, and this is where, this is, this is where antisemitism, this is, if you don't know this about antisemitism, antisemitism is in itself a contradiction. They're too powerful for us to do anything against, but also we can wipe them out. They control everything. The banking systems, all the governments of the world, they control everything, but we can still kill them and,

8:35 and we can retain control. Those are contradictory statements. I don't know if you've ever really thought about it, but those same statements are now being applied to the state of Israel in its existence. I'm, I I, I'm not entirely certain what else to tell you other than we're at a point, I mean, we've been at this point, but we're at a point where you need to pray. If you haven't yet, now's the time because it's, it's not getting any better. And the world pressure is only going to get more. At this point, I think I can say Israel is

9:24 experiencing the least amount of foreign pressure to withdraw from the war as it will from now until the end, because it's only going to get more pressure between now and then. I know that's, I'm, I'm, let me, let me get into Acts because otherwise I'm just gonna keep going. Let's talk about the Book of Acts. We are here in Acts chapter three. As a reminder, there was this lame man who was healed by Peter and John and, and when, when they were coming into the temple, they looked at the man and they said, look at me. And they, they said, we don't have any money,

10:09 but what we do have is Yeshua the Messiah and in his name be healed. And they, and Peter lifted him up and immediately his legs became strong and he began leaping in joy. And we talked about last week how this served as a pattern interrupt of all the people that are going in. And all of a sudden they see this man who's been there for over 40 years, which by the way, that number comes from chapter four, which we'll get into starting next week. But he's been there for 40 years, or he's over 40 years old, and he's always been this way in his life. And it serves as a pattern to interrupt for the people to go, wait a second, what just happened? I don't know if you have ever experienced these in your

10:55 life, but, but God uses these to get our attention where we stop and we go, what just happened? It happened in LA in not last week's tour portion, but the one before. There's this bush that was on fire, and Moses goes, what is happening? And from that, from that singular moment comes the greatest story of deliverance that serves as a pattern for every other story of deliverance. Yet to be told, Peter uses this moment, by the way, the moment, the healing moment is not the goal. I don't know if we ever think about this.

11:40 We may think about it. Some of us may or may not have ailments that we just wish the Lord would heal. The healing is not the goal. And I know that sounds callous, but the healing is not the point. The healing is the manner by which God gets everyone else's attention so that they can turn to him and praise his name. The point is praising the name of God, not the healing itself. The healing's fantastic. It's great. Someone who hasn't been able to walk for 40 years and now can get up and do things. Well, first of all, I just wanna point out he now

12:28 has a whole lot of different problems that he's gonna have to deal with. Where do I get a job? I don't have any skills. I've been sitting here for 40 years begging. What do I do? I mean, I, I I don't wanna divert our attention, but there he has a whole new set of problems now that he's healed. But the point of the healing is actually the praising of the name of God, the glorifying of God. And so Peter uses this moment for exactly what it's supposed to do. And, and he, he gathers the attention of the people and he begins to tell them why this man was healed, which is Yeshua. The Messiah is the one by whom this miracle was done.

13:21 And so we, we talked last week about the purpose of the miracle, who was Yeshua and finally, and whom do we place our trust? That was, that was kind of the three points from the first five or six verses last week. But here we are, we're coming into the final part of Peter's, of, of this message by Peter, which by the way, Peter has a message in chapter two. Peter has a message in chapter three. Peter has a message in chapter four. Does he, uh, I think he might have one in five. I can't remember five. But the reality is, is all of these messages follow similar patterns.

14:10 Why? Because they're for a singular purpose, which is revealing the person of Yeshua to those who need to know about him. And, and those who need to know about him are everyone. So his, his purpose is, is, is to reveal Yeshua. So I'm gonna read, I'm going to read this whole section again because this is all, it's all happening in one shot, by the way. It's all happening in the afternoon, during afternoon prayers. In fact, lemme just read the whole chapter now. Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the time of prayer. A man lame from birth was being carried every day.

14:58 They used to put him at the temple gate called beautiful so he could beg for Takah from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about going, uh, about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive Akah or charity. But Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, look at us. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, silver and gold, I do not have. But what I do have, I give to you in the name of Yeshua, ham Han Nati get up and walk and then grabbing him by the right hand. He raised him up and immediately the man's feet and ankles were made strong.

15:44 Jumping up, he stood and began walking, and he went with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising God. Now all the people saw him walking and praising God. They began to realize he was the one who used to sit begging for takah at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and astonishment over what had happened to him. And while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people came running toward them in the place called Solomon's Portico. But when Peter saw, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? I I'm just gonna stop here and do what I did last week. Why are you amazed the dude hasn't walked a day in his life and now he's running and jumping and praising God?

16:30 Of course they're gonna be amazed at this. So just, it's a rhetorical question, why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness, we made this man walk the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant, Yeshua, the one you handed over and disowned before Pilate, though he had decided to release him, but you rejected the holy and righteous one and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you. You killed the author of life, the one God raised from the dead. We are witnesses of it now through faith in the name of Yeshua. His name has strengthened this man from whom, uh, whom you see and know indeed the faith through Yeshua has given this man perfect health in front of you all.

17:18 Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your leaders did, but what God foretold through the mouth of all his prophets, that his Messiah was to suffer. So he has fulfilled, repent, therefore in return so that your sins might be blotted out. So times of relief might come from the presence of Otai, and he might send Yeshua the Messiah appointed for you. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of his holy prophets. Moses said, Otai, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers, hear and obey him in all that he shall say to you. And it shall be that every soul that will not listen

18:04 to the prophet shall be completely cut off from the people. Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel on have announced these days. You are the sons of the prophets and also of the covenant that God cut with your fathers saying to Abraham in your seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed? God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you all by turning each of you from your wicked ways. This is where Peter stops it. It actually, before I go on, it seems almost like Peter stops in the middle. He's not quite done. Uh, and we're gonna get into what happens next, next week because chapter four happens next,

18:52 and it's, it's real quick. Chapter three is afternoon prayers chapter four. It becomes evening and too dark to do anything. And they place Peter and John in in in prison or protective custody, whatever they call it. Uh, anyways, let's come, let's come back to chapter three. So here we are in, in, in middle, middle of the speech, the first part of the of of Peter's message. He says, you killed the author of life, by the way, those are like some strong words. And I gave the disclaimer last week of these words have been utilized against the Jewish people. Well, really for now 2000 years. But that's not the purpose. It's not what Peter is doing.

19:37 He starts off, he says, you killed the author of life and then now what he does, listen to this, he says, now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your leaders did. Peter immediately follows it up with a disclaimer that you have acted in ignorance, not even just you, the crowd, but the leaders. The leaders have acted in ignorance, but what God foretold through the mouth of his prophets that his messiah was to suffer. So he is fulfilled. Let's stop there. This you acted in ignorance. I want to, I want to come back and I wanna push in on this. Peter is referring back to a statement, just like I just mentioned, that they were involved in the killing of the author of life. Again, those are strong, strong words.

20:24 And now he's softening the accusation level to the people. And in fact, actually, it's not just that he's softening, we may miss this because, because of, of our biblical illiteracy today. But what he's actually doing is he's providing them a way out for atonement. Why is that? Because biblical law in Leviticus, and again in numbers, provides atonement only for sins that are done or committed in ignorance, never for sins that are intentional or will or, or willful or willing. So what Peter is doing here is he's saying there's still a

21:10 way for you to get atonement. It's not that you have been cut off. Now, you see, because the one who who did it willfully was cut off from the people was cut off from atonement, was put outside of the camp. Peter says it's what you did was in ignorance. And, and by doing that, he now is saying, let me tell you, there's a way to move forward and for you to receive atonement. And then if that wasn't enough of softening, he says, also, God foretold this so beyond you acting in ignorance, it was the plan of God that his messiah was to suffer in this way.

21:56 His plan has been, was presented and made known through the mouth of his prophets. And last week we, we just scratched the surface and we'll continue to, to scratch a little bit more. Uh, and at some point we will go super in depth, but it's not today. But the mouth, the his plan was presented through the mouth of his servants. And it's especially presented in Isaiah chapter 53. So what I want to do is take a moment and I want to read to you this section starting in Isaiah 52, verse 13. By the way, Isaiah 53 opens and it's actually in the middle of a, of a,

22:43 of a, a con, a conversation if we can put it that way. And, and here we get to a more appropriate starting point in verse 13 of chapter 52, behold my servant. So you know, I just read in acts that his servant Yeshua, so we talked about this last week, about this servant who's, who is the primary focal point of Isaiah 42 through 53, the servant. So here it says, behold my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Sounds great. Just as many were appalled at you. His appearance was disfigured more than any man,

23:29 his form, more than the sons of men. So he will sprinkle, many nations kings will shut their mouths because of him for what had not been told them. They will see and what they had not heard, they will perceive who has believed our report, to whom is the arm of Adonai revealed for He grew up before him like a tender chute, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nor beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief, one from whom people hide their faces.

24:17 He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he is born our griefs and carried our pains, yet we esteemed him. Stricken, struck by God and afflicted, but he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us turned to his own way. So Denai laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open he mouth like a lamb. Sled led to the slaughter like a sheep before it.

25:04 Shears is silent. So he did not open his mouth because of oppression and judgment. He was taken away as for his generation who considered for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people, the stroke was theirs. His grave was given with the wicked and by a rich man in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth, yet it please adonai to bruise him. He caused him to suffer. If he makes his soul a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the will of Adonai will succeed by his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it

25:51 and be satisfied by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will make many righteous and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion with the great and he will divide the spoil with the mighty. Because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with transgressors, transgressors for he bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. What a what a prophecy written by Isaiah. And if you, if you really take the time and look at it and, and delve into it, you can't help

26:40 but see Yeshua through it all. This servant was high and lifted up and greatly exalted. And yet many were appalled at him. They turned their face away from him. His appearance was disfigured before man. His form more the sons of man, sons of men. Peter is calling this scripture to mind. For the people who are listening, he says, not only did you kill the author of life, but you acted in ignorance so that it softens it. But not only did you act in ignorance,

27:25 but in fact it was actually God's plan. It's already been written down to the point where now if you go back and read it, what before seemed mystifying should actually be clear, because you've seen it, you've seen the reasoning behind the suffering of the servant. And here is your opportunity to respond. This is what Peter is saying to the people, here is your opportunity to respond. And he now moves on and he moves on and says, repent therefore, and return so that your sins might be blotted out.

28:14 The more I read this passage, the more I, it just has a striking resemblance to the way we pray on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, the holiday where we repent and we return to the Lord for the so that he can blot out our sins. Like it's almost the the same verbiage. We collectively come before the Lord to repent. We turn from the way that we've been living and we turn to the Lord. And as a consequence, our sins will be blotted out. How, how or why are our sins blotted out? Because they're sins of ignorance concerning our lack of recognition of the holy one of Israel.

28:59 And now if we turn to the Lord through Yeshua today, even as this lame man has done, he's placed his trust in the name of Yeshua. So also we will receive restoration and will be brought near to the Lord. It is through the work of this suffering servant that their sins will be removed, removed. And, and also, may I also say our sins. So Peter, Peter just opens this up and he says, repent and return so that your sins might be blotted out. And this is actually what happens in chapter two as as well. But what what he does now is he begins to, how,

29:46 how shall I say, peel back the onion, peel back a layer of the onion and he says, so that times of relief might come from the presence of the Lord, and he might send Yeshua the Messiah appointed for you. Peter now begins to present a futuristic reasoning for their repentance. In other words, there's, it's not just the hope of our sins being blotted out today, but actually there's an eschatological or a future hope that is dependent upon our turning from our sins today. In other words, the return of Yeshua

30:33 is dependent upon the repentance and the return of the Jewish people to the Lord. It's at this point that times of relief will come from the presence of the Lord. Why will they need times of relief? Well, I think I could ask any of you the same question. Why would you need a time of relief? Probably because they're difficult times. Whatever it is that they're going through, and we may be going through today, or maybe we're not today, but it will be tomorrow, or it was yesterday at some point. There's a difficult time. Why do we need relief? Because we go through difficult times is what the way, the way life is. And they receive relief through Yeshua because Yeshua is the embodiment of the people of Israel.

31:21 He was rejected and crucified by men. In fact, right before, right before he entered Jerusalem. And, and if you've been here for maybe, maybe eight months, you'll remember, you can remember back to the message from when we were in Luke 19, but in Luke 19, Yeshua comes down from the Mount of Olives and he's beginning to enter. He's wa he's coming down the way. And his disciples are calling out Blessed is blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, which is exactly what you, what Jerusalem is supposed to say welcoming Yeshua, but it's not Jerusalem saying it's his disciples only.

32:08 And in fact, there's some Pharisees there that I think that's the last mention of Pharisees in the book of Luke, there's some Pharisees there who say, shh, you should shut your disciples up there. Like you don't want people to get the wrong impression. And he begins to weep because it's at that moment, because it's his disciples only and not Jerusalem who's accepting him as king. He recognizes the ultimate consequence that's going to be paid, which is his crucifixion. But it's not just himself that he's weeping for. In fact, I would say he's probably not only weeping for himself, maybe he's not even weeping for himself.

32:53 Why? Because his rejection and crucifixion, because he is the embodiment of Israel, means that Israel will be rejected and go through similar treatment. So when, when, when Yeshua comes down and, and he begins to weep, it's because his suffering foreshadows the suffering of Israel. His crucifixion is being cut off from the land of the living fores shadows, the crucifixion of Jerusalem, which will occur a couple decades later, the destruction of Jerusalem where it's cut off from the land of the living. And in fact, by 1 35 all hint of everything,

33:39 Israel is removed from the land because Rome says these people are too stubborn. Like they keep coming back. We gotta change the name, we gotta call it palestinia, which has led to other problems today. But it's this whole being cut off and and rejected in that cutoff and rejected lasts for nearly 2000 years where the Jewish people suffer, they're beaten, they go through pogroms in Russia, they go through being kicked out of Spain and England and I, I think every other European country except for maybe Denmark at some point,

34:30 The Jewish people continually, there's a reason we have the name, the wandering Jew because we're continued to, we're for continually forced to move on and, and move somewhere else because we're never accepted by the society in which we live. Though often that society ends up prosperous when the Jewish people end up prosperous within them, Yeshua weeps because he knows how his people are going to suffer because he is going to suffer. But let's not stop there

35:16 because if we stop there, it it, it's a bit discouraging. Yeshua suffered, was crucified, was buried. He died. Lemme just be very clear. He died and was buried and then a couple days later was resurrected his resurrection. Therefore, if his suffering and crucifixion foreshadowed the suffering and the crucifixion of the Jewish people, then also his resurrection and his continued life represent

36:02 a day when Jerusalem and the Jewish people would be resurrected back into the land of the living and would be recognizable by everyone else. You see, that's what Yeshua's resurrection foreshadowed. Now, there are way other things that we can talk about in terms of the importance of Yeshua's resurrection for ourself, for the, the, the doctrine of resurrection for, for all of these, all, all of these different aspects. But I'm telling you that his resurrection did all of that. But it also foreshadowed the resurrection of the Jewish people who have been persecuted and suffered for 2000 years. And we have lived to see this miracle happen.

36:50 The Jewish people were physically resurrected from the dead post World War ii. The state itself was resurrected from the dead in 1948, and it became the national home of Jewish people, not quite all Jewish people. It still is working its way that direction. And then in 1967, so I just want to point out, like, just follow my reasoning here. Yeshua comes into Jerusalem. He's weeping because of the suffering, the crucifixion of what's gonna happen to Jerusalem and the Jewish people, Jerusalem being the, the leader, if you will, or representative of all of, uh,

37:37 of the Jewish people, of all of the nation of Israel. Jerusalem falls in 70 and then it's completely obliterated in 1 35. And here we are in 1967, and there's a state that's a Jewish state again. And Jerusalem once again becomes the Jewish capital of the Jewish state of Israel. That only happened because Yeshua was resurrected from the dead. If he wouldn't have been resurrected, that never would've happened because Yeshua is the living embodiment of the people of Israel both before his life and after, or we're not

38:25 after his life, were in his resurrected life, both before his resurrected life and after he embodies the people of Israel. He is the fullest expression of what it means to be the people of Israel, the suffering servant that Isaiah talks about. And it's, it's that suffering servant who brings atonement for, for, for those who need atonement, both in the people and from all of the nations. Jerusalem once again became a Jewish city in the capital of Israel in 1967. And now today we are witnessing the spiritual restoration of the Jewish people. You see, first it was, you can go look at Ezekiel,

39:12 but first is the bones that come together, then it's the body and the body of symbols, and it's the whole house of Israel that's recognizable. But what are they lacking in Ezekiel 37? They're lacking the spirit, the breath, the, the, the, the the essence of God that is within them. And now today, we're seeing the rebirth of the or or the restoration of the spirit within the house of Israel. And we're seeing this as a spiritual rep, uh, restoration of the Jewish people. But let me just tell, let me just tell you though, it seems that we're on the backside of the resurrection and therefore all things should be great that sous or the trouble is not yet over, but we look expectantly to the time

39:58 of relief when Yeshua will return again to Jerusalem as a recognized messiah who was appointed for the house of Israel and for the nations. And so we now move on here into verse 21. Heaven must receive him until the time of restoration of all the things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of the holy of his holy prophets, Moses said, IAI, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers here and obey him in all that he shall say to you. And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to the prophet shall be completely cut off from the people. Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel on have announced these days. Lemme break this down for you. Heaven must receive Yeshua.

40:46 So this is post-resurrection. Heaven must receive Yeshua. So you so Peter's explaining why Yeshua ascended to heaven and why he didn't immediately return heaven must receive Yeshua four is because there's a coming time when Yeshua will return and the Lord will restore all the things. By the way, it echoes Psalm 110, which we got into a few weeks ago where, where, uh, where the psalmist says, sit at where the psalmist says or is recording what the Lord is saying, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. In other words, you're gonna sit here, you see the, the the duration of time period. You're gonna sit here until one day I will make your enemies your footstool.

41:34 So there's a time period, a time lapse where, where, uh, he's sitting at the right hand, but his enemies are not yet a footstool. And that's the time lapse that we are in. Yeshua will be waiting in heaven until that time when his enemies will be made his footstool. We're still waiting for that, but it's coming. And so now we move on in the verse. Uh, let's see. Heaven must receive him until the time of restoration of all things that God spoke about long ago. So let's, let's do this about long ago for just a moment. It, it could be also translated some from maybe something like from antiquity or since the world began.

42:20 This expression is only used three times in the entire, the entire New Testament and all three times, guess who the author is, Luke. It starts in Luke chapter one, verse 69, 69 through 71. And I'll just read it for you. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, just as he spoke about by the mouth of his holy prophets from the ages past salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. And then we have this passage here in, in Acts chapter three, and then we fast forward to Acts chapter 15 and Acts chapter 15, it's, it's, um, James weighing in James, it's Yako, but we call him James

43:05 because King James wanted somebody in the Bible named after I'm, I'm like I say that it's not wrong, it's actually what happened. But his name was Jacob, not James, but you can call him James is fine for simplicity sake for your understanding. James is now presenting his, uh, insight on what to do with gentiles who have accepted Yeshuas the Messiah. Like what? Like what's the, how do we do this? And so they have this council and we're gonna have fun when we get to Acts 15, but it's probably, we're probably a year away if I'm gonna be like deeply honest. It's probably about a year, maybe a little less, maybe 10 months. But, um, anyway, so in Acts 15, uh, James says this,

43:54 after this I will return, uh, in 15, uh, verses 16, 17, 18. After this, I will return and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, which by the way, he's, he's referencing here Amos, uh, chapter nine, I will rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord. Namely all the gentiles who are called by my name says Iai, who makes these things known from of old. So it's, this is the same phrase that's used these three different times. And the phrase is, is not necessarily a common phrase

44:40 that would've been used at the time in all likelihood, it's a phrase that's taken from the SubT and from the SubT. The phrase can connect us to Isaiah 45. And in Isaiah 45 it says this, uh, 21 and 22, declare and present your case. Indeed. Let them consult together. Who foretold this from ancient time? Here's the phrase, who has declared it of old? Is it not I otai, there is no God beside me, a righteous God and a savior. There is none besides me, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God. And there is no other. Now, in, in, in all of these, in both the Amos passage and here in the Isaiah passage, I, I want you

45:28 to catch something that's that's almost unspoken. It's not just the restoration of Israel that is at stake here. It's not just the lives of the Jewish people that are at stake. It's, it's the gentiles or the nations as well. Why? Because God says, here, turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God. And there is no other. I know that today we live in this, in this time where, if I can call it, we live in like a post-Christian society and we don't necessarily have the gods of the ancient nations that were present during this time, during the time period of, of the composition of the Bible.

46:14 But during that time period, every nation had their own God. I I mean, maybe I should put S on there because Egypt had like a lot, which is why we have at least 10 plagues. 'cause God is waging war against the gods of Egypt to prove that he's the one and only God. We don't necessarily have those same Gods represented in society today, though there are some uncanny similarities that are beginning to emerge. We'll just leave it like that. So it's hard for us to be like, oh, you know what?

47:01 I'm not gonna serve the gods today. I'm gonna serve the God. So I usually, I have to put it in terms of what takes, what what to what? Do you devote your time? Where does all of you, where's all of your time spent? Is your time spent in disappointment because the Cowboys lost? I'm pretty sure I jinxed it last week. I'm so sorry. I I think Dak must have watched those service and, and just taken it to heart. And no, I'm just, I'm Just playing. Is your time fully devoted to something else? I'm not saying you shouldn't watch the Cowboys lose.

47:48 I'm not saying you shouldn't hope that the 49 ERs also lose. I bet my brother-in-law's watching right now. I'm not saying that you shouldn't, you shouldn't watch the cowboy. You shouldn't watch football and enjoy football. That's not what I'm ta talking to you about. But is your devotion to football, does it outweigh your devotion to the Lord? You see, that's how I, at least at this time, would qualify who whom do we serve in our society today? Well, you just go look and see where you spend all your time and that's, that's whom you serve. Let's see, let's come back here.

48:48 That's right. I don't remember where I was. Peter, By bringing in these passages is beginning to plant seeds. And I don't even know if Peter himself knows it, but by bringing in these passages, he's planting seeds for the expansion of the understanding of, of the Jewish people at this time period, to understand that Gentiles will also be grafted in and folded into the commonwealth of Israel and will worship the one true God without being Jews. And and I, the reason I say I don't know if Peter knows that he's really f folding this in right now,

49:33 but the spirit knows is because when we get to chapter 10, Peter's a little bit surprised. And then in chapter 15, there's this huge discussion and, and, and it seems if you're from a church background, it seems almost not understandable, but the, in Acts 15, and I'm, I'm gonna give like one sentence and then I gotta move on. But in Acts 15, the whole thing is, is trying to figure out what to do with all of these Gentiles that have accepted the Lord. Do they have to become Jews? Because at that point, the way of salvation was to be grafted in and to become Jewish.

50:18 And so what we have is this, is this conundrum. And so the spirit, whether or not Peter knows, is beginning to work it in through Peter's messages that there's an expansion that's going to happen that they don't even know what to do with. And so let's see, let's, um, let's keep going. So then Peter says at that, so that, that expansion we just talked about was from Isaiah 45, and also you see it in Amos a a a little bit. But then now here, Peter, Peter moves on and he says, the Lord will raise up for you a prophet, uh, talking about quoting Moses.

51:04 The Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers, hear and obey him in all that he shall say to you. And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to the prophet shall be completely cut off from the people. This is a quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 18. I deny your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers to him. You must listen. This is just what you asked of the Lord your God. And hob on the day of assembly when saying, I cannot continue to hear the voice of aai my God or see this great fire anymore, or I will die. Or let me just pause As I'm, as I'm in the middle of that quotation, this is, this is when all of the Israel and the mixed multitude are camped around Sinai, waiting for the Lord to come down and speak.

51:50 And then what we, what we read also, uh, immediately right in that context is the giving of the 10 Commandments. Um, okay, so here, Otai said to me, they have done well in what they have spoken. I will raise up a prophet like you, like Moses for them, from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him. Now, whoever does not listen to my words that this prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. I just wanna point out Moses is considered to be perhaps the greatest prophet, the greatest Jewish person, the greatest whatever you put,

52:35 you put your greatest teacher. Greatest, greatest, he's the greatest hit and Jewish history, but he's not the one because God says even in Deuteronomy, I'm gonna raise up one like him. And you have to listen to him. Why? Why would God say that? Because the Jewish people didn't listen to Moses either. We ha lemme just be self-critical of our, of, of, of our people right now. We have this uncanny ability to close our ears and stop listening. And it's frustrating. And Moses gets frustrated.

53:24 Moses experiences all this. You know what, Moses isn't the first one we talked about Joseph a couple weeks ago. Joseph has the same experience. His brothers won't listen to him, to the point where he goes off to Egypt, he becomes unrecognizable and then he becomes their savior for shadowing the life of Yeshua or Messiah. And then Peter says, all the prophets from Samuel on have spoken concerning this day, this day of restoration between brothers. This day of restoration is necessary for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth as it already exists in heaven, but not just here on earth, starting in Jerusalem.

54:13 And we continue on in verses 25 and 26, you are the sons of the prophets and also of the covenant that God cut with your father's saying to Abraham in your seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed? God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you all by turning each of you from your wicked ways. What we have here are the sons of the prophet or the sons of the covenant, both. And, and it's interesting because in Judaism when we come and we, we make requests to the Lord, we make our requests based upon the merit of a more righteous generation. Often we say, uh, based upon the merit of Abraham or Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which by the way is exactly how Peter's message started. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

54:59 and the God of Jacob, our fathers. And now we come back to it here at the end. Make your requests, uh, the sons of the covenant. We make our requests based upon the merit of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And also not just do we make our request, but the covenant that God keeps with us, he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with our fathers. And it was in this covenant that the Lord said, all of the families of the nations of the earth would be blessed. You can find that in Genesis 12. You can find it in Genesis 15, 18, 26, 34. Find it all over the place, keep it keeps going. But Peter is stressing their ongoing connection to the God

55:48 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This covenant is the foundation of our eschatological hope. In other words, the hope of what is to come wouldn't exist without the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The missing element in this case, which will begin to unfold and acts as we continue, is the recognition of the nations in that role, in, in, in, in the, in the restoration of, of all things, the recognition of the nations. The nations will turn to Yeshua. Paul begins to lay this out in Romans, and it's a beautiful, beautiful layout.

56:35 And I'm not, and and I'm not going into it today, but you can go read Romans nine through 11. It's fantastic. But the acceptance of the nations within the plan of God has been a missing element. And, and, and now what we're seeing is the beginning of the, of the laying of the foundation for what will be continued to lead developed throughout the Book of Acts. And God. So we move on in the text. God raised his servant and sent him to you first. Again, we're now connecting again back to Isaiah 53. In the servant passages, God raised the servant, the righteous one, the one that will atone for the sins of the people God has raised from the dead. In other words, what's raised from the

57:21 dead, it's resurrection. Now, why is this important? Because they're in the temple. And I've mentioned this last week and we're gonna definitely see it next week, but in the temple, the temple is governed by the priesthood, which is primarily the party that we would call the Sadducees and the Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, don't believe in the resurrection at this time period. Maybe there's a, maybe there's a few, but by and large they don't. The the, the Pharisees do and the Sadducees don't you? I learned growing up, the Sadducees were sad, you see, because they don't believe in the resurrection.

58:07 That's how you remember which one believed in the resurrection, which one didn't. Anyways, what he's doing here by high by now highlighting the resurrection and the future is scatological hope. Where we will continue to live in the day to come is it's now becoming a challenge to the governing a body at hand, literally that's in the temple. And, and we're gonna see the reaction next week and, and we'll, we'll beginning to, we'll begin to open up that can as we go through chapter four. But what he says here is he says the one, well, let's see, the righteous one, the one

58:53 that will atone for the sins of the people has been raised by God. He's been resurrected. It's, he's now con he's still, this is serving as proof concerning the validity of the position that there will be a physical resurrection from the dead. And he then says, and he was sent to you first. Now, what does that mean to me? I I, I do recognize this may be opening up another can, but there's, there's a, there's a whole lot that goes back and forth between Luke and Paul. And what we see in Paul in Romans chapter one is we have a pattern that Paul explicitly states, but it's implicit in this text. And the pattern is this, you guys are all gonna know the text for, I'm not ashamed

59:38 of the good news or the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts. And that's the end of the verse. No, it's not the end of the verse because it says to the Jew first and then also to the Greek or to the nations. So there's a pattern that Paul recognizes and he states it explicitly here in Romans one 16. But Luke is setting the pattern and he's embedding it within the text. He says, Yeshua was sent to them first. This is the crowded hand Yeshua sent to you first to bless you all by turning you from your wicked ways. The blessing of the Lord is them turning from their wicked ways. Now, I, it seems to me an an interesting thing,

1:00:27 and I'm not going to solve the dilemma because also it's getting late, but it seems to me interesting. These men are men who are going to the temple to offer sacrifices and prayer to the God of Israel. And that's what literally that they're in the midst of doing when they get distracted by this man who's been healed. And now Peter has their attention and he says, you'll, you'll turn from your wicked ways. I mean, it sounds not so wicked to me, you know, going, offering sacrifices and praying to God, like those sound like pretty respectable things to do. But in light of the previous context, the previous verses mentioned in Deuteronomy, their wickedness, could it be

1:01:13 that their wickedness comes from their lack of recognition of Yeshua as the one promised to be raised up from among his, among the brothers like Moses, and that you were to listen to him and that they didn't listen to him. They're continuing in their pattern of offering sacrifices and prayers, but they didn't listen to the one that was promised. Therefore, the, the, the, the god's words that, that occur in that Deuteronomy passage and elsewhere are, if you don't listen to that one, you'll be cut off. What is cut off. That's the, you're gonna be set out, you're gonna be put out. And there's no going back to where we started.

1:01:59 There will be no sin sacrifice for those acts because those are willful dis disobedience. Now, not just ignorance, that's what it means to be cut off, to be put out. So he says, return today because the Lord wants to bless you and turn you from your wicked ways. Open up your ears, recognize Yeshua as the Messiah, the promised one of Israel. And it's so common, it's so common today in our lives to hear that when the Lord is going to bless you, that it means with a significant financial blessing.

1:02:46 But I don't think that's true. I'm not saying that if you get financially blessed, that is not the Lord. But I don't think the blessing of the Lord can be measured in money. Yeshua suffered and was crucified, but he was the promised one, the blessed one of Israel. So I can't tie it to money so well, I don't wanna challenge anybody. But anyways,

1:03:31 the blessing of the Lord is to turn from your wicked ways. That's where the blessing of the Lord lies. Don't close your ears. Don't ignore the prophet who is, who has risen from among our brothers like Moses. Don't close your ears to him. Open the ears. And if you're thinking, well, you know, I, I know what I'm doing. I like, I got this man, our people, we've had this for 4,000 years and we are stubborn people like sometimes

1:04:16 it will do just to listen to the Lord. And let's open our ears. Let's let the Lord speak. Perhaps you don't even know who you should. Perhaps you, perhaps you don't accept Yeshua as a messiah. Here's my challenge. Go prove him wrong. I'm open to it. You go prove him wrong. Let's have a talk. You take the next six months and prove him wrong and then we'll, we'll have a conversation. 'cause I'm gonna enjoy that one. So what do we do? What's the purpose of this passage for us today? I, I honestly, I think it's, it's a very similar thing. Repent and return. Maybe you don't recognize that you missed him. Maybe it was a, a willful act of ignorance, so be it.

1:05:06 But now, you know, repent and return. Don't miss your opportunity to recognize Yeshua as the promised Messiah of Israel today. Because you will be blessed by turning from your wicked ways. That's how you'll be blessed May our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this passage. Lord, I thank you for Peter and John. I thank you for Luke who, who wrote, uh, who transcribed, who scribed this book for us. Lord, I pray that you would continue to let these words sink in and settle into our, into our, into our bodies, into our souls, into our minds. And Lord, I ask that, that you would open up the ears of your people today, that you would open the eyes

1:05:54 to recognize Yeshua as the promised one that would be raised up like Moses Lord. And just like Moses, he's been ignored and not listened to and, and, and just like Joseph also. So Lord, I ask that today you would begin to work in the hearts of those who don't know Yeshua as the Messiah, Lord, that you would draw your people to you today. Lord, we bless you and praise you in Yeshua's name. May, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you

1:06:40 and give you peace in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.