A point I didn’t get to make last week…you can have an awesome teacher, an awesome lesson, but unless you are an awesome student then the result is going to be less than awesome!  Isn’t that stupid!?  HA!  But it is SO true!!  Does the Word matter to you!  After Peter explained to them what they were seeing and explained to them what happened at the cross of Jesus Christ, they responded.  Why?  Because they considered what was being said!  They let it sink in…

So many lives sink, go under, especially in the church because the Word of God is not allowed or invited to sink into their hearts…make a difference in their lives.  I was thinking about sinking and it reminded me of perhaps the greatest example of a ship sinking in all of recorded history.  You know it’s interesting, John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on board the Titanic.  His estimated net worth was $85M which is approximately $2B in today’s valuation.  His money, all that he amassed in this world…couldn’t save him once the ship began to sink…

The iceberg that sank the Titanic…the ship’s captain had received several warnings that huge icebergs were spotted along the planned travel path of the ship.  Those warnings went unheeded.  Didn’t sink in.  In the highest point of the ship, the crow’s nest, were found no binoculars…no one watching for the danger…and the actual iceberg itself was spotted only 30 seconds before impact…the first mate commanded the ship to turn but it was too late…plenty of warnings, to the point that several people decided not to board…including George Washington Vanderbilt II, JP Morgan and Milton Hershey…for others, including the ship’s captain, the warnings, the words didn’t sink in…and by the time it did, it was much too late…

Man, a Bible study such as Peter gave, a call to everlasting eternal life, a invitation to know God personally, one on one, without a willing hearer, an awesome student…the very best and most valuable information in all of the world becomes without power and useless…when it comes to the things of God, the things of truth, what kind of student will you be?  The choice is entirely yours…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 38 – 39

• To call someone to “Repent,” is to call someone to “Believe,” “Change,” Be-Leaving! “Leave where you are today and MOVE towards truth – FACE truth,” and then, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus.”  Literally what he said is for them to be baptized into Jesus…relationship with Him.  And the gift of the down payment will be delivered…the indwelling presence of God Himself…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 40 - 47

• They studied the Word, they shared life, they broke bread and they prayed together…and what was the result? Praise, favor (with all of the people), gladness (a word for joy…not ever used in secular writings because this joy is not known in the world) and simplicity of heart!  Literally this means singleness of heart…not conflicted, not confused, just simple…aphelotes…a word used only one single time in all of the scriptures…a purity of simplicity!
• Oh how we have made things so difficult when simply loving God and loving each other…putting God first and putting others second and taking self and entrusting that part to God, truly the result is a heart of praise, a life of favor and a faith that is filled with the ease of simplicity!!
• You know love is so very simple. It’s really the only thing I am able to get right…wisdom…will always be limited, knowledge, understanding, sight, all limited…but love…it’s the closest to right I can get.  Allowing the Lord to use me, to show me His ways…Paul hints at this in Romans 12 when he says, “Let love be without hypocrisy,” which means to me that it can be…if we are entirely surrendered to God’s will in that moment…love is so very simple and it is the closest we can get to the heart of God Himself…
• I heard an amazing example of this just recently…and I didn’t know this…and some sources even say it isn’t entirely true (I don’t know) but it’s such a great story…One day Thomas Edison came home from school with a paper addressed to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”  His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter.  Her son asked her what it said.  She said to him, “It says, ‘Your son is a genius.  This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers to train him.  Please teach him yourself.’”
• Which she did. Years after she died, Edison now a grown man and one of the greatest inventors of all time, one day he was looking through old family things.  He noticed a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk.  He took it and opened it up…on the paper was written, “Your son is mentally incapable.  We won’t let him come to our school anymore.”  He cried for hours and purportedly wrote in his journal, “Thomas Alva Edison, a mentally ill child that, by the love of his mother, became the genius of the century.”
• I love that story!! Because it so well encapsulates the simplicity of love.  To support and to serve, to rescue and to work hard for the well being of another.  The very example given to us by Jesus Himself…And there at the end of Acts Chapter 2, as the body of Christ is birthed on earth by the work on the cross and the subsequent Promise of the Father, the church was just simple…praising God…and excelling in favor with all the people…and naturally, folks came in…

Acts Chapter 3 Verse 1

• Muy interesante!! Notice, they are not going up at the hour of sacrifice but rather at the hour of prayer…why?  Because the sacrifice has already been made, the FINAL SACRIFICE!!!  To put an end to all sin and shame!!

Acts Chapter 3 Verses 2 – 6

• Just a thought here…Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have...,” and yet we just read back in the end of Acts Chapter 2 that all of the new Christians sold what they had and made their wealth common…I like this, this statement by Paul means that the leaders were not getting rich off of the people! Check this out, the net worth of the Catholic Church is, Vatican Inc., is estimated to be $8B!
• G.K. Chesterton tells the story of the time that St. Francis of Assisi visited Rome and the pope of the day proudly showed him all the wondrous treasures of the Vatican. The pope pointed to the treasures around him and said, “Peter can no longer say ‘Silver and gold have I none.’” Francis’ response: “Neither can he say, ‘Rise up and walk.’” 
• Here Peter and John are penniless and yet they are filled with the Spirit of God, the confidence of God, the joy of God…and they have the heart of God…to stop and help this man who all of his life had not been permitted to enter the temple but rather sit outside and beg…all his life, had never stood. All his life had never walked…and all their lives, they had seen him daily at the temple…another – huge – point.  I mean, this is exactly what Jesus says to me and to you and to anyone who would hear today!

Acts Chapter 3 Verses 7 – 10

• I love this description given by Luke because he speaks in medical terms! Literally his feet and ankle bones straightened and went into socket for the first time…they found their fit…and he walked, and then  he leaped and finally he was began to praise.  The word in the Greek for praise literally is honoring as in honoring God…I love this…folks wanna jump right to honoring God but how are you going to honor God unless you first walk with Him, find Him indescribably faithful and good and then you begin to leap in life…then your life will naturally honor Him!  This word praising can also mean allowing…I love that too!!

Acts Chapter 3 Verse 11

• This will almost always happen and man are you willing? Folks that meet the Lord will hold on to you…why?  Because you’ve known Him longer…teach them how to walk…then when you see them leap in their life then YOU are so very blessed at that sight…but notice, he holds onto Peter and John but Peter and John don’t take advantage of him and they don’t in any way claim to be something themselves…watch this…

Acts Chapter 3 Verses 12 – 16

• Two things through faith in Jesus.   In the Greek that word is awesome!  It is stereo!!!  LOVE THAT!!!  To make solid, to make firm, surround sound life!  AND, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness!!!  His life wrings with harmony now!  Perfectly timed chords and percussions…what he is doing now is flawless when just moments ago he WAS flaw!  Holokleria – used only once in the scriptures and it means all of him is made good!  I LOVE THAT!!

Acts Chapter 3 Verses 17 – 26

• Strength, perfect soundness and finally Peter reveals times of refreshing. Cooling off literally in the Greek.  Simplicity of heart, gladness of heart…and notice Peter says that those things come as the blessings of accepting Jesus as he turns everyone of you away from sin…literally the work of the gospel in the heart of a man or woman is to separate us from the darkness and depravity of the flesh…and that’s just the benefit here and now…the main course is eternal life!  Life forever in the presence of your Father and Creator!!  Now, what will you do with this today??  What kind of a student are you?