And so, we find ourselves in another passage talking about signs and wonders and then we see the proclamation of the of the gospel And we see how the apostles are being persecuted Well, we start out here and we see all these signs and wonders being regularly done and people are seeing this and people have trust in this so much so that they're carrying the sick out into the streets and people Are being healed even just having peter's shadow fall upon them.

 We have seen already how the early church had things in common and they shared so that people in need would be taken care of. Now, I talked about when we saw this before in the book of Acts, how this was voluntary, how it was not something that was normative in the entire New Testament. It has been normative in the rest of the history of the church.

And so now we're going to see an example of that, of how they did this. But we're also going to see something very bad that happens because there was not truthfulness in this giving. It was not done out of goodness of heart. There was deception involved. And so, we see here about how they had everything in common.

 Now, remember what we saw earlier on in this chapter. Peter and John go before the leaders in Jerusalem and their question about what they're doing, and they boldly proclaim Christ and him crucified and talk deeply about the gospel. And so now they are being released. We see that they are going out and so they go to their friends and they're reporting what all these people had said to them.

Remember, they were told to stop. And they said, no, not going to, we're going to obey God instead of man. Basically, that is what happened. And so now they are praying to God after they have told their friends what was said. And they talk about how God has made the heaven and the earth. And they pray from the Psalms here.

 So, here we see the continuation of the story of Peter and John healing the lame man. They are taken before the high priests, and they have questions, and they want answers. They want to know by what power, by what name they did this because it's clear that this lame man is now walking. So, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and he answers.

He tells them that it's through the name of Jesus. The name, the name of Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified, but he was raised from the dead. That's the reason this man is able to stand there. It's not by their power. It's nothing that they have done. It is through the name of Jesus, and this is the Jesus that they killed and by the power of God He was raised a victory was won.

 So here we have, at the end of chapter three, Peter once again proclaiming the gospel. And here, it was brought on by the healing of this lame man. Remember, we looked at that on Monday. And we see that the people are astounded. And, and so Peter says something to them. He, he says, why are you looking at this like we did something?

As if by our own power or piety, we healed him. And so, Peter wants it to be very clear. That it is Jesus, it's the name of Jesus and faith in him that has caused this to happen. Peter in and of himself does not have the power to heal. He is trusting in the name of Jesus to do so, and he wants the people to understand that. Because ultimately what does Peter desire? That the people would hear and believe and trust in Jesus themselves that they might be saved in his name. That is the ultimate goal. And so, he tells the story of what happened. He reminds them that of which they know that they handed over Jesus to Pilate.

 So, we find ourselves here in an interesting transitional passage. We started out the book of Acts with Jesus ascending. And so, Jesus is no longer present, the spirit is sent, and the apostles are now the representatives of Jesus spreading the word here on earth. And then we have Pentecost. You know, this is a big thing.

Peter preaches, people come to faith, we have all this happening. And so now what we're going to see is a passage That tells us something that happened in the lives of Peter and John that shows that they have this authority to teach. They have this authority to show that what they are teaching is true.

So, we finish out chapter 2 of Acts by looking at what the result was of Peter's teaching at Pentecost. And so, what happened with those who remained around Jerusalem? Well, they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching. So, they were listening to what the Apostles had to say. Remember, they were with Jesus, and they were going to be proclaiming that message that Peter had.

At Pentecost about Jesus dying for their sins him being the one who was promised looking back to the prophets So that was one of the first things that we see that they were doing here They also devoted themselves to the fellowship. They were caring for each other They were devoted to the breaking of bread and the prayers They were together.

 Now that right there is a sermon. What fantastic words from the Apostle Peter about who Jesus is and what he has done. Let's take a look at a few things here and look at the big picture of what is going on. Uh, we see verse 23. This, Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Notice what Peter is saying here. This was the definite plan in foreknowledge of God that this was the plan that the Messiah would suffer Go back to Isaiah 53 a very well-known passage It talks about the suffering of the one who is going to come right we know this This is not a surprise now We look throughout the gospels and the apostles don't seem to Think much of this idea of Jesus suffering before it happens, when he warns them that it is coming.

So, we have here the beginning of Peter's sermon. He is addressing what these people had said when they heard these people, or when they heard the apostles speaking in other languages. He's saying they had said, um, ah, they're drunk, but Peter's saying, no, they're not. Uh, they, it's only the third hour of the day that they're, they're not going to be, uh, Drunk just yet and so instead Peter is explaining this and this is the beginning of this amazing sermon of Peter's He says in the last days it shall be God declares that will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters Shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams the idea here Is that peter is quoting from the prophet Joel and he's letting us know that this is what was promised to happen And so what is going on this this idea that the spirit will be poured out on all flesh What does that mean?

 Here we have a substantial story. The beginning of the church when the Holy Spirit comes in power. Now this is an important story because suddenly what we have is basically the announcement that the gospel is going to go out. Jesus has said this, that they are going to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

But here we have it on display. And so, what happens? They're all together. We just read on Wednesday that they were together and praying and now they're together again. And now divided tongues and this rushing wind comes and here in verse four we see, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

What we find as we come to this portion of Acts is a group of men who are in transition, right? We have heard that they saw the ascension. We know that Pentecost has been promised and it's coming. It hasn't been called Pentecost yet. Uh, but we know that the Holy Spirit is going to come upon them. We have that promised.

And so, we're somewhere between Jesus being absent from them and the Holy Spirit. Coming at Pentecost and so we see this transitionary phase and it's described to us in with a pretty good detail From Luke and what they're doing is they are going to replace Judas who betrayed Jesus with someone who has some specific qualities now they say that they're going to pick somebody who is with them from the time of that John baptized Jesus until the Ascension.

And so, the book of Acts starts out with an introduction and then quickly moves into the ascension and this Introduction is an interesting one. We've seen on Sunday morning. We have been looking at the book Luke and we saw in Luke chapter 1, Luke started out talking about how he was writing to this Theophilus.

And so, this book of Acts is a continuation of the story that Luke has told in the Gospel of Luke. And so, what we see here is that he's looking to tell a story beyond what happened. Notice that he's talking about Jesus and what he did until he was taken up. But now he's going to be talking about something else.