PBM June 2011

Phish Bowl Ministries
June 2011
Matthew 4:19
“Chummin’ for Saints…until the nets are full”

Dear Saints, I Timothy Nathanael, a doulos of Christ so wish, no pray that our LORD is alive in your lives. You know what kills me? Willful sinning! Knowing what you are doing is against God and some how lying to yourself that God doesn’t care. I’m not innocent of this; how I justify the things I call ‘not so bad’. However, when I read God’s words for my life, I am cut to the bone.

Here in prison I am called to live a life set apart from the world because of sin; but still my tongue grieves me. I’m told I have a wicked sense of humor. This statement should cause me to RUN! A ‘wicked’ humor…there is nothing funny about ‘wickedness’. I know how and where the Bible condemns this practice. At one time in my life, I justified using pornography to the point of acting out lust. Going to church, working for the church I chose to dismiss the warnings week after week. I know I was wrong, but still I willfully walked into a life style of sin. In some way, giving 10% of my time and 10% of my money allowed me to keep 10% of my sin. Let’s call it a pet sin; one I raised up from a puppy, feeding it, playing with it and making time for it. I fooled myself into believing it would not hurt anyone and God is a loving God who would not hold it against me. We all know we are sinners---right? So what is the big deal about a little private sin on the side? It’s not like I’m stealing anything from my family; I can’t be, they don’t know about it. So, how can it harm them?

God is not to be mocked!!! I hope that your pet will not bring you to prison, but know that the sin of sexual immorality has a high price! Those who are paying the price of my sin are my former wife, my kids, the church, my victims, the young women who used to fill our computer with smut. All so that I could have this little harmless sin; the harmless sin that landed me in prison, 10 years to life. Sin is never satisfied and once it grows up, you will not be able to control it and it will become the 800 pound gorilla in the room. You think your pet sin brings you happiness, let me tell you something about your pet once it is too big to hide. It will turn on you, your family, and your whole world and will beat you and them into an emotional state of death… (How’s that pet sin working for ya now? (Editor’s comment)

We are moving on in Acts to Peter’s second sermon and there is a lot in this; but just for a moment I want to look at two points; the first point here and the second in the middle of the teaching. As we read and study Acts 3: 11-26, note the number of times that Peter used the words “you” or “your”. Stand in this crowd with the people listening to Peter and know your sins…you handed him over…you rejected…you killed…what you did to Jesus. We say our little harmless sin has no price, but who paid the price of my willful sinning against God, against my family and against my victims? Jesus paid the price on the cross.

Let’s take a walk about in Acts 3: 11-26:
3:11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. 12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 "and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
16 "And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 "But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 "and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 'And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' 24 "Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." (NKJV)

I hope that you took time to really read this and mark in your mind all the “you” and “yours”; I know that I did.

12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
Peter took advantage of this opportunity not to talk about Peter, but instead to glorify Jesus, making it clear that this was done by God Himself. And the why?

13 "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.
Why? So Peter could clearly point this Jewish crowd to the handy work of the very God they claimed to follow, Jesus. I want to take a look at something here, the wording “His servant Jesus”. In some translations, this is written “his servant Jesus”. Small ‘h’ and ‘s’ which miss a big point that would not have been lost to this crowd.
(Isaiah 52:13-15) Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. (NKJV)
Peter was identifying Jesus with the Servant-Messiah of the Old Testament. Also see Isaiah 42:1, 49:6-7, 53: 11. What we see here is Jesus giving His life as a guilt offering for our sins and in the next verses we will see the Father raise Jesus up from the dead as proof that this sacrifice was fully acceptable once, for all.

14 "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 "and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
We rejected the “Holy” and “Righteous” one, but by using these two terms Peter was saying that Jesus was equal to God. He is telling them that this Jesus was God. Not only did they reject Him, they killed Him.
(1) 3:13 The Jews (us) had delivered Jesus to be killed though Pilate had decided to free him.
(2) 3:14 They (us) had rejected Jesus and requested the release of a murderer.
(3) 3:15 They (us) had killed Jesus, though God raised Him from the dead.
And all of this was witnessed by the 12 and 120, and their testimony is true.

* STOP: Back in the beginning I said there were two points. First one: It was our sins which put Jesus on the cross and we re-crucify Him daily by our willful sinning. The second is the Good News of the Cross. We have hope in the healing blood that we acted in ignorance. We can repent and He will refresh us.

16 "And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

Once again Peter points to Jesus as the healer. The NIV translates the final phrase of this verse as “this complete healing”. And Jesus can completely heal you as He has healed me. When He does this in your life, you can use your testimony to point to Jesus.

The Requirement of Repentance

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus by preaching repentance. The Apostles’ message of salvation also included the call to repentance by acknowledging personal sins and turning away from it. Many people want the benefits of being identified with Christ without admitting their own disobedience and turning from sin. The key to forgiveness is confessing sin and turning from it. When we repent, God promises not only to wipe out our sins, but to bring spiritual refreshment. At first, repentance may seem painful because it is hard to give up certain sins. However, God will give us a better way. As promised in Hosea, “Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, he will reappear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3 NIV). Do you feel a need to be refreshed? ---Life Application Bible Commentary on Acts

17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 "But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
In the next ten verses, Peter will plea (as I am) to this crowd to make a life change. He starts off by calling them “friends”, “adelphoi”, literally brothers. He points out that their actions were done in ignorance (see Acts 17:30, Ephesians 4:18, 1 Peter 1:14). “Had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer”, most likely refers to Psalm 22, Isaiah 50:6 and Isaiah 53:1-12. The Jews had not expected a suffering Messiah; they were looking for a great ruler, a conquering king, not a carpenter that died a criminal’s death---they missed it. Does Peter hold this against them? No, with great love for his “brothers”, he explained that it wasn’t too late; not for them and for us.

19 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
In the NLT it is written “now turn from your sins and turn to God. Did you see that…? “Now”, not tomorrow, not when I’m found out, but today! They (us) had rejected, despised, and killed Jesus, but they (us) could still turn from their (our) sins, turn to God. “That your sin may be blotted out” NKJV, “wiped away” NASB, “cleansed” NLT. I want to look at this in two different lights.
1. The words “turn from your sins” are the standard Greek words (metanoeo) for repentance. The verb means to turn away from a former way of life and toward a new way of life. The term “cleansed” (exaleiphthenai) is often used in Greek as a figure of speech, meaning to erase, especially of writing. In this case, their eraser was God and the writing was a list of their (our) sins. Not just their (our) sin of killing the author of life, but all their (our) sins. (Also see Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 1:18).
2. By using the word “cleansed” instead of blotted out, there is a Jewish doctrine and Hebrew teaching. Deuteronomy 30:10 (For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers), “if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statues which are written in the Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. That would be the first part “shav” a verb which indicates how God calls on His people to “turn back”. Not to add “cleansed” would tell them they owed a sin and guilt offering at the temple. Leviticus 4:1 “If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them…they become guilty”.
Times of refreshment by repenting and turning to God’s plan in Jesus as the Messiah, Peter announces that there will be a future blessing. They will be able to participate fully in the future times of refreshing when Jesus returns.

3:20 "and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
Jesus must remain in heaven and the church now has His Holy Spirit as promised. But also it promised Jesus will return to us again. Many of us live as if this day is far off, but God tells us to live as if it was today and not to be caught sleeping.

3:22 "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 'And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'
In verse 22 we are told to hear all things and in the NLT it says listen to all things. Hearing vs. listening. In ancient times, Moses had spoken of the prophet (the Messiah) who would come one day, Moses urged the Jewish people to listen to this one sent from God. Both the Hebrew (Deut 18:15, 19) and the Greek words translated “listen” mean more than just receiving auditory signals with one’s ears. The words contain the additional idea of hearing with a view toward obeying. What is your posture when the Word of God is presented? Do you hear it only? Does the message go “in one ear and out the other”? Or do you listen with the intention of being a doer of the Word (James 1:22)? Let the words of Christ lodge in your heart and change the way you live.

3:24 "Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."
The message of salvation came first to the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Moses Samuel and the prophets. They, of all the people, should have known the prophecies and recognized him when he came. They were to have been the prime beneficiaries of the blessings of the covenant.

Notice that the primary nature of the blessing was to turn them back from (their) sinful ways. Christ’s work at its core is to turn lives around, taking individuals on sinful paths and turning them from those paths of blessing. Israel had every reason to turn to Jesus---history, heritage, bloodline, centuries of warning from prophetic messengers. Though they had not recognized him, Peter concluded his message with the statement that God wants to turn people away from sin in order to “bless” them. This is exactly the opposite of what many believe. They consider God the ultimate party pooper, a kind of cosmic killjoy who wants to turn people from sin in order to make them miserable. Why do we tend to think like this? Because of the craftiness of our enemy. The consummate liar has been successful in tempting us to doubt God’s goodness since the beginning of the human race. If God withholds something from us, fruit in a place called Eden, illicit sex, etc.; it must be because He is trying to deny us some secret blessing. That is how we reason if we doubt the goodness of God. But, if we embrace the truth that God is good, then we acknowledge that God prohibits certain things in order to bless our lives “infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope: (Ephesians 3:20).
Don’t let Satan cause you to doubt God’s goodness.

Semper Fidelis!



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An outreach of Calvary Chapel Loveland