Day 15: Acts 3:12-19
12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if 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, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets,saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
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The third chapter of Exodus tells the story of Moses at the burning bush. During this encounter God speaks to Moses and identifies Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). God goes on to say to Moses, essentially, that He remembers the promises He made to the people of Israel—people who are currently enslaved in Egypt—and that He intends to use Moses to bring the Israelites out of slavery. Moses objects, feeling incapable of such a task. But God assures Moses that it is with the strength of God Almighty that this will be accomplished.
In Acts 3, after Peter has healed a crippled man, the crowds are astonished and want to know how he performed this miracle. And Peter, knowing his Hebrew Scripture (our Old Testament), vividly remembers Exodus 3. “I didn’t heal him! It was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!” Peter can’t help but refer to God the same way God identified Himself to Moses. Moses knew it would take the power of God to deliver the people from slavery; Peter knew it was not his power, but the power of God Himself, that healed a man who could not walk.
That same God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—is with us today. And if we will rely on His power, we will do far more than we could ever do on our own.
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Brad Taylor | Executive Pastor, Lima Community Church