Let's turn to Acts chapter 4. We'll read the first 12 verses and then focus our attention on verses 10 and 11. Chapter 3 records a marvelous miracle. Peter was given the power to heal a lame man at the door of the temple. And that became the occasion for him to preach a beautiful sermon to the amazed crowd. And now we pick up the narrative here in chapter 4, verse 1. And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in hold unto the next day, for it was now eventide. Albeit, many of them which heard the word believed, and the number of the men was about 5,000. And it came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. When they had set them in the midst, they asked, by what power or by what name have ye done this? And Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him, doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. So far we read God's holy inspired word. Let's read verses 10 and 11 again. Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucify, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head. of the corner. As I indicated, the background of this passage is the great miracle of the healing of the lame man at the temple gate recorded in Acts chapter 3. As Peter and John entered into the temple by the gate beautiful at the time of the evening sacrifice, they saw a lame beggar asking for alms. This man had sat at that gate day after day, week after week, month after month for years. He was well known. How many times hadn't Jesus entering in by that same gate, seeing this beggar, and passed him by? So that now, on this particular occasion, Peter may heal him from his illness, his lameness. Peter and John approached the man by the moving of the Holy Spirit, and the beggar, assuming they had an alm, held out his hand. And Peter said, well, we don't have any silver and gold, but we do have. We give unto you in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And this man who had been lame from birth for the first time received strength in his legs, and he got up, and he walked not only, but he rejoiced, and he jumped, and he praised the Lord. And that drew the attention of a great crowd who had come for the time of the evening sacrifice. This became the occasion for Peter to preach to the multitude. Now remember, many in these multitudes had a few weeks earlier, a few months earlier, stood in the courtyard of Pontius Pilate and demanded Jesus' crucifixion. And so Peter points out to them, the one whom you crucified, God has raised from the dead. And it's by the power of this risen Jesus that this man stands before you whole. And he called the people to repentance. And he said, repent, that you may obtain the forgiveness of your sin in the power of the risen Lord. And the result was that many believed. 5,000 men, besides women and children. What a great growth of the church. On Pentecost, there were 120 believers. Counting the believers in Galilee, 500. Now all of a sudden, in one swoop, 5,000 men besides women and children. What a day for the church. But for their trouble, Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish leader. The next day, Peter and John, along with the man whom they had healed, were brought before the leaders, the Sanhedrin, to be examined. Caiaphas, the high priest, asked, by what power or by what name have ye done this? And Peter responded with the words that we consider tonight. If we analyze this passage, we note that Peter really informed the Jewish leaders of essentially the same thing he told the crowd the day before when they marveled at this man who had been lame, now healed. In the power of Jesus, whom you crucify, whom God has raised up, this man stands before you whole." And then Peter adds this, quoting the Old Testament passage that we focused on in this Lent series, this miracle demonstrates that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the stone that was set at naught by you Jewish leaders who were building the church supposedly, has become the head stone of the corner, or the chief cornerstone. And with this passage, we complete our Lent series, which has had the general theme of the stone rejected. We call attention to made whole in the name of the risen Christ. We notice an amazing fact, then a blessed gospel, finally a sure cornerstone. In answer to the Jewish leader's question, by what name or power have you done this? Peter proclaims the truth of Jesus' resurrection. And notice that Peter doesn't just speak of Jesus. He specifically and deliberately speaks of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He identified Jesus as the Christ. That, after all, was the bone of contention all through Jesus' ministry. Jesus came claiming to be the Christ, the anointed one whom God had promised. And the Jewish leaders contested that, tried to discredit him. so that the people would not receive him as the Christ, who in their mind also was and must be the Son of God. In fact, it was for Jesus' claim that he is the Christ, the Son of God, that the same Sanhedrin a few months earlier condemned him to death and brought him to Pilate. Peter boldly Jesus, the Christ of Nazareth. Now, you understand, of course, Jesus did hail from Nazareth. That's where he was raised. That's where he lived until he began his public ministry, except the first couple of years of his life, which was in Bethlehem. And Peter is not interested simply in identifying Jesus Christ from all others who carry the name Jesus, which in the Hebrew tongue is Joshua. No, purposely he mentions Nazareth because, well, because the saying was nothing good comes out of Nazareth. A small little backwater town in Galilee, uneducated people, whatever can come out of Nazareth. In fact, the fact that he came from Nazareth was a significant element in the Jewish leaders rejecting him. He can't be the Christ, look it, he's from Nazareth. All this led to what Peter then proceeded to remind the leaders of, this Jesus. Christ of Nazareth. You crucified. You hated Him. In your unbelief, you had Him arrested. You brought Him to Pilate to be crucified. You forced the whole crucifixion, persuading the people, intimidating Pilate, This Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, God, has raised from the dead. What a horrible indictment this was against the Jewish leaders. The one whom you crucified, God, raised up. That implies, first of all, that by killing Jesus, the leaders were really working against God himself. Now, later on in this chapter, verses 27 and 28, which is a prayer of the church, we read, For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. Yes, this was ultimately God's will that they crucified Christ, but nonetheless, even though they were doing ultimately what God wanted them to personally, they were opposing and murdering one whom God raised up again. What a terrible indictment. And secondly, this implied that contrary to the opposition of the leaders to Jesus, Jesus had God's stamp of approval upon all that he said, all that he claimed, all that he did. God raised him up. And then Peter goes on to say, in the name of this Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you all. That a great miracle had been done could not be denied. This man had been lame from birth. He was known to all who frequented the temple. Day after day, for years, he sat at the gate beautiful of the temple. How many people hadn't seen his hand out asking for alms? How many people hadn't given him a coin or two? But Peter and John had healed him, making him whole and complete. He was walking around. He was jumping. He was running. Praising God! And in response to the question of the Jewish leaders, Peter said, we've done that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. To do something in the name of someone else is to do something at their command, with their authority, and in their power. If someone comes to you and says, I'm here in the name of the governor, I've got business to do with you. Well, that means the governor sent him, the governor authorized him, gave him authority, and he has the power of the governor to do something. And that's exactly what the Jewish leaders wanted to know from the disciples when they asked in verse 7, by what power or by what name have ye done this? Peter claimed, we've done this in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The one you crucified, God has raised up. obviously to a position of power and authority. And at His command, with His authority and by His power, we healed this lame man who stands before you whole. Now, bear in mind that whenever you have a miracle, you have to ask, what's the significance or the meaning of the miracle? Miracles weren't just displays of power, but the Bible always calls them signs. They always were signs or pictures of some greater work of salvation that God performs in Jesus Christ. And that's the case here too. And to understand what that greater work of salvation is to which this miracle points, we have to look again at that lame man who from birth could not walk, who sat daily at the temple gate. He's a picture of what you and I and all men are by nature from a spiritual point of view. The man was born crippled until Christ through Peter healed him. He had never taken one step in his life, nor could he. He was impotent. Were his legs misformed? Were they simply have no strength? We don't know. But he was not able to take so much as one step. And consequently, he had to resort to begging. What an accurate picture of what we are by nature from a spiritual point of view. We are born dead in sin. The result of our original sin of Adam is that we are all spiritually impotent. We are, shall we say, spiritual cripples who cannot walk in the ways of God. Oh, we can walk. When it comes to the ways of sin, in the ways of wickedness, we can walk. In fact, we can run, and we do, and we will by nature. There we have plenty of power, but when it comes to walking in the ways of God, the way of His good commandment, the heart of which is love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, we by nature don't have the power to take so much as one step in that direction. We're crippled when it comes to that. And the miracle of the healing of the lame man teaches us that in Jesus Christ, we are made spiritually whole. Notice that the man Peter healed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth was completely healed. Peter was not the miracle worker of the charismatic movement today who tries and sometimes can't do it. who encourages someone in a wheelchair to get up and take a few steps and claims, he's healed, he's healed. And they help him off the stage. And a couple of weeks later, he's back in his wheelchair. That's not the kind of miracle we're talking about. Those aren't miracles. Those are fraud. The man was completely healed, evident from the fact that he leaped about to the astonishment of the crowd. This is a graphic picture of the greater miracle that Jesus accomplishes in our spiritual lives. Through a great work of grace, Christ makes us spiritually whole so that we are able to actually walk in the ways of God's commandments. this miracle of grace has begun in this life when we are born again that enables us to walk in the ways of love and obedience to God and of course because the work of salvation isn't complete we don't always successfully walk in that way but when this work of God is finished In a new creation, we will only walk in the blessed ways of God. That's nothing short of a miracle. When it comes to the ways of God, we hate them, we despise them, we will not walk in them, we cannot. We can only commit our way unto the way of sin, Yet Jesus powerfully heals us and makes us spiritually whole so that we walk in the ways of the holy blessed God. And what a work of grace that is. What an undeserved favor. Walking in the way of sin is living in the way of sorrow, of misery, destruction when we walk in the way of the world we do nothing but wreck destruction for ourselves and those around us and we come under the heavy judgment of God what a favor Christ does when he makes us whole and sets our feet upon the way of righteousness. That way, joy and blessing both now and forever, and we don't deserve. From Peter's explanation of the miracle of the healing of the lame man, it becomes evident that Jesus performs this great wonder of grace through the power of his death and resurrection. By the power and the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised up from the dead, that this man stands before you whole. Certainly, Jesus' death is essential for us to be made spiritually whole. Through his death, shall we say, Jesus laid the legal basis for our spiritual healing. Why is it that we were born spiritually crippled, incapable of walking in God's ways? That was God's punishment for our original sin in Adam. Our first parents decided, knowing full well what they were about, to turn from the way of love and obedience to God into the way of hatred and to join with Satan, the archenemy of God. They thought to overthrow God. They set their feet on the wrong way. And God said, okay, this is your punishment. I'll not allow you, I will not let you walk in my good ways to enjoy my blessings. your punishment is you can only walk in the ways of sin which bring ruin and misery and so we were all born spiritually crippled as a proper punishment for our original sin and Adam and that's what we're consigned to that's our doom that's our future if you're going to even speak of a future So long as we stand before God in the guilt of our sin, only when that sin is paid for and the guilt of sin is removed do we even have the right to receive our spiritual feet back again to walk in God's way. Well, that's what Christ did at the cross. He took upon himself all the punishment of God upon our sins. All the elect, as many as God had given to him, he took their sins and his punishment and he bore it all away. And therefore, all who stand eternally connected to Christ stand before God without sin. Their sin is paid for. There's no legal basis anymore for them to be punished. They have every right to the blessing now of new feet and new legs to walk in God's glorious ways of righteousness. But that as such does not accomplish the healing, the transformation. That requires the power of the risen Lord, who has authority and power on high, and who as our Savior applies to us the blessings earned for us at the cross. And He it is who heals us, giving us new legs, new making us whole and leading us to walk down the way of God's approval and God's blessing. And Christ does that. Well, yes, there is an initial work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, isn't there, to implant a new life in its seed form, but then there's the preaching, the preaching. which proclaims Christ and his death and resurrection, which is used by Christ through the Spirit to bring us to faith. And in that faith, to empower us to live a new life, to walk a new way, the way of God's blessing. All this demonstrate. But then Peter add, this is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. This great miracle performed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, simply demonstrate this stone, which has been set at naught of you builders, has become the head of the corner. The Jewish leaders were called by God to build His house. It was their calling to bring the gospel of salvation to the nation of Israel, God's covenant people, so that the nation would be built up spiritually to become a spiritual habitation of God. They were to bring the law and the prophets to the house of Israel, and the law and the prophets proclaimed the gospel of salvation. And even though it only proclaimed it in a very dim way, in a shadow way, so that all they could see was what we would see in a shadow, The law and the prophet proclaimed Christ's death, his resurrection, and a new life in the coming Savior. And they were taught what that new life is, and love to God and love to the neighbor. Essentially, all that we have, they had, but in shadow form. And when that gospel of the law and prophets was proclaimed faithfully by the leaders of the people, as it was from time to time throughout Israel's history, God used it to build up Israel and holiness and godliness to be a fit habitation for God in which he lived so that the members of the nation enjoyed fellowship and friendship of Jehovah God. And, of course, that all centered around that earthly temple in the Old Testament. But now these leaders, as so many in the past, had set Jesus at naught. As they went building supposedly the house of God, they had no place for Him. Where does He fit? He doesn't fit here, not in what we're building, And so they rejected him. There was no place for him in the house they were building. And finally in disgust because he wouldn't go away, they killed him. And they proceeded to build their house as they're still building on human efforts and human obedience, distorting the law and the prophets. and they're building a house that will not and cannot stand, and where God does not dwell. But Jesus of Nazareth, whom these builders rejected, has become the head of the corner. Not only is Jesus a stone, properly put in the house of God. Peter says he's come to occupy the most important part. He's the chief cornerstone upon which the whole house ultimately rests. That's of course as we've emphasized because of his death and resurrection. The church is the house of God in that it becomes the dwelling place of God in covenant friendship and fellowship and God can dwell in the church in fellowship only when the church is purged from its sin and purged in such a way now to look at it from the viewpoint of this miracle so that her members walk not in the ways of the world but walk in the holy righteous ways of God's law. Only when the members of the church are healed from their spiritual lameness so that they walk in the ways of God does the church become the proper habitation of God. And that's what Jesus came to accomplish. He made that clear in the two cleansings of the temple. Remember at the beginning of his public ministry and at the very end when he drove out the buyers and sellers and overturned the tables of the money changers? He cleansed the house which had become a house of iniquity and a den of robbers. And that was only to predict and to look ahead to what he was going to do with the cross and resurrection. He was going to cleanse the house of God, all of its filth, make its members holy, acceptable unto God, who walk no more in the way of sin, but who walk in the ways of God's righteousness. Well, we see what the Jewish leaders did with this stone. They rejected it. The stone that has become the chief cornerstone of the house of God. What will you do? What will we do with that cornerstone? Even today, And down through history in the Christian church, that stone has been set at naught. Many in the church and history to this day claim to be building the house of God. And sometimes they build large and magnificent structures and organizations with great power that impress the world. The Roman Catholic Church, over a billion strong. A power to be reckoned with. When their Pope resigns and a new one is elected, captures the imagination of the whole world. What a magnificent structure they have, an organization. But they, with so many others, In the process of building up the house of God, supposedly, will not even find a place for Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Oh, they'll give lip service to him, but the Jesus that's on their lips is not the Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That, that Jesus, they reject. And all those who cling to him, they do that by denying the power of Jesus' death and resurrection. Some examples. Many today in the church world deny the power of his death by claiming that Jesus is just a man. He's not God. He's a good man. He's the best man that ever lived. What a tremendous example he is. But he lived and he taught and he died just as a man. And then there are those who deny the power of his death by denying his resurrection. He really didn't arise from the dead. What you read in the scripture is just the myth the church set forth to make it clear he lives on in our memory. And as we saw this morning, when you deny his resurrection, you deny the power of his death. And others deny the power of his death and resurrection by claiming that Jesus didn't do enough. Oh, he did a great deal for us by his death on the cross, but he left a lot for us to do. And you have to add to Jesus' work, your own, to be acceptable unto God. And on the basis of that, they build and they build and they build. That's on what the Roman Catholic Church built. And those of the federal vision today in the Protestant church world are building on that foundation. And then there are those who deny the power of his death and resurrection by the error of antinomianism. Antinomianism is the error that teaches that Jesus' death does accomplish our forgiveness, does remove our guilt, but it never reaches to change our life. And God leaves us then to live an ungodly life. In fact, that's what we ought to do, to show the power of the cross to overcome the guilt of our sin. Let us sin that grace may abound. They deny the power of Jesus' death and resurrection, and on that they'll build a church and figure God will inhabit it. And others deny the power of his death by their claims of universal atonement. Christ died to bring salvation within the reach of everyone, but he secured the salvation of no one. And it's up to you then with the choice of your free will to hang on to him and somehow continue to hang on to him and never let him go. Don't let him go or you're gonna lose what you have. All these heresies leave the church in a state of spiritual paralysis, unfit to be a dwelling place. of the Most High God. Let us build on Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who by his death and resurrection has become the chief cornerstone of the church. Let's proclaim and embrace the glorious truth of Jesus' death and resurrection. He came as the Son of God in human flesh, bearing the sins of those whom the Father had given to Him. He took the burden of that guilt all the way to the cross and endured the shame and the punishment of that sin completely and secured the salvation of His people. And that salvation miraculously heals the elect of God from their spiritual paralysis so that they walk in the purity of God's ways and become a fit habitation of God. That's what we must embrace. That's what we must confess. That's what must be preached. And the power of that preaching, that's how we must live. Don't live like spiritual cripple. But when it comes to the ways of God, can't take a step forward. What are you saying about yourself if you live that way? Let's cling to the true Christ, to His death, His resurrection, in the power and the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Let us walk as those who have been made whole in the power of grace. Amen. Our Father and our God, we are thankful for the work of salvation. Thankful, O God, that we are able to live in the power of Jesus Christ in love to Thee, to our neighbors, Strengthen us, O God, in this, through the power of our risen Lord, as the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection is proclaimed to us again and again and again. And build us up, O God, as a spiritual house, a fit dwelling place, for thee, with all thy blessing, for Jesus' sake, amen.