An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeways “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 3:12-26, with the title, “Placed,” for Sunday, June 23, 2024. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: ??? Can you share a time when you heard someone purposefully give God the glory for something???
(EX: Recently, the University of Oklahoma women’s softball team won their 4th straight NCAA Women’s College World Series. They gave God the glory for what they had done:
“Just moments after the final out, ESPN reporter Holly Rowe spoke Sooners  pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who made it known who she attributed the victory to. “I knew I was gonna give all the glory to God,” Maxwell said. But it wasn’t just Maxwell who put her faith on display. Her teammate, outfielder Riley Boone, made sure to give praise to God during the post-game press conference. Commenting on the season, Boone said she felt God’s “hand over this program” more than ever. “People are watching us, and they’re asking questions about, why do you do what you do? How are you even able to do this? And the answer is always God,” she added.” (Western Journal, 6/07/24)

There are a lot of examples like this that you/your group can share. Then say: this morning as we continue our study in the Book of Acts, we see where Peter and the apostles also gave God the glory for what He did, and used it as an opportunity to share the gospel.

CONTEXT
Our “focus passage” for today is Acts 3:12-26, but to understand it, you really have to place it in its context, starting in :1 of Chapter 3.
As we saw last week, the Holy Spirit had come upon the Early Church at Pentecost, and 3000 were saved. Then we saw in :41-47 some of the characteristics of that newborn church: baptism, devotion to the word, love and fellowship, etc.
This brings us to Chapter 3, which says that Peter & John were going up to the Temple at “the hour of prayer” (3:00 in the afternoon. There were actually 2 Jewish “hours of prayer,” the first at 9:00 a.m., and the second at 3:00 in the afternoon. Interestingly, these are the very hours that Jesus spent on the cross!) Verse 2 says as they came in, a lame man was there begging alms, but Peter said to him those famous words in :6, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene — walk!’ And he was healed, and everyone was amazed. Verse 11 says “All the people ran together to them at the so-called “Portico of Solomon,” full of wonder.”

(Just to help set the context in your group’s mind, you might share a visual of “The Portico of Solomon” like this, and say: “THIS is where our lesson for this week takes place”:

(The “portico” or “colonnade” (row of columns) of Solomon is a porch on the outer part of the Temple complex. The Temple is the square-ish building in the center. The “portico of Solomon” is the row of pillars you can see at the top. This is where this event took place.)

This brings us to our focus passage for this week, starting in :12:

OUTLINE
I. Deflecting the glory (:12-13a)
II. Sharing the Gospel (:13-21)
III. Laying the Scriptural foundation (:21-25)
IV. Making the Personal Application (:26)

TEXT

I. Deflecting the Glory (“Touch Not the glory”)
:12 “But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, ‘Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
One of the first things that jumped out to me when I began looking at this text, was all the PRONOUNS in :12:
— “why do you gaze at US”
— “as if by OUR own power or piety”
— “WE had made him walk.”
Three times in this verse he says, it is not “us,” “our,” “we.”

But not only does he point them AWAY from himself, he points them TO GOD in :13,
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him …”

So Peter says, listen everyone: WE did not do this; only GOD did this. He gave all the praise and glory to God for what had happened.
And he wasn’t being “modest,” either, right? I mean, did Peter have the power to take this man by the hand and make him walk? Absolutely not! Only GOD could have done that! So Peter was totally correct in giving God the credit for this.

And he’s a good example for US too. When good things happen in our lives, and in our church, we need to make sure we give GOD the credit for it. Glorify HIM, not ourselves, not our church.
James 1:17 says “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” GOD is the source of everything good, and we need to give glory to HIM for all that He gives us.

This is the attitude we need to constantly emulate as God’s people: glorify HIM. Point people to HIM.
We celebrated the 10th anniversary of our church’s Minister of Music, Kyle Chamblin, last Sunday. One of the things I love about Bro. Kyle is that he always says, “I don’t want people to leave here saying ‘what a great choir they have;’ I want them to leave saying ‘What a great GOD they have!’” That’s just what Peter was saying here: it’s not US; it’s GOD!

Too often people are found guilty of trying to take credit for what God does. This is a dangerous place to be, as King Herod saw in Acts 12:20-25. Herod gave a speech to the people of Tyre & Sidon, and :22 says the people cried out “the voice of a god and not a man.” And :23 says “Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

What a grotesque picture! But it is very symbolic, showing just how grotesque it is when we try to take the credit and glory that should belong to God alone! It’s “wormy;” hideous; grotesque!
We’ve all seen people who tried to take credit for things they did not do. It’s ugly. “wormy’! Don’t be like that. Let’s always give GOD the glory.

There is a great song that Ron & Patricia Owens sung years ago, called “Touch not the glory,” and it goes like this:
“Have you been called to serve where others tried and failed,
And with God’s help and strength your efforts have prevailed?Touch not the glory!
Have you some special gift, some riches you can share,
Or are you called of God to intercessory prayer?
Touch not the glory!
Has God appointed you to some great noble cause,
Or put you where you hear the sound of man’s applause?
Touch not the glory!
A watching world still waits to see what can be done
Through one who touches not that which is God’s alone.
Touch not the glory, touch not the glory, touch not the glory
For it belongs to God!”

That’s a good word for us, isn’t it? “Touch not the glory, for it belongs to God.” Don’t try to take credit for what GOD has done. “Touch not the glory.” Always give credit and glory to Him.
Remember: we’re not being “humble” when we give God glory. He really IS the source of all good things! We SHOULD give Him credit!
If God knows you will point people to Him, He will be free to use you in great ways. In I Samuel 2:30 God said, “Those who honor Me, I will honor.” Let’s be among those who are always honoring HIM. Like Peter, let’s point people to HIM!

II. Sharing the Gospel (:13-21)
Here again we see Peter sharing the “kerygma,” (a Greek word meaning “the proclamation”) — the basic gospel presentation of the Apostles, which we discussed previously in Acts 2, when Peter first shared the message.

We talked about the same 4 basic gospel elements which are contained in every good gospel presentation:
— God had a plan
— You sinned and crucified Jesus
— God raised Him up
— You need to respond

These same 4 basic elements are also present here in Peter’s sermon in Acts 3 as well. You could either just point these out to your group from Peter’s sermon in :13-21, or what I intend to do with our class, to get them involved hands on in studying God’s word, is to photocopy a page from the Bible that has these verses on it, and distribute it to them. After reviewing the “4 Basic Gospel Elements” on the board/screen, then I will ask them: UNDERLINE WHERE YOU FIND THESE 4 ELEMENTS IN THIS SERMON. And let the discover these in the text for themselves. Working with the scripture directly like this will help them to become better students of the word, and Lord willing will really help “ingrain” these truth into their minds.

(The places we see these Gospel elements in :13-22 include:
GOD’S PLAN:
— :18 “the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets” is God’s plan
— :21 “all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time”
MAN’S SIN/NEED:
— :14 “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you”
— :15 “But put to death the Prince of Life”
— :17 “I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers also did”
— :18 “your sins …”
GOD’S PROVISION:
— :15 “The Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead”
— :16 “it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man”
MAN’S RESPONSE:
— :19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away”
— :16 “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man …”

You/your group might see others as well. You might keep track of these on your dry erase board or whatever, as you/your class share them.

But do point out these basic elements of the gospel which we see in this passage. And remind them that these are the truths:
1) that WE need to understand in order to be saved. We need to know that God has a plan for us to be in heaven with Him, but that our sin keeps us from Him; that He sent Jesus to die for our sins and rise again to be our Savior — but that that we too need to “repent and return” to Him through faith in Jesus, to be saved.
Encourage anyone who has not done this, to do it today.

2) These are also the basic truths that we need to SHARE with others. So encourage them to memorize this outline, and practice just personally and naturally sharing the content of this outline, so that they are ready to share when the Lord gives them an opportunity to witness to someone. This gospel message that Peter and the Apostles shared is the basic content that WE need to share when we tell others about the Lord too: God’s Plan, Man’s Need, God’s Provision, and Man’s Response.

AND: notice in the “Response” section, :19 mentions the importance of REPENTANCE again. We talked about this last time. The first word out of Peter’s mouth in Acts 2 when the crowd asked him what should they do in response to the Gospel, was “Repent.” As we saw, it means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in the life, like we saw in the Prodigal Son. Salvation is NOT just a matter of “believe who Jesus is.” The devil believes that; he knows it better than we do. Our response must be to personally repent of our sins, and put our personal trust in Jesus as our own Lord & Savior. This the devil has NOT done — and neither have a lot of people, who need to hear the true Gospel response from us.

But Peter shared the Gospel here, with a man that the Lord put right before him. It was obviously what one calls a “Divine Appointment” — a God-given opportunity to share the gospel with someone.

We see several “Divine Appointments” in scripture, including:
— here
— Acts 8, Philip and the Ethiopian
— Acts 10, Peter and Cornelius, and so on.

??? You might ask your class to share a time when they had a “Divine Appointment” and were able to witness/minister to someone.
(EXAMPLE: A few weeks ago we had a “Roundup” outreach event at our church, and I ended up talking to a young man who had brought his wife and two small children to the Roundup. As we talked, it just naturally unfolded into an opportunity for me to share the gospel. I still have Anthony and his family on my prayer list. But I believe that was a “Divine Appointment.”
You/your group can share opportunities that you have had, that you consider to be “Divine Appointments.” And either here or at the end of class, include in your prayers that God would give you some “Divine Appointments” to share this week!

III. Laying the Scriptural Foundation (:22-26)
After Peter shares the basic gospel story in :13-21, then he wraps up the message with some scriptural quotations:

— He begins this section in :21 by talking about “the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
So he’s saying, listen guys, we aren’t just “making this up as we go along.” This has been predicted from of old. This is not some “off the wall,” un-Biblical thing. This is what God promised you and what you have been waiting and praying for.

Then he gives a couple of specific examples of how this was prophesied:

— :22 “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you.’”
This is a quote from Deuteronomy 18:16 in the Old Testament.
Moses was telling Israel at that point: just as God raised me up, and you have been listening to me, so God is going to raise up another prophet, “like me” — and he says in :23 that whoever doesn’t listen to THIS prophet will be destroyed!

— Then he says again in :24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.” So he says, all the prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about this. He’s making the point: THIS IS NOT SOME “RADICAL,” “UNBIBLICAL” THING we are preaching. This is what God’s word has prepared you to look for all along.

— Then in :25 we see another Old Testament scriptural reference. He says: “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
This of course is a quote from Genesis 22:18, which we just studied a few weeks ago, where God promised to bless the world through the seed of Abraham. JESUS is that seed, as the genealogies of Matthew and Luke make clear. He didn’t just “pop up” out of nowhere and claim to be the Messiah. He is the One who was prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures.

Through all of these examples here in :22-25, Peter is reminding both his current audience, AND US — of the Biblical anchor of our faith. As we follow the Lord, we aren’t just “making things up as we go along.” Our faith is anchored in the word of God.
Like the old hymn says:
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word.”
This reminds us, not only of the scriptural foundations of our faith, but but also that everything we do as God’s people — especially in His church — should have a basis in scripture. We shouldn’t just be out there “doing stuff” that we are dreaming up. We should be doing BIBLICAL “stuff,” that has a purpose and foundation and direction in the word of God.

IV. Making the Personal Application (:26)
And let’s not miss the significance of his conclusion in :26, “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
This verse tells us several important things: (You could even ask your group, “What all truths do you see in this verse?” — or you could just point these things out:)
— “For you first.” What did this mean, “For you first”? Because the Gospel was the for Jews first, THEN for all the Gentiles who would also believe it. (Like Paul says in Romans 1:16, that the Gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe, “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”) So here it’s “for you first.” You’re getting the first opportunity to respond to the Good News of Jesus.
And when he uses this “you,” he is making it personal for them. We must all personally respond to the Gospel.

— “God raised up His Servant” — that’s the Resurrection. That’s part of the heart of the Gospel; not only that Jesus died on the cross, but also that He ROSE from the dead. Had He not risen, there would be no Gospel, as Paul makes clear in I Corinthians 15. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then He was just another “dead philosopher” like all the others. The thing that separates Him from all the others is that He rose from the dead. Like Romans 1:4 says, He is the only One “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” This is why Peter had the confidence that He did. What changed him from the coward who denied Jesus three times, to the powerful preacher here? Don’t underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit, but also the fact that he had seen Jesus alive! THAT made all the difference. And the resurrection certainly IS a difference-maker!
In fact, NOTICE how Peter both begins and ends his sermon here in Acts 3 with references to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead:
— :15 near the beginning of the message, he calls Him “the Prince of Life,” “the one whom God raised from the dead”
— And now here in :26 at the end, he concludes: “For you first, God RAISED UP His Servant.”
So he starts & ends with the Resurrection. It had a vital place in his faith & preaching and teaching — and it should in ours too.
Our message is NOT just that “Jesus died on the cross” — as important as that is — but that He proved it by rising from the dead. “God raised up His servant.”

— Then notice how it says: “AND sent Him to bless you By turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
Here is an important teaching. HOW, according to Peter here, will Jesus bless us? “By turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
It’s important for what he does NOT say:
— He does NOT say He will bless you by making you rich
— He does NOT say He will bless you by making you healthy
— He does NOT say He will bless you making you successful and giving you “your best life now.”
He says He will bless you “by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” It is SIN, our “wicked ways,” which has separated us from God, and which has brought upon us all the problems that we experience. So Jesus came to be God’s solution to that problem. And notice that it does not just say that He will “forgive” our sins, but that He will TURN us from our wicked ways. This is significant. Jesus did not just come to “forgive” our sins, and we just keep committing them. He came to do more than that, to “TURN” us from our sins, so that we are not living in them any more.

This is a good reminder to US today: Jesus did not merely come to “forgive” your sins, but to turn you FROM them. Don’t be content to keep asking Him to forgive you for your same sins over and over; rather ask Him for the power to turn from them, so that you are not living in them any more. Jesus does have the power to help you turn from sin.

We have a young father in our Sunday School class, who had a problem with alcohol. But last year, the Lord got ahold of his life, and gave him victory over that. He has been totally delivered from it. Jesus “turned him from” that sin.
You can share that if you want to, and/or/your class can share similar testimonies of how God has done similar things.

And make the point: the same Jesus who gave them power to turn from sin in Acts 3, is the same Jesus who is alive today. And He does have the power to help us turn from sin. So let’s not be content living in the same sins — let’s turn to Him, and let Him “bless us, by turning US from OUR sins.”

— And finally, notice WHO this verse says this is for:
“EVERY ONE of you from your wicked ways.” This blessing is for “every one” — like the scripture says, “WHOEVER will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”! Just like Peter said to the Jews here in Acts 3, “for you first,” we can apply God’s word here to OUR lives too. Tell your people Sunday: “This is for YOU!” Jesus can work in their life today, just like He did in Acts 3.

---

________________________________________________________________________________

— Remember if you’d like to read/print a text version of this overview, to print out the lesson, or use one of the quotes or stories, that is available on my blog at http://www.shawnethomas.com (I’ll post that address in the comments section below).

— If you’ll hit “Subscribe” to this video, YouTube will automatically send you next week’s video and you won’t have to search for it.

— And if you write something in the Comments below, I’ll be sure to pray for your and your group by name this week.

Per my licensing agreement with Lifeway:

— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

— Lifeway resources are available at: goExploretheBible.com and: goexplorethebible.com/adults-training

— If you have questions about Explore the Bible resources you may send emails to explorethebible@lifeway.com