Most of you
know what it is to put in a hard day’s work or play 4 quarters of a football or
basketball game where you really left it all on the field or the court. You are sweaty and sometimes dirty or even
blood stained, but even having expended everything you have in the day’s work
or the athletic competition, you feel so much better after a good shower. You feel refreshed.
Once upon a
time I took a company of Marine reservists from Des Moines Iowa to 29 Palms
California, which if you didn’t know is in the middle of nowhere in the Mojave
Desert. Our last weekend training with
these reservists was in May. We went to
Wisconsin for live fire, something we were limited at doing in Des Moines. We got snowed on at that last training
session.
A couple
weeks later, we flew these guys out for two weeks in the Mojave Desert—from
freezing to 120 degrees for most days.
After a week, most were exhausted. There was still a week of training left that
included a battalion-sized live-fire exercise.
So, in the
middle of the training on a day where we had an afternoon of maintenance, we
maintained the Marines. We took them to
the swimming pool for a couple of hours.
It refreshed them enough to continue their training and the grueling
exercise that was to come.
I have said
before that we are
designed with rest in mind. Rest is not
only essential but refreshing and lets us live to the full.
You heard
the story read this morning. Peter and
John were heading to the temple. A
beggar in the temple courts wanted money and the two apostles caught this man
off guard. What they said went beyond
the beggar’s expectations.
Silver and
gold I have none—translation: I don’t
have any money to give you.
But what I
do have I will give to you. In the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. These two apostles helped him to his feet and
the next thing you knew the man was walking and jumping and praising the
Lord.
This caught
everyone’s attention. They all knew that
this was the long-time beggar at the gate called Beautiful. Elsewhere
in scripture we see people thinking that the healed man was someone
different from the one afflicted.
Not
here. People recognized him and were
amazed.
This man
continued with Peter and John into the Temple area, and Peter had the awareness
to know he had people’s attention. So,
he asked, “Why are you surprised?”
This comes
about through God and through the line of people you know—Abraham, Issacs, and
Jacob. We didn’t do this. God did!
You should
have seen it coming but you were blind.
You killed the Messiah. You had a
chance to save his life when he was before Pilate, but you chose to release a
murderer instead.
We know that
you acted in ignorance and that what happened had to happen to fulfill the
prophecy of God and your part in this was that the Christ might suffer. He did.
He died.
He rose
again.
We are
witnesses.
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.
So, Peter
caught everyone up on what has transpired, but next came a call to action. It was a call to repentance.
You might
not have known what was happening—the truth be told the apostles were often in
the dark until they received the Holy Spirit, but Peter left out that
part—there was much done in ignorance, but now that you do know, it is time to
repent.
You need to repent
of your sin. You need to acknowledge
Jesus as the Christ. You need to receive
him as your Savior and Lord.
This won’t
happen because he is still walking the earth.
This will happen because you repent of your sin and know him to be the
One promised Messiah.
Repent,
then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of
refreshing may come from the Lord.
You know the
truth. You know the consequences for
rejecting the truth. Now is the time to
repent and receive Jesus as your Lord.
This wipes
away your sin and does something else that we often overlook. It brings times of refreshing. We often think of salvation when we think of
the blood of Jesus wiping away our sins.
Our debt is paid. The Kingdom of
Heaven has been given to us.
But let us
not forget refreshing. Like the shower
after the hard and dirty days work or the sports contest that left you
exhausted, the shower brings a time of refreshing.
Repentance
and discipleship bring us times of refreshing.
Rest brings us refreshing. We become refreshed so we can live to the
full.
Have you
ever seen someone who gets burned out?
Maybe it’s the job or taking care of someone or even serving in the
church. People burn out.
Repentance,
confession, and rest bring us to refreshment not burn out.
As in just
about everything we can think of that God has told us, it’s for
our own good.
There’s a
saying going around that has manifested itself in several memes. It says:
When you are tired, rest, don’t quit.
Rest and
being refreshed help us run our good race.
They help us keep the faith. They
help us when the world is beckoning us to throw in the towel.
Think about
that. When we sin, let’s confess and
repent. Let’s not only tell God about it,
something he is already knows. He already
knows but has directed us to tell him, once again for our own good.
Let’s repent—turn
away from and leave behind the thinking, doing, and relationship with the ways
of this world that are sinful. Let’s
make that wholesale exchange.
Let’s
rest. Being a disciple is not easy but
it is worth it. If we are going to continue
in our race of faith, we need to learn to rest.
And let’s
rejoice in being refreshed. Like a hot
shower after a long day’s work or a swim in the pool in the middle of the
desert, let’s receive the refreshment that comes with repentance.
We often
talk about giving up a burden, but how often do we consider the times of
refreshing that await us?
Let’s learn
to repent, rest, and receive the refreshing of the Lord.
Amen.
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