Sunday Worship Service July 13, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Nahum 1:7
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 278 There’s within my heart a melody
Offering
Scripture Acts 3:17～26
Prayer
Sermon “To bless each of you”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 104 There shall be showers of blessing
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude

In today's Bible passage, Peter, an apostle (disciple) of Christ, was speaking to the people.
In the scene preceding today's passage, a man who had been lame from birth was healed, stood up and leapt to his feet, even praising God.
The lame man who was always begging for alms at the temple had his leg healed and was able to stand up through the "name of Jesus Christ" that Peter spoke to him.
Those who had known the lame man since before assumed that Peter had healed him by his own power, but Peter clearly denied it.
Since it was Peter who had told the man the name of Jesus, he probably could have been a little proud of himself.

But Peter did not feel like to boast about the miracle that happened - a lame man who stood up and even leaped.
Peter told the people “Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (verse 12).

What Peter clearly communicated there was that "what raised him up and strengthened him was the name of Jesus Christ, the power and grace of Christ."
Believers who believe in Christ and live by His power and grace know that the name of Christ is the true source of power.
And believers who live by the power and grace of Christ never boast themselves.
Because Christians want God's name to be glorified and only God's name to be exalted, for that is a blessing for Christians.
I hope that in our church too, God's name will be exalted so that our worship, praise, prayers, and faith will not boast in ourselves, but will glorify the Lord God of Jesus Christ and demonstrate our faith and gratitude to God.

In today's passage, Peter's message (sermon) goes to the heart of that - who Jesus Christ is and what He did.
Peter already said in the previous passage: "You killed him who was the Author of life (Christ), but God raised him up" (verse 15).
He says "You killed him who was the Author of life.”
When Jesus was arrested, Peter denied him three times, saying, "I don't know that man," even though he is Jesus' first disciple.
So we can be sure that Peter included himself when he said, "whom you killed."

In the same way, today we are encouraged to accept the death of Jesus Christ, who was crucified, as something related to ourselves.
In today's passage, Peter says the following. Let's read the first verse of today's passage, verse 17.

17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.

Peter says, "In ignorance you (we) crucified Christ; you did these things because you did not know."

What didn't they know?
They did not know that Jesus Christ was sent from God.
They also did not know (or were unwilling to acknowledge) that they had deep sins within themselves that need to be forgiven.
Jesus Himself said this while on the cross when He was crucified:

　“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”　(Luke 23:34)

Those who crucified Jesus, and actually all of us, did not know that in Him there is true life, that He is the one who can free us from the slavery of sin and make us free.
Because of such ignorance, not knowing this important truth, the people ended up crucifying Jesus.
But God transformed such evil in people into an amazing act of grace.

　Let's read verse 18.

18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

Since the time of the Old Testament prophets (those who were entrusted with God's word), it has been said that the Messiah (Christ, Savior) would suffer.
The Old Testament Book of Isaiah, Chapter 53, describes in detail the "suffering and death of the servant of the Lord." It says that the servant of the Lord will suffer, bearing the sickness and pain of the people.
To understand why the Lord's Servant, Jesus Christ, had to be crucified and die, it is essential to listen to the Word of God from Isaiah chapter 53.
Today, I’d like to invite everyone to listen to Isaiah 53:4-5 together.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

I hope that each of you will take a moment to reflect upon the entire chapter of Isaiah 53 and the cross of Christ.
Jesus died on the cross so that he could bear the sins of us all and our sicknesses and sufferings.
Our greatest ignorance is not knowing such a merciful and true God.
Or it is our stubbornness in refusing to acknowledge the true God even when it is made known to us, and in refusing to recognize God's sovereignty and authority.
And we cannot solve this stubbornness that refuses to acknowledge God's authority on our own.
Our sins of stubbornness and arrogance can only be changed by God.

In the Book of Ezekiel 11:19-20 of the Old Testament, God said through a prophet named Ezekiel:

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.　

These were the words spoken through Ezekiel to the people of Israel who had been driven out of their homeland and taken captive in Babylon.
God will eventually bring the people of Israel out of captivity and return them to their homeland, Israel, and at that time He will give them a new spirit, remove their stony heart (their hardened hearts) and give them a heart of flesh (presumably meaning a soft, loving heart).
When God gives us a new spirit, our hearts of stone (hardened hearts) are removed by the love of Christ, and a heart of flesh, a soft heart of love, is given to us by Christ.
By receiving Jesus Christ into our hearts and believing in Him, God will break our stubborn hearts, make us aware of our sins, and lead us to be thankful and rejoice that our sins have been forgiven by Christ.

Through Christ, we can have our hardened hearts of stone changed, be broken and humbled, and become God's people who keep His Word and live according to it.
We wish to keep in mind the blessing of receiving a new spirit through Christ, having our hearts changed, and becoming God's people.
"In your ignorance you did this (crucified Christ)," said Peter.
The people did not know that Christ was sent from God and did not know about their own sins.
And there is another thing that they did not know, that they were ignorant of, which is mentioned in today's passage.

Let's read verse 25. These are the words given to Abraham, who is said to be the father of the faith of the Israelites, in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament.
‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’

Next, we will read verse 26, the last verse of today's passage.

26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
These words show that God wants to bless us “all nations”, “each one”.
In verse 25, "your offspring” here refers to Christ, and in verse 26, "His Servant" also refers to Christ.
God has willed that through Christ all the nations of the earth may be blessed, and that "each one of you may be blessed."
God cares about each and every one of us, not “all together, all at once”, and the Bible tells us that we are precious before God.
God wants to bless each and every one of us. God is so pleased with our existence, our lives.
God's plan for each of us is to turn away from an evil state (of not knowing or acknowledging God) and to receive God's abundant blessings by acknowledging God and believing in Christ.
God is the Creator who created everything in the heavens and the earth. We can easily imagine how small an individual human being is in this vast world and in the universe.

However, when we realize that God wants to bless each and every one of us even though we are so small, we can find the strength and hope to live.
The following verse from the Bible is always true:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

　Let us receive God's abundant blessings through Christ. Let us rejoice with our lives that’s in God's blessings.
Let us be thankful that Christ bore (and still bears) our pain and suffering on the cross.
　

Let’s live a blessed life of faith, supported by Christ, believing in Christ and following Christ.