Foundations Part 4 | August 3, 2025
The Setup: Credit Where It's Due
Sermon number five picked up immediately after the healing of the lame man at the temple gate, as a crowd gathers around Peter and John in Solomon's Portico, utterly astounded at what just happened. Peter uses that moment not to accept credit but to redirect every bit of attention toward Jesus, and that gave us the first point of the message: a healthy church understands that it is not by our power but God's alone.
Peter asks the crowd directly why they are staring at him and John as though by their own power or piety they made this man walk, then explains that it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who glorified His servant Jesus, the very Jesus this same crowd had denied and handed over to be killed. Pastor Justin was blunt that we should expect wondrous, even miraculous things to happen as this church grows, but we can never take an ounce of credit for any of it, because none of it is by our own power to begin with.
That naturally led into the second point: a healthy church is filled with repentance. Peter tells the crowd that they acted in ignorance, but calls them now to repent and turn back so that their sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Pastor Justin was personally honest here, admitting that he grew up with all the head knowledge about Christ in the world but did not truly understand repentance until he was thirty two years old, and that belief without repentance is hollow.
He grounded that point in 2 Chronicles 7:14, God's promise that if His people humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, He will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land, and connected it directly back to Peter's own call to repentance and baptism in Acts 2:38. Repentance is not a one time hurdle to clear on the way to salvation, it is meant to be the ongoing posture of anyone who has actually encountered the risen Christ.
Jeremiah 17:9 and Mark 7:21-23 rounded out the diagnosis of why repentance is necessary in the first place: the heart is deceitful above all things, and it is out of the heart that evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, and all manner of defilement actually come. Pastor Justin was clear that this is not a message reserved for obviously wicked people, it describes every human heart apart from the ongoing, humbling work of repentance and grace.
Matthew 15:7-9 added a warning against a different but related danger, honoring God with our lips while our hearts remain far from Him, worshiping in vain by teaching as doctrines the commandments of men rather than the actual heart of God. Pastor Justin connected this to the danger of a church that looks healthy and active on the outside while individual hearts remain unrepentant and unchanged on the inside.
The message closed on John 3:16, the reminder that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. Pastor Justin tied the whole sermon together around this truth: the same power that healed a lifelong lame man is available to heal what is broken in us, but it only comes through humble repentance and simple faith in Jesus, never through our own effort or performance.
This Week's Application
So this week, is there an area of your heart you have been quietly protecting from real repentance, telling yourself it is not that serious? We would love for you to join us this Sunday as we continue walking through Acts together.