Acts, 3:1-26

Okay, well, last week, every technical difficulty imaginable happened. So anyway, let's go with it here. This is this is what I was referring to last week, that simulations of the temple. And here's what I'm getting at. And I'll flip to the next page here. I sent out an email and I know some folks either didn't get the email or don't you know, don't have email or something like that. So also, I had James distribute a handout as well.

Here's the point that it's important and valuable for us to get fixed in our minds when the Apostles are, in the first chapters of Acts, talking about being in the temple. For them, this was not some new experience, neither was it purely just a Jewish thing for them. Think about the apostles. When you talk of Christ talking in the temple, they were there. They were there when the Pharisees would come up and challenge Him, when the Sadducees would come up and challenge Him.

They were there when they heard Jesus yell across the temple courtyard, and it was big, something we'll take a look at here in a minute. The north-south direction on the temple was more than three football fields in length. Okay? It's a big temple area.

And Jesus yelled across it, and to yell across it so he could be heard, he had to yell loud. He said, You who are thirsty, come to me! Can you imagine that? That wasn't something you would expect to hear in the temple. That he yelled was probably upsetting to some. But the disciples remembered it.

When Jesus went in, and it's recorded twice that he went in and turned over all the money changers and drove the animals out. This was not just some little area, you know, maybe the size of this little church building floor. We're talking an area that's something, you know, in the neighborhood of six to eight football fields in area, full of money changers and animals and things like that. He drove them out. We're talking a big upset. So, with that in mind, no, I'm not done.

There is also, just at the northwest corner, Antonia Fortress. That's where the Roman soldiers are standing up on the fortress towers and looking over the Jewish Temple. Pilate was the Roman official responsible for making that arrangement. So here's the Roman soldiers looking down on the Jewish Temple.

That ticked them off. and it was in that Antonia fortress. So here they are in the temple, they're looking up at the fortress, it was in that fortress where Pilate pronounced sentence of crucifixion on Jesus and then had him whipped. And the soldiers mocked him and beat him and spit on him and shoved the thorns on his head. So when they're in the temple, Boy, this is just full of profound memories and they're not forgetting it. This is something, boy, if they close their eyes, this is what they see.

So, with that in mind, walking from the area where we believe the upper room was, and where the disciples may have also stayed for some time after the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension, this is the walkway going up, simulating the temple. Here's the temple mount up at the top and the houses off to the side and kind of the walkway. Yes, Tom? From this view, we'll see another couple of views. As a matter of fact, you've got a plot plan on your handout from last week that we'll want to take a look at. Okay, here is now the temple mount, this kind of rectangular area.

And there's the Muslim Dome of the Rock. The Muslims teach that that's where Abraham offered up not Isaac, but Ishmael. Interestingly, it's got a kind of rectangular indentation on the top of the rock, the size of the Ark of the Covenant. Down below that, you've got the Wailing Wall. That's the portion of the Temple Mount that the Jews currently have access to.

So this is an area of intense significance. Below that is Robinson's Arch. We'll see more about that in just a minute. There's the City of David excavation, started in 1968, continued on for about a decade, resumed in the 1990s. This is an area you can go to and see structures that were built during the time of King David. You can even now go into tunnels that go underneath this Temple Mount area and into the mountain, and they've got stairs and lighting, and it's really quite a deal. Over off to the right is marked the Al-Aqsa Mosque, so they've got the Dome of the Rock and the mosque to the south.

That's what's there now. Here is a simulation of Robinson's Arch. Let me back up. See where that's located? Here's Robinson's Arch. Here's the simulation of what that would have looked like with people there and now. They found the stairs down below. Those have been kind of busted up, but they're there. Why would the stairs be busted up? Can you think of a reason? That's right.

So what the Romans did is they shoved all the rocks, I mean all the stones, off the Temple Mount. What it did, it just busted up the ground. Several places you find piles of these stones, and the ground where it hit is indented. And there were stones below, like you see here, and those are all busted up. Here is Robinson's Arch now. That's what's left of it, see?

So, let me back up. Here's the structure. Everything's busted up except for that little connection right there. and the gate in is sealed up. All right. Now, here's the Wailing Wall. This is the Western Wall is the other name for it. Jews will assemble here on special days. This, for example, has a very sparse number of people there. And here's a rather major collection of folks. Here is the Eastern Gate. You see it on the right. sealed up.

In the 1400s, the Muslims heard that the Messiah was going to come through the gate, so they thought, well, let's seal it up and let's put some Muslim graves in front of it. And they thought that would stop Jesus from coming again. This path that you see off to the left is the path where Jesus came on the donkey on what's, I think, misnamed the Triumphal Entry.

And the Eastern Gate is up on the upper left-hand corner. See that? This gives you some sense of reality. When they talked about coming off of the Mount of Olives, this is what view they saw. When they talked about the disciples coming off the Mount of Olives or coming over it, they're looking at this gate, which at the time was open, seeing this is where the Messiah comes.

And so every step in that area has immense and intense significance for them. It grabs them. It grips them. They don't walk sleepy-eyed and bored into this area. The significance, all the memories that are just loaded into their mind, they can't get rid of them. It's just stuck there. All right.

Here is the Court of the Gentiles, and that gives you an idea of what the court would look like. They'd have these porticos here, sometimes called colonnades, because there's lots of columns on them. The colonnades are porticos. And then they'd have a low wall outside of the main wall going into the temple, into the inner temple area. Now, this would be like the money changers would be out in this plaza area out here. So here's the money changers and they're going in and saying, okay, you're coming from this country and we've got some, you know, money to change for you and we charge our little fee. And we've got little cages here with the birds and we've got pens over here with the sheep and all the different things you're going to need. And so that's what Jesus went in and turned over.

A whole courtyard full of them. Here are the porticos looking from inside the portico. 45 feet wide, 37 and a half feet tall, cedar roof. So you can imagine, you're in this portico, and this thing is several, you know, you're talking a half dozen or better football fields in area, in this temple area. The outside area, if you were to take a jog around the portico, a goodly percentage of a mile. We're talking a major structure. So to yell across it the way Jesus did, you who are thirsty, come to me! He didn't whisper that. He didn't just say it. He said it with some loudness and intensity that got people's attention.

When they taught in the porticos, you would have typical meeting areas. They'd say, okay, this group meets here, this group meets here. If your group was getting large, you might impinge on somebody else's area, and you'd have to try to figure out how to keep from causing trouble with that. So imagine, if you're the apostles now, after Jesus has been crucified, after Jesus has been resurrected and ascended. If you're the apostles, and you're walking in and teaching in the porticos, you're not just telling Bible stories.

You're saying, I was right here when I heard Jesus speak these words. And he'd point off over the wall and say, see that tower? See that Antonia Fortress? That's where Pilate, who's right in the building right now, that's where he pronounced sentence of judgment on Jesus. That's where the Roman soldiers, probably some of them that are looking at you right now, did the whipping, and the mocking, and the spitting, and the beating.

So this was all very real. It gripped them. As they looked at it, it was something they could testify to. There were twelve of them, all testifying. Because remember, Matthias was added to replace Judas, and one of the criteria had been that he was with the Lord. So all 12 of the apostles were standing in these porticos saying, if somebody said, I saw him resurrected, they'd all put their hands up.

Me too. And others among the group. Paul writes that there were 500 who saw Jesus resurrected. So notice as we go through these, none of the Sadducees come and challenge the apostles and say, he didn't resurrect. They just get upset. as the Apostles were testifying to these facts, they could say, any of you see Him resurrected? Hands would go up. Any of you hear Him say this? Yeah, me too. Yes?

One thing I haven't considered yet is that I think at the end of chapter 3, or maybe 4, it says that 5,000 have believed. And a lot, most of those were Jews. Isn't that wild these were the guys yeah a good excellent point Josiah's point is that there were those Who are among the believers because remember Peter Peter said you crucified him on on the day of Pentecost? And they said what do we do? We've been we've taken part in crucifying our Messiah It gripped them These very people who were stung to the heart were the ones who then stood up and said, yeah, I believe what Peter's saying is true.

And there were dozens, hundreds who could testify to the reality of the facts. By the way, if you contested the idea that Jesus was descended from David, the records of his genealogy were right there in the temple building. You could go look them up. You don't believe it? Check it out for yourself. That's why we don't have a record of anybody contesting it. Not during that time. They didn't say, nah, he's not descended from David. They didn't say, nah, he didn't resurrect.

All they could do is get really upset. Yeah, Mary Ann. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. And it's because they just figure, okay, he's from Galilee, because that's where he's been raised and all his family and everything else. And by the way, his accent, the equivalent to kind of in our country, you know, you know, somebody who's not from Vermont when they come and say, hi, how you doing? You know? Okay. Yeah.

The genealogies would typically, for there, just include the genealogies and not necessarily birth certificate type information. So it would be records of descendancies. And that's what you see in the Old Testament, and you look in Genesis in the genealogies, you look in Matthew, and you look in Luke where we have the genealogies, it doesn't give place of birth as a typical The statement is, this person descended from this one, descended from this one, etc. Yes, it was Roman records, not Jewish records. And we have, by the way, numerous birth certificates and things of that sort, but Roman records. And that's the difference. The Jews here kept genealogical records, whereas the Romans kept records of birth certificates, death certificates.

Believe it or not, in spite of having everything done by hand and handmade papyrus paper, lots and lots of records of everything. Even when they taxed your fence, they taxed your chickens, they'd make records of that. Anybody, for example, they had marriage and divorce certificates. They had not just marriage, but engagement certificates, because engagement was legally binding. So yes, lots of records, but the Romans cared about that. The Jews said, I want to know the genealogy. That's what matters to them. Good point, but that's the reason for the difference.

Anyway, real important for us to fix in our minds the disciples' perspective and the sense of reality. They could sit there at the opening of the Eastern Gate, point out to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples would all say, we all saw him ascend right there. You want to walk up there and see it? I'll take you. It was all fresh reality, and denying it was like idiocy. And that's why you don't see people denying it. Yes, Ark?

What's the difference between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives? Okay, there's three mountains to get fixed in our minds about Jerusalem. There's Mount of Olives, which is across the Kidron Valley, the steep valley, that's why one of your handouts, I think from last week, showed a bridge across there. Then that leads up to the Mount of Olives. Mount of Olives is to the east. Besphage and Bethany are right over the Mount of Olives, farther to the east towards the Dead Sea. Mount Moriah is where the temple is. And when we think of mounts, we're not talking about Mount Evans or Longs Peak.

But there's a rise in the topography. And then Mount Zion is actually to the southern end of Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, the upper room where they met was probably more in the Mount Zion area. Let me flip to it here. Oh boy, now I lost it. Here, you see there's a little bit of a rise heading up to it, so that would be Moriah, farther behind you from this view would be Zion, which is the rise in the area of the southern part of Jerusalem.

Any questions on that? I just think it's real important, because we're going to be going through a few chapters here, that we get fixed in our minds the sense of reality, the sense of intensity, the sense of testimony. Here they can stay on the Temple and just point to all the things.

Yes, this really happened. I was there. The Jews required two or three witnesses and they'd have a dozen and more. Yeah, Tim. That is very interesting because it appears to have been a fairly well-established practice and yet we don't have any record of any legal action like the temple guard coming and stopping him. So very interesting.

It's almost like they knew we shouldn't be doing this but let's wink and do it anyway. Answer your question? Yeah, Tom? Yes, by what authority do you do these things? But you notice they didn't do anything else. Yeah. In John, they sent the temple guards out, I think it's chapter 7, they sent the temple guards out to, you know, go take care of Jesus and they came back and they said, well, what'd you do? He said, nobody talks like he does. Nobody teaches like he does. And they didn't do anything to him. They were stunned by what he said.

That's where I think getting a sense of the immensity of the temple, the memories, the things that they could point to and testify right there in the temple area, it was something that was so grabbing that people would hear the testimony. You'd see dozens of people saying, I saw him resurrected. I went to the empty tomb. If you want, I'll take you there. You'd have people testifying to those things. And it was so undeniable that unless you were just wanting to deny the facts, it was irrefutable. Abundant testimony. Yeah, Tom.

Let me quickly try to pull something up here. Which one is it? We've got a map on the second page, I think it is, of the temple area. Let's walk through that a little bit because again, I think it's valuable for us to Get a sense of you know where things are at Adam you are Missing some of that right. Yeah, okay. Let's see what we can do to get you set up here Okay, let's look at the let's look at this Map here.

I want to take a moment to pull something up That's it Okay, here's the view where you've got the bridge. This is the part you should have on your hand out there. You've got the bridge across the Kidron Valley, and it kind of gives a drawing, and I think it's helpful to see the way it was. The bridge is no longer there, but the evidence of it still remains.

Okay, this is the part. Let me see if I can get this to cooperate with me here. Alright, and we'll go to larger. Okay. Now, in this map, which isn't intended to be to scale, but I think it'll help us get oriented. And I don't expect you to read that, but hopefully you have it in your handout and can track with me.

Over here is the Fortress Antonia. So it's from there they got these towers overlooking the Jewish Temple. And you can imagine the Jews who, you know, this is an area for the Jews, and they have a court of the Gentiles. And that was a question, by the way, a couple people asked last week.

I want to clear up. This area to the outside is called the court of Gentiles. The whole temple is for the Jews, but the Gentiles were allowed in that area. Okay? That's why we call it the court of Gentiles. Why would you have Gentiles in there? Suppose you had Gentiles who were interested in becoming Jewish. Or maybe they were actually Gentile converts already, but still Gentiles. They were allowed here. And so then here's the portico, goes around the outside. And that would be, like I said, a good portion of a mile going around that perimeter there. So this is a lot of temple, a lot of portico. So here's the outside temple.

You got these gates here that go sequentially. These three gates right around here had warning signs on the outside. If you're a Gentile, you'll have yourself to blame. if death follows. And we have actually one of those signs that was left over from when the Romans dumped everything off, so that it's been found. So anyway, they had a sign at each one of these entrances.

This one here, the Corinthian Gate, is probably what's called the Beautiful Gate. Beautiful Gate seems to be a nickname rather than an official name, but that may well be the case. This area in here is called the Court of Women. It is the area where they allowed Of course, all the Jewish men, but Jewish women as well. Some things to note.

It's in here, remember Jesus told about the woman who kind of gave her last penny, her last mite? That is the temple treasury area in there. So it would have taken place there. So here's Jesus with the disciples looking at the woman, dropping the money in and telling the disciples, see, look at her. Because that's the temple treasury.

This corner over here, they would store the oil. This corner over here, they would store the wood for the altars and the sacrifices. In this gate here, which is the main temple area, and this is called the Naas, the inner temple, but this area here was for the priests. The men were allowed on a line on the north and the south side. Jewish men. In here was also the place, remember where Jesus talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector? The Pharisee says, oh, thank you that I'm so good. And the tax collector says, Lord, have mercy on me.

That would have taken place in that court. They allowed lepers in this corner. There was an upstairs balcony that was especially made for the women to be there and to view things and to pray and things of that sort. So that would be this area, fairly substantial, not as big as this whole court of the Gentiles, but still fairly substantial and plenty of room for people to get together. Oh, one more thing.

From here, leading out this gate here, there would be a semi-circular set of stairs, which served as a stage because at intervals, see the Levites had various responsibilities. We think of them as priests, but they would, that was all, so the temple guards, a thousand of them were trained during Herod's reconstruction to do the work in here because they didn't want any Gentile or even unqualified Jews to work on the main center temple area, so they trained a thousand Levites in various crafts of gold working and stone masonry and things of that sort.

The Levites, aside from those tasks, also had a choir. And so the choir would stand on that semi-circular set of stairs in sequenced rows and come out and sing at intervals. They would have scheduled times when the ones who had been training in the choir would come out and sing. So you'd have a men's choir there on the semi-circular steps right outside the Nicanor Gate. So this was the area that they're looking at. Right in here they would have the altar going.

The Old Testament law says you must not let the fire go out. Always keep the fire going. This would be an image in the mind of some Jews when they heard Paul write later, don't quench the spirit. Fixed in their mind, the law says you must not let it out. But that's for you to do. The Holy Spirit's fire is of his own burning. and not for us to stimulate.

Okay, so here's the temple area. Here's some of the accesses. By the way, I haven't shown all the accesses. There's some others. There's Wilson's Arch over here and a few others that were off in this direction. You get the point I'm talking about? This is just rich with memory for these guys.

Really intense for them to look at all this and see the huge significance of all of what had taken place and to testify to the facts. It had been weeks to months before when they began testifying to, I saw him resurrected. He's the one who yelled across the courtyard, do you remember it? All you are thirsty, come to me!

They could testify and there would be people there who would point them to the facts. They were within walking distance of the place where Jesus was crucified. Of the place where Jesus had been buried. And they could show them. See that grave? It's empty. Stones rolled away. This is where I saw the angel. Fresh testimony. Multiple people testifying to all the facts. Very clear. Very evident. You want to dispute it? It's interesting. We just don't have a record of people disputing the facts in that context. People do now. But that's because they don't see the reality of what the situation was. And you have men who were previously running for the hills.

Where do I hide? How do I deny? All of a sudden turning around and saying, this is truly the one that God sent. You crucified him. And they're stung to the heart. What do we do? He said, you got one thing. You need to repent. You need to have a change of mind to a place of believing. It gripped them. Okay. now and get to today's handout. We're going to be a little bit rushed here. Let's take a look at the questions for last week. What did you see in those questions? Okay, the first question there.

Since this area of the temple is obviously where Jesus would have been numerous times in the three years prior to this event, and it is apparent from Acts 3, 1-11 that the layman had been going there for some time, how come Jesus didn't cure him? How come Jesus didn't heal him before? Why hadn't this happened? Yeah, one thing is we can ask the question, but the Bible doesn't explicitly say, does it? Ah, okay. Yeah. Okay. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So it's very interesting.

Here's a guy who apparently had been there, come regularly, and the guy had been around for some 40 years, and yet Jesus hadn't apparently healed him. We are not given from scripture an explicit answer. So the best answer you can give is perhaps some biblical speculation, if you will.

Is it possible as the Lord said no, I'm saving that one for Peter and John Could be could well be that Lord said There will be a time, you know, and and that that time will come and so I'm saving that one. Yes art. Ah All right, it did the Lord knew that there was a timing to this thing. The Holy Spirit had not come certainly Peter and John Previously, they had been given a place of healing, but this was a specific validation and verification that took place at the beginning of the time of the church. That's a very important point. Let's touch on that for just a minute. Here's Peter and John. Peter doesn't say, hey, I'm going to heal you. And here's the lame man and Peter saying, gee, wasn't that great? Like me to do that some more?

He says, in the name of Jesus. He at every point keeps pointing, it's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's not me. Yeah, excellent point. Thanks, Art. When we look at this here, we can look for kind of some biblical speculations. In truth, we don't have an explicit answer.

But certainly the Lord knows Everything. The Lord knows the timing. The Lord knows what's valuable. And I think that's something for us to remember, too, that, you know, you look at, boy, Lord, how come I'm not done with this situation here? I'm tired of this, you know? And the Lord say, but I've got my way to show my glory through what you're going through, whatever it is. And so at the right time, at the right time, everything will be dealt with at the right time. Okay, how about the next question there?

Since this is the first recorded miraculous event performed at the command of an apostle in the church, it is fitting that we ask some questions of the miracle. What was the spiritual purpose of the miracles by the apostles? How is this different from asking the Lord for healing and then seeing that prayer answered in the positive? Did Peter pray here? Isn't that interesting? And he didn't say, Lord, if it's your will, we would ask. He just said, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. How could he do that? Isn't that audacious? Bold? How could he do it? He had authority to do so as an apostle. One of the things that we've gone over in some prior electives is, you know, what are the qualifications for an apostle?

And one of the things that we see is the apostles were given a unique capacity to heal and to do signs and wonders as a part of their apostleship, and also as a part of that era for validation and verification. And by the way, while we're bringing up that point, The first dozen chapters of the Book of Acts have twice as many miracles as the remaining chapters. So the number of miraculous events prominently shows up in the first dozen chapters. And then they continue as the apostles are continuing to have a place to demonstrate them as a part of their apostleship, but the signs and wonders and miracles begin to decrease even in the book of Acts. Hebrews talks about the apostles giving signs and wonders as a part of their validation of their apostleship.

How about this? Today, what should we think about healing? What should we think about? Should we just say, hey, forget it. God doesn't do that anymore. Or should we come here and expect that Vern's going to have everybody up after the church service and boom, it's all done. What should we expect? Now, Joanne, you're smiling. Maybe it was a yawn, I'm sorry. What should we expect there?

What's biblical? Ah, they were specifically gifted. You notice that it is not a prayer, not that they don't believe in it or don't pray. Certainly they did and they supported and encouraged and taught about prayer. But they were specifically gifted and so were able to simply say, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. It was a particular gift. That gift of apostleship no longer is in existence. It ended with the apostles. And so the ability to do that is no longer valid for today.

How many of you have actually had a miraculous healing or have been a personal witness to such a thing? You've seen such a thing? Okay. Interesting experience that my wife and I went through some years back. I had come down with Lyme disease and the symptoms were multiple and difficult for the doctors to deal with. But one of the things that was also happening, Nancy had this just kind of profuse, constant itching, intense itching to the point where she was just scratching herself at night, just waking me up with the scratching herself and it was that intense. So anyway, I said, you know, hon, we certainly have no basis to demand that the Lord do anything or expect that we somehow deserve it, but we are right to ask the Lord, would He heal us of this, recognizing that He's sovereign and He can do whatever He wishes. So Nancy and I went up to our bedroom and knelt down together and prayed. in the middle of the prayer, Nancy's itching stopped.

Like that. I still had the Lyme disease. So it's real interesting. Here it was a request. The Lord answered our prayer with regards to Nancy instantly. And yet the Lord said, no, Vern, I want you to have that Lyme disease for as long as I see fit. So yes, the Lord is able to answer prayer. He certainly is able to heal. But the reason that the apostles were able to come up and say, in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk, has to do with their particular role and place and giftedness that doesn't fit today.

Again, it's a transitional period. That's one of the points we've been making all through Acts. Sometimes we think that now we can only pray for spiritual things, but if you do a little study on prayer in the New Testament, after Acts, you see that they prayed for spiritual issues, but they also prayed for physical issues. So there's both. Yeah, and I think it's real valuable for us to take a look at those prayers and to learn from them. What does prayer in the Church consist of?

The point of the Apostles' field was in fact to prove that Christ was still in the Church. Yeah, it was a validation and verification. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, it's a validation and verification. Yes, this is real. And what we're testifying to is real.

And think also, it was a matter, we were showing pictures of the temple. And that was, you know, one of the places where people would be gathered. In addition to multiple people being able to testify, I saw Jesus resurrected, to have something like this happen where you stand up, here's somebody we all know, he's been there for ages, as far as we can remember, this guy's been at this you know, gate-begging. So everybody knows him.

Now, when that guy gets healed, and Peter doesn't come up and say, I think I can help you, or let's try this, but in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk, that is a validation and a verification that's potent and powerful, and it was. That's why people had listened to what the apostles said, they saw what took place, and they said, how can I deny this?

It would be idiocy. What do I need to do? Yeah, good point. Let's take a look here at the last question. If we peek ahead into Acts chapter 4, we see that the miracle provided an opportunity for Peter to speak the truth to those in the temple area, which resulted in Peter and John being taken prisoner by the temple authorities. And the question there, does that mean they did something bad? Was God not blessing them because something bad happened?

No. No. Difficult things will happen in a believer's life and that doesn't have any indication automatically that something is wrong. And we bring that point up because there are people who teach that if you're a believer then you're just on a highway to heaven and it's smooth and no problems. No traffic jams, no accidents, no problems on the highway. Everything is smooth if you become a Christian.

And that's not the picture you see from scripture, is it? Scripture clearly lays out, these guys were doing exactly what God had in mind, and yet they had trouble. And that's also what God had in mind, too. It came with it. Really important, because the prosperity doctrine, or if you do this, then everything will be great for you. That's a problem. That's a problem, because it sets up a false set of criteria for Am I in God's will? If I'm having problems, I must not be. If everything's going great, I must be. It isn't necessarily so, is it?

We've run out of time. I somewhat expected it, but anyway, we need to call a halt to it here. You have a little more brief handout to take a look at for this next week, so do take a look at that. You've got a package that'll cover us. through the end of February, introducing us to the material, even to the first part of March here. And so if you haven't got that, make sure you grab it. Let's see, I think we got some more. Yeah, we got some more over here.

So feel free. Okay, let's close our time in prayer. Thank you, Lord. As we look at here, it is certainly potent and powerful to see what the apostles were testifying to. and the reality of the situation that they could point to and they could say Jesus taught right here in these courts right here in this portico they could say this is where he drove out the money changers that building right there where Pilate is this very moment that's where he sentenced Christ and had him flogged and they could take him take people within walking distance to the place where the empty grave was and to where the cross had been. And we thank you, Lord, for the reality there. Lord, though we are not at that time, we pray indeed for reality in our own lives based on faith, faith in the facts. We trust you now, in Jesus' name, Amen.