Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Acts 3:11-21

"While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. ¹² And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And his name--by faith in his name--has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. ¹⁷ "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, ²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago."

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the crew of the Enterprise is returning home to Earth only to find it under siege by a giant probe transmitting a destructive signal intended for the long-extinct species of humpback whales. To save the planet, the crew must travel back in time to the 20th century to obtain a pair of these whales, along with a biologist to care for them. I can picture the panic on the faces of the officers of Star Fleet Command on Earth trying to communicate to the Enterprise as the Earth is about to be destroyed. As always, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise save the day. My favorite line in the movie is when Scottie informs Captain Kirk that the two whales and the water around them had successfully beamed aboard the ship. He tells the captain, "there be whales captain." Captain Kirk and the crew return to Earth at an earlier time to deliver the whales which communicate to the probe which then packs up and leaves and the planet is saved. The officers of Star Fleet Command don’t realize it but they just lived a new reality created by the crew of the enterprise. We have the honor of living a new reality as well but this reality is created by God not by any human effort. We have the opportunity to live in God’s reality.

God creates a new reality! His new reality is as real as the lame man’s new reality of being healed that God created. The lame man was at the mercy of others to place him at the gate of the temple, the gate called the Beautiful Gate, to beg for money with no hope that anything would ever be different. Now he can walk and earn his own money, it is a new reality for him. God knows the changes that need to happen both for the world and for the lame man. Healing is needed for the lame man. Healings are a sign of what God will do on the last day. The lame man was only known to be lame; he was never anything but lame. The healing could not be denied by anyone. He was lame and now he was not and everyone was astounded! This was a reality no one could deny.

God’s new reality is the reality promised long, long ago. The entire Old Testament spoke with one voice about the Christ, the new reality. We just finished a sermon series based on Isaiah chapters forty through fifty-five. We saw time and time again how Isaiah’s prophesies pointed to Christ.

This new reality is the present reality of Jesus Christ.

The reality is Jesus took all your sins upon Himself to the cross where He suffered and died for you. That is reality, it is real. He was innocent of any sin or crime. He fulfilled the law perfectly and yet He took your place, the place of the guilty, on that cross. By His suffering and dying He earned forgiveness of all your sins, the ones you have committed and the ones you have yet to commit. He earned refreshment for you. Times of refreshing are times when sins are wiped out, and there is peace with God. The day of salvation when a sinner is brought to faith in the Savior is a time of refreshing. We are living in the present reality of Jesus Christ. This is just like the title of the Star Trek movie; this is our voyage home, it is full of pitfalls and failures but unlike the movie we have a savior that is the author of life who loves us and cares for us.

This new reality is the future reality of Jesus Christ. The reality is Jesus Christ will return to Earth exactly as He left. He will descend in bodily form from the sky just as He ascended. When He comes again He will complete the reality with a final healing. He will heal us from all our sins, all our diseases, and all our evils. He will make you better as no physician can. He will raise you from the dead and make your body perfect. He will make us new, He will make us as He intended, perfect, and we will be with Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new Earth.

The new reality of God is in the past, present, and future. We can live in God’s reality in our present and future as well if we repent, and turn! Sin is a form of "illusion," a way of pretending that things are different. We fool ourselves into thinking everything is going to be alright. Sin always begins with a promise of pleaser. We get that little tickle that says "ooh that would be nice" and then sin hits you with the other promise that it won’t be a problem. Then we have the unbelievers who act in ignorance, they just don’t know. They are in sin and just don’t know it.

The reality is that the "illusion" is a deadly and evil thing. The Jews pretended things were different; they had the "illusion" that Jesus was a fraud. The reality is they killed the author of life! They rejected God’s plan that was meant for them, of all people! Our sins cripple our relationships, hinder the Gospel, and harm our neighbors. Our sins get in the way of meaningful relationships. Our sin hurts not only ourselves but those in our family, our friends, and neighbors. If we are burdened with sin we are not thinking of others, we are not being Christ to them. When we are not thinking of others, we are not helping and caring for others physically or spiritually. We are not doing what we are commanded to do, "love our neighbors as ourselves."

The Word of God is what makes the difference. We can use the Word of Jesus to reach out to the unbelievers who are ignorant, they just don’t know. We can use the Word of Jesus as a tool for conversion for those unbelievers. They will hear the Law that says, "Whom you rejected and killed" followed by the Gospel which will free them, "Whom God the Father raised from the dead." The Word of Jesus is for all of us that are enduring this life. We should take to heart Peter’s words in verse 19, "Repent therefore, and turn again." Turn from your sin, be forgiven and restored as it also says in verse 19 and 20, "that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." Live repentant, forgiven, restored, and looking for His coming as it says in verses 20 and 21, "that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago."

Just as in the movie, we too are on a voyage home. Our voyage does not include finding Earth under siege. The siege took place long ago and the battle was won for us by Jesus Christ when He Died and was raised. We aren’t looking for men to create another reality to save us; God has already created the reality through Jesus Christ. Only Christians have the opportunity to live real lives. By the grace and power of God, let us live in the reality of Christ for us, and Christ through us for our neighbors.

Amen.