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I know a woman whose husband was an alcoholic - I say "was" because the husband is dead now; he drank himself to death. While he was still alive, however, the husband would seek out his "drinking partner," a woman who lived across the street, and the two of them would party together, kissing and dancing and drinking until they both passed out. In fact, it was at such a get--together that the husband had a heart attack and died. That forced the party woman, in absolute panic, to call the dead man's wife and to tell her where and how her husband had died. But it was no surprise to the wife. She knew her husband was killing himself, but she also knew about her husband's infidelity, and about the wild partying. Above all else, however, she knew how desperately the party woman needed help. Amazingly, the wife had been praying for that woman every day, and when the frantic, distraught neighbor called her, the wife rushed to the woman's side and comforted her and calmed her in her distress. Indeed, the wife visited the party woman every day thereafter and became a good friend to her, aiding her to recover from her alcoholism and to turn her life around. All of us who knew of the whole affair were simply amazed. "How," we asked the wife, "could you possibly forgive and help the woman who seduced your husband and with whom he was keeping company at the time of his death?" Her reply was simple. "It was not my doing," she smiled, "it was the Holy Spirit."
"It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." That is very much like what Peter told the Jews in Jerusalem after he had healed a lame man who lay every day at the entrance into the temple court of women (the Beautiful Gate, 3:1--2). The people who saw the healing stared at Peter and John in amazement, but Peter asked them, "Why do you stare at us? We didn't heal the lame man. Jesus did." "The faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health" (v. 16).

That is always the kind of answer that a person of genuine faith gives when he or she does some great deed. "It was not I, but Christ who liveth in me." "It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." They claim no good or great deed for themselves, and they're not just being modest. No. They know, as our Lord taught, that apart from him, they can do nothing good in the purpose of God (John 15:5). But they also know that God in Christ and the Holy Spirit can work through them to do fantastic things, like turning a drunk woman's life around and healing a lame man in Jerusalem. They are not those who brag about their accomplishments, not even their religious deeds. They're not like the Pharisee in the temple who pointed out that he was honest and fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of every coin he got (cf. Luke 18:11--12). They're not like those who tell about the great gifts they have given to the church, or who are celebrated as "women of faith." No. Their lives are focused on Christ and his faith and gifts, and their sole desire and witness is to glorify him. And so Peter, as one of the forbears of the company of such Christians, testifies to Christ's working through him, and the name of our Lord is glorified.

What is the name of Jesus, according to our text? He is first of all God's servant (vv. 13, 26), and therefore he is "the Holy One," set apart solely for God's purpose. For that is what "holiness" means in the Bible - to be set apart for God's use. Our Lord Jesus never wavered from that calling, did he? Tempted in all things as we are, he nevertheless resisted every attempt of human beings to worship him apart from his Father or to glorify him apart from his God. "Why do you call me good?" he asked. "No one is good but God alone" (Mark 10:18).

Therefore Jesus is called in our text the "Righteous One." Righteousness throughout the Bible signifies the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship. And our Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled his relationship with his Father and with us. Above all, God asks of his servants that they love and trust him with their lives. "You shall love the Lord your God" - that is the heart of Old and New Testaments alike. And Jesus loved God, and trusted his life in God's hands, even when a cross loomed up before him. But he also loved you and me. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And so to the helpless, the ill, the blind, the poor, and yes, to the children, the rich, and the sinner, our Lord brought care and healing and hope, and a brand new life for each and every one of us sinners here this morning. We may not have any righteousness in ourselves, but Jesus' name is "Righteous One." And by faith in him, you and I can share in his fulfillment of his covenant with God and be counted right in the eyes of our heavenly Father.

Indeed, by faith in Christ, you and I can be given a brand new life - a new beginning, in which all the guilts and errors, all the wrongs and dumb decisions, all the misguided ways and sins of the past are done away forever. For our Lord Jesus is also, according to our text, "the Author of life," (v. 15) - of a new and transformed life for you and me here and now, but also of life everlasting. Peter tells us in our scripture that he witnessed it. He saw Jesus hanging dead on the cross on Golgotha, but three days later, he testifies, he met Jesus Christ alive, raised from the grave as the Author of life for all who trust in him, and so given the power and the authority to conquer sin's death forever and to make all things new.

That was not all by accident, however, Peter continues in our text. It was all in the plan of God. God foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament that his Christ would suffer, in order that God might crucify all our sin and raise us all to new life with him. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." God so loved you and me. God so loved every bragging, proud, immodest, unfaithful, or unrighteous ragtag soul on earth that he planned it all in the beginning.

And now what is our response to that sacred story, told us once again by the Apostle Peter? Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing - new life! - may come from the presence of the Lord who is with you!