The Book of Acts ~ Study Fourteen

"Open Eyes"


Acts 3:17-26 (NLT) “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’ Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’
     “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.” 


Peter took this opportunity, after the healing of the lame beggar, to speak more about Jesus. God had been speaking through all the prophets down through the ages about the Messiah ~  "a Prophet among your own people." Why did they not listen?

Why didn't the Jews recognize who Jesus was? Heck, they had all those miracles and things like that... Hey don't be too hard on them. We aren't much better. Who knows how we would respond if we were in their shoes? The good news is that God gives chance after chance after chance to know about His Son. He will continue to do so until the time when He's says, "Enough!"


Luke 24:25-27 (NLT) He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.


This scripture is concerning Jesus appearing to some of His followers as they were walking on the road home to Emmaus. They didn't recognize Him because they didn't expect to see Him. They were walking beside Him and still didn't get it. Again, we can't know how we would respond, but are we any different?


Those who believe that Jesus is the Leader of their lives will only see Jesus when they keep their eyes on Him. Let me clarify. When we aren't focusing on Him and instead focusing on ourselves and what we think He should be doing in our lives, we won't recognize Him. We miss His face and continue walking on the downtrodden path of our expectations. Instead we should rely on Him and look for Him. He is right here with us, walking beside us and speaking to us. We need to just "look and listen" for the voice of our Savior.


James 1:22-24 (NLT) But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.


How funny would that be if we were to look in the mirror and forget what we look like? James, who wrote this scripture, was the half-brother of Jesus and it wasn't until Jesus died and came back to life that He finally believed that Jesus was Messiah. He knew "Torah" (The Old Testament) and he still didn't recognize the Messiah in his own brother.


We are much like James and the disciples walking on the road to Emmaus. But we are even closer because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and we still don't always pay attention to what we have right in front of us.


Do you ever get so focused on what is going on around you that you don't see Jesus? Describe what that is like for you. Is the mirror of your life fogged by the breath of your worries? How can you clear the mirror so that you can see Jesus living inside your soul?


1 John 3:23-24 (NLT) And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.


"And we know he lives in us because the Spirit He gave us lives in us." Oh Lord Jesus, that we would live our lives daily remembering and believing that you are here ~ right here~ living fully within us. 

To see Jesus we must look at Him, believe Him and follow Him in His will and way for our lives. When we do this, we will experience the fullness of Jesus and see what He can do for our lives according to His perfect will.

Let's live fully in Jesus our Messiah 

and not miss what He is doing!

Open our eyes Lord we want to see Jesus!