Acts 3:1-10
Please remain standing and turn
in your copy of God’s word to Luke, I’m sorry, Acts. Still
got it in my head. Acts chapter three. Today we
will be looking at chapter three verses one through 10. I know
it says in your bulletin one through 26, but I’m like the
little boy at Thanksgiving whose eyes were bigger than his stomach.
And there’s no way I could get through all that today. So just
the first 10 verses. One of the things to remember
as we begin chapter three is to notice a pattern in the book
of Acts. There will be an event in the
book of Acts like today, a lame man healed. There’ll be an explanation,
a sermon from Peter, that’s next week. There’ll be a consequence,
persecution from religious officials. And then we’ll see a glimpse
of the community at work. We already saw that in the coming
of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The accusation or consequence,
these people are drunk. Peter’s explanation through his
sermon at Pentecost. And then we saw the community
of the church eating together, praying together, studying the
word. together and serving one another together. So today, a
second pattern of that begins with the healing of the lame
beggar. Let’s give our attention to God’s
word before we do pray with me. Our Lord, only with your help
can we see and hear and understand your holy word. So we pray now
that by your spirit’s work, we would be able to read and understand
and put into practice in our lives the word that is before
us. With Jesus’ help, this can be
so, and we pray it in his name, amen. First verse of chapter
three of Acts. Now Peter and John were going
up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And
a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily
at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate.
to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and
John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at
him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention
on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter
said, I have no silver and gold. But what I do have, I give to
you. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made
strong. And leaping up, he stood and
began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and
leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the
beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were
filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Amen. You may be seated. In a couple of Sundays, it will
be October 31st. It will be the anniversary of
Martin Luther’s Reformation action, nailing his 95 theses or disputes
which he had with the Roman Catholic Church of his day. Out of the
Reformation came all kinds of wonderful, wonderful blessings. One of those we call the five
sola statements. Any of you Latin scholars will
know sola means alone. And so these five alone statements
are by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the
glory of God alone, the Holy Scripture alone. These alone
statements mean much to us as Christians, especially the faith
alone. We live in a world that looks
to earn merit. We live in a religious stupor,
so to speak, as human beings, where we seek to find things
which we can do to merit God’s favor. We like to sing from time
to time a hymn, a song, Thy works, not mine, O Christ. These words
remind us that it is the works of Christ, the obedience of Christ,
the the approval of God in Christ
that is ours by faith, nothing we can do can save us, only the
works of Christ. Nevertheless, we still find ourselves
from time to time seeking to merit or earn salvation. Good
works are all over our community, all over our culture. You hear
people say, well, when I die, I hope the scales are tipped
that I’ve done more good than bad. And if you’re a good Christian
thinker and you think of the judicial requirements of God,
you must be perfect your whole life, thought, word, and deed.
We can’t do that. We’re born in sin. We’re born
in trespasses. We commit sin our entire life.
We daily break God’s thought word and deed. We never measure
up to his standard. We fall short of his glory and
we transgress his laws. So we understand that only the
perfect one, Jesus Christ, who lived and obeyed and died in
our place can give us that merit. Nevertheless, this merit, this
good works idea is all over the place. And don’t you know people
take advantage of that? They take advantage of our human
weakness to seek God or whoever the higher power in our brain
is. Uh, we, we seek that approval. And so people take advantage
of the, our need. It’s a bad one, right? You get
that, uh, to, to seek to do good works. And so in the time of
Martin Luther’s day, there was Johannes Tetzel. He was, uh,
the Pope’s fundraiser for St. Peter’s Basilica. And we could
really do a number if we followed in his pattern on our sanctuary
renovation. They were selling indulgences
for a little money into the St. Peter’s Basilica Building Fund. You could get your ancestors
who had died out of purgatory. Purgatory, a bad view of the
afterlife. Indulgence is not a thing. If
you’re in Christ, you’re in Christ and he saves you and takes you
right to heaven. None of this purgatory business. Yeah, we could say a lot about
that. But Johannes Tetzel would go around with these little theater
acts of demons and hell and fire, and he would literally scare
people into coughing up the money. Most of them did not have it.
They were poor peasants. And he would say with this little
musical jingle, when into the coffer a coin doth ring, a soul
from purgatory death spring and so this desire to earn favor
with God to get out of purgatory to go to heaven was was taken
advantage of our church doorbell used to ring incessantly here
and if you if you connect with the other churches in the community
and we have by email you began to figure out People pray on the churches.
I need my power bill paid. And yes, there’s some legitimate
folks that need help and all. We always say we help our own
first. It’s a godly thing to do. We
help those outside the church if there’s a real need, but we
get prayed upon sometimes because they know of our goodwill and
maybe even our desire to please God in this way. Well, the man
born lame, in our passage today. He’s a man who is taking advantage
of people’s desire before God to have good works, to earn merit. We’ll say more about this in
a few moments, but let’s just say he’s got a pretty good gig.
He is at the most prominent gate headed into the temple. And his
people have God’s approval on their mind as they’re going into
the temple to make sacrifice. It’s a good moment to cry out
for alms, to, to rattle the cup and to beg for people’s help. You know how this goes. You drive
up to the intersection and there’s the homeless person with their
cardboard sign out there. And you, uh, you, you see them,
you have a moment of compassion and then you avert your eyes.
Go ahead and admit it. You’re skeptical, right? You’ve
seen the expose on the news. You know, these people, they
stand out there. They’ve got a handler over in
the parking lot. They get enough cash. They take it over there.
They’re sleeping at the Hampton Inn at night. You know, I remember
watching the one in Greensboro when I lived there. And they
said, some of these folks are making $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a year.
And so we watch this. And we become skeptical. And it’s hard to discern sometimes,
isn’t it, between someone who’s a career panhandler and someone
who’s actually in need. The real effect though is our
prayer life increases by a thousand percent. Oh Lord, if you’ll just
make this light turn green, I’ll do anything you ask. Uh, I know
that’s how you feel. That’s what goes on in my mind.
Well, here’s Peter and John, the disciples of God, the apostles
of the early church. They’re following the daily three
time pattern of going to the temple to pray. This is the second
when they would go early, mid-afternoon, about 3 p.m. That’s this one,
the ninth hour. And they would go again at sunset
when the sacrifices of the temple were being offered. But they
would use this as an opportunity to pray. Now, we understand Jesus
has come. We understand that he has died
and that the sacrifices of the temple mean nothing to these
disciples any longer, yet they’re in the habit of the liturgical
fixed hours of prayer and incidentally they go at the third hour which
is 3 p.m. and it’s the same hour which
oh who knows maybe 55 60 days ago Jesus on the cross cried
out and under darkness and the earthquaking and said the words
it is finished so you can imagine Peter and John know the sacrifices
of the in the blood of the bulls and the goats and the turtle
doves and all they mean nothing any longer because of Jesus finished
work But here they are at the temple going for prayer. It’s a busy hour. It’s a crowded
temple. The gate, probably like some
of these football games you watched over the weekend. I saw a game
last night, I think Texas A&M in Alabama, 107 plus thousand
people. That’s probably not much different
than the number passing into the temple on this day. Thousands upon thousands of people. And so a common sight for everyone
passing through the beautiful gate, oh, there’s the man crippled
from birth. It’s his gate, we say. It’s his
intersection. It’s his stoplight. You know
the way it goes. We see the same people in the
same places very often in our daily travels through town. Well, this was a common sight.
No social system. no welfare, no unemployment,
no, no institution for people who are lame. Uh, do I have to
explain it? Lame is not the seventies term.
You know, mom and dad, you’re so lame, right? Not cool. He can’t walk. His, his feet
don’t work. His ankles have no strength in
them. This man has this from birth. He cannot walk later in chapter
three. When we get there, we’ll see
that he is over, 40 years old. He’s carried here by the day.
He’s brought in and he’s brought out. It’s it’s his shift. It’s
his place. It’s his location. It’s his existence. This is his well-being. Whatever
alms. Whatever coins he can receive
from people looking to be kind. That’s his living. Well, Peter
and John. Aren’t like us. They aren’t praying
for the stoplight to turn green. They aren’t trying to just keep
on going with the crowds. They stop. And they give eye
contact. Now, what do you do when you
see a person asking? You avert your eyes. Don’t make
eye contact. They’re right there outside your
window. Be honest. This is how we do. Maybe not
all of you, but most of us, I’m sure. No, they make eye contact.
You sang the song in children’s class growing up, Bible school.
Peter and John went up to pray. Who did they see? A man looking
for alms. He opened his palms. I’m messing
the song up. It’s been a long time. Silver
and gold have I none, but what I offer you in Jesus’ name, rise
up and walk. And he went walking and leaping
in praise. Did y’all sing that? Yeah, okay,
good, good, common memories. Well, look at verses six and
seven. Here’s the response. of Peter. Peter said, as this
man expects to receive something, I have no silver and gold, but
what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus, in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. You go on through the next verses.
He was instantly healed. He was instantly able to walk
again. In this back corner back here,
if you’ve wondered what’s through this door, we call that the Benny
Hinn room. You know who Benny Hinn is? He’s
the guy on TV that you come up in your wheelchair on your crutches
or whatever, and he bops you on the head and says some unintelligible
word. And guess what? The crutches
fall. You’re out of the wheelchair. So we call this the Benny Hinn
room back here. We have on hand wheelchairs and walkers, crutches,
anything you need if you get injured. But we call it the Benny
Hinn room because you leave behind your things when you get this
miracle healing. faith healing today. If you get
sick or you can’t walk, you have some malady, you get cancer.
Can you go to a crusade, a Benny Hinn or some other faith healer
crusade? And can they do what Peter and
John are able to do? We’ve got to remember these were
apostolic times. These apostolic times have ceased. The church preaches the word.
The church administers the sacraments. The church prays. and fellowships
together and takes care of one another. But these were apostolic
times and Peter and John led by the Holy Spirit into the temple
that day, see this man, they see his need. And when they lock
eyes, they see his faith. And what we have are servants
of the Lord, servants of the risen Christ acting on his behalf. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, not in the name of Peter or in the name of John,
but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all that Jesus is,
his earthly reality, his heavenly reality, his mediation, his power
to make all things new, his being creator and reigning and risen
Lord are extended to this man. through the hand of Peter. He
reaches out his hand, he grabs him, rise up and walk. No surgery, no rehab, no braces
on the legs, no crutches, no handrails. This is a reminder
of what Isaiah prophesied would take place under the reign of
the Messiah. The lame will leap like a deer. And so when we see brothers and
sisters, an action like this in the early church, we see the
apostles continuing the work of the risen Christ, who’s ascended
into heaven, but given gifts to the church. We see them acting
and ministering in his name, but what’s the significance of
this? Why, why, why, if I was lame from birth, can I not go
and have a faith healing? Well, this is a picture, this
is a down payment of the new heavens and the new earth. We
may have sickness in this life. If you were in the Sunday school
hour, we were reminded life, life stinks, life stinks under
the curse of sin in this world. We we get cancer, we get sick.
Our hearts don’t tick the way they used to when we were young.
We get sores and injuries and broken bones. We have strife
in relationships. There’s divorce, there’s death,
there’s all kinds of things in life that bring great hardship.
And what does this show us? This shows us what everything
will be like when God makes all things new. So think of this
as a down payment on what is to come. Your heart will be healthy. Your legs will be strong. Your
brain will function. You won’t have these, what do
we call them, senior moments. You won’t have a potbelly in
the next life. I can’t wait for that. You’ll
be able to keep the weight off. And on and on we can go. Our
joints, our bones, our muscles will work. But what does this
mean in particular for this man? This man, born lame, never walked
a day in his life. He’s over 40. He’s my age. Can
you imagine the sorrow, the pain, the loneliness, the inactivity,
the weakness in your body, the feelings in the mind and in the
soul and spirit of being useless? I mean, after all, in a culture
like this, A man would want to work. A man would want to have
a trade. A man would want to be a provider
for his family and to help other poor people. But this is the
poor man. And we see God intervening in
his life in a very special way. Something that you might miss,
and I want you to understand, this man was laid every day at
the temple gate, but he never went in the temple. Why was that?
Well, the law of God forbade, had a rule forbidding any person
with a defect, especially a cripple, from entering the temple of God. I don’t know why in God’s economy
that was so, but this man never could enter the temple. And so
what does God do in making him walk? Yes, he can go here and
there and he can finally get a job, have a trade, provide
for himself, help others. That’s wonderful. But his feet
can walk into the temple. What is the temple? The temple
is the presence of almighty God. And unless we are healed by God
through faith in Jesus, we cannot enter his presence either. And
we remain outside at the gate, beggars for God’s mercy and grace. This passage does tell us something
of the future. It’s a down payment on the new
heavens, new earth, what life will be like when Jesus fixes
it all. It tells us something instructive about this man. Unable
to enter the presence of God, now able to. And he does go,
doesn’t he? Walking and leaping and praising
God and causing awe and wonder among the people who saw him.
That’s that guy. That’s that man, the one at the
beautiful gate. But there’s a third thing that
we ought to think about, and it’s this question, really. What
can the church offer the world? Now, you know, from time to time,
we’ll say some things critical of the American church, and I
know that gets old and tiring, but what is the American church
offering the world today? Is the American church offering
Jesus? Is the American church offering a realistic view of
sin and a realistic view of the cruelty of the curse of sin on
life in this world? Is the church offering the gospel
in Jesus and salvation and faith? Is the church offering hope of
heaven and God making all things new? Well, you know, the study
done at the University of North Carolina years back, it still
holds true, I think, that we’ve Become in America a church of
moralistic, therapeutic deism. Be good, feel good, and there’s
a God, and when you need him, he might show up if he’s able,
or he’s not too busy elsewhere answering other 911 calls. That’s a low view of God. That’s
a low view of Jesus. That’s a low view of salvation.
That’s a low view of God making new creations and a new creation. And so brothers and sisters,
what can the church offer the world? Well, we can offer so
much more than our prosperity gospel, so much more than our
faith healing, so much more than our bread and circus. We can
offer the simple hope of the gospel in Jesus and he can make
the lame run and jump like deer. but he can take this broken universe
with all its broken relationships, all its hardships, it’s Afghanistan’s,
it’s inflations, it’s environmental problems, it’s racial problems,
it’s social ills, and he can make all things new. It’s this
the church ought to be offering the world. And may it be so,
pray with me. Our Lord, we give you thanks
for the wonderful work of cosmic redemption that is before our
eyes this day in Christ Jesus. We thank you for his life, his
obedience, his death, and his satisfaction that divine wrath
has been satisfied and that the curse is being reversed, and
we thank you for this glimpse of the down payment on the new
heavens and new earth when you promise to make all things new
and take away every ache and pain and sorrow and suffering.
Lord, we long for that day, but this reminds us you’ve already
begun the work, and what you begin, you complete, and so strengthen
our faith in you this hour, and we pray it in the name of Christ
our Savior, amen.