PENTECOST FAITH
ACTS 3
Thirty minutes after Pentecost, the apostles knew more about Jesus Christ than they had known from 3 years of following Him as His disciples.
The outpouring of Pentecost had given them a new capacity they had not experienced before...the in filling of the Spirit had given them the gift of faith.
Prior to Pentecost they had felt dependency and loyalty...but they had no faith. They had witnessed Christ’s death with anguish and His resurrection with wonderment...but didn’t really understand the meaning of it all until the gift of faith was mysteriously born within them.
Now everything began to make sense...the scattered pieces of the puzzle in their minds suddenly all fit together...and what they heard during the previous 3 years echoed in their souls....What they were experiencing was the abundant life Jesus had talked about.
This is what He meant by their abiding in Him and He in them...for the first time they understood Calvary and the empty tomb....and what it meant not only to vindicate Jesus, but for the victorious life it now made possible for them.
They had come alive...and they would live forever. They knew it was all true...for them! But that’s not all. This new capacity to believe in what Christ had done for them began to grow into an expectant confidence in what He could do through them.
The primary faith they were given by the Spirit for their salvation became a powerful faith to believe that nothing was impossible.
In I Corinthians 12 Paul lists the gifts of the Spirit. They are the grace gifts Charismata endowments graciously given that produce gifts previously unexperienced.
Specifically they are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, discerning the spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the church clarified for itself and all ages the undeniable evidence of an empowered life.
In Acts 3 we see the manifestation of 3 of the gifts of the Spirit: faith, healing, and working of miracles. The 3 belong together and actually the last two are really part of the first.
The 3 are closely intertwined and they equal a daring faith given to the Spirit filled believers for ministry to people. It is a need that is before us that brings forth the gift from within us. And Christ continues to do through us what He did as Jesus of Nazareth.
The same power which dwelt in Him is ours...and it’s for the healing of the lame of the world...in
body, mind, and spirit.
The power of Pentecost faith is for people in need. It is for our joy but never for our private enjoyment. It is so that the things Jesus did for people, we can do.
In this third chapter of Acts we are going to examine the exposure of the gift of faith, and the explanation of its source. This morning we are going to examine 3 things...What happened? Why did it happen? And how can it happen today?
1. What Happened...Read vs. 1 10
Peter and John are on the way to the temple for afternoon prayers. The historian Josephus tells us that the stated times for prayers was early morning...again at 3:00 (9th hour)...and the evening at sunset when the sacrifices were offered.
The 2 disciples made their way from the Upper Room area of the city to the temple area. Luke tells us that at the Beautiful Gate they met a man lame from birth. This gate is usually identified as the Corinthian Gate.
Josephus describes this gate in great detail. It was made of Corinthian bronze. It’s doors were 60 feet high and the gate itself was 75 feet high.
He says, "It was adorned after a most costly manner having much richer and thicker plates of gold and silver." Other sources tell us that it was cast with the symbol of a vine, signifying Israel’s confidence that they were the vine of God.
In the sunshine the polished bronze, gold, and silver shone with a spectacular beauty. I believe it was just outside this gate, on the side of the Court of the Gentiles, that the lame man was carried each day to beg for alms.
When he saw Peter and John approach the gate, his attention was attracted to them immediately. They had a glow about them that shone like the gate itself.
I think it is really great that Luke, a physician, was the one that described the event...because Greek medical terms diagnose the lame man’s condition and his cure.
The words used to describe the lameness show that the writer was acquainted with medical phraseology, and had investigated the nature of the disease the man suffered from.
The paralytic’s congenital difficulty was centered in his feet. He was lame, cholos, with paralysis in the heel of his feet, in the socket of his ankle. The bones were out of place from birth and he was not able to walk.
His only livelihood was the alms of the people on their way in or out of worship in the temple. I have watched beggars in cities all over the world. They have a highly developed sense of who will respond.
The lame man at the gate in Jerusalem must have known Peter and John and observed their joyous faces. He knew with a beggar’s skill that they would be good marks. He asked for alms.
Well, the apostles stopped and looked at him intently...they locked in on him...The text means they stopped, looked at the man, and really thought about what he was asking.
Then the apostles said a curious thing...Look at us (vs 4). Why did they have to get his attention after he had gotten theirs? Because he kept calling out to others while he had had 2 good prospects in hand.
Even if he had a response from them, he didn’t want to miss any other possibilities in the meantime. But Peter and John cared about the man. Their request for his full attention expressed their deep feelings of compassion...and it also stirred up the man’s expectations
But it also stirred up something else. The Spirit filled disciples sensed something inside them. What would Jesus have done in this situation? Healed the man! Could they? Do they dare to even try? Faith that it would happen surged in them as they came eye to eye with the lame man...the gift of faith was spoken.
Peter spoke amazing words, which I think he accompanied with a gesture toward the silver and gold of the gate...vs 6
What he offered was more valuable than all the silver and gold of that gate. But the man could not respond to the words. It was when Peter took him by the right hand that the miracle began to happen.
As he grasped the man he followed Jesus’ usual practice of actually making contact with touch in the healing of a person. When Peter lifted up the man and spoke in the name of Jesus...divine, healing energy flowed to the sockets of his ankles...
A joining together had taken place...linking what had been out of connection. The gift of faith was now being released in the gift of healing. The Lord was continuing to heal...through His apostles who were gifted by His grace.
The word exallomenos "leaping up" is an ancient medical term for the socketing of the heel and the ankle. The process, which in this case would have taken corrective surgery and months of prolonged healing and learning to walk, took place in a split second.
Picture this previously lame man with newfound strength in his ankles, walking and leaping...but also praising God. Imagine how he took those first cautious steps...then tried walking...and finally leaped about in uncontainable gratitude to God.
2. Why did it happen? READ vs. 11 16
What happened to this man got the attention of the worshipers at the temple. They knew him...they saw him in his usual place, perhaps for years. The Lord had 3 purposes in the healing.
First, He loved that lame man and released His healing power out of His heart of compassion and concern.
Second, He wanted to alert the people...particularly the leaders of Israel...that the movement that had begun as Jesus of Nazareth was continuing through His disciples...in whom He was now living.
During His earthly ministry Jesus had healed people out of sheer love for them, but also as a sign of His authority and power as Messiah. The healing of this lame man was an undeniable further sign that He was alive.
Once again He had Jerusalem’s attention. The rushing wind of Pentecost a few days before was the talk of the town...the wind was still blowing!!
But now the Lord had chosen, called, and convinced people who became the vessels through which His force was focused. And they were the third purpose for the healing miracle...
They, most of all, needed to know that He had meant it when He said, "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24)
The gifts of the Holy Spirit were being manifested in a confirmation of Pentecost. The church had discovered that the power and passion of the wind and fire was given to them for a needy, paralyzed world.
Peter’s sermon to the "astonished" crowd was really the explanation of a miracle. The people needed to know that neither he nor John had healed the lame man. He pointed away from them...and to the One who had done it...
"Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" Notice that he picked out the two qualities among the Jews that were the greatest source of pride moral achievements and religious works...neither of which could have healed this man.
He went beyond what they had accomplished as religious people and talked about a whole new dimension of life...a neglected and rejected one at that.
Peter had experienced the gifts of faith and healing; now he was given the gifts of wisdom, knowledge and discernment. He was given the power to make clear that no human piety or perfection had made this miracle possible.
Then with wisdom, the deep understanding of the mysteries of the Lord, he went on to explain who had done the miracle in such a way that only the Spirit could have empowered.
vs. 12 16 are a sermon in themselves...where Peter used 5 divine names to get to the place where he could talk about what faith exercised in the name of Jesus had done.
This display of spiritual wisdom must have stunned Peter’s listeners that day...and it was all in preparation for his final thrust in vs. 16 !(READ)
Faith in the name! That’s the secret of the lame man’s healing. And it is the secret of unlocking all power in heaven and earth. The name, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, meant the authority and power of a person which could be given to another.
The phrase "in the name of Caesar" when used by an official, meant that the power of the emperor and all his kingdom could be brought to bear on that particular situation...
But there is something deeper here for us. The Spirit had given Peter the gift of faith in the divine Savior. His use of faith in his explanation that day meant acceptance of who Christ was...what He had done in the atonement on Calvary...and that He was the risen, present Lord.
It also meant complete trust and commitment to do His will. Notice how he stresses the essential, crucial role of faith...twice in vs 16! The name is the power of Jesus Christ, and faith in Him opens us and any person or situation needing healing, to that power.
3. Can it happen today? READ 17 26
Here we see in Peter’s sermon a sensitive compassion in his acceptance of the people’s ignorance. But that doesn’t lessen the need for a response now. We sense Peter’s desire for the people to be given the same gift of faith as he has received.
There is a warning and a clarification of the danger of one more refusal. And the apostle ends with a reminder of how much the Lord wants to bless them.
What does it all mean for us today? Can it still happen? Acts 3 is not a description of a one time, never to be repeated period in the Holy Spirit’s activity in the world.
One of the greatest paralyzing delusions of the church today is that the gifts of the Spirit ended with the apostolic age. No Way!! The Lord is the same...yesterday, today, and forever.
The needs of people today are not essentially different. What He did through His Spirit, living in people just like you and me...He wants to do today.
I want to close with several statements that summarize what Acts 3 teaches us...and to ask a question about each.
1. Faith is not a humanly initiated thing. It is utterly useless and guilt producing to tell ourselves or anyone else that what we need is more faith. We can’t produce it!
Faith is a response to Christ’s love revealed on the cross and in the resurrection. Faith comes by hearing that ultimate truth.
When our minds are invaded with the assurance of His forgiveness and acceptance He gives the gift to respond. That response is expressed in the elements of faith.
Those elements are...acceptance, surrender of our lives...a commitment of all that we have and are to serve Him as Lord of our lives...and an openness and willingness to be filled with His Spirit.
Are we alive in the abundant life with the confidence of eternal life because of that faith?
2. The Holy Spirit who gave us the gift of faith to believe the gospel also gives us a gift of applied faith for the specific needs and challenges of life. It is the confidence that nothing is impossible for the Lord.
Has your being filled with the Holy Spirit given you this bold quality of faith?
3. The Spirit of the resurrected Lord is the healing power of the world. There is no healing that takes place apart from Him...even though He is often neither acknowledged nor thanked by the majority of people today.
That healing power is available to Christians today through the Spirit’s gift of healing for the physical...emotional...personal...and interpersonal needs of our lives and the people for whom He guides us to pray.
Have you ever asked for the gift of healing?
4. The advanced gift of faith gives us the courage to pray in the name of Jesus. That clarifies what is in keeping with all we know of what He said...did...and does.
Unless a prayer request glorifies Him, His name cannot be used or His power released. But once the rightness is established, we are given the release of the Spirit to ask for and expect what was the focus of our prayers.
Have we discovered the power of His name?
The result of saying yes to these questions will be the quality of boldness Luke describes in Acts 4...and that will be our focus for next week.
