The Gold Standard
I want to apologize if what I’m about to share is repetitious. I think my opening illustration was shared with me by our friend and Chairman of Deacons, Robert Johnson, a few months ago, but I’m not positive. Anyway, in 1900, a company called the Detroit Automobile Company failed. Its investors still believed in the concept and tried again in 1901. This time, they hired the former chief mechanic of the company to run it and said mechanic, in all humility (cough, cough) renamed the company as The Henry Ford Company. Ironically, though this was the Henry Ford who later became famous, this was not the beginning of the Ford Motor Company. The Henry Ford Company failed because Ford himself left it, saying that the investors only cared about profit and not long-range success. Of course, the investors claimed that all Ford wanted to build was race cars.
In 1902, the same investors tried to salvage what they had left by reforming a new company with Henry Leland and dubbed it the Cadillac Motor Company after the founder of Detroit (whose last name, of course, was Cadillac). Leland was a precision machinist who had already helped the Olds Gasoline Engine Works to exceed the performance of an engine designed by the Dodge Brothers (and if you hear the early origins of both Oldsmobile and the Dodge, you’re quite alert today). Leland had not only worked as a machinist for the Colt Firearms Factory, but he had also worked for Brown and Sharpe, the first company to produce handheld precision micrometers.
So, it is no wonder that Cadillac quickly developed the reputation as one of the smoothest running cars (precision motors and transmissions running much more efficiently than the ones found in other cars of the era), but Leland was able to standardize Cadillac parts to precision standards. The development of these standards had such a profound impact that a member of the British Parliament, a wealthy lord named Sir Thomas Dewar, gave the company an award for standardization of parts. Having completely interchangeable parts revolutionized the industry. You could depend on Cadillac more than any other automobile of its time. This is where Cadillac gained its trademark, the Standard of the World.
When I was a child, currency was based on a precious metal standard. It was no longer a gold standard, where each piece of currency was backed by gold. The so-called gold standard had gone the way of William Jennings Bryan’s famous “Cross of Gold” speech and the yellow brick road of Oz (in the book, Dorothy’s slippers were SILVER, not ruby, and that’s because they represented a move to a silver standard). So, when I was a child, we still had Silver Certificates—money backed by silver. Today, we have Federal Reserve Notes—money backed by the mere PROMISES of the U.S. Government—promises that many U.S. politicians claim don’t mean anything when it comes to Social Security.
Today, Cadillac’s standards of excellence have been superseded by manufacturers in other nations and the U.S. would spiral into an impossible depression if we returned to the gold standard. But we still speak of standards of excellence with regard to education and job performance. I’ve called this sermon, “The Gold Standard” because it is a standard that cannot be superseded—a standard that should never cause us difficulty. That is because this standard is not based entirely upon our performance, but mostly upon God’s. In this text, we have someone expecting the standard monetary gift associated with nominal religious practice. As it turns out, what he gets is far beyond the gold standard. The man gets a life he never had. (Read Acts 3:1-16)
So, the first thing I notice is that Peter and John are continuing to be involved with the Jewish faith. Some of us would have said that the Jewish faith was irrelevant, that we were in the post-Jewish era. They could have been just like modern church members who feel like church attendance, Bible Study, and prayer are optional. They give a little money here and there or show up every once in a while and feel like their obligation is taken care of. But Peter and John are heading up temple hill to participate in the third of three daily prayer times. The Jewish day began at 6 AM and the temple was open for prayer at the third hour (9 AM), sixth hour (12 noon), and ninth hour (3 PM).
The second thing I notice is that there was a man who was lame from his mother’s womb. We’re talking about someone who was born deformed and never knew a normal life of running, playing, and wrestling as a child or young man, or even having a career goal like being a priest (like sacrifices, priests couldn’t have a flaw). Fortunately, like the crippled man in the early portion of Christ’s ministry, he seems to have had some friends. The text tells us that they were bringing him to one of the most famous gates at the temple.
I guess human nature is consistent throughout history. Wherever there is significant pedestrian traffic, there will be panhandlers, beggars, and con artists. Go to a major sporting or theatrical event and you’ll probably have to face at least one person seeking money. Walk down a metropolitan street and you’ll likely be hit up. One of my colleagues was walking with me down a street in Manchester, England and a guy asked him for money to fix his car. My colleague suddenly became hostile and I couldn’t understand why till I heard him say, “Sure you do. That’s why you were stationed one block over yesterday and took 5 pounds of my money.” So, it isn’t surprising that this fellow would place himself right in front of the gate that connected the Court of the Gentiles with the Court of the Women. He had a chance to take advantage of maximum compassion.
The gate was called Beautiful. We don’t know for sure, but we think it was the one described like this in Josephus:
…there was one gate that was without the [inward court of the] holy house, which was
of Corinthian brass and greatly excelled those that were only covered over with silver
and gold. …its height was fifty cubits [75’ high]; and its doors were forty cubits [60’
high]; and it was adorned after a most costly manner, as having much richer and
thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than the other.
(Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chapter 5, Paragraph 3)
But all of this is just setting the scene. The action really starts when the lame man, over 40 years old according to Acts 4:22—not only a man according to the Jewish tradition but also of a symbolic age that suggests 4 (number of the created order) * 10 (the number of sufficiency). So, his age symbolically means that he had reached the full potential of what he could do as a created being and, since he is so helpless that he has to be carried to the temple to panhandle, that doesn’t appear to be much.
The Greek text suggests that the men had just brought the man to the gate. He was just starting his business for the day. He knew what he needed. He needed cash. He must have been a familiar sight at the temple, just like those guys in Manhattan who wash your windows and try to extort money from you. He didn’t want advice; he didn’t want sympathy; and he didn’t want prayer. He wanted cash.
Of course, that isn’t so different from us. God wants to meet our needs or more and we think we know what we need. We don’t want to be preached at; we don’t want sympathy; and sometimes, we don’t even want prayer. We just want what we want. And isn’t it frightening that there are many times when we settle for this or that when God wants to transform our lives dramatically? Sometimes, we rush to marriage when God has a soulmate for us. Sometimes, we settle for a crummy job when God has a mission for us. Sometimes, we settle for talking about God when God wants to infuse with power beyond our comprehension. Sometimes, we just want to give the minimum when God wants to bless us with the maximum. Do we really know what we need? This man didn’t.
Now, notice what Peter does. He tells the man to look at them. You know, sometimes when I don’t trust the street people and I just don’t want to be bothered with what I perceive to be a “con,” I make sure that I don’t make eye contact. But Peter demands eye contact. He takes the time and makes the effort to be involved. Now, I’m not asking you to get involved with street people. It’s much more vital that you get involved with the neighborhood, with the people around you.
Peter wasn’t afraid to ask the man to look at them because they weren’t afraid to get involved with the man. Peter also wasn’t afraid to have the man look at them because he knew that their lives, after the filling of the Holy Spirit, was a reflection of the Christ they served. And the question for us is, how much do we reflect Jesus? Are we accurate reflections of our Lord or are we funhouse mirrors?
Now, the text clearly tells us that the fellow was expecting Peter to not only “show him the money” but to hand it over. Instead, Peter boldly informs him that he isn’t part of charitable foundation. His ability to help doesn’t come from financial strength. In fact, his ability to help doesn’t come from his OWN STRENGTH. He speaks with Jesus’ power of attorney. He speaks with the power to write a check on the Bank of Heaven.
Peter informs the man that he doesn’t have any silver or gold, but promises that he has something to give him. IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FROM NAZARETH, by the authority of Jesus, the historical figure, Christ, the pre-existent God who came to earth as the incarnate Son of God, from a city that normally had a bad reputation, the man is ordered to walk. Now, I know that the King James Version and the chorus that we sang said, “Rise up and walk!” Some Greek texts use that wording and it makes good sense. If you’re going to walk, you can’t do it lying or sitting down. Now, the OLDEST Greek texts don’t have that wording. I think the emphasis in those texts was on doing the seeming impossible, walking, and having Peter extend his hand to help him up as equivalent to the “rising.”
Taken together, both readings are insightful. As “Rise up and walk,” we see the truth that believers are expected to take some initiative themselves as they act in faith. They don’t just sit on their bottoms and wait for God to act. As the simpler “Walk,” we see the emphasis on God’s people helping people start the process and then, allowing God to finish it. Peter helps him up, but God heals him and sets him walking.
Notice also that the ankles and the bones didn’t strengthen until the person acted in faith. To be sure, he acted along with Peter, but the miracle takes place after the initial act of faith. So, whose power caused the miracle? Was it the man’s power? No, he simply responded to God’s word as spoken by Peter by acting in faith. Was it Peter’s power? Nope! Peter himself says in verse 12, “Men of Israel, why are you so amazed on account of this? Why do you keep staring at us just as though the power belonged to us [and consequently], we caused him to walk?” The power came from God—power flows through the believer through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And what do we have to do? We have to make sure our lives are aligned with God so that He can use us as His vessels whenever there is a need. But we don’t really expect God to work through us. We keep trying to reduce God to OUR expectations. Peter echoes the words of our Savior Himself when he commands the man to walk. It’s so like Jesus. What of us? Are we so like Jesus?
And finally, I can’t close without speaking of the reaction. The healed man was walking and leaping and praising God. If we saw someone do that in our church, we’d either be patronizing—smiling and saying, “That’s nice. He’ll outgrow this juvenile enthusiasm.”—or we’d be like the Jews who get upset in Chapter 4 and want to know how anybody would DARE expect God to do anything.
There is an interesting account about Thomas Aquinas visiting Pope Innocent II in the 12th century. The great theologian and philosopher came upon the pope auditing some of the Vatican’s treasure. The pope stated, “No more must the church say with Peter that of silver and gold we have none.” To which Aquinas replied, “Yes, but also the church can no longer say to the lame man, ‘Rise, stand up, and walk.” The POWER comes from God and if we start to depend on anything other than God, we lose it.
What are we going to do about it? We need to live according to God’s directions in the Bible and learn to confess our sins and turn away from things when we fail. We need to be clean so that God’s Holy Spirit isn’t hindered by our carnality. THEN, we can have the audacity to speak in Jesus’ name and command the impossible to happen. And when we do, let’s be ready both to celebrate like the man, witness like Peter to those who are stunned and curious, and ready to defend God’s truth as Peter does in the passage reserved for next week.
