Acts 3:1-10 – God’s Power Through God’s People #4: The Crippled Beggar
Today we are continuing our series through the book of Acts. Today’s message would have been appropriate last week for Thanksgiving, but it suits fine today too. Today we are looking at a story of healing found in Acts 3. Turn with me and let’s read 3:1-10.
I read about a time that an evangelist came to a church. Part of his ministry was the laying on of hands and praying for the sick, and there was a long line to see him. Next in line was a pre-teen boy. The boy said he wanted prayer for his hearing.
So, according his usual custom, the evangelist grabbed the boy’s ears and said a powerful prayer, calling upon God to touch the lad’s ears and restore his abilities.
After the prayer, the evangelist let go and asked, "Well, boy, how’s your hearing now?''
The boy said, "I don't know... my hearing’s not till Friday."
That’s a silly joke, but it’s appropriate to the story for today. Someone came looking for help with one thing, but someone else had other plans. Let’s look at this guy who was pleasantly surprised with what he received. Let’s also look at how what happened to him can serve to inspire us in our walks with God too.
Let’s set the stage a little. The year is likely 30AD. Jesus collected His disciples after He had died and risen from the grave. He said that power from heaven would be given to them so that they could change the world for God, and to make it a better place. I’d like to say that the church has always used power for good, but that wouldn’t be right. Power tends to bring out the best, as well as the worst, in people. But in the early days of the church, His disciples used power only for good. Including this incident.
The number of people who are trusting in Jesus is growing everyday, as Acts 2:47 tells us. Every day, people are giving their hearts to God. It’s an exciting time. There is such a feeling of enthusiasm about what God is doing, and one more person is about to become part of it. You’ll notice that he is unnamed, considering how much of his story is told to us. There are some characters mentioned in the Bible by name, with a lot less story connected to them. But we will see ourselves in his story. Sure, our details will be different from this man’s, but the same pattern in his life was, is, and should be ours.
The 1st thing we see about this fellow is that 1) he was damaged. He was lame from birth, crippled from the time of his delivery into this world. We are not told why this happened. At the time, people often blamed things like this on sin: the father sinned, the mother sinned, something like that.
What’s funny is that people still often do that. We have the story of Job, whose tragic life arrived on his doorstep, not because he was sinful, and not because God was trying to teach him something. Bad things happened in his life – death of loved ones, natural disasters, loss of almost everything that was important to him – because the enemy wanted to steal his soul. But still, people want to blame Hurricane Katrina on the sinfulness of New Orleans, or the Asian tsunami on the Muslims’ persecution of Christians, or 9-11 on the sinfulness of the US.
I think it would be arrogant of me to say that God had nothing to do with any of these things, but I think it’s equally arrogant to blame everything on God or sin. Frankly, you don’t know God’s mind, but you can know that He loves you. Lots of bad things have been blamed on God over the years, and I think it has done serious damage to His reputation. If people would get as angry at sin as they do at God, there would probably be a lot less damage in the world.
That’s the damage that we face, like the poor guy in the story. We too are damaged. Sin has injured us. We are weak, foolish, tired, ashamed, afraid, and guilty. We cannot stand. We need help. And it’s been that way since we were born. As members of the human race, we have what we call a fallen nature. We are prone to sin. We have a bent, a leaning, a desire to do what we know we shouldn’t. Born to sin, then get caught in it. That’s the damage we all have.
This fellow’s physical damage caused him to need to beg. He couldn’t look after himself. He needed others to provide for him, even to carry him to where he needed to be. His damage made him count on others’ generosity to get him through life. He had to beg, in order to survive. Well, Peter and John came along, and obviously, the guy begged. He asked them for what he needed.
And yes, he did need money. There’s no denying that. But he needed more as well. He needed more than money. He needed a life change. He needed something different. But all he asked for was money. The 2nd way that we follow in this guy’s pattern is this: 2) he under-asked. He asked for less than what he needed. He was too settled to ask for more.
You know, we under-ask as well. We ask God to forgive us, but He wants to change us too. We ask Him to help us, but He wants to fill us too. We ask Him to bless us, but He wants us to see that He’s the greatest blessing we could ever have. We ask Him to show us 1 way He loves us, and He wants us to see the thousands of ways He shows us His love everyday. Probably every prayer we ask is an under-ask.
There is a quote by the great Christian thinker CS Lewis. He says: “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” That is under-asking, asking for far less than what God is willing to give us.
So the fellow asks for alms, but Peter and John give him something else. What they say is an old song I learned in Sunday school. Let’s sing that: “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. [He was] Walking and leaping and praising God…” The power of the Lord flowed through the disciples and the man found strength he had never had before. The 3rd way that we follow in this guy’s pattern is this: 3) He was changed.
He was born damaged. All his life he asked for help. He had probably even asked God to heal him throughout the course of his life, but when God’s timing finally came around, he under-asked. He asked for less than what God wanted to give him. But God gave him what he really wanted, and He gave him what he needed. God changed him. Completely.
And this is part of our testimony too. God wants to make us completely new people. He wants to turn our fears in courage. He wants to turn our doubts into confidence. He wants to turn our shame into acceptance. He wants to turn our insecurities into hope. He wants to turn our past mistakes into learning opportunities for our futures.
Author Ney Bailey wrote that he was once counseling a woman who was having troubling with a particular sin. This is a prayer he recommended she pray: “Lord I thank you that I belong to You. Lord, I thank you that You love me. Lord, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. Lord, I acknowledge my sin, but I cannot do otherwise unless you enable me. Lord, I put my will; I put myself, on the side of You and Your Word. Will you do in me and through me by Your Spirit what I cannot do for myself?”
Too many people think that Christianity is just following a series of rules – do’s and do-not’s. But there’s more to this faith than just Ten Commandments, whether you live them out or not. Our faith is not about following all the rules but about having a heart that wants to get to know God better.
Well, getting back to our fellow from Acts 3, we can see what happened after his transformation. God used Him. That’s the 4th way that our lives are like this guys: 4) He was used by God. When people saw that something was very different, the Bible says that “they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” Read on in chapters 3-4 to find out even more about how the man helped spread the message of Jesus.
Likewise, God wants to use us. He desires that all people would come to know Him, and the reason that Christians are still on the earth is for us to point people to Him. Pastor Rick Warren says that there are only 2 things that a person can do on earth than he or she can’t do in heaven. The 1st is sin, and the 2nd is talk to unbelievers. Now, what do you think He left you here for?
God wants you to be part of His plans to make the world a better place. This isn’t about becoming famous or widely-known. That may happen, but likely not. Likely what would happen is that the few around here would come to respect you and thank God for you. That’s really all that a person needs.
But it requires a few things. It requires saying yes to whatever God wants. First, He wants your heart. He wants your desires. He wants you to want what He wants. He wants you to pray, “Whatever is important to you is important to me.” He wants you to pray that you are willing to do whatever He wants.
A wise speaker once told us, “If you’re not there yet, tell Him that you are willing to become willing.” Ask what He wants you to do. God doesn’t want to push you into doing His will; He wants to treat you as His children who obey Him because we love Him. And he wants you to love others. To help them, to serve them, to encourage them. It isn’t easy, to be sure, but neither was what He went through. Loving Him, loving each other. That’s what our faith is about.
Folks, like the guy in our story, we were born damaged. Sin took its toll on our lives. We ask God to help us, but we under-ask. He wants to fix us and re-arrange us. So we are changed. But not just for ourselves. He changes us so He can use us, to make the world a better place. That’s why we’re here.
