WHERE GOD’S POWER FLOWS
Acts 3:1-10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Five-year-old Becky answered the door when the census taker came by. She told the census taker that her daddy was a doctor and wasn't home, because he was performing an appendectomy.
2. "My," said the census taker, "that sure is a big word for such a little girl. You know what it means?"
3. "Sure! $1,500 bucks, and that doesn't even include the anesthesiologist!"
B. TEXT
One day Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the Temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the Temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the Temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the Temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Acts 3:1-10
C. RESTATING THE STORY
1. It’s 3pm in the afternoon (the hour of prayer in the Temple), Peter and John head up to join the throng at the great House of God.
2. And on the way in, as they came to the Gate called Beautiful (a gate inlayed with gold and precious stones, situated as an entrance in the Eastern side of the Temple courts) - they came across this man who had been crippled since birth.
3. YOU SEE he wasn’t allowed inside the Temple to join in prayer, because he was a cripple. Because of their spiritual pride they felt that he was blemished - not fit for the house of God. And so he sat on the steps and begged. And people gave him their loose change (to ease their consciences as they went to prayer!)
4. But, as Peter and John approached this particular day he saw them, and so he asked them for alms. (Peter and John had just recently been filled with the Holy Spirit, and so they were just full of joy and life - so this lame man felt sure to get a good offering from these guys).
5. Peter said to him: "LOOK AT US!" - perhaps the man’s head was bowed down, he never looked into the eyes of those who came by for fear of offending them. So he looked up at them "expecting to receive something from them." Peter said: "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
6. With that, Peter took hold of the man’s right hand and lifted him up, AND IN THAT MOMENT OF TIME "STRENGTH" came into that man’s feet and ankle bones for the very first time in his life. And he lept up! And he began to dance around - before all the hundreds of Jews coming in for prayer - and he praised God!
7. What a great miracle! Don’t you love to hear stories like that of the power of God. Don’t you long to see God’s power move like that in our midst?
8. THE QUESTION IS, THIS MORNING: In what kind of environment WILL God’s power flow?
9. The title of this message is “Where God’s Power Flows” and we’re going to look at four parameters for the power of God to flow. FIRSTLY:
I. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE IS
Sounds simple / obvious doesn’t it? God’s power flows where God is.
A. GOD WASN’T AT THE TEMPLE
1. Look at this lame man’s predicament. He had been sat at the entrance of the Temple for YEARS (4:22 says he was "over 40 years of age"). The Temple was supposedly the very House of God - the "HOME" of God’s presence - and yet here he was all his life camped at it’s gates AND HE WAS STILL A CRIPPLE!
2. In all their religious fervor, there was NOTHING that these people could offer him! The best they could do was a few copper coins to ease their consciences as they passed by - an act of pity.
3. THIS WAS THE HOME OF THE GOD WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE BY THE WORD OF HIS MOUTH? No, my friends! HE WASN’T THERE AT ALL.
4. HOW DO I KNOW THIS? When Jesus hung on the cross and cried "IT IS FINISHED," the Bible records that the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, signifying that God’s presence is no longer restricted to the Holy of Holies, but HE NOW LIVED IN A NEW DWELLING PLACE! WE ARE THE VESSELS OF GOD.
5. When that curtain was torn, THE RELIGIOUS FOLK GOT REAL NERVOUS. So, what did they do? They tacked that curtain back up, and just "whistled past the graveyard".
6. Friends, when that curtain was torn away, God was writing "Ichabod" over its doorposts: "The glory has departed."
B. GOD RESIDES IN THE BELIEVER
1. God was no longer in this Temple, YET HE WAS IN THE LIVES OF THESE TWO DISCIPLES OF JESUS - Peter and John. The lame man now experiences the real power of God’s presence -- NOT FLOWING OUT THE DOORS OF THE TEMPLE - BUT RATHER WALKING UP THE STAIRS!
2. When Peter reached out and healed the man – Tell me – was the hand that reached out Peter’s or God’s? Peter’s - but WE ARE HIS HANDS AND FEET - it’s also God’s. "Christ in you the hope of glory!" Col. 1:27.
3. THE LAME MAN WAS HEALED BECAUSE GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS. If we would see the power we must secure the presence of Jesus.
4. Mary & Martha knew that. When their brother Lazarus died they called for Jesus. They knew that where Jesus was, God’s power would flow. But Jesus arrived late, and Lazarus was already dead.
5. Martha said, "If only You had been here!" Her problem was that she saw Jesus as the God of YESTERDAY. But Jesus
set her straight: "I AM the resurrection and the life, he that believes on Me, though he be dead, yet shall he live."
6. Friends, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever!” You don’t serve a God of yesterday, but of today!
7. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS PRESENT.
II. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY
A. THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPECTANCY
1. Now this lame man may have only been thinking about silver and gold - BUT AT LEAST HE WAS EXPECTING SOMETHING!
2. How many know that God does "exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think"?! The problem is that so often we come to God not expecting anything at all! We come to church ready for "just another Sunday service"; we’ll sing some choruses, pray, take communion, and providing that preacher does the right thing, we’ll be out and home for lunch by 12.00pm.
3. Nothing is sadder than go to church when you aren’t expecting anything to happen - and worst still when you are positively sure that nothing is going to happen! If it gets to the stage that Pentecostals come to church not expecting anything to happen, then "WE ARE OF ALL MEN MOST MISERABLE." When you feel that way, what a surprise - nothing does happen!
4. Friends, whether it be at home in your private devotional or when you come to the house of God WE MUST COME TO GOD WITH EXPECTANCY! "They that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Did you come here today EXPECTING God to do something new, something exciting, something fresh in your life? If you did then "you won’t leave here like you came in Jesus’ Name".
5. This lame man EXPECTED something - and he got far more than he ever expected. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY. We need to develop an attitude of expectancy. Jesus said, “Whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you have received it, and it shall be yours!” Mk. 11:24.
B. EXPECTANCY ALLOWS GOD TO BE GOD!
1. This kind of expectancy ought to characterize every area of the believer’s life. For instance:
a. You Can Expect God to Direct Your Life.
b. You Can Expect God to Save You out of Dire Circumstances.
c. You Can Expect God to Provide.
d. You Can Expect God to Heal.
2. Hudson Taylor’s life motto was this: "Attempt great things for God, EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD!"
QUOTE: "Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them." (J.Hudson Taylor)
3. Q – “HOW DO YOU THINK GOD FEELS WHEN WE COME BEFORE HIM WITHOUT A SENSE OF EXPECTANCY?” He’s the great God who made all of heaven and earth – it must be insulting to Him when we come not expecting anything to happen! When we fully expect to see Him move, we will see his power.
III. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE KINGDOM AUTHORITY IS RECOGNIZED
A. THE APOSTLES HAD AUTHORITY
1. A most striking feature of this account to me is that THERE IS NO RECORD OF PETER AND JOHN PRAYING FOR THIS LAME MAN at all. They simply took hold of the authority available IN THE NAME OF JESUS, and the man was healed. (Now I’m sure that the apostles were "prayed up" - I’m sure they spent much time seeking the Lord, but when this man presented them with his need, they didn’t feel they had to pray - they simply brought him his healing in Jesus’ Name.)
2. The KINGDOM OF GOD is the SPHERE OF JESUS’ AUTHORITY! In MATT 28:18 Jesus says: "ALL authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."
3. When Peter had said, “You are the Son of God,” Jesus had answered, “on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven….” Mt. 16:18-19.
4. How does Jesus picture his church?
a. As a Church... trying to "hold on" until He comes?
b. As a Church... which is intimidated?
c. As a Church... struggling to overcome worldliness?
d. As a Church... struggling to stay alive?
5. No! Rather a victorious, conquering Church! Jesus pictures the church NOT as holding out against the powers of evil, but as advancing against those powers until even their greatest strongholds are overthrown!
B. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN AUTHORITY
1. In fact, the Gospels list several times when Jesus invested His authority in His followers to complete tasks that He sent them to accomplish.
2. ILLUS. A few days ago a lost Da Vinci painting “Salvator Mundi” was sold for $450 million. I imagine the people who sold it for $125 in 1958, and for $10,000 in 2005 in Louisiana were kicking themselves. They had something valuable and didn’t take advantage of it. Are we?
3. Jesus said, “He/she that believes in me, the works that I do shall you do also; and greater works than these shall you do; because I go unto my Father” Jn. 14:12.
4. Jesus sent out the 12 disciples (Luke 9:1-2); then He sent out 70 disciples (Luke 10:1); lastly He commissioned ALL BELIEVERS giving His authority to heal, cast out demons, cleanse lepers, etc. (Mark 16:15-18).
5. Are you a "believer"? If so, then the same signs should follow you and I!
IV. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY
A. NOT GIVEN FOR SELF GLORY[Read v8-10]
1.God is very strict about making sure He receives the glory for what he does. Many times in the O.T. God says, “I will not give my glory unto another” Isa. 42:8; 48:11.That’s the reason He reduced Gideon’s army to 300, etc.
2. Here in Acts 3, God wanted to heal this man so that the name of Jesus might be lifted up so that people would ultimately come to Him as Savior. Peter and John were careful to credit Jesus with the miracle.
3. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY!
B. ILLUSTRATION
1. I once knew a man greatly used of God in the miraculous. A young minister came to him, asking if the Man
of God would teach him how to pray the prayer of faith, so he too could see the miraculous in his ministry.
2. The old minister replied, “The manifestation of the Spirit
is not dependent on how much you can trust God, but how much God can trust you!”
3. If we’re doing the work of the Lord and staying in fellowship with the Lord and our motive is right – we may be sure
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Rev. Vince D'Acchioli told how he had just finished speaking at one of the largest churches in Singapore when the Pastor announced to the congregation of several thousand people that Mr. Vince will now come back up to pray for them.
2. 2000 people made their way to the front. Vince had never participated in a healing service of this kind. Following the Pastor’s lead, Vince began to pray for them. Each time, the power of God fell on them. Many of them fell to the floor.
3. He later confessed to his wife, “I didn’t feel anything. How did they get healed?” She said, “They came expecting!”
4. “With that simple answer a profound truth began to take root in my soul. Could that be the reason we don’t see more supernatural works of God?
5. Do I come to God expecting Him to do something extraordinary, special, something so far beyond my dreams and abilities?
6. In his book The Crisis in the University, Sir Walter Moberly tells professing Christians, “If one tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.”
B. THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
So, there we have it. IN WHAT "ENVIRONMENT" WILL GOD’S POWER FLOW? Here in Acts 3 we have four guiding principles:
1. Where HE is.
2. Where there is EXPECTANCY.
3. Where RIGHT AUTHORITY is RECOGNIZED.
4. Where HE ALONE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY.
C. THE CALL Need a miracle? God’s power’s flowing!
[This is a rewrite of Phil Morgan’s (2002) message of the same name.]
