The Supernatural Nature Of The Mission
Acts 3:1-26
We're continuing our series through the book of Acts this morning, a series I've entitled "The Church on Mission." I chose to preach through this book this year because it coincides with our theme and emphasis for the year - namely that we would, with increasing degrees of attention and focus, become a church on mission. That we would not just be a church that gives a casual nod to missions, but that we would together as a congregation be thrust into God's global activity of taking the good news of Jesus to those who have never heard it. My prayer is and continues to be that as we see the Holy Spirit moving in power upon the very first congregation that God through his Word and Spirit would fill us up, blow his wind in our sails and thrust us forward with Pentecostal power to reach the lost.
Some of you may not have been with us from the beginning so let me give you a quick recap of where we've been thus far. The book of Acts begins with the resurrected Jesus still being on the earth and for 40 days he's been meeting with the disciples; he's been instructing them and teaching them about the kingdom of God. He reminded them in Acts 1:4-5 of the promise he had made earlier that he would send the Holy Spirit who would not just be with them - but would be IN them. Then in Acts 1:8 he gave the reason WHY he was sending the Holy Spirit to them. This is our theme verse for the year, it's the theme verse for our missions conference, and its the theme verse for the book of Acts: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Now if you're sitting in Chattanooga, TN this morning and you're a believer in Jesus, your sins have been forgiven, you're a child of God - you should be tremendously thankful for this verse right here. You should be grateful that this missions mandate for the early church extended beyond the city of Jerusalem, the region of Judea and Samaria and went to the ends of the earth. Show of hands - how many Christians are in the room today? Hold your hand up high. Keep your hand up if you were saved in the city of Jerusalem, borders of Judea, Samaria? How many of you were saved somewhere else on the earth besides those three locations. I think it's unanimous. All of us are included in the "end of the earth" circle of this mandate. We would not be hear, this church would not exist, our culture, our lives and for that matter the history of the world would be tragically different if this mandate did not include "the end of the earth." Aren't you thankful for that? Well listen - the gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.
We came around this idea when we studied that verse on week 1 of our series: The purpose of Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to empower us was not just to give us warm fuzzies; it was not primarily for an emotional or ecstatic experience; it was not so you could feel good about yourself. Now those may all be secondary blessings and joys that are associated with being filled with the Spirit of God, but they're not the primary purpose. The primary purpose of the sending of the Holy Spirit to the church is quite clear from this text - that we might be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth. That's why you have received the Spirit in power - to be a faithful witness for Christ in the world. This is the missions mandate. It is a complete and total outward focus - not inward.
Surely it's heartbreaking to our Savior when you consider how many churches exist in his name that - ours included - that can sink into the mindset of thinking that church is all about us; that our life together as a congregation is all about getting my needs met, my spiritual itch scratched.
I read a blog this week by Thom Rainer. Dr. Rainer is the president of Lifeway Christian Resources. Lifeway is the publisher and bookstore that supplies much of the resources, Bible studies, curriculum - even our youth camp that our teenagers attend is under the umbrella of Lifeway. The title of the blog was this:
The Main Reason People Leave A Church
Now as a pastor and church leader, that's a compelling title for an article. So I read the article and here's an excerpt from it that kind of summarizes what that Main Reason is:
"All the research studies of which I am aware, including my own, return to one major theme to explain the exodus of church members: a sense of some need not being filled. In other words, these members have ideas of what a local congregation should provide for them, and they leave because those provisions have not been met."
Dr. Rainer went on to describe this mindset as a country club mindset. I pay my dues to the country club and I expect certain benefits associated with those dues. In other words, people approach their involvement with a church based on what they can GET, not on what they can GIVE.
The point I'm trying to make is this: the purpose for Jesus sending the Holy Spirit in power was for us to take the gospel out; to be witnesses. Not to wrangle over music styles or paint color preferences but to dream of how we can together be a church on mission.
As the story continues in Acts, after giving them their final instructions, Jesus ascended into heaven and the disciples are waiting on that promise of the Holy Spirit to come. Enter Pentecost Sunday! The Holy Spirit falls in power, in multisensory ways! And the Hebrew pilgrims who had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pentecost began to hear the mighty works of God proclaimed in their native languages through the mouths of these untrained Galileans. And right there on Pentecost, on the festival of harvest; the festival of first fruits, they experienced the first fruits of new believers being birthed into the church from the four corners of the earth. 3,000 souls were saved.
With those 3,000 new baby Christians and the 120 who were gathered in the upper room we have the first Baptist church of Jerusalem. Last week we studied what their body life was like as a congregation: Here's what we discovered about this early church in Acts 2:42: They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42 (NASB)
These four ideals marked their life together - they learned the truth together; they leveraged their resources together; they linked their lives together and the loved their Lord together. This is what their life looked like as a church and I encouraged you that this is what our life together as a church should look like in increasing measure.
As you get to chapter 3 Luke presents to us an incredible episode that happens in the process of their normal Acts 2:42 life together as the church in Jerusalem. They went to the temple regularly, they met at Solomon's portico there and worshiped together. On one particular day, God did something amazing!
Here's what happened in chapter 3: Peter and John are going to the temple to pray and worship. On the way they encounter a lame man who is begging. In the name of Jesus, and through the power of God's Spirit, Peter spoke to the man and said, "Rise up and walk" and the man was healed instantly.
The healed man goes into the temple, jumping around like a crazy person and giving praise to God. As you might expect this draws a tremendous crowd to Solomon's portico where Peter and John were. Peter takes this opportunity to preach his second recorded sermon in the book of Acts - which we'll discover is very similar to the first sermon he preached.
We're going to look at the entire chapter today because it's really interconnected. Instead of reading it all at the beginning, we're going to break it into three sections that coincide with my three points in my sermon today. The first thing I want us to consider from the text is this...
I. The MIRACLE Of Healing
1Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2And 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.
Here's what we know about this beggar from this text and the next chapter:
• We know he was over 40 years old (4:22).
• He's been lame from birth. This means he's not faking an injury to get a workman's comp check. It's a legitimate disability birth defect.
• We know it affected both feet and both ankles. Luke who records this in Acts is a medical doctor. And he uses Greek anatomical language here to identify what part of his feet were affected. He doesn't use the general word for "foot" but a word, that's only used in this verse, which refers to his heel and sole of his feet, as well as a unique word that refers to his ankles.
• We know he laid daily at the same location - beside the Gate called Beautiful. This would have been a prime location for begging. Masses of people who would be entering the temple to worship and gather would pass by this gate every day. And in Jewish culture and in the Jewish Scriptures, giving alms was meritorious, it was seen as a righteous act. He's not holding up a "will work for food" sign - he can't work, he's lame. There's no public assistance or government disability program. His existence is totally dependant on the generosity of worshipers going in and out of the temple.
• He's probably been there begging a long time. Not days, or weeks or months - but perhaps years. He's over 40 and he's been lame his whole life. Peter and John have passed him by probably hundreds of times; more than likely Jesus passed him by many, many times and never for whatever reason Jesus never healed this man.
This tells me sometimes Jesus provides healing - sometimes he doesn't. It's up to his sovereign discretion and wisdom. Perhaps Jesus never healed this man because he knew he was reserving that healing for this very moment in order to produce the greatest affect for God's glory. He's an on time God - he may not come when you want him, but he'll be there right on time.
As he's laying there He sees Peter and John - two men he's seen before, and he targets them with his begging. Look at verse 3: 3Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”
The lame beggar's gotta be thinking, "I've got a live one here - this disciple of Jesus is about to hit me up with some nice cash!" That's exactly what the text says in verse 5: 5And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. He's got his hands out, "Lay it on me, bro." 6But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, What? You don't have any money? Then why did you stop - ain't nobody got time for that.
Peter doesn't have any money, but he does have something - or someone of much greater value than silver or gold. Look at verse 6: but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10and 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. 11While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.
Why did all the people run together? Because they'd seen this lame guy - crippled from birth -begging at the beautiful gate, every day for years and years. Now all of a sudden he's jumping around shouting hallelujah's to God because he's healed. I mean, wouldn't you go over to see what's happening. This reminded me of high school, cafeteria, someone yells "fight" and this mob of kids gather around to see the show, right? That's what's happening here. These rubberneckers want to know what's happening, they want to check this thing out.
There are three principles from Peter and John's engagement with this beggar which will help us to be a church on mission. First of all...
A. You can't give what you don't POSSESS
6But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.
This is a very simple yet profound principle here. You can't give away what you don't personally possess. Peter says he doesn't possess silver and gold, therefore he can't give him any silver or gold. But he does have something - or someone that is - of much greater value than silver or gold. He's got Jesus. And church - regardless of your social status, if you've got Jesus you've got a spiritual status that is rich, and it pays eternal dividends. And Jesus is calling us as a people, in increasing increments of obedience, to give him away. And here's the deal - the more of Jesus you give, the more of Jesus you get. That's how things work in God's economy. The more of Jesus you give, the more of Jesus you get. Here's the second principle for us as a church on mission...
B. Real change comes from the POWER of Jesus
Real, lasting, eternal, transformative change only happens by the POWER of Jesus. Later on in the chapter in Peter's sermon, he identifies the source of this miraculous healing. 16And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. Acts 3:16
I don't have time to break down the Greek construction of this sentence for you to show the wonderful nuances of meaning - but suffice it to say the NAME of Jesus is where the power came from. And it was by FAITH in that name that the man was healed. But whose faith was it? It was not the faith of the beggar. He had his hand out expecting money. He didn't ask for healing. The faith that was exhibited which resulted in this man's healing was the faith of Peter and John. They had faith in the name of Jesus that this man could be changed.
I want you to think about people that you think are too far gone, they're so far away from surrendering to Jesus it would take a miracle. Don't worry about their faith in Jesus, focus on your faith in Jesus. Do you believe Jesus has the power to spiritual heal? Trust him to do it. Pray expectantly.
Where did such confident faith come from? Look again at the second half of verse 16: and the faith that is THROUGH Jesus has given the man this perfect health. We kind of miss the point Peter's making here in the English, but again the Greek construction of the sentence is clear. Notice the NIV and NASB translations here:
It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him. NIV
and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health. NASB
What he's saying is that not only did the healing find its source in Jesus, but the faith that led to the healing found it's source in Jesus. The faith Peter and John exhibited was given to them from Jesus; it came through Jesus.
What's the implication for us? As we step out in faith to take the gospel to the nations we can be confident that Jesus will continue to give us the gift of faith to keep believing in him; to keep trusting him to do the work. He'll give us the provisions necessary to accomplish what he's called us to do.
Illustration: Let me be real honest with you for a second. There are times and sometimes seasons as your pastor that I have a sense of fear, worry or anxiety. Sometimes the weight of responsibility I feel on my shoulders becomes very heavy and burdensome.
I think about things like we've got 8 fulltime or part-time employees here and their livelihood depends on this church; we've got a debt of around $90,000; we're in the middle of a building program building new youth space and Lord willing new preschool space and children's space in the next couple of years; and now we feel like God is launching us into a very aggressive missions strategy!
This year, Lord willing, we'll be taking 6 or 7 short term mission trips; entering a partnership in Argentina. What am I thinking? Why don't we just continue to coast as a church? Don’t take any risks. I mean let's just do our religious duty, show up, sing some songs, listen to an encouraging message and go home. Why extend ourselves out so far. What if the economy tanks; what if people leave the church because of this?
When I have those moments of fear and anxiety; when I feel like the weight of all that we're doing is too much to bear, the Spirit brings back to remembrance the words of Jesus in Matthew 11: 28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
And at that moment Jesus gives me a gift. You know what the gift he gives me is? It's the gift of faith. He gives me faith to press on; he gives me the faith to trust in him; he gives me the faith to realize this is his church - its not my church. It's his name and his glory and his reputation that's on the line here, not mine or yours. And do you know why his yoke is easy and his burden is light? Because he's the one doing all the heavy lifting. A yoke is a harness that two oxen or two horses are harnessed together. Listen, Jesus is doing all the work when you're harnessed with him. He even gives you the faith to keep on moving forward.
Real change, lasting change, miraculous transformative change comes only through the power of Jesus. Here's the third thing from this miracle that instructs us...
C. Real change results in PRAISE
I love this man's reaction to his healing. 8And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
And let me just ask - wouldn't you? Wouldn't you be jumping around like a crazy person shouting hallelujahs to God if you'd just been healed from a lifelong physical birth defect? Well, when we realize the change that comes from the power of Jesus to heal us of our lifelong spiritual birth defect, that transformation WILL result in exuberant praise!
So a crowd gathers at this. This work of Jesus has attracted everyone's attention. And Peter doesn't let this opportunity slip away; all these people gathered gives him a good excuse to preach the good news of Jesus which leads to my second point this morning, not only the miracle of healing but...
II. The MESSAGE Of Hope
I want to read verses 12-21 and then show you three wonderful, God exalting reasons we can have hope as we seek to fulfill the missions mandate: 12And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? In other words, I'm not a wizard, I'm not a magician. I'm just a man like you. I don't inherently possess any power to heal. So where did the healing come from?
13The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
I made this point 2 weeks ago with Peter's first sermon - what boldness for a man who just a couple months earlier was denying Jesus. He lays this indictment on them - You traded infinite righteousness and holiness for a murderer. This shows how suicidal it is to reject Jesus: give us murderers to walk free on the streets but take away and kill the Author of life!
15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
17“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.18But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
Three things from this section of Peter's sermon that I want to point out that give us hope - this really is a message of hope...
A. God's PROMISE is fulfilled in spite of opposition
18But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
The people who opposed Jesus and betrayed him and slandered him and mocked him and crucified him were all ignorant of God's purposes; they weren’t aware of what was really going on. They are certainly responsible for the death of Jesus – his blood is on their hands. But they were doing what was foretold by the mouth of all the prophets. Peter made this exact same point in his sermon at Pentecost.
Here’s what this means for us: God’s PROMISES will be fulfilled in spite of opposition. Think about it - how much more can you oppose God than to kill his only Son? But even in and through that opposition God’s promise of salvation was being accomplished.
So here’s the application for us. I’m certain, as we endeavor to be a church on mission we will experience opposition. There will be demonic opposition with spiritual warfare taking place in the spiritual realm. No doubt there will be human opposition; there may be government opposition. But here’s the truth we can cling to: regardless of how intense or how blatant the opposition against us comes, God will use that to fulfill his promise of taking the gospel to the end of the earth through his church. So this is a message of Hope from Peter because God’s promises will be fulfilled in spite of opposition. Here’s the second hopeful thing I see in his sermon…
B. God's PARDON is applied to all who repent
This is a message of hope because Peter proclaimed in vs. 19: 19Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out
You might want to circle that word “blotted.” That word means to wipe away, to expunge, to completely erase, to remove all trace of existence. So if you repent toward God this morning and turn to trust this crucified and risen Messiah, Jesus, all your sins will be wiped away. It's a beautiful word—the same one used in Revelation for the wiping away of every tear.
And this is a message of hope. Here’s the third reason it’s hopeful…
C. God's PRESENCE is enjoyed in the age to come
20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
Doesn’t that sound absolutely wonderful – times of refreshing? True, lasting refreshment doesn’t come in a 12-ounce can. It doesn't come on a beach. It comes from being in the presence of the Lord. And Peter’s pointing to that ultimate and final refreshment that comes when as he says in verse 21 that he will “restore all the things.”
All the fallenness, sinfulness, neglect, abuse, injustices and exploitations that are rampant in our world will be gone and He will set all things right and restore them back to Eden, back to being I believe better than Eden.
Sometimes skeptics will say they don’t believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God. Here's their reasoning: If there was an all-powerful, all-loving God, surely He would do something about all the evil that exists in our society. So they say, "I can't believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God who does nothing about all the evil in the world.
And the response to that is God has absolutely done something about the evil and injustice that exists in our society – he’s sent his only son Jesus, who died to take the punishment and judgment for all of that sin so that all who trust in him might enjoy the refreshment that comes from his presence and the restoration of all things to their intended, perfect order.
So Peter gives a message of hope – Hope found in God’s promises, in God’s pardon, and in God’s Presence. The nature of our mission is supernatural. It's supernatural because it miraculously heals sinners from their lifelong spiritual birth defect; it's supernatural because it's a message of hope - it provides real, lasting hope; and here’s the third reason why this mission is a supernatural mission. Because in it we see...
III. The MAKING Of History
Let's read the conclusion of Peter's sermon: 22Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
Again, Peter reaches back into the Old Testament and pulls out a passage and applies it to Jesus. He interprets the OT in light of Jesus – which is exactly how we should interpret it. Here he quotes from Deuteronomy 18:15. Moses is the Man in the Hebrew’s mind. He led the people out of slavery, he met with God on Mount Sinai, he was given the 10 commandments and was the mouthpiece of God to the people, the lawgiver. And Moses pointed to a future prophet God would raise up among them who will lead them out of spiritual slavery, who will make it possible for all to meet personally with God on the mountain – that history making person is Jesus.
Then Peter proceeds to say not only did Moses point to this future prophet, but all the OT prophets of God pointed to this one future prophet who would bring about the deliverance of Israel. In fact, Peter says, before the prophets and even before Moses there was the promise given to Abraham. Peter is saying, this is going to be a history making person; Jesus is that history maker. He's the offspring promised to Abraham: ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’
Just like you and I were including in Acts 1:8, "to the end of the earth," you and I are included in the phrase “all the families.” And not only is your family and my family included in that promise, but there are families that have not yet been reached. And Jesus continues to make history through us; fulfilling his promise to Abraham through us as we take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth, to all families of the earth.
Here’s the bottom line – all of us need healing, all of us need change. All of us need a supernatural restoration from our spiritual birth defect. All of us were born with the same problem – the problem of sin.
It’s like the two not-so-smart fellas who were sent to the lumberyard by their boss. One of them walked into the office and said, “I need some four-by-twos."
The clerk said, "You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?"
The man said, "I’ll go check," and went back to the truck and his cohort said, Call the boss” He called his boss. He returned a minute later and said, "Yeah, I meant two-by-fours."
"Alright. How long do you need them?" The fella paused for a minute and said, "I’d better go check." When he went back to the truck he and his buddy decided not to call the boss because they felt they could make the decision on their own. So after awhile, the customer returned to the office, the cleark said, "Did you figure out how long you're gonna need those 2X4's?" He said, "Yeah, we’re gonna need 'em a long time. We’re building a house."
Some people need more help than others. But spiritually all of are in the same boat; we all need help! We’re like this lame beggar, spiritually crippled from birth. But when we repent and trust in Jesus God supernaturally transforms us from death to life. And then he calls us to be on mission with him to take this same supernatural mission to all the families of the earth.
Last Thought: The only solution to the CRIPPLED nature of the human condition is to experience the supernatural WHOLENESS that is found in Christ.
