Today’s Scripture
“And 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. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and 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.” (Acts 3:2–10)
1. A Life-Changing Encounter
Here was a man who brought to the gate of the Temple daily in order to beg. Peter and John are on their way to the Temple for the time of prayer. They would have seen this man before this day because Luke tells us he was placed there daily. We are told he was lame from birth and unable to work. I think I would have really liked to see this man not only walk but leap.
1.1 Miracles Restore God’s Order
“then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:6)
Isaiah 35 is describing what’s going to happen in this world when God comes back to restore everything, and Peter is drawing the same connection. Have you wondered why Jesus or the apostles never perform a miracle like the ones we see superheroes do in movies? Why didn’t they fly like Superman or use x-ray vision? All the crowd would have gasped.
“Watch this,” Peter would say, “Watch me fly. Look, six feet, sixty feet, ten feet.” That would have impressed people, wouldn’t it?
Or how about this, “I can see through walls. There six people sitting on the floor on the other side of this wall.”
Nearly all of the miracles you read about in the Bible work to alleviate suffering. Nearly all the miracles deal with human suffering just as our story today. Why? It’s because the miracles point forward to a time when God restores all things.
Go back to the Garden of Eden and you’ll see when God put human beings in the garden, that’s not the way things were. We were meant to serve God and care for creation, but when we turned away from God, everything fell apart. That’s when poverty and injustice and sickness and disease and death all exploded onto the scene.
Here’s what we learn: God did not invent blindness. He didn’t invent lameness. He didn’t create suffering, and He didn’t create a world filled with death. The miracle reminds us that God is no happier with our world than you are. Someday He will deal with all this suffering and “right the ship.”
1.2 Peter’s Sermon
People gather around quickly because everyone knew who the lame beggar used to be. Just as Peter did back in Acts 2, a miracle takes place and Peter seizes the opportunity to share the reality behind the miraculous.
The 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. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And 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. “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:13–21)
Peter does everything possible to tell those present that he didn’t raise the lame man to walk. He’s not responsible; Jesus is responsible. Peter introduces some irony at this point around verse fourteen. Speaking to citizens of Jerusalem, he tells them they were responsible for releasing a murderer only to have a hand in murdering the very Author of Life.
Double irony alert in verse 15 where God raised the Author Life back from the dead. If you take time to compare Peter’s sermon here with his sermon from Acts 2, you’ll see a lot of similarities and a couple of differences. Back in Acts 2, Peter emphasizes the resurrection more while here he recalls historical facts to the crucifixion of Jesus (verse 13). In Acts 2, Peter traces God’s promises to King David while here Peter focuses on Abraham and Moses (verses 22—26).
1.3 Repentance
Let’s slow down to speak of the importance of repentance for a few moments. There was a district attorney (a lawyer) in my country, who was cross-examining a woman who was accused of murdering her husband. He asked her: “And after you had poisoned the coffee, and your husband sat at the breakfast table partaking of the fatal dose, didn’t you feel guilty? Or didn’t you feel the slightest bit of pity for him knowing he was about to die and was completely unaware of it? As you sat there, didn’t you feel for him at all?”
“Yes”, she said. “There was one moment when I sort of felt bad for him.”
“When was that?”
“When he asked for the second cup.”
Obviously, that is not repentance.
In Acts 2, Peter mentions baptism but here he mentions repentance (verse 19). “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).” You must have a heartfelt hurt and sorrow for your sins – this is called repentance (Acts 2:37-38).
Repentance and conversion mean to change one’s mind and turn toward something or someone else. Repentance is to change one’s mind concerning the old way of life, and conversion is to change one’s direction toward God. Later in Acts, we read a story of a supernatural encounter that turns into a wrestling match in Acts 19:11-20. The story revolves around some Jewish exorcists who attempt to tap the power in Jesus’ name with disastrous consequences. It’s a story about people who felt they could simply copy the miraculous power of God with repenting.
Also, many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” (Acts 19:18–20)
I did the math in 2017 and 50,000 pieces of silver should come to around nearly $110,000 in terms of the price of silver today. Can you imagine burning $110,000 worth of silver? The supernatural event itself causes many people to see the power of the gospel. Soon many people are converted and they give up their magical arts. But remember, the greatest of all miracles is the salvation of a sinner.
When you are on the outside of Christianity looking in, you need to know that before the gospel is good news where you are accepted by God. The gospel is, at first, bad news where you must repent of your sins. The first step inside the doorway to Christianity is repentance. Think of repentance as Ellis Island where all immigrants must first visit before they’re given citizenship papers. That’s why I call this Ellis Island. Ellis Island was the place where all American immigrants would first come to be processed into citizenship.
Yet, if Christianity is the place where some of us immigrate, many still attempt to straddle the fence between Christianity and an old way of living. The church must send out the call to repent and turn to God.
Three Components to Repentance
1.3.1 Confession
Words such as, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. It wasn’t your fault. And I’m guilty” should be sued. No excuse-making. No shifting the blame to others.
1.3 Contrition
This involves your emotions. You are bothered by your sin. When you tell others of your sin, you should be bothered by it. Don’t confuse the results of repentance with the real meaning of it. Repentance isn’t simply an action; repentance is an attitude. Repentance isn’t fundamentally a change of behavior but it’s a change of heart.
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:9)
Repenting your root. It’s changing what you trust in.
13.3 Change
You must take sides. You change sides. You show your love. You apologize. And you stop doing sins. Are you perfect? No. Even when you do sin after you repent, you hate the sin you do. You used to love what you did. Now, you hate it and you beg others to help you.
Repentance, like faith, is an intellectual understanding (that sin is wrong). It is an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding sin (a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it) and a personal decision to turn from it (a renouncing of sin and a decision to forsake it and lead a life of obedience to Christ instead).
You’re more wicked than you ever believed, but you are more loved and accepted than you can imagine. The promises of God are fulfilled in Christ Jesus. People who are captured by the hopelessness of life yearn for the showers of the extraordinary to come washing away the grit and grime of guilt and the stain of yesterday’s failures. The pathway to the extraordinary is through Jesus Christ.
1.4 Keep Your Message Centered on Jesus Christ
20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:20–21)
Jesus is called Servant, the Holy and Righteous One, the Author Life, a prophet like Moses, the Christ, and the seed of Abraham. A good summary for all us to remember when we think of Jesus is to say he is Prophet, Priest, and King.
1.4.1 Jesus is Prophet
By prophet we mean, He communicates truth. He’s the revealer of God, who God is, and what his will is.
1.4.2 Jesus is Prophet
Secondly, Jesus is a priest. He is a representative. That is, he has come to stand in our place. As a prophet, He comes actually representing God, but as a priest He represents us. As a prophet, He speaks to you and me for God, but as a priest, He comes and speaks to God the Father for us. He’s our stand-in. He died in our place. He brings us to God.
1.4.3 Jesus is King
Lastly, He’s a king and He’s our ruler. He commands us and we owe him our utmost allegiance. He is the supreme authority in our lives. So there he is Prophet, Priest, and King; or, Revealer, Redeemer, and Ruler.
1. A Life-Changing Encounter
2. A Life Defining Moment
Allan Tibbels moved to Baltimore in 1992 and was known as the Wheelchair Missionary. Allan was a strong Christian leader and started a church in the crack-addled streets of Sandtown, called the New Song Community Church. When he moved there with his wife and two daughters, the largely African American community thought he was either an undercover cop or looking for drugs. Alan was neither of these.
For two decades he rebuilt 286 houses in an area that was depressing. But one vital thing you need to know about Alan Tibbels is that Alan did all this without lifting a hammer. Alan was paralyzed from a freak accident playing basketball when he was 26 years old. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Uncapping the toothpaste was such an advance that his wife, Susan, would mark the event in the family scrapbook. In the months after his freak accident (he tripped driving to the basket), Tibbels wasn’t immune to despair — just determined to push past it. “Breaking my neck is God’s will for my life,” he wrote from the hospital. He bought a wheelchair and returned to youth work, from a home with lots of ramps. When he died at the age of 55, the funeral brochure had a special picture of Alan from years before.
It was a very old picture of Alan leaping. Doesn’t that bring you hope?
2.3 Silver and Gold
“And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.” (Acts 3:5-6a)
Peter and John would have passed this man by dozen times on their way into the Temple complex. They would have heard him say, “Alms. Alms,” like a broken record. Most of us are like this lame beggar – we think most of our problems can be fixed with money. Our story is early on in the ministry of the apostles and Luke places this story at the beginning of Acts. He did much the same thing in placing a story about Jesus healing a paralyzed man early in His ministry.
“And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Luke 5:18-20)
I can imagine the four friends and the paralyzed man saying something to effect, “Thank you but I have a bigger and more urgent need here. Can we talk about religion later? I really need to walk.”
Jesus says, “No, you don’t know what you need.”
Peter says, “You don’t need silver and gold. You don’t need money.”
And you and I are just the same. Whenever we come to come to God, we tell Him, “I have needs, I am anxious. I am hurt.” There’s a couple here this morning whose marriage is falling apart. There’s another who is so very weak and she’s now contracted the flu. Her husband believes she’s nearly gone. Still, others are behind on their rent while still others are struggling with a special needs child.
“The one thing you really need is for your sins to be forgiven by God’s grace.” Jesus is saying is, “The one thing you really need, the one thing you have to have, the only thing you have to have, is you need a relationship with God based on grace and forgiveness.”
