RESURRECTION POWER!!!
“When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3: 26).
Peter and John had just healed the beggar at the temple gate where he was sitting begging money that he could live. The people who witnessed the miraculous healing were surprised by the man’s new mobility. It was the people’s astonishment that caused Peter to enter into dialogue with them. Peter spoke to the crowd concerning Jesus’ arrest, judgement, punishment, death and resurrection. Included in Peter’s conversation with the onlookers of the miracle was the fact that the Risen Lord brought about the crippled man’s healing – “It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him” (v. 17). To say the least, the crippled man’s life was transformed. There was undeniable evidence that the man’s circumstance had dramatically changed.
I find Peter’s closing remarks to the onlookers and witnesses of the healing of this crippled beggar very interesting. Peter states to the people, “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” Peter highlights that the onlookers of the miracle were upon God’s heart and mind! Like the crippled man, God wanted to transform their lives, by the same resurrection presence and power of Jesus. God’s motivation in sending the resurrected Lord to them was so that they might be blest, the blessing of a changed and transformed life. Peter leaves his hearer’s in no doubt that their lives needed a miracle just like the cripple man. They needed to turn from their wicked ways – their bad, wrong, and sinful ways of behaving. It was only by ‘resurrection power’ that that was going to be possible.
The healing or transformation of the crippled man is thus enlarged and expanded to include ‘all’ – all who will respond in faith to the Risen Lord.
The man was crippled and Peter alludes to the fact that within the crowd there were those who were equally crippled in their lives – lives crippled by wrong choices, bad decisions, and sinful acts. And like the crippled man’s legs were strengthened so that he was able to walk, jump, and praise God, so God desired that his people to experience the joy that comes as a result of theirs lives being changed. God wants us too to know the joy that comes from our lives being changed.
On that day long ago, there were many more miracles begging to be realised.
To the onlookers Peter stated, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong” (v. 16). If you want your lives to be changed it will be by the exercising of your faith! The crippled man was made strong and the physical disability that was his was no longer. The same could be said of us - the deficiencies of character that are ours can be exchanged for that which is good, right and wholesome. We too no longer have to be maimed by evil. The direction of our lives can be altered by the power and presence of Jesus in our life.
Is there a miracle going begging tonight? That is what we need to consider! Peter was saying long ago that healing and transformation was not just for one man or woman, boy or girl, but everyone.
I’ve felt a new and loving touch
Upon my heart and soul;
I’ve felt God’s love and wondrous power
Descend and make me whole.
A miracle! Yes, a miracle!
God’s Holy Spirit came
And we are not the same…
Is it not time that a miracle happened in your life? It is possible! Things can be different for you, now and tomorrow.
