Another Miracle
Acts 3:1-11
Jeff Hughes – February 23, 2003
Calvary Chapel Aggieland
I. Introduction
a. Today, we are going to look at the life of a man that was radically changed by the power of God. We will look at his faith and his reaction to Jesus.
b. This was a man that was paralyzed. He had never known what it was to walk. What he had known was a life of dependence on others and suffering. There were no work programs for handicapped people in the ancient Middle East. The government didn’t send him a check every month. The paralyzed man also carried the cultural stigma that went along with his condition, which was a heavy burden to carry.
c. This man’s day consisted of being carried to a place daily to beg for money so that he could help in some tangible way with his upkeep. This was a man that lived by faith. Faith of the goodness of God to move on others hearts to help him.
d. Before this day, that help had always come in the form of copper or silver coins, but if someone was really generous to him, he might get gold ones.
e. That would all change this day. His life was going to change forever. God did move on someone’s heart to help him, but what he received that day was far more valuable than gold.
f. Pretty exciting story, to say the least. Our story comes out of Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 11.
g. But first, let’s pause for a moment of prayer, and let’s ask the Lord to come and bless our study in His Word today.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. Some years ago the Canadian Medical Association reported the strange case of Jack Traynor. Jack was an Englishman who fought in the trenches of World War I. Twice he was shot: one bullet severed the nerves and tendons in his right arm; the other put a hole in his skull. Jack was alive, but his arm was useless and his brain was damaged. He couldn’t walk, and he had constant epileptic seizures. His right arm hung paralyzed. Doctors stopped treating him and predicted his death in a very short while. The Ministry of Pensions gave him a total disability.
b. That was in 1920. One morning in 1923, Jack suddenly jumped up out of bed. He washed and shaved, dressed himself, and walked out the door on his own!
c. “It’s not possible!” the doctors said. But Jack just carried right on: he set up a business for himself, he got married, he fathered two children, and he lived a normal life for another 20 years! The Ministry of Pensions kept sending his disability checks. No one in Jack’s condition could ever recover! They said. But Jack didn’t complain! It was like he was reborn. Just when everybody had given up on him, he got another chance at life!
d. You know, when you think about it, it’s not only our abilities that God wants, our inabilities also. An invalid was told that she could never escape from her prison of pain and weakness. “Oh, well,” she replied, “there’s a lot of living to be found within your limitations, if you don’t wear yourself out fighting them.” “Young lady,” the doctor replied, “I wish I could have you preach to about a hundred of my patients a year.” Helen Keller once said, “Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them, but do not let them master you.”
e. We are going to look at a man who was doing all he could when he was met by God. Let’s jump into our study.
f. As I said earlier, our study today comes out of Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 1. Acts is just past John in the New Testament and before Romans. If you need a Bible, just raise your hand, and we will get one to you. Follow along with me starting at verse 1.
IV. Study
a. Intro
i. 1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then 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." 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed.
ii. What we see in these eleven verses is a spectacular, miraculous story about a miracle performed through the apostles Peter and John. We see a man’s life changed by the power of God.
iii. God’s still changes lives today. Maybe not as spectacular as this, but I assure you, when someone gives their life to Christ, the change that occurs is just as miraculous.
iv. We will also see that the man’s reaction to being healed was one of overwhelming joy and gratitude. Our reaction to being bought by the blood of Christ should be the same. We don’t need to run around moping and complaining – We should be walking and leaping and proclaiming the miracle that has taken place in our life. If I do my job right, and you guys listen, then by the end of this study you will know a little more about God’s power, and how it affects not only this man, but us as well.
v. As I prepared this study, I see our story being laid out in five points. You can find these in your bulletin, and there is some space for you to take notes. We encourage you to take notes. Not for my benefit – I already did the study. But, we encourage you to take notes for your benefit, so you can get more out of it.
vi. We are going to look at the Scene, the Situation, the Solicitation, the Supernatural, and the Spectacle this morning as we continue along in our study in Acts.
vii. Every good reporter gives us an insight into the area in which the story took place. Luke is no exception. Let’s see what Luke wrote about the scene in verse 1.
b. The Scene (Acts 3:1)
i. 1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
ii. The first thing I want us to notice here is that Peter and John are together. Some people have questioned why that is. The answer is simple. If you remember, in the gospels, Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs to do the work of the ministry. So, pairing up to do ministry was already established.
iii. We also see back in Luke chapter 5, verse 10 that Peter and John, along with John’s brother James had a fishing business together before they were called by the Lord to become his disciples.
iv. We are given a clue as to their intent in that they were paired up. They went to the temple to do ministry that day.
v. They went at the hour of prayer, and the verb tense used here tells us that they went to the temple frequently at the hour of prayer.
vi. Now, one thing worth noting here is that they didn’t go up during the hour of sacrifice, which was just before this. Jesus was their sacrifice, and they were being led to tell people about it, and we are going to look at that in detail next week.
vii. The crowds would be gathered in the temple for sacrifice and prayer. It was at this time that Peter and John would have the opportunity to reach the most people.
viii. Sometimes, God puts opportunities in our lives to reach others for Him. Week before last, I had the opportunity to share Christ with a young man at my work, and he rededicated his life right there. I call those “divine appointments”.
ix. Peter and John had several divine appointments that day. We will meet the first one in verse 2.
c. The Situation (Acts 3:2)
i. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple;
ii. Their appointment was with a lame man. His day consisted of being carried into the temple and being laid at the beautiful gate of the temple, to seek a hand out from those going in.
iii. We know that the man was lame from birth. This was more than likely a birth defect that afflicted the man. This was different from Mephibosheth, another famous lame man in the Bible. The Bible tells us that Mephibosheth was King Saul’s grandson, David’s best friend Jonathan’s son. Mephibosheth was dropped by his nurse at the age of five, most likely breaking his ankles.
iv. The most notable thing about Mephibosheth was that David showed him kindness once he had become king, even though Mephibosheth had a claim to the throne, and it was customary to kill anyone who could claim your throne once becoming king.
v. Like Mephibosheth, this lame man would be shown kindness and mercy as well.
vi. One more thing I want us to see in this verse is the gate. We see from this verse that the gate was called Beautiful. Now, when I did my study about this passage I found out that the beautiful gate was inside the outer wall of the temple.
vii. The temple had three courts or areas, besides the temple itself. First, was the court of the gentiles. This was the large court just inside the outer wall. It was as close as non-Jews could get to the temple. Next was the Court of the women. Jewish women could come this far. Surrounding the temple itself was the court of Israel; Jewish males could get close enough to see the sacrifices that the priests were making.
viii. Josephus, who was a Jewish historian for the Roman government tells us that the Beautiful gate was the passage between the court of the gentiles and the court of the women.
ix. Josephus also tells us that this gate really was beautiful, it was bronze, seventy-five feet tall, and took twenty men to close.
x. The man was seeking a handout, as I said earlier. There were three main places where people begged for money. First was on the main roads, or trade routes, because merchants and travelers carried money. Second was in front of rich people’s houses. Their rich friends come to see them, and they carried money. The third was at the temple. This was the most popular and most sought-after spot, because not only were people carrying money, for offerings, they were in a giving spirit.
xi. Giving of alms was a very meritorious act in Jewish religion. Not only could you make points with God, you could impress your friends. This is what the Jewish religious system had degraded to at this point.
xii. So, here is the picture. Peter and John are walking through the temple to reach the court of Israel, and they run into this lame man, at the second gate they get to. In the verses 3 through 5, we will see the lame man’s request.
d. The Solicitation (Acts 3:3-5)
i. 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
ii. The lame man saw Peter and John walking to the gate. As I said earlier, they were going from one court in the temple to another. He probably saw the joy on their faces. These guys were filled with the Holy Spirit, and I would imagine that this would look pretty different from the religious establishment that came in and out of the temple daily.
iii. The lame man wanted support because of his condition. He wanted support from those that could afford it, and were willing to help.
iv. These guys looked pretty generous. The lame man probably thought, “Here are some good guys to ask...” So, he asks them for alms. He’s looking for a handout.
v. Peter looks at the lame man. Now, they had no doubt seen this guy hundreds of times before. Remember I said Peter and John frequently went up to the temple for prayer. Devout Jews went up three time daily to pray. Each time for one hour, once at 9 am, once at noon, and once at 3pm, this was when this was.
vi. But this time was different. This time, they felt moved by the Holy Spirit to do something. God had plans for this lame man lying by the gate. God didn’t have plans for his support by the way of money, but God had plans to transform his life by the healing power of God.
vii. Peter told the man, “Look at us.” They wanted the lame man’s undivided attention. That’s how Jesus is with us. He wants our undivided attention. He doesn’t want us looking around at our circumstances, or trying to figure out how He is doing something. He wants our undivided attention and love.
viii. Peter had learned that the hard way. One evening Jesus sent the disciples away after feeding the multitude. Let’s pick up the story there in Matthew 14, verse 24.
ix. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." 28 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." 29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
x. Peter had gotten his eyes off Jesus, and he was sinking fast. It is the same way with us. God wants our complete attention, just like Peter and John wanted this lame man’s attention.
xi. So, the lame man gives them his attention as we see in verse 5, he is expecting to receive something from them.
xii. I look at this lame man and see us a lot of times. We come to Jesus not to thank Him, but in a spirit of expectancy, looking for a handout. We should be thanking Him for all that He has done for us. While we can and should bring our requests to God, it should be more than that.
xiii. The Jews had a certain manner in which they prayed. The hour was broken up in three parts. The first, which lasted fifteen minutes, consisted of quiet reflection on who God is. The second part, which lasted thirty minutes, consisted of petitions to God. The last, which lasted the remaining fifteen minutes, consisted of adoration and worship of God.
xiv. This suggests to me that our prayer life needs to be balanced. We need to spend at as much time meditating on God and praising Him as we do asking for things.
xv. It is a good pattern to follow. When you think about God’s greatness and power, you are confident that He will answer our requests. After pouring out your heart to Him, you can’t help but to worship Him.
xvi. Let’s get back to our lesson here though. We have a lame man focused on Peter and John, in front of the Beautiful gate of the temple, expecting a handout. What he was something supernatural, not a handout, but a hand up. Follow along with me in verse 6.
e. The Supernatural (Acts 3:6-8)
i. 6 Then 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." 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God.
ii. Peter starts by telling him the bad news, and then the good news. The bad news is – we don’t have any money to give you. This would have no doubt disappointed the man. He was expecting some money. That’s what he was there for. He was there looking for a handout because he couldn’t support himself. He was totally dependent on that income. He could have gotten upset and bitter, like some of us do when we don’t get what we want, but he didn’t do that.
iii. There is a story that says that the pope was counting the silver and gold coins in his coffers one day when Thomas Aquinas walked in. `Greetings, Thomas,’ he said as he gleefully held up some coins for Thomas to see. `We can no longer say, silver and gold have we none, now can we?’
iv. Thomas looked at the pope and said, `And neither can we say, `In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ That’s the good part. Peter tells the lame the good news.
v. The good news was that even though he didn’t have any money, he was going to give what he had.
vi. What Peter had was the authority from Jesus Christ to heal the sick. That’s what the little phrase ‘in the name of’ means in the original language. Peter tells the man – “by the authority of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk!”
vii. The man was expecting money and he got a miracle. What he got that day was far better and more valuable than all the money he had ever gotten. It was more valuable than anything to this man.
viii. He came to the temple that day looking for a hand out. Peter gave him a hand up. We see this in verse 7. Peter took him by the right hand and lifted him up.
ix. Man, I would imagine that would take a lot of faith on both the man’s part and Peter’s part. I mean, this guy had never stood up before in his life. You know, I think if I were Peter, I’d be thinking – “does this guy even KNOW how to stand up, Lord?? I mean, come on!”
x. Peter had that kind of faith because he was moved by the Holy Spirit. He didn’t question God, he was moved by God, and he responded to the Lord’s direction.
xi. A lot of us haven’t come to the place in our lives when we can expect something from God. That is faith, plain and simple. Hebrews 11:1 says - 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is something that is vital to us as Christians. But, we need to have a balanced view of faith. Some people have gotten faith out of balance.
xii. It’s called prosperity theology, or sometimes “name it and claim it”. The premise is – God wants all of us to be rich, monetarily. They treat God like some kind of genie bottle, and if you ask Him just right, then you’ll get what you want.
xiii. Nothing is farther from the truth. God gives us what He wants to. Not what we want him to. My case in point – if the lame man got what he wanted that day from God, he would have gotten some money, and he would have spent the rest of his life begging at that gate.
xiv. But, look what happens, the lame man’s feet and ankle bones were strengthened. That’s God’s mercy, that’s God grace, His unmerited favor toward this man. The city of Jerusalem probably had hundreds of beggars, not doubt that many were lame, just like this man, but God chose to heal this man that day out of His sovereign will. Not because the man spoke it forth in faith, or something like that. This wasn’t name it and claim it – This was a complete and totally unexpected supernatural healing.
xv. Look at this man’s reaction in verse 8. The man leaped up. He stood and he walked. He didn’t have to learn how to stand or how to walk. This was truly miraculous. This was something wonderful, to all involved. The man was overjoyed! He walked into the temple with Peter and John, all along the way, he was walking and leaping and praising God.
xvi. He was trying out his healed feet and legs. He was jumping up and down to see if this was for real of not. Maybe he thought it was a dream. It was one of those “Somebody pinch me!” kind of moments.
xvii. The most important thing to note here in verse 8 was that He was giving God the glory for healing him. He was praising God. Jesus had just healed him through Peter, and the man was praising the Lord for it. Let’s see what happens next. We will see that in verses 9 through 11.
f. The Spectacle (Acts 3:9 - 11)
i. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed.
ii. The thing was, just like Peter and John, everyone else in the temple had seen this guy every day. No doubt that this caused quite a stir. This was front page news! This was something to see and tell your kids about.
iii. They knew this guy. They walked past him every day. They probably had given him some money. Here he is walking in.
iv. Nowadays, some would have thought the guy had been faking it. You have seen these stories on TV. This was real. This was someone they knew. They were shocked. They were amazed. This was an undeniable miracle by God’s power.
v. One thing I want us to notice here is that Peter and John were humble. They didn’t try and take the credit. Peter could have said – “Hey, wow! Look what I did!” That was not his reaction. He knew that it was the sovereign grace of God that healed this man, and he just got to be there to help the guy up.
vi. That’s what God wants us to be. Willing vessels to do His work, not to try and do something in our own power, or take the credit for His. I see these guys on TV, with their healing ministry; they have big crusades, and fill up auditoriums. They parade people up on stage, and push them over, claiming they were overcome by the power of God.
vii. One such guy I’m thinking about has never produced one scrap of evidence that anyone was actually healed. What’s sad is, maybe at one time in their life, God did use them as a vessel, and someone got healed. They just got all puffed up with pride and took the show on the road, figuring they’d cash in.
viii. Two things here to note. First thing is - Peter didn’t start having healing crusades and build a big ministry. The second thing was that this lame man didn’t fall down. He didn’t shake around on the ground – He jumped up and praised the Lord for His grace.
ix. Even the Jewish religious leaders couldn’t deny what had happened. Turn ahead to Acts 4:16 –
x. They said - 16 saying, "What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
xi. These were the same people that had condemned Jesus to death on the cross. God had moved in such a way as to shock and surprise people. This was something that was going to stick with them.
xii. This also served to give the apostles more credibility with these people. Remember, a few weeks ago, I told you that the people of Jerusalem thought that the apostles were a bunch of blasphemers and crazies. You remember - They followed the Galilean guy who was crucified with the two thieves during Passover.
xiii. If this didn’t change their minds, nothing would. How could the lame be made whole except through the power of God? These guys were fishermen, not orthopedic surgeons!
xiv. God was working here. This was clearly evident. Miraculous healings were associated with the Messiah in the Bible. Isaiah 35:6 said that the lame man would leap as the deer, in these times. The time of the Messiah was upon them. They were realizing that.
xv. Earlier, in Acts chapter 2, we saw that the miracle of the Holy Spirit coming and the disciples speaking in other languages was a precursor to a gospel message. The miracle gave what was said afterwards weight. People are more apt to listen when you have their undivided attention. That was what God was doing here.
xvi. We see in verse 11 that the lame man wouldn’t let go of Peter and John. We also see that they were standing on Solomon’s Porch. That is interesting to note.
xvii. Most scholars agree that the lame man, Peter and John continued on into the inner court of the temple to pray, because as we saw back in verse 8, he entered the temple with them.
xviii. This tells me that prayer is a very important thing to God. More important than preaching. George Mueller, a great man of prayer once said, “You can get more done with one hour of prayer and eight hours of work than you can get done with no prayer in twelve hours.” God wanted to get something done that day, so Peter and John went for prayer.
xix. But, Solomon’s Porch was located in the Court of the gentiles, the most outer court. They would have walked out the same gate (the Beautiful Gate) that they had stopped at when the man was healed. I think they walked all the way back out because the greatest number of people would have been able to gather in the Court of the gentiles, because no one was restricted from going there, like they were in the court of the women and the court of Israel.
xx. A crowd did gather, because we see from verse eleven that all the people ran together to meet them at Solomon’s Porch. They wanted to see this miracle that had taken place. This wasn’t something you see every day.
xxi. The man stayed right with Peter and John though. He was a living testimony of God’s power. God had done what He was out to do, to draw people to Himself. They were all assembled and attentive. They were ready to receive the message that God had for them.
xxii. God was about to use Peter again to preach another gospel message, so that more people would be led to Christ. We will look at his message in detail next week.
xxiii. If you don’t take anything else away from this message, I boiled down three main thoughts of this whole scene.
1. God wants us to come to His house with an attitude of prayer and of receiving.
2. God wants us to listen to what He has for us when we come, focusing on Him.
3. Praise Him and Him alone for what He has done in our lives.
xxiv. I‘d like to close with a short story.
V. Conclusion
a. During the late 1800s English evangelist Henry Moorhouse made several trips to America to preach. On one of these occasions, he was taking a walk through a poor section of the city when he noticed a small boy coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk. Just then, the boy slipped and fell, breaking the pitcher and spilling the milk all over the sidewalk. Moorhouse rushed to the boy’s side and found him unhurt but terrified. “My mama will whip me!” he cried. The preacher suggested that they try to put the pitcher back together, but the pieces of glass would not stay together. The boy kept crying. Finally Moorhouse picked up the youngster and carried him to a nearby store where the preacher purchased a new pitcher. Then he returned to the dairy store and had the pitcher washed and filled with milk. With that done, he carried both the boy and the pitcher home. Putting the boy down on his front porch, Moorhouse handed him the pitcher and asked, “Now will your mama whip you?” A wide smile spread upon his tear-stained face, “Aw, no sir, ‘because its lot better pitcher than we had before.”
b. The lame man was just like this little boy. He had never known what it walk to walk. He was lying by that gate, and he was looking for money, when God gave him healed feet and ankles.
c. God’s grace extended to this man that day. Maybe you have a need in your life today. Maybe you don’t know what it is to have Jesus as your savior. In a minute, we are going to pray, and I will give you the opportunity to ask Him into your heart. Maybe what you need is physical though. I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s a job, maybe its sickness. Whatever it is, God wants to meet you. If you have a need, just come up for prayer after the service.
d. Let’s Pray.
VI. Closing Prayer
