Everyday that I drive down Killian Hill Road on my way to work, I have to drive slowly and carefully through some of the construction areas.
As you drive in those areas, there are all sorts of signs.
"Speeding fines doubled in work zones."
“Left lane ends, merge right"
“Caution – Men At Work.”
In the book of Acts, you could almost take that sign and have it read, “Caution – God at Work.”
Our New Testament Lesson shows us that God is at work.
In particular this text teaches us that God is at work in the ordinary times of our lives.
Luke writes, "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon" Acts 3:1 (NIV)
He doesn’t write, "One day, Peter and John went out so they could do some miracles."
He doesn’t say, "When Peter and John woke up that morning, they knew that this day would be different from any other."
From all evidence, we see that this is just an ordinary day – but God was at work!
Peter and John were on their way to the Temple at 3:00 in the afternoon.
It is interesting that the writer of the Book of Acts would bother with telling us that it was 3:00 in the afternoon. That’s an interesting time, because it is such an ordinary time.
For the devout Jew, there were 3 special times of prayer: 9 AM, 12 Noon and 3 PM. Ordinary, routine times.
Sometimes God works in extra-ordinary ways on extra-ordinary days.
There are times when the Holy Spirit comes to us in dramatic ways, such as with flames of fire and the blowing of a great wind.
But God also works in just every day ordinary ways.
Peter and John were on their way to church.
I don’t know what it is like in your home and in your car before you get to church. For my family, it is just a casual day. We sleep a little later than usual. Get dressed and start the day. We watch a little news to see if anything unusual has happened during the night.
Just an ordinary day.
But it is in the middle of such days that God is at work.
Peter and John were going to the Temple, as usual. An ordinary day.
They were going to worship. Just an ordinary experience.
They were there to pray. To give their tithes. These things might seem ordinary to others, but to the Christian these are the ordinary things that bring about the extra-ordinary visitation by God Himself into our lives!
Moses was called by God while he was tending sheep.
Samuel was called by God while he was asleep, or at least trying to get some sleep.
Peter was called from his fishing trip.
Ordinary times, and yet God is at work in our lives even in our most ordinary times.
We need to be ready and expectant that God will be at work – at any time.
God not only works in ordinary times of our lives...but He works in ordinary men and women!
Our nation has been blessed with great leaders. In the past few days our nation lost a man that both political parties admired, whether they agreed with President Reagan or not, everyone had great respect for him as a great American.
We’ve had other great presidents -- George Washington. Abraham Lincoln and others.
We’ve had leaders in the development and improvement of Civil Rights, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
We’ve had great explorers like Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong.
And we often think that if you are to accomplish anything, you must be a great leader, a great person.
But God often works through the ordinary person.
Moses was no Charlton Heston. Inspite of that wonderful old movie, “The Ten Commandments,” Moses was a fairly ordinary sort of person. He was not great speaker. In fact, he was so unimpressive as a speaker, he asked God to let his brother Aaron help him.
David conquered Goliath, but before the battle, everyone kept telling him, “You can’t do it, you are too ordinary.”
His brothers told him to go home and take care of the sheep, because that was all they thought he was good for.
King Saul took one look at David and reminded him that Goliath was a professional soldier who had been trained since youth.
Goliath took one look at David and was insulted that the opposing army would send out such an ordinary, small, boy.
But we all know how the story goes – David kills Goliath.
God works through ordinary people.
In our New Testament lesson, we read about the healing of a crippled man. He is an ordinary man. You’ve seen him – or at least you have seen his brethren. Whenever I come out of a sporting event, I see beggars like this gentlemen from Acts.
You don’t expect anything great out of these sorts of folks. They are just ordinary people. But this man is what offers the opportunity for great things to happen.
In the previous chapter of Acts, we read that the church was meeting together and that the disciples were performing signs and wonders. But this is the first such sign and wonder the disciples perform. This is the first time after the Resurrection that the apostles are able to perform a miracle.
And it is an impressive miracle at that.
It is also the first time that Peter begins to take leadership in the church. It was just weeks earlier that Peter had spent the night of Christ’s arrest by hiding in the shadows and denying to others that he had any knowledge or involvement with Christ.
Now, in contrast, Peter begins to take a very bold and public role.
John has, up until now, been the beloved disciple. It was John who sat at Christ’s right side during the Last Supper. It was John who was at the crucifixion and who promised to care for the mother of Jesus.
But it is now Peter who leads the church in its early years.
And all of this happens through an ordinary man who was crippled and begging at a city gate.
We are often tempted to say, God can’t work through me. I’m too ordinary.
But if God can work through a speech-impaired Moses or a little untrained David, he can certainly work through any one of us.
God not only works in ordinary times of our lives...and not only does He work in ordinary people ...but when God acts – it is often in amazing and extraordinary ways.
In our New Testament lesson, the beggar is asking for money. He’s not asking for a lot. Loose change is what he was expecting. It is probably what he did every day of his life.
He had been this way since birth, according to our New Testament lesson. He had never known any other way of life.
But when he encounters Peter and John, and asks for money, he is told by the disciples, “We have no silver or gold.” But what they do have, they will share freely. And the man is healed. For the first time in his life, he can walk.
The man asked for something ordinary. God acted in an extraordinary way.
When Peter told the man to "walk, in the Name of Jesus"...evidently this man just sat there. He knew that he couldn’t walk. So Peter took him by the hand and helped him to his feet.
Here was an ordinary man in an ordinary place and time, who did not expect God to do anything extraordinary.
Aren’t we all like that to some degree? We think too small when it comes to God.
We tend to think that God has already done all the wonderful things he is ever going to do in this life. We tend to think that there is no great thing he will ever do in our life.
To think that way about God is to think of Him as lazy. Ineffective.
I actually had a friend years ago who thought it was to his advantage for people to think of him as lazy and ineffective.
In his work place everyone took turns making coffee, buying coffee supplies, and so forth. He didn’t want to do this, however. So he put salt in the sugar dispenser, and they never again asked him to help.
He told me, “People don’t expect much of me, and I never disappoint them.”
I think we have reached the point where we don’t expect much of God.
We are ordinary people.
We live in ordinary times and places.
And we forgotten that we serve an extraordinary God.
God has, and will do, amazing things.
We should be prepared for that!
In the Old Testament Book of I Samuel, young Samuel is trying to get some sleep. Those days of Samuel are a lot like our times, because the Bible describes those times as being days when “the word of the Lord was rare and there were not many visions.”
Samuel is an ordinary person. He’s young and there is nothing special about him. One night, he hears someone call his name. He gets up and he goes to his Mentor, Eli, and asks him what he wants.
Eli tells him he didn’t call him, orders the boy back to bed.
But again, he hears someone call his name.
Again Eli tells him he didn’t call him. He orders the boy back to bed.
You see what’s happening here? Ordinary people, living in ordinary times. They have no expectation of God doing anything amazing.
And then a third time and then a fourth time Samuel hears his voice and this time, Eli has it all figured out. He tells Samuel to go back to bed and to listen for the Lord God to call on him again. This time, when Samuel hears the voice of God call his name, he says, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
And at that point, God says to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.”
In other words, God tells Samuel, “get ready. I’m about to do something extraordinary.”
Is your God too small? Do you expect too little from God?
Something similar to this happens in Habbakuk. In that Old Testament book the people have grown tired of praying to God. There is violence in the land. It is a time of war and terror. And the book of Habakkuk begins with the people asking God, “How long must we cry out for help? We pray, and you don’t answer.”
And then God speaks and says, “Get ready. I am about to do something extraordinary.” His exact words are… "Look … and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. (Hab 1:5)
Is your God too small? Have we gotten to the point that we simply expect too little from God?
A friend of mine once taught a confirmation class to a very small group. In fact, there were only three young girls in the class. In one session, the minister was teaching them about the festivals and seasons of the Christian year, and when they came to the discussion of Pentecost, the minister asked them if they knew what Pentecost was. Since none of the three knew, the minister began to explain.
“That’s when the church was sitting in a group and the Holy Spirit landed on them like tongues of fire on their heads. Then they spoke the Gospel in all the languages of the world.”
Two of the girls took this information in stride.
But the third one looked astonished. Her eyes grew as big as saucers. Finally she spoke up and said, “Gee Reverend Long, my family must have been absent that Sunday.”
The beauty of that moment was not that she misunderstood Pentecost, but that she understood something about her life, her church and her God. In her mind, there was the possibility that God could do something wonderful, even in the church. Even in her life.
Are you living an ordinary life, in ordinary times? Caution – God is at work – even in your life.
Be ready!
....
Written by Maynard Pittendreigh
This material is copyrighted, but Dr. Pittendreigh encourages the free use of this material for the glory of God.
For more sermons and worship materials, visit www.pittendreigh.com
The title for this sermon and the idea for the first two points of the sermon come from reading "Keep Right - God Working" by Larry Brincefield (Sermon Central)
