Passage: Acts 3:1-10
Intro: We look at a passage like this and sigh..
1. great that Jesus healed people, great that the apostles did.
2. we’ve concluded the day of miracles is over, that God no longer works this way.
Il) a Pope once said as he showed a visitor the splendor of his palace, “We can no longer say, “Silver and gold have we none.” “Correct”, said the visitor (alleged to be Thomas Aquinas), “but neither can we say, ‘In the name of Jesus, walk!’”
3. Frankly, physical miracles of healing are not as powerful as the spiritual miracles of transformation.
4. the principles we can glean from this passage work whether God is doing something physical or spiritual.
5. we have seen in Acts that we are called into a partnership with God.
6. we are the witnesses of Jesus’ power to transform lives. Acts 1:8
7. and as those transformed lives are demonstrated and explained, God does wonderful things.
8. here’s an example of those lives being lived in everyday life and what God can do through them.
9. God is still in the miracle working business! Let’s learn our part and do it!
I. Practice Spontaneous Availability.
1. I know this will bug many of you, but there is no evidence of a human plan in these verses
2. “one day” Peter and John taking their normal stroll up to the temple to pray.
3. the Greek tense in v2 indicates that their walk was at the same time a man who had been crippled from birth was being dropped off by friends.
4. we might call it a coincidence or luck that Peter, John and this handicapped individual arrived at the gate to the temple at roughly the same time.
5. but our God orchestrates the details!
Il) Bernard Shaw, missionary to Africa, forbidden to preach in Capetown. Loaded the wagon and he and his wife went into the interior. 300 miles later, camped near a group of native Africans heading for Capetown to find a missionary. (Paul Lee Tan’s “Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations”)
6. someone has called these “divine appointments” Google that phrase!
7. certainly this passage reveals a divine appointment, because the plan of God was huge!!
8. Peter and John, filled with the Holy Spirit, were going about their normal business when God called.
Il) Phil Morgan points out in his sermon on this passage on Sermoncentral.com that the temple veil was torn in two not only to invite us into the temple, but “to signify that God’s presence is no longer veiled in secuusion, but now He has come out and lives in His new dwelling place…We are the vessels of God”
9. each of us, as we walk in our world and rub shoulders with people, are the very carriers of the Holy Spirit of God into the world. The light of the world!
10. He has taken up residence within us, and impacts the world through us.
Il) that’s why we are called “the body of Christ”
11. did the Holy Spirit plan and initiate this meeting? Absolutely!
12. could Peter and John have quenched the plan of the Spirit by ignoring His promptings or hurrying on because talking to this man was not part of their “plan”? Of course!
13. we need to prayerfully practice being available to the mysterious plan of God.
14. God can use our plans, but He is not limited by them!
II. Practice Spiritual Vision
1. its reasonable to assume that they had seen this beggar before.
2. he had been born with this condition, and was forty years old
3. since he was brought there “every day”, he had seen Jesus and had not been healed!
4. so here they are, and they are compelled to do two unusual things.
5. one, to look at him when he asked them to money.
6. and secondly, to command him to look at them.
Il) you know how it is when we see the panhandlers at the corner. We avoid looking at them unless we are going to give.
7. people have tried to find faith in this beggar, but it wasn’t here yet!
8. he was staring at the ground, talking to the feet of those passing by. Peter said “Look at us!”
9. but Peter and John were seeing him now in a different way.
10. they saw past his disability to his humanity.
Il) “When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is.” Oswald Chambers
Il) In 1979, my mother-in-law, as soon as she discovered that he had confessed to the crime, sent an evangelistic team to share the gospel with the young man who had murdered her daughter!
11. P and J stopped seeing him as a guilt-producing nuisance, and instead saw him as a beloved child of God whose time for healing had come!
Il) This guy had needed healing when Jesus was around, but God “saved him” for the apostles. Perfect timing!
12. they saw his real need and were filled with a godly desire to meet that need!
13. when the Holy Spirit lives in us, it should not surprise us that we see with God’s eyes.
14. this can be a challenge! Our flesh will continue to rate people, to judge and reject people, to ignore people, to hate!
15. but God is at work to change our view of the world.
Il) come on Wednesday night for our Awana program and part of you might see a mass of screaming kids. Or you might see precious children entrusted to our care who need godly models, love, friendship, God’s truth.
16. the last time the disciples had seen a man born disabled they thought he was an interesting subject for a theological discussion. (Lord, who sinned, this man or his parents?”)
17. but now they saw a child of God in need of God’s help.
18. God took this spontaneous availability and this spiritual vision and did something great.
III. III. God Will Shake the Earth
1. notice that the apostles healed “in Jesus’ name”, so He gets the glory.
2. and this man is helped to his feet, and immediately is healed.
3. the faith was that he tried to get to his feet in response to Peters command.
4. “became strong” in v7 a medical term relating specifically to the bones.
5. started to jump around and walk around with understandable joy. 40 yrs old!
6. this man, kept from entering the temple because of his disability, went into the temple because he was whole! (Leviticus 21:22-23)
7. the others were used to seeing him outside in the same spot, but outside!
8. and now he is inside, no longer lame, no longer pitiable, no longer excluded from the life of Jerusalem and Israel.
9. there was no doubt at all as to who the healer was. God Almighty!
10. this earthquake sent out aftershocks
11. Peter and John, apostles of Jesus, were authenticated as servants of God.
12. people were amazed at this visible event and were ready to hear more.
Il) that’s how it is supposed to happen.
13. and as we’ll see in the next few weeks, Satan’s tail was twisted…hard!
14. God took the spontaneous availability and spiritual vision of these two men, and did something extraordinary.
Conc. We shortchange ourselves regularly
1. can’t do this, can’t do that, don’t have enough money for this, aren’t big enough for that
2. the sovereign, Almighty God of the universe has called us to service, given us His Spirit, promised us His presence.
3. and while we are busy deciding what we can’t do and why, God is moving ahead in power to shake the world.
4. we have buried the power of God under a mountain of unbelief
5. there are principles in this book of Acts that we can ignore. Or apply.
6. God has great things to accomplish. Are we available?
7. We are the Spirit indwelt servants of the Lord God Almighty. Our part is small but vital.
