Let’s see how well we can remember our theme for this series of messages. Since this is now week number seven, we ought to all have it down pretty well by now:
“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
As we’ve gone on this journey from good to great, we’ve learned that if we want to be a great church:
• Sometimes God calls on us to wait for Him to pour in His power, but while we wait, we still study His Word, pray and do the things He has already revealed to us.
• We need to make sure that our lives are prepared so that God can fill us with His Holy Spirit. We do that by spending time in His Word, praying, obeying what He reveals and confessing sin.
• Everything we do should bring our focus back to the resurrection, since that is the defining event for us as followers of Jesus Christ
• We need to live a life of repentance. We need to replace our heart with God’s heart.
• We need to be a church that balances the purposes of maturing, melding, ministering, magnifying and multiplying
Our last two messages in this series are going to focus on two of those purposes – ministering, and multiplying – the two purposes that focus primarily on those that are outside the body.
Read Acts 3:1-10
As I read through this account several times this week, I couldn’t help but think back to the parable of the Good Samaritan. It seems to me that Peter and John, as well as the other disciples, had not only taken the lessons that Jesus had taught to heart; they also lived them out in their lives. They truly were “Good Samaritans” to the people around them. And if we want to be a great church, we need to develop that same kind of attitude and put it into action as we care for the needs in our community.
HOW TO CARE FOR OUR COMMUNITY:
1. Walk in the world
We’ve seen the last few weeks that when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and became witnesses of Jesus Christ, the church grew rapidly. Nearly 3,000 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ in one day and others continued to be added to the body day after day. So nobody could have blamed the church leaders if they had just decided to focus on taking care of this large group of believers. They could have just hung around the Temple courts and the houses where they met and ignored the world around them.
But instead, we find evidence in this passage, that they didn’t just limit themselves to contacts with other believers. We don’t know exactly where Peter and John had been, but we know that it was somewhere else other than the Temple, because just before three in the afternoon they were on their way to the Temple to pray.
Although the Bible doesn’t tell us much about what Peter, John and the other disciples did every day, I think it’s safe to say that they weren’t full-time paid staff members of the local church there in Jerusalem. It seems likely that many of those early Christians probably maintained their regular jobs. What is obvious is that the early church did not isolate themselves from the world around them. It seems that they had remembered the words of Jesus as He prayed for them shortly before he went to the cross:
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
John 17:18 (NIV)
When Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth, he also made it very clear that those who followed Jesus Christ were not to isolate themselves from the world around them:
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
1 Corinthians 5:9, 10 (NIV)
For some of us, our lives naturally put us in places where we have contact with a lot of unbelievers. For many of us, it’s probably our work. But for others, we sometimes have to make a concerted effort to make sure we don’t just retreat inside a cocoon of other Christians. As I’ve shared with you before, one of the reasons that I officiate is that it gives me an opportunity to interact with unbelievers.
Obviously, we have to use some caution in this area. We need to be able to be in the world, but not of the world. We have to make sure that we rub off on the world around us and not the other way around. And that’s not always an easy thing to do. But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what Jesus has called us to do.
2. Look for the lost
This second point seems pretty obvious, but again, it’s not something that comes naturally. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite saw the injured man along the side of the road, but they chose not to look at him.
But in our passage here in Acts, it’s obvious that Peter and John not only saw the man, they choose to look at him:
Peter looked straight at him, as did John… (v.4)
There’s a big difference between just seeing something and choosing to look at it. I like how the NASB translates this verse:
And Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze upon him…
In other words, as Peter and John were on their way to the Temple, they saw this man and they made a decision not to turn away from him. Instead they chose to focus their attention, to fix their gaze upon this helpless man.
As I read that verse this week, I had to ask myself the question, “How many times do I see a person in need, but I just choose to ignore him or her?” I’m sure that has happened many more times than I would ever care to admit.
It would have been easy for Peter and John to just pass by that day. After all, they were on a religious mission. They were on their way to the Temple to pray. But unlike the priest and the Levite that passed by the injured man on the road to Jericho, Peter and John didn’t let their religion get in the way of their compassion.
If we’re going to be a great, caring church it’s not enough to just engage our culture. We also have to be willing to look around and see the pain and the hurt around us. We have to be willing to do more than just glance and pass on by. We have to be willing to fix our gaze on the needs around us.
3. Emphasize the essentials
The crippled man near the Temple gate that day had obviously lost hope. Instead of hoping to be able to walk, he merely sat at the gate day after day, asking for a handout. His real need was to be healed so he could walk again, but the only need he was focused on was his need for money. That’s a pretty good picture of many of the people in our world today. They’ve lost hope and so they have lost sight of what their real needs are.
But Peter and John looked at this crippled man begging at the gate and they saw beyond just what he was asking for. Obviously the man’s most important needs were spiritual in nature. But as we talked about briefly last week, it’s often necessary to meet some physical and emotional needs before we can address the spiritual needs. Peter and John had seen Jesus minister in that way, so they followed His example.
And since what the man needed more than money was the ability to walk again, Peter addressed his most essential need:
“…In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." (v. 6)
In many cases, what people think they need or say they need is not really what they need. In fact, sometimes if we give them what they ask for, we can actually do them harm. For instance, all of us see panhandlers in the road medians, asking for money. But in many of those cases, those people have alcohol or drug addictions and when we give them money, we can just add to their problems since it enables them to continue in their addictions. But what at least some of those people really need is a solid meal, maybe someone who is willing to help them get cleaned up and find a job, or at least get some training that will enable them to get a job down the road.
But how do I know what the other person really needs? How do I make sure I emphasize the essentials? Those questions lead us directly into our next principle:
4. Connect with the “contaminated”
When Peter addressed the man’s needs, he had to make contact with him. He had to get involved in his life. Look very carefully at verse 7:
Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up… (v.7)
That verse reminds me a lot of the parable of the Good Samaritan. One of the reasons that the priest and the Levite just passed by the injured man is that they didn’t want to have any contact with him. They didn’t want to be contaminated. But the Samaritan was willing to not only touch the injured man, but to use everything he had at his disposal to clean and bandage the wounds.
Peter had also learned from watching how Jesus ministered to people. Jesus wasn’t afraid to connect with the people he ministered to. Many of those people were the “down and out” of His day. But Jesus was never too busy to spend time with them, He was never to proud to be seen with them, He was never too worried about being contaminated to touch them. I’m particularly amazed at how many times Jesus touched people when he cared for their needs:
• He touched a man that had leprosy in order to heal him (Matthew 8:3)
• He touched the eyes of two bind men, so that they could see again (Matthew 20:34)
• The woman with a bleeding disease touches Jesus’ cloak and is healed (Mark 5)
• He touched the ears and the tongue of a deaf and dumb man in order to heal him (Mark 7:33)
• When one of the soldiers who came to arrest him had his right ear cut off, Jesus touched him and healed his ear.
I’m convinced that for most of us, this is the very hardest principle to apply in our lives. We look around and see people in need, and even have compassion on them. But we’re just not willing to get involved in their lives so that we can see what they really need and how we can meet those needs. Frankly, it’s a lot easier sometimes just to give someone else some money and say “you take care of them.”
It’s not easy to connect with those who we would classify as “contaminated” in some way. But that’s exactly what the Bible commands us to do. Will we be inconvenienced some times? We sure will. Will we put ourselves in danger sometimes? We very well might. Will we need to move beyond our comfort zone? Almost certainly. But if we’re going to be a great church then we need to be willing to do that.
5. Give what we’ve got
Peter and John couldn’t meet every one of that man’s needs that day. But they did do what they could with what they had.
Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. (v.6)
Peter and John couldn’t meet every need of that man. But they were willing to use whatever they had to meet whatever needs they could meet with those resources. God had given them the ability to heal the mans’ legs so he could walk again and so they used what God had given them. As I was doing some research this week, I came across a sermon on this passage that was titled “The Man Who Asked for Alms and Got Legs”. Peter and John didn’t have the alms, but they did have the means to provide the legs.
It’s true that our church can’t meet all the needs in our community and that none of us can meet all the needs we’re exposed to. But we certainly can meet at least some of the needs of the people in our community. Look at what Paul had to say to the Galatian church:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people…
Galatians 6:9, 10 (NIV)
You might want to underline the words “as we have opportunity”. It seems to me that when we see a need and we have the resources to meet that need, that’s an opportunity and we need to make sure that we use our resources to meet the need.
One of the great things about the church is that God has brought together people who individually have quite diverse resources in their lives so that in the church those resources can be combined in a way that many more needs can be met. In fact, when it comes to meeting needs, the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” certainly applies. As a body, we have the ability to meet many more needs than all of us can do as individuals.
Our church can’t meet every need. But there area a lot of needs we can meet and we need to make sure we’re willing to do all we can with what we’ve been given.
THE RESULT OF THAT KIND OF CARING:
Look what happened when Peter and John were willing to care for their community:
When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (vv. 9, 10)
There are two distinct results of what Peter and John did:
• People take notice
This is never the motivation for caring for our community, but when we serve the needs of others, people will notice. And people will naturally want to be a part of a group of people who selflessly serve the needs of others. That was one of the attributes of the early church that kept attracting others to come check it out. No wonder people were being added to the body every day.
If we can begin to care for our community the way the early church did, we won’t have to advertise or come up with gimmicks to get people to come here. People will notice a group of believers who genuinely care for the needs of the community and they’ll want to be a part of that.
• God gets the glory
When we serve people in the name of Jesus, it is God, not us, who will get the glory. Nobody praised Peter and John that day. They praised God for the work that he had done through them. That’s because a great church always directs people to a great God.
Every week, Denny and I strive to make our messages relevant and practical. We try to give you principles that you can go home and apply during the week. But this week, I want to give you a specific challenge to apply the things that we’ve learned here this morning. Here’s what I want you to do:
This week I want you to go out of your way to look around and find someone in need. It might be someone at work, a family member, a neighbor, or it might be a complete stranger. And then I want you to connect with that person in some way – talk to them, invite them out for a cup of coffee, etc. When you do that your goal is to try to find out as much as you can about that person’s needs. Which means you have to listen.
Then, figure out what resources you have to meet that person’s needs and take some action.
Let me give you a couple of examples of something you could do and how simple this could be.
Maybe you’re driving down the street this week and see a pan handler in the road median. So instead of just passing that person by or ignoring him or her, you actually stop and have at least a brief conversation – maybe only as long as it takes the light to change. And in that conversation you find that the person is hungry. So you go to the nearest drive-through and buy a meal for that person and take it back to them and tell them that you are doing this in the name of Jesus. Or, if you really wan to go outside the box, you invite the person to go with you and sit down and eat a meal together.
Or perhaps you have a neighbor and the wife has MS and is bedridden. The husband rarely has time to get out of the house. So you offer to go over once a week and take care of his wife for three or four hours so that he can have some time for himself.
All of us have probably hundreds of opportunities to care for the people in our community each week. So this week I want to encourage you to follow through on just one of those opportunities.
“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
