"continuing The Ministry Of Jesus"

“Continuing the Ministry of Jesus”

Acts 2:42-3:10

There was once a young man who snuck into church hoping no one would notice him.

The only reason he came was because he was interested in a girl who sang in the choir.

He hoped that if he was in the service he’d be able to see her at the end of the service and ask her out.

He wasn’t quite sure what to do, but he saw people going in and sitting down, so he did the same.

Just as the service was starting, an usher came up to him.

“Excuse me,” he said, “The person who’s supposed to do the reading hasn’t turned up.

Could you possibly do it?”

The young man was horrified for a moment, but then thought quickly.

The girl he had his eye on was there, in the choir.

She would be impressed if she saw him reading in the service.

“All right,” he said.

He took the Bible and looked through the reading the usher had shown him.

When it came to the moment.

He went up, opened the Bible, and began to read.

It was from John’s Gospel and he vaguely recognized it.

“Anyone who doesn’t enter the sheepfold by the gate,” he heard his own voice say, “but climbs in by another way, is a thief and a bandit.”

He was thunderstruck.

This is what he’d done!

He was standing here, pretending to be a regular Bible-reader, when in fact he’d only come in to meet a girl.

He forced himself to go on, aware of his heart beating loudly.

If he was a bandit, coming under false pretences, what was the alternative?

“I am the gate for the sheep,” said Jesus.

“The bandit only comes to steal, kill and destroy.

I came that they might have life, and have it to the full to overflowing.”

Suddenly, something happened inside the young man.

He stopped thinking about himself.

He stopped thinking about the girl, about the congregation, about the fact that he’d just done a ridiculous and hypocritical thing.

He thought about Jesus.

Unaware of the shock he was causing, he swung around to the Pastor.

“Is it true?,” he asked.

“Did he really come so that we could have real life, full life like that?”

The Pastor smiled.

“Of course it is,” he replied.

“That’s why we are all here.

Come and join in this next song and see what happens if you really mean it.”

And the young man found himself swept off his feet by the presence and the love of Jesus, filling him, changing him, calling him to follow, like a grateful sheep, after the Shepherd Who can be trusted to lead the way to good pasture by day and safe rest at night.

He got more, much more, than he bargained for.

(This story came from N.T. Wright)

Something like that happened the man in our Scripture Lesson who got carried to the temple gate in Jerusalem.

The man in our story had been crippled from birth.

He was born into a situation where he was never going to be able to live a normal life.

This is a man who had never stood up on his own two feet, had never taken a step or gone for a walk.

Growing up, he would watch the other kids run around and play ball but he couldn’t join in.

All he could do is watch.

He had lived his life isolated and left behind.

If that’s not bad enough, he’s probably never going to marry or have kids because he has no way to support his family.

His destiny is a dusty mat: a life of poverty.

Society didn’t have the kind of disability benefits that exist today.

There were no special parking spots or automatic doors, or wheelchairs.

There was nobody to hire people in his condition.

All he could do was to throw himself at the mercy of other people.

So, he would sit outside the temple hoping someone would come along that was generous.

His freedom was also very limited.

He had to depend on friends or family to carry him everywhere day and night.

He had to hope they didn’t forget to pick him up and leave him out there all night.

He wouldn’t be able to defend himself.

He’s completely at the mercy of others.

Think for a moment of all the people that looked down on him as some kind of sinner who deserved this state…

This man was in a dire situation.

He was hopeless, helpless and defeated.

It seems that most people don’t have much time for a guy like that.

I mean, he’s not going to benefit anyone.

Usually people are looking to connect with people who can help them, but this guy is a total liability.