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*Five Things that a Spirit-Filled Church Does** *

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Acts 3:1-3:10 (NIV, NIRV, TNIV, KJV)

Sermon Series: Study of the Book of Acts

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A Study of the Book of Acts \\ Sermon # 6 \\ \\ “Five Things that the Spirit-Filled Church Does!” \\ Acts 3:1-10 \\ \\ Luke has described the early church by saying, “Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”

(Acts 2:43).

In Acts 2 Luke does not give us any indication what those miraculous signs and wonders may have been.

But now, when we come to Acts 3, we have an account of at least one of them, the story of the lame man who was healed at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple.

\\ Evidently Dr. Luke has selected this one from a number of miracles, which occurred then, in order that he might teach us something significant.

So we need to give it careful attention.

Why did Luke choose to chronicle this one particular miracle?

I believe that the answer is two-fold; (1) because it was the occasion for a second sermon by Peter, which Luke wants us to hear, and (2) because the miracle and sermon were the cause of the first persecution of the church.

This miracle laid the groundwork for the increasing tension between the infant church and the Jewish religious establishment in the coming weeks.

This tension will reach full flower with the arrest of Peter and John and the death of Stephen, the first Christian to give his life for his faith.

\\ On the Day of Pentecost, power from heaven came down.

The power of God turned despairing doubters into dynamic disciples.

They had received the promise of the Holy Spirit and were clothed with power from on high.

But power for what?

Did they receive the power of God simply so they could feel good about themselves?

Did they receive the power of God to keep it to themselves?

No! They received the power of God to energize them to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in a secular society.

The power of the Holy Spirit was for people; to enable the disciples to reach out and touch human need and share the liberating truth of the Gospel of Christ.

It’s all about personal caring for people.

We must never be content to sing "Standing On The Promises" while all we’re doing is sitting on the premises.

Pentecost is to enable us to reach out and touch others.

\\ In our text today, we see the power of God healing a human life.

We see people who have been touched by the power of God touching others.

It is the story of the lame man who begged by the gate called Beautiful.

In this passage we see a real example of the power of God to heal.

This man was healed physically, but the message of this text is not limited to physical healing in any way.

This passage deals with human healing on every level.

Here, we will find valuable lessons which I pray will motivate us to find opportunities to minister to hurting people.

\\ “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.” Acts 3:1-8 (NKJV) \\ \\ What we see before us is a human tragedy.

The Scripture tells us that this man was crippled.

But more than that, this man was crippled from birth.

Think about the tragedy of that.

He had never been able to stand and walk, to run and play like the other boys.

I’m sure many opportunities were denied him because of his affliction.

Now, he’s a grown man and every day friends must carry him to the Temple so he may beg for a living.

We can only speculate concerning what effect this must have had on his heart.

He could easily have been bitter.

There had never been a day in his life when he had not been a burden to somebody.

He could not walk; he could not work.

All he could do was beg, sit there, and hope that people would have pity on him.

\\ The healing of this man is both literal and symbolic.

It is literal in that for over forty years (4:22) this man had suffered from an ailment which made him lame.

He was born that way and he had never known the freedom of going anywhere with having to ask others to carry him there.

\\ It is symbolic in that what we see in the life of this man is a picture of the tragedy of the human condition.

This man symbolizes for us the reality of tragedy in life.

As we look at him, we are reminded of the fact that everywhere we look there is human hurt, human suffering, and human tragedy.

Sometimes it manifests itself through a physical affliction such as this man had, but more often it goes unseen to human eyes.

For every one who is crippled physically, there are literally tens of thousands who are crippled emotionally.

And there are hundreds of thousands who are crippled spiritually.

The message of this man is that there are needs to be met in human lives everywhere.

And those needs exist in lives that can seem outwardly wonderful.

\\ This lame man sat and begged at the gate called "Beautiful."

From historical accounts, we know that this gate was indeed an impressive sight.

Much of it was made from Corinthian bronze.

It was inlaid with ornately decorated gold.

As the sun would shine upon it, its glistening brightness could be seen for miles.

Yet, sitting under its magnificent beauty was a suffering human being.

\\ How many of our co-workers or friends or neighbors appear outwardly to be doing OK, yet inwardly they are struggling?

They are over-extended financially.

They don’t know what to do with their children.

Their marriages are falling apart.

Their job is hanging by a thread.

They’ve lost all self-esteem.

They’re guilty and depressed and don’t know where to turn.

Behind every door there is human need.

Every person has a story to tell.

We’ve all been hurt, we’ve all been used, we’ve all failed, and we all need healing.

We need Jesus—and that’s the biggest need that anyone has.

People need a heavenly touch from God. \\ What this man needed, indeed, what all people need is a heavenly touch from God.

He needed the power of the Holy Spirit made available to him.

But how was he to get it?

Every day he came to the Temple.

Every day he sat and begged.

He wasn’t in the group at Pentecost.

He didn’t know what was going on.

He lived his life out of the main stream.

He was oblivious to the good news of God.

He couldn’t get to church, and I’m not sure he would have gone if he could.

Why should he go?

What was there for him?

\\ Unfortunately, this is the attitude of many people today.

They hurt, but they hurt in silence, not being willing to share their intimate hurts with anyone else.

And the church is the last place they want to go.

Many of them view the church as a judgmental society of self-righteous hypocrites anyway.

But even if they have a good view of the church, there’s not much to motivate them to drag their tired bones out of bed on a Sunday morning in order to come alone to one of its services.

This crippled man may have been like that.

Who would bring him a heavenly touch?

It is the emissaries of a spirit-filled church that must share the heavenly touch.