Sermon Tone Analysis

*Where God’s Power Flows** *

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

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\\ READ: Acts 3:1-10 \\ \\ It’s 3pm in the afternoon (the hour of prayer in the Temple), Peter and John head up to join the throng at the great House of God.

\\ \\ And on the way in, as they came to the Gate called Beautiful (a gate inlayed with gold and precious stones, situated as an entrance in the Eastern side of the Temple courts) - they came across this man who had been crippled since birth.

A man so lame that he couldn’t even hobble along with the aid of a crutch, but instead he had to be carried everywhere.

And so he had some good friends who would carry him every day and lay him at this entrance to the Temple to beg from the people going up to pray.

\\ \\ YOU SEE he wasn’t allowed inside the Temple to join in prayer, because he was a cripple.

Because of their spiritual pride they felt that he was blemished - not fit for the house of God.

And so he sat on the steps and begged.

And people gave him their loose change (to ease their consciences as they went to prayer!) \\ \\ But, as Peter and John approached this particular day he saw them, and so he asked them for alms.

(Peter and John had just recently been filled with the Holy Spirit, and so they were just full of joy and life - so this lame man felt sure to get a good offering from these guys).

\\ \\ Peter and John stopped as he spoke to them (not like everyone else who tried to get past him without looking), and Peter said to him: "LOOK AT US!" - perhaps the man’s head was bowed down, he never looked into the eyes of those who came by for fear of offending them.

He didn’t want to embarrass, so he kept his head low - but here is Peter saying "Look at us!"

So he looked up at them "expecting to receive something from them."

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."

\\ \\ With that, Peter took hold of the man’s right hand and lifted him up, AND IN THAT MOMENT OF TIME "STRENGTH" came into that man’s feet and ankle bones for the very first time in his life.

And he lept up!

And he began to dance around - before all the hundreds of Jews coming in for prayer - and he praised God! \\ \\ What a great miracle!

Don’t you love to hear stories like that of the power of God.

Don’t you long to see God’s power move like that in our midst?

\\ \\ THE QUESTION IS, THIS EVENING: In what kind of environment WILL God’s power flow?

\\ \\ You see, I don’t think we need great complex ideas.

I believe God usually deals with us very simply.

"The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things".

I can see some very basic principles here in this story that we must recognize if we desire to see God’s power.

\\ \\ FIRSTLY: \\ \\ \\ 1. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE IS. \\ \\ Sounds simple ~/ obvious doesn’t it?

God’s power flows where God is.

\\ \\ Look at this lame man’s predicament with me for a moment.

He had been sat at the entrance of the Temple for YEARS (4:22 says he was "over 40 years of age").

The Temple was supposedly the very House of God - the "HOME" of God’s presence - and yet here he was all his life camped at it’s gates AND HE WAS STILL A CRIPPLE! \\ \\ In all their religious fervour, there was NOTHING that these people could offer him!

The best they could do was a few copper coins to ease their consciences as they passed by - an act of pity.

\\ \\ AND THIS WAS THE HOME OF THE GOD WHO CREATED THE UNIVERSE BY THE WORD OF HIS MOUTH?

No, my friends!

HE WASN’T THERE AT ALL.

When Jesus hung upon the cross and uttered those last triumphant words "IT IS FINISHED", the Bible records that the curtain in the Temple (which for centuries had barred man from the presence of God) was torn in two, right down the middle, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM (torn by the very hands of God!) What did that signify?

We usually hear it preached that it signified that because of the sacrifice of Jesus man could now enter the Holy of Holies - that’s correct, BUT THAT’S ONLY ONE HALF OF THE STORY!

The curtain is torn away signifying that God’s presence is no longer veiled in seclusion, but now He has come out AND HE LIVES IN HIS NEW DWELLING PLACE - the one He has always longed for since time immortal - He dwells in the lives of them that love Him.

WE ARE THE VESSELS OF GOD.

\\ \\ Oh, but when that curtain was torn in two THE RELIGIOUS FOLK GOT REAL NERVOUS.

Someone was interfering with their safe little religious lifestyle!

So what did they do?

They tacked that curtain back up, and just "whistled past the graveyard".

\\ \\ But friends, when that curtain was torn away, God was making His final declaration about where He intended to reside - BUT IN TRUTH THE GLORY GOD HAD BEEN ABSENT FROM THE TEMPLE FOR CENTURIES.

For those who had eyes to see, "Ichabod" was written over it’s doorposts: "The glory has departed."

\\ \\ But I thank God, that when the saving, healing presence of God was no longer in this Temple, YET HE WAS IN THE LIVES OF THESE TWO DISCIPLES OF JESUS - Peter and John.

The lame man had been sat at the gates of the Temple all of his life, but here now he experiences the real power of God’s presence (NOT FLOWING OUT THE DOORS OF THE TEMPLE - BUT RATHER WALKING UP THE STAIRS! - Peter and John.) \\ \\ Peter "fixed his eyes on" the man.

No-one else would have anything to do with him.

You see the Jews believed that such a man must be a sinner (or perhaps his parents were) to be afflicted by such an infirmity - this was the punishment of God.

But as Peter saw him perhaps he heard the words of Jesus ringing in his ears: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."

\\ \\ And so Peter reaches out and heals the man.

Tell me - is the hand that reaches out Peter’s or God’s?

The answer is: YES! Yes, it’s Peter’s - but WE ARE HIS HANDS AND FEET - it’s also God’s.

What does Colossians 1:27 say - "CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!" \\ \\ The lame man was healed because GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS.

If we would see the power we must secure the presence of Jesus.

\\ \\ Mary & Martha knew that.

When their brother Lazarus died they called for Jesus.

They knew that if He was present God’s power would flow.

But Jesus arrived late, and Lazarus had already died.

Remember what Martha said?

"If only You had been here..." SHE KNEW THAT WHERE JESUS IS THERE IS POWER.

(Her problem was that she saw Jesus as the God of YESTERDAY - "if only You had been here".

Jesus said that Lazarus would live again.

Martha replied - "Oh, I know he will live again in the resurrection."

To her Jesus was the God of yesterday and of the dim distant future!

But Jesus said to her: "I AM the resurrection and the life, he that believes on Me though he be dead yet shall he live."

Friends, Jesus is THE GOD OF TODAY!

Yesterday, today, FOREVER Jesus is the same!

Hallelujah.

\\ \\ Oh, if we can but secure His presence.

GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS PRESENT.

\\ \\ \\ 2. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY.

\\ \\ [read v4-5] \\ \\ The word "expectancy" here means: "TO WAIT FOR SOMETHING IN SUSPENSE".

There was something about these two men who would bother to talk to him that made this lame man WAIT IN SUSPENSE, expecting something good.

He may have only been thinking about silver and gold - BUT AT LEAST HE WAS EXPECTING SOMETHING.

\\ \\ How many know that God does "exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think"?!

The problem is that so often we come to God not expecting anything at all!

We come to church ready for "just another Sunday service"; we’ll sing some choruses, pray, take communion, and providing that preacher does the right thing we’ll be out and home for lunch by 12.00pm.

\\ \\ It’s so important to come to church longing to hear God speak.

Nothing is sadder than going to church when you aren’t expecting anything to happen - and worst still when you are positively sure that nothing is going to happen!

I tell you, if it gets to the stage that Pentecostals come to church not expecting anything to happen, then "WE ARE OF ALL MEN MOST MISERABLE."

When you feel that way, what a surprise - nothing does happen!

Yet so many people throughout the world go to church every Sunday feeling just that way.

\\ \\ Friends, whether it be at home in your private devotional or when you come to the house of God WE MUST COME TO GOD WITH EXPECTANCY! "They that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

Did you come here tonight EXPECTING God to do something new, something exciting, something fresh in your life.

If you did then "you won’t leave here like you came in Jesus’ Name".

\\ \\ This lame man EXPECTED something - and he got far more than he ever expected.

GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY.

We need to develop an attitude of expectancy.

\\ \\ I believe in THREE basic premises we need to get a hold of in relation to EXPECTANCY.

\\ \\ A. God wants us to come to Him with expectancy.

\\ \\ Turn with me to James 1:5-8 [READ].

Now the context here is specifically that of a person coming to ask God for wisdom, but the truth is the same whenever we come to God.

This is a principle.

\\ \\ In 1 Timothy 2:8 Paul says, "I desire that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath AND DOUBTING."

\\ \\ God wants us to come to Him with believing hearts, faith-filled hearts; EXPECTANT hearts!

\\ \\ Hebrews 11:6 - "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."