The Power
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I. Peter & John Prayer Life
I. Peter & John Prayer Life
As we pick up the story in Acts chapter 3, it’s worth remembering what we’ve studied so far:
Jesus left and promised the Holy Spirit would come
The disciples spent time praying as they waited for the Holy Spirit
They picked the 12th apostle, again, rooted in prayer
The Holy Spirit arrived, accompanied by wind and fire, and Peter showed us the blueprint that should accompany any act of God, the glorification and verbal telling of who He is
We then saw 2 weeks ago some characteristics of the early church, do you remember what they were?
Devoted
Giving
Hospitable
Their lives were lived in a worshipful way
And that brings us to
Read Verse 1
Peter and John were still spending their days in prayer to God.
You know sometimes we experience these spiritual highs in our lives, and you can bet that the receiving of the Holy Spirit was one of those events for the apostles.
But what happens to us often when we come back from, let’s say Centrifuge.
We came back last year, those who went, inspired and challenged to really live for Him.
But then business of summer takes over, school starts, and with that comes homework and sports and band, and so our time in God’s Wrod starts to slip and all of the sudden without realizing it we are back to where we were…our zeal for God has worn off.
So I think it’s worth noting that Peter and John, and I’d venture to say the other apostles, still found daily communion with God worthwhile and vital to their Christian walk even though the “high” of receiving the Holy Spirit had maybe begun to wain.
II. The Lame Man - Expectation
II. The Lame Man - Expectation
And as they are heading to the temple at 3 pm to pray, they come upon a lame man
Read verses 2-3
Now, this lame man was born this way, without the use of his legs.
We aren’t told how old he is, but the Greek word is translated as an adult male, so we know he has been lame for a decent amount of his life
And his life consists of his family or friends carrying him and placing him just outside of the temple where he can beg for money
It’s worth noting that he actually isn’t allowed inside the temple as a lame man according to OT law -
So here he is, and can you imagine how he’s been doing this day after day after day, and how he most likely has just blended into the scenery of the day
Example: Greene Street Walker?
And how if people even paid any attention to him at all, it’d be maybe just throwing a coin his way on their way into the temple to feel like they’ve done something “good” for somebody
Or they look at him with disgust, this lowly beggar who just sits there every day forgetting that....
HE CANT USE HIS LEGS
Read verse 4-5
Did you notice what Peter and John did?
They “fixed their gazes on him”
They looked at him, they made eye contact with him. They didn’t view him as the rest of the world or even the “religious” people did....they actually saw him
And I think we can learn something here from Peter and John.....too often we live our lives, even on our way to church to worship God, in such a rush and in such a habit that we often miss the opportunities that God places right in front of us.
Example: Me driving up Frederick Street: “Oh, there’s another person with practically nothing just sitting on the sidewalk”......and I keep driving
Example: Or at my house, every morning, I have about 7-8 kids climbing on my tree, breaking my tree, jumping off my porch, being loud, with mothers sitting with them waiting on the bus. And instead of me getting up a little earlier, going out to talk to them, “looking at them”, I get my kids ready, rush out the door and barely even mumble a hello
And I bet if you guys think hard enough, there are people like this in your life, people you come across and decide to just pretend they aren’t there. And when we do that, I think we are missing God-ordained opportunities to share the Gospel.
, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angles unawares.”
III. Jesus Exceeds his Expectation
III. Jesus Exceeds his Expectation
So put yourself in the lame man’s sandals here, someone is actually paying real attention to you.
Your heart starts pounding as you look at them, and you see they are actually looking at you.
Your mind starts racing, “Hey maybe today is going to be my day. This man actually cares, he’s bound to give me quite a bit of money here. Maybe even enough to live on for a couple of days or weeks”
And then Peter says, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you.” in verse 6.
Your the lame guy here, and your like, “You’ve got to be kidding me. The two people that pay attention to me don’t actually have any money. Thanks a lot God.”
Read verses 6-7
But Peter continued talking and and says this, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
And the man, obviously bound to be a bit confused by what is happening, grabs Peter’s hands and begins to feel his legs and feet for the first time.......looks down at his legs and feet that beforehand were no doubt super skinny and limp and see’s a calf muscle form, sees his legs get more muscular.
And he stands…and not only stands, but starts to walk around and jump around, “walking and leaping and praising God” as verse 8 says.
Here is what I want you to see here....Jesus, and only Jesus, can exceed and invade people’s lives in a way that we never will.
Are we called to give to the poor? Yes. Are we called to clothe those who need clothes and to feed those who need fed? Yes.
But Jesus is so much more than even that.
Peter could have given this man money as he was expecting, meeting a physical need, and done what God commanded, yes. But Peter and John, full of the Spirit, understood, just as we need to understand, that Jesus is so much better than that.
Now, is it likely that we are going to encounter a lame person, maybe a WWII vet who lost his legs in the war, and cause them to walk in the name of Jesus Christ? Most likely no.
But are we able to combine God’s command to care for those in need, and at the same time tell of Jesus Christ and what he’s done, you better believe it.
See, doing good deeds is not enough for us as believers. Everything we do needs to be done in the “name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”.
Sure, we can go to the mission with Crossroads class, dish out meals, and never go talk to the people who we are feeding, and we’ve done nothing for them.
Everything we do should be done with the goal and purpose of proclaiming Christ.
IV. Misplaced Awe
IV. Misplaced Awe
Recap verses 11-15
So the people that saw this, they “rushed the court” like you see fans do in basketball when their team does something amazing, hoping to get a picture with one of the players, to high five them, give em a big ol hug, and it becomes this huge mosh pit.
That’s kind of what’s happening here, people flock around Peter and John in amazement.
But again, as we talked a few weeks ago when the Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to speak in tongues, Peter deflects the praise to God. He is continuing to make it all about Him
V. The Real Power
V. The Real Power
And then we come to verse 16, which is the verse of this passage.
Peter’s been deflecting the praise, and he comes to the lame man, and addresses what caused him to be able to walk, and Peter says this:
“And his name (Jesus), by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.”
See, the fact that the lame man was healed wasn’t the miracle at all. The miracle is that the man put his faith in Jesus Christ, and that he, and we, even had/have the opportunity to do so.
We need to almost look at the man’s physical healing as a sign of his spiritual healing.
That’s what Peter is trying to get across to them.
“We didn’t heal this man by ourselves”
“Jesus healed this man”
“Because of this man’s faith”
We are all spiritually lame, so to speak, in need of someone who can heal us.
And that person is Jesus, whom Peter and John are continuing to proclaim
VI. Closing
VI. Closing
Christ. Is. Better.
That’s the first thing I want you to take away from tonight.
Glorifying Him needs to be our ultimate goal
Secondly, how many times a day, how many people a day, do you see but look right past, that need to know Christ is better?
It’s a safe bet we all have quite a few.
How are you going to act differently tomorrow?
And the only way you will do this, is if you really believe Christ is better?
Because in order for us to live it out, we need to believe it ourselves.
And if we believe it ourselves, we need to then allow the Spirit to guides us, to cause us to have our eyes opened to people and places that we can proclaim it!
I’m not saying it can’t happen or won’t happen, I’m just saying we don’t see too much of it anymore, a lot of that reason being because we’ve received the inspired Word of God