STUDY THEME: THE GOOD NEWS. POWER FROM ABOVE. SS11-02-03.
“EXPERIENCING THE GOSPEL’S POWER.” ACTS 3: 1-8, 11-16, 19-20.
ACTS 3: 1-2, 3-8, 11-16, 19-20.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 3.
This five weeks study in the Book of Acts focuses on what it means to share the gospel of Christ with others, emphasizing the impact of the gospel not only on those hearing it but also on those presenting it. Paul affirmed that the gospel (good news) of Christ is the power of God. He testified that God’s powerful gospel means salvation for those who believe. Paul was not ashamed of this gospel: to the contrary, it was his most valuable asset. He wrote in Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
This five-session study, ‘The Good News:”Power from above,” is based on selected passages from the Book of Acts. Today’s lesson “Experiencing God’s Power,’ is based on Peter and John’s healing the lame man and then preaching to the crowd that gathered.
The theme of this lesson is that the power of the gospel addresses and answers all human needs.
The Life Question is, How can I experience the power of the gospel?
The Biblical Truth is that the gospel is powerful because it reveals that God has acted in Christ to answer all human needs.
The life impact is to help us experience daily the power of the Gospel to meet our needs.
God’s power is not restricted to the apostles of the first century. The same Holy Spirit that empowered the early believers can and will empower us today. We must have His power both to live the Christians life and to minister to others.
PLEASE READ ACTS 3: 1-2.
It seems that we have some kind of subconscious heresy in our minds that Pentecost is passed, and that the Pentecostal power has weakened in the process of the centuries. It is not so. The resources are as limitless now as they were in the dawning of that great day. The question for our hearts should be: “Is Christ limited in us?” If He is limited it is because we grieve or quench the Holy Spirit. It is true that we must repent, renounce and return.
In the previous chapters of Acts we see the first impression produced by the early church, and read the first sermon preached in light of the power of the Holy Spirit. In today’s lesson we commence the section dealing with the first opposition to the early church. The cause of this opposition was that of a miracle wrought, the preaching of the resurrection which resulted, and the consequent hatred of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection.
The miracle in today’s lesson is the first miracle recorded in the Book of Acts. This is the story of a lame man healed. Luke declares hat the man was a cripple from birth. Not as a result of an accident, not as a result of sin in his life, but from birth. Later in Acts 4: 22 we are told that he was over 40 years old.
Peter and John were going to the Temple, at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour or 3:00 P.M. The hour of prayer was half an hour after the sacrifice had been offered. During the early years of Christianity, the believers continued to go to the temple and to the synagogues. Jesus, all the apostles, and all the first believers were Jews, and it was only natural to maintain their Jewish heritage. In the days after Pentecost, Acts 2: 46 says they worshipped daily in the temple and from house to house. When Paul visited Jerusalem years later Acts 21: 26 says that even the apostle to the Gentiles went to the Temple. After the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, no one was able to go there. The Book of Hebrews shows how the Temple, the priests, and its sacrifices have been fulfilled in Jesus.
Peter and John went to the temple, not at the hour of sacrifice, but at the hour of prayer, which followed. As we look at these two men going up to the Temple, no tongues of fire were resting upon their heads; there was nothing to attract attention; they were walking in the commonplace; the estasy of the day of Pentecost had passed.
“Was carried” in Vs. 2 may imply that the lame man was arriving about the time Peter and John approached the Gate Beautiful. This must have been a popular entrance to the Temple; a good place for begging. Giving alms for the poor was one of the religious activities of the Jews. By locating himself at one of the most popular of the ten entrances to the Temple, the lame man could beg for alms from the people coming to worship.
In the East it was the custom for beggars to sit begging at the entrance to a temple or a shrine. Such a place was, and still is, considered the best of all stances because, when people are on their way to worship God, they are disposed to be generous to their fellow men. W.H. Davies, the tramp poet, tells how one of his vagrant friends told him that, whenever he came into a new town, he looked for a church spire with a cross on the top, and began to beg in that area, because there, from experience, he found people most generous. Love of man and love of God must ever go hand in hand.
The fact that the lame man had to be carried and placed there by others, show that the man Peter and John encountered was helpless, lame, and dependent on others for his survival.
PLEASE READ ACTS 3: 3-8.
When he beggar makes his appeal to the apostles his hopes are aroused by the reply of Peter, “Look on us.” Then he was startled as he heard the words of Vs. 6. I am sure that to the very end of his days Peter could have said: “Silver and gold have I none.” These early followers of the Lord Jesus Christ did not look upon the Gospel ministry as a means of enriching themselves.
Peter meant of course, that he had for the man something, not less, but more valuable than “silver and gold.” Instead he offered to the helpless beggar healing “in the name of Christ.” To this promise the faith of the cripple made an instant response.
Then Peter “took him by the right hand, and raised him up,” not to strengthen his feet but his faith;” and leaping up he stood, and began to walk; and he entered with them into the Temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him…and they were filled with wonder and amazement.” It was indeed a notable cure; the man was well known, there were countless witnesses to identify him, he had been a cripple for 40 years, and he was given “perfect soundness,” in an instant of time, as he put his trust in the living Christ. Leaping instead of lameness; giving praise instead of asking alms, he entered the Temple.
Before, as the lame beggar, he sat in the court of the Gentiles at the Gate to the sanctuary. Day by day he sat there at the threshold to the place of worship, but he could not enter., He was lame, blemished, and denied by the Levitical law access to the inner courts.
Now he had received not only physical healing, but, he had found spiritual acceptance as well. For the first time he was declared worthy to enter the house of worship. Faith and Jesus name were the key elements in the man’s healing.
Miracles were never performed either by Jesus or His apostles simply to amaze the people. These signs were wrought to manifest the grace of God to needy men and women.
You may ask, “Why have miracles stopped?” But, “Have they stopped?” It is the simple fact that any doctor or surgeon can now do things which; in the apostolic times would have been regarded as miracles. It is the universal fact that God does not do for men what man can do for himself. So God has revealed new truth and new knowledge to men, and through that revelation they are still performing miracles. As a great doctor said, “I bandage the wounds; but God heals them.” For the Christian there are still miracles on every hand if he has eyes to see.
Peter had said to this man, “I have nothing to give you that will help you to maintain your life while you are a cripple; but I have something to cure the crippled condition; and make you able to earn your own living. That is Christianity. Christianity had not come into the presence of the world’s wounds and woes and agony to give out doles in order to help it to bear its limitation. Christianity comes to give men life, and put them on their feet, and so enable them to do without alms. Christianity faces a man with a gift that cancels his disability. Christianity takes hold of a man whose ankles are out of joint, and makes them articulate.
That man knew more about ankles than any man in Jerusalem, for he had lain on the steps, and had seen all the people coming up to the temple for years. A man may know much about ankles, and never know how to walk. Christianity does not come to teach a man philosophy. It comes to give him life, to give him that which cancels his disability, and to communicate ability, and so to create worship.
If that is the Church’s gift, then what is the Church’s method? She must speak and work in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the risen Christ. We are on the other side of the story of the Cross, and the Resurrection. This word was spoken in His name; but, it was spoken by a man who shared His very nature. If we go to lame humanity at the Beautiful Gate in our own name, or in any other name, we may even give them some alms that will help them to bear their disability, but we shall never see them on their feet. It is in His name that the Church must go.
More-over there was contact. Peter took him by the right hand, and raised him up.
That is the final thing in the Church’s method. We must come to the man that lies at the Beautiful Gate begging alms, outside. There must be personal, immediate, direct contact. The Church standing afar off, and singing a song, which she hopes will reach the dweller in the valley does but mock the need of the dweller in the valley. The church that comes down to the side of the wounded, weary, woebegone world, and holds out the right hand, and lifts is the Church through which the Christ is doing His own work, through which the Christ will win His ultimate victory.
Cornelius tells how Thomas Aquinas called upon Pope Innocent II once when the latter was counting a large sum of money. “You see, Thomas,” said the Pope, ‘the church can no longer say, “Silver and gold have I none.” “True, Holy Father,” said Thomas, “and neither can she now say, “Arise and walk.” Riches had come but power had gone.
This might be said of our church when we look at no revival and 15 persons baptized in the past 12 months. I don’t know if this is an all time low for Immanuel, but it just might be. The record for our association is even worse. With 60 churches of all sizes there was a total of 634 baptisms reported the past 12 months to the Pott-Lincoln Baptist Association. That is an average of slightly over 10 baptisms per church. Four churches reported no baptisms. The top five churches in baptisms in the Association were Hillside 35, Temple 25, First Wanette 22, First Prague 20 and Son Rise, McLoud 20.
PLEASE READ ACTS 3: 11-16.
At the time of afternoon prayer, many people were in the Temple. Al the people noticed the man leaping and praising God. They recognized him as he lame beggar whom they often had seen outside the gate asking for alms. They wee filled with awe and astonishment at what they saw. The very behavior of the former cripple was itself a token, to those who had eyes to see, of the advent of the messianic age. For that was the age of which it has been said before in Isaiah 35:6. “Then shall the lame man leap as a hart (or deer.)”
When he was not leaping about, the man was holding on to Peter and John. It seems that the healed man was loath to let these men go, who had been the instruments of his healing and blessing.
All the people ran together. The crowd formed in Solomon’s Colonnade, greatly amazed. When Peter saw this crowd, he seized he opportunity to preach the good news of Jesus to them. Addressing them as men of Israel, Peter asked, “Why are you amazed at this?” Apparently some were looking at the apostles as if they were gods or angels. Peter asked why the crowd was staring at them as if they had healed the lame man in their own power or holiness. Peter quickly denied this and focused on the One who had healed the lame man.
Having rebuked the miss-apprehension in Vs. 12 of what they had seen, Peter immediately began his exposition in Vs. 13 through 16. Peter wanted to ensure that no one think that Jesus was the leader of some new religion with no roots in the faith of their fathers. Peter said, The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus.
The word “son” also means servant. This stands at the beginning of the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 53:13. In Mark 10:45 Jesus drew on this passage in Isaiah in stating His mission. In Acts 8:30-35 the early Christians clearly identified Jesus as this servant. This title for Jesus using the word meaning “Servant” appears here in Acts 3: 13, in Vs.26, and in 4:27, 30.
The sermons of Peter in the Book of Acts follow the same basic outline of the gospel. He emphasized the cross and the resurrection in Acts 2:22-36 and 10:34-43. In his early sermons in Jerusalem, Peter told his hearers of their responsibility for the death of Jesus. They delivered up Jesus. They denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. When Pilate offered to let go either Jesus or Barabbas, they cried out for a murderer. They killed the Prince or source of life. As Peter had done at Pentecost, he accused them of their part in Jesus’ death. Then he told them how God had reversed the world’s condemnation of Jesus by raising Jesus from the dead. On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:36 he said, “God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Here Peter said this is how God glorified Jesus. They killed the Prince of life, but God hath raised Him from the dead.
The cross is the fullest revelation of the sin of humanity and of the love of God. Human sin is seen in the crucifixion of Jesus at the hand of the world’s best system of law and its highest expression of religion, Sin and love had been on a collision course since the garden of Eden. They collided at Calvary. God won the victory and offers salvation to sinners.
Returning attention to the lame man who had been healed, Peter said, Faith in His name hath made this man strong. The man was given perfect soundness. Whose faith did Peter have in mind? The question we must ask is whether Peter speaks about the faith of the apostles or the faith of the cripple. The answer, of course, is that both the apostles and the beggar had faith. Peter and John performed the miracle only because they fully trusted Jesus to give them the power to heal. The lame man also trusted the Lord to heal him, even if Luke refrains from suggesting anything about his faith at the time the miracle took place.
The healing of the lame man was obviously a miracle. Jesus and the apostles performed many such miracles. These miracles had several characteristics. For one thing, the apostles’ miracles were not designed to honor the human instrument of divine power. Second, the miracles were not performed to entertain but were acts of compassion on people in need. Third, the miracles testified to the love and power of God. They were signs of the kingdom of God come in Jesus Christ. The greatest miracles were the salvation of lost sinners, but the healings pointed to God’s concern for the welfare of the total person.
PLEASE READ ACTS 3: 19-20.
One commentator says that the miracle of the speech of Peter is a far more wonderful one than the miracle wrought in the healing of the man who lay at the Gate Beautiful. Notice the daring of Peter, and remember the fear that characterized him before Pentecost. Remember, Peter is speaking to some of the same crowd that before Pilate, only a few days before, had cried out “Crucify Him.” “Crucify Him.
The early preachers always stressed the basic fact that the crucifixion was the greatest crime in human history. Whenever they speak of it there is kind of shocked horror in their voices. It is as if they said, “Look at what sin can do.” After telling his listeners of their guilt in crucifying Jesus, Peter said two things that seem to soften the accusation. Vs. 17 says that they and their leaders acted out of ignorance. Vs. 18 says that the cross fulfilled God’s plan announced by the prophets. The Jews might have asked, “Why then are we guilty.” The fact that they acted in ignorance does not mean they were unaccountable for their sins. It means they were unaware of the enormity of what they did. And the fact that that this was God’s plan does not mean they had no choice of their own. Both of these factors were leading up to the call to repentance. They may have not been totally aware of the greatness of their sin in rejecting Jesus during His life, but now God was giving them a call to repent, which, if rejected would not be in ignorance. Thus, Peter was offering the Jerusalem Jews a second chance. Once they had disowned the Christ, it was, however, a rejection in ignorance. Now they could accept Christ and be forgiven,. Should they do so once Peter gave them a full understanding of Christ’s true identity, it would be a wholly different matter, a deliberate “high-handed” rejection.
In effect Peter said: “The God of Abraham, the God of your history, the God of your nationality, “the God of our fathers hath glorified His Servant Jesus, “hath lifted and exalted Him to power. The resurrection was not mentioned, but it was implied.
Immediately, Peter made his definite appeal. “Repent ye therefore, and turn again.” Into that “therefore” we must read everything that was meant. Why should they repent and turn again?
The things that follow declare the issued of repentance, but the preceding things declare the reason for repentance on the part of the house of Israel.
Those reasons were: That Jesus was the Servant of God; that through Jesus, God had been carrying on and carrying out His purposes; that when they procured the death of Jesus, forcing Pilate to condemn Him, they blundered, and were guilty of refusing the Holy and Righteous One. Peter, having called these people to repentance, promised certain results. “Repent…and turn again; that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ Who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus; Whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoration of all things.”
If I am asked if I believe that what Peter expected will be so, without any hesitation, I say Yes. I do not think Israel is a lost and abandoned nation. I believe that Israel is to be found and gathered together. It is because I so believe, that I cannot accept any theory that robs Israel of its present living identity, and merges it in some other nation.
Israel will yet repent and turn to Him, and He will blot out their sins. Until this time there has been no repentance of Israel; but there will be a day of repentance, and a day of turning to Him.
For us it seems to me there are three lessons as to the economy of God. First, that His ancient purpose are unchanged; secondly, that the restoration of all things waits the Advent of Jesus; and thirdly, that this will be the time of the recovery of Israel.
This graphic picture of people being renewed and refreshed is already an inner reality for people of faith, but our greatest experience is only a foretaste of future glory.
The Gospel not only saves from sin but also makes us whole. The message of the cross and resurrection continue to work in the lives of believers. The crucified, risen Lord is with us. By His grace and power He is at work to assure us that God loves us, that life can begin anew, and that death is not the end.
The lame man was healed by focusing on Jesus Christ, God’s Son. The greatest Baptist preacher of the 19trh century was probably CharL
es Haddon Spurgeon of England. Spurgeon was converted in Christ as a teenager in a Methodist chapel when he obeyed what the preacher admonished his hearers to do from Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Spurgeon looked and lived.
NEXT SUNDAY WE CONTINUE THE STORY OF PETER AND JOHN IN ACTS 4 AS THEY ACT BOLDLY FOR GOD BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN. A.V. DAUGHERTY 11-02-03