Welcome
Let’s pray
Our first verse set to music today is
“Love your Enemies,” taken from:
Matthew 5:43-44
Jesus says here:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
In this song we begin with His instruction from Him saying, “But I say to you . . .” and then there is a refrain that hearkens back to His words that introduce the subject in scripture where He says:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
I suppose these could be the only words in the Bible and we would have the jest of it all.
The second number is about John the Baptist and is taken from several passages strung together to tell a story:
Mark 1:2-3, then 7-8 which say:
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 7 And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. 8 “I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
After this we, here in the studio/church will sit in silence while those at home listen to another song, “where two or three are Gathered together” and when we come back we will continue our verse by verse study of Acts 3.
All right we left off with Peter and John, sometime after the Day of Pentecost, going to the temple and while there coming upon a man lame from birth.
His lameness appears to have been in his ankles and feet.
Mike last week pointed out to me that Luke, a physician and in his narratives, seems to give a lot more detail about people suffering in the flesh than other writers possibly due to him being a physician.
I think this is a great insight as the woman with an issue of blood and then this lame man prove the point.
Then we read the following:
Acts 3.11
November 15th 2015
MEAT
Act 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
We talked about almsgiving last week.
Additionally, I mentioned my belief that all of the healings and physical stories and rehearsals found in the New Testament serve as spiritual types for believers today. And I said this story is no exception.
In light of this perspective I suggested that the man born lame is a picture or type of all human beings, to some degree or another, spiritually when we exit the womb.
Hence Jesus telling Nicodemus that we MUST be born-again (born from above) in order to even see the Kingdom of Heaven (perceive it, understand it, enjoy and appreciate it).
Keep this perspective of spiritual application in your mind as we read the rest of this story of the man born lame.
The man has asked for compassion or mercy from them (verse four):
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, “Look on us.”
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: 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 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
Okay, so the man, having lived a life on the benevolence of others, ask Peter and John for alms.
Acts 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, “Look on us.”
Where Paul uses the term for look on us (which best means fix your eyes on us intently) the word is one of Dr. Lukes favorites as he uses it twelve times in his writings (and it is not found anywhere else in the NT.)
It is intriguing – this demand. When Jesus walked and healed people there was often (but not always) an exchange that required the individual involved to express faith or believe that Jesus could do what they requested of Him.
But not always.
In Matthew 12 Jesus and his apostles are criticized for picking wheat and eating it on the Sabbath.
Jesus winds up saying to them, among other things:
“For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”
Then we read the following:
9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:
10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?” that they might accuse him.
11 And he said unto them, “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”
13 Then saith he to the man, “Stretch forth thine hand.” And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
Here Jesus did not inquire of the man’s faith or belief in or on Him, He simply healed him. Boom.
He did, however tell the man to act which is an expression of faith – a very important expression that cannot be ignored.
So where our faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, faith is (shall we say) manifested or revealed in action.
In other words there is something faithful in our willingness to do what God or Jesus or the Apostles request. To refuse to act or respond is in itself a form of faithlessness.
To the man in the temple with the withered hand, an inquiry of whether he believed or not was manifested in the Lord saying, “stretch for your hand” and the man complying.
In this we discover a reciprocity that appears to exist between God and Man – God calls, God does the work, the miracles, the healing but He often asks us IN SOME WAY OR ANOTHER to participate (with verbal or actual participating) evidencing faith.
So Peter has told the man to fix his eyes upon them and what do we read?
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
He gave heed. They spoke, directed, and the man gave heed to them and their request.
So while we do NOT have Peter or John saying ANYTHING at this time about Jesus or about believing on Him or confessing or repenting we DO have the Apostles reaching out by the Spirit and in the cause of Christ and the man responding to their request.
Luke says that in this response “that he expected to receive something of them.”
He anticipated a reward. And he got one – one he apparently had not anticipated in the least.
What a model, what a picture of the way God works in our lives!
Even those who come to God seeking healing or salvation are blown away at His mercy and goodness in comparison to what they had expected.
Same picture here.
“Give me some alms, help me make ends meet,” came the request. Maybe within him was the hope of a big hit – you know, a five or maybe a ten or maybe (like on those rare occasions in his past) he will receive a twenty.
I mean what would really knock him off his feet (bad choice of phrases, I know).
What if Peter gave Him a 100 bucks? A thousand! A thousand dollars. Oh how hope springs eternal when we hope for a blessing from the hand of our fellowman.
But what the man didn’t realize was he was about to receive a gift from God – these gifts trump anything man can give, right?
Didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 7:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
So here this lame man asked representatives of God on earth for mercy, and compassion, and help. And God was gonna step in a hand the man a blessing nobody would have thought possible in that age and day – an immediate ability to walk (– plus – we’ll talk about the plus in a minute).
So Peter says to the man (verse 6)
6 Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Can you imagine what the outcome could have been (could, hypothetically) if Peter and John’s pockets were lined with gold?
(beat)
But they weren’t – just like Jesus pockets were so empty that He, as the Son , had no place to rest His head. Yet all of them had full possession of something much greater – God Himself – working by and through the Spirit.
And it is here, at this point, where the Apostles introduce the being by whom they were acting and from whom they had the power to heal, the being who could and would make his body whole and save this man from his miserable plight, saying
“In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”
Right before ascending into heaven Mark’s Gospel has Jesus say:
“These signs shall follow them that believe – In my name they shall . . . .”
The expression, “In my name” means by his authority or by the power derived from Him, His life, His death, and His resurrection.
Everything we humans do for God is in and through Him. Everything. He is our redeemer, our mediator, the Lord and Savior having overcome the flesh by the Spirit, having victory over Satan once and for all.
All power has been given Him of the Father and so we note that His apostles were fully sold out to this.
At verse 10 we will read that the people will gather in awe around Peter and John and they will quickly redirect their attention to the fact that they did NOTHING of themselves or of their own power.
In this healing, Peter refers to Jesus as Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is thought that first, there were a lot of Yeshua’s walking around in that day, presumably even some who claimed to be the Messiah.
It is also believed that by this time news of Jesus was probably known as the Messiah from Nazareth who was put to death but rose from the grave.
In other words to use Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a very distinguishing and deliberate title where there would be little to no doubt of who was the one who actually performed this restoration to health.
Note what Peter said to the man – it’s similar to the man with the whithered hand in the temple with Jesus – he tells the man lame from birth to “rise up and walk.”
We have to note a few things. First, it was a command.
In the Greek it is written in the “present imperative inchoate idea” which to us simple folks means, “start walking and keep on walking.”
Hmmmm. Think about this command now. Tuck it away in your mind.
In any case this was a powerful command. Peter didn’t say, “take your time,” nor did he coddle the man, asking him, “are you able, willing to try and get up and walk?”
Nope. The command was straight on – do it (again, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth).
There is something remarkable about such healings. They were commanded and occurred immediately in most cases.
This is important too – tuck this away as well.
But notice, while the imperative command was given, and there was no doubt in its delivery, the man apparently didn’t budge.
So even in the presence of an implied promise, that you are now empowered “to stand up, walk and continue walking,” there appears to have been some sort of disbelief in the presence of the man.
Either that or the command had to be accompanied by the touch of the Apostles hands – don’t know.
What we do know however is that Peter and John didn’t let the man remain in his sitting position.
Peter extended themselves to help him realize that he had been made whole!
(verse 5)
7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
(beat)
From birth . . . all of us – all human beings, as a result of Adam introducing sin into the material world, have been lame in some degree or another.
God so loved the world He sent Jesus of Nazareth to overcome all of these effects.
His person (and the persons of the Apostles in His name) overcame the physical (and the deleterious spiritual effects) present in their day and age to prove this.
And that age ended.
Today, blessed with modern science, and faith and power in Christ, we continue to abide in the material defects of human life – to the point where physical death will overcome every one of us – but the spiritual picture present in these healings of old apply perhaps more than we might believe.
Through the Holy Spirit – which operates in the spiritual realms to redeem and reconcile man, God commands all of us – people made lame by sin – to do the thing that Peter commanded this man to do –
“Get up” (from your present natural state), “walk” (with Christ) “and keep on walking” (as Christ, growing, maturing, and manifest your faith in action).
In Peter’s command there was an implied promise to the man:
“Everything you need to do what I have told you to do is present – it’s all there. You are immediately and fully healed – so get up and walk.”
But we note in his case he was not fully convinced. And so Peter lovingly assisted him to realize the healing had taken place.
So where God has not only reassured us that He has healed us and that we are equipped to now walk with Him, He does NOT abandon us when we are unsure or are failing in faith – instead He actually extends His hands out to us (often through those who have first believed) to give us aid, and lift us up to help us realize we have been fully healed and fully equipped – the moment we were saved.
This is an important point to understand my friends.
The moment we heard the call, the moment we received the command, we were fully healed and fully equipped with the fullness of the Holy Spirit to rise, walk and keep on walking with Christ.
What happens is our flesh gets in the way. But we are not partially healed when we come to faith – nor are we partially equipped with the Spirit.
Like the healings of the NT we are immediately and fully healed and equipped.
What this means is the babe in Christ and the Mature in Christ are no less or no more saved (compared to each other) – the thief on the cross was as much saved and equipped and healed as John the Beloved who lived out another forty or so years.
This is validated by passages like
Colossians 2:9-10 which says, speaking of Christ:
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
John 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
So the issue isn’t that believers are trying to get MORE of Him – He is fully within. The issues is all of us, to some extent or another, allow our flesh (meaning our actual flesh and/or our minds, wills and emotions) to war with our spirit which retards our understanding and comprehension of the fullness of the Spirit of God within us to some extent or another.
I am of the opinion that at rebirth all human beings become something like spiritual super heroes, possessing all the fullness of Christ within.
But we all allow our fleshly ways and wills to have say, to trip us up, and to continue to obfuscate Jesus within.
And so we all need, at times (like the man born lame) to have a hand extended to help us realize the presence and strength of the King inside.
Such “hands” are extended to us as believers every time someone takes the time to encourage us in Christ, to listen to our woes, to pray for us and reaffirm our standing with the King.
I would suggest that every time a believer takes it upon themselves to rail on another, to criticize their walk, or beliefs or their (non-existent sin) they are, in effect, not extending a helping hand put are pushing the lame back down to earth.
Peter didn’t look down at the man sitting there and, withholding his hand, say:
“Maybe you’re not worthy to be healed. Maybe there’s something in your life that needs to be fixed before God will extend His love to you.”
He healed him as he was, changed his life, and fulfilled the passage from Paul that reminds us that
“It is the GOODNESS of God that leads to repentance.”
“It is the GOODNESS of God that leads to repentance.”
“It is the Goodness of believers that leads others to faith and repentance.”
“It is the Goodness of parents that leads children to love and seek Jesus.”
(beat)
Not our condemnation – no matter how justified it might appear to be.
We do good. We share love. We return good for evil. We condemn none but while holding our tongues we extend Jesus hands to all in need of a lift.
Whether it was Peters words alone causing the immediate healing or if it required the one-two combo of word and hands, the passage says:
“And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.”
Immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
Again, genuine healings – of every kind – (physical and spiritual) are immediate and effective.
And what was the result? In this man we read (verse 8)
8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
Did you catch it? Do you see the parallel to people born-from-above?
Without any merit or from any power of his own this man was freed and released from his bodily prison through being healed and made whole AND THEN what did he do?
He leaped up to his own feet.
And walked
And entered into the temple
And Luke repeats:
“Walking, and leaping, and praising God.”
What a wonderful miracle! What a life-altering experience. Being healed and strengthened by God which right off the bat lead to him
Leaping to his own feet
Then walking
Then entering into the temple,
Praising (who) God
The purpose and point and end focus of all glorious and good things – praising Him.
I’m not so certain that physical healings continue to occur today –
Meaning that they are out in the open
Of blind and lame from birth people
But I can personally testify that spiritual healings are happening every day which result in the very same things.
The person receives strength and healing from things that long held them bound.
They become new creatures in Christ.
They leap into life, standing then, due to the healing on their own two feet.
Then they begin walking AND entering into the presence of God (or what was in this case the temple where He was once forbidden to go according to the Law).
Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 35:6 that as a result of the MEssiah:
“Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.”
And then another benefit to the miracle – both in this man’s case and in ours.
9 And all the people saw him “walking and praising God.”
I think this is speaking of the people who had been accustomed to seeing him sitting in that public place.
It was confirmed that he was lame – even from birth – in the eyes of the long-time locals.
This was no deception just as there is absolutely no deception that in some of our lives we were confirmed sinners from birth.
The irony, the paradox, the radical thing about God is He gets the MOST mileage out of the converted sinner – those who have the most serious birth-defects.
I mean it’s no surprise to us when an otherwise good guy or gal in high school are or become Christians is it?
But when someone “lame from birth” (so to speak) bad to the bone, who is raised to new life and now walks with Him giving Him the praise, wow! That’s the work of God.
While I was LDS – even active and participative – I have been “lame from birth” and most who’ve known me can and will attest to this fact.
And while I don’t relish in this nor find the former life appealing, I think I can say I did my part in bringing all the glory to God – or maybe I should say, “He allowed me to do my part.”
The Reverend Vernon J McGee, a favorite of mine once told the story of a black fellow down south who was being interviewed by the church board to see if he qualified to become a deacon.
“We have one more question for you before we let cha go,” one of the elders said.
“In your opinion did you do anything to merit your salvation?”
The man replied, “I sure did.”
Well the board was just aghast and after settling down, said,”why don’t you tells us just exactly you did to earn being saved?”
The man replied,
“We’ll I sinned and sinned and sinned and then the Lord stepped in and did his part.”
And hearing this I would bet once He did this brother leaped to his feet, walked and entered into the presence of God, glorifying Him and Him alone.
So the people saw the man walking and praising God. Luke continues (verse 10)
10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
The way others wonder what occurs in the sinfully lame when they begin walking with the Lord.
11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
And the purpose of the miracle – of which this certain lame man was a recipient – is made known.
Because instead of it just being to help a man walk we have to admit that neither in the days of Jesus, nor the apostles, nor in our day today, are all the physically disabled healed.
Physical suffering occurs and will continue to occur so long as sin resides in the world.
But the purpose and point of all miracles are to not only help the one suffering and imprisoned, but to cause amazement and wonder in the eye of those who witness them.
Apparently, this man was adhered to Peter and John, probably in some sort of embrace.
And Luke says, “all the people ran together to the porch that is called Solomon’s greatly wondering.”
And guess what? The result was a crowd all gathered up and ready for Peter to deliver the second public sermon of his apostlolic life.
Which we’ll cover next week.
Questions/comments
