One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the
time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon.
Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple
gate, called Beautiful, but he was put every day to beg from
those going into the temple courts.
When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for
money. Peter looked straight at him, as
did John. Then Peter said, look at us.
So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get
something from them. Then Peter said, silver or gold
I do not have, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth Walk. Taking him by the right hand, he
helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became
strong. He jumped to his feet and began
to walk. Then he went with them into the
temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.
When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they
recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the
temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder
and amazement at what had happened to him.
While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people
were astonished and came running to them in a place called
Solomon's colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to
them, Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?
Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we
made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.
You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him
before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
You disowned the holy and righteous, 1 and asked that a
murderer be released to you. You killed the Author of life,
but God raised him from the dead.
We are witnesses of this by faith.
In the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made
strong. It is Jesus's name and the faith
that comes through him that has given this complete healing to
him, as you can all see. Now.
Brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your
leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold
through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer.
Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he
may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus.
He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to
restore everything as you promised long ago through his
holy prophets. For Moses said, the Lord your
God will rose up for you, a prophet like me among your own
people. You must listen to everything he
tells you. Anyone who does not listen to
him will be completely cut off from among His people.
Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have
spoken, have foretold these days.
And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God
made with your Father's, He said to Abraham.
Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be
blessed. When God raised him up, when God
raised up His servant, He sent him first to you to bless you by
turning each of you from your wicked ways.
This is God's word. Don't we live in a broken world?
We've already heard about the conflicts in Sudan and in
Algeria. In Israel and Gaza there's been
68,000 people killed, many more injured, displaced.
Russia and Ukraine, there's been hundreds, 10s of thousands
killed, hundreds of thousands displaced.
Last month we saw Charlie Kirk, political activist, in the
middle of a debate on a campus, shot dead.
We saw two Jewish men in Manchester killed just this last
week. Each year 400,000 people are
diagnosed with cancer, 700,000 people are diagnosed with
depression, 3 in 10 children in the UK are living in poverty,
13,000 a year are born with the congenital abnormality that they
have to live with. These are really heartbreaking
things to think about. We're in a fallen and broken
world. Don't we long for an end to evil
and injustice and sickness? And people have longed for an
end to this human history. But the true God of the Bible
has always given his people hope that the end, an end to those
heartbreaking things will come one day Throughout the Old
Testament we see the prophets who are telling of this great
day of restoration to come, and God will restore creation to how
it was meant to be, how it was before the sin of Adam brought
sin into the world. You can read some of that
through the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, Joel. There'll be one day when there's
an end to sickness, there's an end to evil, end to the fallen
nature of the curse in this world.
There'll be one day when there's a return to joy and to beauty
and to intimacy with God, the God who made us unity and peace
with one another as we live with him.
So the question then we have is when will this happen?
If anything seem things seem to be getting worse, not better.
So how long are we going to have to wait for this day of
restoration? How are we going to know that
this is true and that it's coming?
Well, one way that we can do that is to look to see the
things that the prophets prophesied about to look out for
them. When we see those things that
the prophets prophesied about, the things that God promised in
the Old Testament, that's a sign that God's new Kingdom is coming
true. The day of restoration is
coming. This is where we are in Acts 3.
We're going to see and hear some of the signs that God's day of
restoration, the restoration of all things, has begun because
Jesus is continuing his work through his people.
We're going to see a miracle. We're going to see a miracle
worker and then we're going to think about what our response
should be to such a miracle worker.
So Acts chapter 3, please have that open and follow along as we
go in. It's quite a long chapter, so
I'll try and help you help you to do that.
Miracles In verses 1 to 11, we've already seen Jesus
spending time with the apostles. That's in chapter 1 of Acts.
He teaches them the law and the prophets.
He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the
earth in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 2, we see that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell on
His people, to empower each of the apostles and Jesus, other
followers to do what He's asked them.
Last week we saw how the early church devoted themselves to the
apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of
bread, to prayer. There are two other descriptions
of the early church that we heard last week, which we get to
see in Acts chapter 3. So they continue to meet
together in the temple courts and they performed many wonders
and signs. The temple course is where Peter
and John are going. They're they're Jewish people.
That's the thing that Jewish people did.
They went to the temple because that's where you go to worship
God. They continue to worship God and
on the way they meet this man by the gate.
We don't get this man's name or where he's from, but we do know
a few things. We know that he's Jewish.
We had friends who helped him to the temple gate every day.
He clearly thought this was the right place to go to.
This is the place where he could get help for the condition that
he was in. We know that he had a
disability. It wasn't an accident, but he
was born with a disability. From birth, he'd never been able
to walk. It wasn't because of his sin or
because he'd made a mistake or someone had attacked him or
anything like that. It's just part of the fallen
world that he lived in. For the world that we live in,
we know that he was poor. His disability probably meant
that he wasn't allowed to go into the temple to beg, let
alone to work. He had to get to the gate.
That's as far as he could go. So here he stayed, as close to
God and the presence of God in a temple as he could possibly
find, hoping that the goodness of the worshippers coming in and
out would give him the money that he couldn't earn himself.
We see what he said. He clearly thought that his
greatest need was money. He needed money to eat, to be
clothed, to live as good a life as he could possibly manage.
Could money really help him? Maybe short term, but he'd still
have to come back to the gate every day and beg for more.
Of course he needed healing. He'd never been able to walk.
I mean, that's difficult enough today, let alone 2000 years ago.
Maybe some of that going to the temple courts every day was part
of his hope that there could be healing found with God.
But I think he'd probably given up hope of that healing after
going back there day after day. He might have received some
silver, even some gold from the people going in and out of the
temple, but he didn't receive healing.
So this is where we find Peter and John.
They walk up to this man. They walk about to walk past
him. I think he calls out to them.
But they knew that he needed not money or even healing really.
They they knew that his greatest need was to encounter Jesus.
Read in verse 6. Peter said to the man, silver
and gold, I do not have, but what I do have I give to you in
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Walk. That's a pretty crazy thing to
say. But instantly the man's legs
were strengthened, his muscles became strong, and he could not
only walk, but he could jump around.
He finally walked through the gate into the temple court for
the first time in his life by himself and he gives praise to
God. Notice the healing doesn't come
because Peter has some sort of superpower.
He can go around like healing people whenever he likes.
It doesn't come because the man has such a strong faith and he
really believes that he could be healed.
And then he was healed as like a reward.
The miraculous healing we read comes through the power of Jesus
name. So by God's grace, this man has
had an encounter with Jesus through his people.
He's not met Jesus himself, but he's encountered the power of
who Jesus is. It's the name of, excuse me, the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that heals this man.
Money would have given him a short term relief, but would
have been used up. A miraculous healing would have
given him something in life, but also short term relief.
He would still get tired. He could still get injured.
He would eventually his body would die.
This man's greatest need, though, was to have an encounter
with Jesus Christ, and that's what he got.
I wonder what you think your greatest need is right now.
I don't dismiss the needs that you have, the real needs that we
all have, financial needs, healing needs from physical
conditions, from mental conditions, strength and energy,
just to just to deal with the difficult things that are up in
our lives, reconciliation in broken relationships.
But I want you to know that yours and my greatest need is to
encounter Jesus. To know Jesus more, to learn
him, to learn his ways, to experience power to deliver us
from sin and suffering, power to give us joy and comfort, to know
the forgiveness that he brings, to know eternal life both now
and in eternity. This is our greatest need as we
seek to help others. It is good to offer financial
help. Please, please do that.
Please help people's real needs. It's good to care for the sick,
to come alongside the broken hearted, to be there for one
another, for others, especially the vulnerable.
But the greatest help that we can offer anyone is to point
them to the powerful name of Jesus.
This looked like healing for the man who was at the gate.
Might not be that dramatic in our lives, but when people
encounter Jesus, miracles do happen.
Hearts of stone are turned into hearts of flesh that love God
and love others. Lives are transformed from those
who seek their own good to those who seek the good of others.
Greatest need of all of us is to encounter Jesus.
Back to the story. The lame man is fully healed in
the name of Jesus. This is where we get to at the
end of verse 11. It's an amazing miracle, and
it's a sign that the day of restoration that God's Kingdom
is near and it's coming, and it's here on the prophecies of
God's restored Kingdom we find is in Isaiah 35.
It's on the screen now, Isaiah 35, five to six, as I wrote
about the day of the restoration of God.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the
death unstopped. Then will the lame light lame
leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.
This idea of leaping and jumping.
We see the parallel here with this lame man.
We saw these kind of things in Jesus ministry.
John the Baptist once said, Jesus, you're the real deal.
And he said, yeah, this stuff is happening.
Look, the lame man here with Peter and John is leaping like a
deer into the temple. His tongue, which basically only
begged others for silver and gold before, is now joyfully
praising God. The Jewish people there, maybe
even this man himself, would have known about these signs for
the prophets like Isaiah. That's why everyone rushes to
find out what's going on. There's a man who can walk,
who's leaping like a deer. We need to find out what's going
on here. The attention of the Jewish
people in the temple and probably outside have been
grabbed. And Peter then takes the
opportunity to explain exactly what has just happened.
He tells him about the miracle worker Peter and John, who just
spent three years with Jesus, seen him crucified, seen him
rise again, you know, ascend into heaven.
It's no surprise that Jesus is continuing to work miracles.
The miracles are still happening, as Luke implies right
at the beginning of Acts. The gospel was about what Jesus
did. Acts is about what Jesus
continues to do through his people after he descended to
heaven. But for the Jewish worshippers,
this is a lot to take in. That's why Jesus gives him a
hand by showing him this miracle through his people.
The point of miracles in Acts aren't really the miracles
themselves, as amazing and wonderful as they are.
The point of them is to authenticate the message of the
apostles, to make people take notice of what they have to say
and to believe them. To give the apostles the
opportunity to do what Jesus commissioned them to do, to take
the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Now people are listening to what Peter and John had to say.
So he points the true miracle worker, it's by faith in the
name of Jesus that this miracle has occurred.
So we read in verse 16, it's through Jesus powerful name.
His name means all that Jesus is, all that he did, all that he
continues to do, and his name has this healing occurred just a
few weeks before These people, even the people there of Peter
and John are even calling for Jesus to be crucified.
But Jesus is in fact the one who's bringing God's restoration
of everything God's Kingdom to reality.
There's a reason why Christians will often end their prayers in
Jesus name, because there's power in the name of Jesus in
who he is. It's not a magic phrase to make
your powers come to your prayers come true, but it's an
acknowledgement that there is power in Jesus name to do all
things. All things are possible with
God. When we pray in Jesus name, we
are believing that that is true. And to explain more about who
this miracle worker is, Jesus a pizza gives him three titles.
So look in in Acts chapter 3 of verses 14 and 15 we have the
Holy one. Jesus is the holy one.
This is a title used throughout the Bible for God himself, for
God's special messenger that speaks to his people, for the
Redeemer of God's people, the Messiah, Christ.
To be holy is to be set apart, to be higher and greater than
anything or anyone else, to be purer and more faithful, to be
more beautiful than anything that exists.
Jesus is the chosen one of God who redeems his people.
He's the Holy One, the name above every other name, that at
his name every knee will bow and every turn will confess that he
is Lord. Of course, his name is powerful
to heal. It's powerful to save, because
Jesus is the Holy One and he is the righteous one.
Jesus is the righteous one, the one who never sinned, who lived
a perfect and right life of obedience to God, of loving
neighbor and serving others. This is another title given to
God throughout the Bible. Because only God is good, He is
fully righteous in himself. Jesus is the righteous. 1.
He lived a perfect life of righteousness, one that we can
never live ourselves in our sinful nature.
He never insulted others, never reviled in return, never stole
or lusted or held anger in his heart against others.
He is the righteous one of Israel, the righteous one of
God, and He is the Author of life.
He's the One who created each one of us, each one of those
people who are listening. Then He gave each of us a life
in the 1st place. He sustains us and brings us joy
and brings us goodness to our lives.
By His Spirit. He gives us new life when we put
our trust in Him, spiritual life, to turn our dead.
Our dead turn us from being dead in our sins to being alive in
Him. And this Author of life, the one
who brings life to everything, was killed by the very ones that
he gave life to. But the author of life cannot be
defeated by death. He was raised to life again,
resurrection life by because it's the first fruits of all
those who believe in him. So this is what all of God's
people can hope for. It's how the resurrection life
that the author of Life has, yet they die, and through the Author
of life they shall live. So Jesus is the Holy 1, the
righteous one, the author of life, such a powerful name, a
powerful person, powerful miracle worker, demands a
response. And this is what Peter goes on
to call the Israelites to, to respond to Jesus.
There was God's plan of salvation all along.
For Jesus, the holy and righteous one, to die, be raised
to ascend to heaven in glory, that was the plan all along.
The prophets in the Old Testament spoke of this many
times too. In the Psalms and in Isaiah
especially. The Messiah would suffer so that
God's people could be forgiven and refreshed.
So for those people, those Israelites, the time is now.
They've seen the lame man leap like a deer.
They've seen and heard that Jesus is the Messiah, the one
who'd been promised. The time is now and the time is
now for us as well. Read verses 19 to 21.
Peter says repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be
wiped out. The times of refreshing may come
from the Lord and that He may send the Messiah who has been
appointed for you. Even Jesus.
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to
restore everything as He promised long ago through His
holy prophets. Now is the time to repent.
To turn from your sins. To turn full 180° from your
sins. To forsake the things that take
God's place in your life. To remove those things that
destroy yourselves and others. To cut out pornography from your
life. To stop following those
unhelpful social media accounts that cause division and
discontent. To exercise self-control in the
things that you read, things that you watch, things that you
say. Now is the time to turn from sin
to God. To have faith in God and God
alone. To live for Him and not
yourself. To prioritise time with Him in
His Word and in prayer. To make an effort to be with His
people so that you can be encouraged and you can encourage
others. To love Him with all your heart
and soul and mind and strength, and so to love others as
yourself. Why is this the right response
to Jesus, the holy, unrighteous One, the author of life?
Well, Peter gives 3 reasons why this is the right thing to do.
That your sins may be wiped out because there's forgiveness in
the name of Jesus. Our past mistakes, our current
bad habits, can be forgiven, forgiven completely because
Jesus died on the cross. And pay the punishment for each
one of them. And his righteous life can now
be given to whoever has faith in him.
Sins are wiped out, so the times of refreshing may come from the
Lord. As well as wiping away the
consequence of those sins. We can be freed from those sins
and the power they hold over us right now.
Trust in Jesus means freedom from the power of sin in your
life. When you confess to Him and ask
for forgiveness. It means that we can know the
peace that surpasses all understanding.
We can know comfort from Him in our anxieties and our
difficulties. Means that even as we suffer and
are heartbroken, we can know peace and joy in Him, refreshing
from the Lord. And because God will.
Restore everything. One day as the.
Angels told the apostles in Acts chapter 1, and as Jesus taught,
and as the prophets also promised, the Messiah will
return to restore all things. Jesus is in heaven now, but
there is a time when he'll come back.
Then there'll be. No more lame men in need of
healing. There'll be no need of healing
at all. There'll be no more war or
murder or oppression. There'll be no more injustice or
sickness or poverty. Who will wipe away?
Every tear from their eyes there'll be no more more death
or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has
passed away. That's.
In Revelation 20. One the very good in the Garden
of Eden before the fall will be restored.
But even more than that, it'll be renewed because God's people
will live with the God that saved them.
We may never experience. Healing in this life like the
lame man did, physical or mental.
But we know that one day we will.
Because when God restores. All things that includes our
bodies and our minds. Healing for all those who
believe in Jesus. God's Kingdom first arrived.
When Jesus was on the earth, His miracles proved that as wrong,
things were being made right wherever He went with all the
people he met. And the Kingdom continued
through his people as Jesus continued working miracles,
signs and wonders through physical healing like this, but
also spiritual healing as thousands of people were added
to their number each day. And one day.
The Kingdom will be fully fulfilled when Jesus returns in
glory to restore all things. Peace was speaking to.
The Israelites then and he confirmed his message by going
to more testimonies that they would have known from the Old
Testament. He says Moses, he prophesied A
Messiah that would come that would be like him from among
Israel. Abraham he promised the one that
one of his descendants would bring blessing to all peoples,
the ends of the earth. The Islam's were known about
Samuel and the other prophecies, Joel and Ezekiel and Jeremiah
and others. This good news came. 1st to the
Jews in Jerusalem, but as we know it'll go out to all Judea
and Samaria and the ends of the earth.
We'll see that in the rest of. Acts next.
Week we'll see in. Chapter 4.
What the Jewish leaders straight away did with this message.
But the question. That we have this morning is
What are we going to do with that message?
Well, I urge you. 1st To have faith in the name of Jesus.
How often do you call on the name of Jesus for miracles?
When we're in distress. When we're in crisis.
For healing. Yes, we see that in the Bible.
Through history. We see that in our own church.
We see how miraculous healing has come in the name of Jesus
might. Not be as dramatic.
As a lame man leaping for joy. But let's trust in the powerful
name of Jesus. With him, all things are
possible. Let's trust in his.
Name for spiritual healing too. Conversion becoming.
A believer putting our trust in Jesus is an even greater miracle
than this lame man experienced. Every time someone puts their
faith in Jesus is a miracle. Every time someone continues to
believe in Jesus is a miracle. So if you're a Christian.
Today I urge you to keep trusting in the name of Jesus
for the things you need and for your loved ones and friends and
family. Trust that He's able to do more
than you can ask or imagine or think, including saving your
loved ones who don't yet believe in Him.
Keep praying in Jesus name for their salvation.
And if you're not? A Christian here today, then.
I urge you also. To have faith in the name of
Jesus, you can heal your spiritual condition.
Have faith in him. Ask for his forgiveness and know
his power to save. Secondly, take.
Opportunities to share Jesus it. Wasn't the apostles ministry?
To go around healing people. They did do that, and we'll meet
some of the people and acts who wanted that ministry so they
could go around healing people. But their business was to share
the gospel. God's Commission was to take the
gospel to the ends of the earth. So these miracles were.
God-given opportunities for the apostles to do that to an
engaged audience. So how can we take the
opportunity in the same way to share the gospel?
How can we take the opportunity, what God has done to tell others
about him? Tell your story.
Maybe you've had an amazing story of turning from a drug
addict to a Christian and hand delivery and that maybe you've
grown up in a Christian family and just day by day slowly
realise the truth of who God is. Either way, a.
Miracle has. Happened in your life.
So tell your story. Share your story and use it as
an opportunity to tell others about Jesus.
Maybe you have received an experience in miraculous healing
or something miraculous in your life that you contribute to
Jesus. Tell people about it.
Don't be ashamed. People will be like what are you
on about? But use it as an opportunity to
tell them about the Jesus who you believe in, who can work
miracles. Live a distinctive.
Christian Life. Of loving.
Others and loving God. When someone says why, you can
turn about the Jesus who worked a miracle in your life.
And finally do. What Peter said, repent and
believe end of your sins and turn to God.
Sometimes we think where. Where do I fit into this story?
Who do I relate with most? And I'm kind of tend to think,
well, I'm like Peter and John. I can go around like healing
people, telling people about Jesus.
I mean, we should be praying in Jesus name and telling people
about Jesus, but we're probably more like the beggar in our own
sense because each of us are spiritually disabled.
In fact, the Bible says we're spiritually dead in ourselves.
And our greatest need? Is an encounter with Jesus.
Jesus is the Holy. One the righteous, one the
Author of life. Here's the way to forgiveness,
to blessing, to refreshment. Here's the way to.
Enjoy the restoration of all things that God will one day
bring. Time is now.
Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, that He may
send the Messiah who has been appointed to you.
Let's pray. We praise you, Jesus, the holy
and righteous 1. You have the name above.
All other names, you are the author of life itself, yet you
were killed taking the punishment for our sins.
We praise you for. That and we praise you, that
death couldn't hold you because you rose again, because you live
forever. You're at the right hand of the
Father. Please help us to trust in your
name all that we need, please. Give us boldness to.
Share what you have done in our lives that others would have an
encounter with you, please. Help us to turn.
From our sins and to turn to you until the day when you return
and restore all things in. Your powerful name.
We pray. Amen.