You have to run to our new covenant minds. Having the completed New Testament, worshiping in the 21st century as we are. Where really the church is established and her ministry is established, we have the canon completed. Some of these verses can seem kind of strange and foreign to us.
It's kind of odd to hear that Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. We know that the temple of God cannot be necessary any longer as the place where the Lord dwells nor the place of offering and sacrifice. The temple would be destroyed and 70 AD as Jesus claimed it would be. The curtain that separated the holy of holies from the outer chambers of the temple were poured into Christ's crucifixion and we may ask the apostles what do the apostles have to do with the temple.
There are a couple of suggestions. First of which the apostles were going to the temple to preach Christ and to see Jewish men in one of the day repent and believe and be baptized. Some may argue that this was an evangelism strategy. We see that Peter will preach a sermon here.
Others note the continuity of the growing and budding Christian community as it would have yet been distinct and separate. This means that Peter and John are on their way to do what pious Jews would do. Not that the prayers must be offered or prayed for the temple or that they attended the temple in order to pray. There is something special about the prayers offered in the temple.
In order to assume that because they pray in the temple that they too would partake in the sacrifices of the temple, I think what's happening here is that the apostles are simply doing what Luke records them in the previous chapter. Luke gives us a glimpse into the early life of the church from that 30,000 foot view from an airplane and here he presently magnifies it in the life of the apostles. Luke say previously but day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with gladness and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord adds to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Luke goes on to further give an example of what life looked like in the early church. I think this is important because we need to understand what's about to take place in light of what Peter and John were going to do and that's worship to pray to seek the Lord. And when we understand that worship is the backdrop of this passage literally the temple, I think it helps us to understand here what is taking place. What I want to drive home here at this point is continuity.
At the early church was not so distinct from their Jewish community or as one commentator notes they truly consider themselves Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, Jewish, Jesus. They saw the Christian faith as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and so the book of Acts among other things chronicles were not only the continuity of the covenants but it also reveals to us the growing pains and of expansion. That is the good news of Jesus Christ will go from Jerusalem to Judea to Sumeria to the end of the earth. These new covenant realities will more and more distinguish itself from really the old.
And so the chronicles life is usually early church but in our text this evening we see the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. We see the miraculous. For a man born lame walks in the name Christ. And so first what I want you to note from this passage is the power of the apostles healing.
The power of the apostles healing. For as they approach the temple through the beautiful gate, Luke records that they come across a man who is unable to walk and who is lame. And so as we consider this first point let's first take a look at the man. It's interesting to have Luke write this.
He himself was a physician and he makes a particular point about this man. The man lame from birth was being carried whom they laid at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. He was lame from birth and Luke based mention of this to help at least underscore the point that this man's physical disability was severe. It was from birth.
Perpetual in fact it was known. We see. And presumably this man would have been known by the people whose highest Jews would pass by him on the way to their daily prayers. He was put there every day by those who would carry him, probably family and friends.
They said him along the path where Jewish worshipers would pass on their way to the temple to pray to do the very thing that Peter and John are presumably going to go to themselves. And so Luke provides for us this interaction between Peter and this man. Seeing Peter and John about to go to the temple he asked to receive alms, to receive something to help him, receive maybe food or maybe some sort of monetary value. And Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said look at us.
And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said I have no silver and gold what I do have I give to you. And the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Now we talked about how the office of the apostle is limited.
That as the Lord was establishing his church as his word would be established and as it would go forth he would continue to corroborate the validity of the message with miracles and with signs which were entrusted to the apostles. It's similar to Jesus' own ministry whose healing and miracles not only underscored his power and authority to restore the soul but to corroborate what he said out himself was true. He is who he says he is. I wonder if you've ever had to prove that you're not a robot online.
You've had to click the pictures, the bicycles or the stoplights or the crosswalks or the motorcycles. You've had to prove that you are in fact a human being and I'm not sure exactly how it works but in some ways they believe us. And so here what Jesus is doing is he is showing forth himself, he is proving himself as being God and all that he says about him is true. And so the apostles are coming not to point to themselves but to point to Christ in his name they come and they do miraculous and mighty things.
So the apostles have been granted a message that Christ indeed has calmed that God himself has lived among them and has died and been raised again and ascended to glory. They have corroboration for their message. For Jesus was crucified for the Atonement of Sin. Jesus was raised again from the dead and he ascended into heaven and is so present in power by the Spirit in them and among them that all this adorns the message of the gospel.
It corroborates it. And what's interesting here is Peter and John call for the attention of the beggar. Look at us they say, look at us. And this isn't making some sort of comment about the necessity of eye contact for a miracle but a matter of making sure they have his attention.
It's not about what they see but it's about what they say or specifically the name they invoke. You see Peter and John do not have the power in and of themselves to heal this man but they know very well the one who does. And so he commands this man to get up and to walk in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's telling that Peter refers to the Lord is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a title which holy gets at the humanity and divinity of Jesus but the power isn't in the apostle.
They stand as witnesses and have been granted authority to point this man to the one who saves and who heals and redeems. You know our world is filled with folks who claim such a power in Christ. They make twirl their suit jackets. It might hit you with it in order to attempt to heal you.
Then they place their hands on your head and loudly invoke the name of Christ. They may peddle anointing oil or holy water. They may even tell you to name it in claiming. The church they wrongly understand was happening here in the back.
We should expect the Lord to work in the same way as he did when he was establishing his church. Granting the apostles this special disposition that the word would be established and they miss the end of the miraculous. It isn't only that the individual might be healed but that the gospel message would go forth. And yet as one commentator puts it, God may choose to do something extraordinary at any time.
And I want you to be reminded of the way in which the Lord instructs you and I to invoke his name. The means through which so often regularly we seek the Lord and he brings about the miraculous. We do it very often. In fact, we've done it this evening.
John records Jesus' words in his gospel and this is what he says. He says, whatever you ask in my name, that will I do. So that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
You see, we don't read this passage and think that the miraculous is no longer with us. That's not the point of this passage. While this unique apostolic gift of healing or this miraculous sign is no longer with us and the way we see it here, it's a foundational gift. We still invoke the name of Christ when we pray and when we pray in his name.
This is what leads James, the brother of Jesus, to write, is anyone among you suffering but in prayer? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. And the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. There's a lot in those verses more than we have time to impact this evening.
But we can at least see that James tells us that God works on behalf of the prayers of the people. And while we don't take someone by the hand in the name of Christ and tell them to get up and walk, love what do we do? We pray for them. And as the Lord works, whether by the healing of the body or the drawing near the heart or by the provision of Jesus, it's no less miraculous because it is Christ who is at work.
And so what is the power of our prayer but that it's the Lord's name in whom we pray? It's the Lord whom we seek to work and seek to intercede. That the Father hears our prayers as they are mediated by the Son and so born in us by the power of the Spirit even as those prayers are born in us, those things that are too deep for the growing words. And so our confidence in the power of prayer is that God acts and does far more abundantly than we can ask for think for the sake of Christ and for the glory of his name.
And so we pray in the Lord's name. What is the power of the apostles' healing with Christ himself and doing so in his name? Secondly, we don't want you to see this evening is the wonder of the apostles' healing, the wonder of the apostles' healing. And yet we need to consider that this man was healed.
In fact, he was healed. This is important for two reasons. And I think they both are to make our jaws drop a little bit of this account. Perhaps we are too used to reading of these wonders and signs and the scriptures.
First it wasn't this man was hobbling along or that he had just merely a bad day and he needed some help. But we understand that this man was utterly helpless. He had literally never walked in his entire life and was completely and totally dependent on the aid of others. You see, this ailment wasn't the result of a surgery and recovery to follow.
It wasn't as if he had a knee or a hip replaced, but more likely his bones weren't misaligned or they didn't connect as they should or his muscles were acrophy to the point of being so weak that he couldn't even bear his own weight. Maybe there was some sort of paralysis or nerve damage or disfigurement. But the point here is this is this man didn't just need encouragement. He didn't just need a pat on the back and you can do it.
He didn't just need a physical therapist to help him push through the pain or as my dad would call them physical terrorists. But he needed something more. Secondly, we need to see here that this gives us a unique perspective of Psalm 139. What is Psalms right?
But you formed my inward parts. You needed me together, my mother's womb. My praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows it very well. And we can speculate on whether this man just beggar knew this psalm or not. But it confronts our own understanding and making sense of the world around us. Was this man fearfully and wonderfully made?
Did his soul know that the works of the Lord are wonderful? We may wonder at or even ourselves know intimately maybe affliction or someone who knows disability in some way, shape or form. How do we square God's sovereign creating power with birth effect and disability, especially in such a life altering way? He may recall the interchange between Jesus and his disciples when they saw an unborn blind from birth and they asked Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned?
This man or his parents said he was blind. And do you remember his response? It was not that this man sinned or his parents without the works of God might be displayed in him. But the Lord would be exalted and glorified even through this man's disability.
And I want you to see what's happening here because I think something similar is happening here in the book of Acts. Jesus goes on to say as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And it's no wonder that this man is blind and Jesus provides for him the light of the world. Not only that he can see the world, but he would see Christ and his need for him.
In fact, you would see the one through whom the world was made. And so this man who was lame is healed. And it's likely this man had never been to the temple. He had never offered sacrifice himself or prayed with God's people.
And we see the effect here, don't we? He entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. This man has been healed so that he would walk into the temple and worship and praise in Christ. That others might see the Lord in him.
Our jaws drop at the extent of his need and wonder of his walking. Yet I still wonder if this doesn't leave us somewhat unfulfilled, or if it isn't something like half answer for us. For we see the work of Christ here, but do we see the work of Christ today? Right, we just made mention of Christ being glorified in the midst of healing, the man-born blind, this man-born lame.
But what about when seemingly the Lord does not heal? You would see that this text chronicles for us a pretty rare occasion, right? Not the norm. Maybe you know the name Johnny Erickson Tada.
She suffered a diving accident as a teenager which left her paralyzed from the neck down. Her spirit broke in angry at God. She had considered ending her own life. And yet the Lord was kind to her.
She had converted through the ministry of Arcy Skroll and Ligonier, many of those folks who had heard the gospel preach through radio ministry. But she says this about her disability and her paralysis. She says, he God has chosen not to heal me but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer his embrace.
She says elsewhere, my weakness, that is my quadrupalegia, is my greatest asset because it forces me into the arms of Christ every single morning when I get up. Now, Church Far B, to present Johnny Erickson Tada as a token voice of disability in the reformed world. But I want you to hear her own testimony of the glory of God in a situation in life that you and I would never want to face. The fact is, for the large majority of folks suffering with disability in other ailments, they won't know the healing of the body like what is recorded here in Acts 3, some will, and some miraculously perhaps you have known the miraculous healing in your own life.
But yet we ask this question, where is the glory of Christ in all this? Well, Johnny Erickson Tada and Peter and John are telling us that we're looking in the wrong place whenever we think that the healing of our body is the end of all this. You see, Christ's glory is not bound by our physical healing or our circumstances or our situations, but Christ's glory is with and in Christ himself. It is only magnified and adorned in the midst of a blessing.
And so there's a base assumption in the question like this, how is God glorious when there is suffering? How is God glorified when there is suffering? That is not less because there's suffering, but God is more in the midst of our suffering. And so it's no wonder that all of this was granted Christ and that He is ours.
And lastly, we want to see from this passage is the purpose of the Apostles' healing, the purpose of the Apostles' healing. So far, we've considered this man being healed and the power behind the healing, but for what purpose? And it's here we need to understand something about how the Scripture, especially the New Testament, put forward various healings. For simply, every time we see that Jesus or one of the Apostles' heal of physical ailment, we should always see behind the spiritual reality.
It's never just about a man being born blind or a blind man seeing or a lame man walking or a deaf man hearing. It's not our spiritual need for our hearts to be healed from our sin to be restored, that we might do the power of regeneration and being born again long after Christ and worship Him accordingly. And so take this man who was unable to walk and begging at the entrance to the temple. He was literally unable to walk without being carried and capable of doing so, we would say.
And it's this state of the lame beggar that we actually find ourselves. One commentator knows that in some ways these words must have sounded offensive, right rising and walking were precisely the things this man could not do. Can you imagine the offense of walking up to someone bound to a wheelchair and telling them to get up and walk with you? They're going to run or they're going to jog.
They'd at least think you were crazy. And yet we think of the gospel message when we think of the commands of Christ to go and send no more or to repent and believe. And the Bible tells us that we are like the lame beggar apart from Christ. We are dead and our trespasses and sins and capable of coming to Him.
It's no easier for a man to come to Christ than for the lame man to walk of his own accord. You see what we have in common is we both need Jesus to bid us come. In fact we see here these final verses is the end of this healing, the purpose. And we're going to rehash this and come back this passage some next time.
But Peter having begun his sermon at Solomon's portico as everyone has gathered in awe and wonder at this man who has well known to have been born in Envelope and he says in his name Jesus by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know in the faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And I want you to see that we only live in and for Christ through faith. Right apart from Christ we're granted to us through faith. We are dead and our trespasses and sin.
And one come Peter says it this way. Faith in the name of Jesus calls forth a response from the beggar who extends his right hand to Peter and realizes his feet and ankles are strong with this evidence which everyone in the audience can see. Peter is now at the point of asking Jews to put their faith in Jesus. It was my faith that this beggar was healed and this means more than restored ankles and bones and muscles.
That means a restored heart. And yet it's not merely an invocation of Jesus's name like a like a magic spell that heals this man. You see Peter roots the faith of this man in Christ and his finished work or to summarize what he says and preaches here at the beginning of this sermon. He says the God of your fathers sent his servant who you murdered.
He died and God raised him again from the dead. He was raised again in the resurrection. And so Peter links the faith of this man to the work of Christ, his death, and his resurrection. And it's Jesus that Peter offers this man.
It's Jesus that Peter offers to those gathered at the temple. And it's Jesus that he offers to you and to me the one who is living. That's what is here. The temporary healing of the veterans seen in the eternal reality of salvation.
For you know this man who is now walking will one day die and these new legs and feet and muscles are nothing compared to a new body that awaits the believer in the new heavens the new earth. One that will not waste the way one that will not no corruption but one that will like this man leap and jump and celebrate the glory of Christ forever. You see this is the hope we have. This is the hope for someone like Johnny Erickson Hatta.
This is the hope for all suffering with ailments and disabilities and sickness. Not that we will certainly no relief this side of glory but we will know Christ. We will know the promise of future restoration. We will know the future promise of health.
We will know this comfort of being with Christ for eternity and with him forever. And this running and jumping of the temple this response of joy to the beggar displays but points us to that eternal joy that we will know even today through our last Emily. By the way Johnny Erickson Hatta puts it. She says the first thing I plan to do on a resurrected legs is to drop on grateful and glorified knees.
You may be here this evening with full faculties of your mind despite what your spouse may say. You may have full sense in the full use of your arms and legs. You may be able to see decently with glasses and maybe hear okay if I raise my voice a little bit. But I want you to hear this truth is for you as well.
For God doesn't merely heal us and restore us this side of glory. But Peter points us to the hope of the gospel that he will that through Christ and his work the spirits work in us that he will bring us from death to life. And its faith born in us by the spirit that leaves us down to believe upon him and all these promised. I want to follow him as he has commanded us.
But that would root us in such a sure and certain hope in Christ forever. This is the light that God works and that he heals the layman and he restores the center's heart. Let's pray.