I’m sorry. Y’all may have to be a little bit more patient with me today. It’s been a long, rough week plus we have had a lot of prayer requests this morning plus I’ll admit to still getting just a little bit nervous every Sunday morning and it’s all just kind of hitting me this morning. I hope it’s ok but when I get stressed out I like to eat just a little piece of chocolate. I hope that will be alright.
I’ll tell you what. I’m not going to. I will be a little more professional and just get going. No chocolate for me this morning. So, turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 3. This is a beautiful passage of scripture for us this morning. (Pull out a cigarette and lighter as I speak and start to light up)
Now this won’t be a problem, will it? I mean it just helps me to relax and kinda take the edge off. You can just close your eyes and listen if seeing me smoke bothers you. I really need it because of the calming effect. Does it really bother you? Ok, I won’t do that then. No chocolate and no Pall Mall for me this morning. I’ll just make it through on my own. I’m sorry. I’m just really stressed out but let’s continue.
Back to Acts 3. This is the story of the beggar who was taken to the gate to beg and on this day Peter and John meet him and change his whole life. Now is everybody there in Acts 3? While the remainder of you turns there, I just need a quick drink. (Pull out beer bottle and start to take a swig – don’t worry, it’s washed out and filled with water) I’m sorry but this will just really help to calm my nerves. Is that so wrong?
I just feel like I need a little help this morning. I’m stressed and nervous and I’ve had a rough week and I know that this will help to relax me. People do it all the time, right? Why is it crazy for me to do it? Maybe I need a vacation but right now I just need some help getting through this so get off my back! J
Ok, if I can’t eat chocolate, have a smoke or drink a beer, then what can I do? I mean, I understand that those things will help; at least they do for some people at least for a minute or two. Now the Bible says in Psalm 3:5-6says to “trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” If I need help I probably should do as David did in Psalm 34:4where he says, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears”
See, the world says to just do what you can to take the edge off. Self-medicate until life is just a little bit easier. But God doesn’t want to just take the edge off. He wants to deliver you from all your fears. He wants to heal you. He wants to renew your mind not just change it up a little bit. He wants to make you a new creation, not a creation whose mind has been numbed so that the hurt doesn’t hurt quite as bad. Hear me now. God loves you so much He wants to give you immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within you! (Eph. 3:20)
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right to man, but in the end it leads to death.” The thing about that way is that it seems right. I looks like it would work. It looks like it would help. People say it does. But most of us have been doing this long enough to know that when you take your focus off of Jesus then the best you can hope for is second best. The best you are ever going to get is a little better…for a little while…hopefully. And maybe not. Maybe you don’t even get that.
Two thousand-something years ago in Jerusalem, there was a crippled man who was laid at the gate of the temple everyday to beg for money. And he did that because it made sense to him. I would imagine it never occurred to him to ask for anything else. It never crossed his mind to ask anybody for healing. Money was all he knew to count on.
Now, I want you to picture this scene, if you will. This man was around 40 years old and he had never been able to walk a day in his life and so some very good friends would carry him to a place where he could beg for money. When it says that they brought him to the gate of the temple, my mind thinks of a chain-link fence with a gate or maybe a retaining wall of some kind but this gate was the “Beautiful” gate.
The historian Josephus writes that this gate to the temple was overlaid with Corinthian bronze, and far exceeded in value those plated with silver and set in gold. And this was just where the lame man wanted to be. He wanted to be where the money was and he wanted to be where the pious people where; or at least where the pious-acting people where.
So, when Peter and John went to the temple that day, I have an idea that the man saw them coming and maybe he held out a cup or a container of some kind. Maybe he had a sign asking for help. I don’t know. But it was obvious that the man was crippled and everybody knew why he was there. But on this day, he had no idea that his life was about to be to be changed and that for thousands of years people would tell this story.
Acts 3:1-10 tell the story of how he asked the apostles Peter and John for money. Like most of us, they didn’t carry much cash but knew right away that they had something better for this man than money. It says they looked him in the eye and just told him to stand up and walk. And that is just what he did. Can you imagine? Bones and muscles that had never had the man’s weight on them before are suddenly able to carry the man and even allow him to jump.
And I don’t know about you but if I am this guy and this happens to me, I’m gonna cause a scene. And that’s what this man does. He hollers and jumps around and pretty soon everybody is starting to gather around wondering how this happened; how the lame man they have seen sitting there for years is now able to walk. And that’s where I want to start reading this morning.
Let’s read Acts 3:11-16. While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 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.14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
We continue with the second part of our series entitled “The 3:16’s” as we look at 7 different books of the New Testament and their third chapter and 16th verse. Last week we looked at the most famous 3:16, that of John’s Gospel, of course. And I told somebody this past week that after preaching on that verse, which I had never done before, I realized why it was the most popular and greatest verse in the Bible…until I started studying Acts 3:16, which, I believe, gives John a run for his money.
It may never get quoted as often but it is a powerful and beautiful verse full of information and motivation so let’s unpack this thing. Let’s start by reading just the 16thverse one more time real slowly, soaking it all in. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
Now, we saw last week how Jesus talked to Nicodemus when Nic came to see Him one night. Jesus told Nic that Nic had a problem - he couldn’t get to Heaven. Jesus then told him what the solution to that problem was - Jesus Himself. And then Jesus told him what his life would be like afterward – he would have eternal life. Jesus wanted Nic’s focus to be on Him and we saw through that conversation that a focus on Jesus will change the church and a Jesus-focused church will change the world. And we see it again here plainly in Acts 3:16 and supporting verses.
A quick read of this passage and it’s obvious that the crippled man has a problem but I don’t think that is the problem that is to be focused on here. In fact, I believe this incident has very little to do with the crippled man. I believe that the problem is had by the people that are standing there witnessing was has happened to the crippled man and Peter recognizes it immediately.
Read verse 12 again. When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” See, that’s the problem. And it’s a bad problem; a problem that everybody has at one time or another and it is far worse than not being able to walk. The problem is believing that man is the solution.
When I grew up and finally moved out of my parents’ house, at age 7 J, I hit that steep learning curve that most young people hit. I found out pretty quick that when something broke or wore out or ran out that I didn’t have the money to just go get another one. I either did without or I fixed the old one.
I remember one time my microwave quit working so I tore it all apart and saw that it just had a loose wire and so I fixed it. And I was pretty proud of myself. Another time a gate fell apart and I shimmed up the hinge just right to make it work like new again. And I was pretty proud of myself. And I had a ’67 Mustang at the time and it always needed work and so when the carburetor messed up I just took it all apart. Bad mistake. I had parts everywhere. And I had to swallow my pride and ask for help.
And how many times do we all do that every day? When a relationship goes bad, “I can fix that.” When we lose a job, get a bad report from the doctor or lose a friend, we just decide to knuckle down, buckle down and do it, do it, do it. We resolve to try harder until we just burn out and then we give up. How much harder could the beggar at the gate have begged before he was healed?
How much louder could he have cried out? How much bigger could his sign have been before his legs got healed? It’s a ridiculous question. It would never work. And yet that’s what we do all the time. We try harder when God says to just be still and know that I am God. David said, “I sought the Lord and He delivered me!” Our problem is believing that we are the answer.
I heard a lady say the other day that she liked a certain church because they motivated her to try harder. What a shame that her church doesn’t read 1 Peter 5:7 to her instead. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” James 1:17says that we get perfect gifts from God. And James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Do you realize that nowhere does Jesus ever tell somebody to just try harder? And to do so is an insult to Him. Our problem is that we think that we are the answer.
Peter and John didn’t try harder and that is why the first thing they did was to put the focus on Jesus. They pointed out the problem and then they revealed the solution. And what was the solution? Verse 16 says it is faith in the name of Jesus. The great old preacher Billy Sunday once said, “There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.”
If there really is just something about that name, as the song says, then that something, for us, is faith. Martin Luther said, “God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.” Read it again.
George Muller said, “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.” Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. “
The crippled man in Acts 3 was rewarded because of faith and it wasn’t even his faith. It was the faith of Peter and John that healed the man. And that leads us to the last point. We have seen the problem. We believe that we are the answer to the problem and that is the problem. We see that the real solution to the problem is faith in the Lord. And now we see what the result is. We see that the result of faith is as verse 16 says,“complete healing”.
Ooh! Pastor Todd is going all “health and wealth”on us now! Stand back. No, but I will tell you this from the Spokesman Review several years ago. A study conducted by sociologists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., found that 4 percent of those who regularly went to church reported poor health, compared with 9 percent of those who did not attend a house of worship. And 36 percent of weekly worshippers reported they were in excellent health, compared with 26 percent of non-attenders.
So, what does that tell us? I think it tells us absolutely nothing. In fact, I don’t put any stock in it whatsoever. Listen, when we think of that crippled man now in Heaven, we like to think that he is up there still running and jumping, celebrating and making up for all those years he was lame. But I would have to disagree. I believe with all my heart that man is up there on his knees before Jesus saying, “Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for my complete healing. Sure that physical healing was nice on earth but honestly, I can barely remember all that. But I have eternal life and eternal peace with a perfect body and I now have experienced complete healing. Thank you, Jesus!”
We pray so often for physical healing and we should. I have no doubt at all that Jesus still heals, that He can and that He will but I still go back to those 3 young men in the book of Daniel who bravely and rightfully said ”…but even if He doesn’t, still I will praise Him!” Why were they able to say that? Because they knew that this life is but a vapor, a wisp of smoke and then it’s over but we have the promise of complete and everlasting healing through faith in Jesus.
Physical healing here on earth is great and wonderful and often given by a merciful and gracious God but all that is is taking the edge off of life. All that means is that the hurt and pain are put off a little while, only to come back and sooner or later, it will overtake us. But God is concerned with so much more. He wants to give us so much more. He doesn’t just want to make it a little better for a little while. He wants to give complete and eternal healing.
Joni Eareckson Tada has been in a wheelchair since 1967 when she dove into the Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. Somebody said to her that they bet she will be glad to get to Heaven to be out of that wheelchair. She replied something to the effect that she will be glad to get to Heaven so she can be free of this flesh.
It’s not the partial healing that she is looking forward to the most. She is anxious to be rid of the old person inside of her; the old man, the old flesh that brings her so much pain. Maybe some of you can relate to that. You don’t have to be paralyzed to crave the freedom of complete healing. You have tried to be a good person. You have tried to do what is right. But you always fail. And so you try harder and harder until you just burn out.
Well, your real problem is believing that you are the solution when the solution is just Jesus and faith in Him. And when your focus is on Jesus you can experience complete healing. That’s what we all need. That’s why a focus on Jesus will change this church and a Jesus-focused church will change this world. So quit trying and focus on Him.
Majesty - 215
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