Most of us can’t remember our first steps. Normally they happen when we’re very wee, the next stage of our development. Maybe these days they are captured on a phone camera, to be kept for posterity. But we don’t remember them ourselves. This morning, though, we get to hear about a man who definitely remembered his first steps. You see, Acts 4 tells us that he was over forty years old (4:22). And his first steps involved more than an uncertain stumble - he was walking and jumping from the start.
As Luke writes about the church’s beginnings, he tells us the story of this man, who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate. And in Acts 3 we hear of a Beautiful Miracle, pointing to the Beautiful Saviour, who promises a Beautiful Future. If you’ve closed your Bible, you’ll find the passage on p. 1094 of the pew Bibles.
Last week we heard of how ‘many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.’ (2:43) And perhaps those wonders got you wondering as to what they were. Well here, in Acts 3, verses 1-10, we see a Beautiful Miracle. Peter and John are going up to the temple at the time of prayer. Every day there were set times of prayer, and one of them was at 3pm. And as they make their way up into the temple, another man is on his way there. He’s not walking though - he is being carried, because he was ‘crippled from birth’ (2). Every day he was brought to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he would beg.
The man sees Peter and John, and ‘asked them for money.’ (3) He was hoping to get a coin or two from them. And his hopes are raised even higher when Peter and John look straight at him and tell him to ‘Look at us!’ (4).
I’m sure his hopes were dashed though, at the next words out of Peter’s mouth: ‘Silver or gold I do not have...’ (6) He’s sitting begging, he’s expecting money, and this pair say they’ve no money? But it turns out that Peter and John have something even better than money. And they’re going to give it to him. What could it be? What is better than money?
‘“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.’ (6-8)
His initial disappointment at not getting money was immediately forgotten, because he had received something far better. Healing. The ability to walk and leap. And when did it happen? ‘Instantly.’ (7) It wasn’t after months of intensive physio. It was straight away. A miracle. A beautiful miracle.
A miracle that was instantly recognisable. I wonder if you’ve heard of a condition called prosopagnosia? It’s an inability to recognise faces. So if you see someone you know, you may not recognise them; or if you see someone out of context, you might not know them. Well, the people in verse 9 weren’t suffering from prosopagnosia. ‘When all the people say him walking and praising God, they recognised 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.’ (9-10)
It was a Beautiful Miracle at the Beautiful gate, as this forty-year old took his very first steps. But how did it happen? That was the question the crowd were wondering about this wonder. And as the crowd gather, with people running up to Peter and John and the beggar, Peter begins to speak. This Beautiful Miracle points to the Beautiful Saviour. (10-16)
As Peter begins to speak, notice that he first of all deflects attention from himself and John. It’s not that Peter and John are great people: ‘Men of Israel, 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?’ (12) Don’t look at us - we’re nothing! Rather, look to Jesus!
‘The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.’ (13)
Jesus has been glorified, raised and exalted by God the Father. But that’s not how the people of Jerusalem would have thought of him. Look at the next three sentences. They all start with the same word. ‘You.’ What had they done with Jesus?
‘You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate... You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.’ (13-15)
Do you see how Jesus is described on those verses? He’s God’s servant. He is the Holy and Righteous One. He is the author of life. And yet they handed him over; disowned him; killed him. They didn’t think much of him. They wanted rid of him. But God thought much of him - so much, that ‘God raised him from the dead.’ (15) Peter and John are witnesses of this. And so Jesus is the Beautiful Saviour, the one who has won the victory over death. And he brings life into being.
That’s what happened with the beggar: ‘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 given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.’ (16) The man’s faith was in Jesus - and was demonstrated when he stood up and began walking and leaping and praising God. Jesus is the Beautiful Saviour, who promises a Beautiful Future.
Do you see how Peter seeks to bring them with him in verses 17-18? ‘I know that you acted in ignorance...’ You didn’t realise what you were doing. And it was in this way that God fulfilled what he had said in advance through the prophets, that the Christ would suffer. But even so, that’s no excuse! And so he calls on them to, v19, ‘Repent, then, and turn to God...’
You’ve heard me say before that repentance is an about turn, to change direction, to turn from sin and turn to God. That’s what Peter calls on them to do. But do you see why he calls on them to do it? It’s so that they will have a Beautiful Future, brought about by the Beautiful Saviour:
‘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.’ (19-20).
Three distinct, but connected ways in which a beautiful future is guaranteed when we turn to the Lord Jesus. Are you sharing in this beautiful future?
One - ‘so that your sins may be wiped out.’ Imagine all your sins written up on a blackboard or a whiteboard. Then they’re wiped away. Dealt with. Forgotten. Sorted. And if the very sin of putting Jesus to death could be wiped out, then all of your sins, even the very worst of them, can also be wiped out. Sometimes, this is what we focus on, but there’s even more involved in our beautiful future:
Two - ‘that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.’ Think back to some of those hot weather days we’ve had recently. You get so hot that you need a nice cooling drink, or an ice cream, something to refresh you. This is what God does for his people, refreshing us, blessing us, when we turn from being his enemies and live under his rule and blessing. And yet, there’s even more involved in our beautiful future:
Three - ‘that he may send the Christ.’ The full climax of our beautiful future is the return of the Lord Jesus, when we will see him face to face, and be welcomed into his eternal kingdom. Sometimes, when people talk about what they think heaven will be like, there’s a lot about what they would like - fishing or golfing or travelling or whatever it might be. But they forget the central feature of our beautiful future - our beautiful Saviour himself.
But you might be thinking - where is he? Why’s he not come back already? Peter tells us in verse 21: ‘He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.’
In our beautiful future brought about by our beautiful Saviour, everything will be restored. Or, in the words of Lord of the Rings, ‘everything sad will come untrue.’ The healing of the beggar is a sign of that restoration, that putting right everything that is wrong. And this is what lies ahead, when Jesus returns. Just think - the restoration of your body; of relationships; of the universe. A beautiful future.
And it can be ours, if we will listen to Jesus, and trust him. That’s what Peter’s driving at in the closing verses. He goes to the Scriptures to show how Jesus had been promised by Moses, and all the prophets from Samuel on. And he reminds them of God’s promise to Abraham how ‘through your offspring all people on earth will be blessed.’ (25). This blessing is for everyone, and anyone, who will trust Jesus and listen to him. These Jews in Jerusalem were the first to hear of the blessing, but it’s for everyone - as Jesus had sent out the apostles: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
As we close, let’s focus in on those words of Moses in verse 22: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from 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.’
Will we listen to Jesus, and put our faith in him? To fail to listen to him, or to listen and not put his words into practice, is to build on sand. But to listen to him, and do what he says, is to build on solid rock; to stand in the storms of life; and to have this glorious future with Jesus our Saviour.
The crippled beggar would never forget his first steps, recorded for us here in Acts 3. Perhaps today is the day when you take your first step of faith, as you trust Jesus. This beautiful miracle points to the beautiful Saviour who promises a beautiful future. May that future be our future today, through Jesus, our beautiful Saviour. Amen.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 7th July 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment