SERMON FROM CORNERSTONE BAPTIST CHURCH
CHERRY LOG, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Acts 3:1-26

We all know the expression that people use when they feel down and out – “We are trying to get on our feet again.” This means that finances are out of shape, relationships are not good, or circumstances are against us. Usually it takes a period of time and help outside of ourselves for us to recover and get on our feet again. Sometimes it takes a miracle that only God can perform. Today, we are going to look at two miracles that put people on their feet.
I. A PHYSICAL CRIPPLE GETS ON HIS FEET (vv.1-10) “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.” This was a miracle of faith in the name of Jesus. It was 3:00 pm in Jerusalem. Peter and John were entering the Temple gate called “Beautiful” with its doors of Corinthian bronze for the hour of prayer. This was one of two times during the day when sacrifices were offered on the brazen altar. The lambs were slain and prayer was offered for the sins of the people. At this ornate site sat a pathetic figure. He was a man that had been lame from his birth. He had never walked a step in his life. His life was reduced to begging for mercy and money from the people going to prayer. He had given up hope of life ever being any different for him for he was over forty years old.

When the lame man saw Peter and John he cried out to them for help. Peter, rather than seeing him as a pathetic failure of a man, saw him as a person in whom the power of God could be displayed. He said to the man, “Look at us.” This got his attention and he expected to get something from them. “Silver and gold I do not have, but I will give you what I do have – a belief that you can be healed of lameness and that you can walk this moment. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth – walk!” Peter helps the man up and God does the cure and sent strength into his legs and feet. The miracle was immediate and the man walked and jumped and praised God for his healing.

It is said that Thomas Aquinas once visited the pope when money was being counted and the pope boasted, “We need no longer to say with Peter, ‘Silver and Gold I do not have,’” Aquinas replied, “neither can you say with Peter, ‘Rise up and walk!”

When the people saw the man that they were accustomed to seeing begging at the gate walking and praising God in the Temple courts they gathered around to see what had happened to him. They were filled with wonder and amazement. This provided Peter an opportunity to explain the miracle. The crowd gathered at Solomon’s Colonnade. With the beggar standing beside Peter and John, Peter said, “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? 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 One 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’ 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 you 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 he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” (3:11-21).

The gathering of this crowd gave Peter a unique opportunity to preach the gospel. I had such an opportunity one time in China. We had ridden the train from Shanghai to Nanjing and went to see the University of Nanjing. As we were walking across the campus, the students who were eager to Americans gathered around us and soon there was a large crowd. A young man opened his briefcase and took out a Bible and said, “I have just checked this out of the library. Can you explain it to me?” I thought “What an awesome opportunity!” So I began with Genesis and told the story of Creation, and then on to the forming of the nation of Israel through whom God would provide a Savior, then the life of Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, the forming of the church, and finally the end times in Revelation. I said that God loved them, Jesus died for them and could give them a peace in their hearts and power for their lives. Then, the young man said, “I wish that all the students at the University could have heard this – I think that many would become Christians.” At that point they had to go to class and we had to leave and I have often wondered if any of them really did become believers.

Do miracles of instant healing happen today? When it fits the purpose of God to advance the Kingdom and glorify his name I believe that miracles happen today. Especially, in places where the Gospel is not known such as in the Islamic countries we are hearing of signs and wonders being done and the supernatural appearances of Jesus to individuals who become proclaimers of the good news. These people become believers at a great cost and danger to themselves.

Perhaps you need a miracle to get on your feet in your life situation. Is this possible? Yes. Trust in the power of the name of Jesus for what you need and he can get you on your feet!

II. SPIRITUAL CRIPPLES GET ON THEIR FEET. (4:1-21) “But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”

You can be religious and powerless, religious and lost, religious and empty, religious and hopeless. It is amazing how many people hang on to a religion that does nothing for them. Muslims do not know of how God loves them. They do not see that side of God. Many church members are the same way. They hear the attributes of God proclaimed, but do not know these love graces experientially.

The blindness of the Jewish people to Messiah is hard for us Christians to understand. But many Jewish people are being completed in their faith by recognizing that Jesus is the Christ predicted by the prophets. Many who heard Peter preach that Jesus was the Christ believed and were no longer spiritual cripples.

Our concern today is for the spiritual cripples in our churches. We act like beggars not knowing what is really possible in the Christian life. We live in our own strength rather than being energized by the Holy Spirit within us. We should be walking in the faith rather than crawling in our weakness. We need to stop being spiritual cripples and get up and walk and run and leap in our faith.

Peter was crippled for a while. He was crushed when he saw Jesus being led away by the Temple guards for trial. He wilted within and was threatened when a young girl said to him, “You are one of his disciples.” Peter found himself denying that he even knew Jesus three different times. But after the resurrection Jesus met him by the Sea of Galilee and lifted him up on his feet again.

It may be that you have been spiritually crippled by some life event and you can’t seem to get on your feet again. Perhaps that you are so devastated by what has happened to you that what you need more than anything else to experience what Peter did. Jesus said to him, Peter, do you love me?” The question was asked three times. This pointed out to Peter that Jesus wanted to restore him and get him on his feet again. The path to restoration was in the renewal of the personal relationship to Jesus. When Peter expressed his love and received the forgiveness of Jesus, he was restored and given word of what Jesus wanted him to do. That is really all it takes. No matter what the crushing blow has been the strength to get up again is in your personal relationship to Jesus. His strength will enable you to face and overcome whatever has brought you down. He will get you up on your feet at once and you can begin the process of recovery. This is the miracle of courage in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Look at Peter only fifty days after his denial that he even knew Jesus. He is standing in the Temple telling the people and the religious leaders that they crucified the Jewish Messiah and that God had raised him from the dead. He is on his feet again and stronger than ever. He and John are seized and put in jail overnight and brought before the rulers, elders and teachers of the law in Jerusalem. They asked them, “By what power or by what name is this man healed?”

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but who God raised from the dead, that his man stands before you healed…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’” (4:8-12).

The rulers then discussed among themselves what to do with these men. “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’” (4:18-20). This Galilean fisherman stood before the Sanhedrin not as their victim, but as their judge.

The contemporary church and Cornerstone in particular needs to get on our feet again with the true boldness of the Holy Spirit and give witness to the lost people of this community. Only boldness borne by the Holy Spirit will suffice for these days. A weak message that has no love in it, or an outreach that has no compassion in it, or a life that has no character in it can may any impact on this society.

Aubrey Vaughn writes a thrilling story about Christian Reger. He was a minister with the German Confessing Church that opposed Hitler. He was arrested and turned over to the authorities by the Church organist. He was taken 100s of miles away to Dachau where he spent 4 years in the concentration camp. After his first month in Dachau, Reger abandoned all hope in a loving God. But in July 1941, he received a letter from his wife, which told about her love for him. At the bottom she had written a Bible passage from Acts 4:26-29. “The Kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord’s Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontus Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this City to conspire against your Holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed . They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” This was the prayer that the church prayed for Peter and John.

That afternoon, Reger was to undergo interrogation which was the most terrifying experience in the camp. He had been called upon to name names in regard to other Christians. If he succumbed those Christians would be captured and killed, but if he refused to cooperate there was a good chance he would be severely tortured. At the time the verse from his wife meant little to him, but as he was in the waiting room, trembling, another minister came out whom he had never meet before. As he passed by, he slipped a matchbox into his pocket. After his interrogation he had remembered the earlier encounter with the minister and looked into the matchbox to find the same passage from Acts 4:26-29.

To Reger it was a message from God. This man was a stranger and had never seen his letter. Had God arranged this event to show he was still alive and able to strengthen, still worthy to trust? Christian Reger was strengthen for this trial and came through as a victor.
And you can too.

Praise Be to His Name!