Someone once said that every miracle in the New Testament is
a parable, designed to illustrate physically what God can do spiritually. Today we are looking at such a miracle
in this passage in Acts. It
certainly wasn’t the only miracle that was done in those days. And yet Luke singles out this
particular miracle to illustrate an important spiritual principle.
We know that it wasn’t the only miracle because in the
previous chapter, Acts 2:43 it says that “many wonders and signs were taking
place through the apostles.” And
looking ahead, we see in chapter 5 vs. 12 it says again that “At the hands of
the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people;” to the
extent, according to vs. 15, “that they even carried the sick out into the
streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his
shadow might fall on any one of them.”
So many miracles were being done at that time by the
apostles. The question is why is
this one highlighted and described by Luke and not the others. And we will attempt to answer that
question today. But as I have said
before, to use a fishing analogy, it is a lot easier to put a fresh hook on a
new line than to unsnarl an old one.
And unfortunately, the subject of healing and miracles have become so
snarled in bad doctrine that we need to spend some time unraveling this whole
subject of healings and miracles before we can make the correct spiritual
application of it from this passage.
We need to first understand the nature of the miracles that were
occurring at the hands of the apostles.
How are we to understand these miracles? Are they something that we should be expecting to see
today? Do we also have the power
to perform miracles? Certainly
there are a number of people around, especially on television, that are
claiming to be performing miracles.
Well, first of all, let’s consider the purpose of
miracles. As I said at the
beginning, when miracles are presented in scripture, they usually are given to
illustrate a spiritual principle.
That is the extended benefit of historic miracles to us today. But what was the immediate benefit of
the miracles that happened then, besides the obvious alleviation of suffering? The answer is that miracles, the
ability to do signs and wonders, was the means by which God authenticated the
message of the apostles. Lots of
people over the ages have professed to be speaking from God. But the apostles were specifically
commissioned to speak the words of Christ, to declare His gospel to the
world. And to do that, Jesus gave
them the power to perform miracles to confirm that that were speaking from God.
Jesus commissioned the apostles after His resurrection in
Mark 16:15 “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be
saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will
accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they
will speak with new tongues; they
will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt
them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Now this passage has caused a lot of people to think that
signs and wonders are the prerogative of every believer. But what needs to be understood is that
this statement is a highly condensed summary of Jesus’ last message given
specifically to the eleven apostles.
Notice that there is a change from the singular pronoun in “he who has
believed and has been baptized shall be saved,” to the plural pronoun in “these
signs will accompany those who have believed; (Jesus is now speaking of the
apostles) in my name they will cast out demons, etc. The plural pronoun sets this statement apart from the
preceding one concerning all believers.
In the first statement Christ is declaring a principle of salvation. In the second statement He is declaring
the authority given to the apostles.
So then a few verses later in Mark 16:20 we see that commission by Christ
fulfilled: “And they went out and
preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by
the signs that followed.” That is
the key to understanding the purpose that the apostles did these signs, to
“confirm the word by the signs that followed.” They were given the power of signs to authenticate their
message as being from God.
Unfortunately, as I have stated for the last couple of
weeks, there is so much misunderstanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit
today, and a lot of it originates in these first few chapters of Acts. Because Jesus said “you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit is come upon
you…” And immediately after
that we see the apostles speaking in other languages and performing miracles. And there are a lot of preachers and
teachers out there that want to make the assumption that the power that Jesus
is speaking of is the power to speak in tongues and heal.
That’s not it at all.
That is not the power that the Holy Spirit is promised to give to all
believers. The reason that the
apostles did these signs was to authenticate that their message was from
God. But the real purpose of the
Holy Spirit was to give them the words to speak, the word of God, and then as
it says in Mark 16:20 to confirm that word by the signs which followed.
This is so important to understand, especially in our
day. Because false teachers and
false prophets are going around today and especially on television speaking
lies and using false signs to confirm their word. See the devil knows how to
authenticate his false prophets as well. We see something similar when Moses went to Pharaoh. Moses did signs to confirm that his
word was the word of the Lord. And
what did the Pharaoh’s magicians do?
They did similar signs as well.
Satan is using many of these so called charismatic signs and wonders
that we hear about today to confirm the word of his false prophets. He uses
false signs and wonders to get people to accept a false teaching. So the church’s focus always needs to
be on the word of God. That is why
we have written down for us a more sure word, that today we can use to validate
everything and examine everything by the word of the Lord. Today we don’t follow signs and wonders,
but the word of God.
But nonetheless, the fact that it is counterfeited by the
devil does not invalidate the legitimate use of signs by God to confirm His
word. However we need to recognize
that God gave this ability for a limited time to a limited number of
persons. Namely, the apostles and
one or two disciples that were closely associated with them. The New Testament doesn’t mention
miracles by anyone other than an apostle or one or two people closely
associated with them, namely Philip and Stephen who both were deacons appointed
by the apostles in the church in Jerusalem. No one else is identified as doing miracles in the
church. It was an apostolic gift,
given to authenticate their message as being from God.
These are then what Paul calls "the signs of an
apostle". In 2Corinthians 12:12 he refers to himself as having done the
"signs of a true apostle" which, he says, are "signs and wonders
and mighty works..." This is confirmed by Hebrews 2:3 , where the writer
says that the Lord first preached the gospel, "and it was confirmed unto
us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders
and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own
will."
Now I say all of that in order to establish the context for
the miracle that we are looking at today.
To unravel the snarled fishing line, if you will. So that we will realize that the
apostles weren’t just going around healing everyone that they saw sick or
infirmed. Jesus, by the way, did
not heal everyone that was sick either.
There were many dead people in the cemetery on the day that Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead, but He only raised Lazarus. And there were so many sick people gathered around the Pool
of Bethesda that the sick man could not get into the pool before someone else,
and yet Jesus healed only him. In
fact, there is a very good likelihood that Jesus had passed by this very lame
man outside of the Beautiful Gate mentioned here in Acts 3 many times in the
course of His ministry at the temple, and yet He had not healed him. This man was healed by Peter to
validate his message as having been from God and afterwards when he preached
his message to the crowd gathered around, it says 5000 people were saved.
Now there are a number of things that are noteworthy in the
telling of this story that we should consider. First of all, vs. 1 says that Peter and John were going to
the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Prayers were said in the temple at 9 in the morning, at
noon, and at 3pm, or the 9th hour. Whether or not the disciples were going there to pray at
that time is a matter of debate.
Some think that there was a slow transition on the part of the Christians
out of Judaism. But I happen to
think that they went there because they knew that a lot of people would be
gathered there at that time, and they wanted to preach the gospel to them. I think if they learned any thing from
Jesus, it was to find little merit in the traditions of Judaism. But as Jesus
practiced, the apostles would use synagogues and the temple to preach the
gospel. And once the gospel is carried to the Gentiles, there is still going to
be this pattern of going to the Jewish synagogue to preach and present the
gospel, even in Gentile territories.
And also, according to chapter 2, there was a great number of their
church that were staying in the temple in Solomon’s portico. They didn’t have a home to go to. They had been on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem for the feasts, and when they were saved on the day of Pentecost they
stayed there in the temple daily receiving the apostle’s teaching. So Peter and John had multiple reasons
to go there at that time.
So as Peter and John are going to the temple, they pass
through the gate called Beautiful.
This gate was so called because it was 75 feet tall and made of pure
bronze and overlaid with plates of gold.
It would have gleamed in the sunlight. And when the crowds would come to pray at the temple they
would pass through this gate which they probably preferred above others because
it seemed to promise prosperity.
So it was an opportune place to be if you were a beggar. The Jews were taught that the way to
achieve righteousness was to give alms to the poor or to the temple. And so as these people are streaming
in, this lame man positions himself there at the gate to take advantage of the
possibly stricken consciences of the people who are coming in for prayers and
the evening sacrifices.
When Peter and John pass by, the man began to ask them to
give him alms. Alms are an
offering, a gift. And Peter, along
with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” That reminds me of how my mother used
to speak to me when she was trying to tell me something important. She would say, “Look at me while I’m
talking to you!” She knew that if
I wasn’t looking at her, I probably wasn’t really listening to her. I may have heard her, but I wasn’t
paying attention.
I think people do that in church a lot of the time. I know, I used to be really good at
it. I’ve probably attended
thousands of church services in my time, most of them as a preacher’s kid
growing up in the church. So
especially when I was a kid, I was adept at flipping some sort of mental switch
that tuned out the preacher while I went into some kind of dream mode. The only time I would come back to
reality was when the preacher would start to tell a joke or a story. Then I would listen. Maybe some of you have that ability as
well. I think it’s pretty common,
actually. I think it is important
to listen attentively. It’s
something that takes some discipline, perhaps, but it is important to pay
attention.
So Peter gets the man’s attention. He thinks that Peter wants to give him some money. But Peter says, “I do not possess
silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ
the Nazarene—walk!” This is really
the key to understanding the point of this miracle. If we take this to be illustrative, like a parable, then we
can see a key principle here in this miracle. And that principle that Luke is presenting here is that the
power of the Holy Spirit that was promised to the church is the power to walk
in the Spirit and not according to the flesh. That is what this miracle is teaching. The power of the Holy Spirit was not
given to enable everyone to be able to speak in a unknown tongue. It was not given so that we can all
have perfect health and be healed of every disease. It was not given so that we might be able to move mountains
or walk on water or call fire down from heaven. The power of the Holy Spirit is given that we might be able
to be the children of God, and then act like children of God. He indwells us, giving us the power to
live the life of Christ through these carnal bodies. To be able to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. That is what this miracle is
illustrating. That is why Luke picks
this miracle above all others that are done around this same time. That is why Luke places this event
immediately after the filling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; to
illustrate the purpose of the Holy Spirit.
Now let’s look more in detail so that we might show how this
miracle illustrates that purpose. First
of all, Luke says the man is lame from his mother’s womb. Lameness could have been caused by a
lot of things, but it basically means the guy couldn’t walk due to some sort of
illness. His legs might have been
crippled or deformed. And that is
a perfect picture of our plight before salvation. God set forth His laws, His requirements, His standards of
righteousness, and yet no one is able to keep them. It is like telling a lame man that he has to walk. He may know that he needs to walk, but
he is unable to do so. That is the
case with the law. We know that the
this is the standard for righteousness, but we cannot do it, anymore than a
lame man can walk. In our natural state we cannot please God because we cannot
keep His commandments. Rom. 3:10-12 says “as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE
RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS
NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY
HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.’"
This is the plight of every person born on the earth. And furthermore, we were born that
way. We’ve been this way from our
mother’s womb. Romans 5:12 says
that we received the sin nature from our father, who received it from his
father, and so forth all the way back to Adam. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So this poor lame man, who was lame
from his mother’s womb is a picture of sinful mankind.
And there is a second picture that is illustrated in this
miracle. This lame man has
positioned himself outside the temple.
He sits by the Beautiful Gate, the gate that seems to promise financial
blessing. And so he sits there his
whole life, seeking silver and gold, seeking the financial benefit that he
thinks that the temple promises.
How many people today are attracted to the external blessings of the church
and yet in reality are outside of the kingdom of God? How many people look to
some form of the prosperity gospel as an inducement to claim Christianity? I used to think that way. I once was a very successful antiques
dealer. And I remember telling people
that my success was due to my Christianity. I thought that my health and my beautiful family, my
financial success, my Mercedes, and my nice house were testimony to the
blessing of God upon my life. I
measured my relationship with God based on how “blessed” I was. I thought that I could be a witness to
others, that I could tell them they too could have a life like mine if they
would just come to Christ. You can
only imagine how my faith was shattered when I one day I lost all those
material things. Then I had to
decide if I would still serve a Lord who allowed me to lose all that I had
thought were His blessings.
You have heard the song, “Looking for love in all the wrong
places…” Well, this man is looking for the wrong things in the right place. He is looking for material
rewards. Really, he is looking for
carnal things in a spiritual place.
The temple is an illustration of the kingdom of God which is the
church. As the church, we are the
temple of Christ, the physical
manifestation of the invisible Christ.
The church is the kingdom of God, the spiritual reign of Christ on the
earth. And so if it is spiritual,
it means things not seen. No one
can see a spirit. The spiritual
reign of Christ in our hearts is what it means to be in the kingdom of
God. That’s what it means to be
the temple of God. The body of
Christ. It means that Christ is
using my body to live out spiritually the purpose and will of Christ.
Yet today many Christians are being taught that Christianity
means that you can live your best life now. They think Christianity means that God is going to love you
whatever you do - however you want to live, you can live. We are taught that because God loves
you, He wants to fulfill your dreams and ambitions. He wants to give you all that you desire, all the desires of
your heart. And so we find
ourselves like this lame man, seeking the benefits of the flesh, in the place
of the spiritual. Seeking the carnal instead of the spiritual.
But Peter and John get the man’s attention and then they
say, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you.” Peter and John say that they don’t have
silver or gold. I guess they
wouldn’t make good role models for Joel Olsteen or Joyce Meyers, would
they? The apostles aren’t going to
try to win the world with a soup kitchen mentality. Listen, I don’t mean to say that we are to neglect doing
good and sharing with those that are in need. That is a godly principle that we see illustrated by the
early church in the last chapter as they sold houses and possessions in order
to feed those that were in need in the church. But the point that needs to be emphasized is the church is
not tasked with a social gospel, but with the gospel of salvation. The purpose of the miracle was to
authenticate the message, the preaching of the gospel, so that 5000 people are
saved. Far too often today the
church finds that the social gospel is culturally acceptable. So the church finds it easier to
practice a social gospel than it does to preach a gospel that requires
repentance from your sins. But
that is not the purpose of the church.
So Peter grabs this man’s hand and pulls him up, saying, “In
the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” Now that is an illustration of salvation. In the name of Jesus Christ we that were
lame can now walk. In the name of
Jesus Christ, we that were sinners have now been made righteous. In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were
cut off have now been drawn close.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were helpless have now received
help. In the name of Jesus Christ,
we that were born in our sins, have now been born again. In the name of Jesus Christ, we that
were hopeless have now received hope.
What does it mean, “in the name of Jesus Christ?” Is the name of Jesus some sort of
incantation that we can say that magically produces miracles on command? Is it some sort of mystical ending to
our prayers which guarantees that God will grant us our wishes? What does it mean? Well, imagine the early explorers of a
country traveling to a foreign land, and when they come ashore they might say
something like, “We have come in the name of King George.” It means that they are acting on the
authority of their king. In the
same way the apostles were the ambassadors, the representatives of King
Jesus. They spoke with the
delegated authority of His commission.
And they have authority because of the power of the King’s
position. They had power in the
name of Jesus because of who Jesus is.
He is the Creator, according to Hebrews 1. He is the Mighty God, according to Isaiah 9. He is the Savior of the World,
according to 1 John 4. He is the
Word which was in the beginning with God and was God, according to John 1. It was this very God that became flesh
and dwelt among us, that He might offer Himself as a substitute for sinners,
that we might be saved from death and transferred into the kingdom of light.
Listen, so often we think of salvation as being saved from something; saved from death,
saved from condemnation, saved from a bad situation. And to some extent that is
true. But did you ever think that
you are also saved for something? Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that
we would walk in them.” So we are
saved for good works, that we should walk in them.
Now that is exactly what this miracle illustrates. Peter says, in the name or in other
words, by the power of Christ, walk!
Walk in newness of life.
Walk in faith. Walk in the
Spirit. I cannot count how many
times it says in the Bible that we are commanded to walk in the ways of God. That is what the law required, and what
we could not do. Over and over
again in the Old Testament scriptures it says to keep His commandments and walk
in His ways. That was the intent
of the law, and yet we were lame from our mother’s womb and could not do
it.
But something wonderful happens in the New Testament. In the power of the name of Jesus Christ, who bore our sins
on the cross, we received by faith and repentance the transference of His
righteousness, so that we might walk in righteousness by the indwelling power
of the Spirit. In Ezekiel God
declares that He will make a new covenant in the last days. And in that new covenant according to Ezekiel
36: 25 He says, "Then I will
sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all
your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause
you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
Do you hear that folks? “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statues, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” That is the miracle of salvation and
the power of the Holy Spirit. God
takes this sinful body, and these weak, lame legs that cannot walk, and puts
new life in them, puts His Spirit in me, that I might be able to walk in His
statues and keep His ordinances.
This is why God sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This is what Jesus was talking about
when He said you will receive power.
The power to walk in His statues by faith in Jesus Christ.
The writer of the Hebrews quotes a similar statement from
Jeremiah, in Heb 10:14-17 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time
those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after
saying, "THIS IS THE COVENANT
THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS
UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says,
"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." What that passage is saying is that
salvation and sanctification go hand in hand. Jesus has perfected those who are being sanctified and He
does so in this new covenant through the testimony of the Holy Spirit writing
His laws upon our hearts and upon our minds, so that our desire is to walk in
His ways.
Oh, ladies and gentlemen. This is such an important message for the carnal church
today that claims salvation and yet scorns righteous living. That cannot be. We are saved and we receive the indwelling
power of the Holy Spirit that we might walk in the same way Christ walked. Romans 6:4 says that we are to walk in
newness of life. Romans 8:4 says
that we are not to walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 1
Cor. 7:17 says we are to walk in our calling in the church. 2 Cor. 5:7 says we
are to walk by faith and not by sight. Gal 5:16 says, walk by the Spirit, and
you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Gal 5:25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk
by the Spirit.” In Eph. 4:1 Paul begs us to walk in a manner worthy of the
calling with which you have been called. Eph. 5:8 says walk as children of the
light. Col. 1:10 says, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in
all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God; Col. 2:6 says, “Therefore
as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 1Jo 2:6 says the
one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He
walked.” I could go on and
on. But I hope you understand what
the Spirit is saying through this miracle. We were given the power through the Holy Spirit to walk as
Jesus walked, holy and righteous and pleasing and glorifying God in all that we
do. We have the power indwelling us,
if we have been saved, to do all that God has designed us to do, if we will
just be obedient to His leading.
So folks, in closing, let me say that is how God has
designed the church to be His witnesses to the world. By the power of our walk. When the crowds had gathered around Peter and John because
they saw this formerly lame man leaping and jumping for joy on his new legs,
they then received the word of the apostles and 5000 of them were saved in one
day. The success of our church is
not going to be the result of some program or some outreach, or even by our
soul winning efforts, but it will be the result of people witnessing the power
of God to change sinful men to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. When your coworkers, when your families
and neighbors witness the transformation in your life, when they witness your
new walk in righteousness, then they will be compelled to follow your walk and
accept your Christ. That’s what it
means to make disciples. Let us walk out of here today in the power of the Holy
Spirit, walking in the ways of God as a testimony to the world. We then can fulfill Christ’s commission
to the church, to make disciples.
We can tell people, walk like I walk, because I walk like Christ
walked. That’s what it means to
make disciples. To walk like we
walk, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment