Acts Chapter 3:1-11

Now I believe God heals people. I don't think we struggle with the fact that God heals people. You can't show me in this book that God no longer heals people. But God had a plan. Now I wonder if this guy sat at that gate and thought, man, Jesus thought he could heal people.

He walked right past me. Or you may remember there's a story in John chapter 5, Jesus goes to the pool of Bethesda and there's all these people that are sick and laying down there. And had it been me, I'd be honest, if I had a gift like that, like the ability like Jesus had to heal anybody, I probably would have walked in there and said, whoop, y'all are healed. That's not what Jesus did. Jesus walked to one guy at the far end of the pool and he healed him.

Now I got to be honest with you, I don't understand that. That's all right. See, I don't think we struggle as much with the issue of healing as much as we struggle with the timing of healing. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Some may question whether God continues to heal even today. Well, the truth is that God does heal.

It's just a question of when and how he's going to do it. Today, David explains how healing works in our current church age as he continues in the book of Acts chapter three. Here's David McGee with part two of his teaching, God Still Heals. Acts chapter three, verse one. It says, Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. Then a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple, who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, ask for alms. He asked for money and fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. Verse five. So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.

Now something happens here and we need to just see how it plays out. See, Peter's walking in and Peter doesn't do anything weird or do anything flaky. This man just catches his attention and that's the way it is in our life sometimes. If you're waiting for like a thunderbolt from heaven or a voice from heaven before you share with anybody, you're never going to share.

Sometimes it's as simple as catching the look in somebody's eye and thinking, man, they're hurt. They're burdened and letting God work through you. I can't tell you the number of times that, um, that there's been divine interruptions in my life. Sometimes even during in ministry.

I remember being outside of Chicago and it was just a, it was during the week, a small home Bible study. There was like six people there and, and, uh, so, you know, ministered and taught in the, got ready to close and I was going to close and the Lord said, you need to give an invitation. I said, I was having this nonverbal communication with God.

You know what I mean? I wasn't hearing audible voices or anything. And I said, God, you know, there's only six people here and the pastor knows everyone by first name.

I think they're good. You know, and God said, give an invitation. I gave an invitation. Everybody said they were saved. You know, I did the reverse altar call, you know, raise your hand. You know, they were going, all of them raised their hand and I was like, T yes, I can be spiritually thick.

I hope I didn't just blow your illusion. Well, it had to happen sometimes. So, um, then going around, there was this one woman that was just man burdened. And I went up to her and I said, are you all right?

You okay? And she said, she said, you know what? I raised my hand, but I don't know Jesus. And this dear Saint standing behind her, a much older lady put her hand on her shoulder and said, honey, tonight's your night. Divine interruption.

Look for those divine interruptions and God will give them to you. Verse six. Then Peter said, silver and gold. I do not have, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

Great verse. Now let me point out something. Peter said, I don't have any silver and gold.

Now wait a minute. We all know the disciples were rich. There's some people that teach that the disciples weren't rich. I mean, here he goes, Hey, I don't have any money.

Money wasn't what the guy needed, but he said, I don't have any money. And this wasn't just the first time we see this in scripture. If you remember when they asked Jesus about Caesar and they said, Hey, should we pay taxes to Caesar? Doesn't say Jesus reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin.

Remember what he said? He was the first guy that ever said this. Somebody else ripped it off in a movie later on, but Jesus was actually the first guy that ever said it. He turned to him and said, show me the money. That was Jesus. That's in the Bible.

They ripped him off. So anyway, he says, show me the money. He says, whose image is on this? They said, Caesar's given the Caesar's what is Caesar's given the God's what is God's. And then another time when they were trying to pay taxes, they said, you know, Hey, you know, Jesus says, what do you have a coin? I don't have a coin.

Now part of the problem I think was Judas was a thief and he was a treasure and the two just don't go together well. And so, you know, he says, we'll go down there and get a fish and look in the fish's mouth and there'll be a coin and we'll, you know, pay the temple tax with that. What's really cool. The sea of Galilee. If you go there today, there's a neat little place on the side. We go there when we do the tours, there's a place where they serve fish and it's called St. Peter's fish. We know it as tilapia lives in the sea of Galilee. There's an interesting thing that this fish does to its young. It actually will gather something shiny in its mouth. And then when danger comes, it opens its mouth. The young ones will see the shiny object and swim towards you in the mom's mouth.

She shuts her mouth. She protects them from the threat. There was a reason the fish had the coin in his mouth now, but the point is Peter and John don't have any money. Now, before anybody in here goes, well, I identify with Peter and John then I ain't got any money. You know, we are so blessed. We are so blessed. I don't think we understand how blessed we are. I think we take a lot for granted. We see other people who are in need and we think, well, I need this and I need that. And there's a multibillion dollar industry to make you discontent advertising. Do you realize if you own a car here this morning, you realize that only 8% of the world owns cars. 92% of the world would look at you driving a car, owning a car and go, man, they're pretty well off. But we look at ourselves and go, oh, I don't have this.

I don't have that. You have clean drinking water. A billion people in the world today do not have clean drinking water. The fact that you can go over and turn your sink on to some in this world makes you wealthy. We have America and I'm not bashing America. There's just simple statistics that are reality. America makes up 6% of the world's population and consumes 40% of its resources. I wonder how much money you have on your pocket in your pocket right now. I'm not hitting you up. I'm not, we're doing pass a plate here.

Don't get nervous, but I wonder how much money you have. What change you understand that over a billion people in this world live on less than a dollar a day. The experts say that in order to care for everybody in this world with proper healthcare and nutrition, clean water would cost about $20 billion. That's the number that America spends annually on ice cream. Am I saying that you should feel guilty when you eat ice cream? That's not the point. The point is we've been blessed. Why have we been blessed?

Well, this book is very clear on this. God blesses people so they can bless others. That's why God has blessed us so that we might bless others. So I'm not asking you to feel guilty about being American and if you're new here, you're sitting there going, okay, he's getting ready to do, you know, support a child or something, pass around envelopes.

We're not doing that. As a matter of fact, if you think I'm going to be so cheaply satisfied, God doesn't want just a couple of bucks from you. He wants your life. He wants your heart.

He wants all of you. And with blessings, we need to look for opportunities to bless others. Peter could have went and got this guy money.

I believe going back to where they had stored what it says they sold goods and store up for the common good. I think Peter could have come in and said, look, I need some money. I got to do this.

There's a lame guy over here. I got to give him some money. That's not what he did. He gave him what he needed, not what he wanted. Verse seven. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

Let me ask you a question. And I don't mean to make light of this situation, but what do you think Peter was thinking? This is different. You know, Jesus would look at people and usually say, you know, rise up and walk.

Now, number one, what do you think people around them thought when Jesus said that? Oh, that is that's cruel. He's, he's telling the lame man to walk. I can't walk.

Why is lame? Well, you think that's cold. He told a dead man to come out of his grave. Jesus often told people to do impossible things.

Guess what? He told us to love one another. And since he told us that, guess what?

It's no longer impossible because he never tells us to do something that's impossible with his strength. I think I know in part what Peter was thinking. As he reached down to pick the guy up, he was thinking, I hope this works.

I mean, think of it. He tries to lift up the lame guy, the lame guy falls down and people go, what are you doing? You push a lame guy down. But there was faith in Peter's heart that something miraculous was going to happen.

And he was willing to risk it. Reality is in ministry, you know, what's going to happen. Sometimes you're going to pull somebody up and they're going to fall right back down. Doesn't matter.

Oh, it matters. It'll tear your heart up, but we do what we do for our King. And we may have to pick them up a half a dozen times. We may have to pick them up 490 times, but Jesus says, keep picking them up.

Keep loving them. This guy gets up and walks. Why? Because the power of God can make a lame person walk. Do you understand? There is nothing, not a thing that the power of God can't cure someone of. That's why I don't buy into this while I was born an addict.

I don't, I'm sorry. I don't buy that. God can heal you. God can cure you of addictions of selfishness, of loneliness, of despair, of depression, of homosexuality, of any, anything.

He can cure anyone of anything. He can do it and he wants to do it through us and understand when these people are getting beat up and getting hurt, they're made in the image of God. The enemy hates that he wants to beat them up. He wants to torture them. And when they've picked a fight with those among us, they've picked a fight with our King. And when they've picked a fight with our King, they've picked a fight with us.

We have to understand that because we pass people every day that need that hand and we walk past so many of them. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D. A.

Brown. I want to take just a couple of minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically, Chickasha, Durant, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Wistord, and Woodward, Oklahoma. Lord, thank you for the people in these cities.

Thank you that we get to broadcast in these areas. God, I pray that you would plug people in Bible-believing churches. Lord, I pray if people haven't put their trust in you yet, that today would be the day. Lord, we pray for the city leaders, the mayor, the police chief, the fire marshal, Father, all those in government. Lord, we ask that you give them wisdom and discernment and that they would look to your word for advice on how to lead and how to serve the people in their communities. And God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be poured out on these cities and that many people would be changed forever. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. He received strength, and let's see what in verse eight, see what he does. So he leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. They took note that something had happened here. You may have read this story before this morning, knowing we were going to be in this portion, or maybe you're just familiar with the passage, or maybe you've never read it before. But let me point something that you may miss out. The man was at the gate of the temple.

Why? Second Samuel chapter five verse eight says, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. Leviticus 21 17 says, speak to Aaron saying, no man of your descendants and succeeding generations who has any defect may approach to offer the bread of his God.

For any man who has a defect shall not approach a man blind or lame who has a marred face or any limb too long. The man could not come into the temple, but what happened when he got healed? Let's look at verse eight again. So he leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them. He'd never been in there before. He'd laid there for years and years knowing he couldn't go in, couldn't go into the temple, couldn't go into, if you will, the presence of God.

Again, we see these people all the time. We see people, we talk to people that I can't go to church, man. I'm struggling. I'm struggling with this.

I'm struggling with that. And man, if you're struggling with that, the church is the place you need to be. I don't know where we got this concept that the church is the place you go, where you got every, when you have everything worked out and sorted out in your life.

That was never a biblical concept. The church is the place where you go when you're messed up and receive love and healing through the people of God that oftentimes have walked the same road that you've walked. Had somebody come into the office yesterday and coming in for clothes and sweet mom, sweet daughter. And she says, this is my daughter.

She's a recovering addict. Praise God. Jesus said, I came to minister to the sick, those who are hurting those centers, not the righteous. So this man who had never been in the temple before, Peter reached out to him, picked him up and said, let's go, man. Let's go into the temple. Let's go into the presence of God.

This is what we need to be doing. Verse 10, then they knew that it was he who sat bagging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's greatly amazed. These guys were prepared. They were looking for an opportunity for the love that they had for God to express itself to somebody else.

That's what we're supposed to be doing. The church is supposed to be an active thing, a living thing. And Matthew 22, they asked Jesus said, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law thinking he was going to mention one of the 10. He says, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, this is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. If you can do this, if you can love God, you're going to love God's word. You're going to heed God's word. You're going to come into a saving relationship with the Lord. And then you're going to look around and see who you can minister to. Those are the words of Jesus.

Now, let me, let me share this. I don't buy into the nonsense that crept up 25, 30 years ago of reading that and going, okay, well, you know what you really got to do is you got to learn to love yourself first. You know what we, we all care about ourselves. That's part of the fallen sinful human nature. I mean, you, this morning you were preoccupied with what, what you were going to wear.

That's fine. I mean, I understand that I did the same thing. You probably didn't wake up and think, gee, I wonder what pastor David's going to wear.

Some of you may have, I don't know. But so, and then now you're sitting there and you're thinking about what? Well, you're probably thinking about where are you going to eat?

You're not sitting there going, well, pastor David's going to eat. You're probably not doing that. Why? Because you think about yourself.

Why? Because you care about yourself. It was a foregone conclusion when Jesus said this that you love yourself. He's saying, you know what? You need to put two things ahead of yourself, God and others.

You come third. God told us to do something possible right there, didn't he? But he will give us the strength to do it.

What's interesting. This gate was one of the main entrances into the temple. We can say with pretty reasonable assurance, Jesus walked through this gate past this guy. Now I believe God heals people. I don't think we struggle with the fact that God heals people. You can't show me in this book that God no longer heals people. I'm open to that discussion, but I'll warn you others have tried, but God had a plan. Now I wonder if this guy sat at that gate and thought, man, Jesus thought he could heal people.

He walked right past me. Or you may remember, there's a story in John chapter five, Jesus goes to the pool of Bethesda and there's all these people that are sick and lay in there and had it been me, I'd be honest if I had the gift like that, like the ability, like Jesus had to heal anybody, I probably would have walked in there and said, whoa, y'all are healed. That's not what Jesus did. Jesus walked to one guy at the far end of the pool and he healed him.

Now I gotta be honest with you. I don't understand that, but that's all right. See, I don't think we struggle as much with the issue of healing as much as we struggle with the timing of healing because the reality is if you're in here and you know Jesus, you're going to be healed one day. I don't care what your infirmity is, what's going on in your life, what's wrong with you, what ailment, what disease you have. One day you will be healed.

You will not take that into heaven. You may be healed here. I don't know, but I know that you will be healed then.

Why? Because there's only going to be one person walking around heaven with scars and that's Jesus in that beautiful place that will be the one thing made by man. Jesus stood up in a synagogue, the Jewish place of worship and teaching, and he quoted from Isaiah in the book of Luke and he said this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Let's be honest with one another. Coming to church, that's really not that hard. Even reading the Bible, it's not that difficult for most. There may be some that have some type of challenge with that.

But doing these things, it's a challenge. You might even say it's a battle. And what's at stake?

The eternal destiny of men and women. I don't see how we can see our King here. I can watch our King, learn about our King and say, Jesus, I don't care about the other people that don't know. I know you're offering me the power and the ability to speak and the ability to do these things, but I just don't care.

That can't be an option. Some of you may have become jaded over the years. Maybe you came to know the Lord and you're just not doing anything. At the end of service on Sunday morning, I always ask people if they want to receive the Lord.

But if you're here and you've asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins in love and in all humility, let me ask you a question. What are you doing with it? Are you hiding it under a bushel? Are you sharing with other people?

Are you trying to be an island in the sea of people here? Or have you rolled up your sleeves and joined with your brothers and sisters to make a difference? Jesus is the one that said, if you don't do it to them, you didn't do it to me.

And the flip side, if you did it to them, it's like doing it to me. May you be able to see the face of Jesus and minister to people as if you were ministering to your King because loved when you are, may you see that and walk in that. May the Lord open our eyes to see how blessed we are and to look for opportunities to pour out on others. If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, I'm not talking about knowing about Jesus. I'm talking about knowing Jesus in your heart. I mean, you've asked the Lord to forgive you of your sins.

You're not sure you've ever done that, or maybe you did that and you've wandered off. Maybe you've been thinking and hoping your good's going to outweigh your bad coming to church here. God did a good thing. Hope at the end of this life, my good outweighs my bad. You know what?

You're good. No matter how good you are, it's never going to outweigh your bad because the Bible says if you broke the law in one place, you broke it in every place. And even if you could live a sinless life from here on out, you still have the sins of yesterday in your past and you can't pay for those. But God, Jesus offers to make the payment for you. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit CrossTheBridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross The Bridge at P. O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to CrossTheBridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's word continues to go out through Cross The Bridge. Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at CrossTheBridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the book of Acts.