You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. We read last week about in those early days of the early church how there were wonders and signs happening all the time, but we got no details. He didn't tell us, but he says that awe came on every soul. Like what?
Like what? Well, we're going to see one today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. This is Jim.
And this is Dorothy. And I am so excited about what we're reading right now. We just got, well, we're in the middle of Pentecost is where we are. And it's an exciting opening part of Acts in the early church. Well, and we just finished reading about how there were 3,000 people that accepted the message of Christ in that Pentecost event after Peter's sermon. Commentators call this the birth of the church.
So that's why I'm excited to keep going here. Well, so let's talk about the birth of the church for a minute before we dive into Acts 3. Because that chapter ends with this amazing description of how these 3,000 souls devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayers.
Those things are evidence of the authentic activity of the Holy Spirit, right? They were hungry for the word of God. And don't we see that where we live when someone newly comes to faith in Christ, they just are starving for teaching, starving for the word, help them unpack what the word of God really says. And then for fellowship, they need to be with other believers and discover what it is to participate in this life. So that's both the evidence of new birth and a way of growing.
And I know I said that last week, but I wanted to lean into it a little bit. Because we see a lot of kind of fake or kind of drummed up revivals or, you know, if somebody puts a term revival on the calendar and says, we're going to have a revival, everybody come. And then they get a fiery preacher and expect people to fall on their faces. But, you know, this gives us some authentic things to watch for in terms of an authentic move of the Spirit where people are coming to the Lord, right? There's always going to be repentance and confession of sin. There's always going to be a hunger for the word of God, the real authentic word of God, not just a flamboyant preacher. There's going to be a hunger for worship, for corporate worship, for being together and praising the name of God and participating with one another.
And there's going to be a generous participation in one another's needs. So these are all things that we saw happening in these days following Pentecost. A great picture of the authentic church.
Right. So it just seemed good to kind of revisit that a little bit and that this giving to one another's needs was not something that was imposed by the apostles or a church structure. There was no church structure at this point. There was just the 120 original witnesses and then all these other people starving to know what they had just experienced. Yeah, and it's important to point out, too, that attending to the teaching, the apostles' teaching, is a big deal.
Yes, first on the list. Yeah, and we talked about the central aspect of repentance is turning from wrongheadedness, wrong thinking about one thing, and then changing to something else. So teaching the truth is a necessary complement of that. So I'd ask you, if you're in a church that doesn't teach the truth, that doesn't teach out of the word, you might ask yourself whether you're being conformed to this world or being transformed out of this world.
That's right. So that's exactly what the scripture says. Now be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Well, how is your mind renewed?
By bathing it in the word of God so that the thoughts that are coming out of your flesh or your old habits or your previous way of life become overwritten, erased and replaced by what God has to say. So that's not the only thing that goes on in church, but that should be a key element. Well, that's the thing that cliques it all together, right? Yeah, and then because we all have God's Spirit in us, we see this natural generation of the authentic church that has lots of fellowship, lots of life sharing in it, a lot of people involved in one another's lives, people in need. I have those needs met by other people who have more. And I really like the fact that it says that they receive their food with glad and generous hearts.
Right, right. That's a wonderful picture because sometimes it can be kind of like ravenous wolves in a sense. This is kind of probably a silly example, but we have potluck meal after church once a month. And I see people that come and participate in that because they're glad about being able to participate in it. And others are generous, but others come only on Potluck Sunday because They're first in line for the food.
They're there for the food. It's a whole different kind of mindset, but it was just a glad sharing of life together even over the table. So that's just a wonderful thing. And as this happened, they had great favor with the larger community.
People saw this and said, what is going on? And the Lord was adding to their number. Exactly, exactly. And in fact, this is life as God designed it to be for us in fellowship with him and in fellowship with one another. And this is the way God always intended it to be. And this is the way God always intended for the nation of Israel to operate from the very beginning.
But they couldn't do it because they were trying to do it according to law. That's right, that's right. And so when Jesus died and opened the way, the Holy Spirit then came to renew us and enable us to live according to God's design. Right, right. So we started today on chapter 3.
Yeah. And there's still a lot going on. In fact, we're going to see what Peter was doing, actually what Luke describes in Acts 2. We already read it last time that all came on every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, even in the midst of this wonderful fellowship. Okay, and where was it happening? It was happening on the temple grounds, right? It was happening in the porticos and in the colonnades.
Well, we don't know that yet because we haven't read it. Well, no, actually it said that they were in the temple daily. Oh, they were in the temple daily. Right, it said back there that they were still functioning as Jews. Yeah, that's true. Right back in verse 46 of chapter 2, it says, and day by day attending the temple together. Yeah, yeah.
So they were still going to the temple and doing what observant Jews do, but they were filled with the Spirit. So it had a whole different meaning. Yeah. Well, let's see what happened out there. Okay, so.
On one particular day. We're starting in the chapter 3. Chapter 3 verse 1. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, that's called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.
Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. You want to stop there? Sure.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. So this guy has never walked. No, he's lame from birth.
Never walked, yeah. And so the idea-wise is you go to where there's a lot of traffic of people, there's a lot of traffic of people in and out of the temple, and you just ask for alms. You just ask for people, you know, can you give me some money so I can get by? It's largely how a lot of these people fed themselves, just through those alms. So there was really nothing wrong with this, but Peter and John are going in past him, and he asks them for some cash, basically. Yeah, now, you know, if you are blind or lame or whatever from birth, and I'm thinking about the man in John 9 who we're told very specifically he was blind from birth, the question was, who sinned? So that he was born this way.
That's what they asked, yeah. So that's kind of the presupposition under someone who's born with a defect must be because their parents sinned or they sinned. Well, how could they sin in the womb, right? Right, right. So, you know, here we have this man who all his life has probably dealt with the same question. Right, right. But Jesus, you know, if you think back to John 9, the man who was born blind, Jesus said, hey, he didn't do anything to deserve this. This has happened for the glory of God to be revealed in him. Yeah. So what I'm offering you here is that because we have this same phrase, lame from birth or blind from birth, something from birth, this is Luke kind of setting up for us the same expectation.
The glory of God is going to be seen in this. Yeah. Well, and I'll add to that just a little bit here.
At the end of chapter 4, because this will go on for a while, this whole event. Right, right. It says at the very conclusion of this narrative that this guy is more than 40 years old. Right. And you know what that means?
That means that Jesus almost, almost for sure walked past this guy during his ministry and did not heal him on those times. Isn't that interesting? Now, why would that be the case? Well, because he was saving this moment. So let's find out what happened. Isn't that amazing? Yeah.
Okay. So he sees Peter and John about to go into the temple and he asked to receive alms. Here we are at verse 4. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us.
And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms.
And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Take a breath. Wow. Wow. Well, we told you he was in a very high trafficked area. Right. The beautiful gate.
I had to go read up on this again. What was really, was a remarkable thing. Josephus writes about it actually and says that it was also immense. It was like 75 feet tall or something like that. And it was polished brass from Corinth. I mean it was just, what Josephus says is that it was more beautiful than the gates that were inlaid, overlaid with silver and gold. I mean this was just, this was a remarkable place to come through.
And it was where a lot of people came through. So, how many people per day would look and see this guy sitting there. I mean he's famous. They know who he is. He's there every day. But he's been there every day for all their lives. All their lives. He's been a fixture all their lives. So, this is one thing that God does to kind of lay the groundwork for this is that this is not an anonymous guy.
Right. They know exactly who this guy is. And they know exactly how long he's been unable to walk.
So, when suddenly he's leaping up and walking, they go, wait, there's no mistake. I know who that guy is. That's the guy who cannot walk and hasn't been able to since birth.
I mean it's a great proof text for people saying this isn't some staged event. We know this guy. We've seen this guy for 40 years. This is a miracle.
So, it's very clearly a miracle. So, what do you make of the fact that Peter gazes at him and says, look at us. Look at us. And he has to look up to them. Because if he's been sitting there for 40 years, he's not making a lot of eye contact. He's not making eye contact.
He's just doing what he's done every day of his life. And I think it's another way of saying to, you know, we say all the time that people reflect who they are and their status in life by what they wear. So, clearly these two fishermen don't look like they got money. Right. I mean we're talking burlap clothes.
We're not talking about fine colored clothes. So, I've always wondered if that's really all he's saying. He says, you know, you want something from us? Look at us. Look at us. You think we got cash?
Are you kidding me? You know, it's just like look at us. But I think it's more than that. I think it's partially that and it's partially I want to make eye contact because I want to say something specific to you. So, stop looking at the ground. Ask him for alms.
Alms for the poor. Look, we need to have a conversation. So, he makes eye contact. So, there's this moment when they're locked eyes. You wonder if this guy sitting here all this time and knowing that there has been this group of people worshiping and claiming Jesus right inside the temple, what he has heard.
Right? So, does he look up and think, oh, maybe these are the guys. He suddenly has this sense of expectation. Well, it says in the text that he's expecting to receive something. Expecting to receive something. Right. Right. So, Peter just clearly says, it's not money. It's not going to be money.
But what I do have I'll give to you. But then he says in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk. And this is not the first time the apostles have healed people. He doesn't just say Jesus of Nazareth. He said Jesus the Christ.
Christ of Nazareth. Well, what I was getting to though is the fact that they've done this before. Jesus sent them out before. Right.
Oh, that's right. And they went out and not only did they have authority over demons, but they cured diseases. So, this is not too much of a leap for Peter at this particular point. But this is something that Jesus trained them to do and they're doing it right now. So, he says, look, I don't have any money, but I can do this.
So, Jesus Christ the Messiah of Nazareth, which is another one he says Nazareth is, again, one of those very human identifiable person, rise up and walk. And now at that point there's a great piece of drama right here. Right. Because he's not walking yet, but Peter puts his hand out. I mean, what if Peter had put his hand out? The guy says, but I can't stand up.
Right. And he tries to drag him up in the air and it doesn't work. It's like it's really a gigantic step of faith on Peter's part. I'm going to put my hand down and you're going to stand up. Okay, let's think about that for a minute.
Because this is Peter who stood in the boat on that rainy night and said, Lord, if it's really you, command me to come to you on the water. Right. Right.
So, he has a little personal experience with stepping out with Jesus holding the other and holding the hand out. Yeah. He's been on the other end of this hand. Other end of this hand. Yeah.
Yeah. So, sure enough, he puts his right hand out, raised him up, and immediately, now here's Dr. Luke. Luke the doctor, the author, giving us a very specific description physiologically. Immediately his feet and ankles were made strong rather than he gained legs. And this really is, this word feet and ankles, this is the only place it shows up in the whole New Testament. So, this is the physician saying his feet and his ankles were made strong.
So clearly, Luke knew what was wrong with this guy and said it was instantly changed. Well, and it's very likely that he was club-footed or his feet were underdeveloped. Exactly. Right.
They were bent or he just couldn't walk on them. Yeah. But, you know, can you visualize the process happening here the minute he grabs, locks hands with Peter and Peter pulls him to his feet and the bones become strong. Yeah. Yeah. And I can't identify even when the miracle happened. Right. Well, and there's a bigger miracle than just the physical healing. I mean, you know, if you've had children, their legs and ankles and feet all work just totally properly.
But how long does it take them to learn to walk? Right. So this guy goes from having broken pieces to not only having fixed pieces, but he knows how to walk. Yeah.
How is that possible? Well, God instructs his limits how to do that. He's not just walking.
He's leaping. Well, exactly. Yeah.
Okay. So that's an interesting word, this leaping. Yeah. Because in Isaiah 35 it says, when Messiah comes, right, the lame will leap like a deer. And that's this same word from the Greek Old Testament.
This is the same word that they were using. There's that one about the calves in the stall leaping too. We're leaping. Yeah. And that's a... It's joy. That's a bouncing joy. Yeah.
Right? And it's also a wonderful thing to accommodate the crowds because they could look out and see this sea of heads that are going through toward the temple. And then they'd see this one head jumping up in the air over and over. And they'd hear this shouting.
It's a great way to draw attention too because they wouldn't be able to see him if it hadn't happened. Well, and was he shouting? He's shouting praise to God. Praise to God. Yeah.
Walking and praising God. And then it says in 10, and then they recognized him. That's the guy that we just saw his face. That's the guy who couldn't walk for our entire lives and his entire life. He couldn't walk.
And now he's jumping and leaping and walking. Wow. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Exactly.
Well, the guy was probably filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Yeah. Yeah.
Is it striking that Peter didn't even ask him a question, do you believe me? That's right. He says, I'm just giving you what I've got in the name of Jesus. Right.
Stand up and walk. Yep. And that makes me wonder, too, and this is speculation, if the guy was kind of resistant to who Jesus was, whether this would have happened or not, because he says in the name of Jesus Christ. What if he had heard this guy in the temple many times and said, ah, that guy's an imposter. Maybe there was something in his heart that said, no, I think this Jesus is an authentic something else. That's an interesting question, because we know, we observe that Jesus' miracles were done in the presence of faith, people who believed him. Your faith has made you well. Yeah.
Yeah. So I'm pretty convinced that he actually had heard Jesus on the temple area, maybe this very same area, and through all those times that Jesus taught, and he was prone to believe who Jesus was and what he said. So then that makes this scene even more interesting, because Peter is saying, I am acting in the name of this Jesus, by the power of him in me, I say to you, rise up and walk. It's like a transfer, like, oh, this Jesus is still powerful, he's still present. The Jesus who used to walk here and teach is still doing things here. Still healing people here. Right.
Yeah. And we're prone, actually, in the present day, when you see miracle healers and stuff like that, to say that there's either one of two things with that miracle good. Number one, either that person is especially worthy of God, so God's going to use them as a conduit, like they're more righteous in a sense, or that the actual power is inherent in the person that they have the power. And in a second, Peter's going to say, neither one of those is the case. And this guy, I think, when he responds to this invitation from Peter, is not going there with Peter. He doesn't see Peter as some kind of powerful, super elite, spiritual guy, and because of that on the warrant of that, God has given him the power to do this.
It's none of that at all. It's in the name of Jesus Christ. But Peter does have to explain that to the crowd. He does.
He does. And the passage goes on, after the people recognize him, verse 11, while he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. Now, why was he clinging? Clinging. Yeah.
That's an interesting thing. Why doesn't he just run out to his family and say, hey, look, remember me? Why doesn't he cling? Maybe he just couldn't quite get his head around it.
It was like, is this really real? Yeah. Yeah. And in my opinion, he needs an explanation. He needs more than what he's been given. I mean, he knows what's true, but I think he wants to hear more.
Just like the early communion of the early church that we just read about. They were hungry to hear the truth. I think he's hungry to hear the truth.
Explain this to me. I think he wants to know more about what just happened. So he's not just hanging around.
He's tugging on their clothes. Right. Right. You know, many times if we're over focused on the gifts of God, we forget about thinking about the fact that we need to worship God. His gifts are meant to reflect his heart toward us.
Many people when they receive a gift, like I did when I was seven years old on my birthday, I'd get my gift and get so focused on that and run away and completely forget about the fact that there's a giver involved here. Well, I think he's in that position. He's not just going to say, wait, I'm healed now and that's miraculous and I'm very thankful for that, but I need to understand this healer some more. I think that's why he clung.
That's why I think so. And I think as it drew the attention, he knew Peter was going to say something. So maybe that explanation is coming.
He wants to get the bigger picture of what just happened and why it happened. And all the people are coming. They're running into the portico called Solomon. So Solomon's portico was actually part of the kind of porch structure around the temple. Right.
Right. So they were at this hour of prayer. There's a lot of people there and they're going one direction and this actually stops their forward progress and they turn around and they come back. Because it's the gate.
It's at the gate, yes. So they're coming back to the gate and clearly they want to see what's going on. How do you explain the fact that this guy who's been a fixture at the temple for all these years suddenly is walking what just happened. They can see him jumping up and down, but they can't see Peter and John necessarily yet. So they're coming back to find out what just happened.
Well why did God heal this man just to fix him? Well no, there's more at play here than just that. Well and if you think about who was likely there, we know that Peter and John were hanging out with the early church, right, the new believers. So there's probably a lot of new believers in this crowd.
Yes. But there's also a lot of just plain old normal Jewish people doing their daily prayers according to the law as they always had done. And so it's kind of a fresh audience again for Peter. It's like Pentecost all over again. Yeah, probably a fresh audience all over again. So Peter does explain it and we're just going to dip our toe into his explanation today and leave you on the edge of your seats for the rest of what he says.
So here's our dipping in the toe. He starts to speak to the crowd who's very curious in verse 11. And it says, while he clung to Peter and John, all the people, all the people, utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people.
Of course this is a great opportunity. He addressed the people saying this, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
No. He's got their attention now. He's got their attention. Well, if it's not you guys, if it's not some magicians from out of town or something, if it's not you guys, then who? Who brought them out this miracle if it's not you guys?
And so he's going to take that opportunity and that curiosity right here to say, it's Jesus. Well, and he's addressing men of Israel, right? Jews. You Jews, you sons of Jacob, ones that God has given an identity to as his people. He says, why are you staring at us? Because it's not about us.
It's not about us. But it kind of leans into this is evidence that Messiah has come. We've seen this man who has never walked a day in his life leaping. And that language evokes that promise when Messiah comes, the lame will leap like a deer. Well, yeah. And remember John the Baptist sent his emissaries to Jesus once and said, tell us if you're the guy. Tell us if you're the Messiah. And Jesus says, what do you see me doing?
What do you see me doing? Because from the Old Testament perspective, only God can heal the lame. Only God can heal the blind.
And the blind episodes have come and gone already with John 9, but there's more to come. It's this passage that Jesus is alluding to, because Isaiah 35 says, then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. So those things happen during the ministry of Jesus, but here they are happening again. And I think that's the amazing moment. For a lot of these people who've been in town since the beginning of Pentecost, if you all go on back to Passover, they saw Jesus, who was this rabble rouser from the north, a nobody who trips and stumbles and accidentally gets killed.
I mean, they're thinking. It was a train wreck of every proportion, but he came and he went and he's gone. But what Peter's saying here is no, he's not gone. He's not gone.
And I think that's the amazing thing. He's not gone. Not only were there 40 days of appearances, but now he's still actively, actively in our midst healing people and bringing about change.
And I think that's the eye-opener for a lot of these people. What do you mean he's not gone? Of course he's gone.
He got killed. Well, no, but then how do you explain the fact that this guy is healed and not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus has done? Still, Jesus still is the one.
So now I hope we've whet your appetite. You go and read the rest of the sermon in Acts 3, and then we'll talk about it next week. What would you say if you suddenly had this big crowd around you, how would you use the moment to glorify who Jesus is? And you've got this healed guy right in front of you. It's a great start, but what do you say in order to give them an understanding of who the true Jesus is, that this Jesus who was on the scene is still on the scene, but now in his Holy Spirit, and he's still bringing about life change in people's hearts, even though you saw him killed, but now he's still here. Yeah.
It's an amazing thing. So what would you say? You can read ahead. I encourage you to do that.
You can always do that. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you're with us, and I'm excited. I can't wait to see what he says, and we'll do that next time on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself, and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. So hey, we just read about in the... Booty, booty, booty. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
