Peter heals a lame beggar (Acts 3) // On mission with the risen Jesus

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the

time of prayer at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple

gate, called Beautiful, but he was put every day to beg from

those going into the temple courts.

When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for

money. Peter looked straight at him, as

did John. Then Peter said, look at us.

So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get

something from them. Then Peter said, 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.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they

recognized 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.

While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people

were astonished and came running to them in a place called

Solomon's colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to

them, Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?

Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we

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, 1 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's 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 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.

He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to

restore everything as you promised long ago through his

holy prophets. For Moses said, the Lord your

God will rose up for you, a prophet like me 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.

Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have

spoken, have foretold these days.

And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God

made with your Father's, He said to Abraham.

Through your offspring, all peoples on earth will be

blessed. When God raised him up, when God

raised up His servant, He sent him first to you to bless you by

turning each of you from your wicked ways.

This is God's word. Don't we live in a broken world?

We've already heard about the conflicts in Sudan and in

Algeria. In Israel and Gaza there's been

68,000 people killed, many more injured, displaced.

Russia and Ukraine, there's been hundreds, 10s of thousands

killed, hundreds of thousands displaced.

Last month we saw Charlie Kirk, political activist, in the

middle of a debate on a campus, shot dead.

We saw two Jewish men in Manchester killed just this last

week. Each year 400,000 people are

diagnosed with cancer, 700,000 people are diagnosed with

depression, 3 in 10 children in the UK are living in poverty,

13,000 a year are born with the congenital abnormality that they

have to live with. These are really heartbreaking

things to think about. We're in a fallen and broken

world. Don't we long for an end to evil

and injustice and sickness? And people have longed for an

end to this human history. But the true God of the Bible

has always given his people hope that the end, an end to those

heartbreaking things will come one day Throughout the Old

Testament we see the prophets who are telling of this great

day of restoration to come, and God will restore creation to how

it was meant to be, how it was before the sin of Adam brought

sin into the world. You can read some of that

through the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel,

Jeremiah, Joel. There'll be one day when there's

an end to sickness, there's an end to evil, end to the fallen

nature of the curse in this world.

There'll be one day when there's a return to joy and to beauty

and to intimacy with God, the God who made us unity and peace

with one another as we live with him.

So the question then we have is when will this happen?

If anything seem things seem to be getting worse, not better.

So how long are we going to have to wait for this day of

restoration? How are we going to know that

this is true and that it's coming?

Well, one way that we can do that is to look to see the

things that the prophets prophesied about to look out for

them. When we see those things that

the prophets prophesied about, the things that God promised in

the Old Testament, that's a sign that God's new Kingdom is coming

true. The day of restoration is

coming. This is where we are in Acts 3.

We're going to see and hear some of the signs that God's day of

restoration, the restoration of all things, has begun because

Jesus is continuing his work through his people.

We're going to see a miracle. We're going to see a miracle

worker and then we're going to think about what our response

should be to such a miracle worker.

So Acts chapter 3, please have that open and follow along as we

Acts 3 · chapter mention

go in. It's quite a long chapter, so

I'll try and help you help you to do that.

Miracles In verses 1 to 11, we've already seen Jesus

spending time with the apostles. That's in chapter 1 of Acts.

He teaches them the law and the prophets.

He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the

earth in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 2, we see that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell on

His people, to empower each of the apostles and Jesus, other

followers to do what He's asked them.

Last week we saw how the early church devoted themselves to the

apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of

bread, to prayer. There are two other descriptions

of the early church that we heard last week, which we get to

see in Acts chapter 3. So they continue to meet

Acts 3 · chapter mention

together in the temple courts and they performed many wonders

and signs. The temple course is where Peter

and John are going. They're they're Jewish people.

That's the thing that Jewish people did.

They went to the temple because that's where you go to worship

God. They continue to worship God and

on the way they meet this man by the gate.

We don't get this man's name or where he's from, but we do know

a few things. We know that he's Jewish.

We had friends who helped him to the temple gate every day.

He clearly thought this was the right place to go to.

This is the place where he could get help for the condition that

he was in. We know that he had a

disability. It wasn't an accident, but he

was born with a disability. From birth, he'd never been able

to walk. It wasn't because of his sin or

because he'd made a mistake or someone had attacked him or

anything like that. It's just part of the fallen

world that he lived in. For the world that we live in,

we know that he was poor. His disability probably meant

that he wasn't allowed to go into the temple to beg, let

alone to work. He had to get to the gate.

That's as far as he could go. So here he stayed, as close to

God and the presence of God in a temple as he could possibly

find, hoping that the goodness of the worshippers coming in and

out would give him the money that he couldn't earn himself.

We see what he said. He clearly thought that his

greatest need was money. He needed money to eat, to be

clothed, to live as good a life as he could possibly manage.

Could money really help him? Maybe short term, but he'd still

have to come back to the gate every day and beg for more.

Of course he needed healing. He'd never been able to walk.

I mean, that's difficult enough today, let alone 2000 years ago.

Maybe some of that going to the temple courts every day was part

of his hope that there could be healing found with God.

But I think he'd probably given up hope of that healing after

going back there day after day. He might have received some

silver, even some gold from the people going in and out of the

temple, but he didn't receive healing.

So this is where we find Peter and John.

They walk up to this man. They walk about to walk past

him. I think he calls out to them.

But they knew that he needed not money or even healing really.

They they knew that his greatest need was to encounter Jesus.

Read in verse 6. Peter said to the man, silver

and gold, I do not have, but what I do have I give to you in

the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Walk. That's a pretty crazy thing to

say. But instantly the man's legs

were strengthened, his muscles became strong, and he could not

only walk, but he could jump around.

He finally walked through the gate into the temple court for

the first time in his life by himself and he gives praise to

God. Notice the healing doesn't come

because Peter has some sort of superpower.

He can go around like healing people whenever he likes.

It doesn't come because the man has such a strong faith and he

really believes that he could be healed.

And then he was healed as like a reward.

The miraculous healing we read comes through the power of Jesus

name. So by God's grace, this man has

had an encounter with Jesus through his people.

He's not met Jesus himself, but he's encountered the power of

who Jesus is. It's the name of, excuse me, the

name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that heals this man.

Money would have given him a short term relief, but would

have been used up. A miraculous healing would have

given him something in life, but also short term relief.

He would still get tired. He could still get injured.

He would eventually his body would die.

This man's greatest need, though, was to have an encounter

with Jesus Christ, and that's what he got.

I wonder what you think your greatest need is right now.

I don't dismiss the needs that you have, the real needs that we

all have, financial needs, healing needs from physical

conditions, from mental conditions, strength and energy,

just to just to deal with the difficult things that are up in

our lives, reconciliation in broken relationships.

But I want you to know that yours and my greatest need is to

encounter Jesus. To know Jesus more, to learn

him, to learn his ways, to experience power to deliver us

from sin and suffering, power to give us joy and comfort, to know

the forgiveness that he brings, to know eternal life both now

and in eternity. This is our greatest need as we

seek to help others. It is good to offer financial

help. Please, please do that.

Please help people's real needs. It's good to care for the sick,

to come alongside the broken hearted, to be there for one

another, for others, especially the vulnerable.

But the greatest help that we can offer anyone is to point

them to the powerful name of Jesus.

This looked like healing for the man who was at the gate.

Might not be that dramatic in our lives, but when people

encounter Jesus, miracles do happen.

Hearts of stone are turned into hearts of flesh that love God

and love others. Lives are transformed from those

who seek their own good to those who seek the good of others.

Greatest need of all of us is to encounter Jesus.

Back to the story. The lame man is fully healed in

the name of Jesus. This is where we get to at the

end of verse 11. It's an amazing miracle, and

it's a sign that the day of restoration that God's Kingdom

is near and it's coming, and it's here on the prophecies of

God's restored Kingdom we find is in Isaiah 35.

It's on the screen now, Isaiah 35, five to six, as I wrote

about the day of the restoration of God.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the

death unstopped. Then will the lame light lame

leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.

This idea of leaping and jumping.

We see the parallel here with this lame man.

We saw these kind of things in Jesus ministry.

John the Baptist once said, Jesus, you're the real deal.

And he said, yeah, this stuff is happening.

Look, the lame man here with Peter and John is leaping like a

deer into the temple. His tongue, which basically only

begged others for silver and gold before, is now joyfully

praising God. The Jewish people there, maybe

even this man himself, would have known about these signs for

the prophets like Isaiah. That's why everyone rushes to

find out what's going on. There's a man who can walk,

who's leaping like a deer. We need to find out what's going

on here. The attention of the Jewish

people in the temple and probably outside have been

grabbed. And Peter then takes the

opportunity to explain exactly what has just happened.

He tells him about the miracle worker Peter and John, who just

spent three years with Jesus, seen him crucified, seen him

rise again, you know, ascend into heaven.

It's no surprise that Jesus is continuing to work miracles.

The miracles are still happening, as Luke implies right

at the beginning of Acts. The gospel was about what Jesus

did. Acts is about what Jesus

continues to do through his people after he descended to

heaven. But for the Jewish worshippers,

this is a lot to take in. That's why Jesus gives him a

hand by showing him this miracle through his people.

The point of miracles in Acts aren't really the miracles

themselves, as amazing and wonderful as they are.

The point of them is to authenticate the message of the

apostles, to make people take notice of what they have to say

and to believe them. To give the apostles the

opportunity to do what Jesus commissioned them to do, to take

the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Now people are listening to what Peter and John had to say.

So he points the true miracle worker, it's by faith in the

name of Jesus that this miracle has occurred.

So we read in verse 16, it's through Jesus powerful name.

His name means all that Jesus is, all that he did, all that he

continues to do, and his name has this healing occurred just a

few weeks before These people, even the people there of Peter

and John are even calling for Jesus to be crucified.

But Jesus is in fact the one who's bringing God's restoration

of everything God's Kingdom to reality.

There's a reason why Christians will often end their prayers in

Jesus name, because there's power in the name of Jesus in

who he is. It's not a magic phrase to make

your powers come to your prayers come true, but it's an

acknowledgement that there is power in Jesus name to do all

things. All things are possible with

God. When we pray in Jesus name, we

are believing that that is true. And to explain more about who

this miracle worker is, Jesus a pizza gives him three titles.

So look in in Acts chapter 3 of verses 14 and 15 we have the

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Holy one. Jesus is the holy one.

This is a title used throughout the Bible for God himself, for

God's special messenger that speaks to his people, for the

Redeemer of God's people, the Messiah, Christ.

To be holy is to be set apart, to be higher and greater than

anything or anyone else, to be purer and more faithful, to be

more beautiful than anything that exists.

Jesus is the chosen one of God who redeems his people.

He's the Holy One, the name above every other name, that at

his name every knee will bow and every turn will confess that he

is Lord. Of course, his name is powerful

to heal. It's powerful to save, because

Jesus is the Holy One and he is the righteous one.

Jesus is the righteous one, the one who never sinned, who lived

a perfect and right life of obedience to God, of loving

neighbor and serving others. This is another title given to

God throughout the Bible. Because only God is good, He is

fully righteous in himself. Jesus is the righteous. 1.

He lived a perfect life of righteousness, one that we can

never live ourselves in our sinful nature.

He never insulted others, never reviled in return, never stole

or lusted or held anger in his heart against others.

He is the righteous one of Israel, the righteous one of

God, and He is the Author of life.

He's the One who created each one of us, each one of those

people who are listening. Then He gave each of us a life

in the 1st place. He sustains us and brings us joy

and brings us goodness to our lives.

By His Spirit. He gives us new life when we put

our trust in Him, spiritual life, to turn our dead.

Our dead turn us from being dead in our sins to being alive in

Him. And this Author of life, the one

who brings life to everything, was killed by the very ones that

he gave life to. But the author of life cannot be

defeated by death. He was raised to life again,

resurrection life by because it's the first fruits of all

those who believe in him. So this is what all of God's

people can hope for. It's how the resurrection life

that the author of Life has, yet they die, and through the Author

of life they shall live. So Jesus is the Holy 1, the

righteous one, the author of life, such a powerful name, a

powerful person, powerful miracle worker, demands a

response. And this is what Peter goes on

to call the Israelites to, to respond to Jesus.

There was God's plan of salvation all along.

For Jesus, the holy and righteous one, to die, be raised

to ascend to heaven in glory, that was the plan all along.

The prophets in the Old Testament spoke of this many

times too. In the Psalms and in Isaiah

especially. The Messiah would suffer so that

God's people could be forgiven and refreshed.

So for those people, those Israelites, the time is now.

They've seen the lame man leap like a deer.

They've seen and heard that Jesus is the Messiah, the one

who'd been promised. The time is now and the time is

now for us as well. Read verses 19 to 21.

Peter says repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be

wiped out. The times of refreshing may come

from the Lord and that He may send the Messiah who has been

appointed for you. Even Jesus.

Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to

restore everything as He promised long ago through His

holy prophets. Now is the time to repent.

To turn from your sins. To turn full 180° from your

sins. To forsake the things that take

God's place in your life. To remove those things that

destroy yourselves and others. To cut out pornography from your

life. To stop following those

unhelpful social media accounts that cause division and

discontent. To exercise self-control in the

things that you read, things that you watch, things that you

say. Now is the time to turn from sin

to God. To have faith in God and God

alone. To live for Him and not

yourself. To prioritise time with Him in

His Word and in prayer. To make an effort to be with His

people so that you can be encouraged and you can encourage

others. To love Him with all your heart

and soul and mind and strength, and so to love others as

yourself. Why is this the right response

to Jesus, the holy, unrighteous One, the author of life?

Well, Peter gives 3 reasons why this is the right thing to do.

That your sins may be wiped out because there's forgiveness in

the name of Jesus. Our past mistakes, our current

bad habits, can be forgiven, forgiven completely because

Jesus died on the cross. And pay the punishment for each

one of them. And his righteous life can now

be given to whoever has faith in him.

Sins are wiped out, so the times of refreshing may come from the

Lord. As well as wiping away the

consequence of those sins. We can be freed from those sins

and the power they hold over us right now.

Trust in Jesus means freedom from the power of sin in your

life. When you confess to Him and ask

for forgiveness. It means that we can know the

peace that surpasses all understanding.

We can know comfort from Him in our anxieties and our

difficulties. Means that even as we suffer and

are heartbroken, we can know peace and joy in Him, refreshing

from the Lord. And because God will.

Restore everything. One day as the.

Angels told the apostles in Acts chapter 1, and as Jesus taught,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

and as the prophets also promised, the Messiah will

return to restore all things. Jesus is in heaven now, but

there is a time when he'll come back.

Then there'll be. No more lame men in need of

healing. There'll be no need of healing

at all. There'll be no more war or

murder or oppression. There'll be no more injustice or

sickness or poverty. Who will wipe away?

Every tear from their eyes there'll be no more more death

or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has

passed away. That's.

In Revelation 20. One the very good in the Garden

of Eden before the fall will be restored.

But even more than that, it'll be renewed because God's people

will live with the God that saved them.

We may never experience. Healing in this life like the

lame man did, physical or mental.

But we know that one day we will.

Because when God restores. All things that includes our

bodies and our minds. Healing for all those who

believe in Jesus. God's Kingdom first arrived.

When Jesus was on the earth, His miracles proved that as wrong,

things were being made right wherever He went with all the

people he met. And the Kingdom continued

through his people as Jesus continued working miracles,

signs and wonders through physical healing like this, but

also spiritual healing as thousands of people were added

to their number each day. And one day.

The Kingdom will be fully fulfilled when Jesus returns in

glory to restore all things. Peace was speaking to.

The Israelites then and he confirmed his message by going

to more testimonies that they would have known from the Old

Testament. He says Moses, he prophesied A

Messiah that would come that would be like him from among

Israel. Abraham he promised the one that

one of his descendants would bring blessing to all peoples,

the ends of the earth. The Islam's were known about

Samuel and the other prophecies, Joel and Ezekiel and Jeremiah

and others. This good news came. 1st to the

Jews in Jerusalem, but as we know it'll go out to all Judea

and Samaria and the ends of the earth.

We'll see that in the rest of. Acts next.

Week we'll see in. Chapter 4.

What the Jewish leaders straight away did with this message.

But the question. That we have this morning is

What are we going to do with that message?

Well, I urge you. 1st To have faith in the name of Jesus.

How often do you call on the name of Jesus for miracles?

When we're in distress. When we're in crisis.

For healing. Yes, we see that in the Bible.

Through history. We see that in our own church.

We see how miraculous healing has come in the name of Jesus

might. Not be as dramatic.

As a lame man leaping for joy. But let's trust in the powerful

name of Jesus. With him, all things are

possible. Let's trust in his.

Name for spiritual healing too. Conversion becoming.

A believer putting our trust in Jesus is an even greater miracle

than this lame man experienced. Every time someone puts their

faith in Jesus is a miracle. Every time someone continues to

believe in Jesus is a miracle. So if you're a Christian.

Today I urge you to keep trusting in the name of Jesus

for the things you need and for your loved ones and friends and

family. Trust that He's able to do more

than you can ask or imagine or think, including saving your

loved ones who don't yet believe in Him.

Keep praying in Jesus name for their salvation.

And if you're not? A Christian here today, then.

I urge you also. To have faith in the name of

Jesus, you can heal your spiritual condition.

Have faith in him. Ask for his forgiveness and know

his power to save. Secondly, take.

Opportunities to share Jesus it. Wasn't the apostles ministry?

To go around healing people. They did do that, and we'll meet

some of the people and acts who wanted that ministry so they

could go around healing people. But their business was to share

the gospel. God's Commission was to take the

gospel to the ends of the earth. So these miracles were.

God-given opportunities for the apostles to do that to an

engaged audience. So how can we take the

opportunity in the same way to share the gospel?

How can we take the opportunity, what God has done to tell others

about him? Tell your story.

Maybe you've had an amazing story of turning from a drug

addict to a Christian and hand delivery and that maybe you've

grown up in a Christian family and just day by day slowly

realise the truth of who God is. Either way, a.

Miracle has. Happened in your life.

So tell your story. Share your story and use it as

an opportunity to tell others about Jesus.

Maybe you have received an experience in miraculous healing

or something miraculous in your life that you contribute to

Jesus. Tell people about it.

Don't be ashamed. People will be like what are you

on about? But use it as an opportunity to

tell them about the Jesus who you believe in, who can work

miracles. Live a distinctive.

Christian Life. Of loving.

Others and loving God. When someone says why, you can

turn about the Jesus who worked a miracle in your life.

And finally do. What Peter said, repent and

believe end of your sins and turn to God.

Sometimes we think where. Where do I fit into this story?

Who do I relate with most? And I'm kind of tend to think,

well, I'm like Peter and John. I can go around like healing

people, telling people about Jesus.

I mean, we should be praying in Jesus name and telling people

about Jesus, but we're probably more like the beggar in our own

sense because each of us are spiritually disabled.

In fact, the Bible says we're spiritually dead in ourselves.

And our greatest need? Is an encounter with Jesus.

Jesus is the Holy. One the righteous, one the

Author of life. Here's the way to forgiveness,

to blessing, to refreshment. Here's the way to.

Enjoy the restoration of all things that God will one day

bring. Time is now.

Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,

that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, that He may

send the Messiah who has been appointed to you.

Let's pray. We praise you, Jesus, the holy

and righteous 1. You have the name above.

All other names, you are the author of life itself, yet you

were killed taking the punishment for our sins.

We praise you for. That and we praise you, that

death couldn't hold you because you rose again, because you live

forever. You're at the right hand of the

Father. Please help us to trust in your

name all that we need, please. Give us boldness to.

Share what you have done in our lives that others would have an

encounter with you, please. Help us to turn.

From our sins and to turn to you until the day when you return

and restore all things in. Your powerful name.

We pray. Amen.