Acts: New Year's Every Day

So we're back making our way through the book of Acts here going into 2018.

We were with some family this past week, and my brother-in-law asked me what he asked me every year this time of year.

He asked me what are your goals for the next year?

And he asked me this because he's a goal person.

That's who he is.

And some of you are that, you're directed, you're motivated, you love that, you love to define in some goals to reach, and then others of you are like me, and all of that gives you a lot of anxiety.

Even the conversation about it creates a lot of anxiety within me that just kind of feel restrictive in some way.

So I told my brother-in-law, you know, well, I guess I have some things I I want to do this year, and I kind of engage the conversation and list off a few things, and then I asked him what his goals were for the year, and he was ready because he's a goal-oriented guy, and he had them defined for his body and his soul and his spirit, which is great.

Some of you probably have that going on for you.

This overwhelm me, made me feel like I needed to get my act together a little bit more with my whole goal setting thing.

But I kept thinking about this because we're all just so incredibly different, aren't we?

Some of you, some of you are like, yeah, you should set goals.

You shouldn't have anxiety about it, you should set goals, you should be motivate.

And others are going like, no, no, no, no, let's not do goals.

That stresses me out.

I don't want to do goals.

It's we're all so different.

Some of us like these defined goals, some of us kind of like these broad ideas, like, yeah, I might kind of move in that direction in 2018.

But wherever you are on the goal resolution thing, there's something great about New Year's.

And I think, I think at least what we love about it is it's the closest thing our culture gives to us for newness.

Right?

The slate is clean.

The old is gone, the thing you failed at, the thing you weren't good at, all of that, that practice, that deed, that way of life, that habit, the slate is clean.

January 1st, the slate is clean.

That is over.

That thought, the thought that you never get that thing in your life better, or you would never get better.

Like our culture says, hey, we're gonna give you a break.

January 1st, the slate is clean.

You can start over.

You were lame, but now suddenly on January 1st, you can walk again.

And this brings us into this story in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Peter and John, they're headed to the temple to pray.

A man who's been lame his entire life, never walking a day in his life.

He's being carried to a gate called the beautiful gate, where he will lay on the ground and he will beg, like he has begged every day before, for a little bit of money to make it to the next day, just to feed himself for the next day.

This man sees Peter and John walking into the temple to pray, asks for some money, thinks he's gonna get some money because Peter looks at him, and then Peter gives him something else.

And that's what we read in Acts 3.

I'll reread what Sam read for us, just verses 6 through 10.

Peter said to this man, 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 his 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.

So I think it's fair to say that pretty much all of us will never see something like this happen.

That's a safe thing to say.

So, of course, these people were filled with awe and amazement, right?

I mean, this is something you don't see.

This is the wrong direction, right?

This isn't natural.

This is the wrong direction of life.

The direction of everything is to break down over time.

You don't turn 40 and all of a sudden everything in your body starts feeling better.

You turn 40 and you start shopping at Whole Foods more, buying anti-inflammatory herbs from the Brazilian jungle, and you're talking to your friends more about your joints.

That's what happens.

That's what happens in life.

Unless there's an interruption.

Unless there's an interruption, everything moves towards breaking down.

And this lame man walking, this is a reversal.

This is what we call a redemption.

It's an act of the risen Christ raising one to walk again to give legitimacy to the beginning of the church.

And it did not come by this guy's great faith.

That might be my favorite thing about this story.

It did not come because this guy laying on the ground recognizes Peter and John and goes, Oh, you guys can heal me.

Y'all can give me everything I've ever really wanted.

No, no, no.

He's not going to be ground, he said, Hey, will you give me some more money just so I can make it through the next day?

He was asking for one thing, thinking he knew what was best for his life until something else arrived.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about there?

You think what's best for your life, and that's what you're asking for until something else arrives.

We went to a New Year's Eve party in Atlanta this last Sunday night, and some people were walking around, it's kind of fancy parties, and people walking around with appetizers on the platters, and there was an open bar at the back of the house, and the dining room table was full of this huge spread and had salmon and this shrimp and grits, and it's all like in these silver platters and salad and asparagus.

Now imagine if all of my friends we sit down in one of the rooms there in the house, and we sit down and they all have their yummy drinks and they have their plate full of food.

And imagine I come in and I sit down with my Diet Coke and two corn dogs from Quick Trip, which you know I love, right?

You know I love the corn dogs.

Now imagine, what would they say?

What are you doing?

Where did you even get it?

Where did you even get the corn dogs from?

Like, where'd they come from?

Why would you why would you eat that?

There's something richer and better that's not normal, right?

It's not every day you're just getting some free salmon and shrimp and grits and like this thick, juicy asparagus just every day.

No, no, no.

Like, it's there for you.

See.

This guy, he's just asking for a little bit of money.

He didn't even know what's good for him.

He's no man of faith.

He's wanting the wrong thing.

And Peter speaks the gospel to people like him and people like me and people like you.

Right?

Because in the story here, we're not Peter and John, we're the lame man.

And Peter says, 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.

So a few points.

Point number one: silver and gold represent what is accumulated or achieved, but never able to heal.

Right?

This is what he's been doing his whole life.

Silver and gold, never been healed.

Silver and gold represent what is accumulated or achieved, but never able to heal.

It can never make you whole or awaken you to the belovedness you have in Christ.

The thing that heals is the name of Jesus.

Rise up and walk.

Because our sin is cast upon him and his righteousness is put upon us in the grace of God.

And the love meets us in our mess, outside the temple, while we're begging for something entirely, entirely else.

Can you imagine the shame of this guy?

He's lying there day in and day out, and he's watching people walk in and out of the temple, the people who have their acts together in society, and the amount of comparison he would be living in, the shame he would be carrying as other people carry him because he can't even walk.

He's asking these questions.

What if I really am as lame as I feel like I am?

What if I'm a failure at everything?

What if I fail at work and relationships and children?

What if I never walk?

What if I never look like them or never look like her, or never look like him, or never look like that family?

What if I'm never what I thought I should be?

And that's when we so easily resort to little silver and gold, just that little hit to make us through the next day.

But never the thing that can really help us walk.

And that's our belovedness that we already have.

You already have it in Jesus.

So a few points in a row here.

Point number two, you cannot earn that which is freely given.

Pretty basic.

You cannot earn that which is freely given.

Just can't do it.

It's freely given.

Can't earn it.

Which gives us point number three.

That which is freely given is that which heals.

That's why it heals.

The reason it heals is because it's freely given.

It frees you from having to earn it.

Gives us point number four.

The gift and the healing only comes by the name of Jesus because the name of Jesus is the message of the power of God which heals and saves.

See, this is the gospel.

This is the good news.

What God has done for you, and it creates not a yearly renewal.

Hey, it's January 1st.

The slate's clean.

Like, great, great, set some goals.

I want you to set some goals.

But the gospel gives to us an existence of a clean slate where shame and condemnation no longer name and define you, but become a healed wound inside of you.

And it may haunt you.

But it no longer owns you.

One of the stories we keep revisiting in our church a pretty good bit, because it's one of my favorite stories to talk about, is where these religious folks set up this lady in John chapter 8, catch her in adultery, drag her in front of Jesus, in front of a crowd in front of Jesus.

John 8 · chapter mention

And the lady's probably pretty ragged and she's certainly afraid.

And the law would say, hey, we need to stone this lady.

We need to stone her to death.

And they're trying to catch Jesus here.

You know, is he going to go on the side of grace over law?

But the law says to stone over, what's he going to do?

He's being so gracious to people like this.

What is he going to do?

They have no compassion, these people.

No connection with the depth of anything going on inside of themselves of sin, right?

And then you have this lady.

Can you imagine the shame of this lady?

Talk about lame, wondering if she'll ever walk again.

We'd love to know her backstory.

We don't get it.

Why was she running into adultery?

What is she running from?

Why take this risk?

What happened in her life to get her to this point?

What broke in her?

When and how?

None of that's told to us.

Just these guys without any compassion, dragging her in front of Jesus, in front of a crowd, embarrassing her, shaming her.

Hey, the law says to stone her.

What are you gonna do, Jesus?

What are you gonna do?

And in John chapter 8, verses 7 and 8, we get the compassionate nature of God.

John 8:7

He had bent down low.

I think to just get the attention off of her.

It was an odd thing to do.

They had asked him a question, he didn't respond.

He just bends down low, drawn in the sand.

Probably all the attention goes to him.

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.

Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

So all that focus, right, from her exposure and shame, goes over to him who made himself low.

You see it?

Our sin is cast upon him who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

And in those moments, the light of the truth was flooding into the hearts of the people in that crowd, because deep down they knew what we all know.

And that's where the lame man on the sidewalk begging for alms.

We are this lady.

None of us are perfect.

So one by one they dropped their stones and they left.

And then it's just this lady and it's Jesus, and she's still uncertain, still afraid.

She has no idea what's going to happen.

She's just a lame lady needing to walk again.

And in verse 10, Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you?

No one, sir.

And then he says, Then neither do I condemn you.

Go now and leave your life of sin.

See, there's the power of the name of Jesus.

And everything in us wants to go to some other source to justify our existence, our beings, our value, to redeem ourselves, to absolve ourselves of sin, to try to feel not as shameful as we do, not as inadequate as we feel.

Just a little silver, just a little gold to make it through the next day.

But merit in this world and even religious merit, it won't do.

It's just silver and gold.

It has no power.

It keeps you working.

The fight is not to fight for those New Year's goals or a new identity via those New Year goals.

See, the fight of faith is to forget more and more your former self as the one who is needing silver and gold.

And to live by the new self, the spirit, which is healed and defined and abiding in God's grace to you in Christ.

This past Wednesday night our elders met the first time in 2018, and we meet together and we pray for our church and we plan for our church, and we were praying together, and one elder prayed, God, we don't need to be a big church, but may we always be a church with a big gospel.

And I thought about that the rest of the week, and I thought about that with this text because this is our big gospel.

You may lack the faith to march into the temple.

And maybe you feel like that lame man on the sidewalk, you don't even know what to ask for most of the time.

Or maybe you're just asking for the wrong things most of the time.

And the gospel is the good news that even there, in that place, God's love finds you.

The redemption earned for you by Jesus finds you there, and you are fully accepted, loved, and met.

My brothers and sisters, we have no silver and gold for you.

But by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for the big gospel that meets us where we are at in our imperfection and brokenness and sin.

Some of us fear, oh, there would be nothing greater than to be flooded with belief that the slate is clean.

To trust more in our newness that we have in Jesus and the love you have for us, and that we are free from having to try to earn love, to earn our identity, but rather to rest in the one that has always been there in Jesus for us.

That we are your beloved by the righteousness of Jesus for us.

Forgive us for our sin as we try to find this in silver and gold.

And would you help us to trust greater in the great name of Jesus for our absolution, redemption, and identity.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.