Healing at the Gates

So I want you to turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 3, I'm going to speak this morning a message called Healing at the Gates.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Very familiar story here in Acts chapter 3 of a man who was crippled at birth, who has an epic encounter with Peter and John.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

And his life is forever changed.

Now I want to kind of set up what is Pentecost.

Many of you may have never heard that word.

Maybe when you hear the word Pentecost, you think of a bunch of charismatic, crazy people, but that is probably true.

I grew up there, so I can make fun of them if I want.

I was Pentecostal and got over it.

And now I'm grateful for it.

And that just, you know, never mind.

Anyway, so um Pentecost, actually, the very first Pentecost happened 50 days after the first Passover.

So when the children of Israel were rescued out of Egypt, they crossed over the Red Sea.

Fifty days after they left Egypt, Moses went to the top of the mountain and got the law of God.

God revealed himself, showed himself to the people of Israel and told them how to live and basically gave them the law 50 days after Passover.

So for thousands of years, the Jewish people on the 50th day after Passover would celebrate the feast of Pentecost.

And what they would do is bring their first fruits from the harvest of their fields to the temple as an act of worship.

So for thousands of years they did that.

And then, as we know, Jesus was crucified during Passover.

And 50 days after his resurrection, a small group of people were in the upper room, a little upper room, a little room, very small, about 120 people were gathered together, waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.

It's no accident that on the 50th day after Jesus was resurrected, something extraordinary happened in the life of the church.

The Holy Spirit came, according to the scriptures, with wind and fire and tongues, signs and wonders began to happen on the 50th day after the resurrection, on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit infused itself, saturated itself, consumed the life of the local church.

As you know, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, stepped out on the ledge because the people were hearing them speak in tongues from languages all around.

They were recognizing their own languages being spoken by these people and they were hearing the story of the gospel.

Many of them thought they were drunk.

They said these guys in the upper room are drunk, and it's only 9 o'clock in the morning.

And Peter said, Hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Edit that out.

I'm gonna get all kinds of emails about that.

So sorry.

All right, so Peter doesn't say that, all right?

That's not in the Bible.

So Peter steps out and he says, um, Peter says, No, Peter actually gives a very simple presentation of the gospel, and thousands of people get saved.

And then suddenly the local churches form.

These group of people begin to do four things.

They were committed to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, which means they they they understood the power of coming together like we're doing this morning, and they said they were devoted to the breaking of bread.

That's not a sandwich, they're talking about communion.

Every time they gathered, they they they focused on the resurrection of Christ, the broken body of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and they devoted themselves to prayer.

So the four foundations of the church were laid as the Holy Spirit came among them.

These four foundations were established and the local church was off and running.

But then what happened?

Did they just get together every week and have a service?

Or how did that influence them?

What happened in their lives after that?

Well, I'll tell you what happened.

Something on the inside began to stir and grow.

How many of you this morning are witnesses that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, something on the inside of you changes?

The way you think, the way you respond, the way you pray, the way you worship, everything begins to change when you begin to welcome the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

How many do you have any witness this morning that the power of the Holy Spirit, when it comes into your life, the working of the Holy Spirit changes everything about us?

Now, Peter, James, and John, the three central characters of the book of Acts, they don't really reflect on this in the book of Acts, but later on, as they're writing their epistles, they would say things like this like Peter would later describe it as a partaker of the divine nature.

Literally, God Himself, the divine nature of God is now inside of me.

This is what Peter would say.

John later in 1 John would say, it was the anointing received from him who abides in you.

Listen to that beautiful, that's beautiful language.

The anointing received from him, God who abides in you.

Later on in Colossians, Paul would describe it as Christ in you, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Isn't that beautiful language?

That was what happened on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit came inside of them.

God revealed himself through the Holy Spirit, and their lives were radically changed forever and always.

Let's go to Acts chapter 3 because I want to show you what that means for us and what it meant for them.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Now we're about to read a very familiar story.

Let's all confess this morning.

How many of you have read Acts chapter 3 before?

Acts 3 · chapter mention

There's a lot of us, okay?

And it's good that a lot of you didn't raise your hands.

Maybe this is the first time you're going to hear the story.

But for those of us who have heard this story, I want to give you a challenge this morning.

I want us all to read this story this morning as if it were the first time for all of us.

And ask the Holy Spirit to show us something fresh and new in this story.

Because this story is very important for all of us this morning.

All of us who have made a choice to follow Jesus and welcome the work of the Holy Spirit.

There are two choices we have to make in life.

Will we follow Jesus and will we welcome the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

And by the way, those two things are inseparable.

Jesus said in John 14, I will not leave you as orphans, but I will send someone.

I will send the Holy Spirit.

Then in Acts chapter 1, he says to his followers, Go to Jerusalem and wait there for the Holy Spirit.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And when it comes upon you, you're going to be my witnesses.

I wonder if we are good witnesses this morning.

I wonder if we are good ambassadors.

I wonder what happened in the lives of Peter and John when the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Were they good witnesses?

Were they good ambassadors?

Let's find out.

Acts chapter 3, verse 1.

Acts 3:1

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at 3 in the afternoon.

Let us point something out here that these are Jewish men.

Peter and John were Jews.

And they did not have to give up their Jewish customs or their Jewish beliefs in order to follow Jesus.

They're headed to a synagogue.

They're headed to the temple at a three o'clock prayer meeting.

It was a very customary Jewish tradition.

At three in the afternoon.

Now, verse 2.

Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called beautiful.

Please underline the word beautiful.

It's important here that Luke, the writer of Acts, tells us what gate, what gate he was healed at.

This is super important to the story.

He was at the gate called beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

And when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

Peter looked straight at him.

Notice here that Peter and John had walked past hundreds of beggars on the way to their temple, by the way.

Even today, the streets of Jerusalem are full of beggars.

You go there, on every corner there are people begging for money.

And it's very sad, but it's very true.

Peter and John had walked past men and women and children on their way to the temple, but for some reason, this guy at this place, at this time, caught their attention.

I wonder why that Peter and John noticed this beggar and didn't notice all the rest that they had walked past.

There is a reason, and I'll tell you later.

Stay tuned.

All right.

Peter looked straight at him, as did John.

Then Peter said, Look at us.

Now this is good news for a beggar when somebody makes eye contact with them and it actually embraces them because they know they're about to get money, and this is exactly what happened.

So the man gave him his attention, expecting to get something from them.

And then Peter said, Silver or gold, I do not have, but what I have, this hope of glory, this anointing, this Holy Spirit, I do have, and 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.

Now listen to this, this is a miracle here.

And instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong.

Now I know there's some of you in the medical profession here, some orthopedics maybe, or a physical therapist, but you know this, that a man in his, let's say this guy's in his 40s.

Like I'm in my 40s.

He's a very young, good-looking 40-something.

That anyway, so he uh, this man had never walked.

Let's say he's in his 40s and had never walked.

Do you know how long it takes for someone, let's say they're in their 40s, medical science now comes up with a new method, a new surgery that can repair his legs?

Do you know how long it would take for a person to learn how to stand for the first time?

Do you know how long it would take, how much therapy it would take for a guy to learn how to take his first step after never being able to walk for 40 something years?

Do you know how long, how much therapy it would take for this guy to be able to walk and then run and then jump?

See, we read these stories.

For those of us who've read this story, we go, yeah, we know how that ends.

He's gonna get up and jump around.

This is a miracle.

This is God changing a man's life forever.

This guy had been relegated to a life of begging for his daily bread.

And suddenly the Holy Spirit comes upon Peter and John.

They look at him, they recognize him, and a miracle happens.

His legs, his bones, his tissues, everything is fully restored.

And this guy doesn't have to learn anything.

He suddenly knows how to walk, how to run, and how to jump.

Verse 8, he jumped to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

And when all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called beautiful.

Now I know you know this.

Pastor Robert says this to you often, I know this.

When you see something once in Scripture, we should all pay attention to it because it's the scriptures.

But when the writer of the scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, repeats himself, why do you think Luke, the writer of this book, two different times tells us which gate this man was sitting?

I'm gonna tell you in just a moment.

All right, so what is it about this man and this story that we should be noticing this morning?

How does this?

I mean, here we are, Memorial Day weekend in 2012.

This is an ancient story.

Does it hold any bearing, any truth for us today?

If we are going to be people of the Holy Spirit, if we're gonna be people who receive and walk with the idea of Pentecost, I think this story has huge meaning for us.

Here's the first thing I noticed about this story.

He was at the same place every day.

One of the sad things about this story is that this man was brought by his friends to this gate every single day.

All of his life was focused and surrounded by his brokenness, his hurt, his crippled life.

The truth is, this morning, many of us have focused our entire life around a pain or a hurt, and it's never been dealt with.

And one of the marks of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit finds most of us.

The Holy Spirit finds most of us living a life that is centered around a hurt or a pain that we've never allowed God to deal with.

Some of us have focused our entire life, our everyday schedule is focused around a hurt or a pain that we've never allowed the Holy Spirit to come and deal honestly with.

A divorce, a death of a child, a failed business, a home that we lost.

Somehow that hurt, that pain becomes the center focus of our lives, and we never allow the Holy Spirit to enter in and to deal with it.

Listen, I've got very good news for many of you this morning.

The Holy Spirit has come this morning to deal once and for all with the hurt and the pain that has been the focus of your life.

This man was brought every day to this place.

By the way, this was a prime begging location.

It was near the temple.

And there was guaranteed foot traffic every day because the Jewish people would go to this temple every day at 3 o'clock to pray.

And so the people walking by were religious people, so they should have been kind and generous people.

And it was a lot of people, and so to get this spot required the help of your friends.

And this guy's entire life was focused around this spot, this pain, this hurt.

But today, God comes through Peter and John with the help of the Holy Spirit and says to this man, I have come today to deal with the focus of your life.

I am going to give you something different.

This man was asking for money, a temporary fix.

He was asking for the world system to fix him.

The coin, if Peter and John had given him a coin, they would have reached into their pocket and given him a coin.

You know whose pitcher would have been on that coin?

Caesar.

They would have given him a coin, a Roman coin, with the face of Caesar.

What Peter and John were saying to him is says, listen, silver and gold we do not have.

Now that may have been a little bit of a white lie.

They probably had some coins on them, but what they were saying was something much more deeper than that.

I am not going to give you help from the world system, but I have come today to proclaim that a new king now is here.

His name is Jesus, and he lives in me, and I know him, and I'm going to give you something that's going to fix you forever and always.

I could give you the Roman government temporary help with Caesar's face on it, but I've come to give you something more powerful than that.

I've come to enter into your hurt, into your pain, and to bring you healing.

Here's the second thing.

He was outside the temple.

Here's what happens in all of us.

We gather in gatherings like this, and there's, I mean, the presence of God is strong here.

It feels like my church, our church, you know, where we gather, and when we come together, there's something powerful that happens when we're all together, worshiping in unity, singing these songs together, praying together.

We feel the presence of God.

But here's the here's this here's what happens for most of us.

We leave here and something happens.

What's supposed to happen in these gatherings is this is a place where we are awakened to the presence of God, and then we become carriers of the presence of God the rest of the week.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We are carriers of God's message, we are ambassadors for Christ.

We are to leave this place today, and everywhere we go, we are to colonize the earth with the kingdom of heaven.

All right, let me try this over here.

This is this is your mission today.

That was really good, by the way.

Y'all didn't respond very well.

This is very good stuff.

Your our assignment, my assignment, your assignment is to leave this gathering as a carrier of God's presence, as an aroma of Christ, and we are to colonize the earth with the things of heaven.

We're to leave here.

And Peter and John had been in the upper room, and the Holy Spirit had come upon their lives, and they left there and they realized listen, because the Holy Spirit is alive in me, their spiritual eyes were opened to the needs all around them.

Now, I don't know if you have this, and I don't remember this being an issue in South Lake, but in Colorado Springs, it seems like every intersection you come to, there's somebody standing there with a sign.

I need money, I need this.

And sometimes it's easy to get callous about those things.

And I understand safety issues, understand wisdom, and I understand that there are times when the last thing you should give them is money, I understand all those things.

And this beggar, by the way, was probably would fit right into that stereotype.

But how many of you have, and I was thinking about this about my own life, when was the last time that I was quickened by the Holy Spirit to do something for someone that I had not planned to do anything for on that day, I did not know them that day.

How, when was the last time we allowed ourselves to be inconvenienced by the Holy Spirit to help someone?

And this is this is a sign, this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in all of us.

When we are alert, when our eyes are open to the needs all around us, when we are on constant, uh we're constantly aware, God, what's happening?

God, what are you doing on the earth and how can I cooperate with what you're doing today?

What's going on around me today?

And see, Peter and John, they could have walked right by this guy, but something had happened in them.

They were now carriers of the hope of glory.

They were they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were quickened in their mind and they saw this guy.

They looked at this guy and they saw God at work.

Here's the third thing that I saw in this story.

He was healed in the name of Jesus.

He was healed in the name of Jesus.

This is the first time we hear about the disciples using the name of Jesus in one of their prayers.

Peter looks at him and says, Silver and gold I do not have, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Interesting, in our Western world, we don't understand the power of names.

We don't say, I he didn't introduce me a minute ago.

This is Brady, son of Leland.

My dad's name was Leland.

He said, He didn't introduce me that way.

But it's very common in the Greek and Roman culture to introduce yourself as Brady, the son of Leland, or the daughter of, because that's there was power in the name that was attached to you.

And Peter and John had something happen.

Listen, I saw this again this week when I was studying for this message for you.

In Romans chapter 8, it says that we had this spirit of adoption.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit, because we are people of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, one of its primary purposes in our life, is to remind us that we are sons and daughters adopted by God, heirs to the throne, co-heirs with Jesus.

So this is not, this is not some magical incantation.

They weren't using Jesus' name just for some magic spell.

And in the book of Acts, there are seven different times when we see magic at work in the lives of people.

This is not what we're talking about.

Peter and John had been quickened by the Holy Spirit and reminded by the Holy Spirit, you are heirs with Jesus.

You've been adopted as sons and daughters.

And by the way, when Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit in Luke chapter 4, what was one of the first miracles he did in Luke chapter 5?

Luke 4 · chapter mention Luke 5 · chapter mention

He was in a house preaching to a big crowd of people.

And some friends had a buddy who was crippled and they couldn't get to Jesus, so they climbed on the roof, built a bit, tore up the roof, and lowered him down in front of Jesus, and Jesus reaches his hand down and picks up the blonde, the crippled man, and the guy takes up his mat and goes home.

I believe Peter and John walking that day by the gate called beautiful, was reminded by the Holy Spirit.

Listen, you're just like Jesus.

You have the same power at work in you that resurrected Christ out of the tomb.

Here's a beggar.

He was brought here by his friends.

You can do this.

And they said, in the name of Jesus, who we saw do this, in the name of Jesus, who we were witnesses of his resurrection, we were witnesses of his healing.

In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.

Listen, let me tell you something.

If you're not praying in the name of Jesus, it is one of the most powerful things we can do as believers.

But here's the key: you got to know him, and he has to know you.

But when he knows you and you know him, you can call upon his name.

In fact, he wants you to call upon his name when you pray.

Here's the last thing that I saw.

It says in Acts chapter 3 that when this guy was healed, that he leapt and danced.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

You can imagine his life.

Can you imagine this guy?

His whole life is changed.

He yes, we would all jump up and we would probably be a little undignified.

We'd probably lose our dignity a bit.

If our lives were radically changed, our legs are healed, our body is healed, and it says that it at the gate called beautiful.

This man jumped up and left and ran into the temple, praising God.

Why do you think this guy at this place on this day, of all the beggars in Jerusalem, of all the crippled people in Jerusalem, why do you think it happened to this guy?

Okay, turn.

I should have did this before because this is, I know this is a gateway tradition to turn to two scriptures, but I forgot that part.

I said go to Isaiah 35.

Isaiah 35.

I'm gonna show you why this guy at the gate called Beautiful was healed at this day.

Of all the prophets in the Hebrew Testament, Isaiah was the one who had the most insight about the Messiah.

If you read the book of Isaiah, especially the second half of the book of Isaiah, the most powerful, most specific, most um unbelievable messianic prophecies came out of the writings of Isaiah.

And of course, the Jewish people who were longing for their Messiah to come knew the prophecies.

Of Isaiah very well.

They would know Isaiah's writings.

They would sing about the prophecies of Isaiah.

They would teach about the prophecies of Isaiah in order to encourage them that the Messiah would come one day for them to come and redeem and establish his kingdom on the earth.

And Isaiah painted a beautiful picture of who the Messiah would be, what he would do, how he would die, his influence on the world.

Isaiah had all of those prophecies coming out of him all the time.

There was one particular prophecy in Isaiah 35 that was happening right here, right before their eyes in Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

It said it happened at the gate called Beautiful.

There's many gates in Jerusalem.

All of them are open except one.

And if you've been to Jerusalem, you know this.

There's one gate that is sealed, even right now, as I'm speaking this afternoon in Jerusalem.

That gate is sealed because according to rabbinic and Jewish tradition, that's the gate that the Messiah will enter.

He is the only one that can open that gate.

According to Jewish tradition, he will come down and set his feet upon the Mount of Olives.

He will walk down through the Garden of Gethsemane.

He will come up to the temple to the gate called beautiful.

He will open that gate.

He will go into the temple and establish his kingdom forever.

That's how, that's eschatology according to Jewish tradition.

This gate is sealed, and it was sealed on this day.

That gate was not open, but there's a long colonnade.

And every time they would walk by it, they would look at that sealed gate, and in their hearts they would say, one day our Messiah is going to come through that gate and into this temple, and he's going to establish his reign forever and ever.

On this day, Peter and John came to that gate themselves and looked down that long colonnade, and the gate is sealed.

But there's a man sitting there.

A beggar, a crippled.

And I think the Holy Spirit quickened them and looked at him, and they reached down, and a miracle happened.

I want you to read this out of Isaiah 35.

Again, this is Isaiah prophesying what will happen when the Messiah comes.

Verse 5, it says, Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

How many times in the scriptures did Jesus do this?

Open the eyes of the blind, and he caused the deaf to hear.

And then in verse 6, then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

I believe the Holy Spirit, through Peter and John, were quickening them to heal this guy at that gate in front of the Jewish people as an announcement that your Messiah has come.

He's here.

And to prove it, the lame are going to leap for joy and the mute are going to shout, just like Isaiah prophesied at the gate called Beautiful, your Messiah has come.

Listen, here's what happens when a people of God like ourselves welcome the work of the Holy Spirit.

We become ambassadors.

We get the privilege of making an announcement to the rest of the world.

The Messiah that you're hoping for, the Savior that you long for has come.

And I am a witness.

I am from the future.

I am an announcer.

I declare to you today: your Messiah has come.

The Holy Spirit is in me.

He is a witness to the things that are to come.

The kingdom has come and is coming.

And listen, this is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

If you're here today, let me tell you something.

This is one of the most exciting prayers you can pray.

Number one, I want to follow Jesus is the most powerful prayer you can follow.

And by far, I want to be a follower of Jesus.

But let me tell you the second most prayer that all of us need to pray.

And we oh, we need to pray it every day.

We are the people of God, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

And I welcome the gift that Jesus promised to give us.

The same promise that Jesus made his disciples, he's making to us today.

I will not leave you as orphans.

I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit.

But when you get the Holy Spirit, when you welcome the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you're going to be a witness.

You're going to be a witness.

A witness of the kingdom that is coming.

Let's pray this morning together.

I want you to just ask the Lord right now, when was the last time that you said, Lord, I welcome the work of the Holy Spirit in my life?

Maybe you've done that as a young person, but it's been a long time since you said, Lord, I believe in the Holy Spirit.

I recognize the power of the Holy Spirit.

But when was the last time in a fresh way you said, Holy Father, Jesus in heaven, I welcome the fresh, contemporary, right now, today work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

And what you're saying now, let me just tell you, when you're saying I welcome the work of the Holy Spirit, you're saying I want to be a witness of the kingdom that is coming and has come and is coming.

I want to be a witness.

I want to be a reflection.

I want to be an ambassador of this kingdom of God that is coming and has come.

So if you're this morning, if that's you, would you just turn your hands toward heaven and just say that?

Father in heaven, we welcome the work of the Holy Spirit.

On this Sunday of Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection, a group of believers were gathered like we are this morning, and wind and fire and power came into their lives.

And Father, today, we welcome the wind, the fire, the power of the Holy Spirit into our lives.

And Lord, let us go now and be witnesses.

Let us be ambassadors of the kingdom that has come and is coming, breaking in all around us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.