The Meaning of Miracles (Part 1)

If you're just joining us.

We are in a sermon series in the Acts of the Apostles and there is a sermon outline if you'd like one.

If you didn't get one, just raise your hand.

Our ushers would be happy to hand you one of those.

We are going to be in Acts, chapter 3, if you want to turn in your Bibles.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

If you brought one and follow along you can do that.

But I want to tell you a story.

There was a man named Dewey and he saw that there was a local revival church service in town, so he decided to go.

At the end of the service the pastor said Now, if anybody wants to be prayed over, come on down front and talk to me.

So at the end of the service Dewey gets in line and when it's his turn the preacher asks him now, Dewey, what do you want me to pray about for you?

Dewey says I need you to pray for my hearing.

And the preacher then put one finger in Dewey's ear, the other hand on his head, prays and prays in Dewey's ear, the other hand on his head, prays and prays for Dewey's hearing.

After a few minutes the preacher removes his hands and stands back and says Dewey, how's your hearing now and Dewey says I don't know, it isn't until this Wednesday.

Well, got to get your request correct Now.

Today we're going to hear about a man in the book of Acts who received the first miracle done by the apostles.

I'm going to read the first part of the passage in Acts, chapter 3, beginning of verse 1, and then we'll talk about it for a few minutes.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

Now, peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, and a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.

But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said look at us.

And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said I don't possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene walk, and, seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened and with a leap he stood upright 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 they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Many of these same people who witnessed this miracle witnessed what happened at Pentecost, and here they're gathered at the temple in Jerusalem, in a place called the Court of the Gentiles and identified as the portico of Solomon.

As you see, there Everyone was absolutely amazed when the lame man was healed and they ran over to Peter and John while the man was still clinging to them and Peter turned to the cross.

Why are you so amazed?

And then Peter preaches his second sermon to explain what just happened from the scripture.

And this miracle is typical, really, of other miracles in the New Testament.

And Peter's explanation of this miracle is in some ways going to help us understand what all the miracles mean.

The miracles in the New Testament teach us about the relationship between sin and suffering.

They are a picture of our salvation past, present, future.

We'll be looking at that.

I'd like to highlight actually four things that miracles point us to, that we learn from Peter's sermon, and I'm just going to look at the first two today and the second two next time, but let me finish reading the rest of the passage.

Here we have Peter's sermon explaining the miracle, verse 11,.

While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.

But when Peter saw this, he replied to.

The people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.

But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this?

Why do you gaze at us as if, by our own power or piety, we have made him walk?

The God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

But you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses and on the basis of faith in his name.

It is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Now, brethren, I know you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also, but the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that is, christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.

Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times.

Moses said the Lord, god, will raise up for you a prophet like me, from your brethren.

To him, you shall give heed to everything he says to you, and it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet, and likewise all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father, saying to Abraham and in your seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

For you first, god raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

This is our first look at Peter's sermon and the first thing Peter tells us miracles.

All of them point us to Jesus.

He makes no bones about it.

Don't look at us.

This didn't happen by.

He heals in the name of Jesus, christ of Nazarene.

He wants people to know that this miracle points to the fact that Jesus is alive, he's resurrected, he's working and functioning in our lives now, and by his power this man was healed, not the apostles' power.

Then Peter goes on and he explains how this is possible, how that Jesus can heal this man, and he explains to these Jewish onlookers that the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob put his seal on Jesus, marked him out as the prince of life.

I'll have more to say about that next time.

God raised him from the dead and basically it means he's the ruler over all life, anything that's living.

He's the author.

Peter is saying that, even though you killed him, the actual source of life.

God raised him back up, gave him life again, and now his power is available to all who would believe in him, to bring life and healing to those who would believe in him.

And so Peter tells us that this man was healed on the basis of faith in Jesus as we see in verse 16, and on the basis of faith in his name.

It's the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and power Jesus.

But he's also saying that the miracles point us to our deepest need.

This is really a strong point in this passage.

Virtually every miracle story in the New Testament is a little parable, pointing us to the salvation we need and can have now with our faith in Jesus.

If you remember in the Gospels, when Jesus healed somebody, he would often say your faith has made you well, well, made you well is the Greek word sozo, which is literally your faith has saved you.

Faith in what?

Faith in Jesus?

It started there.

And the lame man is sitting outside the temple.

He's begging for money Every day.

That's what he's doing.

He's begging for money he day.

That's what he's doing.

He's begging for money.

He's not looking to be healed, he just needs some money.

But see, he doesn't realize he has a much, much deeper need, like the lame man, spiritually speaking.

Our blind eyes need to be opened.

Our crippled hearts and broken souls need to be healed Deep.

This miracle points to that in a very profound way.

When Peter says I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.

What's he going to give him?

Faith in Jesus, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene walk.

What that means is Peter's saying to him you're looking for something you think will help you and make your life all right Money.

But I have something better.

I have something deeper that you need that I want to give you.

Money's too superficial, yeah, you'll be okay for a while.

Then what?

What if you get that?

Then what?

What if God answers that prayer?

What then?

Then what?

When Peter heals him in the name of Jesus Christ, he's pointing to the only one who can heal his deepest need Jesus.

It's important to see here again that in Peter's sermon he points out that the man was healed through his faith in Jesus Verse 16, on the basis of faith in his name.

It's the name of Jesus that's done in this.

It is in Jesus' name, through faith in him, that we are healed, physically and spiritually, emotionally and every other way.

He has the power.

He's the living Lord.

This miracle actually reminds me of another miracle Jesus performed when we were going through the Gospel of Mark, when he healed the lame man, the paralytic, in Mark, chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

The lame man, the paralytic in Mark, chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And here is where Jesus links the physical needs we have with the more deeper, fundamental spiritual needs we have.

Sometimes we're not even aware of them.

He links them and I think it's to help us understand miracles.

If you remember the story in Mark 2, people are crowded around a house where Jesus is teaching and there's no more room.

They're literally packed in.

So the paralytic man has four friends who carry him.

They go up on the roof, break a hole in the roof and then lower him down right in front of Jesus.

It's a very humorous picture Seeing their faith.

Jesus says to the paralytic my son, your sins are forgiven.

Remember what?

Doesn't he realize?

That he's lame?

He needs physical healing?

Yeah, he does, but that's not his most important need and only Jesus can do that.

Apparently, everybody knows that the man didn't come to have his sins forgiven but to be healed.

Jesus is saying to him in the same way you think if you weren't paralyzed, your life would be fantastic.

You would be able to, oh, do all sorts of things.

But then what Jesus said, I can meet a deeper need, more serious than your physical paralysis.

That's what Peter and John are doing in Acts To demonstrate it.

The healing demonstrates that authority and power that Jesus has.

The same way, peter used the lame man to point him to Jesus and his power to heal us not only physically, but heal our estrangement from God because of our sin.

We need God's forgiveness.

Only Jesus can provide that.

And a lot of times, if we're not careful, we'll let our physical needs blind us from the deeper, deeper spiritual needs Jesus wants to meet, which we'll talk about.

Before the lame man is healed, peter points him to Jesus Christ and then grabs his hand.

I'm convinced somewhere from the second the lame man heard the name Jesus and grabbing Peter's hand, he believed and stood up because Peter said your faith in Jesus, that's the basis of your healing.

He got it.

He's trusting Jesus.

In this sermon, peter is saying it wasn't Peter who gave him that physical healing.

Peter gave him what he really needed Jesus.

In this sermon, peter is saying it wasn't Peter who gave him that physical healing.

Peter gave him what he really needed Jesus.

So what we learn here?

As with all the miracles, I think Jesus is trying to communicate.

Jesus is trying to communicate.

Suffering is not our greatest problem.

It's not our greatest problem.

Not having a relationship with God is our greatest problem, because of our sin.

That that is a problem, doesn't matter what else we get.

If that's not taken care of, we're sunk.

So Jesus and the apostles go right for it.

Yeah, I could give you money.

Yeah, I could do this, but you need Jesus.

Jesus, yeah, we could do this, but you need Jesus.

Sometimes I think sometimes we're like the paralytic and the lame man.

We're looking for healing to make us all right again, to feel all right again, to be happy and full.

We're looking for silver and gold to make us happy, to fill our lives.

We're looking for things on earth physical, emotional, economic.

They're all superficial, they don't go very deep, they can be lost.

Suffering is bad, but unless you have a relationship with God and he is the most important thing in your life and you know your future is blissfully certain your suffering can become intolerable.

It's one thing to have a huge financial loss, that's disappointing, but if your identity is wrapped up in that money and you lose it.

It's devastating.

It's one thing to lose someone you love.

That's awful.

It's another thing if that person was the main source of love in your life and you lose them.

You become lost Devastation.

You need something more, something deeper.

One ounce of sin can destroy you more than 10 tons of suffering.

That's what Jesus is trying to say to the paralytic.

That's what Peter's trying to say to this guy.

Sin destroys our fellowship with God.

It makes us more self-centered, self-absorbed, makes us more self-centered, self-absorbed.

But if suffering is dealt with properly in surrender to God, like Jesus showed us, it can make you better.

It can make you more humble, tenderhearted, closer to God.

Psalm 34, 18.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.

That's the deeper part.

Yeah, suffering's bad, but just getting what I want, to make me feel better for a limited amount of time, that's not really going to go very far.

We need something deeper.

Miracles then point us to the deeper healing we need, which comes through faith in Jesus, who's the prince, the author, source of all life.

We're not just broken and missing something on the outside.

Without Jesus, we're broken and missing something in our soul.

Without Jesus, we're broken and missing something in our soul.

Over the years, I've seen watched people some people get curious about the church.

They start seeking God.

They start looking for God and they know well, I'll come to church, you come to church and when they do, they're probably looking for silver and gold.

They're looking for God to take care of their problems.

I know I've been in that boat myself, even before I was a Christian.

I know I've been in that boat myself even before I was a Christian.

I wanted God to solve my problems.

This miracle's message is we need to look deeper.

So look for our relationship with God, to trust him to forgive our sins, because if you have that, you can get through anything.

Peter says in explaining this miracle.

It's interesting.

His conclusion is therefore repent, have your sins wiped away, the one main problem in your life you need to take care of.

Jesus can do it.

Peter's sermon is an explanation of the miracle the crowd just witnessed.

Peter's message is that that miracle, every miracle, points us to something.

Here we see it points us to Jesus, as Peter shows us the Prince of Life.

And second miracles point us to.

Every single one of them point to our deeper need, our deepest need of a relationship with God through faith in Jesus.

In two weeks we'll look at the last two things, which are pretty profound.

We learn from the miracles, but today I just want to say everybody here has needs.

Every single one of us has physical or emotional needs in our life and we're praying for them Financial needs, healing needs, relational needs, job needs, and the whole list goes on, and we should pray for them.

He's a good Heavenly Father, he hears us, he knows us.

But the point in what Peter's doing is don't let our physical needs and wants distract us from our deepest need Jesus, who can not only provide our physical needs but give us eternal life when we believe in him.

So let me encourage you.

God wants us to bring our needs to him, whatever they are.

You know why.

Nothing's impossible for him.

He can do miracles and the scripture says he can do far more abundantly than we can even ask or think.

Far more abundantly sometimes means God wants to meet a much deeper need than we think To forgive our sins, to satisfy our soul's thirst, to satisfy our spiritual hunger, which only Jesus can provide.

We all have needs.

Physical needs do really capture our full attention sometimes.

That's all we can focus on, capture our full attention.

Sometimes that's all we can focus on, but I encourage us to let those needs draw us back to Jesus, the Prince of Life.

We may need money, health healing Listen to me.

We may need money, health healing, but we need Jesus more, more than silver or gold.

I got something better.

Peter says don't just settle for silver and gold.

Come to Jesus, who is the bread and water of life itself.

Let's pray, father, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you for your word, for your promises.

You've revealed who you are through the person of Jesus.

We thank you for him and we just want to say, father, we need Jesus, we need him.

Please make him real to each of us in our lives.

Let us help us to go deeper and even with the need we now face, whatever that is, I pray that you would somehow use that as an instrument to help us go deeper with you, that our soul's thirst would be satisfied, and not just our physical need.

Help us to trust you for all the physical needs in our life, being secure in the knowledge that you've already met our deepest need for you through what Jesus did on the cross.

I pray in his name, amen.