Analog Church 07: Leaping and Praising God

Hear now the words of the true and living God, Acts 3, 1 through 10.

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 is called Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John go about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms, 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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Welcome to church this morning.

Uh I have a bit of a cold.

Hey, raise your hand if you have a cold.

Okay.

Let's stick together.

We can make it through this.

Um so yeah, if I if my voice sounds cooler than usual, uh it's because I have a cold.

I'm like Phoebe when she gets a cold.

Um so welcome to church.

Uh welcome to Redemption Church Denver.

If you walked in and you saw the signs outside and you're like Redemption Church Denver, that's not where my flight was going.

Uh it is.

We're uh um uh we recently changed our name.

This week uh we ordered new signs, uh which is exciting.

We'll put those on the building.

Hold your applause.

And we uh uh also ordered new window stickers.

If you want to be a part of putting the new stickers on the windows or hanging those signs, Saturday, November 3rd, that's this coming Saturday.

We're having a fall cleanup and work day.

Um I don't know why I used air quotes.

We're actually having it.

And the uh uh so join us it Saturday starting at 9 a.m., 9 to 1.

We think if we get enough people to show up, we can crank this stuff out in four hours.

Uh we're gonna we're doing it after we we scheduled it for what was supposed to be after all the leaves dropped.

That way we have something to rake.

Um and so yeah, please join us next coming Saturday, November 3rd.

Uh we'll probably have coffee and Santiago's burritos um and lots of fun work to do.

So that's coming up.

Also, just uh quick update.

Uh last week uh we spoke about giving.

And it just wanted to say thank you so much to all who gave over this past week.

Uh we just saw just some incredible generosity that was deeply encouraging.

Um and uh yeah, just wanted to say that we're uh our giving channels are still open.

Um and we're still looking to really at this time lay a foundation for our church to grow from.

Right now, as a church, we're paycheck to paycheck.

We're month to month.

And that means that in order for us to exist, we have to come together to make ourselves exist.

We have to uh i the the reason that the church will continue is because the church itself, us, continues giving to it.

And so I think God puts us in situations of radical dependence like this, so that He can create moments of unity, and uh that's our prayer, is that that's what comes from this time.

Uh also uh we you've we've got a uh I've entitled this announcement Fishing for Compliments, because that's what we're going to be doing.

So we're building a new website, and part of that website is going to have a ticker with quotes from folks in the congregation.

That way, when someone new is looking for the church and they want to get a feel for it, what this can sort of mean in their lives, uh there'll be real live quotes from real live uh you.

So uh the way that we would like to gather those is to sort of kill two birds with one stone.

You can search for Redemption Church Denver in Google Maps and find us.

Also, while you're there, you can leave a review.

And we're going to gather from those reviews those quotes that we're going to use on the website.

Likewise, if you listen to the podcast, Redemption Church Denver, just search that in your podcast app of choice.

Leave a review there as well.

We can gather the quotes from there.

So this seems like a good way to sort of uh populate the website and uh yeah, get good reviews.

Um think of it as like cyber evangelism.

Uh uh okay, I I had one more thing, I think.

Cleanup day.

Uh this is just this is just an announcement of excitement.

This is our fourth week that redemption groups will meet.

Uh raise your hand if you're in a redemption group.

Okay, now raise your hand.

Keep your hand raised if you're in a redemption group and you have a cold.

All right, you guys shouldn't go this week.

Uh but we are uh we currently have 78 people in redemption groups.

That it that is so thrilling to me.

Uh because that means 78 people are committing to gathering together in these smaller groups, uh going over the text that we're going over in scripture and really getting to know one another by getting to know the scripture.

Uh I'd read a quote a couple of um, I don't know when, I'm really bad with time.

I read a quote once, and uh uh Tim Keller, um the Protestant Pope, I'm gonna say that every time I say Tim Keller, has this book called Center Church, and it's like if you want to have a church, read this book, and then you can just go do it.

And he has this one quote in there where he says, if if at least 50% of your church that gathers on Sunday morning uh isn't involved in a smaller group throughout the week with people in the church, then you're likely driving towards becoming a consumer center rather than a community.

And uh the reason that I'm so excited by that number of 78 people is because there's probably about 110 or 115 of us in the room.

And so our ratio is really healthy right now.

The reason that we have these redemption groups is not just because, like most churches do, and it's a thing to have.

We really want to be creating and cultivating community.

And out of that community uh comes accountability and deep friendships and a growth in our knowledge of the Lord and of our personal transformation, of our hearts really being transformed, that can really have an impact on our city.

And so they aren't in the way of our mission, they're a means to our mission.

So uh I just wanted to share that that's where we are at with those.

Uh if you'd like to sign up for those, you can do so at the welcome table in the lobby.

There'll be someone there wearing an RC shirt with an iPad, and uh you can sign up there or on our website, redemptiondenver.com.

Okay, announcements are done.

We are in the seventh week of our series called Analog Church.

Analog Church is uh we're going through the first four chapters of the book of Acts, the purpose being uh the this early church, the church in its earliest stages, can act as a sort of analog for what our church should be like today.

Not everything's going to be exactly the same, but it's going to be sort of analogous to the way we should be operating as a church today.

And the way that we see that unfold is they had a real sense of day one clarity.

They knew exactly what their mission, mission, that's a portmanteau of mission and vision.

Uh you'll see it coming around.

And they knew exactly what that was.

Uh and because of that clarity of focus, they they were they were living with with such a purpose, with such clear intent that they had this radical impact on the community in the city that they were a part of.

It was just enormous.

And what we're trying to do through this series is to cultivate that same sense of day one clarity.

That the kingdom is coming, there is a new king on the throne of heaven, and that his kingdom is moving forward into the world, and that kingdom needs witnesses.

And we are to witness to that kingdom just as though it just started, to see that same sort of real dramatic change happen.

So, what we're looking at today is the first part of a story that will actually, uh, as it develops, take us through to the end of our series.

And the story begins with a man who uh was born lame from birth, he couldn't walk, and then Peter and John heal him, and that event goes public.

And when that event goes public, the church sort of moves away from this small community that it uh had been contained in, and then it moves out and explodes into the city, into the public scene, and it causes a bit of a ruckus.

So we're going to be following that story through the end.

But first I want to talk a bit about how we read narratives.

Because what we've seen so far is sort of uh last week it was here's what, here's a description of what the church looks like.

They had this radical fellowship that developed out of seeing what Peter spoke.

The week before that, we just looked through a sermon.

Uh, actually, two weeks before that, we were just looking at Peter's sermon.

But this week and throughout the end of our time, it's really a narrative.

So, how do we understand and how do we read narratives in scripture?

Well, I uh Daniel Craig became James Bond at a very formative point in my life.

And uh my name is James, and so when I watch James Bond movies, it's this amount of positive reinforcement that you can get uh is is outrageous.

And that's because when I watch those movies, I who do I identify with?

I identify with James.

And look, you all do as well.

When you watch James Bond, you aren't thinking, oh, I wonder what it's like to be the bad guy.

That's not what you're thinking.

You're thinking, oh wow, this feels so cool because I'm identified with the hero, and I can feel what it's like to be a hero like that in the movies.

Um yeah, not everything about James Bond is worth emulating.

Um But uh that's that type of reading, that identification with the protagonist is typical of the way that we read the Bible as well.

And it can actually be a bad habit and it can cause us to miss what's really happening in the narrative and how that relates to us.

Classic example.

Uh if you're going through our Gotham Fellowship, you probably just covered something like this.

The classic example is David and Goliath.

When we read David and Goliath, the the the takeaway that most of us leave with is okay, I need to be like David.

David was uh everyone else was faithless, but David saw the promises of God and he believed in them and trusted in them, and so he went out and he conquered a foe that was well beyond him.

I need to be like David.

But as the biblical narrative continues, we see that the point of the story isn't that we're the hero.

The point of the story is that Christ is the hero.

And so when we read a story like David and Goliath, who are we really more like?

We're more like just some rank and file member of the Israelite army who was looking at Goliath and saying, I am far too terrified to go up against an adversary like that.

That will absolutely conquer me.

And you know what?

We are absolutely right.

But then, as this this cowardly soldier who stands back and isn't able to draw themselves out of this fear, isn't able to do anything to help themselves, one representative comes and he faces the challenge on our behalf.

And for some reason, because David, just this one man, was victorious, we get to share in that victory.

And you see, for us in Christ, it's the same.

We we are helpless in our sin.

We are we we have this cowardice in our hearts that can't be overcome.

We have uh the Yeah, we're helpless in our sin.

Imagine I came up with a third way to say it.

And uh then this representative comes.

This new type of human who represents all of us, and he takes, he conquers the enemy that we could never conquer.

He conquers sin and death, even in our own hearts.

And we stand back and we do nothing, but we're we're saved by him.

We share in that representative's victory.

So when we read the story today, we're going to see Peter and John uh heal a uh heal a man who's born lame from birth.

And it's tempting when we read that story to think, okay, here I need to be Peter and John.

I need to have my eyes out, I need to be scanning where are where are problems that I can step into as a Christian, and I need to move into those things intentionally, and I need to bring the healing power of Christ to places where it isn't.

Now, is that true?

Yes, yeah.

People mumbled it, but yeah, that's true.

That makes me doubt my teaching.

Yes, it is true.

We really need to step into those things.

We know that that is that is a call of the Christian.

This is the church acting normally.

It's when the church in its normal rhythms allows itself to get interrupted by a need and then steps into that need.

Of course, that call is in us, but we'll miss the story, we'll miss the truth of the story if we don't realize that what's true first is we're the beggar.

When we read this story, we're we're not the hero.

Don't identify with the hero.

You're the beggar.

You can't heal yourself.

You can't help yourself.

And the good news is that in Christ we can be saved.

So that's what we're going to be looking at today.

And throughout the rest of these weeks, as we move through this story of this lame beggar that was healed and the ripple effects in the culture that go off.

So let's go ahead and jump in.

Acts 3, 1 through 2.

We're going to sort of get some context, and Luke introduces the characters that are going to be key to understanding this story.

Acts 3, 1 to 2, it says, 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 is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

So, that was loud, I'm sorry.

So at the uh where we are in the book, we just saw a description of the church and the culture that had formed once they really uh heard and understood the grace of God in truth.

This radical counterculture forms of generosity and fellowship and commitment to each other and their spiritual disciplines.

And we see that counterculture expressed in what Peter and John are doing.

Part of their normal rhythms was to uh continue going to the temple and praying together.

And so Peter and John, this seems to be, Luke doesn't give us a time frame, it just says now, which means this is probably just a typical part of their life rhythms.

They made their way up to the temple for the evening prayer.

And we also see uh the beggar has his normal life rhythms that he's a part of.

Sort of what grew out of where the crowd is, that's where the beggar goes.

And so as people are moving towards the temple, he had it arranged that he would be carried there so that he could col so that he could collect alms to survive.

And he's laid at a strategic place, he's laid not just at any gate, but at a gate that was called the beautiful gate, uh, because it unlike the others, it it was covered in bronze.

Uh and it truly was a glorious place.

And and look, this is just conjecture, but uh it makes sense as a place to beg.

You you get to put yourself in this strange juxtaposition.

It's like, look, you're walking in to give, and you're giving to this thing that seems glorious already.

I'm going to put myself, obviously not glorious, right in front of it.

That way perhaps I can pluck at your heartstrings a bit.

That you might think, you know, this the evidence of the need is heightened by the location that he places himself in.

One of the things I want us to see that I think is important for our church is these were structured rhythms in their lives that they allowed to be interrupted.

That's the context of the first miracle in the church.

These structured rhythms, and yet they were able to be interrupted.

In our language today, you hear a a lot of people talk about organic versus inorganic.

You know, I want community, but I but I really want organic community.

I don't want it to feel uh contrived or structured.

I want I want community like like it was at summer camp or college, as if there's a difference.

And where community just seemed to sort of grow up naturally.

I don't want that inorganic, inauthentic experience.

I really don't like that language.

And the reason is, have you ever tried organic community?

It's more expensive, it doesn't taste as good.

Quite frankly, it usually just doesn't happen.

Organic community, in the way that we use that term, usually looks like nothing.

The way that our lives are structured, just as sort of contemporary Western Denver writes, uh we don't have much space.

We don't, and we especially don't have much space that's in overlap with each other.

We work, we go to our own homes.

There's not much margin time, and that margin time is usually taken up by content that we feel required to consume.

And so what we need to do in an environment like that is create something inorganic.

We need to create something where we say, look, we're going to actually have a structure here.

We're gonna have these rhythms that we all agree to in order to create that overlap.

For them, look, we're gonna go, we're gonna keep going to the temple.

We're gonna make these rhythms a part of our real life that create this overlap.

But here's the thing: what happens in that inorganic structure has to be organic.

And that's the important thing.

Oftentimes we get hung up on is this structure organic or is it inorganic?

I don't care.

You know, if anything happens, it's because we planned to be there at the same time.

So let's all inorganically plan to be there at the same time.

But then what's important is that when we're there at the same time, something organic has to happen.

We have to have space for those moments to be interrupted.

When we're in our redemption groups and we hear some heartbreaking news from one of our friends' lives, we have to be able to stop the content and gather around and pray and enter into those situations in a deeply organic way.

But if we don't have those inorganic structures, I don't think those organic meetings will ever happen.

And so that's the type of structure we want to try and develop as a church.

It it's seemingly inorganic on the surface, you're gathered together by going downstairs and signing up on a document and getting email follow up.

Like there's nothing organic about that.

But then in those communities, the way that we gather together, or Organic life must take place.

Think of the church and the church structures like a lattice that a plant grows up.

The lattice is not organic, it's external to the plant, but it provides a support that allows organic growth to happen.

That's what we're looking to create.

So, the first miracle of the church, it interrupts a normal rhythm.

Do you have normal rhythms?

Do you have normal rhythms?

Imagine how could you create and cultivate these normal rhythms in your life that allow organic growth and transformation to happen.

That's the context of the first miracle.

So, next, as the story continues, Acts 3, verses 3 through 5 says, seeing Peter and John, this is the beggar, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

Acts 3:3–5

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.

So Luke often writes with such spare language, the details can be so missing sometimes that it's actually frustrating.

But that has an effect, which is when he emphasizes a detail, we should perk up.

Because there's something meaningful that he's trying to communicate here.

And in this moment, Peter, excuse me, Luke really slows down his recounting of the story to draw our attention to, he uses three verses to describe they made eye contact.

Peter and John are walking by.

And then Peter says, look at us.

And what happens?

But he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

That economy of language that he normally uses, all of a sudden their eye contact takes up three verses.

What's happening there?

The look at us, I think when we first read it, it's like that seems almost controlling.

It doesn't seem like he's getting on their level, but and we know what's about to happen, right?

We know a miracle is about to take place.

We know there's about to be this incredible healing.

And he says, look at us.

But this isn't like, you know, when you go to Pearl Street and the a street performance is just getting started, and so they just start like shouting indiscriminately to try and gather a crowd.

Look at me, look at me.

I don't know if they shout that.

This isn't like that.

This is not a gathering of a crowd.

Gather around to see the miracle that's about to happen.

It's just the opposite.

He sees Peter and John coming, but they're just ordinary people.

They're just other people to ask from.

And the fact that Peter and John need to say, look at us, means he wasn't looking at them.

It means that this was just another person.

And after enough asking, you gotta get your heart in a place to where it can receive no after no after no.

And so he treats the crowd just like a crowd.

Random, faceless people that move by.

Some will give, some won't.

So he treats Peter and John that same way.

And in what Peter and John do is they say, look at us, and he looks at them, and they create this eye contact.

He's not drawing a crowd when he says, look at us.

He's removing it.

Saying, we're in the midst of this crowd, but look, this is going to be you and me.

This is just us.

We're people now.

Let's look at each other.

And the beggar fixes his attention on them.

What we see in this first act of the healing is that it's a deeply personal healing.

It's not a generic miracle, but it's one for a particular person, between particular people.

It's obvious when we see little moves like this that Luke brings the emphasis to, it's obvious that Peter and John were doing miracles in the same spirit that Jesus performed his miracles.

They were healing out of the same spirit that Jesus healed.

And it's evident because the first thing that they do is make it intimate.

They make the healing personal.

And that's the same way that Jesus would typically heal.

So here's an example of Jesus healing in Mark 7, 32 to 35.

It says, and they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment.

And they begged him to lay his hand on him.

So crowd gathered, right?

And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue.

And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephasa, that is, be opened.

And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

Now we see Jesus healing like this, and it looks like, okay, this is like this is like witchcraft.

You know, it's like he's casting a spell.

It's like, okay, come over here, and I'm gonna spit on my hand, and then I'm gonna touch your tongue, and then I'm gonna give you a wet wheelie, and then you're gonna you're gonna be able to heal because I know the magic dance to be able to go through.

But it's a misread.

We know Jesus performed healings where he wasn't even in the room.

He doesn't need to go through some incantation in order for a healing to work.

He's not summoning power.

He is not some conjurer of cheap tricks.

The two Lord of the Rings fans.

He's deaf.

And he can't speak.

Look, this is sign language.

You've been a spectacle your whole life because you couldn't speak, and when you tried to engage with people, yeah, you know, the way you talk, it gathers a crowd.

I'm gonna take you away from the crowd.

This is gonna be just you and me.

How can I communicate with you in a way that you feel and makes sense and will make this moment matter to you?

I'm gonna do it by touch.

Look, here's where the healing is coming.

See the way my mouth is?

Your mouth's gonna be like that.

Your ears feel.

I know you can't hear anything in them, so I'm I'm gonna touch them because I know you can feel it.

This is where the healing is going to happen.

I'm going to bring this healing to you.

It's intimate.

Jesus heals according to the need of the person's heart.

Which means he doesn't just need to be able to hear.

He doesn't just need to be able to speak, he needs to be in private, communicated intimately with the God of the universe, condescending to the level of not just a human.

It's enough that Jesus speaks a language.

He will go as low as he needs to interact with us.

Language, you can't speak language, fine.

I will communicate precisely to you.

He sees a heart with the incredible gentleness that Jesus heals, he sees a heart that needs to be seen.

Someone isolated by their disability, he steps into and speaks their language first.

Even though he knows he's about to make it so that they can share a common language.

Peter and John, they heal in the same way.

They've obviously been with Jesus.

It's obviously the same spirit that Jesus heals with.

They are healing with.

You know, this is what we mean by personal relationship with Jesus.

That's one of those phrases that we've used so often that doesn't mean anything anymore.

But what we mean is that when Jesus heals, he's healing in ways that are particular to you.

Crafted, tailored, bespoke.

They're for you.

Which means he sees you and the need that is truly in your heart, and he ministers directly to that.

Get rid of the crowd.

He is not a generic healer.

But he's healing the wounds.

He's addressing the sins.

These real tangible issues in your life, he moves into.

We can see that here.

A beggar who had learned to stop looking at a crowd.

Because who looks back?

Peter and John, you know, before we do this miracle, look at us.

Let's pay our attention to each other.

How many of you have extra attention lying around?

I don't have much.

I cultivate ways to not have extra attention.

I'm addicted to podcasts.

If I have spare time, it's shocking how quickly I go to my phone if I have spare time.

I don't have much attention that's spare.

Perhaps we should.

So we'll move into the miracle.

So they've made eye contact.

Luke draws our attention to it to show the character of the miracle that's about to be performed.

In Acts 3, 6-7, it says, 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.

Peter starts by removing the beggar's expectation.

The ask was for alms.

The ask was for silver and gold.

And so Peter does this jujitsu where he's like, I don't have silver and gold.

Sorry, dude, I don't carry cash.

And he uh fills it in with something that goes far beyond any expectation that the beggar could have had.

He says, rise up and walk.

Now, if if we find out later in the story that the man was about 40 years old and he'd been lame from birth.

It's almost mocking, right?

I don't have anything to give you, rise up and walk.

I think that explains why Peter reaches out his hand and pulls him up.

Rise up and walk, pulls him up and then feels my feet and ankles are strong.

I can stand.

What I want us to see here is that in that flip of expectations, we see someone who is deeply healed who wasn't asking for it.

They weren't asking.

He wasn't seeking the depth of healing that he received.

He thought he knew what his problem was.

He thought he knew what he needed from the people he was asking from.

And he wouldn't have let his mind wander towards this deeper hope of what if I could walk?

What would my life be like then?

John Calvin, our friend, he says this about the expectations that were defied in the beggar.

He says, For this is the beginning of our calling.

That he may make those things to be which are not, that he may show himself unto those who seek not after him.

Furthermore, howsoever we be already taught by faith to pray unto God, yet because we do not always feel our miseries, it cometh not into our mind to seek for remedy.

Therefore, the Lord bringeth the same freely and unlooked for.

He's saying, look, the Spirit charges us to pray, so we're praying.

But we often, we don't even know what our deepest needs are.

They don't even really come to our minds.

We don't, listen to this.

We don't even have the capacity to ask for what we need.

The type of salvation that we need is we we need someone who can diagnose us and cure us.

We feel bad.

I don't know what's going on in me.

The things I want to do, I can't do.

The things I don't want to do, I do all the time.

You diagnose that, Sigmund.

We can't.

We need someone who can diagnose and cure.

That's our hope.

That's what Calvin's saying here.

And lastly, he says, lastly, he says, finally.

Finally, howsoever we be bent to pray, yet doth he exceed our hope and petitions with his goodness.

Look at your prayers.

This is what we mean by a sovereign grace.

It's a grace that's all powerful and knows.

And doesn't know generically, knows personally.

Consider the alms you're asking for.

When Jesus comes in, he says, look, those aren't even the right things.

You think those are your problems.

Your problems are much worse than that, but I can fix them.

I can bring healing even to these places that you've given up on.

Your problem isn't this this bill that needs to be paid.

Your problem is you're stressed all the time.

And when that gets paid, you'll find something else to stress about.

So what's the difference if that gets paid or not?

I'm not interested.

I would rather address this real problem, which you can't even see yet.

But that's the type of intimacy that Jesus heals us with.

That's what we mean when we say personal relationship with Jesus.

You can see this in the way that he moves into your life with these events that seem perfectly tailored to stoke your pains.

Crises in life that when you step back, it's like, wow, this reveals perfectly the dangerous state that my heart was in.

It's as if someone who was all-knowing and all-powerful were crafting not only the solutions, but the problems themselves to bring a diagnostic for his healing.

Just tell me I'm busy.

Next, what we see is that in this humility, from this state of incredible need, there comes this incredible exaltation.

So the man stands up, he feels the strength in his legs, and Acts 3, 8 through 10, it says, 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 the man leaps up, he stands, he feels the strength in his feet and ankles, and he takes a step, and he begins to walk, and the walking isn't enough, so he begins to leap and he's walking and he's leaping.

He's like, I'm gonna stick with these guys.

Where are you headed?

We're headed to the temple.

I'm headed to the temple too.

And we're I mean he's walking and he's leaping and he's praising God the whole time.

This man who wouldn't make eye contact before is drawing a crowd.

This man who was passed by before, who was completely and utterly neglected, he was a fixture.

He might as well have been part of the gate.

Now is drawing a crowd of people amazed and full of wonder at what they were seeing.

He's leaping and praising the Lord.

It's not the miracle workers who gather the crowd.

It's the person who was so broken that their healing is undeniable.

So he's walking and he's leaping and he's praising God.

And he might not have known it at the time, although I'm sure shortly thereafter he was reflecting and realizing he was proclaiming in his actions the mighty works of God.

In fact, the language that Luke uses, this walking and leaping and praising God, is borrowed language, and it's borrowed from this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 35.

Isaiah 35 · chapter mention

Isaiah 35, 3 through 6 says this.

Says, strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

This was a time that was to be looked forward to.

When the day of the Lord finally comes, when we finally see him come with this vengeance and recompense, what are the signs of that?

You'll see the lame man, he will be walking, he'll be leaping like a deer.

Have you seen deer leap?

It's good.

He's proclaiming, look, this prophecy, this new age, this new time, when God's healing power flows throughout creation, when God comes to ransom his people, this is what it's gonna look like.

You're gonna see signs like this.

And so the crowd gathers around, and it's hard for us to relate to because we barely know our Bibles.

But these are committed Jewish people who are going to the temple, studying scriptures they likely had memorized.

And so they see an event like this, and the connection would have been plain, and they're filled with awe and wonder at the man that they knew leaping like a deer.

He draws a crowd, the glory comes.

comes from the most humble one in the story.

So it says in this passage in Isaiah thirty-five, it says, Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.

Now, how many of you hear like, great news, God's coming with vengeance?

That doesn't typically, that doesn't put me in a light and joyous mood.

The reason for that is we know ourselves.

And if we have any introduction to the biblical narrative, we know that the the objects of the Lord's vengeance should be us.

We are the ones who traded his glory for other glories.

We were his creatures who defied our creator.

We're the ones that would misdiagnose ourselves and wander around groping in the dark, denying his very existence, diagnosing and seeking to cure ourselves.

We're the ones that even if we worked it up somehow to ask for help, we'd ask for the wrong thing.

Look at the things you pray for.

Look at the things you ask for.

What are the problems in your life that if that were just in place, then I would be fixed, then I would be secured.

You chase after the wind and if you're honest with yourself for a second, you know you are.

I'll put it in a personal way.

Look for Zach and I, we can go for a weekly ride depending upon how many people show up on Sunday mornings.

How foolish is that?

As though the power of God is accomplished by numbers and attendance.

So what is our faith really in?

What if I prayed for what I really wanted?

God I really want a lot of people to show up because then I'd know that this were working.

Then I'd know your power we're moving out into the world.

I misdiagnose myself because that's an empty bag.

Those next levels that we try and get to let's put let's do one better.

Let's just put it in Denver culture.

Look you moved here to have weekly adventures.

How's that working?

Has the connection with nature that you experience out here, has that solved the problems in your life like you thought it would Denver it's friendly and young.

How thick is your community?

Do people know your hurts and your pain we look in all the wrong places worst case scenario God just gives us what we want it wouldn't help at all.

So we know that God's vengeance is stacked against us that if God were to come and lay his vengeance on us he would show us our lives and he would say look I'm the source of all life anything good in the world comes from me.

Who did you turn to last when you needed help?

So yeah my vengeance is coming here's what we know it says say to those who have an anxious heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God he will come and save you when Christ came what did his vengeance look like it looked like him bearing the vengeance of the Lord.

What did the recompense what did the payback look like?

It looked like him taking the payment for our sins in Christ when we look at the vengeance of the Lord we see look at the depths of his love poured out to us in the vengeance that's laid on Christ.

Look at the cost of my sin it demonstrates the depths of his love towards us because it was Christ who paid that cost.

And then when we see Christ, when we see how the narrative unfolds that it wasn't a narrative of us being the heroes but of Christ who is our hero.

When we see that unfold through scripture we can get these texts and say to our own hearts, I'm not anxious anymore.

I'm courageous.

I feel strong not because I'm a strong person, not because I'm a courageous person, not because I'm not riddled by frequent anxieties, but because I can say to my heart, look at the vengeance of the Lord that's been paid and the healing that's being applied in my life by the power of that payment.

That's the way that Jesus saves us.

The crowd's wonder is that they see this happening in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and they realize this new age that God had promised it has dawned.

This new age has come.

And so we can look forward to that same sort of redemption in our lives as I said we find out later in the story that the man was 40 years old, lame since birth sits in front of the same gate at the same times in order to just survive.

You know we may even have the wrong image of him giving uh I know traveling overseas to beg, depending on the culture, but to beg often doesn't look like begging here.

I know in in Southeast Asia beggars in the market would be lying face down on the ground like this like don't look at my face.

Give if you can conjure this up in you but please don't look at me his begging perhaps could have been like that.

So he had a lot of time face down to imagine why?

Why can't I walk like why was this the life that was given to me?

Why is this the pain that's allotted particularly to me?

Why did this business that I put so much effort into not work?

Why did that relationship that I fought for die?

Why did this friend who I I confessed to and opened myself to betray me?

Why did I find myself betraying when I never thought I'd be capable of such evil how come my disloyalty feels so constantly exposed why was I cursed with this type of a life in John 9 1 through 3 that question is asked specifically this section of text was was the only piece of scripture that we basically looked at at all in my undergrad studying philosophy at CU Boulder.

And we looked at this one section in this class that was taught by this lady is Megan in here?

No.

Oh she knows her and uh it was a class on cultural deconstruction it's like Derrida and Foucault those French philosophers that screwed up our thinking so bad.

And this they used as this prime example of what it looks like to deconstruct a culture's way of thinking this is like the archetypal example.

It's John 9 1 through 3 and it says as he passed by he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him Rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?

Jesus answered it was not that this man sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be displayed in him why that man they likely walked past other beggars they likely leapt past them later they didn't heal everyone they healed him for some reason the Spirit led them to him why because God is working particularly in individuals' lives to reveal the works of God that the works of God might be displayed might be greater displayed in the pain that they were bound up in this way that we approach the gospel we don't even know how to ask for it and yet Christ diagnoses precisely what the problem is in our hearts and he brings us to the fountain of life that we might draw from it the way that we approach the gospel is only from a place of need.

We aren't the hero of this story or the lame beggar who gets healed Tim Keller in his Protestant Pope in his book Counterfeit Gods which is a short book and it's a short read so I recommend it he says if you want God's grace all you need is need.

All you need is nothing but that kind of spiritual humility is hard to muster we come to God saying look at all I've done or maybe look at all I've suffered God however wants us to look to him to just wash Jesus says look at me spare some of your attention from your own diagnosis of your problems look at me look at the problem that I have promised to solve I promise it is the most important one and then when we come to him we come to him only with need and the good news is he decided to tie up his glory with the salvation of sinners think of the way he leapt and joyously moved throughout the city was it prideful look at the strength of my ankles and my feet no it was given we can be like that when we get the gospel it makes us a people like that this incredible humility that isn't navelgazing but is joyous.

I'm going to read to close this out the rest of this prophecy in Isaiah 35 says strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees, say to those who have an anxious heart be strong, fear not behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, he will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the deaf unstopped by the way that word for ears of the the deaf being unstopped that's only used one other place and that's where Jesus healed that deaf man in the story that we look at then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert the burning sand shall become a pool in the thirsty ground springs of water do you have burning sand in your life in the thirsty ground that you're surrounded by that's good news.

It's exactly the type of place the Lord loves to move into in the haunt of jackals where they lie down the grass shall become reeds and rushes and a highway shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it.

It shall belong to those who walk on the way even if they are fools they shall not go astray.

No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it.

They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.

Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away this is our hope in Christ He will draw our attention to pains that we would have liked to have otherwise ignored in order to bring us to a place that is so good that the language bursts at the seams for what it accomplishes our job is to look to him okay so I'll take one question and then we'll take communion great covered it as we take communion take a minute before you walk down consider in your heart what are the alms I'm asking for and what is it that Jesus is diagnosing in my heart that he would truly like to heal and this week don't come to him with a promise of how you're going to make sure that's healed by next week.

Come to him with a need asking to be your healer and then come to the table where he gives us his very self.

Let's pray Father I pray that we would have our anxious hearts granted a peace that comes from you when we see that even our need is designed by you to show your glory that our hearts might be transformed into hearts of joy and gladness when we see the work that you are doing in our lives.

Father I pray that we would not write off the details that you have drawn us into, but that you would grant us an ability by your Spirit to pay attention to them, knowing that we are in the hands of a master healer who won't be distracted by our complaints but who will move precisely into the areas of our lives that need the deepest healing.

Lord would we trust the personal nature of your care and would we come to you openly and quickly with our need that we might be leaping and dancing with joy our praise of you what a king we have that will speak our language no matter what we need to hear.

Father move in our church by this same spirit you moved in through Peter and John that we might see Denver become a city like the one you describe in Isaiah.

Father they hope for it on day one let us hope for it now we'll lift this up in Jesus' name amen.