"By faith in the name of Jesus"

1 day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at 3 in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John. Then Peter said, look at us.

So the man gave them his attention, a expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said silver or gold, I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up. And instantly, the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising got When all the people saw him walking and praising god, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the Temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, fellow israelites, why does this surprise you. Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this my walk? The god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the god of our fathers has glorified his servant, Jesus.

You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before pilot, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous 1 and asked that a murderer be released you. You killed the author of life, but god raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.

It is Jesus's name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him as you can all see. Oh, good. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Let me add my welcome.

Especially for those who are new or perhaps visiting. You're very much welcome to Hope Church. My name is Abre, and 1 of the members here. And, if you have closed your Bible, please keep it open to that passage, and we'll be referring back to it as we, as we look at god's word. So as we look at god's word, let's come together in prayer as pray.

Our heavenly father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for all the things that this word has to say about him. And as we come to us this morning, please, Lord, would you humble us that we would be, listening and that we would be impacted by this word that we would change where we need to change, and we would come to love you more. We are in your name, amen.

So we are in a series, in middle of a series, or cold gospel community, and we've heard a little bit about that just this this morning so gospel community, this serves a servant series, we're looking at the early days of the church and the book of acts. So this is just out of the resurrection, and the church has, been has received the the Holy Spirit, and people are coming to Christ. Every day. Lots of people, actually. And we heard last week and a week before from the acts chapter 2, the previous chapter, and we see how god's, Jesus power is at work inside of the church community.

And in acts chapter 3, this this week and next week, and we'll see how Jesus power is at work outside of the the church community. So I'm gonna be looking we're gonna be looking we're gonna be looking this morning at the first half of that chapter. Next week, Steven will be taking us through the second half. So, hopefully, it won't too much on this toes, in, when, in what we, what we look at today. But, the, the, our hope and our prayers at gospel communities will help us to think how we live our daily lives in light of the gospel.

So let's let's jump into this, this scene, my first point. And if you could do the slides for me, that would be, that would be great. So the, the scene, Elizabeth context, so this man we're told, right at the start of the of the chapter, he he is lame from birth. So if you are crippling in in this, in this culture, people think 1 or 2 things, either you have done something really terrible and god has punished you for it, or your parents have done something really terrible and god has punished you for it. That's kind of generally how is how people are looking at, as as being crippled.

It's nothing of god. This is just a cultural thing. So this man probably would have felt like an outcast in his old community. And we're told that he is and actually later on in in acts chapter 4, the next chapter, we're told that he's actually over 40 years old, and he has been lame for birth from birth the whole time. So he has never felt his legs work.

He lots of things that we take for granted. He has never even had the upper as he used to do. So he wakes up every morning, stares at these lifeless legs, legs that should be getting him from point a to point b, but instead he has to carry those legs around. They have failed him. They are now a burden to him.

So this man knows total dependence on other people. He can't work, therefore he can't earn a living, therefore he begs. He relies on other people for pretty much everything. So we're we're told that his daily routine is that his he's taken to the temple. He's kind of deposited there so that he can beg because the temple is kind of the epicenter of Jerusalem.

Everything happens in the temple, Pete. Everyone goes to the temple. So if you want us to beg, it's a perfect place. And the the temple, complex, it it is a complex, really, because it's not just the temple building. The temple building surrounded by 1 course called, kind of the course of priests, then that's surrounded by the course of men, course of women, and then the course of gentiles.

So it's like a square within the square within the square kind of thing. And, he is taken to the course of the gentiles. It's the biggest cause. A lot of things happen. People are changing money.

This hustle and bustle. It's it's a very sort of busy place. So again, if you if you beg for a living, this is the perfect place to be. And then another little detail is that, which, the writer adds in verse 2, he says that he was carried to the temple gate called Beautiful. Now I was just looking this up, this this week, and the historian say that the temple this, particular gate is called the beautiful gate because firstly it was made out of bronze, it's a Corinthians bronze, huge.

And apparently, it took 12 men to close the gates every day. So it was quite a spectacle. It was quite something to to see. So if you were, you know, 1 of the pilgrims that came to Jerusalem, you wanna go to the temple, and you probably wanna go to the this particular gate because it was something to see. So we we we go into the scene.

There's an encounter. It's 3 PM. It's time for evening prayers. So this man is is probably already in the temple. He's probably already at the beautiful gate waiting for for pilgrims and for worship to come in, and the crowds begin to flow in in the heat of the day.

And 2 men stand out to him. And perhaps this this this man has, a a routine. You know, maybe he's he has his eyes down, his handouts, and he begs, you know, he he he expects 1 of 2 things either pissy and people give him money, or they just ignore him and and they walk past. But not these men. These men don't ignore him.

Instead, 1 of them gives him as full attention, and in fact, also demand demands full attention back. Again, not so not not the kind of thing that we do when we see people begging on the streets. We we kind of want to look the other way and just like, well, you know, what do I do? But but not not this not this man. And he has very simple and very straightforward words, to this to the lame man.

So look with me, down in in the chapter again. In verse 6, he says, silver gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Walk. Very simple, very straightforward. And this man who is speaking takes hold of the hand of the lame man and helps him up. And we're told immediately immediately life rushes into his body, muscles, nerves, ligaments, all just start pulsing with life again.

What was dead is now filled with life. And he's not just he's not just he's not he's not just walking, like, pieces said to to him. He's actually, he says he's actually jumping is running and jumping, praising god. And you know that this is a miracle because this man is over 40 years old. I'm over 40 years old now.

I do not wake up or stand up thinking, yes, I'm just gonna bound around that that just doesn't have. My my mind says, oh, you're you're you're 25. You can do this again. My body says, no. My knees say forget about it.

So this is quite spectacular. This man hasn't just gotten his life back. This is a completely new life. 40 years of burden, 40 years not being able to walk, 40 years not being able to do what everyone else does. What was a sign of or symbol of punishment for him is now a symbol of god's grace, and what was just broken for him now is restored.

Do you feel his joy? Can you imagine what that's like? And, of course, this man is shouting and praising god. So everyone wants to go see what's what's what is this commotion? What's happening?

The crowds gather, and we're told they gather around, a place called Solomon's colonnade, which is another interesting detail that the writer puts in in here, and I think that's for a reason. So the crowd's attention turns to the 2 speakers. And that's my next point. We're told that these the speakers are, well, these speakers is Peter. Of course, we have Peter and John standing there next to the man.

And in verse 11, it says, while the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, fellow Israelites, Why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power and godliness? We had made this man walk. Now there might be this might have been a prime opportunity for Peter.

If he wanted to, is you take the glory to, you know, for himself. You know, I've I've I've said these words, the man is healed. Everyone look at me. I mean, this is kind of what we get from, these, these, prosperity gospel preachers. Like, it's all about them.

But this is not what Peter says, you know, p Peter turns this lights away from himself and to someone else. And this is what he says. Why do you stare at us, as if by our own power, all godliness, he may we had made this man walk. You know, it might be that in the crowd there's maybe say 2 types of people. 1 type are the kind of superstitious type.

They believe in magic, and they they might be thinking, you know, perhaps he has some kind of innate stability in himself. He's able to just do the exact people, and then they they walk But Peter says, no, it's not by own power, because I don't have the power. Pizza is saying to to the crowd. And then you might have the religious type who are thinking, you know, maybe this man is just really pious. He's, you know, he prays every day, never stop treating his, his Bible, but peace doesn't say that.

He says, it's not even by my own godliness that this man is healed. And and it's it's a funny thing because we, we, we read the new testament. We read things that peace of, and, and Paul and John have said and done, and we can feel inadequate where you think we might think gosh. I I could never do any of these things that these men have done. And, you might be expecting me to encourage you and say, no, you can't.

Yes. But but, no, you you are inadequate. Well, we are actually all inadequate. We can't do any, any of these things. And, and that's, that's Peter's point.

We actually can't. It's not by our power or or godliness. It's actually by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's working through him. And brothers and sisters, it's the same holy spirit that is working in us every single day.

The same holy spirit that that worked this miracle. Knows what Peter is saying to the crown. God will use whomever he chooses. Not the powerful, not the impressive. In fact, Peter and John are Gallelly and fishermen.

They they are common folk They're simple. They're uneducated. They're not saintly as he said. And god chose to use these ordinary people in in an absolutely extraordinary way. So and if you can do that then, why can't he do that now?

Of course, he can. He's still the same god. And so we should pray to god that he will use us powerfully in our unique situations for his glory. That brings me to my third point. So this man's healing, is not just about him being healed.

It's a sign. It's a sign pointing beyond itself to something else. I really enjoy road trips and whenever I get the opportunity, I I will take a trip if I can. I love driving. But imagine if we were, say, going to Scotland and we pack up the car 1 morning, early in the morning, kids in the car, wife in in the car as well, being forced dragged dragged along.

And we head on on the a 3, and then we have to go through the unfortunate necessity of merging on the on the a 3 today, m 25. On to the m 1, and 10 minutes in as a sign saying, Scotland. And immediately, I pull the hand brake, doing the emergency stop on the fast lane, turn around to the kids, and the wife would say, We're here. And, of course, my wife will probably throttle me at that point, because, well, this is just a sign. It's a sign.

The sign is not where you want to go. The sign is pointing you somewhere else. And that's exactly what Peter then goes on to really saying rather than taking the, you know, the spotlight on himself, he points somewhere else. So there's 2 things to see in terms of what this sign is pointing to firstly, it's pointing to the fact that Jesus is the savior. It might just be me, and maybe this is my personality, but reading this this passage, the first thing I ask is, why did this man actually trust Peter's words?

Why did he trust Peter's word? Because he again, he's been lame for 40 years. He's never walks and never known what it even feels like to walk, and someone comes along and says walk. Would you be thinking, oh, yeah, of course, I can, of course, I can do that. There's, like, someone just saying, oh, I, I need you to, you know, just, you know, just, you know, just be you know, just be you know, just go go and do that.

No. No. You know, you you couldn't, it just seems ridiculous. And yeah, this is what Peter just says to him, but, of course, Peter doesn't just simply say to him walk. If we look again in verse 6, he says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.

He prepped is his command with that name, Jesus' name. So why did he listen to Peter? I think the reason that he listened to Peter is because he knew who Jesus of Nazareth was. He knew the message of Jesus. You see, it was only this is pentacles.

This is just after the church has formed, and it was only a few months ago that Jesus was actually crucified, and all of Jerusalem was buzzing with that news. Everyone knew that Jesus was crucified. Everyone knew what happened after he was crucified. And only a couple of months before that, Jesus was, in the temple And not not only was used in the temple. He was actually in the course of the gentiles where this man begs.

Jesus was throwing over tables, making whips and chasing people out of the temple because they were not allowing people to worship god. So he was causing a commotion Again, 1 of those things that everyone knew about. And not only that, Jesus was then preaching as the same place called Solomon's colonnade. This is where Jesus healed the blind and the lame, and he debated with the religious people of his day in Solomon's Colony. And and we're told later on in the book of acts that the disciples actually met that Solomon's colonnade regularly to worship and to preach the gospel.

So the did this man know Jesus' message? I think I think he did. I think he'd heard that before probably many times. So Peter says to him, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth gets up and walk. Now, Jesus's name is not magic.

You don't simply say a prayer and end it with in the name of Jesus, and then it happens. Something happens. That, you know, that's that that is not what's going on. It's not magic. And in this ancient time, much like our time, a person's name is synonymous with their reputation.

So your name effectively equals what you've said and what you've done. I was traveling in to work this morning on the train, and they have lots of adverts along, you know, the the luggage racks. And I saw Usain Bolt's face Now even before I even saw what the the products was that he was advertising, I already knew I already knew what the message was. So when when someone says Usain Bulls, what comes to mind? He he is he's quick.

So whatever the product was, I was thinking, whatever it is. This is gonna be ridiculous, but whatever it is, is they're gonna say, this product is quick. That that's the whole point. I'm sure enough he was selling detergent. There you go.

It's it's quicker than any other decision. But you see how his name says something about his reputation about who he is and what he's done. And it's the same thing with Jesus. Jesus' name is telling us about what he dead and what he did. So Jesus what did Jesus Jesus say?

His message he had a message about repentance, repenting for our sins, and belief turning to god in belief. And what he did did he do, he did lots of miracles to prove the things that he was saying were true. So look for me again, verse 6, Jesus calls, and Peter calls Jesus Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now Nazareth is, is a place is is a location. So people would have known where Nazareth was.

So what he's saying there is that Jesus was a human being. He came from somewhere, but he calls him Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and Christ means Messiah means savior. In in verse 14, pisa calls him the holy and righteous 1. And now if you are a faithful jew at this time, you would know that there's only 1 Pauline righteous 1, and that is god himself. So it's it's perhaps quite a shocking thing for the for the audience, for the crowd to hear, piece of column that.

And then Peter in verse 15 calls him the author of life. There can be only 1 author of life. So take it together, what is Peter saying? Jesus is the Messiah Messiah. Jesus has come to rescue.

God come to rescue us. But, of course, there's there's a there's a there's a terrible tragedy about all of this. Because you see the, the Jews have been waiting 2000 odd years for the messiah to come. They've been talking about him singing songs, writing, writing poems, prophesying reading about him, debating when he'll come, for almost 2000 years. And then he does come.

And what did they do? They killed him. 2000 years, you've been waiting for this 1 to come, and you have killed him. Pizza says in verse 15, you killed the author of life. The Messiah is their only hope for peace.

They knew that. So they've been talking about this for 2000 years. Is the only hope for, for prosperity. But where is that hope now? You have killed the author of life.

And I think Peter wants them to feel that sting. But there is hope, and he carried pisa carries on in in verse 15, but god raised him from the dead. Now Jesus's miracles were done so that he would prove the things that he was saying, and his resurrection is the ultimate miracle that proves everything about him. So this is saying that Jesus' name is telling us that Jesus is the savior. The second thing that this sign points to is that Jesus restores us.

Look down again in verse 16, by faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It's his Jesus name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him as you can all see. Now remember, Jesus's name equals his message and his actions, the things that he said and did, And faith in Jesus' name means really faith in what Jesus has said. So it puts it in in another way only Christians can have faith in Jesus' name. And and when you read the original Greek, when it says, by faith in the name of Jesus, the person who's having the faith is the man having faith in the name of Jesus.

So you see this man's healing and his salvation are kind of tied together, they're linked together. But why are they linked Well, I think the reason is because this man is really is a is a picture of all of us. Like the man, we are helpless, and like the man we are broken, and we need god to actually restore us. When Jesus message is spoken into our into our lives, and many of you in this room will know this, it it just breaks into our lives, and it brings about life. Restores life to the lifeless.

It's it's, again, an an interesting detail that the writer of this book, puts in. So in verse 6, we're told that the, I should know, later on in In verse 7 and 8, we're told that this man jumped to his feet, and he began to walk. Now that word jumps or jumped to his feet is an interesting word because he's only used 1 other time in the Bible. And that's in Isaiah chapter 35, and in particular verse 6. And this this chapter is all about the Messiah.

It's about what happens when the Messiah comes to Israel. And in particular, this verse sixth of chapter, chapter 35 of of Isaiah says that when the messiah comes, the lame will leap like a deer, or they will jump like a deer. And that's the exact word that the Reister is used to describe what this man was doing. You could have used other words, but he chose that 1. And I think is because he's making that link back to the messiah.

This is a picture of restoration. The man's broken body is a picture of his broken spiritual life, and now his restored body is a picture of him being restored spiritually. So this miracle is a sign that Jesus restores us. But where where are you? Where are you in in this story?

Are you only, like, the man, perhaps, at the start of the story? Just making it day by day, perhaps just after what can satisfy temporarily? Or or do you perhaps know that brokenness and that helplessness? And maybe maybe you're like the crowd and you've kind of just realized maybe things are hopeless. But like this man and what Peter says, we need to hear Jesus words because this is what his word is doing.

It's pointing us back to him. So let me urge you to hear his words and to trust him. Now let's take a moment, to reflect on what we've heard, and, Steven will pray for us.