Sermon: With Wonder and Amazement

This morning we're gonna look at Acts chapter three verses one through 10. Let's pray before we hear God's word. Read and preach this morning.

Father, we are thankful that we have this word of truth. You have not left us to ourselves, but you speak to us. You've not left us in darkness, but you have shown your light. You've not left us in the chaos of this world, but you have given us clarity. You have not left us with just the cacophony of voices that this world offers, but that you have given us your loud, authoritative, true, fixed, eternal, and changing word.

And we pray this morning that as we sit and stand in this place that we would hear from you. Speak to us and help us to fix our lives upon this solid ground. We pray Christ's name, amen. Acts chapter three verses one through 10. This is a holy iner, sufficient word of God.

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 carried 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, seen Peter and John about to go into the temple. He asked to receive alms. 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 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 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 and what had happened to him. So the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Now, when you read the scriptures, especially when you get into narrative portions of the scripture, you want to note what it is that the author is bringing to bear. What details is it that he is providing? Because he's giving you insights into what he tells you. And often he is giving you insights by what he doesn't tell you. And here at the very beginning, you'll observe at the outset that he has presented the principle disciples.

You have Peter and John Peter who is often the spokesperson for the whole apostolic band. And then you have John who knew an intimacy with Jesus in his earthly life like none other. And so you have these two principle disciples, the two principle characters in the early church at this point, but it's not just that. You also have where he tells you the location of this scene. They're at the temple. So you have the people, you have the place.

He also though gives you the time. He says it is the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. So he gives you people place and time, but he doesn't just give them, he's giving the principle people, John and Peter at the principle place of worship, the temple at the principle time, the hour of worship where they would gather one of the three hours for prayer. That's the scene that Luke paints for us here at the very beginning of this little story.

But of course he tells us that there's another person in the scene. There is quote, a man lame from birth. So, so here's the actual scene as he's painting it before us. He says that Peter and John are quote, going up to the temple. You always go up to the temple because it is the place of worship. They're going up to the temple, they are walking, and of course the lame man is not walking because he cannot walk. Now he is being carried by friends.

Clearly these were dear friends for Luke tells us that they would every morning they laid him daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate. And so they would every morning go to his house and no doubt they had something to carry him on and they would put him on that and they would carry him up to the beautiful gate outside the temple and there they would set him. Why the temple? Because it was a high traffic area.

A lot of people are going to the temple. And it is not just that this is a place where a lot of people go. They come to the temple for these designated times of prayer and that was conducive to the lame man's aim and to his friend's aim. This lame man was unable to work, but he needed money because he needed food, he needed to be able to live. And so he was dependent upon the generosity of people and there are a few more generous people than religious

people and especially religious people that are on their way to practice their religion. And so they set him out as the people are on their way.

He would sit there at the temple day in and day out begging for alms. On this day though, it appears that he, he was still on the way. That's what Luke tells us. He says he was being carried and as he's being carried, he sees Peter and John and not quite sure, but was it something about their countenance, something that struck him about them that he felt like he would begin his work early that day, even before he has been set down at the beautiful gate,

he calls out to Peter and John and he asks them for alms, would you have some alms for a poor lame man? Would you have some gifts for the poor?

In verse four, Luke gets gritty. He gets detailed. He says, Peter gazed at him, as did John. They looked at him intently. It's actually the same word. Luke will use this word again in Acts chapter seven, when Stephen is brought before that crowd with the apostle Paul there before he is the apostle and he is soul and they're stoning him to death. And while they're stoning him to death, Luke will tell us that quote, he full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven

and the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God that they gazed at this lame man.

Peter and John. They're busy. They are busy about religious activity. They are on their way to worship. But you'll notice that neither Peter nor John were indifferent to the suffering of their fellow humans around them. They didn't turn a deaf ear, they didn't act like a lame man was a bother. They didn't say, ah, we are on our way to worship. Leave us alone. They, they gazed at him. They, they took him in like Stephen was taking in the glory

of God and the son standing in heaven.

Think about Peter and John. They would have expected to see beggars upon their journey to the temple. This would've been routine in this day. There is not a a welfare state. There are not governmental authorities that are helping people that have need, but even that familiarity of having beggars along the way that are looking for help, even that expectation did not dull them to the sorrows of their fellow man. So let me offer this to you

as the first application from this text this morning. Keep your heart tender and your eyes open to people around you. Keep your heart tender and your eyes open to people around you. We often miss what the Lord would have us to do because we are so busy doing.

I wonder if you think about that when you come in here to worship week in and week out. You're on your way, you're, you're busy doing and and that person that you just walked by

wonder that just said a word to you and you quickly just hello and kept going.

You'll often miss what the Lord is doing 'cause we are not tinder of heart and our eyes open to the people around us. It's not an accident that Peter and John were used this day. Christ intended to use them this day. We would say, well, they were taken off track. They were on their way to worship. They were taken off track. No, they yielded themselves to the divine providence. They yielded themselves to this God appointed meeting

and they gazed upon him. Be sensitive to people around you should be looking saying where? Where maybe the Lord has brought this person across your path for a reason which we can become callous unintentionally Peter and John weren't, it's easy, I understand it, to succumb to compassion fatigue. There are so many hurting people and we are hurting and it just feels like more and more and more. And if I have that conversation, it's more,

and I'm not sure what I would say here. It feels like more

keep your heart tender and your eyes open to people around you.

Why would these principle disciples be marked by compassion and tenderness for others? Well, they had heard the call of Jesus. He said, come and I will make you fishers of men. They had heard his teaching where he said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. They had heard his preaching where he preached on the good Samaritan and the Samaritan that was willing to stop on the way while he was going stop on the way

to tend to the injured person on the road. Maybe most importantly, they had received the grace of Jesus themselves. They knew Christ to be compassionate. So you keep your heart tender and you keep your eyes open to people around you. Christ people are compassionate people because Christ is a compassionate Christ. Christians extend mercy because we are the recipients of mercy.

Keep your hearts tender and your eyes open to people around you. But back to the scene, not quite sure, it's not clear, but it appears that the man had his face down. He he was looking down because when he asked the text says that Peter said to him, look at us. So could it be that when he is calling out for alms, even as he looked and he saw Peter and John, then he looks down when he calls out to them, maybe even though he is begging every single day for alms,

there's still a sort of embarrassment. It's often when we are in need when we are asking and unnecessarily so there is an embarrassment. And so Peter immediately responds, look at us, and Luke tells us it was then that he fixed his attention on them and the word there of of fixing his attention has the idea that he is giving his attention because he expects to receive something he expects to receive, but he didn't receive what he expected.

No doubt he was a little disappointed by Peter's initial response. I have no silver in gold, but where the apostles lacked, it was the beggar's gain because they had something more to give to him. They had Jesus

our second application. Never underestimate what Christ may be doing in any given moment. Never underestimate what Christ may be doing in any given moment.

Keep your eyes open for people. Be willing vessels for Christ work through you. Never underestimate what he may be doing through you in any given moment. People around us are in desperate need, desperate need. They just don't always know what that desperate need is. It takes those who have to give even what others don't know they need. If you know Christ as Peter and John did you know enough to share Christ?

Never underestimate what Christ may be doing in any given circumstance, which you stop and think about that beggar for a moment. He was asking for the alleviation of his immediate needs and often we only ask for what seems most important to us in the moment, and yet it may not be the most necessary thing. Peter and John, they had a knowledge and they had a perspective that the beggar himself did not have and that is so often the case perspective

and knowledge matters. We are often beggars before the throne of God and we ask for this immediate thing that we believe is our great need in the moment. I need this. God answered this, this is what I need, but we don't have his perspective and we don't have his knowledge.

Never underestimate what Christ may be doing. The better wanted M and instead he received health so that he would no longer need olms. He wanted a few coins. He got his legs.

He was ready to receive. He just wasn't ready for what he received. He didn't have their knowledge or their perspective.

Luke tells us that immediately, immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and the evidence is that leaping up He he stood and he began to walk. This is no magician's trick. He he even entered the te the temple with them and while walking, he is leaping and he's praising God. Now, whether or not this man had bones in his ankles and feet, we don't know, but you do know. And I do know that he did not have muscles in

his ankles and feet. He did not have muscles in his legs. He had been lame from birth. He did not have tendons. He did not have ligaments. And then all of a sudden, immediately when Peter speaks, the miraculous happens. He rises, he leaps. He's walking,

but the text is clear. It's not Peter's doing. It's not Peter's our third application. Believe and know the power of Christ at work in this world believe and know the power of Christ at work in this world.

Peter heals this man in the name of Jesus Christ. The name has power because of who the name is attached to Jesus, the Christ who sits enthroned above.

It says Not Peter's work as much as it is. Christ worked through Peter and the lame man knows this. He, he doesn't praise Peter. He praises God. He he walks and then he leaps into the temple praising God.

Peter and John, they gave what they had in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

this name that that works wonders and amazement and that's what Luke says in verse 10. He says that the people saw this and they wondered in amazement, he says in verse 11 that they were so utterly astounded that they ran to Peter and John and a crowd gathered around them. There is no name that works like this name.

This is a name that every knee will bow before and every tongue will confess. This is the name that angels and archangels that their mouths are filled with for all of eternity. There's no name like this name.

Think about it. Why? Because it's the very name of the son of God, believe and know the power of Christ at work in this world. The son of God, he's at work. His name is not idol because he does not forsake his own. He he came for them. This is the scene again, think about the scene. Peter and John, these principled disciples, they are Jews by birth and they of all people are on their way to the temple, but it isn't just a visit to the temple

because Luke tells us it is at the hour of prayer. Why all of these details? Because the early church represented by these principle disciples were going to worship at the temple,

the principle place of worship at the moment of worship, the hour of prayer. What is he communicating to us? These disciples, the early church, they didn't see Christianity as distinct from Judaism. They saw Jesus as the fulfillment of Judaism that here is the Messiah who was promised that the son of God that came down from heaven who is at work in this world to heal, to restore, to save.

You remember at Caea Philippi, when Jesus is there with the apostles and he will say to them that question, he'll ask them and say, who do men say that I am? They will respond and say, well, some say you're John the Baptist and others say, you are Elijah. Some say that you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets, and then he turns the question on them. He says, but who do you say that I am?

It's a good question for you today. Who do you say that I am? And Peter always ready. He says, you are the Christ. You are the son of God.

You're the fulfillment. You're the one who was promised that he would come from above that would heal and save his people. You are the one Jesus.

In fact, in Isaiah 35, 1 of the more famous prophecies about the Messiah to come, Isaiah says this, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. They believed and they knew the power of Christ at work. They knew him to be the messiah to come. They knew him to be the fulfillment.

They were on their way to the temple to worship him,

believe, know the power of Christ at work in this world.

Does Christ still work that way? He's still at work in this world.

He answers are prayers all over the place? Does he work in kind of this miraculous way where there is a lame man and he is made to leap and to stand and to walk? I don't think that's the case today. I think when we see it biblically, what we see normatively, the way that God works is that he works through the word and he works by prayer and he works by the sacraments. And these miracles as we see them in the scriptures

and the New Testament, they are always used to to attest to the truth of the word. So even Jesus, Peter will say this when he is preaching about Jesus, that this man attested to you by wonders and miracles and signs that God did through him. Even the miracles Jesus did in his earthly ministry. They were meant to attest to his word that he was who he said he was. And as the apostles go out and they go to new areas and they bring the word to bear,

there are different miracles that accompany them so that it testifies to the word that they are speaking as true.

But does that mean that he doesn't do miracles today? Well, Peter doesn't want those there to miss this.

He does miracles all over the place. He's done miracles in all kinds of lives that are in this room.

Many of us are living examples of him working miracles in this world. He is at work in this world. And so Peter, that's where he runs. He he doesn't want finally to miss the opportunity to point others to the great work of Christ.

That's where he takes him. In the argument in Acts four, the priests and the elders and the rulers, they have all gathered around Peter and John. It is not just the crowd that is in wonder and astounded by this lame man that is now walking and leaping and worshiping in the temple. No, it's all of these leaders are around them and they're saying to them, John and Peter, what right do you have? By what authority? What power are you doing these things?

Peter's response is that he wants them to know that this lame beggar is a real life parable of all men. He's saying, look, you're so concerned about this one man and this small miracle, small

compared to the great miracle that he offers to you today, that he works, that he works in life after life after life.

It's not just simply Peter's message, it's God's verse nine of Acts four. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man is standing before you. Well, it's a parable for a much greater healing, a much greater miracle, an eternal life giving that happens in the name of Jesus. He goes on verse 12 of chapter four, there is

salvation and no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Don't miss it. Religious leaders, you're wondering, how is it that a lame man could now be walking and leaping?

Do you not know that this Jesus has greater miracles than that?

He takes those who are lame from birth, not just crippled in their legs, but their souls makes them to walk and to leap and to run.

And Adam ate from that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was such a horrific day. Sin ushered into the world and when Adam ate all of us in him and with him fell in that first sin so that every single person, this is Peter's point, every single person born into this world is born a child of Adam. It's lame,

unable to walk.

Paul will use a different word. He will say that you and I are born in this world dead. We are dead in our sins.

And the great miracle is this,

is that in the name of Jesus life is given.

Peter is pointing out that any number of people could have come by that lame man and said, rise up and walk, and it would've been mockery. You think his friends that every morning are getting him and carrying him to the temple, they surely wanted that man to be able to walk, but it didn't matter how much they wanted it or how much they told him to, it wouldn't happen.

But Peter comes along and he says, rise up and walk, and the lame man rises and walk. But it's not because the lame man finally resolved to do so. It's not because he finally put forth enough effort. It's not even because Peter spoke the right magical words. No, the lame man rises and walks by the grace of Christ given to him. It is Christ that works this grace that causes wonder and amazement.

They're amazed by a lame man walking.

How about a dead soul brought back to life?

How about a heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh,

but a miracle that God would save a sinner, that God would save me,

that Christ would take me a lame person from birth dead in sin,

give life

everlasting life.

He doesn't miss the opportunity to point others to the great work of Christ, the great miracle, the salvation of sinners.

We are unable to stand, unable to walk, unable to live. Nothing in my hands. I bring simply to thy cross. I cling naked. Come to thee for dress helpless. Look to thee for grace. This is the great malady. This is the great need of every single person in this room and every single person you encounter in the world.

Don't miss the opportunity

seize upon this Christ to point others to this Christ Just one final thought in closing.

When you've been brought from destitution to healing, from death to life, from crippled to walking, there's rejoicing. You notice the lame man, he He, he goes into the temple. They can't stop him. He, he's just praising God and he's leaping as he goes.

Can't stop him. Some my favorite people, maybe my favorite people in the world to be around are new Christians because they have a zeal and they have a joy, and they have a spirit of thanksgiving that just can't be stamped out, that they can't help but talk about Christ and delight in Christ and speak of Christ and tell people about the mercy they have received in Christ and the healing that they have in Christ and the life that they now have in Christ.

He was without hope in the world, lame without hope in the world, and he's given life

without hope in the world. Given life life,

I think not only do we get compassion fatigue, we tend to get grace, fatigue. It sounds silly stupid if it wasn't so common. It just stops to lose its effect upon us.

It's like you get that new car and you get the new car and oh man, there's a speck of dirt anywhere in there. You're getting out the vacuum cleaner and getting that sucker up. You're wiping off the dashboard. You're making sure nobody gets in your car with anything on their shoes. Sometimes you'll just walk out to your driveway and you'll go sit in that car and you won't even turn on the engine. You're just sitting in it with a smile on your face

and a few months later you got McDonald's hamburger cheese wrappers in your backseat.

How does this ever become common?

I've been brought from death to life, crippled to walking and not just crippled for a few years and now walking for a few years I was crippled for all of eternity and

now brought to life for all of eternity.

Listen, there's a reason the New Testament over and over and over commends that we are to be thankful.

There should be rejoicing and praise. There should be a leap in your step. Every once in a while. You should see some of you skipping down the hallways here. Every once in a while, you might wanna tell your face every once in a while. Things are good. I'm in Christ.

How can we, not of all people be leaping?

We have Christ who's at work in us, who's at work in this world who saves sinners such as us.

You have reason to leap for joy. I hope that's true for you this morning. If it's not true of you this morning, ah, there are all kinds of people that will pass you by just like that layman. They will pass you by and pass you by and pass you by. There are all kinds of people that will offer all kinds of good advice, and none of them can help you. Not a one, not with your lameness, not with your deadness, not a one.

But Christ offers himself this morning and in a moment you'll be leaping in a moment. You're brought from death to life, not just for a moment, but for all of eternity.

There's salvation in this name. You simply looked to him in faith this morning. That's it.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we are thankful for so great a salvation

for the gift of a savior who is at work accomplishing his purposes, losing none of all that you have given to him.

Oh, may there be a leap in our step. We sow Christ

that there is joy in our countenance.

We know this everlasting salvation

and that we exalt the name of Christ. Even as Peter and John did. He be upon our lips because he is upon our hearts. I pray this for every soul in the room. Christ's name we pray. Amen.