Acts 3:1-10

Well, now that we’ve got it, what do we do with it? For the past month, we’ve been celebrating Easter. With our eyes of faith, we’ve seen a dead man breathing again, a crucified man walking around. Death no longer means we’re dead. Death means now we can really live.

We’ve allowed this truth to sink in as we’ve gone through 1 Corinthians, how the gospel is everything, that Jesus died and rose again, and by dying and rising again, took our dying lives and resurrected them too. We’ve tasted the victory of the resurrection right now, and though it’s just a taste, it tastes pretty good already. And we’ve had a glimpse of what our new bodies are going to look like, our powerful, glory-filled, strong, doubt-free bodies. And seeing us, what we will look like after we are transformed, that keeps us going now, standing firm. It’s the glorious truth. Jesus has risen.

We have this truth. Now, what are we going to do with it? There is so much power, so much potential, so much possibility in this gospel, it couldn’t possibly just sit there on a shelf, gathering dust. It couldn’t possibly just be talked about from 9:30 to 10:30 and 6 to 7 on Sundays. It couldn’t only be talked about by ministers with seminary training, and maybe the elders and deacons. This is way too big, and we have it. What are we going to do with it?

There’s a whole book in the Bible that tells what the first disciples, the first members of the church of Jesus Christ did with this gospel. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be seeing what the first church members did with the power of the resurrection, and maybe we’ll just join them. Those first disciples just couldn’t keep quiet about it. While they were going, like we heard Thursday evening, while they were going wherever they were going, they were making disciples and baptizing and teaching. It wasn’t because they were certain kinds of people, fanatical, a little weird. They didn’t do it because they were supposed to do it, they were supposed to talk about Jesus. They couldn’t NOT talk about Him. After all, He had died, and then He came back to life. And so had they.

So, as people raised by Jesus from dying lives, verse 1:

You remember the temple. The place where the Jews gathered together to worship. The place where the Jewish leaders had their main offices. The Jewish leaders who just a couple of months before had ordered the execution of Jesus. What in the world are Peter and John doing there at the temple?

Well, they’re going to pray, that’s what. This is what God’s people did at three o’clock in the afternoon. They prayed. Now, at the end of chapter two, just before our text, we hear what the church looked like. They were a family, the body of Christ, who got together and broke bread together and learned together and yes…prayed together. It was a safe group. They sold their possessions, they gave to anyone as they had need, they looked out for each other, protected each other, kept each other safe.

So, why are Peter and John going out there to pray? Why are they going into the lion’s den to pray, when they could be safe at home with the other believers? Why go to the temple at all? Just stay clear of the place. It’s safer.

But see what the resurrection does to ordinary people? See what happens when people have already died, and risen again? Peter and John can’t die. They already did, with Jesus. They’re risen from the dead. What can the Jewish leaders do to them? Peter and John are going to pray, out there, not huddled in the corner of a safe house. They’re going out there in the authority of Jesus. They’re going into all the world to make disciples of all nations, and they’re starting with the temple of Jerusalem.

And on their way to pray, as they make their way to worship, they see a broken, hurting world of despair. Verse 2:

This was his life. Every day, someone would carry him, who knows how far, and set him down outside the one of the gates going into the temple. And there he would sit, all day, asking for money from people going by. He wasn’t lazy, he hadn’t done this to himself. He was crippled from birth, and he had no options. It was either get a hand-out, or die.

And so he sat, at the bottom of the social ladder, unable to climb up, crippled as he was. He sat, totally at the mercy of the church-goers. It was a prime location for someone who depended on hand-outs in order to stay alive. The Jews, coming to worship in the temple, were commanded by God’s law to give to the poor, so this man was in the right spot at the right time.

Little did he know just how right it was going to be. Verse 3:

There was nothing special about Peter and John. Certainly, it wasn’t because they looked rich by the way they were dressed. Peter and John were just walking with the other people, heading inside the temple for the time of prayer. The man was asking Peter and John for help just like he was asking everybody else.

And not everybody gives, of course. So, what can a beggar do, but keep asking. Looking up at everyone who walks by, giving the same speech a couple hundred times a day. Can you help? Can you help? Can you help? Not really expecting anyone to answer. As soon as you ask one person, you go on to the other.

Except when he asked Peter and John. Verse 4:

Peter didn’t look away, and neither did John. And that’s no little thing. You know Peter and John had seen beggars before. This wasn’t the first time they had come to the temple, and this man had been sitting here, begging for years. It is very likely Peter and John had walked past this man before, when they had come to the temple in the past.

But this time was different, because Peter and John were different. See, Jesus had come back to life, and Peter and John had seen this risen Jesus. And with the Holy Spirit injecting the life of Jesus into their bodies, into their feet, into their hands, into their minds, into their hearts, into their eyes, they don’t just look past this man. They see this man, a man who is suffering from the curse of sin. As men who know what a resurrection looks like, they recognize someone who is in dire need of a resurrection. So they tell the man, "Look at us."

Now the man is hopeful. Maybe for every 20 people who walk by, 1 will give a hand out, and he’s hoping this is the one. So, verse 5:

But he wouldn’t be getting what he was expecting. Instead of money, well, verse 6:

Now, remember, Peter and John had access to funds. Remember, the believers had everything in common, and no one had need. Peter and John could have rounded up some support for the man from the finances of the church.

But Peter and John have something more wonderful, more powerful, more needed than silver or gold. They have the power of the gospel of the resurrected Jesus. And that resurrection raised this man off the ground and back on his feet. Verse 7:

There’s a ripple, there in verse 7, a ripple that started when a dead man walked out of a tomb. The ripple of Jesus’ resurrection had spread out until it came into contact with this man, crippled from birth.

And the effect was clear. Verse 8:

The man understands. He doesn’t get up and walk and jump and praise Peter and John. He makes no mistake about where the healing came. It was in the name of Jesus that his feet are able to walk again. It’s in the name of Jesus that he doesn’t have to beg anymore. It’s in the name of Jesus that his life was changed from humiliation into joy, from despair into hope, from death into life.

The ripple started on Easter, from the empty tomb. The ripples of resurrection swept through the disciples, changing them from frightened fishermen into willing witnesses, eager to spread the gospel. The ripples continued through them to a man, crippled from birth, who tasted of this new life. And the ripples continued through him. Verse 9:

They, too, had seen the effects of the resurrection of Jesus. And though some may not have recognized where those effects came from, though many were amazed and filled with wonder and amazement…and then went back to their everyday business, even back to worship, without recognizing the power of Jesus, even though most people missed it, those ripples have continued right down to today. To you, right here, through parents and grandparents, relatives and friends who told you and showed you the power of the resurrection, the effect of the gospel.

And now it’s our turn to go. Just like Peter and John, we enjoy a safe, warm community, where we fellowship and worship and pray and share with one another, trying to make sure that no one has a need. It’s nice, here, in our church, with each other.

But as disciples of Jesus, people who have been raised with Christ, we don’t just stay huddled up here with our own. We go out there. And yes, most people don’t want us. They don’t know Jesus, they don’t love Jesus, so they don’t love us. But that doesn’t stop us. They can’t do anything to us. We’ve already died, what could they possibly do to us? We’re raised to eternal life. That’s not going to change.

So we go out, and while we’re going, we notice. Our eyes get used to seeing the hurts of this world. Our minds stop blaming the hurts on the people who are hurting. We stop just expecting people to get over it, to fix their own lives, to get themselves up off the ground and make themselves better. Instead of walking past them, even if it’s for a great reason, like praying, instead of not noticing, we stop. We pay attention. We see the hurt, as ugly, as revolting, as intimidating as it might be. Because nothing is too big, nothing is too ugly, not is too hurtful for the power of the gospel, the effects of the resurrection.

And when we’ve seen the hurt, reach out a hand and we help. Now, sometimes, help does mean money. Our deacons, through the work of benevolence, help people. That’s us selling our possessions and giving as there is need. But we have something better than silver and cold and dollars and cents. We have the same power that brought Jesus out of that grave, and that power is still effective right now.

I wonder if we know this. I wonder if we maybe doubt this. A crippled man immediately standing up healed seems about right for Acts 3, but sounds pretty impossible for Hollandale. Like the ripples of the resurrection have somehow lost their strength, their effect over the past 2000 years.

The gospel is still true, the resurrection of Jesus is still effective. We have seen it ourselves, if we recognized it. There have been people healed, there have been marriages saved, there have been jobs found, and we couldn’t believe it. Things happened, and we were amazed. But, if, like the people who saw the man healed, we were amazed, and then we went back to our business, then we missed the real source of healing and restoration.

This was Jesus healing and restoring in the power of new life. Now, we might not be the conduit through which Jesus heals crippled legs, or terminal diseases, or brings dead people back to life. Maybe He would use us for something amazing like that.

Or maybe He’ll use us for something just as amazing. What we do, then, is come close to the hurts and the needs and the pains. We be with them. We reach out our hands to them, and we hold on to them. It’s not ours to heal, remember? It wasn’t Peter and John who healed the man, it was Jesus. They had just stopped to stand with him.

That’s what we do. When a marriage is in trouble, we come close. When someone is lost in despair, when the days are dark and full of trouble, when someone is deep in depression, we just stay close. When someone is struggling financially, sometimes we help with silver and gold, but mostly we walk with them. When someone is overwhelmed with grief, we can’t fix it, but we sit, sometimes in the silence, sometimes through the sobs.

And through us, the power of the resurrection does the work. Through us, Jesus raises spirits and hopes, He brightens days and He meets budgets. And sometimes, yes, He heals bodies. Sometimes, you bet, He heals minds.

That’s the resurrection, and the ripples go on and on. That’s the gospel, that we’ve been given. What are we going to do with it? We’re going to carry it with us. We’re going to talk about with everyone we know. We’re going to live it, so that, through us, others can live.