Sunday, March 22, 2015

The power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 3: 1-10



Someone once said that every miracle in the New Testament is a parable, designed to illustrate physically what God can do spiritually.  Today we are looking at such a miracle in this passage in Acts.  It certainly wasn’t the only miracle that was done in those days.  And yet Luke singles out this particular miracle to illustrate an important spiritual principle. 

We know that it wasn’t the only miracle because in the previous chapter, Acts 2:43 it says that “many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.”  And looking ahead, we see in chapter 5 vs. 12 it says again that “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people;” to the extent, according to vs. 15, “that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.”

So many miracles were being done at that time by the apostles.  The question is why is this one highlighted and described by Luke and not the others.  And we will attempt to answer that question today.  But as I have said before, to use a fishing analogy, it is a lot easier to put a fresh hook on a new line than to unsnarl an old one.  And unfortunately, the subject of healing and miracles have become so snarled in bad doctrine that we need to spend some time unraveling this whole subject of healings and miracles before we can make the correct spiritual application of it from this passage.  We need to first understand the nature of the miracles that were occurring at the hands of the apostles.  How are we to understand these miracles?  Are they something that we should be expecting to see today?  Do we also have the power to perform miracles?  Certainly there are a number of people around, especially on television, that are claiming to be performing miracles.

Well, first of all, let’s consider the purpose of miracles.  As I said at the beginning, when miracles are presented in scripture, they usually are given to illustrate a spiritual principle.  That is the extended benefit of historic miracles to us today.  But what was the immediate benefit of the miracles that happened then, besides the obvious alleviation of suffering?  The answer is that miracles, the ability to do signs and wonders, was the means by which God authenticated the message of the apostles.  Lots of people over the ages have professed to be speaking from God.  But the apostles were specifically commissioned to speak the words of Christ, to declare His gospel to the world.  And to do that, Jesus gave them the power to perform miracles to confirm that that were speaking from God.

Jesus commissioned the apostles after His resurrection in Mark 16:15 “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;  they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."  

Now this passage has caused a lot of people to think that signs and wonders are the prerogative of every believer.  But what needs to be understood is that this statement is a highly condensed summary of Jesus’ last message given specifically to the eleven apostles.  Notice that there is a change from the singular pronoun in “he who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved,” to the plural pronoun in “these signs will accompany those who have believed; (Jesus is now speaking of the apostles) in my name they will cast out demons, etc.  The plural pronoun sets this statement apart from the preceding one concerning all believers.  In the first statement Christ is declaring a principle of salvation.  In the second statement He is declaring the authority given to the apostles. 

So then a few verses later in Mark 16:20  we see that commission by Christ fulfilled:  “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.”  That is the key to understanding the purpose that the apostles did these signs, to “confirm the word by the signs that followed.”  They were given the power of signs to authenticate their message as being from God.

Unfortunately, as I have stated for the last couple of weeks, there is so much misunderstanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit today, and a lot of it originates in these first few chapters of Acts.  Because Jesus said “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon  you…”  And immediately after that we see the apostles speaking in other languages and performing miracles.  And there are a lot of preachers and teachers out there that want to make the assumption that the power that Jesus is speaking of is the power to speak in tongues and heal. 

That’s not it at all.  That is not the power that the Holy Spirit is promised to give to all believers.  The reason that the apostles did these signs was to authenticate that their message was from God.  But the real purpose of the Holy Spirit was to give them the words to speak, the word of God, and then as it says in Mark 16:20 to confirm that word by the signs which followed.

This is so important to understand, especially in our day.  Because false teachers and false prophets are going around today and especially on television speaking lies and using false signs to confirm their word. See the devil knows how to authenticate his false prophets as well.  We see something similar when Moses went to Pharaoh.  Moses did signs to confirm that his word was the word of the Lord.  And what did the Pharaoh’s magicians do?  They did similar signs as well.  Satan is using many of these so called charismatic signs and wonders that we hear about today to confirm the word of his false prophets. He uses false signs and wonders to get people to accept a false teaching.  So the church’s focus always needs to be on the word of God.  That is why we have written down for us a more sure word, that today we can use to validate everything and examine everything by the word of the Lord.  Today we don’t follow signs and wonders, but the word of God. 

But nonetheless, the fact that it is counterfeited by the devil does not invalidate the legitimate use of signs by God to confirm His word.  However we need to recognize that God gave this ability for a limited time to a limited number of persons.  Namely, the apostles and one or two disciples that were closely associated with them.  The New Testament doesn’t mention miracles by anyone other than an apostle or one or two people closely associated with them, namely Philip and Stephen who both were deacons appointed by the apostles in the church in Jerusalem.  No one else is identified as doing miracles in the church.  It was an apostolic gift, given to authenticate their message as being from God.

These are then what Paul calls "the signs of an apostle". In 2Corinthians 12:12 he refers to himself as having done the "signs of a true apostle" which, he says, are "signs and wonders and mighty works..." This is confirmed by Hebrews 2:3 , where the writer says that the Lord first preached the gospel, "and it was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will."

Now I say all of that in order to establish the context for the miracle that we are looking at today.  To unravel the snarled fishing line, if you will.  So that we will realize that the apostles weren’t just going around healing everyone that they saw sick or infirmed.  Jesus, by the way, did not heal everyone that was sick either.  There were many dead people in the cemetery on the day that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but He only raised Lazarus.  And there were so many sick people gathered around the Pool of Bethesda that the sick man could not get into the pool before someone else, and yet Jesus healed only him.  In fact, there is a very good likelihood that Jesus had passed by this very lame man outside of the Beautiful Gate mentioned here in Acts 3 many times in the course of His ministry at the temple, and yet He had not healed him.  This man was healed by Peter to validate his message as having been from God and afterwards when he preached his message to the crowd gathered around, it says 5000 people were saved.

Now there are a number of things that are noteworthy in the telling of this story that we should consider.  First of all, vs. 1 says that Peter and John were going to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.  Prayers were said in the temple at 9 in the morning, at noon, and at 3pm, or the 9th hour.  Whether or not the disciples were going there to pray at that time is a matter of debate.  Some think that there was a slow transition on the part of the Christians out of Judaism.  But I happen to think that they went there because they knew that a lot of people would be gathered there at that time, and they wanted to preach the gospel to them.  I think if they learned any thing from Jesus, it was to find little merit in the traditions of Judaism. But as Jesus practiced, the apostles would use synagogues and the temple to preach the gospel. And once the gospel is carried to the Gentiles, there is still going to be this pattern of going to the Jewish synagogue to preach and present the gospel, even in Gentile territories.  And also, according to chapter 2, there was a great number of their church that were staying in the temple in Solomon’s portico.  They didn’t have a home to go to.  They had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feasts, and when they were saved on the day of Pentecost they stayed there in the temple daily receiving the apostle’s teaching.  So Peter and John had multiple reasons to go there at that time.

So as Peter and John are going to the temple, they pass through the gate called Beautiful.  This gate was so called because it was 75 feet tall and made of pure bronze and overlaid with plates of gold.  It would have gleamed in the sunlight.  And when the crowds would come to pray at the temple they would pass through this gate which they probably preferred above others because it seemed to promise prosperity.  So it was an opportune place to be if you were a beggar.  The Jews were taught that the way to achieve righteousness was to give alms to the poor or to the temple.  And so as these people are streaming in, this lame man positions himself there at the gate to take advantage of the possibly stricken consciences of the people who are coming in for prayers and the evening sacrifices.

When Peter and John pass by, the man began to ask them to give him alms.  Alms are an offering, a gift.  And Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!”  That reminds me of how my mother used to speak to me when she was trying to tell me something important.  She would say, “Look at me while I’m talking to you!”  She knew that if I wasn’t looking at her, I probably wasn’t really listening to her.  I may have heard her, but I wasn’t paying attention.

I think people do that in church a lot of the time.  I know, I used to be really good at it.  I’ve probably attended thousands of church services in my time, most of them as a preacher’s kid growing up in the church.  So especially when I was a kid, I was adept at flipping some sort of mental switch that tuned out the preacher while I went into some kind of dream mode.  The only time I would come back to reality was when the preacher would start to tell a joke or a story.  Then I would listen.  Maybe some of you have that ability as well.  I think it’s pretty common, actually.  I think it is important to listen attentively.  It’s something that takes some discipline, perhaps, but it is important to pay attention.

So Peter gets the man’s attention.  He thinks that Peter wants to give him some money.  But Peter says, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”  This is really the key to understanding the point of this miracle.  If we take this to be illustrative, like a parable, then we can see a key principle here in this miracle.  And that principle that Luke is presenting here is that the power of the Holy Spirit that was promised to the church is the power to walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh.  That is what this miracle is teaching.  The power of the Holy Spirit was not given to enable everyone to be able to speak in a unknown tongue.  It was not given so that we can all have perfect health and be healed of every disease.  It was not given so that we might be able to move mountains or walk on water or call fire down from heaven.  The power of the Holy Spirit is given that we might be able to be the children of God, and then act like children of God.  He indwells us, giving us the power to live the life of Christ through these carnal bodies.  To be able to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  That is what this miracle is illustrating.  That is why Luke picks this miracle above all others that are done around this same time.  That is why Luke places this event immediately after the filling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; to illustrate the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

Now let’s look more in detail so that we might show how this miracle illustrates that purpose.  First of all, Luke says the man is lame from his mother’s womb.  Lameness could have been caused by a lot of things, but it basically means the guy couldn’t walk due to some sort of illness.  His legs might have been crippled or deformed.  And that is a perfect picture of our plight before salvation.  God set forth His laws, His requirements, His standards of righteousness, and yet no one is able to keep them.  It is like telling a lame man that he has to walk.  He may know that he needs to walk, but he is unable to do so.  That is the case with the law.  We know that the this is the standard for righteousness, but we cannot do it, anymore than a lame man can walk. In our natural state we cannot please God because we cannot keep His commandments. Rom. 3:10-12 says “as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;  ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.’"

This is the plight of every person born on the earth.  And furthermore, we were born that way.  We’ve been this way from our mother’s womb.  Romans 5:12 says that we received the sin nature from our father, who received it from his father, and so forth all the way back to Adam.  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  So this poor lame man, who was lame from his mother’s womb is a picture of sinful mankind.

And there is a second picture that is illustrated in this miracle.  This lame man has positioned himself outside the temple.  He sits by the Beautiful Gate, the gate that seems to promise financial blessing.  And so he sits there his whole life, seeking silver and gold, seeking the financial benefit that he thinks that the temple promises.  How many people today are attracted to the external blessings of the church and yet in reality are outside of the kingdom of God? How many people look to some form of the prosperity gospel as an inducement to claim Christianity?  I used to think that way.  I once was a very successful antiques dealer.  And I remember telling people that my success was due to my Christianity.  I thought that my health and my beautiful family, my financial success, my Mercedes, and my nice house were testimony to the blessing of God upon my life.  I measured my relationship with God based on how “blessed” I was.  I thought that I could be a witness to others, that I could tell them they too could have a life like mine if they would just come to Christ.  You can only imagine how my faith was shattered when I one day I lost all those material things.  Then I had to decide if I would still serve a Lord who allowed me to lose all that I had thought were His blessings. 

You have heard the song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places…” Well, this man is looking for the wrong things in the right place.  He is looking for material rewards.  Really, he is looking for carnal things in a spiritual place.  The temple is an illustration of the kingdom of God which is the church.  As the church, we are the temple of Christ,  the physical manifestation of the invisible Christ.  The church is the kingdom of God, the spiritual reign of Christ on the earth.  And so if it is spiritual, it means things not seen.  No one can see a spirit.  The spiritual reign of Christ in our hearts is what it means to be in the kingdom of God.  That’s what it means to be the temple of God.  The body of Christ.  It means that Christ is using my body to live out spiritually the purpose and will of Christ.  

Yet today many Christians are being taught that Christianity means that you can live your best life now.  They think Christianity means that God is going to love you whatever you do - however you want to live, you can live.  We are taught that because God loves you, He wants to fulfill your dreams and ambitions.  He wants to give you all that you desire, all the desires of your heart.  And so we find ourselves like this lame man, seeking the benefits of the flesh, in the place of the spiritual. Seeking the carnal instead of the spiritual. 

But Peter and John get the man’s attention and then they say, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you.”  Peter and John say that they don’t have silver or gold.  I guess they wouldn’t make good role models for Joel Olsteen or Joyce Meyers, would they?  The apostles aren’t going to try to win the world with a soup kitchen mentality.  Listen, I don’t mean to say that we are to neglect doing good and sharing with those that are in need.  That is a godly principle that we see illustrated by the early church in the last chapter as they sold houses and possessions in order to feed those that were in need in the church.  But the point that needs to be emphasized is the church is not tasked with a social gospel, but with the gospel of salvation.  The purpose of the miracle was to authenticate the message, the preaching of the gospel, so that 5000 people are saved.  Far too often today the church finds that the social gospel is culturally acceptable.  So the church finds it easier to practice a social gospel than it does to preach a gospel that requires repentance from your sins.  But that is not the purpose of the church. 

So Peter grabs this man’s hand and pulls him up, saying, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”  Now that is an illustration of salvation.  In the name of Jesus Christ we that were lame can now walk.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were sinners have now been made righteous.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were cut off have now been drawn close.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were helpless have now received help.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were born in our sins, have now been born again.  In the name of Jesus Christ, we that were hopeless have now received hope. 

What does it mean, “in the name of Jesus Christ?”  Is the name of Jesus some sort of incantation that we can say that magically produces miracles on command?  Is it some sort of mystical ending to our prayers which guarantees that God will grant us our wishes?  What does it mean?  Well, imagine the early explorers of a country traveling to a foreign land, and when they come ashore they might say something like, “We have come in the name of King George.”  It means that they are acting on the authority of their king.  In the same way the apostles were the ambassadors, the representatives of King Jesus.  They spoke with the delegated authority of His commission.  And they have authority because of the power of the King’s position.  They had power in the name of Jesus because of who Jesus is.  He is the Creator, according to Hebrews 1.  He is the Mighty God, according to Isaiah 9.  He is the Savior of the World, according to 1 John 4.  He is the Word which was in the beginning with God and was God, according to John 1.  It was this very God that became flesh and dwelt among us, that He might offer Himself as a substitute for sinners, that we might be saved from death and transferred into the kingdom of light.

Listen, so often we think  of salvation as being saved from something; saved from death, saved from condemnation, saved from a bad situation. And to some extent that is true.  But did you ever think that you are also saved for something? Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  So we are saved for good works, that we should walk in them. 

Now that is exactly what this miracle illustrates.  Peter says, in the name or in other words, by the power of Christ, walk!  Walk in newness of life.  Walk in faith.  Walk in the Spirit.  I cannot count how many times it says in the Bible that we are commanded to walk in the ways of God.  That is what the law required, and what we could not do.  Over and over again in the Old Testament scriptures it says to keep His commandments and walk in His ways.  That was the intent of the law, and yet we were lame from our mother’s womb and could not do it. 

But something wonderful happens in the New Testament.  In the power of the  name of Jesus Christ, who bore our sins on the cross, we received by faith and repentance the transference of His righteousness, so that we might walk in righteousness by the indwelling power of the Spirit.  In Ezekiel God declares that He will make a new covenant in the last days.  And in that new covenant according to Ezekiel 36: 25 He says,  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” 

Do you hear that folks?  “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statues, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  That is the miracle of salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit.  God takes this sinful body, and these weak, lame legs that cannot walk, and puts new life in them, puts His Spirit in me, that I might be able to walk in His statues and keep His ordinances.  This is why God sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  This is what Jesus was talking about when He said you will receive power.  The power to walk in His statues by faith in Jesus Christ. 

The writer of the Hebrews quotes a similar statement from Jeremiah, in Heb 10:14-17 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,  "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM," He then says, "AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."  What that passage is saying is that salvation and sanctification go hand in hand.  Jesus has perfected those who are being sanctified and He does so in this new covenant through the testimony of the Holy Spirit writing His laws upon our hearts and upon our minds, so that our desire is to walk in His ways. 

Oh, ladies and gentlemen.  This is such an important message for the carnal church today that claims salvation and yet scorns righteous living.  That cannot be.  We are saved and we receive the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit that we might walk in the same way Christ walked.  Romans 6:4 says that we are to walk in newness of life.  Romans 8:4 says that we are not to walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 1 Cor. 7:17 says we are to walk in our calling in the church. 2 Cor. 5:7 says we are to walk by faith and not by sight. Gal 5:16 says, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  Gal 5:25 says, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” In Eph. 4:1 Paul begs us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Eph. 5:8 says walk as children of the light. Col. 1:10 says, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;  Col. 2:6 says, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 1Jo 2:6 says the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”  I could go on and on.  But I hope you understand what the Spirit is saying through this miracle.  We were given the power through the Holy Spirit to walk as Jesus walked, holy and righteous and pleasing and glorifying God in all that we do.  We have the power indwelling us, if we have been saved, to do all that God has designed us to do, if we will just be obedient to His leading. 

So folks, in closing, let me say that is how God has designed the church to be His witnesses to the world.  By the power of our walk.  When the crowds had gathered around Peter and John because they saw this formerly lame man leaping and jumping for joy on his new legs, they then received the word of the apostles and 5000 of them were saved in one day.  The success of our church is not going to be the result of some program or some outreach, or even by our soul winning efforts, but it will be the result of people witnessing the power of God to change sinful men to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  When your coworkers, when your families and neighbors witness the transformation in your life, when they witness your new walk in righteousness, then they will be compelled to follow your walk and accept your Christ.  That’s what it means to make disciples. Let us walk out of here today in the power of the Holy Spirit, walking in the ways of God as a testimony to the world.  We then can fulfill Christ’s commission to the church, to make disciples.  We can tell people, walk like I walk, because I walk like Christ walked.  That’s what it means to make disciples.  To walk like we walk, by the power of the Holy Spirit.



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