THE MIRACLE OF CURING A LAME BEGGAR
Acts 3: 16
Sermon by:
Rev. H.A. Bergsma
Published by the
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(November 2003)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 222: 1 - 5
Law of God
Scripture: Acts 3
Text: Acts 3: 16
Psalter 326
Congregational Prayer
Offering
Psalter 143
Sermon
Psalter 362
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 306
Benediction
Doxology: Psalter 315
Congregation of the Lord,
Our God still performs miracles!
Perhaps we have forgotten, or perhaps we do not really expect any miracles from God anymore.
But make no mistake about it … our God still performs miracles.
Certainly, He performs miracles in the spiritual realm.
The lives of men and women, boys and girls are still being changed by the power of the Gospel … a spiritual miracle indeed!
But other miracles still occur today.
We do not always recognize them as such; but people are still being sustained or healed, in answer to prayer; lives are still being spared in miraculous way at times.
Our God still performs miracles.
But, we need to understand what the place and the role of miracles is in God’s divine revelation.
Miracles, you see, are meant to serve a purpose in God’s divine revelation.
A purpose, which I hope and pray will become clear as we consider the story of the miraculous healing of a lame beggar, who we meet in our text-chapter.
And particularly, as we consider the Apostle Peter’s explanation of this miracle by the words of our text, verse 16 …
“And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
Let us consider this passage by the following theme and division…
THE POWER IN A MIRACLE ON A LAME BEGGAR
- The Miracle that Displays this Power
- The Gospel that Declares this Power
- The Faith that Depends on this Power
Congregation, it was not the intention of Peter and John to go on the road and do a miracle somewhere.
They were simply on their way to the temple, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon to attend a daily prayer-service.
However, when they arrived at one of the courts of the temple, their eyes were drawn to a lame beggar lying at the gate, known as the “Beautiful Gate.”
Apparently, this was a good place for beggars, because temple worshippers would pass right by them.
And such worshippers, being in a devout spirit, would certainly not mind showing some kindness to beggars and part with a few coins – alms – to help such poor people out.
The beggars in Israel, generally speaking, could count on temple worshippers to be generous people; people with a tender heart and an open hand.
Can worshippers of today still be identified this way, congregation?
Now, we do not have any beggars lying at the gate of our church, but if you are a genuine worshipper of the Lord, you will still be able to find ways and means to be generous and tender-hearted towards the needy.
Peter and John felt the urge in them to help this lame beggar.
Walking up to him they stopped right in front of him, secured his attention, and with a commanding voice Peter addressed him … “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.”
In other words … “I have something much greater than silver or gold for you, and that will I give.”
And what was it that Peter could give? Just listen! …
“In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”
Well, Peter was not just kidding!
He reached out his hand, pulled the lame man up … and you know the rest … we have read about the excitement that followed.
The man leaped up, stood, walked around, and accompanied Peter and John into the temple, all the while leaping and skipping like a young child, and praising God.
No doubt this attracted great attention in the stately, hallowed halls of the temple that afternoon.
“And all the people saw him walking and praising God” so we are told in verse 9.
Well, Peter and John immediately had the attention of the people in the temple.
The miracle, has served its purpose, as God has seen fit.
Without any effort on their part, Peter and John, the two new Gospel preachers, had an instant and interested audience.
There was no need to advertise a “Great-Preaching-Event-Coming-Up.”
The miracle had done it.
The miracle therefore had a gathering power, as you can read in verse 11 … “all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.”
This is how God brought people in contact with the Gospel.
He arranged that there would be an audience for the new Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He arranged that there would be eager listeners for it … in fact, these people were so eager, that they came running!
The miracle therefore had a gathering power.
Besides, the miracle carried with it a power to impress.
It impressed the people for what was done to the poor lame beggar.
They were impressed with the power that was displayed.
After all! They knew this man; for as long as they could remember, they have seen him begging at the gate.
He was carried to that place daily, and daily he sat there with arms stretched-out, begging for alms.
And suddenly, there he was, in the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God, and again we read … “and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.”
The people were impressed by the power of the miracle … it was something supernatural; only God could do such things … surely therefore (so they reasoned) these two Gospel preachers must be men of God.
And so, Peter and John had not only an audience, but they had an impressed audience.
They had a crowd of listeners around them who were filled with amazement, and marveling within themselves, they looked earnestly upon Peter and John for them to say something.
By this miracle, God has seen fit to open the people for the Word of God.
Congregation, this is how God took care of His church in early years of Gospel preaching.
He took care that Gospel preachers would an audience that was ripe and ready for the work of the Holy Spirit.
He took care that such an audience would be impressed and eager to hear the Gospel.
God took care of all this by way of a miracle.
In those early days of Gospel preaching, God took care, by way of a miracle, that the Gospel would be listened to.
But let me ask you … are we less cared-for by God, now that we do not see such obvious displays of miracles?
Are we less privileged than the early church, now that Gospel preaching is no longer introduced by amazing powers of some miracle?
No, as Gospel preacher, I cannot perform a miracle that would gather you together and prepare you to listen to the Gospel.
Generally speaking, God does not work this way any more today.
It was primarily in the early days of the church that God used miracles to introduce the Gospel.
Then, He used miracles to impress the people with His powers.
Again, generally speaking, God does not work this way any more today.
Today we have the Gospel, and it has a proven track-record, so to speak.
Today we know that God has great powers and that He works powerfully.
We do not need miracles as such any more to tell us that.
Therefore, what Peter and John could do then, cannot be done any more now … and why not?
Because God does not want us now to be attracted by miracles, but rather, He wants us to be attracted by His Word.
He wants us to be attracted and impressed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Certainly, miracles still happen today; perhaps less obvious to us, but they still happen.
Miracles of a spiritual nature; even miracles of a physical nature … they still happen.
But one significant difference is that those miracles do not come before, but they now follow the Gospel.
After all, it is the Word of God that is the power of God unto salvation; it is listening to the Gospel that can save.
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God!”
This is how God is pleased to work.
Well, the Apostle Peter knew that the Gospel-Word had power; and he wasted no time in preaching it.
He had a gathered audience, and an impressed audience, and to this audience he preached a Gospel, which declared the power of God, as we must consider in the second place.
The Gospel that Peter preached must have stunned his audience.
He didn’t tell them … “Come and see a miracle!”
No, but he preached a rather hard-hitting Gospel.
He did not spare his audience!
At one point he even lashed out at them and set them guilty in the presence of God.
He told them … “Jesus Christ … whom you delivered up … whom you denied … whom you killed … in Him, and in His Name lies the power that you have seen displayed.”
And as Peter pointed to the cured beggar, he told his audience …
“It is in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, through faith in His Name, that this miracle was performed.”
What was Peter doing?
He was preaching a Gospel of convicting power.
And this convicting power centered and climaxed in the only Name worthy to be proclaimed … “Jesus Christ of Nazareth!”
I can almost hear that Name ring through the halls of the temple in Jerusalem!
The Jews who were listening must have been shaking in their boots.
That’s the Name of Him whom they had openly despised and delivered-up and killed not long ago!
Is there power in this Name; such power as to cure a lame beggar?
“Yes” Peter could say … “It is in His Name that the man became strong; it is in His Name that this man is given perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”
And when Peter said this, he made it known that this man was not only physically cured but also spiritually … “given perfect soundness” referring to spiritual health.
This was why this man leaped and praised God in the temple, and why he stuck close to the apostles, even when later on (as you can read in the next chapter) … even when later on the apostles were harassed by the priests, the captains of the temple, and the Sadducees.
This man was saved as well as cured, and he was a living testimony of the power in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
The Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth makes for such a powerful Gospel, dear people.
Let us never tire of hearing that Name, because it is the only Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
It is a most beautiful Name.
But have you ever thought of it why Peter spoke of Jesus Christ of Nazareth?
Why not Jesus Christ of Heaven, or Jesus Christ of Jerusalem?
Why Jesus Christ of Nazareth?
Well, you see, Nazareth did not have a good name amongst the Jews.
Nazareth was known as the “back-waters” of Israel; the slum-area; the ghetto of the nation; there is were the weak and the poor people lived; the shady characters; the people with a reputation!
And when Peter mentioned that Jesus Christ hailed from Nazareth … He made a statement … a statement that no doubt caused many of the self-righteous Jews to turn-up their noses, but a statement that said much for the poor and the needy, for the Nazarites amongst them.
And that statement should also say something to us.
It is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is proclaimed to you today.
He is therefore the answer for weak and poor and needy people; for people with a reputation.
And don’t we all have a reputation, dear people, in one way or another?
… A reputation that puts us out of favor with a righteous God?
Well, there is Gospel power in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
He is a Savior most suitable for those who know themselves as poor and weak and with a reputation for sin.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth – this is how He wants to be promoted by the Gospel.
Which in turn means that He voluntarily became One with whom you can identify with … if you are willing to confess your sin and your sinful reputation.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth – means that he became poor so that He could reach out to you and save you.
He became despised and rejected and accused of having a reputation, so that you might be accepted of God and cleared of all guilt.
Jesus Christ of Nazareth … is there not a powerful Gospel in that very Name?
Well, this Name is proclaimed to you again in this hour.
Have you turned to him already, my friend?
Perhaps you are holding back with the excuse “I cannot do such a thing in my own strength … a miracle needs to happen to me first.”
To respond to this sort of reasoning, let me take you to my third consideration … having spoken about the power of the Gospel, couched in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I must now speak about the faith that depends on this power.
You know, the lame beggar could not get to his feet in his own strength.
No doubt, he too, may have reasoned that nothing but a miracle could put him on his feet.
But what happened to him?
Two simple Gospel preachers stopped in front of him, and one of them said to him “Look on us!”
And what did this beggar do?
We are told … “And he gave heed unto them” … he listened to them… and, he expected to receive something from them.
Dear people, this means nothing less than that this man exercised some faith in what these preachers were going say or do!
When these two Gospel preachers stopped at his place, he did not get the usual coin tossed at him.
Instead, he was told to give them his attention.
And this is what he did; he obeyed; and as he obeyed and paid attention, his expectations began to rise within him.
Now, let me ask you … have you come to church today expecting to receive something?
Have you come, expecting something from the preaching … expecting something from the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Nazareth?
Have you come, expecting something from the power of the Gospel, which the Bible has promised?
There is where faith has its beginnings, dear people!
You can read of it in verse 5 of our text-chapter … “And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.”
You have heard the Name “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” proclaimed this hour.
Have you paid attention to that Name?
Have you any expectations of that Name?
Peter said that it was faith in that Name which made the man strong and which gave him perfect soundness.
You say that a miracle has to happen before there will be any change with you.
Well, where do you look for such a miracle?
… From yourself? … From some change in your circumstances? … From the world perhaps? … From the preachers? …
Or do you look it in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth?
Your faith has to depend on the power of that Name.
If it depends on any other power, it will fail.
If your attention, your hopes and your expectations are with anything or anyone else except Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you will miss out on the miracle of spiritual change!
Young people, boys and girls! Do not look for miracles from this world, or from man.
Do not put your faith in anyone but Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Pay attention to Him; expect things from Him.
Let your attention be set on the power of Him who once sacrificed Himself, bled and died on the cross, but who also rose again from the grave, to give you life and happiness.
Is your life not what it should be?
Well, you are not alone, I know it!
But God can do a miracle in your life … therefore repent of the things in your life that are not good, and turn in faith to Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
And any amongst us who have had this miracle worked in you … is there any spiritual leaping and praising with you?
You say … “I can’t get myself to do that so easily!”
Well, there is power for this in the same Name which once reached out to you in your misery and changed you … Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Dear people. This hour you have heard something about a miracle that was performed while the New Testament Church was still in its infancy.
A lame beggar was cured.
Today, the Church of Jesus Christ has matured.
By and large, such obvious miracles are not happening anymore.
But God who has performed those miracles is still the same.