Acts 3

Discussion Questions

• Do you feel there is a difference in praying specifically in the Name of Jesus versus, perhaps, your standard way of prayer to God to let Him know your desires? Do you have concerns about praying this way?
• Do we sell Jesus short in what we are willing to pray for, or turn over to Him to address? What limits us from asking bold prayers to God?

• Where have you seen that God, in His sovereignty, knew more about what you needed than you did? How did He orchestrate or come through for you? How does this affect our trust in Him to help us in the future? Does He have a track record with you?

• Where have you seen a bad circumstance or situation turned around so that there actually was good as a result? Should this positive result be attributed to you or God?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel, and we have extra copies if you didn’t bring one with you and you would like one to follow along. Just raise your hand up real high, and somebody would be glad to drop one off at your row, your aisle. This is a great day to have the text in front of you, as it is every Sunday, but in this particular case, we’ll take all of Chapter 3, that’s 26 verses. And I want to thank the folks who joined us from out of state, out of city, out of country. Last week in particular, we had a lot of folks from London, England. And then we had some folks from Detroit, a bunch of folks from right here in the Nashville area, and then some folks from the Philippines in area called Mochayon, Lucan. I’m sorry if I mispronounced that, but we’re so grateful you joined us for worship and for study of God’s Word, and that you’re able to be with us as well. If you’re in the room today and you would like the sermon notes and quotes, the QR code is on the screen. Feel free to jump there on your devices if you have one with you. We’ll be glad to offer those to you in advance.

Now, what might change in our lives beginning with this question: What might change in our lives if we actually believe that Jesus is able to do far more than we ever ask or imagine? And I’m not just talking about God as the divine sugar daddy. What if God, though, is actually so gracious and so generous that even the struggles and limitations in our lives have the potential to become the very places where the glory of Jesus shines most luminously and brighter than any others? Day after day for over 40 years? We’re going to read the story of a man who was paralyzed and would sit outside one of the gates at the Jewish temple for whatever small coins he could get from passersby. God had something really big in mind for him, but it didn’t come into his life until after he was already 40. And I know we have a bunch of people in the room that are 40 or younger. So, this guy was sitting there longer than you’ve been alive and hoping and praying for God to be generous with him in some way. We’re going to walk through this passage, and I think we’re going to see the Lord, our concept of who God is and what God might want to do, His economy, His way of viewing good, His way of viewing what can be done or should be done in a given moment.

We want to learn from Him, from His Word as we take a look at it. I’m going to call the sermon “More Than He Asked For.” And there is a miracle and a message in Acts, Chapter 3. The chapter actually splits quite nicely, and I’m going to take the first 11 verses first, and that will be the miracle itself. Peter begins his second sermon in verse 12. Let me pray for us as we begin to read the Word: Lord, thank You for the Scriptures that they are sharper than a two-edged sword. Thank You that they are unique in their source. They’re broad in their reach, timeless in their truths, transforming in their power. Holy Spirit, that You would plant the good seed of Your word deep in our hearts, and we might get a clear vision of Your truth, a greater faith in Your power, and a more confident assurance of Your love for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen and Amen.

Acts, Chapter 3. Let’s take a look. Jump back up in Chapter 2 there. Luke, as he’s writing the book of Acts, does these things about 11 or 12 times where he does a summary statement, and it goes something like this, look at verse 43: “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” And so, you get those kinds of statements by Luke as the as the Gospel begins to spread not only from Jerusalem, but into Judea, into Samaria, and the uttermost regions of the of the Earth. As we go through the book of Acts, we’ll see three of Paul’s missionary journeys, we’ll go all around the Mediterranean with him. And the wildfire-like spread of the Gospel is unexplainable, except for the fact that it’s actually the ongoing continuing works of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, working in the lives of the apostles and the followers of Jesus, preaching the Gospel and spreading it as they go, with this divine imprimatur.

So, a lot of wonders and signs are happening. We’re going to read about one of those today. Verse 47 of Chapter 2 says there were a lot of people continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house. “They were taking meals together with gladness, sincerity of heart, praising God, having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” And so, when we closed up our last study, we saw at least 3120 people. Because Acts 2 opens up with 120 people and Acts 2 closes with an additional 3000, so 3120. But it also implies right here in this last verse, that day by day, more people are being added. So, with that kind of momentum in mind, Peter and John, verse 1 of Chapter 3, were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Jews had three different hours of prayer, the third hour of the sixth hour and the ninth hour of the way they reckoned their clock for them. A simple way to understand it would be 9 a.m., 12 noon and 3 p.m. Three p.m. was also the time of the evening sacrifices in addition to being the hour of prayer.

In this particular case, John and Peter, two of the closest disciples of Jesus, two men whose lives have been dramatically changed by Jesus, two men who we’ll read about throughout this book we call The Acts of the Apostles, and they’re going up to the temple. Remember, there’s a little bit of an overlap here because they haven’t formed the Presbyterian Church, yet, they haven’t formed the Baptist church, you haven’t got a Methodist church, you haven’t got a non-denominational church. What we have here is a bunch of Jewish guys, mostly, who are coming to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and they’re overlapping as they are. They’re in Jerusalem. They don’t have a building called Saint Bernard Building that they go to worship. They naturally, as they have done, continue to go up to the temple to worship and to offer their prayers and to seek God. And so, their ninth hour, they’re going in prayer. A man who’d been lame from his mother’s womb. In other words, since birth. It didn’t happen to him in an accident. Later in Chapter 4, verse 22, we’ll find out he’s over 40 years of age. So, from his mother’s womb, the day of his delivery, he’s been lame. And he’s been sitting there and he was carried every day along, verse two tells us. And they used to set him down every day. Notice the everydayness of this, every day at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful.

Now a lot of the gates were beautiful. Of course, this one is probably the gate that leads from the court of Gentiles into the court of women there. There were several different rings to the court as you go to the temple area, Temple Mount. So, you go from the court of Gentiles into the court of women. And then in the court of Israel, which is really the court of Israeli men, Jewish men. And then you’re into then the part of the temple that would be called the Holy Place, and then the Holy of Holies. So, this gate is likely the gate that, Nicanor of Alexandria, this is what church tradition and Josephus tell us. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt, a great city. A lot of Jews had migrated that way. And before the time of Christ, evidently, he made a gift of these 75-foot-tall Corinthian bronze gates to the Second Temple, which was being rebuilt by Herod. So, this is this is an amazing and beautiful piece of work. It’s probably adorned with some silver and some gold ornamentation as well. But it was called beautiful because it was just head and shoulders beautiful above all of the other gates. And this is where this man is sitting. Probably very smart to be sitting there, actually, when you think about it now, especially at the hour of prayer.

Why? Because so many people would be coming flooding through there. And that’s a great opportunity if you have to beg and make a living begging, that’s a great opportunity for him to sit there. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. So, he’s looking for some money. He has no other way to make a living, right? “Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze upon him, and Peter said, ‘Look at us!” Now we’re right here, you know, because there’s probably 50 or 100 people that are lying on mats, various infirmities and ailments, and this is a place to beg. This is an opportunity for them as all the people who can come streaming by and they’re seeking help, alms, alms, arms. And Peter wants to get this man’s attention. “’Look at us!’ And he began to give them his attention [Verse five says] expecting to receive something from them. Peter said, ‘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!’” Now there may have been a pregnant pause right there. A large, expanded pause of silence. People might have stopped. People might have been wondering, what’s this? It’s such an awkward thing to say at this particular moment. It’s like when people say something awkward at a funeral or something, and you just wonder what’s going to happen.

And this guy is looking right at Peter when he says this. And then Peter goes a little bit further, verse seven: “Seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And with a leap he stood upright and he began to walk; and he entered the temple with them.” The first time in 40 years, by the way, you were not allowed in the temple when you had an infirmity like that, because they always attached it to sin and you’re unclean, you can’t go in deeper than the court of Gentiles. For the first time he is now walking, standing up, not looking at shins and kneecaps. For 40 years that he has been looking at. Now he’s up, looking at eyeballs and faces and he’s going in to the temple to worship. And he’s got to love these three words. He’s walking and leaping and praising the Lord. So, we know he’s not a Presbyterian. We know he’s not a Baptist. Well, he might be a Baptist. I don’t know some of those Baptists that get a little swingy like that. But this guy is like, you know, more of a frozen-chest guy. He’s been that way, right? But now he is literally left.

And I asked some of my medical friends, online, I have some medical friends online. Doctor Rock, I asked him, I said, “How many muscles does it take for you to stand up, for a human being to stand up? And Doctor Rock said “At least 50 muscles, when you count the muscles in your feet, the muscles in your legs themselves and the muscles, even in your core are involved in you standing upright as a, you know, a biped human being, you know, two feet clean up. It’s going to take about 50 muscles in the group of your body for you to stand up. Now you all know, you see little babies as they take their first step. Everybody’s so excited and it’s awesome to see them when they motor down like here. Right? Sometimes right here at the church, they do that and sometimes, you know, it takes a while, takes a couple months at least for them to sort of figure out what it means to balance. And all of a sudden, this guy without pity, without mommy and daddy helping him along for the first time, he’s been alive over 40 years for the first time. His 50 muscles, not only are they strong enough for him to stand, but they work in concert together for him to balance and to jump and see.

This is why this data is here. It’s not just to make us think, am I Pentecostal enough or whatever? No, it’s not about that. This is supposed to just fill us with awe because God did something instantaneous. Here immediately is the word that Luke uses, and it’s way more than the alms. The guy was asking for way more than he expected. And not only that, but I’m really blown away by this first time in the site, the temple grounds area, first time, you know, the Nicanor of Alexandria, Egypt, that donated these gates. His name means victorious. And because of the power of Jesus that work in this guy’s life. Christus Victor Christ victorious at work in his life, he’s able to draw near in the temple and for the first time. And it’s so amazing and so wonderful. And I think, as you’ll see here in just a moment, Peter ties this event directly to the person and work of Jesus. That’s why we have the miracle in the first 11 verses, and the message that goes with it in verses 12 through 26. So, he leaps. He’s walking, he’s leaping, he’s praising the Lord. No rehab, no nothing. He just goes. “All the people saw him walking and praising God. They were taking note of him. [Verse ten] as being the one who as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms.” In other words, these people, as they’re coming, they come in regularly, they notice, “That’s Eddie, that’s our dude.” He’s the one that stays. He’s always there. Every day when we go up to the temple to pray. Look, it’s the same guy. He’s in there. He’s leaping, praising, you know?

And so, they connect the dots. Something’s happened. Something’s different. Right. And they were filled with, it says here they all saw him, and they recognize him as the guy who used to sit by beautiful gate of the temple to beg. And they were filled with wonder. We’re going to read that all the time through the book of Acts and amazement at what had happened to him again, 40 years on the fringe of faith, now inside and worshiping with all his heart, giving all that he has got, just overflowing with gratitude. “While he was clinging to Peter [verse 11 says] and John, all the people ran together to the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement” at the Temple Mount. It’s been estimated by some folks that you could probably see when you stand there, you can kind of get the impression that this is probably true; it could probably hold about 60,000 people, the whole the entire Temple Mount area. So, for the 3120 that we know this, call it 3120 plus because of the day by day, okay, additions, but let’s say 3500 people are all gathered together and at the same place. All the people have come to faith in Christ. And now this guy is leaping and jumping and praising the Lord in the middle of all of them. And they literally rushed together. And this is gives Peter slow-pitch softball opportunity to preach another message. And he steps right up.

“When Peter saw this, he replied to the people, ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?’” So, two questions. They’re going to get two questions he’s going to ask. And then he’s going to give two commands a minute, and there’s going to be two promises as well down the pike here in this same text. But for now, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? And I have to remind myself over and over again, I constantly find myself surprised that the Lord does stuff. And yet I trust Him to hold the universe together. And then at the same time, when I’m doubtful, it’s like, “Okay, You can hold the universe together, but You can’t, somehow or another, I’m not going to trust You for this little, tiny little thing in my life” or whatever. And I’m so inconsistent. I don’t know about you, but I’m just being honest here. I’m so inconsistent in my trust in God, His power, His authority. And whenever I see people being amazed, it just reminds me. I bet most of the day I walk right past a whole lot of things the Lord is doing and just don’t even see Him. And this guy is there for 40 some years. And how many times I wonder if Peter and John walked right by him? I bet if Jesus came by, He looked at him, knowing his character. I bet he looked at that guy and went, “Man, I’m going to save this one for later.” Because Jesus knew the timing. Jesus knew what He was doing, and in His own mind’s eye, “This one will be for Peter and John. This one will be for the beginning of the church. This one will be one of those times where a wonder or a sign points to the Gospel and the power of the Gospel to change people’s lives.”

But Peter saw this. He says, why do you marvel at this, and why do you gaze at us? That’s a great disposition of heart. And in any kind of ministry position at all, this power is not of us. It’s not about our power, nor is it about our piety. It’s not. It’s not because we’re good little religious boys and girls that something happens. See, this is all about the name of Jesus. You’ll see this as we go through. As a matter of fact, this sermon of Peter’s is so Christological, rich. in a minute, I’ll pull up a couple of slides. I’ll give you a 12 things he says about Jesus. So, if you need a little highlights magazine, find the squirrel in the drawing thing to get through the sermon. You can start looking now for those 12 things as I read the rest of this, passage. Right. Why do you marvel at this? Or why do you guys do that? As if we made him walk. Here it comes: “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he decided to release Him.” And that’s so true. What Peter’s saying there. Pilate, you remember the trials we started not too long ago, but Pilate literally declares Jesus innocent 4 or 5 times. “I see no problem with it. I don’t know why. Why is it you want to know this? I don’t understand.”

You know, and I’m not saying he’s not culpable. I’m simply saying that these folks, as Peter begins to preach, he says, you delivered Jesus over. You disowned him in the presence of Pilate when he, Pilate had decided to let Jesus go. And Peter’s right, verse 14: “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One.” That would have right there, that title, the holy and righteous, that would have perked their ears up because they’re Jews. “…and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but you put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him [through Jesus] has given him [this man who’s healed] this perfect health in the presence of you all. Now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”

Verse 19, this is one of my favorite verses in the whole book of Acts: “Therefore repent and return.” There’s the two commands that follow on the heels of the two questions: repent and return. Promises follow on their heels “…so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Yeah, you too don’t have to remain on the fringes like this man for 40 years. You too can draw near to the throne of grace. By the presence of the Lord, you’ll be refreshed. “And that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. [Verse 22] Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. To Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you.’” Reaching all the way back deep into the Old Testament, when Moses prophesied about a coming prophet. “And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” In other words, your response to Jesus is what matters. Nothing else. Doesn’t matter if you wear a tie to church or not. Sorry if you do, great. If you don’t, don’t. What matters is how do you respond to Jesus, right?

“And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham…” and he goes all the way to Genesis 22 for this one. “…And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first, God raised up His servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” There’s just so much there that is Christological, true and exalts the Lord Jesus in what the apostle Peter says in his second sermon. There are, as I say, about 24 sermons in the book of Acts. I think it’s nine by Paul, eight by Peter, and the rest by a variety of people. But here we have this chapter that will break up this way and just make a few comments about it. The first, 10 or 11 verses, really about the miracle itself, this one individual miracle that does something. It sets everything up for Peter to be able to get up and say what he says. That’s all about Jesus, the message he has for them. All right. So more than he asks for here’s an artist’s rendition of what the temple area may have looked like. The giant gate there in the center that you can see, it’s the gate happens to be open. I think in this picture, but that’s how significant a doorway this would have been for the people they were. They would have thousands of people would have been going in through that same gate. So really great spot for this one man to be if he actually wanted to in some way, ask for alms and beg for some help in his life.

Now I want to first of all argue that the signs and wonders and the miracles of Jesus are way more than mere sensationalism. We will see as we’ve gone through the Gospels, we’ve seen this as we go through Acts. We’ll see it as well. These miracles are designed to do more than point to themselves. It’s more than just a swinging coach shell. These miracles are designed to arouse curiosity about Jesus, to display the power of Jesus, reveal the compassion of Jesus, to affirm the identity of Jesus. In other words, if Jesus is who He said He is, if Jesus is who we say, we who follow Him, say He is, one would expect He could do some of these kinds of things. And finally, they inspire faith in Jesus or worship in Jesus, where I see this over and over again. We’ve already seen it in the Gospel of Luke that we just finished studying. We will see it as we go through the book of Acts as well. People turn, their hearts turn. Yes, this man is glad that he’s walking and leaping and praising the Lord. But I’m so excited myself. I can’t wait till the day we all get home to sit down and have some coffee with this guy. If I have an opportunity to, I want to hear him tell me the story of the day he got to enter the temple for the first time and have some sense of being a part of God’s people as they collected themselves as they gathered together to worship the Lord. And he got to be included in that. So here we see God does the unimaginable and what we many people would call the impossible simply to display the glory of Christ, to make that help people see Jesus better right there. Secondly, God knows more than we do about what we really need. Sometimes I’m just asking for alms, and what the Lord really wants to do is much more than alms.

And just keeping that kind of perspective that I don’t always really have a grip on what’s going on in my life and, and what’s exactly. Yeah. What is exactly wrong? I don’t always know. As a matter of fact, a lot of this stuff. I bet you that if I ask you, raise your hands, a lot of you would raise your hands. Have you ever worried about something that never came to pass? Okay, the chuckles tell me. Yeah. We write narratives all the time about stuff that we think life is over. It’s like nothing is ever going to go right again. It’s all done. And yet when we stop and just turn it all over to Him, lay it at His feet. Right? The Lord knows so much better than we do about what we really need, or even about what those we love, really need. And those of you who have ever walked one of your loved ones through some difficulties physically, illnesses, that sort of thing. You know what that means. You know, there’s no more helpless feeling, no more powerless feeling than wanting to do for somebody and not being able to do it yourself. But can we trust the Lord? Can we turn to Him? He knows more about what we really need than we know ourselves. And then thirdly, because He’s good and all powerful, we can. And then nobody else has that but that combination. By the way, no other God has that combination of good, all good, and all powerful. Not because the God of the Bible has that combination.

We can turn to Him. We can trust Him with every aspect of life, all our hopes, all our dreams. Yes, all of our heartbreaks and sufferings as well. All of the outcomes, large or small, all of our time, all of our talent, all of our treasure. We can trust him with all of the control. So, getting uncomfortable for anybody? Yeah, all of the control. Leave it all in His hands, man. Got more than he asked for. I like the little Charlie Brown cartoon, you guys may have seen it years ago, where Lucy and Charlie Brown and Linus are all together, lying on their backs, looking up to the clouds in the sky overhead. Lucy says, “If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations. Linus, what do you see?” Linus responds, looking up in the clouds. He goes, “Well, those clouds over there, they looked like a map of British Honduras out in the Caribbean. And that over there looks like the bust of Beethoven and those clouds over there give me the impression of the stoning of Stephen, who is the first Christian martyr.” And then Lucy looks over Charlie Brown and goes, “Charlie Brown, what do you see?” He goes, “Well, I was going to say a horsey and a ducky, but I’ve changed my mind now.”

And I think before this happens, everybody’s walking by this guy and he’s just a horsey or a ducky. He’s constantly hounding them for money and it’s inconvenient. And there’s so many different adjectives you could use to describe people who are in need in your life all the time. And sometimes you’re frustrated and you don’t really know what to do, and sometimes you don’t know why it happened, and sometimes you don’t know if you should trust giving all. You’re not sure whether you should buy that newspaper or not? And on and on. The opportunities go and your mind is wrestling with stuff. But I’m glad that Peter, on this particular day, was really listening to the Lord. But I will point out that there were likely 50 or 100 or 200 other people who did not say, “Look at me.” The same thing is true of Jesus. Jesus walked into the temple area multiple times. Probably loads of people sick that He didn’t stop and go, “You’re healed.” I would love nothing more than for the Lord to empower us to be able to sort of heal anybody we want, whenever we want to. I’d like to say, “Let’s go through Vanderbilt this afternoon and clear the place out. And then after that, let’s go over to Saint Thomas. And after that, let’s go to Centennial. And let’s just clear them up.” I would love nothing more than that. But God in His sovereignty knows exactly what He’s doing. And in this particular moment that we read about in Acts, Chapter 3, we get to see a miracle event that happens, and it’s attached to a message that’s all about Jesus, the one and the only one who’s all good and all powerful. He is the only one that has that same combination.

All right, maybe you’ve found the 12 things here. They are real fast: Jesus has been glorified by God. And yet you do understand that’s not just a religious word. What I’m saying is that God Himself has put His imprimatur on God the Son, so that Jesus is glorified. It’s not just another vocational ministerial person that’s come along, not even just another human being that rolls up and started a religious movement and everybody likes them or whatever. No, the imprimatur of heaven is on Jesus and He’s glorified. He emanates the splendor of God. See, that’s what that means there. So, you need to read. Take that for what it really says. Verse 13, he says, the long-awaited servant of the Lord, harkening back for first century Jews, easily grasping, hearkening back to Isaiah, the prophet who would in talk about the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42,49, 50, 52, 53. Et cetera, et cetera. Number three, Jesus is the holy and the righteous One again, a title, a moniker that the Messiah has from Isaiah, Chapter 53. Therefore, He’s worthy of our worship, and nobody else is. Nope, we should not be worshiping other religious figures. Shouldn’t be, definitely shouldn’t be worshiping pastors, priests, popes. No. Celebrities, no. Jesus. Yes. Imprimatur of God on Him and He is the holy and righteous. He’s the one that defines holy and righteous. And so, He’s the one way to serving the Lord. He is the prince, or the author, or the captain of life.

Verse 15. Now the same thing is it’s interesting in the book of Hebrews just that Jesus is the author and finisher, or the author and perfecter, if you will have it, the author and perfecter of our faith. And the word “author” there is the same Greek word that is used here when Peter says that Jesus is the author of life. As he says to the indictment he gives to the religious leaders, “You put to death the author of life.” That’s nuts. Why would you do that? Who would even think to do that? The one that gave you life. Number five. The one whom God raised from the dead. Now that’s vindication right there. If Jesus really is the one we should trust and hope in, if He really is our hope in life and death, you would think He would be the one who had been raised from the defeated death, and that indeed He did do every sermon in the book of Acts. The resurrection is referred to that He rose from the dead, the name by which the man was healed. Verse 16. The source and the object. Jesus is the source and the object of our faith. Verse 16. He’s the One. We get faith from its effects. It’s come through him, but He’s also the object of our faith. That’s awesome. Isn’t it? His suffering was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, verse 17. Or is that verse 18, right there. Yeah, through the prophets. Verse 18. Yeah. That’s great. Number nine, God’s Christ Messiah appointed for us. He had you in mind. He had me in mind when the Lord said, the Triune God decides before the foundations of the world that this plan to issue a covenant, to offer the promise and to come and rescue us, that plan put together before the foundations of the world.

So awesome that Christ was appointed for us to come save us. Seated in Heaven right now. Verse 21, eager for the restoration of all things to happen. And verse 22 through 26, He is indeed the agent of salvation itself. There’s so much here about Jesus. It’s so rich this way. 12 things at least. You could probably find more if you wanted to articulate them that way. Christopher Watkins, one of my favorite books over the last couple of years, in his book Biblical Critical Theory, he said, “What deal can we strike with God when He gives us everything we have? The Bible’s picture of human beings is not as wheelers and dealers in the corporate boardroom signing contracts with the gods of the ultimate reality in order to get ahead. Instead, we’re joyful children on Christmas morning, receiving unexpectedly lavish gifts from loving parents.” Alms? You want alms? Why would you want alms? There’s so much more on offer here. And the same thing is true for me. I want the Lord to transform my walk around the neighborhood tomorrow. I want to see Him. And every blade of grass and every bird that flies over top and sings in every awesome shape and silhouette. I mean, you’ve probably seen tons of trees out here. Their dark silhouettes that you’ve seen now because of the ice storm and without the foliage and everything like, they’re brutal looking, but they’re beautiful somehow.

Who can do that? God. And He can transform your drive to the bank or the or the post office or the grocery store by drawing you to some of the beauty that He has lavished us with in the gifts that He’s given to us. The benediction in many churches is Ephesians 3: 20. “Now to Him who is able to do what is far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.” Now what he’s saying there is your God is too small. Our God sometimes is just too small. What he’s not saying there is. You get to have a fat wallet, and you’ll never have another pimple in your life. That’s not what’s being said there. What’s being said there is “Look how just and powerful God is!” Come and trust Him. Turn to Him. Whether you’ve been laying on the mat for ten years, 20 years, 30 years or 40 years, what would keep you from saying, “Lord, I’m Yours, glorify Yourself in me however You want to in Your economy, the way You see fit.” You know how that would change us, right? So, when I ask myself questions about this passage, I think about how could Acts 3 change my understanding of Jesus and my view of this world full of suffering? And it hasn’t mattered to me over the last couple of weeks with stuff I’ve gone through. How about you?

How would your seeing God as big as He’s presented right here and throughout the rest of the Bible – how would that change the way you view what’s going on in your life right now? That’s uncomfortable, painful, difficult, hurtful. Sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for something to happen, whatever. How would it change, whatever that is in your life if you start seeing God as bigger than you’ve been seeing Him? Am I ready to see my need as God sees it, and for my life to reflect the undeniable glory of Christ? All right, now that begins to change some really difficult stuff in our lives. When we start to see suffering in a different way. I mean, I’m the first one to go whining and complaining and screaming and crying, all that stuff. But what if God has a moment in time that’s not yet come like for this guy? And I’m going to get there because He’s in charge of human history and He’s big. He’s so big. I know He can actually handle human history. And if He can handle human history, this little dust ball-sized planet, it’s been 67,000 miles an hour on its 584-million journey around our sun, and I’m just one of 8 billion bipeds on it. I think I can trust Him if He’s in charge of all of that. I think He can handle my life. And I need to remind myself of that over and over and over again.

What might be keeping me from, look at number three. They’re praying humbly, asking boldly, trusting confidently, leaping joyfully and praising exuberantly. Yeah, you might not do those all at the same time, but from this text anyway, I find myself going, man, I want to have some moments like that where I’m just overwhelmed by what God has done and how God is so massive and huge and yet has taken notice of me. I mean, what is man that You’re even mindful of us? Good question psalmist. But He is mindful of us. He does love us, Lewis said, “If there lurks in most modern minds a notion that to desire of our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit this is a notion that has crept in from Kant [That’s a reference to Immanuel Kant, a philosopher] and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We’re halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

I agree with Lewis 100%. I also find myself wanting to get back on my knees and be a little more specific in my prayers. I’ve been too general. Maybe you have too, and that’s one of the things I do like. I listen to John Piper on this passage, and he talked about how if your prayer life has sort of sagged into you just don’t know what to say anymore. He identified, I think, five of those items, five of those comments about Christ that I expanded to 12. But he said, take those into your prayer life and begin to pray about Jesus. Help me see You as the author of life again, because sometimes we just stop seeing Him the way we may have come to know Him first, and I agree with Piper on that. And Andrew Murray, “Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ‘above all that we can ask or think.’” Listen. If that phrase means anything at all, what does it mean? “Each time before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ and expect great things from Him.”

Okay, but I’m challenged by that myself. Perhaps you are as well. One lady, who has spent 55 years in a wheelchair says that when the Lord wraps up human history, the first thing she wants to do on resurrected legs is drop on grateful, glorified knees. She said, “I will quietly kneel at the feet of Jesus and listen.” She hasn’t been told to get up off of her mat and walk. She’s in her wheelchair. Okay? And look at how God pours glory through her. So, whether the outcome is you get to walk and leap and praise the Lord like man in the first 11 verses of Chapter 3, or you end up without those issues, those external issues resolved either way the question is: Is my life given back to Him so that He can pour His glory through it? I hope it is for you. I hope it will continue to be for me.

Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for this text. We pray that You would indeed pour Your life through us. We pray that You would pour Your love through us, Your people, like Peter and John, give us eyes to see the needs of people around us and help us, Lord to respond to their needs, whether those needs are physical, emotional, or spiritual, whatever they are, help us be available to You. And Lord, move in power through Your people. We pray to change our neighborhoods, our families, change our place of work, change our city, change our country. You change even this world. Lord, we know You have a plan for human history, but we pray that we might be salt and light in it, however dark it gets. May Your people shine brightly and make people thirsty for Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen and amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“There Is A Fountain“ by William Cowper and Lowell Mason
“What Wondrous Love Is This“ by Douglas Smith and William W. Walker
“Come Thou Fount“ by Robert Robinson
“I’ll Fly Away“ by Alfred E. Brumley; Alt. v3, Tommy Bailey
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led over the years on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: Faithfulness of God

LEADER: For the word of the LORD is right and true; He is faithful in all He does.
MEN: Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies.
WOMEN: You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

MEN: For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
WOMEN: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
MEN: The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.

ALL: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!

Classic Prayer: Ulrich Zwingli 1484-1531

Almighty, eternal and merciful God, whose Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, open and illuminate our minds, that we may purely and perfectly understand Your Word and that our lives may be conformed to what we have rightly understood, and in nothing may we be displeasing to Your majesty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession of Faith: New City Catechism

Part 1, God, Creation & Fall, Law; Q. 1-2

LEADER: What Is Our Only Hope in Life and Death?
PEOPLE: That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.

LEADER: What is God?
PEOPLE: God is the Creator and Sustainer of everyone and everything. He is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable in His power and perfection, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth. Nothing happens except through Him and by His will.

TVC Prayer Ministry

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TVC Mission Highlight: The Next Door
Praying for the Persecuted Church: Morocco

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