Lessons From Acts – Lesson 3
After Jesus arose He had some work to do to get His disciples ready to do the work that was ahead of them. He worked with them for 40 days. Just seeing Him was not enough. Some guy wrote a famous book and claimed that once they saw the resurrected Christ that they were changed forever and you could not shut them up and they went out and changed the world.
That might sound good but unfortunately that is not true. After they saw the resurrected Christ many of them quit and went back to fishing. Jesus had to go wait on the shore for them and He had to challenge Peter and keep saying do you love me, then feed my sheep.
After working with them for 40 days Jesus gives them the great commission but tells them to wait for the coming of the comforter. And as we went over last week Jesus taught that the job of the Holy Spirit to us is a comforter but to the lost His job is to reprove men of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. His job is to testify of Jesus.
The power to bring conviction and to take the scales off of eyes belongs to Him and not to us. They are to be witnesses but they need the Holy Spirit to empower that witness. So they waited.
Last week we read the account of the Holy Spirit coming and we saw Him do exactly what Jesus said His job was. He first empowered the Christians to witness in other languages, which drew a large crowd, and then we saw the Holy Spirit speak to hearts as Peter preached and the Holy Spirit brought conviction and 3,000 people got saved.
They were baptized and added to that local group of believers and continued in the apostle’s doctrine and in breaking in bread. We don’t know how many that got saved of those 3,000 came from other towns for the feast. You would stay for the feast and since you only rarely come to Jerusalem you might take care of some business after the feast but then it is time to go home.
So some saved baptized believers went home with the Gospel. And they would tell their wives and others about it. Christianity thru these believers starts to spread. The seed starts to get planted way before Paul starts traveling and starting churches.
The news of the dramatic coming of the Holy Spirit and 3,000 getting saved and baptized in one day is big news and it travels. It was such a big event and so dramatic that even the lost would be spreading the news of what happened. However, they would most likely do it in a sarcastic or mocking way. But still the seed of people getting saved travels.
None of the apostles leave Jerusalem. They all stay and immediately get started working to spread the gospel locally in Jerusalem.
They are not doing what some people claim and only studying and praying. In fact the first thing you see them doing is out soul winning. Doing this is primary. This is in its own category. It is not compared to anything else. Getting God’s Word out is job #1.
Yes I know that in one place they said we are going to keep in prayer and study but when they said that they were comparing it to taking dinner to widows. They were not comparing it to soul winning. Prayer and Study only and nothing else is actually sin because it is in rebellion to both what Jesus said to do and in rebellion to what the Holy Spirits job is.
The first thing you see them doing after the Holy Spirit indwells them is out witnessing.
Act 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
To get the word out you have to get the word to the people. You do not see them using the approach of only telling people to come and be taught. Instead they are going out to the people and taking the word of God to them. They are getting it delivered to where people are.
In this case the hour of prayer is a high traffic time at the Temple. Percentage wise there is almost no Christians yet at Jerusalem. 3,000 or so is a tiny percentage to the population of Jerusalem and it would be less than 3,000 because some of them were from other lands. So Peter and John are out seeking lost people and go to where a large amount of lost people are.
Now during the hour of prayer people are there to pray, they are not going to hear men preach, especially about Jesus. Humanly speaking what they are trying to do does not seem like a good idea. Peter and John alone do not have much of a chance. But remember they are not alone.
They are being led by the Holy Spirit who is empowering their witnessing.
Act 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
Act 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
Act 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
Act 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
This man was always there. His parents or some friend of the family would take him and lay him every day at the gate of the temple. The religious people loved to be seen when they gave in those days, so outside of the Temple was prime ground for beggars.
God was working here in all of the details. It is no accident that God chose this certain beggar. A man who was well known, he had been seen by everyone that goes to the temple regularly for years. Many of them would have watched this beggar grow from a boy to a teen to a man.
The only way that you can explain what Peter is about to say and do is that Peter is being led by the Holy Spirit in that still small voice and Peter has enough faith and boldness to follow the Holy Sprit’s leading.
Act 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Act 3:7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
Act 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
This man was healed. Completely totally 100 percent healed. Not only did whatever was causing it so that he could not walk was fixed. But we all know that if you don’t use your muscles they atrophy. Say if the man could not walk because of a nerve issue or a defective shape in the bones in the feet. And you fix that, you still could not walk because your muscles would be too weak. It would take months of physical therapy.
Here we see that God not only fixed the issue with the nerves or the bones or whatever the base issue was but He also fixed the muscles. Verse 7 says and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. The man was completely healed.
He is walking and leaping. It was as if he never had the issue. God is using this man as a physical object lesson of spiritual truth. The man could not walk physically. Lost people cannot walk with God spiritually.
When God healed him physically it was an object lesson on how God can also heal spiritually.
Just as the man was 100 percent healed physically and God totally 100 percent fixed the man’s hopeless situation physically. When someone accepts Jesus as savior He is 100 percent saved from his sin. The hopelessness of working your way to heaven is 100 percent fixed.
And just as the man received strength physically so that he could function physically, when someone gets saved they are made alive spiritually and receive strength spiritually by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
Eph_2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
To be quickened is to be made alive.
This lame man was healed and he did nothing for it. He did not work for it, he did not earn it. It was a gift.
Just as Peter reached down and lifted him out of the dirt up onto his feet, when someone gets saved Jesus reaches down and lifts him up out of the mire and bog of sin. And just as the man now walked with Peter, after someone gets saved they are to walk with Jesus.
And just as the man was very thankful and joyous for the gift of being able to walk, people who get saved are also to be thankful and joyous.
This really was a great object lesson. One that really fits with the truth of Spiritual healing that is available thru Jesus. It also fits well with the fact that Jesus cares and how He changes lives forever. This man’s life would never be the same. He can now work instead of begging. He can now be a big blessing to his parents and help care for them in their old age.
And just as his physical life was changed for the better, the same is true spiritually for those who get saved.
2Co_5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
This man is changed and people took notice.
Act 3:9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
Act 3:10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
Act 3:11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
The normal routine of the hour of prayer has been shattered. God did a miracle and did what Peter and John could not do. If Peter and John tried on their own to divert that crowd from their routine they most likely would have been forcibly asked to leave.
God is truly the all-knowing master. He can so easily change situations. What is impossible for us is effortless to Him.
This miracle of healing the lame man had the effect of gathering an audience of people that will hear what Peter has to say. Healing a lame man can only be done by God, and since Peter said the words and lifted him up, it is considered that God is with Peter.
And since God is with Peter, then what Peter is going to speak is coming from God.
And this is the pattern you see over and over in the beginning of the book of Acts. The miracles are followed by preaching. The miracle validated the man’s message. Once the Bible was complete or even mostly completed it is the Bible that validates a man’s message.
So the lame man is healed, people know the man so there is no doubt and they are now ready to listen to Peter.
Act 3:12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
Act 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
Act 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
Act 3:15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Act 3:16 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.
Act 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
Peter is bold here. It does not beat around the bush, he does not soften it. He tells them they are sinners. They denied the Holy One and instead of desiring the Just one, they desired a murder.
And they then killed the Prince of life. They cried crucify him crucify him.
Peter is preaching the gospel. That they are sinners and Jesus is the Holy One and that Jesus died but arose from the dead. And he is about to get to the part about repentance, which is a turning from sin and turning to God.
Act 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Act 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Act 3:22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
Act 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
Act 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Act 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
In this short sermon Peter used many parts of the Bible to prove his point. He referred to or quoted the prophets, and Moses, and Samuel, and even Abraham.
He is proving that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the savior that was promised over and over. And Peter is proving that what they did to Jesus was what was foretold in scripture.
And Peter now finishes with a call for them to turn.
Act 3:26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
A very simple and powerful message and while Peter is speaking the Holy Spirit is working on hearts and reproving men of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come and of Jesus.
Peter says the prophets foretold of this and at the same time the Holy Spirit is convicting those listening that it is true.
And all the while they can see with their eyes the evidence of how Jesus heals because the object lesson of the lame man is standing right beside Peter.
God orchestrated this all perfectly, and when Peter calls men to turn from their sin and believe in Jesus. A very large number did.
Act 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
3,000 got saved when Peter preached when the Holy Spirit came. 5,000 got saved this time. Was Peter’s sermon that much better this time. No. Was the healing of the lame man that much more dramatic than the coming of the Holy Spirit. No.
Did the Holy Spirit have to get better, did He have to learn or have practice at convicting hearts. No.
Why so many more this time? One reason could be that some people need to have the seed planted and then need time to think about it and then need to hear it again.
Most of the people in this crowd either heard Peters first sermon when he preached it or they heard about it. It was the talk of Jerusalem. So this time when Peter preached more people in the crowd have already had a seed planted in their hearts.
All Peter had to do was simply give people God’s Word. God was the one who orchestrated the circumstances and God is the one who opened eyes and brought conviction.
It really is a simple formula. Peter did not tell jokes and he did not tell long entertaining stories. He just in a simple way gave out God’s Word and God moved and 5,000 people had their eternal destination changed.