Sermon Tone Analysis
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My Brothers and Sisters…this morning, I want us to take a look at the life of a man that was radically changed by the power of God.
But most importantly I want to look at his faith and his reaction to Jesus.
As the story open up, we see that this was a man that was paralyzed.
In fact, he was born that way....and
He had never known what it was like to walk.
His life was a life of dependence on others and a life of suffering.
Unfortunately, during his time on earth..... there were no work programs for handicapped people in the ancient Middle East.
The government didn’t send him a check every month.
And to add insult to injure the paralyzed man also carried the cultural stigma that went along with his condition, which was a heavy burden to carry.
If we examine his daily routine.
This man’s days consisted of being carried from place to a place daily ......to beg for money because he was unable to work.
This was a man that lived by faith.
It was a Faith on the goodness of God.... in hopes that God move on the hearts of others to help him.
We see a man who was doing all he could when he was met by God.
In these eleven verses is a spectacular, miraculous story about a miracle performed through the apostles Peter and John.
We see a man’s life changed by the power of God.
And how many of you know that God’s still changes lives and blesses with miracles today?
As I prepared this sermon, I see that our story is being laid out in five points.
We see the Place, the Position, the Plea, the Power, and the Phenomenal
The Place ....look at the text in verse 1.....
The first thing I want us to notice here is that Peter and John are together.
Some people have questioned why that is.
The answer is simple.
If you remember, in the gospels, Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs to do the work of the ministry.
So, pairing up to do ministry was already established.
We also see back in Luke chapter 5, verse 10 that Peter and John, along with John’s brother James had a fishing business together before they were called by the Lord to become his disciples.
And they went to the temple to do ministry that day.
They went at the hour of prayer.....and the verb tense used here tells us that they went to the temple frequently at the hour of prayer.
What we must understand my brothers and sisters.....is that two things were going on in this span of time.
First there was the hour of sacrifice, and then there was the hour of prayer.
And Peter and John had several divine appointments that day.
We see the first appointment in verse 2. Which was the The Situation (Acts 3:2) because the bible says that:
so, their appointment was with a lame man.
Now this lame man’s situation consisted of being carried into the temple, and being laid at the beautiful gate of the temple, to seek a handout from those going in.
And we know that he was not a Con artist because the bible says that the man was lame from birth.
This was more than likely a birth defect that afflicted the man.
So, here is the picture.
Peter and John are walking through the temple to reach the court of Israel, and they run into this lame man, at the second gate they get to.
In verses 3 through 5, we will see the lame man’s request, which leads me to my third point the Solicitation.
In Acts 3:3-5 it says 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms.
4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
The lame man saw Peter and John walking to the gate.
As I said earlier, they were going from one court in the temple to another.
He probably saw the joy on their faces.
These guys were filled with the Holy Spirit, and I would imagine that this would look pretty different from the religious establishment that came in and out of the temple daily.
The lame man wanted support because of his condition.
He wanted support from those that could afford it, and from those that were willing to help.
These guys looked pretty generous.
The lame man probably thought, here are some good guys to ask.
So, he asks them for alms.
He’s looking for a handout.
Peter looks at the lame man.
No doubt they have seen this guy hundreds of times before.
Remember I said Peter and John frequently went up to the temple for prayer.
Devout Jews went up three times daily to pray.
Each time for one hour, once at 9 am, once at noon, and once at 3pm.
But this time it was different.
This time, they felt moved by the Holy Spirit to do something.
God had plans for this lame man lying by the gate.
God didn’t have plans for his support by the way of money, but God had plans to transform his life by the healing power of God.
In other words, God had a different plan for how he was going to bless him that day.
As the man was begging Peter told the man, look on us.
He wanted the lame man’s undivided attention.
That’s how Jesus is with us.
He wants our undivided attention.
He doesn’t want us looking around at our circumstances or trying to figure out how He is doing something.
He wants our undivided attention.
So, the lame man gives them his attention as we see in verse 5, he is expecting to receive something from them.
When I looked at this lame man, I saw something.
Many times, we come to Jesus not to thank Him, but in a spirit of expectancy, looking for a blessing.
But there are sometimes when we should be thanking Him for all that He has done for us.
I noticed some about this time that this man was begging.
He came at the hour of prayer.
There is some very significant about this hour and what it entails.
The Jews had a certain manner in which they prayed.
The hour was broken up in three parts.
The first part which lasted fifteen minutes consisted of quiet reflection on who God is.
The second part, which lasted thirty minutes, consisted of petitions to God.
The last portion, which lasted the remaining fifteen minutes, consisted of adoration and worship of God.
This suggests to me that our prayer life needs to be balanced.
We need to spend at as much time meditating on God and praising Him as we do asking for things.
It is a good pattern to follow because when you think about God’s greatness and power, you are confident that He will answer our requests.
After pouring out your heart to Him, you can’t help but to worship Him.
Let’s get back to our lesson here though.
We have a lame man focused on Peter and John, in front of the Beautiful gate of the temple, expecting a handout.
But what he received was something supernatural, not a handout, but a hand up.
In verse 6, Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them walking, leaping, and praising God.
Look at this, Peter starts by telling him the bad news, and then the good news.
The bad news is, we don’t have any money to give you.
This would have no doubt disappointed the man, because He was looking for some money.
That’s what he was there for.
He was there looking for a handout because he couldn’t support himself.
He was totally dependent on that income, and He could have gotten upset and bitter, like some of us do when we don’t get what we want, but he didn’t do that.
The bad news is that we don’t have any silver and gold, but I have some good news.
Peter tells the lame the good news.
The good news was that even though he didn’t have any money, he was going to give what he had.
What Peter had was the authority from Jesus Christ to heal the sick.
That’s what the little phrase ‘in the name of’ means in the original language.
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