To Whom Much Is Given...

INTRODUCTION

Before I begin my sermon today, I want to pause and pray for our DR Teams!

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I’m so excited for our teams because I’ve had some life changing experiences on mission trips, and especially on my trips to the DR! But coming home from those trips has always made me wonder: Why does it feel so much easier to live for Christ on Short Term Mission trips? We go around and it feels like everywhere we look, we can see God’s providing, and God moving. But is God really more at work there than He is here?

And even if you haven’t gotten to go on a short term trip, maybe you’ve been to a Christian summer camp, or even just as you come to Church on Sundays, and you can sense this same gap. When I’m there in that place, it seems like God is so real and active and moving, but when I’m at home, everything seems so different.

In the church today, way too many Christians believe that God’s mission is moving forward “somewhere out there,” but not right here at home.

And that’s a tension that comes up in the book of Acts, too! We’ve been studying the book of Acts as a church for four weeks now, and we’ve seen that in chapter one Jesus tells His followers that they are going to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.

And sometimes, the most difficult place for us to witness is not at “the ends of the Earth,” where we go to visit, but rather is in “Jerusalem,” the places that hit closest to home, the places where we live, the places where people know us. And yet what we are going to see as we continue our study of Acts is that God doesn’t wait to act until the Church has reached Rome; He starts in Jerusalem, and the movement grows from there. And today we’re going to see Him move through Peter and John in the first miracle that’s recorded in Acts.

PASSAGE SET UP

So you can go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 3, which is where we’re going to be studying this morning.

But before we read, I want to note that as we turn the page to chapter three, this is the beginning of a new moment. All the pieces are in place! The Church is born, the Spirit is here, and now Luke, our author, is going to zoom in and record for us all these stories about the apostles. And we’re going to be learning some really practical stuff about how God moved then, and how He wants to move now. Because let me just reitterate that the same Church that was born in Acts two is around today. We have received the same call! We are a part of the same era, of the same mission! SO, how can we live that mission out in our lives today?

And with that in mind, let’s stand to our feet to honor the reading of God’s Word, and let’s read these verses together starting in verse one.

Acts 3:1–10 “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

This is the Word of the Lord! You may be seated.

BODY

Last week at the end of Chapter 2, we read that the people were in awe at the many signs and wonders performed at the hands of the apostles, and now Luke is showing us just what he was referring to.

POINT ONE

So back in our text, AS LUKE IS SETTING THE SCENE, we read that, “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.” So the first thing we get is just the setting for the story. But I want to point out that, when they go up to the temple, they’re going up to a place that’s familiar; a place that they know; a place that they’ve seen Jesus go before. What the author is showing us is that Peter and John were following their normal routine, not doing anything irregular; and yet right where they’re at, in the midst of their routine, God wants to move.

You know, sometimes, when we study the book of Acts, we’re told that the Church somehow made a mistake by staying in Jerusalem. And while it’s true that God wanted them to advance, when you are walking with Jesus, there is no such thing as a detour. Jesus called them to be His witnesses to the ends of the Earth, but it was always intended to start in Jerusalem. And as we see today, their time in Jerusalem was not a wasted time. God’s mission was moving forward in power right at home, right in their routine. So the first thing I want us to see this morning is that, as we strive to live out God’s mission, our mission field is wherever God has placed us, because God places disciples where there is kingdom work to be done!

God has placed you in your neighborhood, in your workplace, not so that you can escape it every week at Church; rather, God has called you into a church to be equipped and encouraged so that you can be sent out into your workplace, and into your neighborhoods, and into your homes. You aren’t there by accident! You may think that you are because there are some people that you don’t prefer there, but those people might just be the reason God has placed you there!

God had work for the Church to do in all these places like Samaria, and Ephesus, and Corinth, and Rome. But as much work as there was to be done at the ends of the Earth, there was still plenty to be done nearby. So just like in the First Century, in our lives today, God’s mission takes place both at the ends of the earth and here and now. And I’m so excited for our folks who are headed out on a mission trip, but I want to encourage you, and to remind you, that every week when we are sent out from this place, we are sent out on mission. You are not here on Sundays just to consume Christian services, and then go on with the rest of your life! We’re here to be equipped, and to be encouraged to go out into our world and to live as a testimony to the greatness of the name of Jesus wherever we find ourselves. And that’s actually what we see here in the lives of the apostles!

Back in our text, we read that they were going up for prayer, and on the one hand, this is just what it seems: they wanted to participate in prayer. But on the other hand, just like we see throughout Jesus’ ministry and throughout the book of Acts, these gatherings provided a perfect opportunity to talk to people about Jesus. So they weren’t just going to pray, they were also going to witness, which is what you see happening later on in this very chapter!

Last week we talked all about the gathering of the Church, and how the Church gathers for teaching, for fellowship, for the breaking of bread, and for prayer. And God’s mission goes forward as the Church gathers! But friends, that’s not all that there is to the Church. That’s not all that there is to being a disciple of Jesus! Peter and John get that, and that’s why they are intentionally going to places where they know they will find people who don’t know Jesus! Because they understand that God’s mission takes place not only as the Church gathers, but also as the Church scatters.

So we need to be about the gathering, but we also need to recognize that the Church doesn’t accomplish the mission only through gathering. If we stay huddled the whole time, we will never move the game forward. If you keep the salt in a container by itself, it’s useless to you! We have to break the huddle. We have to scatter the salt. And we need to do it intentionally because there are people all over who need the light and the hope that only the Gospel provides. And this is the kind of person that Peter and John run into.

As Luke continues setting the scene, he tells us about this man, saying, “Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.”

So right away, the need of this man was obvious. Luke tells us he was lame from birth. And it was thought in those days that this sort of condition was impossible to heal. And he’s being carried, which means he had basically no use of his legs. In the First Century, men like this lived a life of shame and poverty. He was considered unclean, which means that you weren’t allowed to come into contact with him, and that he would have been forbidden to enter the temple. So day by day, he would be carried on a stretcher to the gate of the temple, only to watch as thousands of people entered into God’s presence, never able to join them, never able to follow. So what Luke wants us to know is that this is a man who is suffering, and is totally without hope.

And we pass by people like this all the time. There are people all around us suffering and in need of mercy. Sometimes the need is easy to see, like in this case with the lame beggar. But other times people have gotten really good at hiding it. Yet behind the facade of meager success, so many people in America are living lives of quiet desperation. So many people that we walk past are not living; they are barely surviving. They are barely hanging on.

And that reality is what’s going to get us into the thing I really want to focus on today. So far, we’ve seen that God wants to work in and through us right where we’re at, and that God wants to send us out on mission every day of our lives. But that mission is not one of campaigning for Christ. It’s not a mission about moving boundary lines or changing policies. What we see in our text is that it is a mission of taking opportunities to meet people who are desperate for hope and to introduce them to Jesus. This is why we are here!

POINT TWO

And so with every person that we meet, God is entrusting us with opportunities. This is how God wants to Act Now: He wants to give disciples of Jesus, like you and like me, opportunities for the mission to advance in the lives of the people around us.

Oxford Languages defines an opportunity as “a set of circumstances that make it possible to do something.” So when I say that God is giving us opportunities, what I mean is that just like we read in our passage, God is orchestrating the circumstances of our lives, placing us in our world, bringing people across our path, to create the possibility of God’s mission advancing. And the question that we need to wrestle with is this: God is bringing us opportunities; how will we respond?

Just like Peter, God is going to give us opportunities for the mission to advance; so what can we learn from Peter about what it looks like to respond to those opportunities faithfully? That’s what we’re going to look at with the rest of our time together.

Back in our text, we read that “When he [the beggar] saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John.”

This is a scene that has played out over and over again in our lives, and in the life of this beggar. We know how this works: Somebody asks for money, and you do your best not to make eye contact, and get out as soon as possible. And yet rather than running on by, rather than going on their way because of the important things they have to do, rather than telling him to get lost, Peter and John “look straight at him.” They see this man. They see in him a man that has been overlooked by so many others, and they take notice of him.

You can write this down: The first step to them responding faithfully is to notice the person that God has put in their path.

Because the truth is that these are the kinds of opportunities that are easy to miss, because we are so absorbed by our own agendas. We’re so focused on ourselves. We’ve got our destination plugged into the GPS, and we’re so locked in, we’re so in routine that we just don’t stop to notice the people around us. We’re looking out for ourselves, and we miss people because at the end of the day, it’s easy to miss what you aren’t really looking for.

But Peter and John knew what they were looking for. They had spent three years being discipled by Jesus, who in the Gospels puts on a masterclass in noticing and connecting with people. One of my favorite examples of this comes in Matthew 9:36, which says that as Jesus was going around the area of Galilee ministering to people, He “saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

This is an observation that Matthew makes, but it could almost be like a summary of how Jesus interacted with people. He saw them, and His eyes were connected with His heart, and He was moved to act. Jesus had eyes to see opportunities to serve and love people, and that was something He passed on to His disciples. Because we can only love the people that we notice.

I was recently reading a book called God Space that’s all about talking to people about Jesus in everyday life, and in this book the author writes that “when we start to see the world like Jesus sees it, we’re compelled to do something in Jesus’ name” (Doug Pollock). I actually had the opportunity to hear Doug speak, and something he added in that time was that “in a world that’s so self-absorbed, simply noticing is a big deal.” People notice when you take notice; and when you start noticing people, you start caring about them. That’s what we see in Jesus. That’s what we see here in Peter and John. And that’s the first thing that we need to take hold of if we’re going to respond to these opportunities faithfully.

[[And one of the greatest ways to begin to notice people is to pray, like Peter and John were headed up to do in our story. I hope you were able to take advantage of our monthly impact for May that we launched last week. For those of you who missed the sermon last week, we challenged everyone to devote themselves to praying for one person in your life who doesn’t know Jesus, and we sent you home with this impact card to guide you in how to pray for that person. One of the things that this kind of missional prayer does is that it opens your eyes to see the people that God is bringing your way.

And I’ve seen this happen in my life over and over again. Over the last two years, I’ve spent just about every Tuesday morning with a few others walking around downtown Elyria to pray for our city. And there are months that go by where all I do is pray. But there have been a handful of times when God brings people accross my path who are ready to have an encounter with Jesus.

And those interactions are what keeps me headed to Erie Island every Tuesday. Those meals that I’ve eaten with the homeless and the needy, and the conversations about life and Jesus. The opportunities I’ve had to share the Gospel with people and pray for them. That is the time in my week when I feel like I’m beginning even in some small way to live like Jesus, and to see God Act Now. ]]

So if you haven’t had a chance to jump into the impact yet, do it this week! And pray that God would give you eyes to notice the people that are coming across your path.

But back in our Text, not only does Peter notice, but we read that Peter sees the man and he says, “Look at us!” —probably because the beggar was in his own routine and wasn’t really taking notice of people. But then Peter says, “Silver and gold I do not have...” As Peter responds, his opening line is, “I don’t have what you’re asking for!”

But the thing I love in Peter’s example here is that he doesn’t allow excuses to get in the of what God wants to do. And this is something that many of us are way too good at. Even if we do notice people, more often than not the next thing that happens is we start to think of all the reasons we might have to avoid an encounter. It’s gonna be weird. I might mess it up. I don’t have time for this. I don’t know enough about the Bible.

And when it comes to people begging, the easiest excuses is, “Ope! Sorry man, I don’t carry cash on me! I don’t have any money!” And yet look at what Peter does. Peter doesn’t have what this man is looking for. He doesn’t have what the man is asking for.

But rather than allowing that to become an excuse to keep heading into the temple, Peter uses it as an excuse to engage. Why? Because Peter understands that while he may not have what the man wants, he has what this man most desperately needs. Peter understands that there is not a problem in this life that Jesus isn’t the answer to. And so Peter says to the man, “Silver and gold I do not have, [but what I do have I give you].”

Even though he doesn’t have money, Peter responds faithfully because he notices this man, and because he understands what he has been given in Christ.

The truth is that Jesus is the greatest need of every single person that you encounter. There is nothing that any of us needs more than a living and active relationship with God the Father through God the Son. And part of our job as believers is to be a witness to them that what they need most desperately is not MERELY a different job, a different spouse, a different area code, or a different bank account, but a different hope that goes beyond this life. What people need is not ONLY a new therapy, a new habit, a new medication, or a new coping mechanism, but a new life made possible by the death and resurrection of Christ.

People need Jesus—and Jesus is sending YOU to be His witness, to be His ambassador. You have received Jesus! You have tasted of His goodness. You’ve known His love, and His intimacy. You see Him at work in your lives. And that gift that you’ve received is more precious than silver and gold, and you’ve received it in limitless supply.

As a follower of Jesus, you will never miss an opportunity because of a lack of resources. Rather we miss opportunities because of a lack of trust. We don’t miss opportunities because we are all out of Jesus; we miss opportunities because we don’t believe that He is there and that He is at work. So what we need is not just to recognize what we have in Christ, but also to have faith that Christ is working.

And that’s what we see in Peter. Peter says to the man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand and walk” because he trusts that God is at work in the life of this man to heal him. He isn’t using the name of Jesus as a magical formula, or as some token statement; he is using the name of Jesus because he knows that the power to heal and save and deliver does not come from him, but from Christ Himself.

And because he trusts that Jesus is at work, notice that he actually reaches down to the man to help him up before there is any evidence that healing has taken place. He reaches down to a man with atrophied legs, who has likely never walked before in his life, to raise him up.

And up until the moment the man actually stood up, everyone looking on would have thought that Peter had lost his mind. Everyone else had given up hope for this man because of his condition. No one believed that he could be healed, even by the gods. Along these lines, I read this week that there is even an ancient medical book that says, “some things [like healing those afflicted from birth] are naturally impossible, and the healing god [Asclepius] does not attempt these things but chooses from among the possible what is best to be done” (Galen, De usu partium; qtd. in Schnabel 197). The gods of the ancient world wouldn’t even attempt to help this man!

So Peter saw something that was impossible for the physicians of his day, and even impossible for the Greek gods that were worshiped at that time, and yet he knew that there was nothing that God could not do for this man. HE KNEW THAT HE SERVED A GOD WHO TRAFFICS IN THE IMPOSSIBLE. He trusted that God was at work, and he trusted that God was more than able. Peter knew what God could do. He had seen Jesus do it; and he recognized in Jesus the power that spoke galaxies into existence. The power that had called light into being with a word. The power that had been unleashed in Exodus, and had put the gods of Egypt to shame. The power that parted the Red Sea and allowed people to walk on dry land. The power that provided manna, and caused Jericho to crumble. The power that fed Elijah, and that brought the dead back to life. The power that filled his nets with fish, and had allowed him to stand on the waters of the Sea of Galilee beside Christ. The same Spirit that provided the power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead was at work and was able to cause this man to rise and walk. With man, this was impossible; but with God, all things are possible! And if we want to be faithful to respond to the opportunities that God gives, then we need to be full of faith ourselves in the God who is at work, and who wants to act in our lives and in our world. And that is the kind of faith that God wants to use to change the world.

But there’s one last thing that I want to point out. As things play out in our Text, the man jumps up and follows Peter and John into the temple. After years of watching from the outside, he’s able to come in and express his gratitude to God. But after that, we also read that a crowd begins to form. Acts 3:9–10 “When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him… and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”

And if you keep reading, things keep escalating. People begin to credit the healing to Peter, and stare at him in shock and awe. And look at what Peter says down in verses 12-16, “When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus... We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.” Peter doesn’t take any of the credit. He doesn’t take any of the praise. Rather he takes the opportunity to preach the Gospel, and point to Christ.

I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the miraculous healing, and we should praise God whenever His power is at work. But there were tons of miracles happening through the Apostles in those days. Why did Luke pick this one to include? Well, if you read this passage in context, you’ll see that there is so much more going on here than just the miracle. The rest of chapter three is about how God used the miracle to give Peter an opportunity to preach Christ. So in a sense, the miracle is not the focus; rather, the MISSION is the focus. And Peter keeps the focus on God and on His mission.

So not only does Peter notice this man. Not only does he understand what he has in Christ. Not only does he trust that God is at work, and that God is able; But as a result of all these things, part of Peter’s faithful response is that he directs all the glory to God.

What amazed me most as I studied this story is that, among all the miracles that Luke could have chosen to share, he shares this one that highlights not the gift of healing, but the gift of Christ Himself. The story doesn’t end with a man being healed; the story ends with the Gospel going out into the hearts of a crowd of people that needed to hear the good news about Jesus.

We’re going to see all kinds of miracles in the Book of Acts as we study it. But the point of the miracles is not to draw attention to the Apostles; the point of the miracles is to draw attention to their testimony about Jesus. Jesus is the point! He is the prize! He is the treasure hidden in the field! He is the only one who is worthy of our devotion and praise! And for those of us who have believed in His name, He is what we have been entrusted with!

And that’s what I want our church to learn from Peter’s example. That every single one of us would recognize that we have been given something in Christ that is more precious than silver or gold. That we would be struck with the greatness of the gift. And that our love of Christ would drive us, and that Christ’s love for us would compell us to scatter into a world that needs to know His love. In Christ, we have received the greatest gift that heaven had to offer. And we are entrusted with opportunities to share Christ every single day! But to whom much is given, much is required.

Will you live on mission today, Church? Will you live with your eyes open to the opportunities that God is bringing your way?

You have received Jesus; but God gives us Jesus not just as a deposit, but as an investment. When we receive Jesus, we receive the greatest gift in the world. What are you doing with that gift? Have you received it? Are you looking for opportunities to share it with others? Will you live in the reality that God gives us Jesus so that He can give us opportunities to share Him with others — NOTICING the opportunities. BELIEVING that God is at work. LIVING for His glory alone.

CONCLUSION

I’ll close with this thought: That sharing Christ with others has to start with remembering, and with recognizing how great a gift we’ve been given. And that’s what we do when we come to the table. When we celebrate communion, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we remember that Christ gave up His life so that we could find our life in Him. 1 John 3:16 says it like this, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” When we were still living in sin. While we were still unable to adress our own needs spiritually. While we were laying like the beggar in our story, in need of mercy, and without hope, God heard our cry for mercy, and He emptied the treasure of Heaven by sending His one and only Son to take the cross that we had earned. Less than one mile from the temple where Peter heals this man, Jesus was nailed to a cross to take onto Himself all the sin of the world. “This is His grace to us: that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor” so that we could be restored (2 Corinthians 8:9 ).

So I’m going to pray, and then at all of our campuses we’re going to pass out the bread and the cup. And if you’re joining us this morning and you’re following Jesus, then we invite you to participate in this meal with us.

But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that we shouldn’t come to the table without examining ourselves first, so we’re going to sing a song together, but use this time to examine yourself. Where are you at with the Lord? Ask Him to search your heart. Confess your sin to Him, and receive His forgiveness. And then after the song, we’ll receive the elements together.

But let’s turn our attention to the cross, and let’s pray.