Faith in His Name

Introduction

We live in a wonderful day of medicine even if some in the medical community have lost their minds not knowing what a man or woman is. The marvels of modern medicine are immense: smallpox has been eradicated since 1980. Polio is near eradication, showing up only in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those who have lost their hearing can have hearing aids or cochlear implants. Children with cleft palates can have them surgically remedied. A kidney, lung, heart, or liver can be transplanted from one person to another. All of this has been possible within the last 77 years!

We often call these breakthroughs and inventions “miracles,” but as wonderful as these achievements are, they are not miracles in any biblical sense. They are brought about by God’s common grace, human ingenuity, and scientific research. Certainly, unless the Lord blesses, the laborers labor in vain. While we praise God for allowing us to live in such a time, miracles do not come from a scalpel in a sturdy hand; they come from faith in a sovereign God.

This morning, we are looking at such a miracle. It’s a miracle derived by faith in order to elicit faith in others, and it follows a common paradigm throughout the Bible. Some like to call the paradigm a “sign to sermon”; I’m calling it “miracle to message.” And that’s how I’m dividing up this sermon. There are two main moments that we see in Acts 3: the miracle and the message, and both have much to teach us.

The Miracle

The Message

The Miracle

That first major moment in Acts 3 comes in the form of a miracle: a man born lame is healed. So let’s take a look at this man.

Acts 3:1–3 ESV

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

As we look at this passage, I want us to notice first off the hour of the miracle. Luke, being the historian that he is, gives us the very time that this miracle took place. It was the ninth hour, that is to say, it was 3:00 in the afternoon. Yet, the actual time is not as important as what was going on at the time. It was the hour of prayer. The Jewish people had three hours of prayer, and this was the last one for this day. What better time to receive a miracle than during a prayer meeting? So far we have seen the church praying and God give them a new apostle, the Holy Spirit, three-thousand converts, and now a miracle. While Acts is description more than prescription, it can make the modern-American church wonder if it takes prayer as seriously as it ought.

I also want us to notice the humility in this passage. First we see the hour, then we see the humility. We see it in two ways. First, the lame man needed others to carry him to the gate at the temple. Think about what that meant for this man. It meant that he was literally a burden on other people. Whether for better or for worse, and often times it is for worse, we are a self-reliant people who have been taught that we ought not be a burden on others. We have too much pride to ask for that kind of help. Secondly, he sat there each day asking for alms. He was literally a beggar—a man who could only survive because of the generosity of others. Most of us would be so full from all the pride we’d have to swallow in order to beg that we wouldn’t even need to eat for a month.

But here is the crux of the matter: while we would like to think we are Peter or John in this passage (or at least should be), we are, in fact, the lame beggar.

We are the ones who have been lamed by sin from the womb. Sin has kept us from walking freely with God ever since the fall. So, we see there’s a problem, don’t we, when we are too prideful to allow ourselves to burden others with our lameness? There’s a problem when we are too prideful to beg for help when we are so needy.

We want to be the miracle worker, not the miracle needer.

The good news is, God doesn’t look at what we want, but at what we need. Since we need a miracle, he sent a miracle worker. And what we see in the next few verses is a miracle taking place. But it is imperative that we understand what Peter explained in verse 12. Neither he nor John had the power in themselves to strengthen this man’s legs. It was all Jesus. Jesus was the Miracle Worker; he just chose to work through Peter and John.

As he did so, we can see four phases of the miracle. First there were open eyes, then an open mouth, an open hand, and finally, a response of open praise.

Open Eyes (v. 4)

The first phase of this miracle involved having open eyes.

Acts 3:4 ESV

And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”

Imagine for a moment that it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon. Your friends have just dropped you off at one of the entrances to the temple. It’s already buzzing with people. You start asking for alms, but everyone seems to walk past you, paying you no attention. You know they’re there to offer to God their praises and supplications, but most can’t see they’ve disconnected loving God through worship and loving neighbor through service. Most walk on by avoiding eye contact, talking louder so they can’t hear you plead for money. But eventually, you see two men heading your way. You hope they don’t deviate their course from your direction.

Suddenly, one looks upon you from a distance. “Looks” is too casual a word; no, he is staring at you. The other man who had continued to talk seems to have noticed that his friend is no longer listening. He’s preoccupied with something. He too begins to stare at you as they get closer and closer. It’s weird. You avert your eyes. Let them pass on by; their stares are a bit too creepy for you. You hear their footsteps stop right in front of you, and one of them tells you to look at them. Maybe, just maybe, they have something that will brighten your day.

That’s what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has fixed his gaze on us—the lame beggars that we are. We cannot walk to him, but he comes to us and bids us to look upon him.

Open Mouth (v. 6)

The first phase involved open eyes; the second phase of this miracle involved having an open mouth.

Acts 3:6 ESV

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Peter opens his mouth and speaks in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, before we move on, we need to understand what it means to speak in a person’s name, because it seems that bumper-sticker theology has overtaken the church. There is this thought that it is literally the name of Jesus that has power. That’s not biblical. When the Scripture speaks about the name, it is most often referring to the power and authority that is behind that name. We have the same idea when we hear or say, “Stop in the name of the law!” The word “law” does nothing. We are appealing to the power and authority of the law. But there seems to be this idea that all one needs to do is “speak the name of Jesus” over a situation and, ex opere operato, everything is hunky dory.

The name of Jesus represents the power and authority of God the Son. It’s a subtle distinction but an important one. We must not forget that the seven Sons of Sceva sought to cast out demons in the name of Jesus as if it was some magic formula and were beaten bloody because, while they knew the name of Jesus, they did not know Jesus in all his power and authority. It’s like thinking you can withdraw a million dollars from a bank just because you know the bank manager’s name.

So Peter isn’t using Jesus’s name like some magical incantation. He is calling upon the risen Christ to do a mighty work in his life.

So as we look at this, I want us to notice the disparity between what the beggar thought he needed and what Jesus, working through Peter and John, knew he needed. The beggar thought he needed money. He had been lame from the womb, the text says. There’s no reason for him to have even thought that he could be freed from his disability. It was only natural for him to expect a little financial help in order to survive. He expected a reduction from suffering not redemption from it.

That’s the world in a nutshell: less suffering—better marriages, happy children, successful careers. These aren’t wrong. We’re just settling for a reduction when we could have redemption. We’re busy making mud pies in the slum, as C.S. Lewis would say, because we can’t imagine a holiday at sea. “We are far too easily pleased.”

Peter spoke by the power and authority of Jesus and commanded the man to get up and walk. This man went from a lame beggar to a leaping worshipper. This is what Christ does for us. He calls on us to leave our former identity and find a new one in him.

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Open Hand (v. 7)

So we’ve seen two phases of the miracle: open eyes and an open mouth. What is interesting about this miracle is that Peter offers an open hand to the beggar. He stares at him. He speaks to him. And now he stretches out a hand for him.

Acts 3:7 ESV

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

Much like Jesus who took Peter by the hand and lifts him from the Sea of Galilee, so Peter takes this man by the hand lifting him from a sea of infirmity. And it is Jesus who also stretches out his hand to us to deliver us from a sea of iniquity. And it happens just as fast. Immediately this man’s feet and ankles were strengthened enough to walk—to leap even! You see, when Jesus gives us his hand, he gives us salvation immediately and eternally.

Yet many of us are limping around rather than leaping about. Our healing is more like the blind man who saw men walking around like trees than a lame man walking and leaping and praising God. We limp because we are shackled mentally to our sins. Spiritually we have been freed from sin. Paul says that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves of righteousness. But like the Israelites, we are mentally enslaved to Egypt—to our past or to our sin. Some of us are shackled to lust. We think there’s no way out. We’ve been caught in the chains of lust our lust for years. Some of us are caught in the shackles of what might have been. We’ve had plans, dreams, hopes, and something came along and spoiled it all. Some of us are caught in bitterness. Someone hurt us and we can’t seem to let it go. Some of us are caught in shame. Jesus delivered us from our past, but we can’t get by all that we did or was done to us, and shame won’t let us go. Some of us are caught in the chains of loss. Someone special was taken from us, or perhaps walked away from us, and we have been limping ever since. Can I just say that Jesus is always offering an open hand of deliverance? It’s not just for eternal life when we die, but for an abundant life while we still live.

Open Praise (vv. 8-10)

Finally, having seen open eyes, an open mouth, and an open hand, we see the lame man become a leaping man giving open praise to God’s miracle in his life.

Acts 3:8–10 ESV

And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

There was still time for prayer. He entered into the temple with Peter and John who had originally gone to pray. Now they were joined by a new brother, and his prayers were nothing but praise. He was unashamed of what God had done in his life. We often talk about the indignity of the father of the prodigal son running. How about this man leaping?! He was praising God openly, not quietly. He didn’t care who saw him, and according to Luke, all the people saw him!

Sometimes making God look spectacular means we have to make ourselves to be spectacles. When we are excited about what God has done, many will probably laugh, but many will be filled with wonder and amazement at God’s grace toward us.

The Message

So we move from the miracle to the message. We won’t be able to look at every verse here, but I want us to see three distinctions that are made throughout these verses—three distinctions between God and man.

The first distinction is between God’s glorification of Jesus and Man’s nullification of Jesus.

God’s glorification, Man’s nullification (vv. 11-16)

In these verses, we see that God’s objective was to glorify Christ while the Israelites that Peter was speaking to wanted to nullify him. Let’s take a look at just two of the verses:

Acts 3:13–14 ESV

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

God and the people of Israel were on opposite sides of the canyon, and there was a great divide between them. The very God whom the Israelites identified as their own was doing a work they wanted to quash.

Keep in mind that Peter doesn’t call Jesus God’s Son here. Instead, he calls him his servant. This would have elicited in the minds of them all the words of Isaiah who spoke of God’s Servant—something they could understand and something they needed to hear.

You see, we tend to think that people today have an aversion to the truth, but that’s nothing new. It is human nature to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Yet, people need to hear the truth, even when it is uncomfortable because, as Jesus said, it is the truth that sets us free.

Peter gave them the truth: apart from God’s grace, we nullify the very One God glorified. God said yes. We say no. God exalts him; we reject him. Some people will reject more vehemently than others; some are more passive. They pretend to play the game: they go to prayer meetings, say the right things, know their scriptures, but their hearts are hardened. All of us are born lame from sin and all of us have denied the Holy and Righteous One.

It so happened that these that Peter spoke to also asked for a murder to take his place. That word “granted” comes from the Greek word “charizomai,” meaning “to give graciously.” Thus, the people who had been graced by God with his Servant, handed such a gift over to Pilate and asked Pilate to grace them with a murderer instead. And so, they killed—becoming murderers themselves—the Author of Life! The very One who gave them life, they put to death!

But that’s all of us. We may not have hammered the nail, but it was our sin that held him there. It was because of us that he died.

But God always has the last word. The one whom we nullify, God glorified. Jesus did not stay dead. He rose, ascended, and sat down at the right hand of God, glorified by his Father. It is the glorified Christ who healed the lame man. It is this Author of life that gave him back his health.

God’s sovereignty, Man’s responsibility (vv. 17-19a)

But it is not simply that God glorifies as we seek to nullify. The second distinction is that God is sovereign, but man is responsible. The canyon grows wider.

Acts 3:17–19 ESV

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

The people acted in ignorance. Like Jesus said on the cross, “They know not what they do.” Anyone who truly believed Jesus was the Son of God or the prophesied Servant of God would never have handed him over to the Romans for execution. But what they didn’t know can still hurt them.

God foretold these events. Again, Isaiah especially talked about the Suffering Servant, but as we saw a couple of weeks ago, so did David in the Psalms. Joel spoke of it. All of the prophets at some point or another made reference to the coming Messiah, that he would suffer. But it was not simply that God looked down the corridors of time and saw that this would happen. He fulfilled it.

You see God is sovereign; he is in control of all that happens. Nothing happens without his say so. This world may seem like it’s spiraling out of control, but it’s not. It’s simply that we are not the ones who get to be in control. God is. And in his sovereignty, God put Jesus to death.

Isaiah 53:6 ESV

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

And yet, though God saw to it that his Servant suffered at the hands of sinful man, sinful man is still responsible. That’s why Peter called on the people to repent and turn back. If there is no responsibility, there is no need for repentance.

If I was accused of robbing a bank, but I had nothing to do with it getting robbed, there’s no need to turn away from bank robbery because I never turned to it and never took part in it in the first place.

But like Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.” Repent means to turn away, to turn back literally means to return. Each as turned to his own way; Peter says turn away from it. All have gone astray; Peter says it’s time to return. If we do not, we are held responsible for our sins that put Jesus on the cross.

God’s Promises, Man’s Reception (vv. 19b-26)

Finally, we see God’s promises distinct from man’s reception.

God has placed his hand out to deliver us from our sinful infirmity; will we slap it away, or like the beggar will we receive it?

In verse 19 and 20, we see that when we repent, believing in the message of Christ’s salvation, our sins are wiped out—they are utterly destroyed. The image is the same as villages getting wiped out by a tsunami. We receive refreshment in the presence of Jesus—he gives us rest. He prepares for us a table in the presence of our enemies.

In verse 25, he reminds the people that they are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with their forefathers. In essence, they are the inheritors of the blessings that were promised to Abraham and proclaimed by the prophets. Paul tells us that we as Gentiles are grafted into that tree and that there is no longer a distinction between Jews and Gentiles, that there is one new man, and so we are fellow-heirs!

And finally, in verse 26, we find that Jesus was given in order to turn us from our wickedness.

But here is an important aspect that we dare not miss: God has made promises of blessing and curses, and which one is fulfilled for us depends on our reception or rejection of Christ.

Notice in verses 22 and 23, Peter mentions that God promised Moses and Israel that he would send another Prophet like him. If the people listen they received the blessings of the Promised Prophet. If they reject the Prophet—refusing to listen—they are utterly destroyed. So either their sins are utterly destroyed, or they are. It depends upon their reception by faith or rejection by unbelief. The same idea is seen in verse 26. God promised Abraham that in his offspring (Jesus) all the families of the earth will be blessed. But if they reject Jesus, they obviously reject the blessing. The allusion to Genesis 12 is clear.

Genesis 12:3 ESV

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So we see that there is a distinction between God and mankind. We are on opposite sides of the canyon with a great divide, but it is Jesus that bridges the gap for us. There is no other bridge. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no way to the Father but by Him.

Conclusion

As we finish with Acts 3, we’ve seen a miracle and a message. Both however show us the power of Jesus. He not only has the power to heal a man born lame; he has the power to deliver every person who believes from their wickedness. We marvel at Peter walking on water even for a moment and impugn him for sinking in disbelief, but we should instead relate to his sinking and marvel at Jesus for putting out his hand to save. He has put out his hand to us as he did to Peter and through Peter to this lame man. Faith is taking the hand that we may walk with him, clinging to him as the lame man did to Peter.

If we take him by the hand, we receive all the promised blessings of God in Christ Jesus. But if we slap his hand away, if we reject Jesus as the only way to the Father, there is nothing left for us than God’s wrath. Our repentance is our responsibility.

Prayer

Our heavenly Father,

May we never forget the miracle that took place when you healed us from our sins; you bridged the gap by sending your Son to be our Mediator. Let us now set aside every weight and every sin that so easily ensnares us, so that we may no longer limp, but rather cause us run to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. May we move from limpers to leapers, unashamedly praising you for all to see.

Give congregation time to pray silently.

This we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Have praise team and deacons come down.

Baptized believers in good standing.