This Changes Everything

Introduction

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The Lame Man

Peter and John are going up to the temple

It would be there practice to do so

The ninth hour is 3:00 pm

Acts: An Introduction and Commentary a. The Healing of a Lame Man (3:1–10)

the time of the afternoon sacrifice which was accompanied by prayer by the congregation

The time of the afternoon sacrifice accompanied by prayer

It would have been their Jewish practice to do so, the most people came to the Temple during the prayer hours, Peter and John would have known this

They were coming to pray but also to speak to people about Jesus

The lame man enters the picture

Why was he there?

The New American Commentary: Acts 1. Peter’s Healing a Lame Beggar (3:1–11)

rabbis taught that there were three pillars for the Jewish faith—the Torah, worship, and the showing of kindness, or charity. Almsgiving was one of the main ways to show kindness and was thus considered a major expression of one’s devotion to God.

Peter and John come into contact with this lame man

They focus on the man and call out to him, he looks at them, he is expecting to get some money.

Peter and John have no money, I mean cmon, they are basically unemployed itinerant preachers, fisherman without boats, no jobs and little money.

Peter, responding to the requests for alms, give the man something far greater

Jesus alway gives us what we really need

The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

English Standard Version Chapter 3

6 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!”

6 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!”

The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

6 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!”

The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

Are there things in your life that you are being told you want?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .The world is going to tell us what we think we need and want

More money

The best education

The best job

More money

The best house

the best car

The new iPhone

A boyfriend

A girlfriend

A husband

A wife

A kid

“The American Dream”

Anything else you can think of that we are sold on a daily basis, the world is really good at telling us what we should WANT. But ,the world is not good at tell us and giving us what we NEED

Jesus alway gives us what we really need

But the world is not good at giving u

So many times we thing we know what we need but really only Jesus truly knows what we need and he is going to provide it for us

Jesus forgave his sins, then healed him

- Another Paralytic man

Jesus does not condemn her then tells her to sin no more

- Raising Lazarus from the dead

Jesus knew what

I thought I needed to find my wife in college

I didn’t but then Jesus blessed me with my amazing wife Jill through my best friend in college

I thought I needed to get a job at the church I used to be a worship leader at and when that didn’t work out I applied all over the country, my wife also applied to jobs to get us out of Indiana

I didn’t get any of those jobs, and neither did my wife, but that lead me here where I get to preach and do what I feel I am called to do and lead to my wife creating her business and following her passion

So many times Jesus gives us the things we didn’t ask for because its exactly what we need

The next verse is so little, and if you read the bible at all you see miracles like this happening all the time, that we tend to gloss over it. But I was reading it the other day and something stuck out so vividly to me

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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

I feel there is something buried inside this verse that is a key to living the life Jesus has for us

How did Peter make this miracle happen? HE REACHED OUT HIS HAND

Do you see the significance? This is what struck me the other day

Peter spoke that he was going to give him something that he needed, healing, and then he acted on the authority that Jesus gave him and he stretched out his hand to make the miracle happen

Jesus wants us to reach out in faith and believe he will do what he says he will do

How many times do we want something from God and we don’t do a thing to step out in faith to make it happen?

Maybe its something you have prayed for forever

Maybe it is a need in your life

Maybe you feel it is something you have no power over

Maybe you even feel it is even totally impossible or unachieveable

Are you willing to step out in faith, like Peter did, and help make the miracle happen?

I had almost given up on my calling, I had almost felt like if I didn’t get the job that I thought I wanted at the church I was at, that was the end

Things seemed impossible, I was there for over 10 years, I had prayed for that job and nothing was happening, I thought it was over. If I didn’t get the job there then where else would it happen?

Then I was dragged to Amplify by my wife, I was cynical and burnt out, but I met with the then pastor Ed Newell and told him I was at a crossroads in ministry and he responded by hiring me at the production director and years later here I am, speaking to you guys

It would have been easier to quit, it would have been easier to just say that what I THOUGHT was going to happen didn’t and the answer to my prayers was no, but I took a step of faith, and Jesus came through

Sometimes God is just waiting for us to take that first step, to show that we believe the desires and calls he has put on our heart, and let him take over from there.

Paul states this in 1 Corinthians

English Standard Version Chapter 15

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Grace and our efforts go hand in hand, so step out in faith and see what God can do

And just like after the lame man was healed, when you step out in faith and Jesus shows up, people will be amazed at what has happened

Crazy stuff happens after they heal the guy and people see him healed. Peter gets up and he starts to show everyone there why Jesus is the messiah, he starts to share the goodness of God with them, and he urges them to believe in Jesus

This does not sit well with the religious leaders

English Standard Version Chapter 4

4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

Talk about the passage

When you have been with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is active in your life, and people recognize it

1. Jesus alway gives us what we really need

2. Jesus wants us to reach out in faith and believe he will do what he says he will do

3. When you have been with Jesus, the Holy Spirit is active in your life, and people recognize it