On that day last September when 3,000 people died in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, it is estimated that twice that number, 6,000 people, died on that same day in the continent of Africa of malnutrition. And I assume that the same number are dying for the same reason in Africa on this very day. If the world we inhabit is that full of tragedy, and if the Christian Church began in the way that this book of the Acts of the Apostles tells us it did, why has Christianity not made more impact?
The first chapter of Acts told us of the miraculous ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. The second chapter told us of the miraculous coming of the His Holy Spirit, with the sound of a great wind and what looked like tongues of fire; and the apostles spontaneously speaking in foreign languages that they had not known up until that point. And now this third chapter starts with a spectacular healing miracle, in Jesus’ name, at the gate of the Jerusalem temple. It was a sensational start to the history of Christianity. If it had continued like that, surely it would have taken the world by storm. Why didn’t it?
Chapter 2 consisted of that miraculous event of Pentecost followed by an explanation of it in a sermon by Peter. Chapter 3 is going to follow the same pattern: we have that miracle, followed by a sermon (and for our convenience I’ve divided the chapter into points).
1) The Lame Leap (Acts 3:1-10)
As healings go, this one was certainly a bit of a stunner! In the middle of the afternoon, right beside the temple, a well-known beggar who had been crippled since birth is suddenly on his feet, praising God, leaping around in the temple. This isn’t the mere relief of the symptoms of a disease: a man who has been unable to walk since birth does not know how to walk, even once he has the muscle tissue, the ligaments and the nerves restored. But this man was now jumping (verse 8).
No one could dispute what had taken place – look at what the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, had to say: ‘ “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it” ’ (4:16). I am afraid that this is quite different from most of the healing miracles that we hear about today. This was not the relief of pain or the relief of symptoms: it was total, instantaneous restoration to full health. He had asked Peter and John for alms, and they had given him legs!
And the problem the Jewish authorities had with this event was not whether it had taken place – that they could not deny – but what it meant.
You see, there is a little more to this than meets the eye. What you and I may not know, but what everybody living in Jerusalem at that time certainly would have known, was that there was a problem about physical impoerfection and access to God. Leviticus 21 has said of the preisthood: “No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has an eye defect [I guess that would have excluded me], or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles .... because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy” (Leviticus 21:18-23). Nowadays the law is all about access for the disabled. Before the coming of Christ, the O.T. law tended to exclude the disabled. Because all physical defects, including my short-sightedness, were a sign of God’s judgment on this world of ours for ignoring Him and rebelling against His will. Not specific punishment for specific sin, but a general sign of God’s wrath because the human race has turned from Him and ignored Him.
So where does this man go the moment he is healed? Does he go home to tell his folks? No – he goes straight into the temple itself (v. 8). The outcast has been brought into the presence of God – remember that’s what the temple meant for them, the presence of their God.
And how has this come about? Well, Peter is at pains to point that out in the next paragraph (verses 11-16 of the chapter).
2) Jesus at Work (vv. 11-13a)
‘While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, 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” (vv. 11-13a). See how quickly Peter changed the subject: “It was not us, it was Jesus!”
Notice, incidentally, what Peter said about Jesus all the way through this chapter. He said in verse 6: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk,” as he heals that man. “The God of our fathers ... has glorified His servant Jesus” (v. 13b); “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One ...” (v. 14a); “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead” (v. 15); “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 given this complete healing to him, as you can all see” (v. 16); “But this is how God ... foretold ... that his Christ would suffer” (v. 18); “and that he [God] may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (v. 20, 21); “For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you’ ” (v. 22); “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (v. 26). Peter must have been reading and re-reading his Old Testament since the first Easter morning to understand all this about Jesus. There is a quite unparalleled development in theological thinking here. He’s moved on enormously from where he was before.
But in turning the focus off himself and John, and on to Jesus, notice where Peter was going. It was not going along the lines: “He’s healed a cripple, so He can heal you.” It was: “He’s healed a cripple, so He’s God’s man.” Not: “We’ve found a healer – come and be healed,” but, “We’ve found the Saviour”: “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer may be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this” (vv. 13-15). Peter switched the focus from “Haven’t we all just seen something absolutely wonderful this afternoon?” to “Didn’t you do something awful a few weeks ago?” A very different tack.
Notice the authentic historical note to this, because the way Jesus had died must have been well known to all Peter’s hearers, and indeed their own part in it was undeniable. There is a fourfold indictment of them in these verses: (a) betrayal, “You handed him over to be killed” (v. 13); (b) disavowal, “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One” (v. 14a); (c) injustice – not only the condemnation of the innocent, but the acquittal of the guilty, “You disowned the Holy and Righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.” (v. 14); (d) murder, “You killed the author of life” (v. 15a). In the catalogue of monumental human blunders, killing the author of life must rate fairly high! (I guess it would feature in the Guinness Book of Records ‘Human Blunders’.) It had been a disastrous mistake and that is what this healing of the crippled man made absolutely clear: “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. 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 given this complete healing to him, as you can all see” (vv. 15, 16). That was what was happening when Peter healed the lame man at the Temple gate: God was glorifying Jesus in the eyes of those who had crucified Him. Jesus was still alive; Jesus was still at work.
It is a memorable moment, isn’t it? – when we realise we’ve made a horrendous mistake. I guess probably everybody here can think of a moment when that realisation came to them: you have just done something that you would have died rather than have done. I remember the time I first used a mobile ’phone. My wife was pregnant with one of our children and was threatening to miscarry. I had just travelled up to Yorkshire, and a friend there lent me a mobile ’phone. He did all the dialling for me and I got through to London (it was rather a bad line), and when a woman answered I said, “Darling, are you still bleeding?” It was not my wife! That I have never forgotten. I guess there are moments that you have never forgotten when you make a faux pas of that sort.
But think of this moment of enlightenment: “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.” What a ghastly realisation! But Peter has hope for them – and it’s based on the past and on the future and the present.
3) The Past, the Future, and the Present
(a) The Past – God had foretold it: “Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer” (vv. 17, 18). In speaking of something that had just happened in the present – that very afternoon there in the temple – Peter spoke primarily about the past and the future. And he looks further back than just the crucifixion, because what had happened in the last few weeks in Jerusalem had a context from centuries before in the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament: “.... this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer” (vv. 18). You probably noticed as we had it read to us that Peter’s sermon was full of the Old Testament. He presented Jesus to his hearers according to the Old Testament Scriptures as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah’s prophesies (in verses 13 and 18 of this chapter); as the prophet like Moses (in verses 22 and 23); as the Davidic king anointed by Samuel (v. 24); and as the seed of Abraham (in verses 25 and 26). Peter was determined to read Jesus back into the Old Testament. As far as Peter was concerned Jesus was the link who showed that what God was doing now was exactly what He had said He would do and had always been doing. For Peter the Old Testament Scriptures were like a jigsaw puzzle with a bit missing from the middle. And Jesus was the one who filled the middle. As far as Peter was concerned they could not make sense without Jesus. There was something hugely missing from them. This is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets.
When something surprising or unpleasant happens, it is always reassuring to be told that it was meant to happen. Imagine you get a friend to help you service your first car, and you’re underneath it trying to do the things that he’s telling you to do and suddenly a huge gush of dirty oil pours out all over you, and you think, “Oh no! What on earth have I done?” He says, “It’s OK, that was meant to happen. You weren’t meant to be right underneath it with your mouth open at the time, but basically we are on course.” This is what Peter is saying here: “It’s OK. This was meant to happen. Don’t despair! You have done a dreadful thing [he’s not trying just to paper it over], but don’t despair!”
As well as pointing back to the Old Testament, Peter points them right forward.
(b) The Future – God will send Jesus to restore everything: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (vv. 19-21). Only here, at this point, do we get some sort of a promise of general healing, general restoration for everyone and everything. And it’s not yet: “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (v. 21).
You see, a miracle like this miracle, like this healing, is bound to make us ask, “Why just this one?” Why doesn’t God heal all the cripples, and all the suffering? Disablement from birth is so heart-wrenching, isn’t it? Why doesn’t God .....? Part of the Bible’s answer to that question is to say, “He has ... and He will!” At the cross God cut the tap-root of evil. When I’m pulling dandelions out of the vicarage lawn, I try to make sure I dig up the tap-root. Then their fate is certain. What God did guarantees what God will do. It is certain: He cut the tap-root of evil when Jesus died in our place on the cross. But it is not yet.
But the day will come when He will send His Son from heaven. Verse 21 is a lovely verse, isn’t it? “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” Some of you will know that I never tire of quoting that lovely vision with which the Bible ends: ‘I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” ’ (Revelation 21:3, 4). He will do it. The Bible is adamant that this universe is travelling towards God’s destination. It will not just cool down into chaos. The Old Testament prophets had foreseen that too. They had spoken of a Messianic age of full and perfect restoration. For example the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 35 says this: ‘Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy’ (Isaiah 35:5, 6). So what do we make of this lame man leaping like a deer in the temple? It was a foretaste, an indicator that Jesus will be the One who will do it. But Peter here is like a drill sergeant with over-eager recruits who are tempted to anticipate his next order; and he is saying to us, as he said to his hearers then, “Wait for it ... Wa..a..a..i..t for it!” It will come, but it is not yet.
But if Peter focused his hearers on the past and on the future, there was also a present tense in his sermon.
(c ) The Present - “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (v. 19). They need to repent and turn to God. What this meant in the context was that they needed to change their attitude to Jesus to fit in with God’s attitude to Jesus.
First, their attitude to Jesus is death – but they’d acted in ignorance: “... I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders” (v. 17). If we’d been there on Good Friday we’d have thought that it was God who didn’t know what He was doing, wouldn’t we (as we heard that cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” coming from Jesus’ lips)? – and that the Jews and the Jewish leaders knew exactly what they were doing. But no, says Peter, we have to change our view of that. “But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer” (vv. 18). He did know what He was doing, and they were killing the author of life without having any idea of what they were doing.
Secondly, they had to change their attitude to Jesus’ status, that He was God’s Christ: “... that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus” (v. 20). You see, the Jews could not choose their own Christ. God had already done it for them. You and I can’t choose our Saviour. God has done it. It’s like the England football team for their first World Cup match, against Sweden (I think it is) in June. Half the football fans and all the football correspondents in the country are busy picking that team for us at the moment. Everybody’s got their own views of who it should be. But the men who run out on to the pitch on June 2nd will be the choice of just one man. And he a Swede. There’s an irony for you!
God has appointed my Saviour: I can’t choose my own. Human beings love to choose whom it is they will look up to, whom they will adulate, whom they will follow in life, don’t they? If God has appointed one man to save the human race, is my attitude to Jesus the same as God’s attitude to Jesus?
Thirdly: their attitude to His words must change. They must start to listen to Jesus too. Look at verses 22 and 23: “For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who doesn’t listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’ ” Jesus had come to the Jews to be a blessing, to be the fulfilment of all their religious heritage: “Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (vv. 24-26). Even their killing of Jesus had not thwarted that purpose of God. Indeed it had fulfilled it, so that their sins might be wiped out and that they might be blessed in being turned from their wicked ways.
But alas! As a people the Jews would not acknowledge their Messiah. And without Him they have never had since then a credible hope to put before the Gentiles. Indeed, they seem to have given up evangelising the Gentiles altogether. Whatever the Israelis are doing to the Arabs on the West Bank at the moment, I don’t think it is evangelism. I don’t think they even pretend any longer to be a light to the nations in order to bring them to the knowledge of the true and living God.
But you and I – we can receive what they rejected. We can take the same attitude to Jesus that God takes: putting Him at the centre of everything, knowing that this world’s destiny lies under His rule. Knowing that He is the one who can bring the crippled outcast in and cast out those within the temple who will not hear Him. We can listen to Him, and we can know the blessing of verse 26: “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” We are not those He came to first. It’s 2,000 years down the track now. But He’s come to us with the same blessing. What do you think of that blessing? Just ponder the blessing with which the chapter ends (v.26).
Do you know a greater blessing than that? To be turned from evil to good? Isn’t that what we long for at our best, our most human moments? What do you want for this coming week? To be turned from what is wrong to what is right? From selfishness and pride and greed, covetousness, vanity and self-pity? Do you and I want things to go well for us this week? Or do we want to go well this week? What blessings do you and I most seek? An easy week that will go well – people will do the things that we want them to do; meetings will work out the way we want, work will fall the way we want it to fall; people will be nice to us, the family will get on well – all those circumstances of life. Is that your prayer?
God has a greater blessing for you than that. He has the blessing to turn you from evil to good this week. And however the circumstances of the week go, make sure that if you and I meet again next Sunday we will have taken a step closer to Him along the way – the blessing of each of us being turned from our wicked ways to His way. Only God can do that for us. Not our boss at work, not our friends; not our colleagues, not our families; not our tutors. Only God can do it. Only God can bless us in that way. But that blessing is there for you and me if we would have it. And we’ll need to put Jesus where God puts Jesus: right at the centre – for the rest of today, for tomorrow, for Tuesday, for Wednesday, for Thursday, for Friday, for Saturday, for next Sunday. Jesus at the very, very centre of everything. Take the same attitude to Him that God takes.