[We have examined the Foundations for the Church in Acts Chapter One and
the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts Chapter Two and now we
will see the goal of the Holy Spirit’s work upon all who will
hear and heed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Acts Chapter Three we find the healing of a crippled
man and in the healing of this crippled man we discover a
picture of what our Lord Jesus Christ will do in each and every
person who will receive Him as their Personal Lord and Savior.]
Notice in our text,
A.
The Condition (vs
2) [–
And a certain man lame
from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the
gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of
them that entered into the temple;]
1.
The Location Of
His Problem (vs 2; Deut 5.33; )
[– His problem was in his legs, so that he could not walk.
This man had to be carried wherever he went.]
[This is how it is for mankind and their moral condition before
they are redeemed.
We live in a world of cripples when it comes to character.
They cannot walk in the ways of God for they are
spiritual cripples.
God commanded,]
[Deuteronomy 5:33
33 Ye shall
walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you,
. . .]
[But the Apostle Paul noted,]
[Romans 5:6
6
For when we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly.]
[Just as this cripple had no strength in his legs so lost men
and women are without strength
morally without Christ.
The lost are spiritual cripples.]
2.
The Duration Of
His Problem (vs 2; Rom 5.12; Gen 8.21)
[– . . . lame from his
mother's womb . . . -
This man was born a cripple, just as human beings are
born morally cripple or are born sinners.
Acts 4.22 tells us this man was above 40 years old, so he
had been cripple a long time.]
[Likewise, sin has been with us for a long time, since the
Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve.
The Bible states,]
[Romans 5:12
12 Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:]
[Through our genetic line we have received Adam’s sinful blood
so that we were born sinners and born spiritually cripple.]
[Secular anthropologist and psychologists would try to convince
us that young children are inherently good.
But our creator God tells us instead that we are
inherently sinful and spiritually crippled and need a new birth
to remedy our handicap.
The Bible reminds us,]
[Genesis 8:21
21 . . . for
the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his
youth; . . .]
[We, like this cripple, are crippled from birth and need
something far greater than ourselves to correct our spiritually
lame condition.
Secondly we should note that all we had ever known in our lost
condition was a crippled condition.
In that condition we might not realize, lest we saw those
around us who are not cripple, that we are cripple at all.]
3.
The Limitations
From His Problem (vs 2)
[– And a certain man lame
from his mother's womb
was
carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple which is called Beautiful, . . . – This man needed to
be carried, he could not go anywhere on his own.]
[Likewise, Sin always limits the sinner.
It limits,]
·
[His happiness (broken
homes)]
·
[His health (as in
diseases)]
·
[His productiveness (as
in drugs and alcohol)]
[So
it is with sin in our day and throughout history.
The sin that lost people think gives them liberty and
individuality in reality cripples them and limits their
liberties. Sin is
always accompanied by limitations.]
B.
The Cure
(vs 6) [–
Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none;
but such
as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth rise up and walk. –
Someone has said,]
[Give a man a fish and
you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for
a lifetime.]
[Peter and John could not give this man any carnal wealth, but
they could give him a cure for his cripple condition
which released him from his worldly prison.]
1. The Source Of The
Cure (vs 6; Rom 12.1-2)
[– Then Peter said, Silver
and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee:
In the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
– The Lord Jesus Christ
was this man’s cure.
Leave out Christ and there is no cure.
Peter and John did not have the power to cure this man.
The Religious practices of the temple did not have the
power to cure this man.
Even the carnal gifts of money could not cure this man,
they might tend to his momentary need, but they could not cure
him. Only the Lord
Jesus Christ has the power to completely change and transform
this man’s life.]
[The Church of our Lord and the people of our Lord must be
reminded that this world’s goods are rarely the remedy that a
person in desperate need really requires.
The wealth and prosperity of this world had already let
this man down as it has those who come to us in mortal, physical
need. Peter and John
gave them what only the Church of our Lord could give him, they
gave Him Jesus. In
giving this man the Lord Jesus Christ they completely changed
his life.]
[We
are reminded,]
[Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your
reasonable service. 2
And be not conformed to this world:
but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.]
[The transformation that Christ brings into our life is a
metamorphosis, just as this man’s cure completely transformed
his life, so Christ at oru salvation completely transforms our
life.]
2.
The Speed of the
Cure (vs 7; 2 Cor 5.17)
[–
And
he took him by the right hand, and lifted
him up:
and
immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength. – There was no process in this man’s cure.
There was no need for rehabilitation.
There was no chemo therapy or radiation treatment.
There was no recovery time.
Instantaneously this man received strength in his feet
and bones.]
[Likewise, the New Birth found through our Lord Jesus Christ is
immediate. When once
one receives the Lord Jesus Christ, then instantaneously,]
[2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things
are become new.]
3.
The Sufficiency
Of The Cure (vs 8; Psalm 144.15)
[– And he leaping up
stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple,
walking, and leaping, and praising God. – This man was
wholly cured.
Imagine the shout of joy as this man who had never crawled,
never walked, never ran, and never leaped before stood up,
walked into the temple, and then began leaping and shouting with
great joy and loud praise.
This cure did not partially cure this man; it did not
cure but one leg leaving the other crippled.
It wholly cured this man’s condition so that he
experienced something that he had never experienced before.]
[Oh, my dear Christian friend, do you remember that day when our
Lord Jesus Christ first became yours and you, for the first time
in your life, became spiritually whole?
Do you remember the peace that God’s forgiveness gave
you, a peace unlike anything you had ever known before?
Do you remember the comfort of heart and soul you had,
because you knew for certain that you belonged to God and your
Heavenly Father belonged to you?
Do you remember the great joy that filled your heart and
mind and the great transformation that God brought into your
life? So it is when
a hopeless cripple is made whole and so it was for this cripple
leaping his way into the temple.]
[Let us shout with the psalmist,]
[Psalm 144:15
15 Happy
is that people,
that is in such a case:
yea, happy is that
people, whose God is
the LORD.]
C.
The Confirmation
[- John
Butler wrote,]
[“The evidence of the healing was obvious, for he was "walking,
and leaping" (v.
8). Peter and
John did not need to go around and try to convince people that
the man was healed, for it was most evident to anyone who knew
the man that he had been healed. The evidence was not
questionable or hard to find. It was right before their eyes and
undeniable.”]
[“A
true salvation experience will also show plainly. When someone
claims to be saved—or when some preacher claims to have had many
conversions in a service—the evidence will be most apparent, if
it is real. Lack of obvious evidence gives justified reason to
suspect that there has not been any true salvation experience.”]
[“We would especially note here that the confirmation of the
man's healing was not found in something odd, strange, or
curious; but it was found in the common round of life—in both
his walk and his talk. Salvation will be confirmed in the same
manner. It is not by some bizarre act or deed that we best
convince men we are saved, but it is simply by our walk and talk
that we give the best evidence of our redemption.”[2]]
The man’s healing was
confirmed in,
1.
His Walk (vs
8-11; Eph 2.8-10)
[– And he leaping up
stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple,
walking, and leaping, and praising God.
9 And all the people saw
him walking and praising God: 10
And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at
the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with
wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
11 And as the lame man
which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran
together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's,
greatly wondering.
– When people saw this crippled man they greatly
wondered. They
recognized him, but what a change had been wrought in this man’s
life. As the Old
Hymn sings,]
[Since Jesus Came Into
My Life]
[What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought
Since
Jesus came into my heart!
I have light in my soul for which
long I had sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart!]
[I have ceased from my
wandering and going astray,
Since Jesus came into my heart!
And my sins, which were many, are all washed away,
Since
Jesus came into my heart!]
[Since Jesus came into my heart,
Since Jesus came into my
heart,
Floods of joy o’er my soul
Like the sea billows
roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart.]
[The Bible refers to our
New Birth as,]
·
[A Transformation (Rom
12.1-2)]
·
[A Conversion (Acts
3.19)]
·
[A Renewal (Rom 12.1-2;
Eph 4.23)]
[This man’s walk confirmed that he had been fully cured, and my
Christian friend your walk of righteousness and godliness ought
to confirm your cure through Christ.
As the Bible says.]
[Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace
are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift
of God: 9 Not of
works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his
workmanship,
created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them.]
2.
His Talk (vs 8-9,
10-11) [–
And he leaping up stood,
and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and
leaping,
and
praising God. 9
And all
the people saw him walking and praising God:
– Perhaps this man did not know
all of the doctrines of the Bible, after all he was cured and
made whole just moments ago, but he could loudly and joyfully
praise God. Which he
did without hesitation.
He was not praising God covertly, he was not worried
about being politically correct, and he was not worried about
what those in the temple might think.
This man was Praising God.
He was not praising Peter and John.
He was not praising the temple or the priesthood.
This man was found praising God.]
[As
this man was walking and praising God Notice what happened,]
[Acts 3:10-11
10 And they
knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of
the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at
that which had happened unto him.
11 And as the lame man
which was healed held Peter and John,
all the
people ran together unto them in the porch that is called
Solomon's, greatly wondering].
[The people in the temple gathered together with great wonder.
They wanted to know what made this incredible change in
this crippled man’s life.
When God is at work, people want to know what is going
on.]
[So, we notice in this crippled man’s healing a picture of what God’s
does when He saves those who are helpless from birth and the
undeniable impact the work of God will have in our life and in
the lives of those around us.
As this crippled man drew the attention of many of those
who were in the temple that day this curiosity work toward the
healing of every spiritually crippled soul gathered together in
that crowd for Peter was about to speak and share the gospel
with all that would hear him that day.]
CrossRoads Baptist Sunday Evening, August 15, 2010
