Acts 3

Acts 3:1-11

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 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. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 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.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 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.

11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade.

A Recipe for Wonder and Amazement

Many years ago, when my daughters were young, I had this brilliant idea to become one of those dads who makes pancakes for their family on Saturday mornings. However, I didn’t want to use any of those prepackaged mixes where you just add water. I wanted to make pancakes from scratch. I knew if I was going to do this, I would need a good recipe to follow. I found one in a cookbook someone had given us as a wedding gift. Over the years I used that recipe again and again, and I officially became a Saturday morning pancake dad. 

The Bible is full of great recipes for life I've come to use over again and again. Today's passage in Acts 3 is what I call a recipe for how to experience God’s wonder and amazement  

Recipes usually include two things: a list of ingredients, or the key elements to be used; and directions for how to combine these ingredients. The Biblical recipe for God’s wonder and amazement is no different. 

In the first chapter of the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is promised to Jesus’ followers. In the second chapter, we see the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them. Then in chapter three, where we find this recipe, the Holy Spirit is at work in and through the followers of Jesus.

“Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them” (4-5).

The first ingredient in the recipe is attention. We must give God our complete attention. God is faithful to give us direction for how we can best live our lives. The Bible tells us how God wants to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11), how He wants to direct us in which ways we should go, whether to the right or to the left (Isaiah 30:21). If we allow ourselves to be distracted, we will miss it. John Ortberg once said, “For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.”[1]

The way we apply this first ingredient is through focus.

Why is focus so important?

We once lived out in the countryside, on a quiet road. Some days the only car we saw was the woman who brought us our mail. When I was teaching our daughter Bethany to ride her bike, I stood with her out in the middle of this peaceful road in front of our house. We looked down the road together, and she had lots of room to maneuver as she learned how to ride her bike. However, I told her to be careful of the right side of the road where there was a marshy ditch full of water and bullrushes.  

Bethany got on her bike and we took off together, with me holding onto her. I ran alongside her for a short distance and then released her. She was now in full control. She wobbled back and forth for a moment, but then suddenly she swerved to the right. She was heading right toward the ditch I had warned her about. Down she went into the ditch with her bike. I ran and got her back up onto the road.  

We went back to where we started. She got back up on her bike. I ran with her holding on, and then once again launched. She wobbled. She wavered back and forth. Then once again she swerved to the right, and off she went back into the ditch. 

What was going on? Why, when she had so much room to maneuver, was she ending up in the ditch?

Focus. I kept warning Bethany about the ditch on the right, so as she began to go down the road, all she could focus on was that ditch. She kept looking towards the ditch telling herself, “Don’t go there. Stay away from the ditch.” But as she kept looking in the direction of the ditch, she found herself heading in the direction of the ditch. 

Focus determines your direction. 

Each morning we have the opportunity to give God our complete attention. We do this by focusing on His Word, by seeking Him and listening for His direction in prayer. God loves to give us direction, so we can ask Him, “What do I need to know for today?” 

And God often responds, “I am so glad you asked. Here is something I want to point out to you. Here is something you need to know. Here is something that is going to help you today.”

I know my day will also come with distractions. I know my day will come with temptations. So before they come, I choose to first focus on God, lest I end up in the ditch. Every morning I hear God say to me, “Mark, look at me!” And I respond by giving Him my complete attention.

“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” (6-8a)

The second ingredient for our biblical recipe to God’s wonder and amazement is acceptance. We must be prepare to accept God’s outstretched right hand, so that we can be lifted up.

If the first ingredient of giving your full attention to God is all about focus, then the application of being lifted up is all about faith. 

This part of the story amazes me.  Faith plays such an important role in this lame man’s victory.  

We read how the lame man extended his hand to be lifted up, but did you notice he accepted Peter’s hand before strength came to his legs?  He accepted and took hold of the hand while he was still in his weakened and crippled state. He accepted and took hold of the hand when there was yet no evidence of healing taking place in his body. This is faith. 

He was expecting before he was experiencing.   

What astounds me is this lame man would have had every legitimate excuse not to accept the outstretched hand of Peter.  Think about it. He had never stood up before in all of his life.  All he had ever known was sitting on the ground.  His legs had never been able to hold him up.  AND YET … When he heard the command, “In Jesus’ name,” he accepted the outstretched hand, even though his feet and ankles were still weak.  

I will never forget the day when I saw God miraculously lift up a person crippled by weakness.  A couple of pastor friends and myself were given the use of a cottage for a few days in a sleepy beach town. It was early May, and all the cottages were empty and boarded up waiting for the summer season to begin. As far as we could tell, we were the only people occupying this small hamlet.  

One morning we went for a walk after breakfast. We passed by an RV park where the trailers sat dormant during the off season. Down the short lane of the RV Park sat a building which housed the park’s restaurant. We were shocked when we saw the ‘Open’ sign in the window, lit up as if they were expecting customers. We concluded this must be a mistake.  What restaurant would be open when there were literally no people around? We decided the next morning we would take our walk before breakfast and if the open sign was lit up, we would try the door to see if the restaurant was actually open.

The next morning the ‘open’ shone brightly so we decided to try the door. When we entered, a middle-aged woman peered back at us from the pass-through window in the kitchen. She looked as stunned as we did.

We found a booth and sat down.  The woman came and gave us some menus.  She seemed nervous and apprehensive.  Finally she blurted out, “I don’t cook. My husband is the cook and he went into town for the day to get supplies.”  I asked her, “Would it be okay if we went into the kitchen to cook our own breakfast?”  She smiled and said, “Sure.” So off we went into the restaurant’s kitchen to make our breakfast. We put on coffee, we cracked eggs, we fried bacon and tried not to burn the toast.  My two friends and I were laughing and kidding around as the woman stood off to the side and watched silently.  Suddenly she asked, “What do you men for a living?”  

When people ask me this question I always respond, “I have the greatest job in the world. Can you guess what it is?”  No one ever guesses correctly. But the woman answered, “Are you pastors?” I couldn’t believe she got it right. I responded, “Why, yes we are,” and then she began to weep.  I soon discovered her tears were tears of joy. 

She told us how she and her husband had just bought the RV Park. They had moved from a city located hours away.  She was a believer and follower of Jesus.  Then she told us how she had been recently diagnosed with cancer.  She was missing the support of her church family back where they had lived. She had no church family locally. The church in this hamlet was closed until the summer months. Her husband was away in town for the better part of the day and she was feeling very lonely and down. So, she prayed to God in faith, “Lord, I know there is no one around here but could You send me someone today? I am feeling so lonely and scared.” When she finished her prayer she heard the front door of the restaurant open, peered through the pass-through window from the kitchen, and saw the three of us walk in.  

She was crying tears of joy! She had felt it was impossible for anyone, let alone a believer, to come to see her that morning. However, she prayed in faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” She was astounded how God had sent not just one person, but three pastors in the loneliest and desolate of places. 

When she told this story the three of us stopped cooking. We gathered around her and we began ministering to her in prayer. What a beautiful prayer meeting we had that morning.

This faith part of our walk with God is so important. Imagine what this lame man’s life would have been like if he didn’t take hold of the outstretched right hand extended to him in Jesus’s name?  He would have remained in the same spot day after day, year after year, crying out for help but never knowing what it was like to walk in God’s wonder and amazement.  

Like the lame man, we can find reasons to be fearful when God asks us to trust Him. Fear can keep us stagnant, idle and ineffective when God comes along and says, “Okay, we are going to stand up now.” If taking action depends on waiting until my fears die down, I will never stand up and move forward.

“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” (7-8).

The last ingredient of our recipe is to be ready to acknowledge God.

When our crippled friend was healed, he immediately went into the Temple and began to acknowledge and praise God who had healed him. Notice he didn’t run to those who had carried him to the place he sat to beg every day. He didn’t run down the streets to where he lived. This man knew who had healed him, so he went straight into the Temple to acknowledge and thank God. He was not silent about how he felt about God and what He had done for him. He was not conservative in His praise; he went for it. He celebrated the Lord. He thanked the Lord. 

We’ve considered the importance of focus and faith. To apply this final ingredient in our recipe we need to be fearless in our adoration for God.

The Apostle Paul said it this way, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

When we become fearless in our praise and testimony for God, lives are changed. 

This was certainly true for those who were in the Temple that day, when the lame man was healed. “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” (9-10).

We must make it our practice to adore God fearlessly. 

Questions: 

1. Did you hear God say anything to you as you read this story of the lame man’s healing?

2. Is there a difficult or challenging place in your life where you want to believe and trust God, but are hesitant to do so?   

3. How could you fearlessly acknowledge God this week?

Author Bio:

Mark has been a full-time pastor for 35 years. He presently serves as the lead pastor in The Gate Alliance Church in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He loves the unique model The Gate is using to be a ‘community’ church. The church purchased an old high school and uses the 120,000 square foot building and property to house 5 churches, as well as local small businesses including an art school, a music school, a gymnastics club,  a women’s college-prep basketball school, a boxing club, 2 caterers, 2  high school classes, a community cafe, 78 community garden plots, 34 apartments for seniors and more.  

Mark has also been part of the Church Renewal movement for the past ten years, which seeks to equip pastors to lead thriving churches. This year he and his wife Glenda celebrated 40 years of marriage. When they are not busy with the church they try to get to Cape Cod as much as they can. 

https://www.thegatechurch.ca

https://www.instagram.com/revroyall

Church Renewal: churchrenewal.com

Luke and Acts taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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