Acts 3:1-10 - Lame Man Leaping

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you. Let's dive right in.

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. And today we're gonna be in Acts chapter three. I just wanted to give one small statement.

In yesterday's episode, I knew exactly what I was attempting to say with Acts two.

And I believe it's verse number 38, which says, Peter replied, Repent and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I attempted to give an explanation of the word for, for the forgiveness of sins and completely butchered it. So, I want to give the one explanation that I meant to give yesterday.

The illustration that I wanted to give was if I were to say, I am leaving the office for my daughter's birthday party.

I am not leaving my office in order for the birthday party to happen, but because the birthday party is happening, that is why I am going.

The specific phrase that's used specifically in connection with baptism throughout the rest of the New Testament, both in Matthew 3, Romans 6, 3, 1 Corinthians 10, 2, all give that exact same picture of we are baptized as a result of what God has

done. We do not get baptized in order that God may forgive us. So with that one 90 second caveat, we're gonna dive right into Acts 3. I appreciate you putting up with me as I get used to really a daily podcast.

I used to help host a weekly podcast and that one we had tons of time to work through everything and these podcasts a little bit shorter form so that we can all together kind of learn and hopefully model what it is to dive into God's word for even

just 10 or 15 minutes a day and hopefully come away with something that is still meaningful and applicable to our everyday lives. Acts chapter three and verse number one. We're gonna be looking at verses one through 10 today.

Pentecost has happened, church is growing, let's dive in. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple for the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. A man who was lame from birth was being carried there.

He was placed each day at the temple gate called Beautiful so that he could beg from those entering the temple.

This was the specific place in which those that had severe need that they would go to experience some giving and some generosity from God's people during this time. This isn't a abnormal thing.

There would have been plenty of people that had physical needs that were at the temple gate. You can see even Jesus in his interactions. He heals many of these people during his ministry.

This man, however, had not been healed. So this man was placed each day at the temple gate called Beautiful so that he could beg from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked for money.

Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, look at us. So he turned to them expecting to get something from them.

I think it's interesting that Peter and John say, look at us, that he just was constantly calling and no one was really paying him any attention. So he would call out to the people and then call out right to the next people, whoever was next in line.

And what a situation that must have been in for him. Think of the heartache of being ignored and abandoned by people when you are, especially during this time, just completely forsaken, unable to work, unable to do anything. So they say, look at us.

And he turns to look at them. He expects them to give him some money. That would be what people would normally do if they were interacting with this man at all.

But Peter said, I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. Then taking him by the right hand, he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong.

So he jumped up and started to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God.

And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the beautiful gate of the temple. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.

Next episode, we're gonna dive into Peter's next sermon at Solomon's Colonnade, is the specific area of the temple that he is in. What an incredible story. This is our story.

Spiritually, this is every one of us. Every one of us, bankrupt, completely unable to have a relationship with God on our own, that we were alone, begging, spiritually dead.

And yet, God, in his goodness and his grace and his providence, through some way, whether it was perhaps the word of God, maybe in a church service, maybe with a family member, he sent someone along who, though they could not give us maybe all of the

world's goods, though they could not give us what maybe we felt our needs were, they gave us what we most truly needed, which was a relationship with Jesus. And you can see this in the life of this man in verse number eight.

So he jumped up, the person that could not walk for all of his life, he didn't just walk. He jumped up and started to walk. And he entered the temple with them walking, leaping, and praising God.

There's an old kid's song that talks about this. I believe some of the words taken from the King James Version.

And it goes, he went walking and leaping and praising God, walking and leaping and praising God in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

So it's just kind of a fun little ditty that every time I read through this passage, I think of that song. And I think about us as Christians today, we who are now in the place that Peter and John were.

That maybe we can't solve all of the poverty problems.

Unfortunately, unlike Peter and John, endued with a specific gift of the Spirit here to be able to cause the lame to walk again, those that could not walk to be able to walk, though we might not have that ability, we have the same gospel and the same

Jesus that they did. And I'd encourage us, let's place an importance on that. It is a great and wonderful thing to be able to take care of the poor and the needy.

And I pray that all of us would have ways either through our local churches or through local charities, maybe things that you do, donations that you make, that we would all do something for the poor. God places an importance on that.

You can read back in the books of Deuteronomy and I believe even some in Leviticus as well that would deal with, hey, how do we take care of those that are less fortunate in our society?

And God set up specific things so that the poor and the needy would not be abandoned but that they could have life. And our world today, certain portions of our world today do not value the poor. They say, ah, if you're poor, it's all your fault.

You're just lazy, you're terrible. I'm not gonna do anything for you. But that's not how God views it.

I think as we read through the Book of Proverbs, our men at Tabernacle every second and third, second and fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m. are going through the Book of Proverbs.

And so many times I see in the Book of Proverbs that if we turn our eyes from the poor, it's just a I don't care about you at all, I'm not going to do anything to help you, that God warns that that can be indicative of serious spiritual problems in

our own life. Quite the motorcycles. I don't know if you all can hear that on the podcast, loud motorcycles going through. So we ought to have a care for and a love for the poor.

And that might not look the same for every person, what one person does, another person might not do, but I'd encourage us, let's all have some heart, some way in which we would care for the poor.

More importantly than that, though that is important, more important is that we would give the gospel to those who are spiritually poor, for those who are spiritually without Christ, spiritually destitute, without the riches of Christ Jesus that he

wants to give them. We'll see tomorrow how Peter specifically gives the gospel in this circumstance, and it's every bit as bold as his sermon at Pentecost, but I think that we need to realize that we've been given an incredible gift.

Here, Peter could walk, and he, through the power of the Holy Spirit, helped this lame man to walk.

And for us spiritually who have the Holy Spirit, for us spiritually who are rich in Christ, may we not hoard those wonderful gifts for ourselves, may we give them to others, may we tell other people about what it's like to know the God of the

universe, to know the very God that made us, who loves us, who died for us. That would be a wonderful thing to do. One thing I see here is that Peter and John were going to pray. We can see that in verse number one.

We've seen this already a couple of times in Acts that God places an importance on prayer, that Peter and John here are intent on praying, but they're not allowing their desire to go and do spiritual things to stop them from interacting with and

loving and praying for other people. They didn't allow, oh, we're going to pray. We'll deal with this guy some other time. No, no, no, no, no.

Here it is an act of worship that they lift up Jesus through their actions towards the poor. And I'd encourage us, let's never let spiritual activities get in the way of us loving and ministering to and caring for people.

Many other things could be said. I think here there is just such wonderful truths of the joy that Jesus brings, that he's walking, leaping and praising God. I think there's some wonderful things about our testimony, verses nine and 10.

All the people saw him walking and praising God. Could anyone in our lives say, oh yeah, I know Bryon, he praises God. I know that this person is a Christian.

And I know that not because they tell me that they're a Christian, but because they tell me about Jesus. They tell me about the joy that they have. They tell me about their Bible reading time.

May we have that testimony that this lame man had, that other people could see, that other people could know that we are praising God, that we love God. May Christian not just be a title that we hold, but a reality that we live.

There's one person, I think it was in the second century, who upon going to his death, that he was sentenced to death, I believe by Rome for it, he said, may I not simply be guilty of being called a Christian, but may I be truly guilty of being a

Christian. And I know I probably butchered that quote, but the truth of it is right there, that may we be guilty of truly being Christians, may that be our testimony, may that be our life.

Hope this would be an encouragement to you today, just kind of a simple thought of our miracle working God, that he does incredible things, he does incredible things in hearts and lives.

And though you may not have ever seen God make a person that could not walk, make them walk again, can I encourage you the even greater miracle is God giving people a new heart through the work of the Gospel, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

making what was spiritually dead, spiritually alive, made an heir with Christ, made to have a home in heaven and to enjoy God forever. That is an incredible miracle that we should never take light.

Hope that would be an encouragement to you and look forward to diving into the rest of chapter three with you tomorrow. Have a wonderful day.