ACTS CHAPTER 3:1-12, “Silver
And Gold Have I None, But…”
by
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
Last week we looked at the body life of the early church in
1.1.1.
From where we left off in our study last
week, the church was continuing to grow and the people were continuing to meet
together as well as to go up to the temple to pray.
1.1.2.
As we look at this story today from the book
of Acts, we must appreciate that what we are seeing is the Spirit of God moving
without hindrance through the lives of these early Christians.
1.1.2.1.They were
completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit in their lives because they did not
think that they knew anything about what they were doing.
1.1.2.2.We can thus see
things such as the message of the gospel being preached the way that the Lord
would want us to preach it.
1.1.2.3.And we can see the
Lord producing signs and wonders through the hands of the apostles who were
yielded completely to God and not lifted up by pride through what the Lord had
done through their lives.
1.1.2.4.The Lord was able
to do these works through their lives because He knew that they would not take
the credit or glory for what was done.
1.2.
In the message today we will look at a healing that occurred in the
church not too soon after the events of chapter 2, however we really don’t know
how long afterward it occurred:
1.2.1. G. Campbell Morgan points out, there are three
symbolic points to this story we will study today of the first healing
performed through the apostles of the early church:
1.2.1.1.The church’s opportunity is
lame humanity, lame from its birth.
1.2.1.1.1.“This is indeed a pathetic
story and picture: lame humanity at the
Beautiful Gate, but outside! There at
the gate, with all the mountains’ far-flung splendors encircling the city; there, where the steps went up to the
1.2.1.2.What the church has to give is revealed
1.2.1.2.1.“What
has thou then, O peter to give to humanity, lame at the Beautiful Gate,
excluded, begging? That which cancels
disability, that which communicates ability;
and ultimately, that which creates worship. First that which cancels disability. Said Peter to this man, I have nothing to
give you that will help you to maintain your life while you are a cripple; but I have something to cure the crippled
condition and make you able to earn your own living. That is Christianity. Christianity has not come into the presence
of the world’s wounds and woes and agony to give out doles in order to help it
to bear its limitation. Christianity
comes to give men life, and put them on their feet, and so enable them to do
without alms. Christianity faces a man
with a gift that cancels his disability.
Christianity takes hold of a man whose ankles are out of joint, and
makes them articulate. That man knew
more about ankles than any man in Jerusalem, for he had lain on the steps, and
had seen all the people coming up to the Temple for years. A man may know much about ankles, and never
know how to walk. Christianity does not
come to teach a man philosophy. It comes
to give him life, to give him that which cancels his disability, and to
communicate ability, and so to create worship”, G.C.M.
1.2.1.3.We must come to the man that lies at the
Beautiful Gate begging alms, outside, and take him by the hand. There
must be personal, immediate, direct contact.
1.2.1.3.1.“The
church standing afar off, and singing a song which she hopes will reach the
dweller in the valley does but mock the need of the dweller in the valley. The church that comes down to the side of the
wounded, weary, woebegone world, and holds out the right hand and lifts, is the
church through which the Christ is doing His own work, through which the Christ
will win His ultimate victory”, G.C.M.
1.3.
We have already seen that Jesus gave authority to the disciples over the
Devil to cast out demons, and also to heal the sick. This authority is part of the birthright of
Christians. God used signs and wonders
in the lives of the Christians in the early church to accomplish so much more
than they by their own power, wisdom and intellect could ever achieve. James, in James 5:14-16, wrote that prayer for healing
was supposed to be made by on behalf of all that are sick and that the prayer
that is offered up in faith would restore the one who is sick, “14 Is anyone among you sick?
Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who
is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they
will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and
pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a
righteous man can accomplish much.”
1.3.1. Note that some sickness
is the result of sin in a believer’s life.
1.3.2. Some sin is likewise the
result of demonic oppression in a person’s life, and thus they need to be
delivered from the demon that is causing their sickness, as we see from Luke 13:11-13, “11 And there was a woman who for
eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double,
and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He
called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed
from your sickness.”
13 And He laid His hands on
her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.”
2.
VS 3:1 - “Acts 3:1 1Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. (NASB)” – Peter and John were walking up to the
temple
2.1.
Peter and
John had become good friends over time and through the bonds of love that only
Christ can create they had also come to be able to work very closely
together
2.1.1. We see Peter and John working often together in the
first section of the book of Acts
2.1.2. They were very different in nature, Peter being the
man of action, and John being the dreamer.
2.1.3. At the end of the gospel of John, Peter seemed
perplexed about John and his calling and asked Jesus what would become of John.
2.1.4. However, Peter and John were part of that inner core
of Jesus’ disciples, which included John’s brother James.
2.1.5. Plus, Peter had become specially close to John as they
had both gone together to the court of Jesus’ trial, and they had likewise gone
together to the tomb after Jesus had been crucified.
2.2.
The ninth
hour of the day was just at evening time
2.3.
Peter had
probably not planned to perform any healing this day. Rather, this was something that the Lord
prompted him to do
2.4.
The people whom
Peter interacts with in this chapter are different than the ones in chapter 1,
these people are Jews from
2.5.
This story
ultimately results in the first arrest for the preaching of the gospel, which
is described in chapter 4
3.
VS 3:2-3 - “Acts 3:2-3 2And a certain man who had
been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set
down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to
beg alms of those who were entering the temple. 3 And when he saw Peter and John about
to go into the temple, he began asking
to receive alms (NASB)”
- A man who had been born lame was being
carried along by someone in order to be placed before the gate of temple so
that he could beg effectively as people were coming to the hour of prayer
3.1.
People tend
to be a little more generous and compassionate when they are going in to
worship God, so this man knew that he was perfectly positioned
3.2.
There were a few
gates to enter into the temple, this one was given the name ‘beautiful’
3.3.
The opportunity offorded them: As Peter and John as they were going into the
temple, this man asked alms of them
3.4.
Notice that
this man had never walked, but had ‘been lame from his mother’s womb’, so this
is a genuine incontrovertible miracle which God performed through Peter and
John
4.
VS 3:4-5 - “Acts 3:4-5 4 And
Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze upon him and said, "Look at
us!" 5 And
he began to give them his attention,
expecting to receive something from them. (NASB)” – Peter fixed his eyes on the man and told
him to look at them
4.1.
Beggars in
that day often did not look in the face of the people that they begged from,
and thus Peter tells this man, ‘Look at us!’
4.2.
The man expected
to receive something material from Peter, however what Peter and John gave him
was something that was much greater than anything material they could have
given him
4.2.1. As this lame beggar, the world does not realize the
need that it really has is spiritual, not material, and it is the church’s job
to preach to them that their real need is to know Christ as their Lord and
savior
4.2.1.1.The job of the church as seen from the book of Acts
and the Great Commission of Jesus, is to win the lost to salvation and teach all
that Jesus commanded His disciples. This
is where our emphasis and energy are to be placed
5.
VS 3:6 - “Acts 3:6 6 But
Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give
to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene-- walk!" (NASB)” - Peter commands the man to ‘rise
and walk’
5.1.
From the
world’s perspective, Peter had been a pauper since he had first started
following Jesus, as was this man, however this did not hinder him from being able
to minister what was much greater than material things and riches, it was ‘life
in Jesus Christ’ which he gave to this man
5.2.
Peter
exercised a great deal of faith in telling the lame man to ‘stand up and walk’,
because if the man tried to stand up but wasn’t healed, Peter would look
foolish and could even be ridiculed for victimizing the unfortunate.
5.2.1. Peter must have been given a special gift of faith in
this situation so that he could believe that it was the Lord’s will to heal
this man and thus create an open door for the preaching of the gospel.
5.2.2. Again we see that signs and wonders were performed by
the Lord for the purpose of opening a door for the gospel to be shared, and
that they were not the end in themselves
5.3.
The church
today needs to get a proper perspective on what the essentials of real ministry
involve as so many churches are involved in material things and material
prosperity, and yet they do not have the power of God in the church
5.3.1. I don’t know about you but the whole ‘prosperity
gospel’ stuff in the church grieves me greatly, for that teaching leads so many
people to set their hearts on all of the wrong things in life, and doing this
can only lead them to have a great fall
5.3.2. The material prosperity doctrine that is so prevalent
in the church today places all of the apostles and even Jesus Himself as having
no faith, for they lived a life of material poverty
5.3.2.1.In Luke 2:21-24, Joseph and Mary went to the
temple to pay what was commanded for to redeem their firstborn, and there were
one of two offerings that were acceptable, one for the normal people and the
other only for the poor who couldn’t afford much, and Jesus’ parents offered
for him the offering of the poor, which was a pair of turtle doves or two young
pigeons, “21 And when eight days
were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the
name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days for their purification
according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem
to present Him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every
first-born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord” ), 24 and
to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair
of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
5.3.2.2.When the man came to Jesus wanting to follow Him,
Matthew records in Ma. 8:20
Jesus words to him, “20 And Jesus
*said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”
5.3.3. In the book of Acts we do not see a single building
project undertaken by the church, for the church was poor and knew that having
a nice building to meet in did not really help them in their mission of the
Great Commission
5.3.3.1.My wife’s parents attended a large church in
5.3.3.2.When we were in
5.3.4. The story is told of St. Thomas Aquinas in the middle
ages. He went to
5.3.4.1.You see, the more a church looks to external material
things as essential, the less of the power of God they have in the church
5.3.5. What great damage has been done by this ‘prosperity’
gospel teaching in the lives of people, and it is only here in America that
such a gospel could gain ground for we Christians here in America are ‘filthy rich’
in comparison to the majority of the rest of the world, and all that the
‘prosperity’ gospel can bring to the poor nations of the world is condemnation
for none of the people in the poor countries could ever live on the level of us
here in America
5.3.6. There are also many scriptures that teach that we are
not to put our desires on earthly riches, and in fact in Matt. 6:24, Jesus taught that a person
cannot serve God and ‘riches’ (or mammon), “24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon.””
5.4.
It is through
Peter’s faith that the man is healed as there is no evidence of faith existing
on the lame man’s part
5.5.
There are
churches that take verses such as this one and believe and teach that everyone
a Christian prays for, confessing that he is healed, will be healed. Then, if healing does not occur, there must
be sin in someone’s life. However,
scripture does not support this belief
5.6.
The Lord
today can in a situation give us a unique gift of faith as he gave to Peter, if
He wills, and if He speaks to us of His intention to do such a work as he did
through Peter here, we ought to be bold enough to step out and let the Lord use
us in this way
1.
VS 3:7-8 - “Acts 3:7-8 7 And seizing him by the right hand, he raised
him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8 And with a
leap, he stood upright and began to
walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God
(NASB)” - Peter seized the man by the hand and raised
him up and he was healed
1.1.
Peter not
only told the man to rise and walk, but in his boldness and faith in the Lord
he also raised him up, and it was then in response to Peter’s faith that the
Lord strengthened the man’s ankles so that he could not only walk, but also
walk and leap up
1.2.
This was
truly a miracle since the man not only walked but also was leaping up
1.2.1. When muscle groups have atrophied as they do with a
person who has not been able to use them for a good period of time, it takes
years of physical therapy before those muscles can be effectively used
again. However, this man was healed in
such a miraculous way that he apparently did not need any therapy in order to
walk and leap in the air
1.3.
As all of
God’s miracles teach us lessons dealing with the healing from sin that the Lord
can do in our lives, this miracle teaches us that each of us as Christians were
in spiritual poverty and destitute, and with no hope of being made whole in our
lives, yet Christ came into our lives and raised us up and strengthened the
weak and withered parts in our life and gave us new regenerated spiritual life
in Christ because of which we ought to be leaping up in praise to God
1.4.
God can not
only do the impossible in healing people from sicknesses, He can also heal them
spiritually, which is often times even a much greater miracle than physical
healing
2.
VS 3:9-10 - “Acts 3:9-10 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10 and they
were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate
of the temple to beg alms, and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
(NASB)” – The people were filled with
wonder and amazement as they saw the man whom they knew to be crippled walking
around
2.1.
In chapter 4
of the book of Acts we read that this man was over 40 years old, and thus the
people thought that there was no hope for him who had never walked ever being
healed
3.
VS 3:11 - “Acts 3:11 11 And
while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at
the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. (NASB)” – The
people ran together to Peter, John, and the man who had been healed
3.1.
The man was
clinging to Peter and John, and I kind of image him holding on to them because
though he had been made to be able to walk, he probably looked like a brand new
colt trying to take his first steps on wobbly legs
3.2.
Notice a
picture depicted here also, for we as Christians need to always be prepared to
help those to learn how to walk with Christ that we have won to Him and seen
healed spiritually, we musn’t just leave them to themselves to grow in their
faith in Christ
4.
VS 3:12 - “Acts 3:12 12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel, why do you
marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we
had made him walk?
(NASB)” - Peter tells the people that it was not by
their own power that the man had been healed
4.1.
Here now begins
Peter’s second sermon in the book of Acts, and this morning we shall only look
at the first part of it, but we see that Peter again used the opportunity
afforded by the mighty deeds of the Lord in order to preach the gospel to the
people at the temple
4.1.1. We will also see that this preaching also led to the
first persecution of the early church as Peter and John are arrested after
Peter preaches to the crowd
4.2.
Some have
rightly said that this was probably the greatest test of Peter up to this moment
of time. The Lord had just performed a
mighty miracle through his hands, and he had the opportunity to take credit for
this work or to somehow build himself up though it, however he gave God all of
the credit
4.3.
Peter denies
that this healing occurred either as a result of his own ‘power’ or ‘piety.’
4.3.1. The Greek word for ‘power’ is again ‘dunamis’, the word from which we
our English word ‘dynamite’, and this was the word that Jesus used when talking
with His disciples in Acts 1:8 when He told them that they would receive
‘power’ when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and that they would be His
disciples in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the remotest parts of the earth.
4.3.2. According to Strong’s dictionary the Greek word ‘eusebeia’ which is translated as ‘piety’ is
also translated in other verses as ‘godliness’ and ‘holiness’, and it literally
means:
4.3.2.1.reverence, respect
4.3.2.2.piety towards God, godliness
4.3.3. You see, Peter realized that when God works mightily
through a person’s life it is not because this person is worthy of God
performing this work
4.3.3.1.The opposite is really true, for because we are all
sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), it is actually
inspite of our sinfulness that the Lord chooses to work mightily through our
lives
4.3.3.1.1.Christians and Christian leaders should realize and
confess that it is not as a result of their superior gifting or close walk with
the Lord that great things are happening in their ministry. As Jesus said of His own works, it is
happening because the sovereign God is working His works through them.
4.3.3.1.2.I have many times talked and counseled with Christians
who seem to believe that because their lives are not perfect that the Lord
cannot use them for some ministry, however God uses imperfect people to
accomplish His work because there aren’t any others around!
4.3.3.1.3.I have mentioned this in our home fellowship before
but when a person become a Christian they need to get a proper perspective of
themselves in relation to God. In the
mainstream church today there has been a big influx of a concept from secular
psychology that has come into the church involving the concept of the
importance of ‘self-esteem’ in the lives of Christian. Many church leaders have taught and preached
that we as Christians are really great and wonderful people and that God knows
this and thus our ‘self-esteem’ should be based upon this. Some of these leaders have taught that since
we are supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves that our emphasis
should be upon first loving ourselves.
However, this teaching is a lie from the pit of hell, for the scriptures
teach that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and thus we
really are ‘worms’. However, that is not
the end of the story. For, the grace of
God comes in teaching that in spite of our unworthiness and sinfulness, God
loves us adopted children unconditionally and with all the love that He has for
His only begotten Son from all eternity.
4.3.3.2.It is also true though that the Lord chooses not to
work mightily through the lives of those who have not committed their lives to
Him and received Christ as their Lord and Savior
4.3.3.2.1.If miracles happen in someone’s life who is not a
committed Christian, then the miracles can only be demonic in origin (see Deut.
13 for instance)
4.4.
I have to say
that as I observe the leaders of the so called ‘faith’ movement, that there is
a tendency to place men up on a pedestal where they should not be, and some of
these leaders place themselves on that pedestal. One prominent televangelist I heard being
interviewed once with an assistant pastor in his church was saying in essence
that he was ‘THE’ prophet for this age and that no one else could get this same
‘anointing’ on their life that he had.
4.4.1. His saying this made me feel like puking because it is
not because of our holiness and close walk with God that causes Him to work
mightily through our lives
4.4.2. We in the church need to be careful not to place our
leaders on too high on a pedestal, for though God has called them to be in
authority over us and thus we must have a special respect for them and that
authority, it is also true that they are just men and not infallible
4.4.3. Further, I would say that it is very important to pray
for our leaders in the church because the devil would so much like to undermine
the work that God is doing through their lives
4.5.
Peter
questions the people as to why it is that they are marveling that a miracle has
occurred. This marveling is an example
of their unbelief because when people have faith in the God of the Bible they
cannot marvel as to how He should do that which is miraculous, for their God is
a God of the miraculous
4.5.1. When people look around at this incredible creation
which came into being through the miraculous working of the Lord speaking it
into existence, why should we not expect that the same God who created all of
this could not also perform miracles in our lives and in the world?
5.
Humanity stands
outside the church in utter spiritual need and poverty, and it is up to us, the
church, to reach out to people with the gospel of Jesus Christ showing them
that though we do not have silver or gold (the riches of this world), they are
invited to come to Christ for that healing through eternal salvation that will
cause them to be able to walk confidently on straight limbs and even leap up in
joy and praise to heaven.