Please enjoy this message delivered by Pastor Mark Hudson.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Well, some of you know, because my wife has shown you pictures, we are getting a new puppy.
00:06Yes, a new, I've become a new chew toy. Yeah, I understand that. A new puppy. And it's going to
00:12be mostly Teresa's puppy. The reason being is I have an adult male German shepherd. I don't think
00:19he would appreciate if I started spending time with a small little female thing, okay? I don't
00:23think he's going to like that. So it's mostly for Teresa. But if you know as well as I do,
00:27you bring a new animal into the house, all of your routines change. Yes, it's like a
00:33baby bringing it into the house. I mean, I love my routines. I am just a routine guy. I
00:38get up and it bugs my wife. She's not like this. She's more flexible than me. I get up
00:43with a routine in my head. I love routines. I know what I'm going to do Monday. I know
00:47what I'm going to do Tuesday. I know what I'm going to do when. And if I'm not where I'm
00:50at, I'm supposed to be on Wednesday. I know it. I love routines. Maybe because they give
00:55me a sense of security. I don't know. Maybe that's it. I just like routines. They just
00:59kind of give me a sense of security. But I ought not be surprised while I'm in the middle
01:05of a routine that God interrupts my routine with a divine encounter. I should not be surprised
01:12when God does that. He does it often. You've probably experienced the same thing. You're
01:16in the routine of life doing your normal stuff that you're doing and all of a sudden God interrupts
01:20your routine and gives you a divine encounter. Those are wonderful times. In the text today
01:27in chapter 3 of the book of Acts, Peter and John likely did not get up that morning and
01:34say to themselves, hey, let's go heal somebody today. They probably didn't do that. I mean,
01:40they were going to be about their normal routines. While Jew was in Jerusalem, he would go three
01:45times to the temple and pray at least once. But three times were the prayer times. They
01:50would go to the temple in prayer. So this is an afternoon, three o'clock time. It was
01:54a normal routine for them. They would normally do that. But God interrupted this normal routine
02:00and gave them a divine encounter. In fact, I think the man at the beautiful gate, the lame
02:06man, didn't wake up that morning and say, hey, I think I'm going to get healed today. He was
02:10going about his normal routine as well. Every day someone carried him and set him in front
02:16of this gate called beautiful, the beautiful gate where he was begging for money every day
02:21of his life. We're going to learn more about this man. It was time for the afternoon prayers
02:27in the temple. And as Peter and John's routine was, they gladly participate in it. That's what
02:32they did when they were in Jerusalem. They longed to be in God's house and to offer up prayers
02:37to his name. It was a regular afternoon prayer time. But what happened next was anything but
02:44regular. This was God interrupting their routine and giving them a divine encounter that takes
02:52place right here. It was a planned event that turned into a divine encounter. God was moving
02:59in Jerusalem and he's about ready to shake things up in Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, from this
03:04day forward, the things change in Jerusalem in respects to the believers in Christ. Things are
03:11never the same after this day. Something happens on this day. So you're going to be in Acts chapter
03:17three, Acts chapter three. And what we see in Acts chapter three is this, is God heals a lame man in
03:23Jerusalem, giving Peter an opportunity to preach to the people about Jesus, the Messiah. So to kind of
03:31give you an administrative heads up while we're going through this is yesterday, I did. Well,
03:36God said, listen, this sermon is way too big. You need to divide this thing up. So you're not going
03:41to get the sign and the sermon today. You're going to get just the sign and we're going to look at the
03:46sermon next week. It's just way too big and it would be a disservice to the word of God to go so
03:51quickly through it. So you'll see the sign today. We'll end up there and the next week we'll pick up
03:55on the sermon that Peter preached after the sign took place. So I don't know if it's, if it's
04:02happened to you that you've been around your daily routine and all of a sudden God interrupts it with
04:06a divine encounter, but it happens. And we ought to perhaps be paying attention to those times that
04:11he does come along and interrupts our daily routine with a divine encounter. It could be a conversation,
04:17could be an event that took place, something that interrupts our routine with this divine
04:21encounter. And Peter takes the opportunity in the midst of this, this, this routine to, to be obedient
04:29to God and to listen to what he has to say. He, he was kind of like, again, we're not going to get to the
04:34preaching time, but this is kind of the attitude that Paul talked to Timothy about. Paul told Timothy,
04:39preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience
04:45and suffering. So again, we're not going to get to the sermon today, but that's what Peter does. He takes the
04:49opportunity in season to preach about what just took place with the healing of this man that we're going
04:55to see here in the first part of the chapter. So we'll begin reading in verse number one of chapter
05:00three. So open your Bibles, turn on your biblical device, whichever the case may be. We want to look
05:04at God's word together and we'll see this, this sign that took place in verses one through 10.
05:11Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. It's always, you'll notice in the
05:16Bible up to the temple. The temple was kind of on a, on a little height of a, it's not a mountain or
05:22anything. It's a hill. There is something higher. The Mount of Olives is higher, but still always
05:26going up to the temple. It's just a phrase that we see throughout the New Testament. Going up to the
05:31temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, so 3 p.m. and a lame man from birth was being carried
05:38whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of
05:45those entering the temple. So you can kind of see the picture. This man who we're going to learn
05:49has been lame from birth, gets carried every day, especially to the times of prayer and evening
05:55sacrifice to sit and beg money from people. Why? Because he's poor. There's no welfare system like
06:01that in that sense like we have today. No SSI. You can't depend on Medicaid. It doesn't exist.
06:08So he's begging for alms. He's looking for money of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John
06:17about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. So he looks at them. Most people when they
06:22gave alms probably didn't look at the guy. They probably just passed by and tossed something in
06:26his cup or his plate or whatever it was. Never made eye contact. You know, somebody told me, in fact,
06:32I remember who told me and I'm not going to point them out. I may embarrass him. When you go to the
06:36stop signs in Spokane and you see the people on the side begging for money, I used to always look
06:40away. And this person said to me, no, no, don't, don't look away. Look at the people and pray for
06:45them. And I thank that person because I do that all the time now. No one was looking at this guy
06:50probably. They just walked right by him and tossed money in there. Not Peter and John. Not Peter and
06:55John. Seeing Peter and John go about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms, please. And Peter
07:01directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them. So
07:07someone's actually paying attention to him. Fixed. So he fixes attention on them, expecting to receive
07:13something from them. That's all that he's thinking about is do they have some, I mean, if they got my
07:18attention, maybe they're going to give me more money. Hoping to receive something from them. But Peter
07:24said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of
07:31Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his
07:38feet and ankles were made strong. It just immediately just came together and bound into strength. He became
07:44strong and leaping up. He stood and began to walk. Never in his lifetime. He has ever walked before.
07:51And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. You can imagine he's
07:57sitting at the beautiful gate outside of the temple. He can't go into the temple. He hears
08:01everything that's going on in the temple, but he's never been able to go inside because he's lame.
08:06Now he's actually able to go inside the temple. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered
08:13the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. You can imagine if you were that person,
08:18you probably respond the same way. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Everyone
08:24who recognized this guy and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple,
08:31asking for alms. And they, that's the people who saw the healed man, and they were filled with wonder
08:38and amazement. And what happened to him? We recognize this guy. What happened? And that's the second half
08:44of the sermon, which you'll get next week is this is what happened. He explains what happens to him.
08:50So Peter and John were going up to the temple. Remember going up to the temple for the third
08:54hour of prayer, also accompanied by the evening sacrifice. There's a morning sacrifice and the
09:01evening sacrifice. And so the time at 3 PM of the prayer and evening sacrifice, you have a lot of
09:07people in the temple. So they carry him to set him there to get alms from everyone going in the
09:12temple because there's a lot of people going in the temple at this time. A lot of people.
09:17And you wonder, why do they have three times of prayer? Well, one reference in the Psalms kind
09:21of gives us an idea, maybe where they get this three times of prayer in a day. Psalm 55,
09:26evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan and he hears my voice.
09:32Now our prayers aren't always complaints and moans, but you get the point. It seemed to be a three
09:37time a day event. And that's what the Jews practice three times a day. They would go in the
09:41temple and pray. But he can't. He can't go in the temple. He's outside of what's taking place inside
09:49the temple. He's at the gate called beautiful. And again, this phrase going up to the temple for all
09:55of you grammar geeks, it's the idea that they were continually doing. It was a normal practice for them.
10:01Past tense verb with a continuing. They always did. This is what they did. Every time they were in
10:04Jerusalem, they would go up at the third hour and they would pray. Something they constantly did.
10:09John's there as a second witness. So we know that it's really true what happened. Two witnesses.
10:13We need two witnesses. And we know something about this man. The man was lame from his mother's womb.
10:20And for over 40 years, he had been lame. 40 years. And I'm 60. I'll say I'll be 62 this year. 40 years.
10:29That's a lot of my lifetime. He's never walked. He's always been, someone else always has to take
10:35care of him. He's poor. He doesn't have a lot of money. He's begging for money.
10:4040 years in this state. That can kind of be depressing after all that time.
10:48And we know that because chapter 4, which we're not going to look at until a couple of weeks,
10:51tells us exactly. Chapter 4, verse 22.
10:54For the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old.
10:59More than 40 years. Been lame from his mother's womb.
11:02He's never walked. He's never gone in the temple.
11:08He's at the beautiful gate carried by other people who have to take care of him.
11:12At the beautiful gate located on the far eastern side of the court of the tabernacle.
11:18We're not quite sure which gate it was.
11:20I mean, there's a couple of gates. It could be.
11:23They think it's called the Nicanor Gate.
11:25And the Nicanor Gate or the Econor Gate,
11:27it was made out of Corinthian brass, polished brass.
11:32And Josephus, who was a historian at the day,
11:35said that it was of more value than the doors overlaid with gold.
11:39So apparently this Corinthian brass was very valuable.
11:42And he also said, Josephus, that it was hardly being able to be moved by 20 men.
11:4820 men tried to shut this thing and they could barely move this huge gate.
11:52That's how big the gate was.
11:53So you can kind of picture in your mind how big it was.
11:55That's beautiful, beautiful gate and big, big, big, beautiful gate.
12:01So because the man was lame, he was not allowed to enter the temple.
12:06He couldn't go into the temple area proper.
12:09Now he enters as a whole person.
12:13Before he was outside, separated from what was taking place inside the temple mountain area.
12:19He couldn't go in there.
12:20He couldn't offer sacrifices.
12:22He couldn't go in there or pray.
12:23Because he was lame, he wasn't allowed to enter into the...
12:26He was like a child looking outside the bakery window, pressing his nose against it,
12:31wondering if he could go in and eat the pastries that are inside.
12:34But no one's letting him in.
12:36He can't go in.
12:38In 2 Samuel, we read kind of the principle behind why he could not go into the temple.
12:442 Samuel 5 says,
12:45So based on that, we know that the blind and the lame could not go into the temple area.
13:02They were separated in that sense from the people of God and the presence of God within
13:09the temple area.
13:13But something happened.
13:16Immediately, he felt the strength in his ankles and his legs and he was healed instantly.
13:22It wasn't like it took six months of healing and leg braces that he'd walk around with leg
13:26braces for a while.
13:27It was immediately he's healed.
13:30He didn't expect that.
13:31In the middle of his routine of normally being carried, God intervenes and gives him a divine
13:36encounter and he stands up and leaps and he praises God.
13:41A witty old preacher said,
13:43The crippled beggar asked for alms and he got legs.
13:46I like that.
13:48He asked for alms and he got legs.
13:50Remember, that's all that he was asking for.
13:52He's not asking for a healing.
13:54He never asked for it.
13:55All he wanted was money.
13:57He doesn't know what's coming.
13:58So the question is, if he was just looking for money and God heals him, whose faith was
14:10it?
14:12There's no implication in the text and there's nothing that's directly stated in the text,
14:16implied or explicit in the text that this man had any kind of faith at all.
14:21He had no faith.
14:22It has to be the faith of Peter and John.
14:25Through that, God heals this man at the beautiful gate.
14:29He only wants money.
14:30He has, he just, maybe he's heard the name of Jesus.
14:33Maybe he's seen Jesus come out.
14:34Jesus went into the temple all the time.
14:36He was there.
14:37Maybe.
14:38But there's no instance that he knew Christ or believed on him.
14:42Seems to be the faith of Peter and John that are in here.
14:45Because it was in the name of Jesus, in the power of Jesus, in the character of Jesus.
14:50It was through the name of Jesus that the man was healed.
14:54Through Jesus, this man was healed.
14:57John Poli remarked, to invoke the name of Jesus is to call upon his authority and power.
15:03In a real sense then, Jesus through Peter continued his healing ministry.
15:09So it's Jesus that's healing this man.
15:11Yes, he uses Peter.
15:13John is there.
15:14But it's Jesus that's continuing his healing ministry.
15:16You remember when he called the apostles, he gave them authority to cast out demons and
15:21to heal the sick.
15:23That's what they were allowed to do while he was walking on there.
15:25So this is just a continuation of what he gave them authority to do in his name.
15:30Remember in Mark chapter 10, excuse me, Matthew chapter 10, excuse me.
15:34And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast
15:39them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.
15:44So they already had that authority from him to do that.
15:46Now they're just continuing carrying on that authority to heal in the name of Jesus, in
15:50the power of Jesus, in the authority of Jesus, as Jesus continues his healing ministry through
15:55Peter here.
15:58Under the old covenant, he was restricted from entering, but now he found full acceptance
16:03in the name of Jesus.
16:06Before he was outside, now in the name of Jesus, he gets to go into the temple area, healed,
16:12instantly healed.
16:16That's amazing.
16:18Paul uses a rare word here.
16:19It's only three times in the New Testament for leaping.
16:21It doesn't, it doesn't come often.
16:23And actually, remember the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
16:28If you go back to the book of Isaiah in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the
16:31Septuagint, that word is used for leaping.
16:34And it has reference to the Messianic kingdom, the Messianic age, in Isaiah 35, verse 6.
16:42Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy, for
16:47waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
16:51It's the same word that's used in the Greek version of the Old Testament right here, that
16:55this word that Luke uses right here.
16:57He, he's saying that the Messianic age has come, the Messiah is here, and everyone that
17:03sees this sign should recognize the Messianic age has come.
17:07God is here.
17:10And think about, remember, this man had never walked before in his life, remember?
17:15We watch a baby learn how to walk, don't we?
17:17And it's so cute, you know, they kind of push themselves up and they totter and they fall
17:20down and they kind of, you know, their bottom's up in the air and they're pushing themselves
17:24up and they kind of just totter.
17:25And then we get all excited when they take one or two steps, yay!
17:29He doesn't do that.
17:30He doesn't have to learn how to walk.
17:31He immediately stands up and guess what he does?
17:33He leaps and he jumps for joy.
17:35It's not like, oh, this is how you walk.
17:37One step, two, no, he's just jumping and praising God.
17:40Why?
17:41Because the Messianic age has come and it's broken down upon him.
17:45And God heals this man at the beautiful gate.
17:48He is gracious to this man who wasn't even looking for a healing.
17:52And yet God heals this man.
17:56Now he is allowed, in a sense, worthy to enter into the temple.
18:03Separated from God at the beautiful gate, couldn't go into the temple.
18:07He could hear all the people praising God inside, but he could never go inside.
18:11Why?
18:11Because his lameness that he had from birth kept him outside of the temple.
18:14He couldn't go into the temple.
18:16He was separated from God.
18:18God, he was spiritually, he was financially poor.
18:25He didn't have any money.
18:26He needed money to live off, alms to live.
18:28He was in a state that reminds me a lot of us human beings.
18:35It reminds me of the state that we were in too.
18:38See, you and I were born lame, spiritually speaking, from our father Abraham,
18:44our father, our father, uh, uh, uh, um, no, uh, Adam.
18:49I can't even get his name out.
18:50My mind is somewhere else.
18:51So our father Adam, we know the story, right?
18:54In the garden, he disobeyed, he rebelled against God.
18:58And God cast him out of the garden.
19:00God cursed the ground and sin entered into the world.
19:03And death came along with sin.
19:04Sin was never there before, which made us spiritually lame from birth, from birth.
19:13We were born in that state.
19:14That's the state that, and if human being remains in that state and they die in that state,
19:18they will be separated from God forever in that state.
19:21We were born spiritually lame, just like this man was.
19:26He was born physically lame.
19:28Romans three tells us for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
19:32That's all of us, every single one of us.
19:35We were born in this state.
19:37And unless God comes in and we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
19:41Jesus Christ from the dead, we will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from him.
19:47Not only were we, were we born spiritually lame, we were spiritually poor and bankrupt before God.
19:55We had nothing to offer him.
19:57We couldn't say, hey God, here's all my great stuff that I'm doing.
20:00Let me offer this to you, and you give me your salvation.
20:03We had nothing to offer him.
20:04We were bankrupt before God.
20:06We couldn't say, oh God, let me do these great things, and then you'll welcome me.
20:09There's nothing we could do to welcome, have him welcome us in.
20:13We were spiritually poor and bankrupt.
20:15We were dead in our trespasses and sin.
20:18Ephesians chapter 2.
20:19And you were dead in the trespasses and sin in which you once walked, following the course
20:24of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
20:29work in the sons of disobedience.
20:31That's where we were before Jesus Christ found us.
20:35He was then spiritually poor and, I mean, physically poor and bankrupt when he was found by Peter
20:40and John, and he healed him.
20:42We need to be healed by God for this bankrupt state that we find ourselves in.
20:48We cannot get out of this.
20:50There's nothing we can do to earn it or pay for our way out.
20:54We need him to deliver us, just like this man needed to be delivered.
21:00Thirdly, he was outside the temple.
21:02He was separated from God.
21:04He couldn't go in.
21:06He pressed his face against the window, but no one would let him in because he was lame.
21:09He couldn't get in.
21:10He was separated from the presence of God.
21:12And that's just how we were before Christ found us and redeemed us and brought us into
21:18his family.
21:19We were separated from God.
21:21We were alienated from him.
21:23We were told that we were hostile in our minds against him.
21:28We had nothing that we wanted from him.
21:30We just wanted him out of our lives.
21:33We were separated from God, but he comes to us.
21:36Ephesians chapter two, further on in the chapter, remember that you were at that time separated from
21:42Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise.
21:48And then listen to what Paul says, having no hope, having no hope and without God in this world.
21:57But God entered into this man, saved him in the middle of his routine.
22:01There was a divine encounter.
22:03God interrupted it, saved him in the sense of healed him and brought him into the temple area.
22:09And now he can come in.
22:11How do we get into the presence of God?
22:14Through Jesus Christ.
22:16He is the way.
22:18He is a mediator between God and man.
22:21He is the way we enter in.
22:22And now through Christ, his resurrection, his ascension, his glorification,
22:27every single one of us can go to the throne room of God 24-7.
22:32And nothing will hinder that.
22:34We have access to this because of Christ.
22:36We are no longer separated.
22:38We are invited into the very presence of God.
22:41So much so that the Holy Spirit, God himself, lives inside of us.
22:49Fourth, he was healed wholly by the grace of God.
22:54He didn't deserve it.
22:57He didn't merit it.
22:59Could have never earned it.
23:01It's purely by God's grace.
23:03Purely by God's grace that he was healed.
23:06It's the same for us.
23:08We are saved by grace through faith.
23:11Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
23:14For by grace you have been saved through faith.
23:18And this is not your own doing.
23:20In other words, you didn't do it.
23:21I didn't do it.
23:22An outside force came upon us.
23:24A good, benevolent, holy, righteous force.
23:27God himself came upon us.
23:30His grace was poured out to us.
23:32He welcomed us into his family by faith in his son, Jesus Christ.
23:38It's not your own doing.
23:40It is a gift of God.
23:41It's God's gift.
23:43Not a result of works so that no one may boast.
23:46It's not reckoned by what we do, but what he has done.
23:51So the people clearly saw what happened.
23:54They recognized this man.
23:55This is the one who was lame.
23:57He was physically, physically lame, physically poor, physically separated from God.
24:06And he needed to be healed.
24:12I don't know.
24:13Maybe today you're standing outside.
24:17I'm not saying that you're, well, if you're outside of Christ, you are spiritually lame.
24:22You need to be healed.
24:23And maybe today you need to say, I have been separated from God.
24:26And I see now that it's not by what I do I can enter into his presence,
24:30but what Jesus has done for me.
24:32Because it's in the name of Jesus he's healed, remember?
24:34It's not Peter.
24:35It's not John.
24:36It's Jesus who heals him.
24:39So maybe today you say, you know, I'm outside and I'm kind of looking in.
24:42I've been here and I've been to your church and I see things that are going on
24:46and I kind of understand some of it, but I just feel like still that I'm not in.
24:52I don't understand.
24:57Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty of our sins
25:00so that you and I could stand before a holy God,
25:04not in our own righteousness, but in his righteousness
25:07and be accepted forever into his presence.
25:10This is, he's done by grace.
25:13And maybe today it's a day to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
25:17You say, I've never done that.
25:18I've never, I've never repented of my sins
25:20and believed in Jesus Christ for salvation.
25:22Maybe today's the day for, for you to do that.
25:24And for us who have been born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
25:30we can reflect on where we were and what God has done for us
25:35and rejoice and you and I can leap for joy as we praise God in this world.
25:43Let's pray.
25:44Thank you, Father.
25:45Thank you for working this sign, this miracle on the man at the beautiful gate.
25:51Not him, not even Peter and John really,
25:53but in your son Jesus Christ, this man was healed.
25:56In his name, this man was healed.
25:59And it's in the name of Jesus Christ that we find salvation for.
26:02There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved other than the name of Jesus.
26:07So thank you, Father, that you saw us in our spiritual state of being spiritually lame
26:14and separated from you and outside of your promises.
26:18But you came to us in your son Jesus Christ and redeemed us.
26:22And we thank you now that we may enter into your presence
26:25and that you're our God and that we're your people.
26:30We thank you in Jesus name.
26:32Amen.