The Wonder & the Word, Pt 1 - Acts 3:1-10

[0:00] Well, good morning. This is a fabulously busy Sunday in the calendar year.

[0:13] We have Halloween, Reformation Day, a slew of football games, and my personal favorite, World Series Game 5.

[0:30] No, it's not more important than what we're doing as a Reformation Day. But I will say this, of all these things that are happening, there is nothing better than gathering together right now as the church, as the body, here together.

[0:46] Amen. There's nothing better. So let's pray. God, we thank You for the ability to gather together as Your people and to dedicate ourselves unto You and who You are through the singing of the songs, through the encouraging of one another, through the reading and studying and saturation of Your Word.

[1:12] And now through prayer, as we draw near to You together as a body. Thank You for the gospel which gives us all one common identity as a saved people.

[1:30] Thank You for the book of Acts, which shows and illustrates Your power and Your glory through Your unstoppable gospel.

[1:42] That wherever the gospel goes forth, Your Word and Your voice go forth. And there is no void that Your Word does not cross, no barrier that it does not penetrate.

[1:58] Lord, we thank You for Your sovereignty over all things. Thank You for the church. Thank You for Your Word once more.

[2:08] Amen. 3,000 plus new converts.

[2:19] A powerful coming of the Holy Spirit. Diverse tongues being spoken. A dire need for an immediate hiring of five to ten new pastors.

[2:35] New children's ministry, curriculum, new adult small groups that need to be developed, new leaders that need to be formed, discipleship that needs to happen, baptisms that need to occur, planned outreaches that need to happen.

[2:54] This is the context where we find ourselves in Acts chapter 3. We saw last chapter that Peter stands and he preaches and he delivers God's Word and power and 3,000 were added unto their number.

[3:11] The church of Christ has gone from 100 plus to 3,000 plus. Let's read our passage.

[3:23] Acts chapter 3, 1 to 10. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.

[3:41] Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms and Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us.

[3:54] And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you.

[4:14] In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong.

[4:26] And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple, asking for alms.

[4:47] And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to them. 3,000 converts, a massive need for administration, a massive need for calculated, focused attention on the local body that's been entrusted to Peter and to John and to the apostles.

[5:17] And what do you see the next immediate step is? Not that Peter and John neglect the body of Christ that has been given to them, but what do you see?

[5:30] Verse one, now Peter and John were going into the temple at the hour of prayer. These men entrusted to shepherd the flock among them, receive 3,000 converts, and immediately what is their first instinct?

[5:49] We must continue in that which we've been doing this entire time. We need to go pray in the temple. I love this. And they go and they pray in the temple. And here's what's really important.

[6:01] We see that Peter and John are Jews. And just because they've received the Holy Spirit, just because this incredibly exhilarating experience is overtaken in the early church through Pentecost doesn't mean that they lose their way.

[6:18] They have routine and worship. And we know that Peter and John every morning were devout in their prayer. They were devout in their worship in the temple.

[6:29] So every morning as the devout worshipers, the Jews would flood the temple and pray in this ninth hour to God. Peter and John join them.

[6:41] And they continue in this routine. What's amazing is it says that at the ninth hour, which is a scheduled customary hour of prayer in the Jewish worship calendar, and they knew this, and they went with the throngs of the people to go to the temple to pray.

[6:58] What's amazing is the ninth hour is significant. The ninth hour is the hour that Jesus gave up his spirit and died.

[7:10] And this is the hour that Peter and John with the other Jews draw to the temple to pray. Some possible motivations of Peter and John to go to the temple and to pray in that location.

[7:28] You might be asking, why don't they just pray with their body in the upper room or wherever they could pray with them? Why do they go to the temple? Isn't the Holy Spirit now the one that resides within the body of Christ as the spiritual heavenly temple of God?

[7:45] Why do they have need to go to the temple? First motivation, I'm sure, is the witness opportunity. Peter and John filled with the spirit say, amongst themselves, let's go to the temple where all the people will be worshiping God.

[8:05] And secondly, they want to abide and they want to come before their God in prayer.

[8:16] What we see in this text, even though the words are not there, it doesn't say that they were filled with the spirit. They just were filled with the spirit. But what we see is this, that Peter and John are going to demonstrate what it looks like to live empowered by the spirit.

[8:36] And what it means to be filled with the spirit is different from what it means to be indwelt by the spirit. We need to understand these rightly as we go into this story, that the indwelling of the spirit is permanent.

[8:54] It's saving, the permanent saving presence of the spirit within me to redeem me, to regenerate me, to make me a new creation that stands before God, to the righteousness of Christ, filled with his life through the spirit, to be indwelt.

[9:12] But to be filled in the sense that it's used over and over again in Acts, speaks of a more temporal, empowering presence of the spirit. But although we are indwelt, salvifically sealed forever for the salvation that is waiting for us, we also can be filled with God's spirit.

[9:33] And what follows the filling of the spirit are miraculous deeds, divine acts, and a holiness that comes from God's spirit.

[9:48] So as Peter and John go to the temple filled with the spirit, they're going to continue to seek to be filled with the spirit by praying to God. And I read this and I think, what routines are in my life that ensure that I'm filling myself with the Holy Spirit?

[10:05] How am I ensuring that my walk is established on the path of righteousness according to what Jesus walked? How am I ensuring that the Holy Spirit has complete control over my mind, my desires, my emotions, my thoughts, and my actions?

[10:21] I fill myself with the spirit. So what routines do I have in my life? What routines do you have in your life that lead to the spirit filling you?

[10:34] This story has four parts. I'm just going to walk through these four parts. This story of the lame man at the temple highlights our story, church, that as we walk through every step of this story, we need to be able to see our redemptive story in it.

[10:59] Your story, my story, our story is right here. The first part of the story is this, it's human neediness.

[11:12] Four stages of this story. The first is human neediness. The second is divine attention. The third is messianic provision.

[11:25] And the fourth is worshipful response. So let's jump right into the story. Verse two, we're going to look at human neediness, the story of the lame man at the gate.

[11:38] Verse two, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

[11:50] Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. Now this man, it says was lame from birth.

[12:03] And the Greek here suggests that this man's feet, lame from birth, his feet or his walking parts, which would be any part of the leg, ankle or foot.

[12:13] That's the term. It speaks of these parts of his body having a congenital defect, meaning this man has never at any point in his entire life walked.

[12:26] He's never stepped on solid ground with his weight. Not only this, we know he's around the age 40 based on the next chapter.

[12:39] Older man, he's hobbled by lameness from birth. The muscles around his foot have never been exercised.

[12:49] There is no possibility of him being able to stand on his own. That's the verse that Luke establishes that as the doctor early on. It's very important to Luke.

[13:00] And it says this, whom they lay daily at the gate. Now it says whom they lay daily at the gate. And what's interesting to me is every day the prayer would happen at the temple.

[13:10] And if this man is faithful to go to the temple every single day, as he goes home, he comes back to the temple every day. He can't walk. He can't run. He can't hobble there.

[13:21] He must be carried. Now what the story doesn't point out that I would love to hear more background information on is who are the faithful friends that carry this man to the temple every day.

[13:33] Can you imagine? That's friendship. I want to find me a friend like that. My goodness. But the text doesn't tell us.

[13:43] All it says is that the man was laid daily at the gate. And here's the most important aspect of this context that the gate of the temple here was believed to be by the ancient Jewish scholar, Josephus, who lived around this time and knew exactly what the geographical references would be.

[14:00] He called this gate that the man lays at as being 75 feet tall, massive, majestic, ornate gate built with Corinthian brass and covered with, note this, silver and gold.

[14:22] Note that. Jot it down. We'll come back to that concept. But the gate is ornate and it's decorated with silver and gold. And it's called the beautiful gate in this culture, which may have been the Nicanor gate or the Corinthian gate or the double door that leads into Solomon's portico, probably the little ladder, doesn't matter a whole ton on the terminology of that.

[14:42] But what's important is this, this man is standing at the entrance of the most prominent, beautiful, decadent gate of this area of the temple.

[14:53] And we know this, the traffic would have been the greatest at the foot of this gate. That this man knows he's smart. He's thought through this.

[15:03] He's lived a lifetime of lameness and dependence on other people's generosity and kindness. And he knows I sit at this part of the gate, the most beautiful gate, the widest gate, where the most people come through.

[15:16] That's how I'm going to rack up the most money. This is literally his thought process as he goes every day to the gate. Now Jewish worship has a large emphasis on giving to the poor as an act of worship.

[15:32] It's not just Jewish worship and customs and Old Testament law, it's also New Testament law. And even though I don't want to make the point of the sermon giving to the poor because I would be remiss if I did so.

[15:47] That is not the point of this text. It is important, brothers and sisters, that we dedicate ourselves to generosity and caring and pleading for those who have been left behind or who have very little.

[16:03] Used to work at Union Gospel Mission and seeing the absolute destitution that brings a man to when they have very little or they've expended all or they've made poor life decisions or whatever it may be, the place at which the poor live is devastating.

[16:25] And we could argue about how they got there and how we should deal with them and there's a million ways to talk about this, but the point is have we lost an ethic of caring for them?

[16:35] And I would pray that in my heart I do what I can to be generous to those that have little or even to care for those in our own body that have little as we just saw in chapter two.

[16:50] But here's the essence of what this context is showing us, that this man sits at the beautiful gate and he's asking for alms of those that are entering the temple and this, that this man is outside the temple.

[17:09] He sits at the gate. He sits at the entrance of the temple. He's not in the temple. Before we can apply the truths of this passage in our lives, we must understand the underlying idea present in this narrative.

[17:25] This man is not some unidentifiable, unrelatable person that John and Peter just happened to come upon. This man is deeply relatable and we ought to identify fully with him in his condition.

[17:41] Lame, enable, seeking that which he thinks he needs, but not that which he really needs. Brothers and sisters, this is us before Christ.

[17:56] We stand at the gate of the temple, not able to go in to worship, to come before God and holiness and in rightness and in faith because we are enable and we're spiritually rendered lame to do anything righteous.

[18:09] We're completely devoid of it. We do everything we can to try and stand up and live and walk in righteousness, but we are rendered lame by the effects of sin.

[18:21] We are the slain man. We were the slain man. Human neediness. This man illustrates to Peter and to John and hopefully to us as a culture and a context now in this age and in this time that there is a human neediness that goes far beyond anything that we could ever fill.

[18:47] That this man has a problem that goes beyond just his lack of resources or lack of wealth, that his problem goes even beyond his lack of ability to walk.

[18:57] This man's problem. He is without a savior and he is spiritually lame. The gospel teaches that spiritual lameness renders the sinner completely unable to live righteously before God.

[19:20] And for the church, for us, we ought to see these people on the margins. We have to see these people even in our own contexts, in our own places that are in need and see them as those who are in need.

[19:38] The church ought to remember its former needy identity and press on knowing that all our true needs have been met in Christ.

[19:51] My worth is not in what I owe, not in the strength of flesh and bone. Christ has met her every need. Secondly divine attention. We see human neediness.

[20:03] This man illustrates it. Now we're going to look at divine attention, verse four. And Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us.

[20:14] Now what's important about the context here is that we recognize that Peter and John often have visited this temple, have been at this ninth hour of prayer for a long time, months, maybe years, even beyond.

[20:28] And it says that this man daily would sit before the gate, meaning that Peter and John are very, very likely have walked by this man hundreds upon hundreds of times and seen him.

[20:44] The key point of the text here is that this time when they walk by him, something's different. This time when they walk by him, he's not just a needy man that is asking and bothering me for things that I don't want to give or either don't have or don't want to give.

[21:03] He's not just the person on the corner of division that holds the sign and that I drive by not wanting to help. They see this man through the lens of the gospel and they see him as Christ sees him.

[21:20] How does this happen? What has changed? Here's what's changed. They've received the Holy Spirit of God and that spirit has molded their thinking, transformed their minds to see people as those who are in dire need of salvation, the love of Christ and the truth of the gospel.

[21:53] And this is what the Spirit does to us when we're filled with Him. When we fill ourselves with the Spirit, He changes the way we see others. He changes the way we see our friends, our family.

[22:08] He changes the way we see the lost. In my experience, I have dealt with the world in many ways and I've thought of the world and continue to think of the unsaved world and I think of them as unregenerate, degenerate sinners that are evil and wicked and as true as those things may be.

[22:33] I need the power of the Spirit to me to convert those thoughts into that which is Jesus thought, which is they need a Savior to view people as those who are in dire need.

[22:51] Peter and John needed to pray in the temple as per their routine. They didn't need to attend to the slain man that they've passed for years, but the Holy Spirit gave them perspective to stop.

[23:08] How often do we miss divine opportunities in the name of routine or busyness? And as a pastor, people walk through the doors, they walk down the halls and they say, hi, this church is really good at this.

[23:19] So many people stop by and there's so many times that I'm working on something or I'm busy, someone walks by and I just say, I'm not going to talk to that person. And there's a time of the space pastors for us to close our door and get work done.

[23:31] But in my shame, there have been so many times when one of you has walked by or one of you has inquired and I have not given you that time. I have not treated you with kindness and in love.

[23:44] And I apologize and I implore us to view one another as those who are in need. Maybe not of the gospel, if you already know the gospel, but we're still in need of the love of Christ and we are called to give that as the body.

[24:02] The routine of a disciple, the busyness of a disciple is to view others as Christ would. Disciples are called to be busy, called to routine. Yes, but our routine and our busyness is this, making Christ known in all places.

[24:19] In our workplaces, show interest and care towards the person who is obviously hurting. People often wear their hurt on their sleeves.

[24:29] If there's been a conversation with somebody who doesn't know Christ and you can just feel the brokenness. You can feel the pain, the depth of despair that they're living in.

[24:41] See the person as someone who's in need and then reach them for Christ. When you see someone new at church, go out of your way to welcome them, to invite them.

[24:54] I know for me, a lot of times the thought goes through my head when I see somebody I don't know or somebody that I ought to talk to or show the love of Christ to, I think I have to get to my pew. Or I really need to visit with all my friends at church that I love and as good as those things are, sometimes we need to push ourselves to see beyond what we normally see.

[25:15] Pray for people, but pray for people on the spot. One of the greatest pieces of advice I've ever been given. Because instead of always telling somebody when they share a prayer request, hey, I'll pray for you.

[25:26] You got it. Yep, I'll pray for you, which I can, I can go away and I can do that and praise God for all of you that do go do that. But if you're like me, a wretched, horrible person, sometimes I say that and I walk away and I never pray, I forget, I leave that brother or sister in the dust on an empty promise that I would pray for them.

[25:46] So for me, I found one of the habits that I like to do is to pray for the person on the spot. They need prayer, they share it. Could you please pray for me? Let's do it now. Let's pray. Because if I don't pray for you later, I'm sorry, but at least we can pray now.

[26:03] Brothers and mothers, without your children to pray with you every so often when you would normally pray alone. It's one that I've been trying to instill in my children.

[26:16] Instead of just praying for my children on behalf of my children, I want my children to pray with me. I want to lead them in that habit, in that discipline.

[26:28] Being filled with the Spirit is like when the world goes from black and white to color. Seeing the world before we're filled with the Spirit, before we have the presence of God within us is like seeing the world in black and white, bleak, dry, predictable, dark.

[26:46] But when we're filled with the Spirit, the whole world pops in color. And like Peter and John, we see those who are in desperate need.

[26:59] Fannie Crosby was a blind Christian poet. And when she was a baby, a doctor gave her medicine to put on her eyes that blinded her.

[27:12] And she never, ever saw anything beyond the first week of her life. Blind from birth, they used to say. Fannie Crosby.

[27:23] She went on to write hymns of many of which you know, but one that you really know called blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. And you know what people used to say to Fannie Crosby?

[27:34] The founder of gospel missions across the entire East Coast, the one that went out and cared for the poor and had to be protected because she was blind and vulnerable.

[27:45] They used to say to Fannie Crosby, what a shame it is that you have never been able to see. A marvelous woman of God that does all the things you do, writes the songs you do, but you're not able to see the pretty flowers or the beautiful mountains.

[28:01] And now she respond every time, I consider you the unfortunate one, brother. For do you not realize the first face that I will ever see shall be his face?

[28:15] Fannie Crosby saw the world in a different light. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us with such an unction and a vision for the lost and for those that are hurting and broken in a need that we would see others when most would not.

[28:35] Right now there are roughly 3.28 billion unreached people groups, people in the world. And there are roughly 6,800 unengaged people groups in the world.

[28:51] Unengaged means there is no gospel access. Billions upon billions of people right now are out in the world here today who are spiritually lame begging for mercy and hope.

[29:13] And some of us are in places where those people that make up the statistic are right around us.

[29:26] They are right outside the gate of the place of worship. And now they may beg for money, they may beg for something other than the gospel. We give them the gospel.

[29:37] Who has God placed within your proximity that is spiritually lame and needy? I pray we would think about that question. We would see those people in a new light as Peter and John did.

[29:51] Tonight we have the trunk retreat from 4 to 7 p.m. out in this parking lot. It will be lit up. Many of you have dedicated trunks to come and you've got outfits ready and you're going to plant your car over here and there will be hundreds upon hundreds of people from the neighborhood that will come in to our parking lot will go from trunk to trunk.

[30:13] And I pray that we would see these people, and I challenge myself tonight to see these people as those who are in dire need.

[30:24] Not just of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, which is a pretty darn good thing, but they're in desperate dire need of spiritual regeneration.

[30:39] Spirit of God makes the church into a divine courier of life-saving truth. Verse 6.

[30:49] And Peter said to this man, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you.

[31:01] In the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong.

[31:11] Now let's spend a second in the narrative here because this is beautiful imagery. Peter, as John as they walk in the temple, sees the man and it says he looked at him and said, look at us.

[31:26] He got the man's attention. The man was looking at him and he goes to the man and he says the most incredible line.

[31:37] You were asking for money and he's not dismissing necessarily the man's need for money, but he is dismissing his perceived need that money will make him complete or bring his life into fullness.

[31:51] And here's what Peter does. He looks at him and he says, I have no silver or gold. The thing that you are seeking, I do not have, but the thing that you desperately need, I do.

[32:08] And this is so much more than just a healing passage. It's so much more than just a miracle that allows the man to walk. I believe that this is the presentation of the gospel by Peter to this man through an albeit unneccess, or excuse me, unenormal route, but it's still the gospel.

[32:26] And here's what he does. He takes the man who has done nothing to deserve this. In fact, he's not even asked for healing. Note, Peter gives it freely and he pulls the man up.

[32:38] He says he takes him by the hand and lifts him up. And he says this, in the name of Christ, Jesus rise up and walk.

[32:52] Spenses the power of the spirit through the personal work of Jesus Christ to the man. And it says that immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong.

[33:03] This is a miracle of epic proportions. No muscular development. Feet have never, ever held weight.

[33:15] And as Peter pulls the man up, the picture as, as he pulls the man up, simultaneously his feet are made whole. And the man stands on his own two feet for the first time in his life.

[33:31] What a picture of the gospel. What a picture of what the Holy Spirit does through belief in Jesus Christ to our helpless, lame, needy souls.

[33:45] Complete regeneration. And now we stand before God justified.

[33:57] And the reality of this text is this, that Peter is equipped not with money, not with silver, not with gold.

[34:08] Although if he had given the man silver and gold and then healed him, I think that would have been okay. But that's not the point he was trying to make. He's not equipped with material possessions, but he is equipped with the one true need of every man that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[34:27] We are equipped with the gospel of Jesus Christ as the church. The gospel says that Christ provides the grace that heals the spiritually sick and makes the spiritually lame well.

[34:39] The church ought to appreciate, display, and preach the grace of Christ as a means to spiritual life in the world.

[34:50] Can't you imagine a vault, a massive treasure vault? And in this vault are beautiful ornate pieces of craftsmanship and gold and silver and ivory and precious stones, all of the most beautiful things you could imagine.

[35:06] This massive vault. And this vault symbolizes the church and all of the beauty and goodness and gifts that we offer. Community, fellowship, teaching, prayer.

[35:21] Now in this giant vault of beautiful things that the church offers to those who become part, there's a vault in the very, very back, a separate door.

[35:31] And as you go to the back of the vault, you open up the back vault. And in the back vault is the gospel. And I want you to visualize this, that the church of Jesus Christ has so much to offer that's necessary for our sanctification, for our life together as a church.

[35:55] But there's something special, unique, separate of more weight than any of that. And as we open up that back vault, what we see is the gospel.

[36:08] And the gospel fills and the gospel is completely adequate and the gospel never runs out. And we lock up that safe to save it, to protect it.

[36:21] We protect the gospel, but we also need to unlock that safe and freely distribute all the wealth, all of the glory, all of the precious, beautiful truths contained in the gospel to all.

[36:37] We go into our vault church, which is the gospel, and we freely take of the wealth that's there and we leave the church with it and we take that wealth to other people. And we share the golden, beautiful message of Jesus Christ crucified to redeem sinners into saints.

[36:55] We do that. We go into that vault. And here's what Peter is saying. Even though we don't have the silver and gold that you're looking for.

[37:06] I am equipped with the wealth and truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And he gives this man the healing that gives him the ability to walk.

[37:17] And here's the picture of salvation. Here's the picture of regeneration for this man. Verse eight, in leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

[37:45] See this healing, this miracle, so much more than a healing of a lame man's legs.

[37:58] The man was overjoyed to have the ability to walk and to dance and to leap. But it says he goes into the temple with Peter and John, praising God. I cannot help but believe that this man has received eternal life.

[38:15] And the picture of the gospel is this, that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and enables true worship.

[38:27] The man who was outside the temple, who was apart from God, unable to enter into worship, he's healed of his lameness. Yes, physical but spiritual, and now he enters the temple, figurative of the place of worship, praising God.

[38:48] The church is ultimately not a dispenser of materiality, but is a courier of gospel vitality. That is, just as Peter recognized, what we do possess is the power of Jesus Christ to transform lives.

[39:07] When I was a kid, you were up in a big family, and parents decided they were going to go on a cruise with our best friends.

[39:18] So my mom, my dad, and Russell and Lisa went on their cruise, and they piled all their kids together in our massive house to be babysat by a family friend.

[39:30] So in total, you have 11 kids in one house, two families, coming together to be babysat for a week by family friends. And in this scenario, my parents, my mom had specifically bought two boxes of Twinkies that were to be given to us on two nights of the week that we chose, and everybody would get one Twinkie, and then we'd open it at the second box.

[39:54] Now, if you're not familiar with the box of Twinkies, there's roughly 12 per box. And me and my best friend, Jordan, we were about nine to 10 years old at this point, and we saw those boxes of Twinkies, and they were sitting on the counter up on the left there, and about the second day, third day, we kept watching, no one needed the Twinkies.

[40:12] So we did the unthinkable, totally thinkable, and we took those two boxes of Twinkies, and we went into my parents' room, and we hid behind the curtain, and we each ate 12 Twinkies in a matter of 15 minutes.

[40:32] And we thought we were really, really, really getting away with this. We took the wrappers, we stuffed them in the box, closed the box, and we slid them under the bed. It's got free.

[40:44] You can't try us. Our hands are clean. We just rid ourselves of the evidence. It wasn't an hour later that the rest of the kids decided, we want the Twinkies!

[40:57] And the babysitters confronted all of us at where the Twinkies did an aching-like search of the house until we finally came clean. They found the Twinkies, and we got no dessert the rest of the week.

[41:11] And me and my friend still look back on this. It's silly, and it's stupid, but it's honestly one of the most viscerally selfish things I can ever think I've ever done in my life.

[41:23] I robbed all of my brothers and sisters, all of his brothers and sisters of one, maybe two Twinkies, and ate 12 myself. But then I began to think about as we see this text, and we see Peter willingly going to somebody that's on the outcast and giving him everything from the vault, taking from the vault the treasure of the gospel, and freely giving this man the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

[41:50] I can't help but think that in my life, too often I've treated the gospel like a Twinkie. What on earth is he saying?

[42:02] Too often I enjoy my gospel, I enjoy my fellowship, I enjoy my church, I enjoy all of the incredible benefits of being part of the kingdom of God, and I never take it, and I never share it, and I never give the needy lost of this world an opportunity to take a bite.

[42:33] What keeps us from sharing the gospel? What keeps us from proclaiming the truth? For me in that moment it was selfishness, that I'm going to deprive others of something beautiful, glorious, tasty, golden, fluffy, delicious.

[42:51] I'm going to deprive them of that so that I can have it all to myself. Maybe it's apathy. Maybe you're in here today and you just think, I've been part of church my whole life, and to take all of this for granted, and I don't know, is it am I really willing to suffer the consequences of being that guy that always shares Jesus?

[43:15] I don't really care a whole lot. Maybe it's distraction. Maybe there are things in your life right now that are taking your priority, taking your time, taking your focus, taking your energy off of your true mission, off my true mission, which is to take the gospel to the nations.

[43:38] I praise the church that we would rid ourselves of selfishness, gospel selfishness, gospel apathy or gospel distraction, and that we would support our missionaries, that we'd give generously, that we would go into the world, into our workplaces, our schools, our everyday locations, our families, our friends, our social scenarios, that we go and we take the wealth and beauty of the gospel to these people, that they may have a regenerating experience of the Holy Spirit that we see in this text.

[44:15] Spirit of God makes the church into a divine courier of life-saving truth. And finally, we see a worshipful response for number four.

[44:27] Coming up, he stood and began to walk into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple, asking for alms.

[44:44] And they were filled with wonder and amazement that what had just happened to him. Life is worship, but worship follows life.

[44:57] Without faith, it is unlikely to please God. That's the reverse standard edition.

[45:08] Without faith, it is impossible to please God, that if we do not have faith in our God, we cannot please Him.

[45:19] That according to our flesh, we are devoid of any opportunity to praise and glorify and please God in all His holiness.

[45:30] That only the regenerated heart of adoration and praise and thanksgiving for what the gospel means in me through Jesus Christ comes true worship.

[45:43] And this man enters the temple and he's walking and leaping and praising God. And this is what the most amazing part is. This man that everybody knew that they passed by every day in the temple.

[45:54] It says this in verse nine, and all the people saw him walking and praising God. And it says they were filled with wonder and amazement what had happened to him.

[46:04] That's the man. That's the 40 year old lame man that's always sat there and always been lame and he's walking and leaping and praising. Can you imagine the scene?

[46:16] And here's the reality this man gives glory to God by praising him. On 663 it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.

[46:27] The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The only true genuine right response to the experience of the gospel that we worship in response.

[46:49] I'm going to finish with this. Perhaps one of my favorite nuggets from this passage that I've studied is this.

[47:00] The gate at which the man sat in front of the temple is called the beautiful gate. This gate is called beautiful for it's 75 feet tall.

[47:13] It's ornate. It's built with Corinthian brass and it's covered with gold and silver. The imagery here is this that this gate is beautiful.

[47:26] That the man saw silver and gold from Peter and Peter gave him none. But instead he gave him the truth and the passage through the gate through the gospel.

[47:38] Is Jesus that said I am the gate? Is it any wonder that the setting of this glorious occasion of new life is under the archway of the beautiful gate?

[47:54] How beautiful indeed it is that gate of salvation which welcomes the center turned saint into abundant life under the great shepherds watching care.

[48:06] That gate that leads to a refuge of still waters and green pastures. Yes, this gate is indeed beautiful.

[48:21] I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

[48:37] Our response this morning from this text, from the gospel by which we have been saved, I pray would be an invigorated sense of our life as worship towards the God that saved us.

[48:56] Lord, thank you for today. Thank you that tonight we're going to get the chance to minister to hundreds of families to hundreds of people who may or may not know you.

[49:14] But I pray that regardless of our knowledge of whether or not they know the one true Messiah Jesus Christ that we would spread the love of Christ.

[49:26] That we take this gospel sacred truth out of the vault and we would minister and we would proclaim it and his faithful couriers of your gospel would we take it.

[49:42] Give us the spiritual sight to see those who are without you as those who are without you.

[49:52] I pray that we would see the neediness of the lost. I pray that you would convict me in my heart of the times that I've overlooked those who are in utter neediness.

[50:05] And I pray that you would compel us as a church to meet the deepest, darkest, truest need of every single sinner.

[50:15] That is the need for the gospel. Convict us of this, oh Lord, spark our hearts for missions local or global and give us the eyes to see the downcast and the needy.

[50:33] And you're a beautiful man. We pray thank you for being our God. Amen.