Mar 11, 2018 Preaching | Ptr. Jay Jackson
We’ve been looking at Acts to understand better what a church is. We take off from our studies last week, when Peter boldly preached during Pentecost to more than 3,000 people.
This was a man who, the night before the crucifixion, denied knowing Jesus. Then just a few weeks from that, he now confidently stepped out and with great courage, challenged the same crow who put Christ on the cross. What a change happened in Peter! This is the power of the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus (John 14:16), at work in the life of Peter. Just few moments before Peter spoke to the crowd in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). Peter turned from a coward into a man of great boldness to witness for Jesus; thousands of people turned to Christ during the preaching at Pentecost. So if you are looking looking for evidence of the Spirit being at work in your life, you don’t need to look further than at the moments when we speak powerfully into the lives of other people and share the good news of Jesus with them.
Now, speaking in tongues has been discussed in the past week in Acts 2. However, it is not the main point in Acts. The heart of the story in the past chapter is how the power of the Holy Spirit transformed exceedingly fearful disciples into exceedingly courageous witnesses for Jesus Christ. Yes, the power of speaking in tongues was given to the disciples but it was used to witness for Jesus Christ. Thus, the true test of whether the Spirit is within you and at work in your life is not how fluent you are in speaking in tongues; rather, it is how powerful your witness for Jesus has become.
The fact is, Scripture does not promise us that we will be able to speak in tongues. What it does clearly promise is that we will become powerful witnesses of Christ: Acts 1:1 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We now look at the story from Acts 3. Peter and John were going to the temple to take part in the 3 o’clock prayer service and passed by the gate (called the “beautiful gate”) where a lame man was begging for money. (v2-3)
Peter then took the man who was lame from birth by the right hand and helped him up. His feet and ankles instantly became healed and strong. He walked, and leaped, and praised God and went to the temple. The people recognized the man who always sat begging at the gate and were amazed by the miracle. They looked at Peter and John, who continued walking into the temple.
But Peter said: “Look at us!… I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”.
Peter then took the man who was lame from birth by the right hand and helped him up. His feet and ankles instantly became healed and strong. He walked, and leaped, and praised God and went to the temple. The people recognized the man who always sat begging at the gate and were amazed by the miracle. They looked at Peter and John, who continued walking into the temple
Peter told the people that they should not be amazed and think that the miracle was done by him and John. He pointed out that it was by faith in the name of Jesus that healed the lame man. And that the people killed Jesus, the Messiah. He urged the people to repent.
This whole story may sound as only a coincidence since the Jews had this tradition of going to the temple three times a day for prayer as was customary of the Law. It seemed that the lame man was carried to the location around this time to beg since it was the peak hours when everyone was going to the temple to pray and a good time to beg to catch the crowds. But the lame man got there at exactly the same time that Peter and John arrived. This was the time the man asked the two disciples for money.
If this same thing happened to us; would we have responded the same way Peter did? Do we just ignore them if we don’t have what they’re asking for? Would we have simply said “Hi” and went our own way? Would we have taken time to share Jesus to people we encounter?
It was not a coincidence that Peter and John arrived at the same time the lame man arrived. Nothing is a coincidence; every situation is where the Spirit of God puts us to use the power that was given us to witness for Christ.
Since we started Acts, we read that Jesus didn’t give us an option to be witnesses. Jesus did not say we be witnesses of Him if we want. We are witnesses of Jesus the moment we come to Him. Therefore, people reach conclusions about Jesus by watching you and me, by listening to our conversations, by seeing our character and habits. If that is so, we begin to wonder what conclusions people have of us when they watch our lives. People get to know Jesus by getting to know us.
Today, we learn that the key measure of having the Spirit at work in our lives is the power of our witness. There is one universal proof that the Spirit is indeed at work in a person’s life: that person will always be a powerful witness of Christ. So if you are a follower of Christ, the only way that you will avoid becoming a powerful witness of Christ to others is when you suppress the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Let us consider ourselves, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as a team working together for Christ. We wear the “uniform” that identifies us as belonging to Jesus’ team. Let’s not just go to church but let’s participate, be involved, and play a part and not just take part – sitting at church and observing. But actively reach out and share yourself to others – becoming a powerful witness in that way.
At the end of our lives, when we finally see Jesus, and all we did on this earth was to simply observe, we miss out on the great reward if we had stepped out, gotten involved and drawn other people in.
Maybe this is something to think about: Peter and John said to the lame man: “I have no silver or gold to give. But I’ll give you what I have.” And that is Jesus. Remember that we cannot give what we do not have. If we don’t have Jesus, how can we then share Him to others?