A People Engaged: Intentional In a Needy World

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I appreciated Pastor Eric preaching for us last Sunday, and it's good to be back serving you all and serving Christ in the pulpit today. We're going to keep going in Acts. That's what we're going to do. We're going to have another little series in Acts that's going to take us into the Advent season. So when we finished chapters 1 and 2, We learned about the preparation of God's people in Acts 1 and 2. But what were they prepared for? So if you think back to Acts 1:8, Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.

So that's the short version of what they were prepared for. You will be my witnesses. So now that the power has come, From God by the Holy Spirit, the direction changes. In Acts 3 through 5, a people prepared are now a people engaged. They're engaged with the mission of God. They're engaged with each other in the community of God, and they're engaged with the world. God's people are distinct from the world but not separated out of the world. This is what Jesus prayed for in his high priestly prayer in the upper room before the Last Supper.

He prayed that his people would be distinct from the world but not out of the world. His plan was never to cloister us off and segregate us from the world, but to make us different, to transform us, and then to send us out into the world. So that's what I'm trying to capture here by A People Engaged. We're engaged with The mission we've been given, with our distinctive character, with each other, but also engaged with the world.

So first though, they don't go very far. In chapters 3 through 5, they don't leave Jerusalem. The whole next part of Acts still happens in Jerusalem. They still haven't gone outside the city. The disciples know that God is sovereign, that God's in control, and so As they begin to obey Jesus and be His witnesses, they begin with the context that they're in, the place where they're living. Listen, the circumstances of your life have been set by God for a purpose.

All right. The circumstances in your life, the people, the places, the places where you work, your homes, your neighborhoods, your family, Those have all been set before you for a purpose. He has put you exactly where you need to be to serve Him right now.

The people that you're around, the needs that you see, those are the opportunities that God's given you, the role that He has for you in His kingdom. So let's turn to Acts 3, and because the disciples, the apostles, they move out immediately to the people and the places around them.

They're not thinking about, well, we must be immediately called to leave this place. They start with the people that are there. They wait for God to move, to decisively push them out. For now, they're moving towards the people around them. So let's see how they begin to engage with their world. This is Acts 3, the whole chapter of Acts 3. We're going to cover Acts 3 through 5 in 6 sermons. We're going to pick up the pace a little bit. And here is all of chapter 3 of Acts as we begin to see God's people out in the world, sent out, set apart.

This is the Word of the Lord for us. This is more than just an account of history, though it is that. It comes along with the very power of God to change us. To show us an example and also the power of God to work in us, to sanctify us and make us new. So let's receive it not just as information, but an opportunity to commune with and abide with His Spirit and be changed. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th hour.

And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. 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. 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.

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 ankles were made strong. 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 the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people. Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by his name, by faith in his name, has made strong— made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given this man the perfect health. In the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus. Whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you, and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you By turning every one of you from your wickedness.

Pray with me. Lord, thank You that by Your gracious power and love, You sent salvation Through Your servant Jesus. And that, Lord, broken people like us can be healed. And ordinary people like us can be called into Your glorious kingdom to participate in Your supernatural, eternal work. Lord, who are we to be in Your presence and live? Who are we to Be at work, to be instruments in Your hands, in Your kingdom. Lord, such is Your will, Your gracious, kind, and loving will.

I pray, Lord, that You would help us to attend to these things, to this Word, with all seriousness but all joy, Lord. For You are working redemption among— and it's not just local, but it's among the peoples and the nations across the earth, of whom we are a part through Jesus Christ our Lord. So please draw near. Show us the particular word You have for us today, the ways that You want us to be engaged. With the mission that you've given us, to be encouraged, and most of all, to be anchored in Christ our Savior.

It's in his name we pray. Amen. So a people engaged are a people intentional, intentional in a needy world. Here in chapter 3, Peter is a model of initiative. He isn't waiting for instructions. He's moving towards the needs around him. Peter's a changed man. He's been transformed by the Spirit. And he's now at work in ways that look a lot like Jesus.

That's the whole theme of this sermon today and this whole chapter is Peter is looking and seeing opportunities to engage with the world with the mission that God has given him. Last week, if you were here, we heard Pastor Eric Valkovsky talking about how Jesus is the ultimate and final Prophet, Priest, and King. He fulfills the Old Testament offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. And in Him, His people are given little miniature versions of those roles.

Prophets speaking of Him, priests holy and sanctified for Him, kings who are given charge over, stewardship over things that we should direct towards Kingdom advancement. And you see all 3 of those things here in Peter. Peter is acting like a prophet, a priest, and a king. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ. Not in place of Jesus, but because he is in Christ. So there's 3 things here. 3 ways that Peter is intentional towards the needs around him. He's healing the broken.

He's illuminating the blind. And he's directing the lost. Healing, illuminating, and directing. Let's talk about this first one. Healing the broken. People complain often about the quality of our healthcare right now. Long waits, fewer doctors, high costs. It's got a long way to go downward before it is the level of the ancient Near East.

Yes. On the plus side, in the ancient Near East, they had no insurance companies. Oh my God. On the downside, they had no hospitals, no clinics, no pharmacies, no surgical centers, basically no medical science at all. They were guessing. If you had a disease or an injury or a disability, there were very few treatments available. It was basically a life sentence. Usually a person who couldn't work, who was in a situation like that, would end up in poverty and they would end up begging for money.

And like today, they would set up shop, they would set up a spot or be carried to a spot like this man at a thoroughfare, places where people would pass by.

In the ancient Near East, it was the gates, the gates of the temple, the gates of the city. Places where people would have to funnel in and out. They would walk by. And here at the temple, people were coming in and out of worship. And so it was that Peter and John, on a regular visit to the temple for prayer, find a man who's been lame from birth. A man carried there every day. A man not there to worship, but just to ask for help. This man was on the margins of society for a long time.

Chapter 4 tells us that he has been— he is about 40 years old. That's a long time to be totally incapacitated and dependent with no possible way to change that. He's not thinking about getting better. A lot of us get sick and we, we think about getting better. What's it gonna take for me to get better? This man is just thinking about how to get by, how to live another day.

And so when he sees Peter and John walking in, he does what he's been doing for many, many years. He asks them for help. Now put yourself in Peter and John's shoes. I think We've all probably been there. And I think we all know what the tendency is— to look away.

So the first thing that really stands out in this passage is not the man who's lame or the fact that he's asking for money. The first thing that stands out is the fact that they looked at him.

Peter directed his gaze at Him, as did John. Why did they do this? Because, friends, Jesus had looked at them. Jesus looked at them. Jesus encountered people who were desperate, people who were grieving, people who were sick, people who were possessed. People who had denied Him. And Jesus didn't look away.

He saw them in their need. He wasn't embarrassed. He wasn't overwhelmed. He wasn't intimidated. He looked and He had compassion. That was the beginning of the help that He gave.

And if you have received that kind of tender attention, the eyes of your Savior looking at you in your weakness, not looking away, but looking upon you, Good. Thank you, Lord. Then you can now see needs around you and not flinch, not look away, because you can remember what your Savior did for you. That's just step 1 of the healing. You can't heal or minister to anyone if you don't look.

Peter had no money to give, and so he, he could have just looked and nodded and smiled and kept moving, right? Instead, he asked for the man's attention, and now the man's really interested. I don't know how many people walked by. And didn't give anything. But the fact that he's looking, the fact that Peter's now talking to him, his hopes are up. This is the moment he's been waiting for. But then Peter throws him a gospel curveball.

I have no silver or gold. And the man is deflated. But what I do have, I give to you. Okay, what? In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

Hallelujah! I think you'll agree with me, this is better than money. He is going deep to the deeper need that this man has. I think that when we encounter brokenness, we focus too much on what we can't do.

I know I get there. Maybe you get there sometimes too. I can't get this person a job. I can't erase this person's debt. I can't heal their legs. I can't heal their hip. I can't heal their marriage. I can't make their anxiety go away.

But we're not thinking about what we can do. And in the name of Jesus, we can do a lot. Do you believe that? In the name of Jesus, we can do a lot. We don't have the miraculous power that the apostles have. That's true. But I tell you the truth, we do have a lot to offer in the name of Jesus.

Do you believe that through Christ the Spirit of God lives in you? Then you have a tremendous amount to give. We can serve, we can give relief, we can give help, we can give prayer, and we can be present and offer friendship in Christ. Now you might hear this and think, well, that's not very significant, Joel. Especially compared to making a man's leg strong. But you've got to believe me, it is significant. It is.

Many burdens— most burdens, maybe all burdens— feel impossible to lift. When you feel alone. There is a loneliness epidemic happening, church. Do you know this? Oh yeah, that's Many, many people say that they feel alone even when they are surrounded by other people. The end of the pandemic didn't solve this. Many people report feeling lonely. Many people say they have few or no friends.

People need food and clothing. That's true. But let's not forget, everyone has deeper needs, including and especially relationship with others and relationship with God. We're relational people. Every problem gets worse when we are isolated. Even Jesus came not merely to heal bodies, but to restore relationships, right?

The friendship that we offer in Christ is not like the world's friendship. It seeks someone's greater good. It persists beyond difficult circumstances, beyond what's just convenient. Friendship in Christ is self-giving, dying friendship so that others could be brought to life.

Friendship in Christ apologizes and forgives. Show me that in the world. Friendship in Christ helps someone feel safe enough to admit fear and admit fault.

Friendship in Christ directs us to the restoring work of God through Christ Jesus. We're called to give what we have, and you have a lot to give. We're called to look deep, the needs that each other have, to be willing to go there. After Peter speaks to this man, he helps him. He doesn't just say, rise up and walk. He took him by the right hand and raised him up. He assists this man in taking his first steps of his whole life.

And now holding Peter's hand, he is walking and leaping and praising God. He has more than just strong legs. He's got strong relationships. Maybe for the first time in his life.

It says that he entered the temple with them. And don't miss the significance of this. He entered the temple with them. Before, he wasn't there to worship or to pray with all the people. But now he's been brought into a community activity, a shared space. He is there with the apostles. Verse 11 says he is clinging to Peter and to John.

He's been restored in so many ways beyond just his physical health. He joins the list of outcasts in Luke's writing, people who were once on the margins but have been addressed, seen, spoken to, and holistically restored. And all of this demonstrates what we heard earlier from Isaiah 35, the promise that the lame will leap, that healing and restoration will come. Through Jesus.

Church, what I'm pleading you for is to continue what I already see in this church. Praise the Lord. See the deep needs and don't just think, I hope somebody who can help engages with this. That person is you.

Just like Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I have I give to you. The people around you, the people in this church and your families, your neighbors— I'm talking inside and outside the church— you may not have or be able to change the specific need that they have in their life, but say to them, to yourself, what I have I give to you. Where is God calling you to engage in healing work? Because Jesus has healed you. Because He saw and He moved in close.

Here's the second thing: illuminating the blind. It's so tempting to have— maybe I should have done this— to have broken this up into 3 different sermons. To me, it all hung together, this whole chapter and what Peter was doing. The second thing he did is give illumination to the blind. Now, I want you to think about street performers for a second. Where do they choose to do their acts? They find the busiest part of Main Street. They find the busiest intersection to start doing what they do.

They do that So that they can make their name great. They pass out cards afterwards. Hire me for your kid's birthday party, for your bar mitzvah. Peter also has done something amazing. Everyone's paying attention, but whose name does he want to be made great? Jesus. Jesus. He— and the people are astounded, right? They're staring at him. Peter doesn't even wait for them to ask questions. He addressed the people.

Why do you stare at us as if by our power or piety we made this man well? No, it is not us. He immediately says the source of the healing is the God that you know, the God of your fathers, and he has done this through the person Of Jesus. His servant Jesus. Peter is immediately intentional to shine, to redirect the spotlight off of him and onto Jesus. He knows that Jesus is the person that really needs to get their attention.

When people look at us, when people look at you and notice anything good, anything holy, anything vibrant or righteous, They have to hear that this is God's work through Christ Jesus. They've got to hear it.

Have you ever watched a magician find someone's card or make something vanish and then reappear? What, what is it that everyone asks right away? How'd you do that?

Do you know why they keep it hidden? Because it's underwhelming. Their whole thing is misdirection. They want to obscure what is really going on. Because the truth is ordinary. It's a string, or it's a fake thumb, or it's a collapsible vase.

A magician keeps the ordinary truth hidden so that it will look extraordinary. The call of the redeemed people of God is to do the opposite. The very opposite. We are ordinary. I am ordinary. You are ordinary. The power belongs to God.

Anything good that has happened in you, any spiritual life that is in you, any ways that you have served and helped someone, that's God. When people notice, we've got to, we've got to pull back the curtain quickly and point people to the extraordinary supernatural work of Jesus in our lives. It's not me. I'm ordinary. I could never have done that. That's Jesus.

Listen, they won't always get it. I know, because I've had the puzzled look returned to me. They won't always get it. Sometimes they'll scoff, but we must speak the truth. We must shine the spotlight on Jesus. We have to give Him credit. We have to point to Him. And that's exactly what Peter does here. Now, that's the first thing that he illuminates. The second truth that Peter illuminates is the people's accountability before God.

If you thought it was hard to say, you know what, what you're seeing, even to a non-Christian, It's to say what you're seeing is not me. It's Jesus at work in me. Huh? If you thought that was hard, this is a, is a harder truth to illuminate.

When he starts talking about Jesus, he doesn't avoid hard truths. This is the same Jesus that you delivered, that you denied. He is the holy and righteous one. You called him a criminal and a blasphemer. He is the author of life. You killed him. To this we are all witnesses. You know, I think one of the strongest evidences of the Spirit filling of Peter and the disciples is how boldly they speak about the realities of sin and judgment.

They feared God more than they feared people. And that's a challenge to us, isn't it? Yes. Listen, God is gracious. He is gracious and merciful. But that does not mean He doesn't care about our sin or that He looks the other way or that He cuts us some slack because, you know, He just knows that we're trying our best. That is not how God works. It would be a violation of his justice and his character if he did that. No good will ever come unless each one of us comes face to face with the truth.

And that truth is that our sin cannot be swept under the rug. It cannot be counterbalanced with just a few good deeds. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and not a little bit short. way short.

Our natural state is rebellion, denying him total allegiance and devotion. We put ourselves above him all the time, and it doesn't matter whether our lives look dirty or clean. God sees the heart.

Yes. Our sin was so serious and our guilt was so great, the only way it could be atoned for without us dying Is if someone died in our place. Someone like us, but someone perfect. Someone divine. Someone with an infinite nature so that justice could be fully satisfied. This someone is Jesus of Nazareth. Amen. The Holy and Righteous One. The Servant of God raised up and glorified. The Son of God. He alone can save and he alone does. Thank you.

This is the truth. And we have to keep illuminating the world and each other and ourselves to this truth. Do not minimize your capacity for self-delusion.

Do not minimize your capacity for self-delusion. We all want to minimize our own sin. We have got to illuminate— we've got to preach this message that Peter preaches there in the temple. We got to preach this to ourselves and to each other because we will deceive ourselves. I know I have. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands.

There is no good news without bad news. And the good news will be less sweet if we start deceiving ourselves. Peter wasn't afraid to give bad news, and neither should we. There comes a time when you have to make it plain. Right. Isn't that right? I know I've heard that here. There comes a time when you have to make it plain. You've got to fix all eyes on God. To say He's the One that's really at work. I'm not good. He is. I'm not powerful. He is.

And to shine the light on how we are really accountable before Him. Here's the last thing. Peter knows that he can't stop here. The message is incomplete. So the last thing he does is he directs the lost. The lights have come on and he says, this is the way to go. If there's anything worse than getting bad news, it's getting bad news with no way out.

I've known people who have been to doctor after doctor, no real diagnosis, confusion, no treatment plan. When that person finally finds a doctor that says, I know what's going on, This is how we're going to treat it. It's— it is almost as good as if it had been healed. It's that good of news to know that this is the way forward.

A significant weight is lifted. That's what hope gives us, and that's what Peter gives them right after the bad news. He says there is a way forward. There is a concrete Step that you can take in response to your guilt to God. Repent, turn back. Even though they acted in ignorance, they still have to repent.

Friends, when people hear the bad news, they have to hear the good news. That's each other, that's the world, and that's yourself. Don't preach the bad news to yourself about sin without, without also preaching the good news. You will drive yourself to despair. Preach the bad news and the good news to yourself and to others. The call of repentance is the beginning of good news, because through repentance, Peter says, your sins may be blotted out, vanquished, erased, covered, even the huge sin of rejecting Christ and rebelling against God.

Peter knows what he's talking about because he's been through this. He's directing them down the same path that he himself has walked. He says, listen, I rejected Christ too. I saw him, I saw people, and I said, I don't know him.

But I repented. I've had my sins washed away. Come with me. Come with me down this path. So think back, friends, to the last time that you repented and were forgiven. Remember, remember what a uniquely good feeling that is. There is no other feeling like that. When you're accused of doing something wrong, I don't know, maybe it's just me. You can argue, you can defend yourself, and if you're really clever and really strong-willed, you might even get the other person to give up.

But that is a rotten victory, isn't it? That is a victory that feels like defeat because it is. Strange. It feels lame, it feels hollow, and somehow you still feel tied up in knots even though you've gotten the accusations to go away. But when you're accused and you repent and you're forgiven, it feels totally different, doesn't it? Oh, that feels so good.

You feel strong. You feel peaceful. You feel vital. It's this strange spiritual paradox. When you repent and you're forgiven, life comes. That's what Peter's talking about when he says times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

There is no refreshment like that, to truly be forgiven. It is a new way of relating to God. So Peter directs them to repentance, and then he takes a decisive turn here to their spiritual lineage and their history. He calls them all the way back to Moses, reminding them, Moses told your ancestors— our ancestors, Peter says— long ago there would be another prophet sent from God. This is exactly what Pastor Eric was talking about. was talking about last week.

A prophet like him, a prophet greater than him. Moses said, you shall listen to him. Jesus Christ, the Son of Nazareth, the Son of God, is this prophet.

All the prophets after Moses proclaimed that the days would be fulfilled in this final prophet, the Messenger of the Lord, the Servant of the Lord, the King of the Lord. He makes his appeal to them based on the covenant promises that they know intimately. He says, you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. You're the ones, Peter says, that God— Peter says to them, God has made this promise to your fathers. Come and receive what is yours.

You were made for this. But it's not automatic. It doesn't happen through ethnicity or ancestry or DNA. To receive the covenant promises, they have to receive the covenant keeper. To receive the covenant promises, they have to receive the covenant keeper— Jesus Christ, the Holy and Righteous One, who fulfilled the law in their place. He is the hope of Israel.

And listen, we too can make this appeal to people. Even though most of the time we're not speaking to the same audience that Peter is. Most of the time we're not speaking to Jews. Sometimes maybe we are, but most of the time we're speaking to Gentiles. We can still make the same appeal that you were made for this because God's promises have always been beyond Israel. That's what Peter says here. In your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

God's redeeming work was always intended to go out to the whole world. And so we can make this appeal to everyone: receive what you were made for. That is a true appeal to people. You were made to be blessed through the Savior that comes through Abraham.

You were made to come into shalom. You were come to hide in this strong tower. He is the God of Abraham and of Isaac. And he has made these promises to the whole world. Come and receive the covenant promises through Jesus. Anyone who receives faith in him receives the same covenant promises made to Abraham. And to his offspring. This is what we were made for. Blessing, life, refreshment. And we get the privilege, church, of proclaiming this gospel message to each other and to the whole nations, saying, turn around, repent, receive refreshment, and receive blessing through Jesus.