At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and the church was born. The church devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, fellowshipped, had communion and prayed.  The Lord added daily new members to the church.  The church also did many unbelievable signs.  Today’s passage is an example of one of these signs.  This wasn’t just a sign, but as a result of this miracle Peter preaches, is arrested and the persecution against the church begins.  Even so the church continues forward. 

              By the way, in verse 6 Peter says, “In the name of Jesus stand up and walk.” In 4:10 we are told that he was healed “by the name of Jesus”.  By using “the name of Jesus” it refers to Jesus himself.  However, Christ has ascended into heaven.  Now God has sent “another counselor”, the Holy Spirit.  The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when Jesus who is in heaven does work on earth, it is through the work of the Holy Spirit.

              Before when Jesus told the man in Capernaum to “Get up and walk” the man walked.  The same Jesus is through the Holy Spirit doing the miracle. 

              Today let’s look at 3 aspects of this miracle.

I.                It all begins from love (vs. 1-4)

According to verse 1 Peter and John went up to the temple to pray at 3:00 in the afternoon. The Jews prayed 3 times a day: 9:00 A.M., 12:00 noon, and 3:00 P.M.  At 3:00 the animals were sacrificed so almost all devout Jews in Jerusalem went to the temple at that time to pray. Therefore, it would have been very crowded.  Peter and John must have been very busy considering 3,000 people were saved at one time.  Even so they took the time to go to pray and entered the temple at 3:00.

According to Jewish teaching God rewards those who give alms to the poor.  Therefore, the man who was lame picked this time when the temple would be full of people to sit at the gate and beg.

Therefore, the lame man spoke to Peter and John just like he was speaking to everyone else hoping to get some money from them.  However, Peter told him to “Look at us.”  Even though he had said that he had no money.  Peter said this because he wanted the man to realize that they had something that he didn’t have. They had the name of Jesus Christ.  They had the name of Jesus, so they said, “Look at us.”

 

However, even if they had the name of Jesus Christ, if they had no grace or pity towards the man, they would never say, “Look at us.”  They said this because they felt sorry for this man who had to sit at the temple and beg everyday.

Jesus is the same.  Hebrews 4:15,16

Jesus knows all our weaknesses, pains, and struggles and he showers his grace on us. Therefore, we can receive his grace and come boldly towards the throne of grace.

John was called a person of love.  However, he was not a person of love from the beginning.  He was called “the son of thunder”.  In other words, he was full of anger, always picking a fight, had a short temper, and couldn’t get along with others.  Since he soon fell into a rage, people kept him at a distance. When he believed in Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was changed into a person of love.  He became a person that wanted to do things to help people who were in need.  This miracle was born out of this change.  God’s wonderful works take place when there is love.

II.              Jesus Christ’s name heals (vs.6-8)

By the name of Jesus this man was completely healed so that he could leap around.

James 5:14,15

God still heals in the church when we believe that Jesus Christ’s name heals and pray.        

III.            Jesus’ name has the power to save people (vs.8,9)

The man who was healed had more joy than we could ever imagine.  He had never walked before since he was born so of course he would be joyful to be able to walk. However, the greatness of this miracle wasn’t that he just walked, but that there was a change that occurred within him.  It says that he went in the temple with Peter and John “praising God.” (vs. 8) and in verse 9 we are told that he was walking “praising God.” This was because his spirit was saved. 

Eternal life is the greatest present that we can receive from God. 

John 3:16

Only Jesus can forgive our sins and give us eternal life.  Even if we loose everything, we can be satisfied.  It is only by the name of Jesus Christ that our spirits can be saved.  It is only those who are in the church that can receive this.  Therefore, as ones who have received, it should be our mission to lead others to salvation by the name of Jesus Christ.  We need to always be aware that our true mission in life is to heal and to bring others to salvation.  Money or possessions should mean nothing compared to the work of giving out a hand to help those who are sick or hurting and in the name of Jesus to reaching out to help them stand up.  Here is real salvation.

We don’t need money. However we have the name of Jesus Christ.  By his name we can say “walk”.  Let’s become this kind of church.