PBPC - Sunday Sermon Available
Sermon – "Refreshment & Restoration" – Acts 3:1-21
October 4, 2020
Chris Coon, PBPC
I had a pastor friend who had a teenage girl approach him on the street asking for money so that she could get something to eat. This led to a conversation about her life and circumstances, which in turn led to a deeper conversation about what was going inside of her. The girl shared that after a fight with her parents, she had run away from her home far away in another state and had come to this city to stay with friends. It wasn't long before things went badly and she found herself in desperate straits and involved with people who were taking advantage of her. As the conversation continued, the girl eventually shared that she missed her family and really just wanted to go home. This led to a phone call to her family, and within a couple hours she was on a bus back to her home town. This probably wasn't her expectation when she approached my friend asking for a few bucks. But sometimes we get more than we ask for, and more than we realize that we need.
Acts 3:1-21
1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's Portico, utterly astonished. 12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 "And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21 who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.
In the previous chapter of Acts, we read about the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and suddenly over 3000 new believers were added to their number. This was the beginning of the church, and Acts 2 goes on to describe the quality of their shared life together. Now, an unspecified time later, we have a "day in the life" of Peter and John, two of the leading apostles.
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple to pray, and they met this lame man. The man was used to begging at the entrance to the temple, calling out to people for alms, perhaps with the words, "have mercy on me." But he had no idea who he was talking to or who he was about to encounter, and he ended up receiving much more than he asked for. Within a few moments we have the powerful words, "In the name of Jesus… stand up and walk!" And then the heartwarming scene of the formerly lame man walking and leaping and praising God in the temple courts.
This is of course an amazing story of healing, but it is also much more.
Encounter
This is the type of story that we would find in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) which describe Jesus' many miraculous healings. We are reminded here that Jesus' healings were always more than merely healings (as incredible as they were). The healings were always encounters. An encounter is an unexpected meeting, and the gospels were all about unexpected meetings.
Jesus was always interested in the person, beyond the opportunity to perform a miracle. Perhaps you can imagine Jesus being much more efficient in his healings if he didn't take the time to interact with each person he healed. But this interaction was actually what Jesus was all about. In his encounters, Jesus was communicating to people that they matter, that they have value, that they are known. Peter says to the man, "Look at us," so that the man knew he was seen, that this was an encounter. "I see you," is what God wants us to know.
Encounter leads to deeper engagement. Jesus once asked a blind man, "What do you want?" While the answer may seem obvious to us (he wanted to see), the question is profound. What do you want? We don't always know the answer. The lame man was asking for money, and perhaps he had long ago learned not to look beyond what he needed for survival today. But Jesus invites us to look deeper within our hearts. What do you desire? Beneath that desire, is there actually a deeper desire?
C.S. Lewis has famously said that there is a God-shaped hole within each of us; that is, we are created for relationship with God, and only God can fill this purpose and need within our hearts. We may try to fill it with all sorts of other things, but we will never be satisfied until our heart finds its true home in God's loving embrace.
Jesus' life and ministry were directed toward connecting with this deeper desire of our hearts, the longing for encounter with God. This is why Jesus addressed the need for forgiveness of sins; our hearts are filled with the disordered attachments and false attempts at meaning that stand in the way of our open and vulnerable experience of God's love. The fulfillment of our deeper desire for God – for wholeness – comes in the wiping away of our sins, in the fresh start that Jesus' invites each of us to experience.
Christ in Us
Now maybe you've noticed that we've talked a lot about Jesus, and are thinking that this isn't actually a story about Jesus, but rather his disciples. But in truth, this story is all about Jesus. While it appears that Peter "performs" the healing that allows this man to walk and leap and praise God, the first thing that Peter says to the crowd is that it is not their power or piety that has made this happen, but it is the name of the Messiah, Jesus Christ through which this miracle has happened and this man has received wholeness.
This is in fulfillment of what Jesus had promised his disciples earlier: "I am with you always"; "you will be my witnesses"; "you will do greater things than I have done." We are to understand that through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is continuing to work through his disciples. And the truly amazing thing is that Jesus not only brings power, but Jesus brings about encounter. The man who was laying at the temple gate had an encounter with Jesus through his disciples.
This tells us two very important things about our life with God. The first is that one of the primary ways that we encounter Jesus is through the presence of other people, specifically through encounter with believers. The second is the flip side of this: other people can encounter God through us.
How does this happen? We should not presume to say we understand how God works, but we can look at the lives of the disciples. Why were Peter and John able to facilitate this man's encounter with God? I believe that it is because they themselves had experienced deep encounter with Jesus. Remember Peter as he encountered Jesus walking on the water; when he proclaimed his faith; when he denied Jesus three times, and then received forgiveness and restoration from Jesus. Peter had encountered Jesus at the deepest levels of his heart, and this made it possible for him to lead another into encounter with Jesus.
Conclusion
The refreshment and restoration that Peter describes are for each of us. These words describe the deep longing of our hearts that only God can fulfill, through that love which we were created to know. Where do you find yourself in this story today? I invite you to take a moment to think about it.
Wherever you find yourself in this story – whether in the place of the beggar, with the invitation to look at your deeper need and desire; or in the place of the disciples, beginning to realize what it is that you have to give; or in the place of a bystander, amazed or confused or skeptical about what you have witnessed – the invitation to a deeper encounter with God is there for each one of us.