God’s Power in Living
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2011 · 14 August 2011
Have you ever been in situations where you have lost your job and have financial difficulty in making ends meet? Or have you been sick to the point where you have to rely on other people to get you to the doctor for treatment? Well let us look at such a man who was living in hopelessness in the book of Acts 3 where he met the apostles Peter and John.
There is a well known story about Sir Thomas Aquinas who visited the Pope at the Vatican. And when he arrived he was given the red carpet treatment and shown all the priceless riches there that very few people have ever seen. Sir Thomas was very impressed by all that enormous wealth.
At the end of the visit still bedazzled by all that wealth a senior cardinal turned to him and said, “You see Thomas, we need no longer say with Peter, “Silver and gold I do not have.” At which point Sir Thomas Aquinas replied, “I understand Sir, but neither can you say with Peter, “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.”
It comes as no surprise that the greatest hindrance for God’s work among His children is that silver and gold. What do I mean by this? Our human resources, the very blessings from God, often get in the way of experiencing the power of God first hand.
The trust in our possessions often hinders us from fully trusting God. Our preoccupation with what we have, our preoccupation with what we have accomplished, our preoccupation with what we want to have, often crowds out the power of God the way He wants it, the way only He gets the glory.
Our focus on our preference keeps the hand of God from doing what He wants to do among us as believers. Even those who pray for miracles, even those who want God’s supernatural intervention manifested in their lives, often ask for those things for selfish reasons and not for the glory of God. Yes, I know we often pay lip service by giving God the glory but how often do we ask only for what we want. We don’t wait before God and ask Him what He wants.
Open up your bibles and look at Acts chapter three. I believe that this chapter spells out the true biblical understanding of miracles, the true understanding of signs and wonders. This chapter clearly teaches us that God’s supernatural intervention is not for showbiz. God’s interventions in the lives of man are only there for one purpose only, and that is the salvation of the sinner.
This was the first miracle that was performed by the apostles since the day of Pentecost. But for Peter this was his second sermon since the first was preached during the Day of Pentecost. What is this first miracle all about?
Now remember Peter and John were in a way business partners and it was not unusual for them to be together. They were close friends as well and partners in the ministry, ministering to others and ministering the Word of God.
Acts 3:1 says, “Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. This was about three o’clock in the afternoon.” You see the Jews prayed three times per day, they prayed in the morning, they prayed at noon and they prayed in the evening,
The evening time was the busiest near the temple and as they walked they were confronted with human hopelessness. Acts 3:2 says, “And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple.”
Not only that they were also confronted with human helplessness. The book of Acts was the second book written by Luke, the physician, and as such he describes clearly the condition of these sick people. He gives us more physical details, for example that this crippled man was born that way.
In Acts 4:22 Luke tells us that he had been in that condition for 40 years. This man was so crippled that he depended totally on others to carry him from one place to another. And all this man was begging for was enough to eat, that’s all, enough to live from one day to the next.
Please listen carefully, this is the condition of every person, everyone was born with a crippling disease that leads to death. We are all born with eternal hopelessness, written all over our foreheads. Whether you are born in a mansion or some shack, whether you are born rich or poor, no matter what color of skin you have, we are all born crippled with this thing called sin nature.
Throughout our lives we are carried by the current from one place to the next and we are living day to day just existing, just getting by, carried by the whims of others from one place of hopelessness to another. Throughout our lives we are racked by discontentment and emptiness, knowing that we are missing something.
We go from this counselor to that counselor and from this method to that method all the while not getting any relief, from alcohol to pills to drugs and still no relief, while hoping that something would take away that pain of emptiness.
And then we read in Acts 3:6, “Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Do you know what the phrase “in the name of Jesus Christ” means? This means that you are acting consistent with His will. You are doing something that Christ would have done if He was still on earth..
When you do something in the name of Jesus Christ you are doing something based on His authority. You are doing something with the power that Christ has delegated you with. And so Peter demands that the cripple man gets up!
Wow, did he get up. Look at Acts 3:7-9, “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God.”
His excitement knew no bounds, he wasn’t just walking, he was jumping and leaping and praising God. He was not crippled anymore, it was like he was instantly freed from all the shackles before. The chains that held him to the ground were all broken.
If you have never experienced victory over sin, if you have never experienced victory over addiction, if you have never experienced victory over your love of money and things, if you have never experienced victory over your guilt, you are under one of these two conditions.
You either have never experienced the liberating power of salvation of Jesus Christ in your life or you have experienced that liberating power of Jesus Christ but you are living in disobedience.
The good news is that today you can be set free. First there was the miracle and then there was the message. Do not misunderstand this. The miracle is always a servant to the message! The miracle is always subservient to the message. The miracle is always inferior to the message.
Why? Because the miracle is temporary but the message is permanent. Because the miracle is finite but the message is eternal. Because the miracle is for a season, but the message is forever. And because of that the miracle is always subservient to the message.
The crippled man that was miraculously healed and started to jump and leap, but he eventually died. But because of that miracle something happened as it says in Acts 4:4, “However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”
So Peter begins his message by identifying the effects of sin. You see, if only that miracle took place, people would have said, “Isn’t that nice, isn’t that great, boy this Peter must have some great power.” Some even would have asked him about the source of that power like that magician Simon who even wanted to buy that power in Acts 8:18.
But the message is always superior and that is why Peter uses that miracle only as an introduction to the message. And the people that were saved because of that message are now in heaven and we are going to be able to meet them in heaven when we get there.
All preaching and teaching wherever you hear it inside the church or outside the church, if it does not begin with sin and repentance, there will be no salvation. Somebody told me that all you have to do is believe in Jesus to be saved. This is like saying to a person that lies on the ground wounded mortally with a gun shot wound, just put a band aid on it, even though the bullet is still inside.
All the preaching of the apostles throughout the New Testament always begins with identifying sin and the effects of sin. It has to begin with confessing sin and repenting of sin, and only then salvation takes place.
Look how it begins in Acts 3:13-15, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the God whom you claim to worship, the God that brought your forefathers out of slavery out of Egypt, the God that made a promise to Moses to raise up a prophet like himself referring to Jesus, this God who even before that made a promise to Abraham to bless the whole world through his seed, referring again to Jesus.
The God that made all these promises in the Old Testament, where Isaiah said that He was going to be a suffering servant, that was coming to die for your sin. That same God has sent His Messiah, He did send His Savior, but what have you done with Him. You crucified Him, you rejected Him, you disowned the only One who could save you.
Let us continue in verse 13, “the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.”
Oh I know this is not politically correct, we are not supposed to accuse and confront a person directly, we are supposed to be gentle and not correct someone publicly, and just hope that they will get the message. But like Peter we need to tell the truth. And if the truth causes repentance I would rejoice and if not I would cry over that.
If you read and listen to what Peter says it is somewhat ironic that this comes out of the mouth of Peter. This was not John who always followed the Lord quietly. This is the same Peter who denied Jesus three times, Is he a hypocrite? No he is not, beloved this is the core of the Christian faith.
This is the heart of the gospel. You might say how can he condemn people of the same sin that he himself committed not long ago? When we come to Christ we do not do this out of superiority, no, we come because we have experienced first hand the power of sin and we have experienced first hand the power of repentance.
Let us look at the benefits of repentance in Acts 3:17-19, “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
In verse 17 Peter made an Old Testament distinction between the sin of omission and the sin of commission. Whether you sins are committed through omission or commission, the consequences are the same. Ignorance is no excuse! Ignorance is no defense. But when there is true repentance, God is willing to wipe the past slate clean.
Not only that, Peter says that the fear of judgment also will be wiped away. Not only that but that sense of refreshment in you soul and that sense of peace and that sense of well being and being back in favor with God will also take place. These are all benefits of repentance and salvation.
You know the word blotted out, or wiped out in verse 19 is a picture of ink written on papyrus paper that is wiped out with a wet sponge. The ink in the old days did not have that acid that bites into paper and you could literally wipe that papyrus clean as if nothing was written on it before.
And that is what Peter said. When you repent from your sins, God does not merely cross out our name from His books, He wipes it completely clean. God does not relate it to you again; it has vanished without a trace.
Jesus when He was being crucified hanging on the cross, looking down at those Roman soldiers and the Jews, He prayed to God and said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
Peter says that even the horrible sin of rejecting God and executing the Messiah will be wiped out when you repent. Oh How great our God is. All of us have faced the effects of sin. But many of us have also experienced the benefits of repentance and the blessings of surrender.
Peter closes his sermon in Acts 3:25-26 this way, “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
This is a word of hope. Remember he started with those that were physically hopeless. And now it closes with the hope of the blessings of God. Peter says that you now can experience the promise from God that in Abraham through Christ Jesus all the nations, all families, can be spiritually blessed.
Regardless of what you have done, regardless of your guilt, God will bless you when you repent. Repentance does not mean that you are only sorry for what you have done, that is a worldly repentance. Repentance is deciding to change course, repentance is crying to God asking for Him to change you. And God will refresh you because that is what He promised, Amen?