Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Acts 3:1-11, focusing on the miraculous healing of a lame man by Peter and John. He emphasizes that the healing serves to glorify God and illustrates the transformative power of Christ in our lives. The sermon encourages listeners to seek not just temporary relief but a deeper spiritual healing and relationship with God, reminding them that true healing brings joy and praise to the Lord.
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In Bibles, we're going to go to Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 11 is where we'll be at this morning. It's also good to see Stephen and Michaela here this morning. They're one of our first-time guests.
They haven't been here in a while, and it's always good to have them here and do continue to pray for them as they are just a couple of weeks away from baby Claire making her entrance into the world, and it's an exciting time for them.
It's also nervous, right? If you've ever been there, you know that making sure all the dots are there, all the T's are crossed, the I's are dotted, making sure the nursery's ready that you'll probably never use if it was like me.
We made three nurseries, and I don't think they ever slept in that nursery one day in their life,
but I know they're excited about baby Claire coming and lots of good things going on in their life, so do continue to pray for them. Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 11 is where we'll be at this morning. Let's stand out of the reading of God's Word, and we'll get started today.
The Bible says, So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them, but Peter said, I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk.
Then taking him by the right hand, he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped and started to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
Then all the people saw him walking and praising God, and he recognized that he was one of the ones who used to sit and beg at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.
And while he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people were utterly astonished and read toward them, and it was called Solomon's Colonnade. Let us pray.
Lord, we love you. We thank you for your Word. We thank you for allowing us to meet here and be able to exposit your Word and talk through Scripture and be encouraged by what we learn from Scripture. Lord, we love you. In your name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated. So we're talking through the book of Acts. We began four or five weeks ago with the mission of the church and Jesus leaving, as Logan talked about this morning, and then transition, and Pentecost, and Peter's sermon, and then the response last week of how we respond
God's Glory Through Healing
to the gospel. And today we're talking about God being glorified and what that looks like. And it's an odd story that we get here. It's an interesting story that we get here at the beginning of chapter three.
But I think that we can take some principles and applications from it this morning that'll help us in our walk with the Lord. And I want to start by, I like telling stories, I like telling illustrations that back up what's going on, especially modern day illustrations. But in the summer of 1967,
a lady by the name of Johnny Erickson Tata, has anyone ever here heard of Johnny Erickson Tata? A couple of people. Johnny was a beautiful 17-year-old girl at the time and full of life, adventure, and love for the outdoors.
She loved going out and riding horses and hiking and swimming and just viewing nature and just experience what God had blessed us with as we have nature all around us.
But one moment in this summer of 67, everything changed.
While swimming with one of her friends in the Chesapeake Bay, Johnny misjudged the depth of the water and dove headfirst into what was actually only a few feet deep. The impact shattered her spine, it broke her neck, and at the C4 and C5 vertebrae.
She instantly lost all feeling and movement of her arms and legs and was pulled from the water by her friend after she had laid face first in the water because she could not move for several minutes. Desperate for a miracle, she prayed for healing,
believing that God, the Bible, who would heal the lame man in this story, would one day do the same for her. Many people prayed for her,
fully expecting her to rise from her chair and walk again. She tells a story of how she went to many different faith healing services, praying for the Lord to work, and no miracle came.
At first, Johnny was angry. She was hopeless. And in her own words, she said she begged God to let her die rather than to live a life confined to a wheelchair. Over time, something incredible happened in her life. Not in her legs, in her arms, but rather in her heart.
God used her paralysis to draw her closer to Him. She began to see that this plan that God had for her life was not about physical healing, but about something greater than she would ever experience. The healing of her soul and the impact of her testimony of others.
Instead of becoming bitter as she was once in a life of doing,
Johnny chose to trust God. She learned how to quickly paint with a paintbrush in her mouth, and her artwork became famous. She wrote books, she became a speaker, and she launched a ministry called Johnny and Friends, a worldwide ministry serving people with disabilities.
Sustaining Grace in Adversity
And for over 50 years, Johnny has inspired millions upon millions of people, proving that God's power isn't just revealed in miraculously healings, but in sustaining grace. Today, Johnny is still confined to a wheelchair,
and she would tell you that God has healed her in ways far greater than just walking. He has given her a purpose, a voice, and an impact for His kingdom that she never thought was imaginable.
Billy Graham brought Johnny up and became friends with her early into his ministry and began using her to encourage those that have been hurt.
Johnny not only had suffered from this debilitating wheelchair, but has suffered countless health issues and struggles, cancer and different things that have, infections that have caused in her body, and every single time she has turned to the Lord and given the Lord praise.
Now imagine with me for a moment being lame at the temple here in Acts chapter 3.
He had been crippled from birth, never knowing the joy of running or walking. Every day he sat outside the temple begging for just enough money to survive. As I was meditating on that one little passage this morning and last night, my mind thought that Jesus often went to the temple.
Jesus often went to the temple in the scriptures as you look through the gospels where it says Jesus went and came through the gates and came through there and healed many different people. And you've got to imagine with me, how many times did this man see Jesus?
And how many times did Jesus see this man? And yet the Bible says that Jesus did everything that the Father willed for him to do on this earth, and yet Jesus didn't heal him. Why?
Why didn't Jesus heal him? I believe it's because we have this story here where Peter and John get this awesome opportunity to heal this man and get to see something great in the church that is going to come to pass.
As Peter and John carried no money, no silver, no gold, reminds me a lot of myself as people come to us, right? We're not wealthy people by any means.
And Peter and John came to them in an instant. This man whose life was going to be changed forever not only stood, but the Bible repeatedly says he leapt and jumped and ran around. He praised God. This healing of lame man, just like Johnny's life,
of walking again was all about bringing glory to God.
It was all about how we can use what we have went through in our life to turn everything that we've done back to the glory of God.
So the question I want us to ask ourselves this morning is this, what does God want to heal you today of? What is it that you're struggling?
What is it that you're going to God and you're saying, God, I'm struggling in this area of addiction.
I'm struggling in this area of hurt. I'm struggling in this area of bitterness.
As Johnny said over and over in her life, as you just maybe you're struggling for direction in your life.
And today's the day where we can begin to apply some of these things in our life to where God will ultimately get the glory. So the first thing is this, the healing here ultimately brings glory to God. The healing brings glory to God. It shows God's great power.
I'm often reminded when we see these great things happen, it reminds us that there is a great big God out there and we are not it. Right?
There is a huge God. God is the creator of the universe who spoke the world into existence, who spoke the animals and life into existence and formed man out of his hand and breathed the breath of life into mankind.
That is the God we serve and that is the God that we live for. And he is a huge great God that is there longing for relationship with us.
And we get to glorify God in everything that happens. As I mentioned earlier, the very first thing is we dissect this passage in verse two. The man was lame from birth. This simply states that he had never walked, meaning that it wasn't partial or temporary disability.
This was someone who had never experienced his legs moving before in his life.
The best way I can explain this, maybe visualize this for you in your mind, is imagine someone who was blind from birth. Had never seen the sunrise, had never seen the rainfall,
had never seen the color of a rainbow. This morning we went out to take the dog out and Hudson ran out with me and he said, Dad, the sun's on me.
And I said, yeah, the sun's on you. He said, yesterday the clouds were covering the sun.
Just this three-year-old trying to explain, like he can see this, he can feel it, he can experience it. But someone who had never seen before would never be able to experience those things. They may have heard someone say, you know, the sky is this wonderful color, it's Carolina blue, God's favorite color.
And it's wonderful and it's beautiful, but someone who's blind would never experience that. They would never be able to understand what that is. And in that moment when they would receive sight,
everything in their life would now change and begin to make sense even more so than what it was before. This is the equivalent of what happened here. This man had never walked, this man had never experienced anything in his life to where his legs were able to move.
Spiritual Condition Before Christ
And yet now he has this wonderful experience where he can return glory to God. I want us to ask ourself one question. How does this compare to our own spiritual condition before Christ? Think about it. We're lame and we're without Christ. We have no purpose in life without him.
And he comes in and he raises us up out of the miry clay as the psalmist says, as he puts our feet on solid ground. We're no longer seeking.
We're no longer in our sin, but yet Christ has established our feet. He has put us on a path of new beginnings because he has healed us in our spiritual sense.
So the man was lame from birth, but also we see in verses seven and eight that he was, this was an immediate and complete change. As we look at verse seven, it says, it took him by the right hand and it once in an immediate moment, his feet and ankles became strong.
His feet and ankles became strong. There was no need for physical therapy.
There was no need for occupational therapy. There was no need for someone to come in and help this man, but yet he leaped and walked in an instant.
As Pat's going through her hip replacement, she's gonna go through some therapy and Miss Hilda went through her shoulder replacement. She's going through therapy right now.
And you may have experienced a knee replacement or a hip replacement or some type of body part of you that has been replaced. And you know there is therapy that goes along with that, right?
If Pat were to walk through those back doors and be doing back flips down the aisle, right? We would say, holy cow, something crazy just happened, right? I joke often with her. I say, Pat, when you get better, we're gonna run a marathon, right?
I don't run marathons. And so I'm gonna work up that. And she's like, yep, I'm gonna come in and we're gonna dance together and it's gonna be great, right? And if that were to happen today, we would say, yes, there was a miracle that happened. It was immediate.
Someone went from a hospital bed to springing up and running around. This was an extraordinary recovery. This is what happened with this man. He had an instantaneous change in his life.
This is what happens when salvation comes into our life, right? It's an instantaneous change. We go from death to life where life has been brought in and we see a new way, we live a new way, we experience a new way. We live a life that is different and been transformed.
Verses 10 and 11, we began to see that it was undeniable. It was something that no one in this world and in this life could deny what was about to happen.
The people recognized him. It says that they saw him and they said that this is the man that sat and begged by the gate as we came in this morning. We see him here daily. And I love this term. It says they were filled with wonder and amazement. Would you not be filled with wonder and amazement?
Would your life not be changed if you were walking through your school or your workplace? Maybe there was someone who was in a wheelchair the day before and the next day they came in and they were walking and they were just enjoying life. And you're like, holy, I don't, this is crazy.
Yesterday you were in a wheelchair and today you're walking. How did this happen?
It was undeniable truth that no one could argue what had been done and ultimately no one could argue that God had done it.
As I was thinking through this, the Lord led me to write down this one statement. I put it on the screen.
I didn't put it in your notes. My wife tells me that when I come up with some of these statements, I should put them up here because she struggles writing them down. But I wrote down like this, when God truly changes a life, it is evident to all.
When God changes a life, it is evident to every single person around.
Man, everyone knows, everyone says, that's the guy that used to do those things and his life's different. He's not cussing anymore. He's not drinking anymore. He's not living a life full of the devil and full of himself. He's living a life for something else.
He's living a life that's for someone else. And as we begin to look at our life, as we begin to look at what God has done for us, we must ask ourselves, when God changed our life, has it been evidence to those that were around us?
I've got a friend of mine that reached out just a couple of weeks ago from when I was in high school. And he's in Raleigh now. He's working for the state and he's doing some stuff. And he's adopted two kids.
And it's been great because he's called me and we've talked. And we weren't really, we were acquaintances, but we weren't really friends.
But all of a sudden, we've began to have this brotherhood, this bond of one another. Hopefully here in a couple of weeks, he's going to come and hang out with me and maybe spend the weekend with us. But during this time, he said this to me.
He said, I never realized we had so much in common.
And it was awesome to hear that, but in my mind, it was depressing because I was a Christian when I was around him. I was a believer and he was too, but yet we were living a lifestyle
Evidence of Life Change
that God wasn't getting the glory. You see, when we have been changed, there should be evidence around us that our life has been changed. It should be an undeniable,
unexplainable way that Christ has been transforming motions in our life. And ultimately, and I skipped this verse as I went through it. Typically I don't, but I want us to go back to verse six. And I want us to understand what Peter explicitly does.
He says that all glory is directed to God. All glory that is going to happen in this situation, he understands what's going to happen. He says, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. It wasn't about Peter's power.
It wasn't about Peter and John's spirituality and how great they were as people. He said, this is going to happen solely because of Jesus. Solely because of who Jesus is and what he is about to do.
It's a great reminder for us and to ask ourselves, how are we being careful that God is always getting the glory?
How can we make sure that in every action of our life and every moment of our life that Christ is the one that is being glorified, that Christ is the one that is ultimately lifted up? You see, we are people who love the glory,
right? We want our name in lights. We want the attention. We want the fanfare.
We want the recognition. We want the likes on Facebook and we want the subscribers on YouTube. We want those things.
We want to be viral in that sense. You may not say it in that way, but we always like when our name is in the paper, right? You get your newspaper. How many of you still get the newspaper in here? No one gets the newspaper in here?
All right, one person in the back. Has anybody ever seen a newspaper in here? All right, we're getting there.
Some people, even some of our young ones up here, Charlotte and Ella have seen newspapers, right? So when you get that newspaper and your name's in there and something big's happened, we like it. We want to frame it. We show pride in that.
And God is saying here that in that same way, when God does something supernatural in our life, be careful to turn that glory back to him. Don't take it for something that you did. It would have been real easy for Peter and John to say, guys, look how spiritual we are.
We're going to come into this temple. We're going to rock some things around. And this guy who's lame over here, he's going to walk. This guy over here that can't see, he's going to have sight.
And come worship us. Come look at how good we are. No, they ended by saying this is all because of Christ. All because of Jesus. It's nothing that we have done, but it's all because of Christ. Get up and walk.
And as we begin to think through that, as we begin to process this passage in our mind, we've got to ask ourselves a couple of follow-up questions. Ultimately, the first one is this. Why did God work miracles through the apostles? People ask me often, Pastor James,
why don't we see miracles like this in our day? Why don't you walk around and heal people and touch people and heal them? Why don't you do these things?
And I believe that there's a theological error that we can address as we look through this. And I'm going to quickly walk through some of these things by sake of time.
Purpose of Miracles
But if I go a little later, we're feeding you today. So it's okay for me to go a little longer. All right. So the first one is this, to validate the message of the gospel. Jesus allowed miracles to happen to authenticate that the apostles were true messengers of him.
Right? This was a different error. This was 2,000 years ago. And we're going to talk through some things here in a moment. But I want us to understand what Jesus said in Mark chapter 16, verse 20. Jesus said, through Mark's writings, he said, and they went out and preached everywhere.
And while the Lord worked with them, they confirmed the word by the accompanying signs.
So Jesus used signs to validate the message of what he was doing. And then Hebrews, as we talked about this morning in Sunday school, Hebrews says it like this, as I believe Paul was preaching a sermon, he said this, how can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
The salvation that began when it was spoken by the Lord, that's the first, confirmed by those who heard it, number two. At the same time, God testified by signs and wonders and various miracles and then distributed gifts from the Holy Spirit according to his will.
As I think through this, and as we look through this, the focus here was never on the miracle itself. Right? When the miracle happened, it was done and over.
All of a sudden, the man began praising the Lord. The people were filled with all of what had happened here and the message of what the Christ was doing was confirmed.
So the miracle happened and it was never about the miracle, but it was about the message that they were about to happen. That these things that they were going to preach were about to be going out. Imagine it like this.
You get pulled over from a police officer. Has this ever happened to anybody? Maybe you ran a stop sign, going a little too fast. Just a couple of weeks ago, I'll share some personal testimony, right? I was driving down 268, heading to Elkin.
Had came out from the association and had turned left there at the sheets and was heading to Walmart to get a couple of things and I look up and these wonderful blue lights are flashing behind me. What did I do wrong? Looked down, I'm going like 10 or 12 over. Didn't realize it.
And so I pulled over, he pulled me over, came up to me, sir, what are you doing here? Saw my address. What are you doing way out here? And, but I say all that to say this. When he came up, he had this badge on him on the side of his shirt.
The badge was there to signify that he was sent from the county to make sure that people were obeying the laws of the land. The miracles that we see here, he didn't give me a ticket, by the way. He was gracious. He was loving.
He said, I went back to write your ticket up and my printer was out of paper. I was like, hallelujah, blessed be the name of the Lord. This is an awesome day. And he said, just slow down from now. And I said, all right, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But his badge
was a credential to signify that he was there to protect and serve those that are around us.
This is the badge of Christ as he is saying to them, this is going to verify your authority that is going to happen in these coming days. The church was changing. The church was, was going through some radical change as people were being saved, as lives were being changed.
There, there had to be some authority here and some validation of the message. But then we see the, that these miracles happen to reveal God's compassion. Jesus often healed out of compassion.
Jesus often saw the crowds and were so moved because they were in pain and torment because the gospel had not been shared and, and Satan was overrunning the land and, and the gospel was going to come and push back the darkness as those began to see light.
And Jesus said it like this in Matthew chapter 14, verse 14, when they went ashore, he saw a large crowd and when he saw them, he had compassion on them and he healed their sickness.
You see, the primary goal is spiritual transformation. And in our life, as we live for Christ, our lives should be spiritually transformed and growing closer to Christ. But not only is there spiritual transformation,
but God still cares for human suffering. God still looks down from heaven and it breaks his heart when humans suffer.
It breaks his heart so much that he said, I'm going to send my son to die on a cross for you. I'm going to send my son to live a perfect life so that you can have eternal life if we believe in him.
He has compassion and therefore we also should have compassion as well.
But ultimately, I saw this as I began to, to look through this is to provide a picture of salvation. I believe that
Peter and John healed this man to give us a picture of what it looks like when salvation occurs. You see, we don't always get to see this in a visual way, but we see this in this picture, right? This man was, the healing parallels with salvation.
The man was helpless and unable to change himself.
The Bible says that other people brought him to the gate.
The man couldn't even make it to the gate himself. He couldn't even make it there himself and as we look at that and we examine our own life before salvation, before Christ, we were helpless and could not even help ourselves because of our sinful condition. And then, he was restored.
He wasn't restored because he thought himself better. He wasn't restored because he said, I'm going to become better. He was restored because someone else looked at him and had compassion and was able to change his life through the power of Christ. And we ourselves have been changed through the power of Christ and ultimately, what was his response?
His response was joy and praise. When Christ comes in and works a situation in our life that is only explained through him what happens, joy and praise should come from us.
Sometimes it's going to look like a lifted hand when something great is going on. Sometimes it's going to be a verbal praise of the Lord.
Sometimes it's just going to be a tear that comes out of our face that we don't explain it, that we can't explain what it is, but we know the Lord is working in our heart.
For me, a lot of times, I'm watching as we worship and I'm watching my kids as we're riding down the road and maybe we're playing a song and they'll begin to worship and they'll begin to praise the Lord and my heart is touched by their joy and their praising of the Lord.
And this is what happens when salvation comes. It's not because of us. It's only because of Christ. And it should remind us that Jesus has done a miracle in our life. He has transformed our life from darkness to light and we get to therefore turn and give praise to him and show the world glory through what he has done.
Does God Heal Today?
And the question I get so often as you begin to study through these difficult passages is this. Does God heal today?
Right? Pastor James, does God heal today? The answer to this is two parts. Yes and no.
Right? Yes, he heals but not through healers the way we sometimes even hear. Right? God is still sovereign over everything he does.
God is still in control even when we don't understand what is going on. Even when we don't understand why this is happening. Even when we don't understand what is going on God is still in control. Right? I believe that there's no biblical evidence that miraculous healers exist after the apostolic age.
I believe that when the apostles and as we begin to continue this study through the Acts you're going to see that miracles and healings begin to fade because the apostles begin to come off the scene.
But yet God is still healing in a way that is miraculous over sickness as he sees fit. Right?
I want us to take us to a passage of scripture to sort of back this up in James chapter 5. What does James the half brother of Jesus what does he say to the church here in Jerusalem?
He said if anyone among you is sick what should he do? Call for an elder of the church.
And when they come they should pray over you anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of the faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up if he has committed sin then he will be forgiven.
Right? The Lord still heals in a miraculous way but it's not through faith wonders and faith healers I believe it's through the church ultimately through prayer through those who are committed to a body of believers that are worshiping together
and the Lord comes in and he works a miracle that only can be explained as a miracle. Maybe this has been you and your experience where a doctor comes in and gives a diagnosis
he says to the best that I can tell there's no medicine to cure this there's no
no substance that we can do to help alleviate the pain it's just going to have to run its course. For me it was when I was six or seven years old I always get the date mixed up but it was October dad came home and sat all the kids down and he said
doctors have given me until Christmas it'll be the my last Christmas they said they've done everything they can do we're going to continue radiation we're going to continue chemotherapy we're going to continue everything that we need to do but as far as the doctors
are concerned this will be my last Christmas we're going to still fight we're still going to do everything we can
and the sadness that happens you can imagine mom and the five kids are around and not quite understanding everything that's going on and knowing there's this impending doom and this impending death that's going to happen
and as my dad continued on the doctors looked and they said we cannot explain why you're getting better we cannot explain how this cancer is going away you're diagnosed with stage 4 the most extreme most aggressive form of cancer we don't have an explanation for how you're getting better
my dad looked at him and he said I do I've got a church family that's praying for me I've got a community of people that are on their knees that are praying for healing to happen I can go on and on for story after story of a little
girl named Destiny who had been beat almost to death by her stepfather
in Arkansas how where she was there and this young little 4 or 5 year old maybe I don't remember exactly how old she was and was beat almost to an inch of her life
the officers came in they arrested the dad they took her to the hospital and they said that she's going to die tonight her brain is hemorrhaging her body is shutting down and I wasn't there but I've heard the
story and I've read the book where the church got together and the church fervently prayed for this little girl named Destiny her grandpa Richard writes the book and it's called Destiny's Miracle where God intervened in a way that
only God can do through a church that's praying through a church that's getting together and seeking the throne of God and God intervenes in a way that humans can't do and ultimately God gets the glory for these great
Returning Glory to God
things that he has done so yes I believe God heals and ultimately the point of these miracles is to return glory back to God it's the whole point of what I've been saying this entire message God being glorified the point should never be about the miracles and the healing been exalted
but what God has done you talk to my dad today he'll say I've been cancer free for
20 something years it's not because of something I did but it's all because of what Christ has done
often times we will ask ourselves when we pray God why is this healing not happening
and I truly believe it's ultimately through the process of people praying but I believe there's a heart issue here I believe that often times are we praying for healing for comfort or we praying for healing so that God can be glorified when we are selfish when we are having our own motives
I don't think God works in that I think God works in a way where he can be glorified where we look at our life and we talk about an event that happened years ago and we say I don't
think it was some medicine I don't think it was any of this but I think it was because God worked in a way that only he can do and you've shared some of those stories with me I've talked to you you've told me some of those things
but ultimately the point of the miracles is to return glory to God and ultimately we begin to see the mission of the church the mission of the church is to preach the gospel it's not to relieve pain
what does it say here Peter and John said I don't have money I don't have silver or gold I can't make you wealthy what do I have I have Jesus Christ I have the one that can heal you
and they gave him Jesus the church's primary role is not charity
even though it should be an aspect of what we're doing but it should be the gospel being proclaimed in every area of our life meeting the physical needs is good I am a firm believer that we will meet
the physical needs and we will bring those physical needs as a way of sharing the gospel it does not replace the message but it helps reinforce the message it helps by we when we show compassion as Jesus did we're able to share the news of Christ
imagine for me a moment you're laying in your hospital bed doctors have come in and they say I don't know what's going on
we're going to try to run some tests and ultimately we're just going to give you some Tylenol and hope things get better you'd probably if you were me you'd say alright I'm done with you doctor I'm going to find another doctor
right I want someone that can give me results to what's going on here I don't want you just to cover the pain up and never treat the symptoms I want you to heal and help in ways that are
wonderful I don't want some temporary relief I want a relief that is solving the problem
and this is what happens in our life Christ comes in and he doesn't say let me put some band-aid over what's going on he totally radically changes our life from darkness to light and he puts us in
a firm foundation spiritual healing is so much more urgent than physical healing as we have been through pain as you have been through pain we pray for our physical healing but everyone that Jesus healed eventually died
the death record is still 100% of the time everyone that lives dies as hard as that is for us to process sometimes
even those that receive salvation and healing from the Lord they still later on passed away
I want us to really dive deep here for a minute church and really ask ourselves one really really hard question are you more concerned with people's temporary needs or their eternal destiny
when you look at someone is the first thing that comes to your mind is I wonder where that person is going when they die if they were to die right now would they go to heaven or would they go to hell or do we look at them and say
how can I help them physically yes I think we should do some of those things but I think the first question should be do they know Christ
do they know the one who has changed my life do they know the one that has set my feet on solid ground as we begin to think through that as we begin to process through that I want us
to really dive deep into that question because as we look at this chapter 3 as Peter as Terry comes and begins to play the healing of the lame man was far more than just about his legs
it was about his life been forever changed by the power of Christ that's why we sang oh to see the dawn the power of Jesus the power of the cross it is so much more than just a song
it is Christ been glorified and it is Jesus lifted high and our life being forever changed
he came to that day that man in Acts chapter 3 came to the temple that day hoping for some money hoping to get enough money to survive the next day and walked away with something so much greater a new life and a new life in Christ
church the same is true for us many of us come to God looking for temporal pain relief for temporal satisfaction
maybe it's a financial provision or solution to life's problem but what if today God wants to give you something greater
what if today God wants to reach down and say I'm more than just a friend as we sang what a friend do we have in Jesus I'm your savior I'm your comforter I'm your one that is going to
be there when times get tough I'm going to be the one that is going to help you when times seem like there's not enough as Johnny Tata talks about she wanted physical healing more than anything
but what she received with her testimony touched millions of lives more lives than dare I would say any person in this room
the lame man in Acts chapter 3 he wanted money he wanted the ability to be able to make it the next day and what he received was the ability to walk and ultimately a transformed heart that glorified God more than anything else
Temporary Nature of Physical Healing
the truth is this morning church physical healing is temporary every person healed by Jesus as I said eventually grew old and died
even this man that was healed in Acts chapter 3 eventually grew old and faced death
but the greater miracle was salvation the greater miracle was not being physically healed but by being spiritually transformed into a life that says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 that we are set apart from our sins when we
were helpless when no one else could help us we are set apart because Christ has redeemed us and I'm here to tell you today church Christ is still in the transforming business Christ is still here he's still standing
here today just as Peter reached out his hand to heal that lame man Jesus is reaching out to us today and he's saying if you're hurting if you're struggling I am here to transform your life
I'm here to help you when times get tough if you need forgiveness if you need new life if you need eternal hope you are in the right place so I've just got a couple of questions to ask are you coming to God today asking for temporary relief
maybe you've been searching for answer after answer and never getting the right response
Jesus is standing here today and he's saying I'm here to give you healing for your soul I'm here to allow you to see new life in a way that you never expected maybe you've placed your faith and trust in Christ
maybe you're a believer here maybe you've been a believer for a long time maybe you're just here as someone who just says God I need just a refresh of my soul I've been hard I've been bitter as Johnny's story was I've been bitter in the life that I'm living
I prayed for healing and you just need God to work in a way that only he can do in a miraculous way
today Jesus is calling us to rise up to not lay down and stay bound by our sin but to rise up and say I'm going to serve the Lord I'm going to trust in him and I'm going to
leave today until that moment happens don't worry we're going to eat we're going to have a good time but don't leave this room until your eternity is secure
let us pray as we go into our invitation Father we love you Lord we thank you for what you've done we thank you for your miraculous healing in this story we thank you for the miraculous healing of salvation in my life
Lord when I was five years old as I trusted in you as you passed by my way that Sunday night of March
Living in the Gospel Daily
Lord you redeemed my life I'll never get over it I pray God that you would help us today to live in the gospel
every single day of our life when it's Tuesday and we're going to work when it's Friday and we're going to a ball game God that we would live in the gospel that we would share the gospel with those that are around us
Lord if there's one here that doesn't know you help it to be the day they come to trust in you maybe there's someone here that's struggling emotionally or physically or even spiritually
and they need today to be a refresher of their soul Lord we love you we thank you for what you've done in your name we pray amen thank you again for taking your time to listen to the sermon audio please subscribe to get our latest sermons each week
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