Sermon Tone Analysis

*In an Ugly Situation*

*At a Beautiful Gate*

New Hope B.C.

September 24, 2006

9:30 a.m.

Text:

Acts 3:1-8

 

*Introduction:*

*    *It is almost an oxymoron to use the words ugly and beautiful in the same sentence.

Ugly is always ascribed to something unattractive, unsightly, repulsive and unpleasant.

I remember in grade school how cruel it seemed when children called others ugly.

Even if the child wasn’t ugly, the mere speaking of the word made them feel unattractive and revolting.

Sometimes, especially as kids (and some of us old kids) associate other words with or attaches the same meaning of ugly, depending on the manner in which they are used.

For example, when all else fails, you can always say, yo’ momma!

Now that right there, that means all of the bad things your mind can conger up for the word, ugly.

Beautiful, on the other hand, has the opposite effect.

Beautiful is to be good-looking, gorgeous, striking, attractive, charming and pleasing, even handsome and picturesque.

Seldom do Black people use those words to describe another person.

We may call a place beautiful, or a thing beautiful, but when we want to describe a certain man or woman who epitomizes all of these adjectives in one word, we say he or she is just plain fine!

That brother is fine!

That sister is fine!

But seldom will you hear anyone use both words, ugly and beautiful in the same sentence to describe a scene or situation.

Why?

Because it’s almost impossible to have ugly and beauty together at the same time and in the same situation.

James asked, “does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?

But today we’re going to use these two words to describe a particular situation; a situation that yielded something ugly and something beautiful, at the same time.

There are three things that I wish for us to consider in today’s passage, then I shall take my seat:  *The Man at the gate, the Miracle at the gate, and the Message at the gate.

*

*The Man:*

    At this point in the text the early church was in its infancy.

They had just made an agreement to have all things in common and the Lord was adding to the church daily.

The Israelites were just on the cutting edge of moving away from traditional Judaism and into Christianity, into a place of acceptance of the idea of the Gentiles among them.

Because of this, they were still observing certain Jewish rituals and one of these rituals was to pray at certain times at the Temple.

The “Beautiful Gate” was probably a popular title for the Nicanor Gate (named for its Alexandrian donor).

It was the main gate and the largest gate, and made of the most expensive bronze.

It was in the Court of the Women on the east side of the Temple, facing the gate of the sanctuary, and it must have been especially beautiful in the light of the rising sun.

It was situated above fifteen steps, beyond which neither women nor the maimed and unclean could pass, for it was against the Law.

The Temple hosted beggars on its steps who could appeal to those going in.

Begging alms at public places was common in antiquity, and the Jews especially held it as important to their faith.

In Judaism only those who could not work made their living this way, but charity was highly regarded.

It was here, at this gate, this beautiful gate that we find this beggar.

The Bible does not name him; it just says that he was a beggar; a beggar who had to be taken to the area daily, up fifteen stairs; and then he was laid at the gate each day to beg.

A beggar, who had been carried from infancy, and even now in the middle ages of his life, he was *carried* and *laid* at the gate in order to *beg*.

You might have experienced an ugly situation in your life:  wayward children, stressful job, a wandering spouse, a dreadful disease, loss or some other tragedy that was an ugly situation, but this man was in a *really* *ugly* situation.

You see, not only *did* he beg, but he *had* to beg.

He *had* no choice.

He had been crippled from his mother’s womb, so he had some sort of congenital disease.

He couldn’t work; no cans or bottles to sell, he didn’t get G.R. or SSI; no worker’s comp; no disability payments; he didn’t even have a wheelchair to sit in; he had to be laid at the gate.

There is one thing that we have in common with him.

You see, he probably had a congenital disease since he had been crippled from his mother’s womb.

The Psalmist said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

We were all crippled from our mothers’ womb.

We all came here with a congenital disease.

It’s called sin.

When Adam fell, we all fell.

Sin cripples everything it touches.

Let sin into your home and it will cripple it.

Let sin into the church, and it will cripple it.

This man’s ugly situation was compounded.

He was cripple, unable to work, his family was out of the picture, he was dependent upon others to carry him and to take him where he had to go, and he couldn’t even go *into* the Temple.

He had to lie outside.

Some of you are in that very situation today.

You’re in an ugly situation, but you remain outside of the Temple.

Listen.

There is no law keeping you out today.

You can come inside.

You can come to Jesus for yourself.

You don’t have to lie at the gate and beg.

Jesus is waiting for you to come in.

He was in an ugly situation, but he was at a beautiful gate.

This gate was worth a fortune.

It was brilliant to behold, but lying on its outside was a man marred, a man disfigured, distorted and outcast.

The gate was wealth, the man was woe.

Man can make many things beautiful, but he cannot make himself beautiful.

Only God can do that.

You need to know today, that there is a danger in being *at* the church and not *in* the; there is a danger in being at choir rehearsal and not in choir rehearsal; being at Bible study but not really in Bible study; Always at church but never in church.

When you leave church the same old way that you came, you were only *at* church.

When you leave church doing the same old things, going to the same old places, you were at church and not in church.

I know it’s the truth because when somebody asks you where you’ve been, you say, *at* church.

When you leave church and you are never any stronger, when you never feel the Holy Spirit, nothing moves you, nothing ever stirs you up, you keep the same old prim and proper look on your face, Sunday after Sunday, *you just been at church.*

When your habits never change, your ways never improve, when your lifestyle remains the same, when you leave here and continue peeping and hiding, slipping and tipping, hugging and bugging, fussing and fighting, you just been *at* church.

The tragedy of this man was not *how* he was but *where* he was; *at* the gate.

But it was a beautiful gate.

Not because it held some intrinsic value for him; but it would serve as the place for an appointed meeting for a miracle.

*The Miracle:*

    The man was laid at a strategic place; at the gate where many Jews passed everyday on their way to worship.

People who would not want to go into the Temple with feelings of guilt of having passed the beggar by.

But pass him by they did, for the Scripture indicates that he probably never looked up at them and they never paid him much attention either.

They only dropped alms into his raised cup to quiet both his plea and their guilt.

But on a particular day, and at an appointed time, things changed.

You know the Lord has an appointed time for things.

Nothing in our lives is by happenstance.

Even your lifespan has an appointed time for the Bible says it is appointed unto to man to die once, then judgment.

Just so, this man, this beggar had an appointed time with the Master.

It was on this particular day at 3:00 p.m.; this day that two men, Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, Peter and John were walking by, on their way to afternoon prayer meeting.

This beggar, seeing them approaching begins to cry out for alms, for money.

This time, something was different about the transaction.

These men did not just drop coins into his cup and continue walking by.

They didn’t ignore him.

They stopped.

They looked at him.