Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

As we have been walking through the book of Acts we have seen the disciples waiting for the promised Holy Spirit.

We saw the coming of the Holy Spirit and we have seen the work of the Holy Spirit as Peter explains to the crowd what happened and takes advantage of that time to call them to repentance and faith in Christ.

The Holy Spirit works through Peter and many are brought to salvation.

Then last week we saw how the church devoted themselves to the Word of God, to fellowship (to one another), to worship, and to prayer.

We see the church being salt and light and how the Lord uses them to continue to reach the community around them, the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

One of the things that we saw last week was

Really what we have in chapter 3 is an illustration of the wonders and the signs being done through the apostles.

I want to point out a couple more things in the introduction.

First and quickly just want to point out that we see the same structure here that we saw in chapter two.

You have an amazing event take place that draws a crowd and then Peter moved by the Holy Spirit takes the opportunity to preach, he explains what happens, pointing the crowd to Jesus and then pleads with them to repent and believe.

So you have here in the passage a miracle and a message.

Second thing that I want to address is the healing that takes place in this passage.

First of all we know that the gift of healing is given by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

The question is what about speaking in tongues, miracles, and healings today?

We read in the NT and see the ministry of Jesus and we see miracles and we see healings

We read in Acts and we see speaking in tongues when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, we see miracles, we see healings in the book of Acts

But then we continue to read in the Epistles and there is not much mentioned about miracles, healings, speaking in tongues.

How are we to understand that, how are we to understand that today for our lives?

Are we to seek for miracles, are we to expect healings, are we to seek speaking in tongues?

Well we already talked about tongues a few Sunday Nights ago and if you were hear for that then you have a little bit of a jump start.

I think John MacArthur is somewhat helpful here:

From the first day that the church was born, the Spirit of God gave gifts to the members of the church by which they could build the body up.

Certain grace gifts, karismata, spiritual gifts, by which they could ministering to each other build the body.

In addition to that, to the early church, God gave certain signed gifts.

Gifts which were not meant for the building of the body, but which were meant to be signs to unbelievers for the purpose of confirming the preaching of the gospel.”

We see miracles and healings during the ministry of Jesus and they are doing a couple of things, they are pointing us to the ultimate reality of His Kingdom when it comes in all of its fullness

But also the miracles are a witness to who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God and that He is giving us new revelation, that He came to make God known to us

Remember what Nicodemus said to Jesus

The healings, the miracles were signs that He had been sent by the Father, that He was revealing God to us.

John MacArthur says this:

“In the early church, he gave that same capacity to the apostles and the prophets in order that the word that they spoke might also be confirmed by signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

The confirmation of any man’s ministry today is not that any longer, it is whether he matches the Word of God.

This has become the standard.

Because it is God’s final revelation.

But before the New Testament was complete in the era of the early church, that accommodating miracles gave confirmation to the gospel.”

Then he quotes

These gifts were given to the apostolic era for confirming the word.

I think we see that all through the Bible.

Sometimes I think people think, well all through the Bible there were miracles everywhere and then after Acts they just stopped and we don’t have any more miracles, they wonder why we don’t see more miracles today.

First of all I would say that we see the Hand of God at work in the lives of those around us,

salvation is a miracle of God

repentance is a miracleous work of God

I still believe God heals today, often through means, but there are also times when God miracleously heals someone without doctors or medicine.

But also I would say this, when we really read and study the Bible, the miracles of the Bible tend to happened in clusters

Miracles through Moses, well remember Moses was God’s spokesman, God gave the law through Moses and the miracles validated Moses ministry, that he was God’s prophet.

Miracles through Elijah and Elisha, and both of these men represented the prophets and they were God’s spokesman to the people.

Giving of the law there were miracles, the word of the prophets there were miracles.

These were unique times in redemptive history when God was revealing truth through His servants and the miracles were given by God as a witness to the people that these were God’s servants.

Most of redemptive history in the Old Testament God worked through ordinary means, He worked through the obedience of His people to His Word as it had been given.

I believe the healing that we see in this passage is particularly a sign gift given to the Apostles to give accreditation to their ministry and their message.

Discuss the gift of healing that we see here as an apostolic gift giving accreditation to their teaching.

Quote from MacArthur is helpful here

Can God still miracleously heal someone today?

yes

So I say all of that to preface what we will be looking at today by saying that this passage does not teach us that we should expect miracles, that we should expect that this is the way God always works

Can God still miracleously heal someone today?

yes

The Miracle

The story is set for us as we begin reading chapter 3.

Peter and John are going to the temple to pray and we are told that they have an encounter with a lame man.

We are told that this lame man has been lame from birth and that he is severely lame because he has to be carried daily to the temple to ask alms of those entering the temple.

So first we are told about the severity of the problem.

This is not some small problem, this is not something that would have fixed itself

We are told that the man had been this way for over 40 years

The picture painted for us is a man who is broken, physically crippled, humiliated, hopeless, not able to do anything for himself.

That is the picture that is painted for us.

Second we are told about the healing.

v.3-7

The man ask for money but Peter is moved by the Holy Spirit and by the power of the Lord the man is healed.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that is by the power and the authority of Jesus this man is healed.

Peter makes it clear that it is not by his power or his authority that this man is healed but only by the power and authority of Jesus.

Look at v.12 and 16

So the picture that we have is that of a desperate broken man and a gracious and good Savior who works through His servants to bring healing and hope.

The OT promised hope and healing to those who were broken and hopeless.

The OT promised that there would be One who would come who would turn our mourning into singing, our crying into dancing

Actually v.8 is referencing an OT passage

is a chapter that speaks of the redemption and restoration that the Lord will bring for His people

Is. 35.

Of course the healings of Jesus and of the Apostles are teaching us that the coming redemption and restoration promised in the OT has come

That the Kingdom of God has broken into history.

God’s Kingdom has come, we see the healings in the gospels and in the book of Acts, we have seen the Lord pour out His Spirit upon His people, good news is being proclaimed, all of this points to the reality of the Kingdom; but of course the NT teaches us that the Kingdom has come but it has not come in all of it’s fullness, we are still waiting for the fullness of the Kingdom, we are still waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven to fill the earth.

But even now while we wait broken humanity can be given hope, they can be made full in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So this passage points us forward to the Day when Jesus will come and all will be made right

Broken humanity being made full

This is pointing us to restoration, the New Creation

Spiritualize this as well, we see ourselves spiritually in this man, right?

The Message

Finally we see that Peter uses this miracle to proclaim the message of the gospel, what is the heart of the apostolic teaching that the church was devoting itself to and that the church was proclaiming?

Salvation through Jesus Christ

Notice as Peter begins he denies something.

Peter denies that the man was healed by magic, witchcraft, sorcery; by his own power.

v.11-12

The Peter affirms somethings

Jesus healed this man v.13-16

God gave Peter and John the gift of faith and healing and miracle working in this moment.

In v.16, Peter was given faith to heal

John Piper explains

First, notice that the faith to heal (Peter’s faith, not the man’s there is no reason in the text to thin he was believing when Peter spoke) is “through Jesus” that is Jesus gave it.

It came through the working of Jesus.