4/28/24 Acts 3:1-10 “Are You Jesus?”

25 Apr 4/28/24 Acts 3:1-10 “Are You Jesus?”

4/28/24    Acts 3:1-10         “Are You Jesus?”

Most of you don’t know this but I love to read.  I remember one time I received a real windfall as someone gave me seven boxes of books.  This was a real treasure as most of them have to do with the love of Jesus Christ.  I thought that there were enough books to last me the rest of my life and I really appreciated getting them.  Unfortunately, I have read almost all of them.  But who knows?  Maybe someday I will become one of those so-called scholars that I’m always referring to.  Wouldn’t that be a hoot!  Anyway, over the past few years I have done a lot of reading on the history of Christianity and I find one thing that is astounding.  It doesn’t matter if we are looking at the beginning of the church in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries, the Crusades, the Reformation, when Wesley was alive or now, the problems are all the same.  They all had divorce, drunkenness, and wars to name just a few.  They were always discriminating against others.  What I’m trying to say is that we have always been very disobedient to God.  Every generation since Jesus, has looked around and decided that we were in the end times because things were so bad.  Human beings haven’t changed one bit in 2000 years, only our toys are more advanced.  Today, we are going to look at Peter and John in Acts and see how they dealt with a problem that still plagues us today.  Let’s see if we can learn from them.

Let’s begin with a Darrell Vaughn story of a blind boy who was sitting on the front steps of a building with a hat in front of him.  He also had a sign that said, “I am blind, please help.”  A man walked by and put in a few coins and he noticed that the boy wasn’t doing that well.  So he stopped, took the sign, wrote some words on it and put it back.  Soon the hat began to fill.  Later that afternoon the man came back to see how things were going for this blind boy.  The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning?  What did you write?”  The man replied, “I only told the truth.  I said what you said only in a different way.”  I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”  I think that we have far more blind people in our midst than we like to think.  They need us to help change their signs a little.

There is one thing that I want us to notice as we go through our Scripture lesson today and that is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is gone.  He isn’t here anymore but He has just given the disciples the Holy Spirit.  If you remember it wasn’t very many days ago that these same disciples were broken and crushed because Jesus had been murdered.  We read that Peter might have been more crushed than the others but we don’t know this for sure.  What we do know is that these disciples went from a group in mourning, which had given up on the ministry and returned to fishing, to a group who was absolutely on fire for Jesus.  They went from a bunch of back peddlers to an aggressive group who preached the word of Jesus with boldness and they would eventually all die for this belief.  Even facing death, not one of these men recanted their testimonies.

So what happened?  I will tell you what happened.  The Holy Spirit happened.  When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, there will be change.  Things will happen.  Peter went from a self-pity party to the leading evangelist of the moment.  The others went from hiding in the shadows to boldly proclaiming Jesus where they hadn’t dared before.  I went from a bumbling postal worker to a preacher who has been preaching for almost 18 years.  Many of you have stories to tell about how Jesus has given you gifts and the Holy Spirit has helped you take these gifts to places you never dreamed possible.  The Holy Spirit is powerful and things happen when He gets a hold of you.  I just praise the Lord that this is His plan and through the Holy Spirit it includes you and me.  Hallelujah!

So here comes John and Peter with the Spirit to pray at the Temple at 3 PM, prayer time.  If you remember, Jesus died at this time a few weeks ago.  Anyway, they pass a man who has been crippled since birth who is sitting just outside the Temple.  It is important to note that he had been like this since birth so that our skeptics cannot say that this was some sort of trick.  Everyone knew he was crippled.  Also note that the crippled and diseased were not allowed into the Temple.  Things aren’t a lot different today as many churches talk about helping the poor and hurting as long as they don’t actually come to church.  We also have trouble modeling Jesus’ behavior.

I heard a true story once about a waitress who worked at a local restaurant on Sunday mornings.  She hated it.  She hated all the people who come in after church because they don’t tip well and are rude.  For example, one Sunday a table left her a nickel for a tip which they placed under a glass along with a little note telling how the food was bad or cold.  They listed a couple other things that really were not the fault of the waitress.  Along with this they left her a card inviting her to come to their church to know Jesus.  Something snapped in her that Sunday morning and she caught up with this group in the parking lot.  She told them that according to their behavior inside the restaurant, they didn’t have a clue as to who Jesus was and she would never join any group like theirs.  This is a true story and it happened in Fargo.  It just doesn’t work to go to church on Sunday and work for the devil the rest of the week.  And this will not happen when you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

This beggar saw John and Peter and he asks them for money.  We should know without reading this that the beggar is asking the wrong people for money.  The disciples have nothing to give the beggar in a material sense.  This poor guy has no idea who he is about to deal with.

We are a lot like this poor crippled man.  I think that we don’t realize just who the Holy Spirit is and what He does.  I am just as guilty of this as anyone else.  How often do I pray or ask for the material goods of this world?  How often do we ask for enough to get us by when we can have more than we could ever handle.  This beggar asks for a little money and he gets physically healed so that he can walk for the first time in his life.

I think we get so caught up in our heritage that we cannot ask for big things because we don’t want to put the Holy Spirit to any extra work.  Our Midwest work ethic does this.  We don’t want to ask for too much.  What you don’t realize is that there is no such thing as too much when you’re talking about the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit will give and give and give and give if only you believe.  And if you don’t believe that all this giving can happen, then you are doing a poor job of believing.

God wants us to have the best of everything and I’m not necessarily talking about material goods here.  He wants you to be happy.  He wants you to love Him so that you are able to feel the love He gives back in return.  I have said this before because it is Scriptural.   He wants us to have all that He has.  This begins with you confessing your sins to Him and asking Him to live in your heart.  This is the beginning of the most wonderful personal relationship that you will ever have.  Then He wants, and this applies to all of us, wants you to be in constant communication with Him through prayer, worship, service and other things.  This is where this formerly crippled man was heading.

Now you may think I’m going to talk in circles here but just bear with me.  We know that when we are to ask for things from God, we are a little hesitant.  Now let me confuse you a little.  This beggar asked for a little money and he got healed.  He did not get what he asked for.  He got much more.

My question to you is, “How many times do you pray for something and you don’t get it or you get something else?”  It happens all the time so you think to yourself that why should I ask if I’m not going to get what I asked for in the first place.  The answer to this is complicated in many respects.  The simple answer is that we don’t always get what we ask for because Jesus will give us what we need rather than what we ask for.  This beggar didn’t really need money.  He needed to be able walk so he could make his own money.  He got something much better than money, he got his health.

I think that there is another reason we don’t get what we ask for and that is because we don’t know how to listen to God.  In our modern world, we have cluttered our lives so much that we don’t have time for anything extra, especially being able to slow down for a few minutes every day to pray and listen for God.  I would hazard a guess that God is talking to you just about all the time.  Do you hear Him?  It is hard to hear that still soft voice if we have Satan screaming at you to keep your fast pace.

When you don’t hear Jesus, it becomes hard to understand why something happens to one person and not another.  All I can tell you is to trust in Jesus.  Trust in Jesus!  During our times when you are not in crisis are the times when you need to reinforce your faith.  These are the times to let Jesus build you up so when bad things happen you can get through them with the help of Jesus.  So even though you don’t always get what you ask for, you will always get an answer from Jesus and that is a promise.

The last thing I want to mention about this passage is that you are to expect an answer.  In this case, it isn’t the beggar who is expecting an answer or maybe he is expecting some coins.  It is Peter who is expecting an answer.  Notice that Peter doesn’t pray in the sense as we know it.  He doesn’t ask permission or anything.  All he does is say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  There was no doubt in the mind of Peter as to what would happen next.  This beggar would walk.

This is how you should be in your prayer time.  One of our problems is that we don’t believe anything will happen.  A good example of the kind of command that Peter did is when I tell you, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Satan get out of this church!”  When I do this, I fully expect Satan to get out of this church.  Years ago, when I first started doing this, I was a little tentative but now I have the full confidence that Jesus is in total control and Satan is gone.  (Repeat)  Peter was fully expectant and so am I.  You can be also and many of you are when it comes to casting Satan out.  This applies to other prayers also.

So, first of all you have to ask Jesus for things and know that He may not answer in the way you are thinking.  However, you are to boldly ask.  This might not make a lot of sense but then many times the things that Jesus does don’t make sense to us and that should be a good thing.  In order for us to get our minds around this concept we first have to have our full faith in Jesus Christ.  You do this through prayer, worship and other things we have talked about.

To help us even more, I would like to suggest to you that you look around.  Look at all the wonder that God has placed in your community.  It is everywhere.  Then think about the many, many times that He has blessed you in your life.  Every good thing that has ever happened to you is a result of the work of Jesus Christ in your life.   But in order to get these things, we have to get over ourselves.  You are not in control.  Forget your heritage from this area.  You cannot do it yourself and do a good job.  You were made to need Jesus.  You were made to love Jesus.  This is how you are made.  If things aren’t going right, try some of these sure fire ways to get back closer to Jesus.

Eric Devuyst sent me this story where there were several young salesmen running through the airport trying to catch their plane when they ran into an apple cart and tipped it, scattering apples.  The men go up and continued to run as they were late.  They got to the gate and one of the men told the others to call his wife that he would catch a later flight.  He was the only one to go back to help with the apples.  When he got there he found that the owner of the cart was a young blind girl of 16.   She was on her hands and knees crying as she was hopelessly trying to find the spilled apples.  The place was crowded and no one stopped to help her.

The man helped her gather up the apples and he found that many of them were bruised so he took out $40 to help cover the damage.  Then he asked if she was ok and she just nodded through her tears.  He said, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”  Finally, the man turned to leave and the girl called out to him, “Mister, mister, are you Jesus?”  The man stopped and turned back and said, “No, I’m nothing like Jesus.  He is good, kind, caring, loving and would have never knocked over your cart in the first place.”

The girl nodded gently and said, “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him – only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister.”

My question to you this today is, “Are you Jesus?”  If not, why not?  Jesus wants you to have everything He has and He has given you ways to do this.  Practice prayer, Bible reading and worship.  Practice helping others.  You will find that your life can be even more wonderful than you could ever imagine.  Jesus loves you and will never stop.  That is a promise.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.