I want to speak a little bit
to the boys and girls that are here. Those of you who have been following
the last few weeks and the last few lessons will remember that
we've been speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit on
the day of Pentecost When power came from heaven to the disciples,
they became the apostles, the messengers of the Lord Jesus
Christ to the ends of the earth. The Lord had commissioned his
disciples. Disciple just means a student,
someone who learns. And he had commissioned his disciples
to take his message to all the world. And the apostles were
to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. And having received that power,
they were then to preach the gospel to all who would hear. There was a question. And perhaps
you've thought about it as well with respect to the message that
these disciples had to preach. Why should anyone listen to them?
Why would anyone listen to these fishermen and tax collectors? And the people who had really
not very much education, not very much social standing, weren't
very powerful orators, were just simple men. And though they had
a great message, why would anyone listen to them? Lots of people
have opinions in this world and lots of people want to have their
opinions heard. And so there are lots of voices
out there in the world and sometimes we find ourselves listening to
the voices outside when we should be listening to the Lord Jesus
and listening to His message. And as we're growing up, and
some of the mums and dads and grandparents will be able to
testify to this, as we grow up, we find that there are a lot
of voices calling for our attention. How was it that the people were
going to listen to these apostles? Well, that was part of the Holy
Spirit anointing that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to these disciples,
these apostles. He gave them power and by that
power they were able to do miracles which caused the people around
about them to be amazed and astounded. Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
came upon these men and gave them power in Christ's name to
do wonderful things. And we're going to read a few
verses about one of these first wonderful things that the Apostle
Peter and the Apostle John was able to do. We find it in Acts
chapter 3. And we read there, now Peter
and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer,
being the ninth hour. 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, to ask
for money, to ask for gifts of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about
to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening
his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting
to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the
right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up, stood and
walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God. And they knew that it was he
which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
him. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. So here we see this story. right after the chapter which
speaks about the Holy Spirit coming down and giving these
apostles the ability to speak in tongues, to speak in foreign
languages, so that their message of the gospel, the message of
the things that they had seen and heard from the Lord Jesus
Christ, might be conveyed to many other people. but so that
they would be able to be heard, the Holy Spirit also gave them
power to do wonderful things. And these wonderful things caused
the men and women amongst whom they lived to be amazed and astounded
and to wonder that such power was given to these mere men. Peter and John had been going
up to the temple in order to pray, and that reminds us of
the importance of prayer, the importance of having that relationship,
that communication with God. with the Lord Jesus Christ. They
weren't going to the temple to make a sacrifice. The sacrifices
were over now because the Lord Jesus Christ, the reality, the
fullness, the antitype, the true sacrifice of God John the Baptist
called him the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. This Lamb of God had been sacrificed. The sacrifices were over, but
they went to pray in the temple. And there they met this man who
had been lame from birth. That means that when he had been
born, he had been lame. He had not been able to walk. His legs, his ankles just didn't
have the strength. Perhaps they were withered. Perhaps
they were just too weak to support his body. But he'd never been
able to walk. And he was carried every day. to the temple gates where people
passed in and out. His friends, perhaps it was other
members of his family, thought, well, here was a way that at
least he could get some money, some pity, some mercy from those
who were going in and out to worship. And all that poor man
was looking for as he stretched out his hand, as he shook his
little bowl, was that somebody might put a few pennies into
his bowl on their way into the temple. He asked for alms. He asked for pennies. But he
received something much better. You know, we all ask for things.
We all ask for things. All the time, we're asking for
things. Whether we're older or whether we're younger, we're
asking for things all the time. And this is a lovely promise
that the Lord has made to us. That whatever we ask for, He
will give us better. Do you know that? The Lord God,
the Lord Jesus Christ delights to do good for His people. He delights to bless them. He
delights to give them those things which give us joy and happiness
and peace. No matter what we ask for from
God, sometimes the things that we ask for don't seem to happen.
but it is always because God has got something better for
us. Here was a man who asked for
pennies, and what did he get? Peter and John, because they
are both spoken of together. Although it is Peter that does
the speaking, John is there, and that's lovely. I'm glad that
Peter took John. We often find these two together
in the scriptures, Peter and John. Peter was an older man,
and John was just a boy. And yet here was John with Peter
and both of them recognised as apostles. And so Peter says to
this man, I don't have any money to give you. I don't have any
alms. I don't have any pennies, silver and gold have I none. But what I do have, I'm going
to give it to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. rise up and walk. Here was a man who had been lame
from his birth. That makes this miracle even
more significant. It wasn't just a sore leg that
he had. It wasn't just that it had got broken. He'd never walked. He didn't know how to walk. He didn't have the ability to
walk. And the next thing he's jumping
up and down, And he's praising God, walking and running and
leaping and praising God. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
performed miracles when he was alive in this world, amazing
miracles, miracles that would cause people to wonder at the
power that this man had. and the disciples were given
that same power. But there's something interesting
about the power that the disciples had when we compare it to the
power that Jesus had. Jesus performed miracles in his
own name as God on earth. The disciples performed their
miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They recognised
where the true power lay. And what was the effect of this?
The people were amazed. The people there going into the
temple were staggered. They wondered about what it was
that had happened. They marveled, we're told. And
what this did was it gave Peter the opportunity to speak about
the Lord. A big crowd gathered and they
were all wondering, how was this possible that this lame man had
been able to speak? and Peter preached the gospel
to them, simply, directly. He preached the gospel. And he
didn't leave these people in any doubt about their guilt because
of their sin before the holy God. And that's something that
we have to remember too. This message about the gospel,
it isn't just about feeling good. It isn't just about seeing wonderful
things. It isn't just about being aware
of how powerful God is. It is about something in our
own hearts too, something in our own conscience, something
that needs to be fixed. It's about sin in our lives,
and it's about forgiveness. And that's what Peter told these
people about. And he says in Acts 3, verse
19, we didn't read it, but let me just read this verse to you
now. Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come
from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ,
which before was preached unto you. This is the great message
of the gospel that these men had to carry to the ends of the
earth. But it began in Jerusalem, It
began there very shortly after that day of Pentecost when the
disciples started preaching to the people right beside them
about the Lord Jesus Christ. They had to repent and be converted. They had to recognize that they
were sinners and they had to seek forgiveness from God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And there was a promise attached
to that. that a time of refreshing would
come, a time when the Lord Jesus Christ would come to them, not
physically, not in his body, which was now in heaven, but
he would come and live inside them. He would change them and
he would make them his very own people and his very own children. This is the great message of
the gospel that we still preach today. of forgiveness of sins
and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to be our saviour in our
hearts and in our lives. These are the blessings which
come from heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ himself will come
and live in our hearts. It was the message of the Old
Testament, it was the message of the prophets, it was the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he came and now it was the message
of the apostles. Today, it's the message of the
Gospel preachers who preach to us week by week. And if Jesus
is not heard, and if Jesus is not received, then men and women
will be punished for their sins. And we read about that in verse
23. Peter said that the gospel was
being preached for the repentance of sinners and conversion to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says there, and it shall
come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet,
that gospel, that message, shall be destroyed from amongst the
people. So here is the gospel. Here is
the day of salvation. Here is the message that changes
lives. And this is the message which
was preached by Peter and the message that is preached today
to sinners like you and like me. Thank you for your attention.