I invite you to open your Bibles to the New Testament, to the book of Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Every night, at the Brooks household, all of my children will climb into the bed, Natalie and George's bed, they share a bed, and I'll tell them a story about Carolina, Natalie and Georgiana, which live remarkably similar lives to Caroline, Natalie and Georgia, just crazy things always happen to them. And usually, there is this, this criminal named Edmund Millsaps. It just popped in my head one night and he's the world's worst criminal and they they somehow always foil what he is going to do.
Joel Brooks:And then, after I tell that story time, I try to make a transition into devotional. Sometimes it's a awkward transition, but but but we make a transitional. We have family devotion every night, all of us in bed. And I know this sounds like a really beautiful thing, you know, the family all in the same bed doing family devotion. But, you know, my kids are sinners, just like we all are.
Joel Brooks:And so a lot of times they're screaming, there's there's yelling, I have to go to the judgment of God a whole lot. They they, you know, I might have to spank them if they translate their Greek wrong, or just, you know, my my kids are flawed like yours. But one of the things that I have to do every time I begin telling a Bible story is I had to say, now, what we're hearing tonight really happened. This is not like the story I just told you. This is a true story from the Bible.
Joel Brooks:It's not magical, it's not pretend. This is a true story from God's word. And last night I went over Acts 3 with them. And one of the reasons it was so important for me to tell them this is a true story from the Bible is because when you read Acts 3, it kind of seems magical or pretend. And last night, after I went over the story, Natalie asked me, she said, Daddy, why doesn't God do things like this anymore?
Joel Brooks:Which is a great question, which we'll get to hopefully at the end of this message. So acts chapter 3 beginning in verse 1. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us.
Joel Brooks:And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And He took them by the right hand and raised Him up, and immediately His feet and His ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising god.
Joel Brooks:And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. And this is the word of the Lord. And pray with me. Lord, I am convinced that you have a word for us tonight.
Joel Brooks:And so we ask that, you would remove me out of the equation, that I would not mislead anyone, that people would not be drawn to me. Lord, I pray now that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words, your eternal words, change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Now before we just jump off and and dive into this text, I feel I need I need to point out one little thing that we we might have just jumped over. The story begins with the words, now Peter and John. Now, Peter and John. Now, both of these people are part of the story, but the odd thing is, John's not mentioned anywhere else really in the story. John doesn't do anything in the story.
Joel Brooks:It's really all Peter here. But it begins by by by including that note, Peter and John were here even though John doesn't speak, John doesn't act. He's just there. And I think that Luke feels compelled to mention that the 2 of them are together for a couple of reasons. One, it happened.
Joel Brooks:Luke is giving a very detailed and accurate account of what happened, and so it was Peter and John, and so he records that. But second is because of what had happened to Peter and John during the crucifixion of Jesus. And he could not have had any 2 more opposite responses to what happened during Jesus' arrest and trial and crucifixion. If you remember when Jesus was arrested and he was crucified, Peter ran. He ran away and and even though he said, Jesus, I will never deny you, he ended up denying Jesus that stood by Jesus at the cross.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus is at the cross and during Jesus' last moment, John is the only disciple there And Jesus even looks at John and says, John, behold your mother. Take care of my mother, John. There was such love and intimacy there and and John didn't run away. And now you have these 2 people working together for the gospel. You you could have had it say, now, Peter and John had a huge falling out after what had happened to Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Or it could have read now, John decided that he can no longer trust Peter. He he saw that Peter lacked courage, that Peter didn't really love Jesus, And so John decided to do his own thing. The story could have gone a number of ways, but here it begins with just, now Peter and John together for the Gospel. And it's important, I don't want us just to jump over this because we really need to understand what the gospel does. And that there is no way John could boast, any more than Peter could boast before Jesus about what they've done.
Joel Brooks:Everybody is on a level playing field before the cross. Everybody needs the gospel. And Peter and John recognize us, and there is no hostility, there is no bitterness, There is no air superiority at all between them. Together, they are partnered for the sake of Jesus. Both of them needed the saving work of Christ on the cross.
Joel Brooks:And I think Luke was sure to include this because he wanted us to know this. And so, Peter and John, they're they're heading to the temple during the afternoon time of prayer. And as they're walking there, they see a a lame man, a a crippled man being carried to the gate called Beautiful, And then they did something that is completely unnatural to us, at least it's unnatural to me. They made a conscious effort to try and look this man in the eye. They stopped what they were doing in order to get this man's attention and say, hey, hey, look at us.
Joel Brooks:To look this man in the eye. Just like I'm sure, you know, I wouldn't have done that but I'm sure you all would have done that. I'm sure when you're driving down the road, you know, and you you see a few people standing in the middle median, maybe holding up signs, chicken buckets, maybe wearing some kind of funny hat or something, and they're out there, I'm sure you all try to slow down to make sure you can stop and talk to those people so you can find out what their cause is and what they're raising funds for. Is that is that how y'all typically operate, you try to get in front of those people? Usually, I mean, this is what I do.
Joel Brooks:The the key is to time it just right when you see people like that. And so you start braking very early and because the key's not to stop, you you you want to just keep keep rolling as long as you haven't stopped. And if you timed the light just right, you just go right through and never stop. You don't have to talk to those people. If the light is wrong and it stops and it's red, you're stuck and you're forced.
Joel Brooks:And so you just have to remember, at all costs, you don't establish eye contact. Never. Beggars are like bears and wild dogs. You know, you don't ever don't ever look at them, because because then then they're engaged with you. And, and so, you know, you get out your phone.
Joel Brooks:You you also become an intense intense phone conversation or very interested in the building to the right. You know, it's just fascinating. Never understood that. And you hope the light changes soon. That's my confession.
Joel Brooks:Peter and John do the opposite. They go out of their way to look this man in the eye, to look him in the eye. We find out in chapter 4 that this man is about 40 years old, which means he's likely been begging for over 30 years. And because he's crippled, he will never actually be allowed to go into the temple. The law prohibited from doing him from doing that.
Joel Brooks:So he can only sit outside the gate and he can beg. It has been a awful life for this man. You could kind of tell just with a few details in the story, he doesn't really care anymore. It's like he's, he's already given up because he doesn't even look people in the eye when he begs. You know, rule number 1 if you're a beggar is you try to get people's attention, you try to get them to to look you in the eye because then they're stuck.
Joel Brooks:And it says that his head's down. He doesn't expect anybody to stop and engage him. For most of us, I think we would have probably just walked right on by. But, but, but something was happening. Something was happening with, with Peter and with John here.
Joel Brooks:And and as this beggar sees these these two people walking by him, he calls out, alms for the poor, like he's been doing all the time and they stop and they say, hey, look at me. Look at me. And I just cannot help but thinking, I'm wondering when is the last time anybody has ever said that to him? When has anybody ever stopped and actually treated him with dignity as a human being and said, Hey, look at me. Usually people just walk by or at best, maybe toss a coin.
Joel Brooks:That's why I no longer even looked up, but, but here they're treating them with dignity. And for most of us, I think when we see somebody like that, the main thing we feel is not compassion, but shame and guilt. I really think that's the case. When we see someone like this man, the first thing that we often feel is is guilt or we feel shame and this can come from a number of reasons. Perhaps it's because we really just don't know how to help.
Joel Brooks:Or perhaps it's because we we see them and we just don't want to help. Perhaps it's because we don't want to part from our hard earned money. Or perhaps it's just simply, you know, I just don't feel like I have the power to really do anything to help this person, But perhaps the main reason underneath all of these, I think that we we don't stop and we don't want to establish eye contact is because of this this deep shame. And we feel the shame in, we feel this shame in silly ways. You know, when, when we're in traffic and you look over at the person next to you in the car next to you and you briefly look at one another in the eye in the eyes, how long do you hold that gaze?
Joel Brooks:About a millisecond, then you look right away. You immediately look away, we can't stand looking someone else in the eye because we immediately feel like, you know, we're we're, we don't want them to look into me. We feel the shame. Because our own soul is so damaged, our own soul is so broken that people looking at us is unbearable. And when we look somebody who is in a broken state, who needs our help in the eye, it reminds us of our own powerlessness.
Joel Brooks:It reminds us of our own wounds, our own guilt, our own black heart, and we feel this guilt and the shame and we have to look away. It's very similar to what happened to Adam. When Adam sinned and he felt this shame, he had to go off hiding. And he hid with fig leaves and we we hide with cell phones. We we hide with just staying busy.
Joel Brooks:Anything to keep us from actually having to look someone in the eye and them looking at us and seeing who we really are. But Peter and John stopped and they looked at this person, they were given this power to do so. And, and one of the reasons I believe, or the reason I believe Peter could do this is cause there was one time Jesus stopped and looked him directly in the eye. And only the gospel of Luke tells us about this. During the trial and the beating of Jesus, and while Peter was busy, denying him so Jesus is being beaten, he's being prosecuted, and and and Peter is off on a courtyard denying him, Jesus, at that moment, stops and looks.
Joel Brooks:And Luke tells us this and says, looked, Peter, square in the eyes, and it devastated him because Jesus saw right through him into the darkness and the blackness of his soul, Saw his betrayal, saw his denial, saw who Peter really was. And here's the thing, Jesus still went to the cross for Peter. Knowing all of that, he still went because he wanted to give Peter a new life, a new heart. And I think that this absolutely changed who Peter was. And we can do the same.
Joel Brooks:We can look at hurting people in the eye without shame because we know that Jesus has taken our shame and nailed it to the cross. Once Peter and John got this man's attention here, they're obligated to do something. It's similar to how I do renovations at my house. I I don't really know what I'm doing, but I just knock things down. I I'll knock a wall down.
Joel Brooks:Lauren and I will look at it. It's like, do you have a plan? I'm like, no, but I've got to do something now. You know, and and it's it's similar. It's like, you know, they they established this eye contact.
Joel Brooks:They got his attention and now they've gotta do something. But what? They don't have any money. I mean, Peter gets out his wallet and he's like, you know, never carry cash in the city. I I I, you know, I've got nothing to give.
Joel Brooks:And then Peter says these immortal words, I have no silver or gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Then verse 7 says, I mean, it's just stunning. He grabs the man and he just lifts him up and he lets him go. It's it's stunning.
Joel Brooks:Absolutely stunning. What happens. Let me tell you what I think is going on that has led up to this point. And I've read this text so many times I've preached on it before. And, and, I'm amazed that I have not seen this in the past.
Joel Brooks:I don't think in this story that Peter went to the temple thinking, I'm gonna heal a lame man today. I mean, today, that's that's kind of my plan. I don't think he thought of that any more than you thought of that when you drove or you walked here. I'm I'm I bet I'm pretty sure that not one of you thought that before I get into Girls Inc, I'm going to heal a lame person. First one I find, healed.
Joel Brooks:I don't think that was, that was happening with Peter. And the story begins very ordinary. If, if you read it slowly and carefully, you're going to notice that the story does not start with Peter and John at the temple. For some reason, my mind always picture them already at the temple. It doesn't start there.
Joel Brooks:They're actually going up to the temple and they see this man in transition up to the temple. He's being carried up there. Verse 2 says that he was being carried to the temple. And so likely what is happening is they're following behind this man as his friends are carrying him him up to the temple. And not once during this process did they think, we need to heal this man.
Joel Brooks:Not once, not crossing their mind, they're just following behind. So then, the friends take this person and they're setting him down and and once again, Peter and John feel nothing. They're not supposed to do anything. Business is normal and they just kind of walk right on by and and they start heading to the beautiful gate, which was, which was an incredibly ornate gate. It the whole temple itself, Herod's temple was it was one of the wonders of the world.
Joel Brooks:You're talking 6 football fields wide. I mean, it it was it was enormous. Six football fields wide, 9 stories high and that was just the platform on which it stood. The entire thing was made of this gorgeous marble that people could see from miles and miles away, had lots of gates. Every gate was covered with silver and gold.
Joel Brooks:They were all gorgeous. When Herod built this temple, he hired architects from Greece and from Rome and from Egypt, and he said, I want to wow people when they come. I want when people come to the temple, their jaw to drop and just say, Oh my goodness and majesty of this building. And so all those gates, you know, were done in silver and gold, and there was one gate that was even more ornate than all the others. And so the only name they had for it is, this is the this is the beautiful gate.
Joel Brooks:So you're talking about the most beautiful gate at the most beautiful structure in the known world at this time here. And I think as Peter is going up there and he sees that gorgeous gate and then then this lame man is set there and he's about to walk in and he hears alms for the poor, something just breaks in him. He stops. He's like, something is not right with this scene. Something is not right here.
Joel Brooks:All this, this beauty, all this power, all this wealth, the best that religion has to offer really is right there and yet here is this person that can't even help. And so he stops and he he says, Hey, look at me. And I think all the while he is looking at this person, he is praying. God, what would you have me do here? God, the scene is not right.
Joel Brooks:It's not right that this person should be sitting here in front of such beauty and wealth. What would you have me do? And then he says those words, silver and gold, I have none. So I'm reverting to King James because it just sounds better. But what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:Stand and walk. And he grabs them and he lifts them up. And there is no way that as Peter is saying, silver and gold, I have none. He is not making a direct reference to that gate. And what he is saying is, you see what you're sitting next?
Joel Brooks:Do you see everything that that this religion holds? Do you see all the wealth, all the power, all the beauty it says it possesses? I've got none of that. And I don't want any of that. What I do have is the spirit of Christ.
Joel Brooks:And he tells us man to stand up and walk and he brings healing into this man's life. He does what the religious authorities of his day could never do. And one of the reasons I think this is going on is because you will find the phrase silver and gold only one other time in the New Testament and it's also uttered by Peter in first Peter 118. When Peter says this, says, You were ransomed from your futile ways, inherited from your fathers. Okay?
Joel Brooks:That's that's the whole system around the temple there. He says, you were rescued from that. You stood condemned under that. So you were ransomed from your futile ways inherited by your fathers, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the blood of Jesus. And the blood of Jesus provides what this cannot.
Joel Brooks:There is a power and there is an authority there that these people do not know. Now I mentioned at the start of this sermon that I told this story to my girls, during our evening devotion. And when I finished the story, I got a couple of questions, Georgia. I asked if they had questions and Georgia said, yes, daddy, what color dress was Peter wearing? It's it's always good to know you're, you know, you're driving those points home.
Joel Brooks:And and then Natalie is the one who asked, why doesn't god do things like this anymore? I'll answer the second question. If we have time, I'll get to the first. It's a great question. Why doesn't God do anything, things like this anymore, dad?
Joel Brooks:I could have answered her, I I tried answering answering her then, I forgot what else she asked and it got all messy and there was probably spankings and ugly scene. But I I could have answered, well, Natalie dear, you see the book of acts is telling us about an extraordinary time in all of church history. And so these miracles that we read about were never meant to be a normative, part of our Christian walk. These miracles and these signs were given to the apostles to establish their authority and their words. And I would have been mostly right about that.
Joel Brooks:But the problem is I do believe that Jesus still works in power today, that He still does these signs and these miracles. So the question remains, why, why doesn't he do this now? Or I guess I would say, why does he so rarely do this now? About 750 years ago, Thomas Aquinas went to, Pope Innocent the second. He went to go visit him at the Vatican, and the pope was showing him all the beautiful things that were being built, and and kind of in pride said, Aquinas, no longer can the church say, silver and gold we don't have.
Joel Brooks:To which Aquinas responded, true, holy father, but no longer can it say rise and walk. And I don't think much has changed in 750 years. All throughout acts, all throughout it, you're gonna see God, the same God of yesterday, today, and forever, perform performing miracles that that point to Christ. Miracles that sit as a platform for people to preach the gospel. Now though, when looking at what most churches do, is we we tend to throw money at things.
Joel Brooks:It's just what we do. We we throw money in some kind of building. We'll throw money at some program, some kind of advertisement, some, you know, grand new sound system, some special event. And and we kind of think that's what we're gonna do, you know, maybe to draw a crowd or to get people in and and then maybe we could slip in a word about Jesus or 2. Or perhaps even when we do preach about Jesus and we say, Yes, Jesus does work wonders.
Joel Brooks:He does have the power to heal, and the Spirit of God is present and He's powerful. We might say these things but then we operate like we believe none of them. We functionally operate like God's Spirit is not in our midst. And and the sad thing for me is we more resemble Peter before Pentecost than after Pentecost. And I think the the sad thing is for the majority of church life, the majority of it would do just fine if God's spirit was not working.
Joel Brooks:It's a well oiled machine. And so when we depend on things, things like silver and gold or our resources, we no longer depend on the power of God. And we don't see him move in our midst anymore. One of the things I said when we first started, Redeemer Community Church, I mentioned that if ever we as a church say, if only we had this certain amount of money, then we could really do this. If ever we say that, if ever man, if only we had all this, this certain amount of money, then we could really do this.
Joel Brooks:If ever we say that we have left the will of God, and we have left His power. Because God is not limited by silver or gold. We need a God given faith in His power. What I think we need is an openness. This is what I want us to take away here.
Joel Brooks:What we need is an openness to look at this broken world in the eye. Broken world in the eye, to look in the eye and say, Lord, what would you have me do? If, do do you want me to give my, my money? I'll give my money because it's yours. You're the one who gave it to me.
Joel Brooks:Do I want to open up my home? I'll open up my home because you're the one who gave it to me. Do you want me to give of my time? I'll give up my time because you're the one who gives me my very next breath. Do you want me to pray for something that I cannot give?
Joel Brooks:Do you want me to pray for healing? Do you want me to pray for restoration? I will do that. Do you want me to say something to this person? I know you can give me the words to say.
Joel Brooks:I think if we just open ourselves up to this, you will see God do extraordinary things. If we trust Jesus like this, I think the communities in which we work and we serve would be utterly changed. Pray with me. Or we confess that we need you, Lord, that we so often fail you. Our best efforts are nothing more than filthy rags before you.
Joel Brooks:Lord, so much of what we aspire to be, you abhor. We want things like the silver, and the gold, and the prestige, and the beauty, and all that, that the world has to offer. Lord, I pray instead, we would just ask for more of your spirit. Lord, as a church, I pray that you would use us, that we would actually believe the things that we say we believe. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.