In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 20 MARCH 2022 pm

ACTS 3 VERSES 1 – 11

 

We see this was a wonderful day in the experience of this man.  This was a day like any other for him.  He was carried to the place at the Beautiful Gate at the temple.  It would not end like any other day though.  He would normally have been carried back to his home in the evening time by his friends.  On this occasion what a transformation.  We are told he was not only walking but leaping and singing and praising God.  His family life would be transformed.  All lives can be changed because of what God has done.  Have you ever had that experience?  A moment in your life when you bowed your knee at the foot of the cross, heard the gospel, how God’s son came into the world, died on the cross of Calvary for you?  This man was 40 years of age.  He had never walked before.  Let’s look at that transformation.

 

The provident hand of God in this man’s life.  I believe that this is the very first step in God’s salvation in bringing you to himself.  It is not something we could have manufactured.  It is God who draws you to himself.  This man is being carried by friends every day just to beg money from people who passed bt.  He couldn’t walk because he had no strength in his feet and ankle bones.  These people set him down as easily as they possibly could.  These friends can do so much to relieve his suffering, but they couldn’t save.  Two of God’s servants are going to come that way.  This was the hand of God.  God has brought you here that you might be totally transformed, changed.  To hear of the gospel of saving grace, to hear of the one who bore your sins on Calvary.  How often we would have put this incident down to coincidence?  It is not mustered up by church ministry or anything of man, not of any denomination.  God begins to open up your heart and mind, to see the sin we have been born with, brings that convicting hand of God on us.  There is always the unseen element working in God’s salvation.  Lydia in Acts 16 was in Philippi on a particular Sabbath day when a prayer meeting was taking place.  The woman in John 4 came out to the well to fill her water pot just as she had done every other day.  Jesus was waiting at the well for her.  God was working in that life.  Think of the woman with the issue of blood.  On the street that day Jesus met Jairus.  He had a daughter that was sick.  Jesus agreed to go with Jairus to his house.  This woman with the issue of blood just happened to be on the same street that day.  She reached forth her hand and touched the hem of his garment and was gloriously healed.  Have you ever experienced the provident hand of God in your life?

 

The patience that is demonstrated.  Peter and John were making their way to the temple.  It was the hour of prayer.  They were obedient to that time.  They saw this man and stopped with him.  They saw the need.  It is important to be in the place of prayer, setting time aside for the Lord.  This man needs to hear a message.  We might not meet a man begging.  I wonder have we given time to someone who needs to hear the word of God?  In Acts 8 we can see the provident hand of God in Philip’s life but also see his patience.  He was brought from Jerusalem to Samaria then down the road to meet an Ethiopian eunuch.  Philip was seeing great things being done in Samaria but then the Spirit of God comes and tells him to go down the desert road to Gaza.  He didn’t question it.  He set aside everything that he was doing just to follow God.  See him standing there watching those chariots, focused on one man thinking deeply about his soul.  Have we ever thought deeply of our soul?  What claim will Jesus make on your life today?  That he should allow you into heaven?  He asks, “what have you done with my son.?”  He loved you so much that he sent his Son to die for your sins.  What have you done with him?  Will you stand one day and say, “I didn’t need your son, I was a good person, I belonged to a church, did so many things.”  This Ethiopian was sitting in his chariot was concerned about his soul.  Philip was patient and listened to him.  Philip asked if he understood what he was reading.  The man replied, “how can I unless someone explain it to me?”  Philip stopped everything he was doing, stepped into the chariot and presented unto him Christ.”  One soul – so important to God.  We can never imagine how important our souls are to God.  He sacrificed his son for your soul.

 

The presentation that was made.  In John 4 when he went through Samaria there was one woman whose soul was in danger of being lost.  The patience he had for the soul.  Are you too busy today?  Peter and John in verse 6 came to where this man was lying at the gate.  They stopped and said “silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you.  In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk.”  They had nothing to give but Jesus.  These 2 disciples had the answer to this man’s plight.  It would have been easy to be big headed.  Great things were happening on the streets of Jerusalem.  3000 were saved but now they are only working with 1 man, a beggar.  He could have said he didn’t have time for this one but not Peter.  He presented the gospel.  This man was actually turning Jerusalem upside down with the doctrine of saving faith, yet they had time to stop with one man and tell him about the Lord Jesus Christ.  Have you had time as a Christian believer to stop?  Did you make time to stop and tell someone about the Lord Jesus today?  Peter could have easily said “look I don’t have time to stop” but he didn’t.  Chapter 4 verse 7 when both were before the ruling body, they told them it was in the name of Jesus that he was healed.  They assured this man of who Jesus was.  These 2 men knew what this man needed to hear.  This man needed God.  We dare not miss the gospel or the presentation of it in our preaching for it is the power of God unto salvation.  “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1 verse 18)  If you are going to be saved you need to come by the way of the cross.

 

The power that was experienced – verse 16 Peter explains it was the man’s faith that saved.  This man realised Jesus could do something for him.  He reaches out his hand and Peter lifts him to his feet.  The power of God transformed this man’s life.  He had to do something for himself.  We can hear the claims of the gospel night after night, day in day out but unless we take that step, we will never experience the power of God in our lives.

 

The praise that arose.  Everyone could see this man was changed.  5000 people were saved as a result of this healing that day.