Unable to use his legs, he sat daily in a
heavy pedestrian route near the temple gate where he asked people for a
handout. If he sits at the door of your
congregation's meeting place, what will you and your friends do?
Recently filled with God's Holy Spirit,
overwhelmed really, yet at the same time supernaturally endowed with power of
which Peter and John were unassumingly assertive, they met a disabled man one
day. As they came near, he requested something from the two men. Peter
commanded his attention. Their eyes met. Peter said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up on your feet and start
walking." Peter took the unsuspecting man's hand and helped him to his
feet. As he stood he found he could bear his own wait. His first steps took his
breath away with joy. He began to high step, to jump, to dance in circles
around the men, to gasp, shout, scream with excitement and he cried, cried out
praise to God and walked with Peter and John through the temple gate to the
place of worship.
Scores of people witnessed this spectacle
and many more rushed to the scene and stared incredulously at Peter and John
and the vertical beggar. Peter and John
were certain that there was available power to heal this man, and now with
similar assurance Peter fearlessly questioned the Jewish audience about their
obvious assumption that by some weird divination or hocus pokus, these
disciples had healed the man. Peter immediately denied that their own power had
affected this healing of a lifelong incapacity. Then Peter daringly cited the
Jewish crowd with an offense so shocking that humiliation would cripple them
with guilt. He told them that this beggar had been healed by putting faith in
the name of the righteous and holy man called Jesus. This Jesus was the same
person whom the Jewish community had disowned and killed. However, Peter and
John were among the many who had observed Jesus alive after the crucifixion. He
who was the very author of life had himself come back to life after giving it up.
This indictment intensified when Peter told them that God, God of their
fathers, that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs they
revered, endorsed Jesus as Messianic Saviour and honoured him now in heaven.
Their burden may have been too much to bear had Peter not conceded that their
crime was the result of their ignorance of the truth that Jesus had been sent
to suffer and to die to atone for human sin. For a time, Jesus was remaining
in heaven waiting for authorization to return when he will restore everything. But
now, Peter said, "You need to repent of your sin, turn in faith to God so
that your sins are wiped out, and the times of refreshing that follow will
include you."
So the question posed to me today by the
Holy Spirit is, "What about the
woman living in the unit beneath you, who is an emotional, relational, medical
drug-dependent cripple? Are you responding to her with the faith-filled
assurance that when you tell her not give up, rather to get up and be whole, she will take your
hand and stand up. And later when she experiences with unquenchable joy the entirely
healed life she has been given, will you speak boldly about Jesus to her awestruck
family and friends?"
The other question to me is, "Or, will
you be too timid because your theological training and teaching and christian culture and your friendships
influence you to disrespect supernatural interventions?"
The narrative comes from Luke, the writer of the
account in Acts chapter 3.
