Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: I love this story because this guy's crippledness separates him from being able to go into the temple to worship, and it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth he's healed and he gets to go into the temple.

Guest (Male): On Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador with a vivid picture illustrating the power of gospel grace.

Brett Meador: You've been crippled by sin and so have I. But good news, when Peter says, "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk," that same healing is available to you today. You see, Jesus is the one who makes us have access to God.

Guest (Male): In Acts chapter three, the Apostles Peter and John encounter a crippled man begging near the temple gates. As Peter and John come across him, they offer him something far greater than silver or gold. As we see the man healed and rejoicing as he enters the temple, Pastor Brett Meador uncovers some valuable lessons that illustrate our restoration with God, all in today's word.

Brett Meador: I love the stories of the Bible. They always leave such a nice impression. Have you ever tried to think about the circumstances before and after the story—the part that's not in the Bible? I think that's always fun to do. In this case, we can deduce certain things about the story we're going to read. I'm not sure you'd want to die on the battlefield that you know all the details, but our story really kind of begins around 10 BC.

What happened was a little baby was born to a couple that was crippled, crippled from the womb. At that time period, 10 BC, often they would let that child die. There were reasons they had that were both physical and then secondly, spiritual. There was a false narrative that this child was crippled because the parents must have done something really sinful. That was a wrong way of thinking. Jesus would clarify that in His ministry that that wasn't the right way to think. But that's the way they thought in those days. So they'd let the child die, often times.

This is a really sad situation if you were born a cripple. But this little baby in 10 BC had parents that cared for him and loved him and raised him. But there was nothing you could do if you're crippled. They didn't have accessibility in Jerusalem. If you were crippled, the only way you would survive is really if you had some friends that would carry you every day and put you where you could beg and ask for people to give you alms. Alms, of course, being just coins throwing into a can as they walked by your sorry soul. They'd sit there begging your whole life, and it was not a good way to live.

But that would be the case with this guy. Maybe his parents died, but he still had enough friends that would carry him out every day and they'd put him right at the gate that entered into the temple mount. Now, I also wondered, did this guy as time went by, wonder if he heard about a guy from Galilee? Jesus from Nazareth that was able to heal crippled people. Maybe he'd heard stories about the guys that carried their buddy and lowered him through the roof and Jesus made him walk again. I wonder if this guy had hope that one day Jesus would walk by him there at the gate entering into the temple and maybe heal him.

Do you ever wonder if Jesus walked by this guy that we're going to read about here in Acts chapter three? Because the likelihood is yes. Jesus went in and out of the temple on many occasions. I wonder if when Jesus died on the cross, there was a buzz in Jerusalem. Everybody was talking about it. Remember the road to Emmaus, the two guys saying, "Are you a stranger? Do you not know what's going on about Jesus?" Everybody knew what was going on. I wonder if this guy's heart sank when he heard that Jesus was killed on a cross. His one last hope of having help by this Jesus of Nazareth, but now He's crucified. Maybe he even heard that maybe He's resurrected.

But then after the resurrection, He was there for 40 days, but then He ascends into heaven and now He's gone. I wonder if this guy knew any of that stuff. We don't know for sure, but all hope would be lost if he did because Jesus is now gone. That's where you're sitting there wondering, why didn't Jesus walk by me? Why didn't Jesus heal me like He did those others? The guy at the pool of Bethesda that couldn't get in the pool and Jesus came and healed him. What's my problem? Why can't I have? I just wonder if this guy thought those things because he's probably close to about 40 years old now and he's sitting there doing the same old thing. That's kind of where we pick it up in our story.

Acts chapter three, verse one. It says, "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 of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go up to 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."

This is the first healing miracle done since Jesus had ascended into heaven. Really, you might say the only other miracle was the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the people there in the upper room in Acts chapter two, the Day of Pentecost. That was a miracle, but this is like the first healing miracle since Jesus was gone. Now, Peter, James, John, the boys, they're all filled with the Holy Spirit and they're going to do some great works. I love this. But while they were going to do some great works, they were also doing the heavy lifting.

What were they doing? I love how this story starts out with Peter and John going into the temple to pray at the hour of prayer. That's something that I think churches need to have is an hour of prayer where you can consistently, regularly get together and pray. One of our Sunday night services is that for us. Just a time to pray and worship and focus on the Lord. I worry sometimes that we Christians aren't as fervent in prayer. We don't have our hour of prayer, but the early church had that time that they would go and pray. It says it right here.

They were going up together and I like, by the way, that Peter and John are going together. Because you do sense in the Bible narrative, if you've been with us in the gospel study, that Peter and John had a little bit of a friendly rivalry perhaps going on. Remember John saying, "The one that Jesus loved, the disciple beat Peter to the tomb," and he says that over and over again. He reminds us of that. You could also argue Peter denied Jesus three times. John could have said, "I'm done with you loser Peter. You denied our Savior Jesus. I'm not going to hang with you." But here I love it that we see Peter and John going together into the temple to pray.

But there's some things about this story that are worth noting and I think perhaps we can glean from this story so many things. I'd like to just point out a few of them. First, I want to point out a sad contrast. The contrast here is interesting. We have a crippled beggar who, apart from God's help, is really hopeless. Has no hope apart from God. I want you to kind of keep in the back of your mind as we study this that in a lot of these stories, we have to remember that you and I, we are the crippled beggar in the story. We've been crippled with sin.

We've been doomed and hopeless, but when Jesus comes along, then we realize we have hope in Christ and that's where our only hope will be found and we have heaven to look forward to and healing from our sins. So you can in some ways kind of keep that tucked away—we're the crippled guy. In fact, we're sometimes the worst people in the stories as we read the Bible. What do you mean? Well, the woman that was caught in adultery and she's thrown down in front of those men and they're all ready to stone her to death. We're the woman who was caught in adultery. We're the ones who were caught in our sin and were doomed and everybody in the world would condemn us because of that.

But we're the ones that also Jesus would say, "Where are your accusers? Go your way and sin no more." You have to kind of see yourself in the Bible. The Bible even refers to itself as a mirror that when we read the Bible, you're actually kind of seeing yourself. In this case, I liken myself to the crippled beggar who had no hope apart from Christ. We're going to see this. Beggars would be at the gates there because that's where the main foot traffic would go. That's probably the number one reason why they would be placed at the gate.

It was like the funnel. If people were going to go into the temple mount, they'd go into that gate and so the smart beggar would position himself where all the foot traffic would go. But also to the temple itself might have been a smart ploy just because maybe he could make them feel a little guilty—they're going to go up and worship God with their money and stuff, but here's a poor beggar. But here's something you should know, and this starts to get to an interesting debate about where was the gate Beautiful? We know from the context of the story it would lead to the temple mount.

But one thing you should know is a crippled guy was not allowed to go to the temple mount in those days. I'll give you a reference. The Mishnah, which is sort of the commentary on Jewish thought, Mishnah Kelim 1.8 states that nobody with any physical issue or handicap of any kind was allowed on the temple mount. Some argue they were allowed to the court of the Gentiles maybe, but not past that other wall. We'll talk about that in a second. So people start to wonder, this guy was just outside of the temple mount at the gate Beautiful. Now, where is the gate Beautiful in Jerusalem? Nobody really knows.

The gate Beautiful is not referred to really in any other writings except for right here. So there was a time in Jerusalem there was a gate called Beautiful. The question is where was it? There's a lot of speculation. Three main ideas. One group of scholars would say it was just another name for the Golden Gate, which was also called the East Gate. Which one is it? East Gate, Golden Gate, gate Beautiful? For sure it's called the East Gate the most in the Bible. The East Gate, by the way, has an interesting story.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is going to return and go through the East Gate when He returns on His second coming. So what's interesting about that, if you go to Jerusalem today and you drive by the East Gate, nobody goes through it because a guy, Suleiman the Magnificent, was a guy who sealed up that gate. The reason he sealed it up with stone, big giant blocks, because he heard that the Jewish Messiah was going to come through that gate. He said, "Watch this," and he sealed the gate so that no Messiah could go through that entry.

But here's what's funny about that. If you read in the book of Ezekiel, it says prophetically that the East Gate would be sealed up until the Messiah comes. Little did Suleiman the not-so-magnificent understand that he was just fulfilling Bible prophecy. So it's kind of cool. If you go to the Jerusalem today, it's still sealed up, which just kind of go, yep, that's what the Bible says would happen. Which is really odd because the East Gate is one of the most logical entries to the temple mount. It was probably the most prominent. And yet it sits for hundreds of years now sealed up until Christ comes.

Now, some say that was the gate Beautiful. But most scholars would say no, it can't be that. But they say there was a gate within the East Gate, which is true. They dug archaeologically and they found there was a gate within a gate. But once you went in the East Gate, you're technically on the temple mount. And so the problem with saying the crippled beggar was placed at the gate inside the East Gate, it's probably unlikely because he would have already been on the temple mount by the time he gets into the East Gate. The crippled guy wouldn't have been allowed into the gate, but he'd be sat just outside of the gate begging for alms.

Now, in verse eight, did you see? It says in verse eight that he was able to enter in with them to the temple. But why? Because he was healed. He was no longer crippled. He was walking and leaping and praising God. But I wonder if this is like one of the first times in his life he was able to enter into that gate and go. There's a great picture there of how Jesus is our access to be able to have a relationship with God. This picture's that in kind of a beautiful way. Now, a few more items here. Some say, no, he was able to go in, but they would not allow him past the small wall that went around the major temple area.

Just inside of the gate was the court of the Gentiles and Solomon's porch. But then there was a wall. And on that wall were various stone placards that were placed there that said basically if you're not a Jew and you cross this wall, you're going to die. And it said that over and over again. These placards, they've found a bunch of them archaeologically that were actually carved by Herod the Great's men. So you say, okay, Brett, got it. What's that have to do with anything? Well, this is really cool. Jesus is the one who is the one that restores our relationship to God.

That's the whole purpose of Christ coming. Our sin separates us from God. I love this story because this guy's crippledness separates him from being able to go into the temple to worship, and it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth he's healed and he gets to go into the temple. In the same way, Jesus did something that was shocking to the people back then. Remember when Jesus turned the tables? And He said, "Make not my house a house of merchandise or den of thieves." Where did that happen on the temple mount? Where did the turning of the tables? The court of the Gentiles. That's a big deal.

Because Jesus is turning the tables and while He's turning He says, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." The Jews did not look at the court of Gentiles as part of the Father's house. But Jesus includes it when He says that. What does that have to do with anything? Well, the Jews, remember, they thought Gentiles at that time were created by God to be fuel to fire the hell fire. We're like logs for hell. But actually, Jesus is the one that would say, "I'm going to include the Gentiles." And that's where that was seen there.

You see, Jesus is the one who will reconcile anyone who's a sinner on the outside, crippled or non-Jew or a horrible sinner. Jesus is the one who makes us have access to God and that's kind of part of this picture. So we kind of look at the sad contrast. The contrast is really between what God wants to do and what churches and religion actually does. We have the contrast of this religion, the temple mount and Jews doing this pious worshiping of God. Meanwhile, there's this poor crippled man outside that has no hope and no help.

And one of the things that we need to remember as Christians, God is in the business of loving the unlovely. God is in the business of restoring those who have no access to God. You might be the worst person in this room, but guess what? Jesus is all about fixing that. You're the crippled one in sin. You've been crippled by sin and so have I. But good news, when Peter says, "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," that same healing is available to you today. And I love that the sad contrast is when religion sort of is the wall that keeps people away from Christ.

But Jesus is the one who actually cares. And the answer is always Jesus. The answer's always Jesus. Now, we also notice in the story, number two, on our just observations here, we see a sinner seeking. You see, this guy doesn't need just to be healed from his crippled situation, he needs to be saved. Like everybody else on the planet. But what's this guy seeking? Well, he's seeking one thing, but he really needs another thing. And this is something we see all the time. Remember the crippled guy that was lowered through the roof with Jesus?

And they wanted to see him healed from his crippled condition and Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." And the guys, everybody's like, "What? That's not really what we came for." But Jesus knew that was his greatest need. But then Jesus, to prove that He was able to forgive sins, He healed the guy from his crippled situation. Same thing's really true of this guy. He's a sinner who's seeking and what he's seeking is alms, it says. He comes to that gate Beautiful and he's seeking after money. He wants money.

But sometimes what you need to give people is not what they really want. And I hope you remember that. And sometimes we're tempted just to give money. After a sermon like today, you might say, "Okay, I'm going to drive by the guy at the Beaverton off-ramp and I'll throw some money at him." No, that's not the right heart. Because really the money is not what he needed. What they really need is Jesus. Now, you got to be careful. I like when you do kind of both—helping them with what they think they need, money, but also helping them with what they really need, Jesus.

And sometimes we make the mistake, churches make the mistake of only giving the money part but not caring about their spiritual condition. Without Jesus, they'll just be in dire need of more money 10 minutes after you're gone. So you need to make sure you're dealing with the real issue. And sometimes it's not even money. Like that's what happens here in this story. And that leads us to the next point of observation. I love the sensitive saints. Sensitive saints? Yeah, Peter and John. Did you notice they seem like they're going with great resolve to pray in the temple. I bet they're in charge of the prayer time, if I could guess.

They're going into the temple to pray at the hour of prayer. They got a time frame. And yet they have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. I call it a Holy Spirit antenna where they're like walking along and all of a sudden, what's going on? Oh, the guy next, oh, this guy's... and they know that they're supposed to tune in to him. How did they know that? I believe it's the Holy Spirit that does that and we have them sensitive to this guy's need. And not only that, they're sensitive enough to hear that don't just throw money at him. Don't just flip him a coin and walk in and do your prayer.

But actually turn and fasten your eyes—I like the intentional looking into the eyes of this guy and getting his attention and not letting him go "alms, alms, alms" with a head on a swivel. Peter says, "Look at me." And he expects to get something from him. But what he gets is not money, but he gets what he needs. And that is Jesus. I love that. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means as a Christian, having your spiritual antenna up and dialed in when the Lord prompts you to do something.

I love those things where I feel like they're off-schedule. If you're a person that's ruled by a schedule, which I kind of am, sometimes you have to just say, you know what, this is not on my schedule today. But sometimes the worst distractions are actually divine appointments and you have to be ready for those and even be willing to be late at your next meeting if the Holy Spirit is causing you to see something that needs attention. I think that's important. Are you flexible enough, or are you rigid?

I remember one of my favorite stories on this is when Deb and I were early married. We were both finishing up our time at Southern Oregon University and she had this thing where she had some project or something where she had to drop off some of her work to some of the other students they were working together. She dropped off the stuff and as she was walking out, she walked by a girl's dorm room and her door was open. She was sitting on the bed. I think she might have been weeping. And Deb looked in just for a second and she just had that stirring of her heart. She just knew I'm supposed to go talk to that girl.

And she said, "No, I'm not going to do that." She just kept walking. She made it all the way back down the stairs to her car and she was just getting ready to start her car, but the Lord was so heavy on her heart just to say, "No, you got to go talk to that girl that was crying on her bed in her dorm room." So Deb walked back up the stairs and went back into the room and just said, "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" "Yes." And she just burst into tears and Deb started talking with her about the Lord, sharing the gospel. And it was a long conversation. She took some time with it.

And then Deb at the end, the grand crescendo, Deb said, "Do you want to accept Jesus as your personal Savior?" And the girl looked at her and said, "Nope." She said, "Well, I think Deb maybe gave her her phone number or something." Then Deb walked out and she kind of went, "Lord, what was that all about? Come on. Was I really supposed to do that or was that just me being weird?" A couple months later, suddenly this girl shows up at our church, the same girl that Deb talked to at the dorm. And she comes and hears the gospel there at church and gets saved and accepts Jesus there.

And it was like Deb knew that she was instrumental in planting little seeds like the Lord gave her that glimpse. Some of you are never going to see the glimpse that Deb got seeing the fruition of the being led by the Holy Spirit. Some you're not going to see that, but it's still real nonetheless. I hope you and I have sensitivity to the spirit when we're going out through our day and if the Lord just leads you to talk to someone, maybe at the coffee shop or somewhere at school or where you live. And you're like, "No, I shouldn't talk." If you feel your heart beating and you're saying no, that probably means the Lord's stirring.

I like the sensitive saints of Peter and John as they're walking along all of a sudden, boom, and they turn to this guy. And this is one of the great stories of the Bible. Had they not been sensitive to the spirit, there would have been no walking and leaping and praising God. We wouldn't be sitting here talking about this amazing miracle, and they would have missed out on some of the blessing that God had for them. We got to watch out for that. Sometimes interruptions are routine divine appointments. That's kind of important to know.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing just partway through some observations of the healing of the lame beggar of Acts chapter three, representing God's abundant grace that we'll continue next time here on Today's Word. And I trust you'll stay right there as Pastor Brett will be here in just a moment to join me. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland suburb of West Linn, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. You can find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is with me.

Kurt: Brett, one of the most famous men in the Bible is King David. Before he was king, he was known as being a shepherd and then slaying the giant Goliath. He was also a man after God's own heart, but he was also a writer of multiple psalms, many of those which are found in scripture. So music was of course a huge part of his life. And I know music is also a big part of your life at Athey Creek Church. In fact, you'll occasionally be playing with the Athey worship band. Why is music so important to you personally, Brett? And why is music so vital in worship?

Brett Meador: I love that you brought up David, because I think that some men particularly think that worshiping God is kind of a soft thing to do. It's for the ladies. But I dare you to say that to David's face when you get to heaven. I mean, David was a guy who made the SEAL Team Six guys look like wimps. The women in the street said, "David has killed his tens of thousands." Let alone the giant Goliath.

The thing I love about David, he was a warrior but he was also a worshiper. And one of the things that we men need to really remember is that worshiping God, there's nothing wimpy about it. David wrestled with depression. He wrestled with challenges and difficulty. But when you read the Psalms that he wrote, you realize this is how he was working through the challenges of life. It's almost like he had the truth in his head, but it would have to reach into his heart. And I think that's what happens when we are worshipers.

It's like in Colossians 3:16 where Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." So worship through music isn't just about performance. It's really not about that. It's more about participation and it's the body of Christ coming together to say, "Here's what God is and look what He's done and let's celebrate that together." And it's just a good reminder.

So I think for me, I like to be a part of the worship team whenever I can because I want people to see that their pastor who loves the Bible... have you noticed, Kurt, that there's sometimes people that love the Bible but aren't really into worship? And then there's people that love to worship but aren't really into the Bible. I want to show our congregation that both are essential and that's really one of the reasons why I continue to jump in.

Kurt: Brett, that's really good insight, how we need to be mindful of how important both worship and the study of God's Word really is. Thank you for that. Well, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador, Today's Word, or Athey Creek Church, you can just go to our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue the account of when the Apostles Peter and John encountered this crippled man who would be healed.

Guest (Male): Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.