Acts 3 – The Lame Will Leap

Acts 3:1-26 (Legacy Standard Bible)

“Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they used to set down daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But when Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him, he said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were recognizing him, that he was the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. And while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico called Solomon’s, full of wonder. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. “Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BROTHERS; TO HIM YOU SHALL LISTEN to everything He says to you. ‘AND IT WILL BE THAT EVERY SOUL THAT DOES NOT HEED THAT PROPHET SHALL BE UTTERLY DESTROYED FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE.’ “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also proclaimed these days. “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

Acts 3 – The Lame Will Leap

We’ll now have the preaching of the word of God. If you will turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter three, Acts chapter three,

we’ll continue our series through Acts. As you know, Nick is doing a series for the book of Joshua, and I am going through the book of Acts.

We have, we made it through the first section of Acts, which is chapters 1 and 2, and then the last time that I spoke, I introduced the next section, which is essentially chapters 3 through 8. So we’re going to be looking at chapter 3 today. The title of the message is The Lame Will Leap and it’s taken from Isaiah 35, 6 which we’ve read.

Then the lame will leap like a deer. And just to put us in, in context, uh, the section, chapters 3 through 8, follows a, a pattern, a recurring pattern. There is, there are signs and wonders followed by conflict and then followed by a picture of the new covenant community. In chapter 3, we see Peter healing a lame man.

We see the religious leader’s response to that, bringing conflict. And then we see a picture of that new covenant community. Uh, chapter 5, verse 12, on through chapter 6, verse 7, we see the same pattern repeated. And then again, chapter six, verse eight, all the way until chapter seven, or I’m sorry, chapter eight, verse four, we see the same pattern again.

And this is the section that’s devoted to the witness in Jerusalem. As we know that Christ said that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to even the outermost parts of the world. This is the section that’s devoted to the witness of Christ’s apostles.

Everything that’s happened to establish the church up to this point, let’s be reminded of. Christ ascended as the Davidic king. We saw that in Acts chapter 1. The 12th witness was chosen. Then the recreating spirit was poured out, where he dwells among his people. And that happened in chapter 2 at Pentecost.

And then the exiles returned, and they were able to understand in their own language, which was bewildering to them. So now, we’re gonna move, the witness is gonna continue in Jerusalem, and we’re going to see Peter heal a lame man, and then we’re gonna see Peter’s interpretation of that sign and wonder.

So just to give you a, the outline for today, verses 1 through 10 recounts the sign and wonder of Peter healing the lame man. And then verses 11 through 26. It is Peter’s sermon, which is interpreting that. And then I’ll give you the sub points under those two main points as we go. But before we jump into the text, let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you once again for your Word, which teaches us how to be your people. We thank you that you took hold of us, that you took us out of the miry clay, and you set our feet upon a rock. That rock is Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, that We would see our king today more clearly. We would follow him better this week because of the things that we hear in your word and in your law.

I pray, Father, that you would be with the words that I speak, that they would be in line with your revealed will. And it is in Jesus name that I pray. Amen. Amen.

So, uh, we start, uh, chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. This is Peter Heals a Lame Man. The first subheading is, At the temple gate, beautiful. This is verses 1 through 3, at the temple gate, beautiful. And the text says, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer, and a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they used to set down daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. If you notice, even in these first three verses, everything about it is pointing us to the temple. If we see in verse one, they’re going up to the temple. Verse two, they’re at the gate of the temple. Again in verse two, they’re entering the temple.

And then in verse three, they’re about to go into the temple. Everything that they’re doing is putting us, Luke is putting us in relation to the temple. And then Luke gives us a lot of other details in a very short amount of time. He says, Peter and John are going up to. So this is a high place they’re going to.

And one commentator said that the temple was considered the highest place to the Jews. This is where they met with God. It was a high place. The time is given. It was the third, uh, the ninth hour. That’s 3 p. m. That’s the hour of prayer. The duration of the lame man’s illness is given to us, and that is from the womb.

Where it’s happening is given at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, so it gives us the name of the gate. And then the vocation of the lame man, which is begging for alms. There’s a lot of information here, and it’s all given and orienting us towards the temple. So the man would sit outside of the temple because of his problem, and he depended upon the goodwill of those who were blessed enough to go into the temple in order to make a living, in order to live.

Now the interesting thing is the temple community could not bring this man into the temple with them. They lacked that life giving and restoring power of the Holy Spirit of God. I’ll explain what I mean by that as we go along. This temple community could not bring him. Into the temple with them. Shriner points out this, this is a quote from his commentary.

He says, irony pervades this scene as a lame man sits at the beautiful temple gate at the hour of prayer while the pious pray inside. Truly, the temple has become a den of robbers and lacks the life giving reality it was meant to embody. The use of beautiful also suggests the work of the spirit is to restore, refresh, or make beautiful, words used later in the sermon in verses 20 and 21.

What was twisted at the fall is refreshed and restored at the arrival of the spirit. So you can see the picture that Luke is painting here, this community, they walk past this man as they go into the temple. They’re unable to really help him, they’re just walking by. Yes, they are, of their goodwill, giving him alms, that’s true, and he’s made it thus far, so presumably they were actually giving him alms.

But they could not give him what he truly needed, um, they could not, which was the way to enter the presence of God. He is outside, he’s unable to enter, he’s cut off from the covenant of God. And Schreiner alludes to this passage in his commentary, which I want to actually draw a little bit more sharply.

Nope, and I just lost my notes.

Okay, well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna wing it, so. So if you turn actually to Leviticus, Well,

I don’t want to take the time to find it, because it was in my notes, but I’ll just tell you. There’s a passage in Leviticus which says That anybody who is deformed in any way is not able to enter into the presence of Yahweh. They can’t enter the holy place. So the, the holy of holies is off limits to anyone who is deformed.

And specifically in that passage is the statement that anybody who is lame cannot enter into the holy of holies. So what I believe Luke is actually painting for us in this passage is this man who is lame, he’s sitting in front of the temple. And what this Old Covenant community was not giving him, even though they may have been giving him alms, what they were not giving him is a way to enter the Holy of Holies.

They were not actually able to restore him and lead him into the temple. Uh, the, so Peter and John, they, they’re walking up to the temple. We see this contrast with the Old Covenant community. And they are, uh, they’re in the temple, they’re praying. They’re worshipping, there’s, there’s a lack of this life giving restoration.

And the, at the end of verse 3, it says, he began to ask to receive alms. So the first point was at the Temple Beautiful. The second point is true alms. True alms. We’ll see if I can remember them all the way through. Um, so, uh, chapter 4, but when Peter, along with John, fixed, or verse 4, I’m sorry, when Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, look at us.

And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold. But what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, walk. And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up. And immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.

And leaping up, he stood upright and began to walk. And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. I think this is a rather humorous, uh, passage, actually, because, uh, he’s, you can imagine Peter and John are walking up to the temple and then the lame man, he’s asking them for alms.

So then Peter stops and he looks at him and he says, look at me, to the lame man. So the lame man looks at him and then he says, I don’t have any money. I just think that’s so humorous. But what’s Luke actually trying to tell us? He’s trying to tell us that. Alms are not really what this man needed. And what comes to mind when you think about that, the woman at the well is what comes to my mind.

Uh, she, Jesus offered to give her water, and if she drank of this water, she would never thirst again. And she said, how can you give me this water, I, you don’t have anything to, to, to draw with. How are you going to do this? And he says, uh, Obviously, it wasn’t the, it wasn’t the water, the physical water that he was referring to, but the spiritual water.

In the same way, it wasn’t really alms that these, that this man needed. It was, uh, access to God. It was healing. It was restoration. And that’s what the Holy Spirit was doing. This is what was ushering in this new covenant community. The, the restoring power of the Holy Spirit. So, it wasn’t just Physical needs that this man had it was a spiritual problem in the same way the woman at the well It wasn’t just a physical thirst that she had it was a spiritual thirst And then Jesus was offering to meet that need the point of application for us in that section Is we need to make sure that we’re focusing on what is most important most important Which is true life This is the water, the manna from heaven, right?

It’s not just our physical needs that need to be met, it’s our spiritual ones. But this is why the first point in, in our, in our mission statement is to glorify God and enjoy Him, right? Glorify and enjoy. Comes from the first Catechism question. What’s the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

This is our chief end. This is what we truly need. Now, I don’t want us to start thinking about this In a pietistic way and saying, well, I don’t actually need to drink water. All I need to do is read my Bible because that’s the spiritual water that I need. No, that’s obviously not true. But we can, it’s very easy for us to put the physical above the spiritual.

That’s the point. It’s a, it’s a priority problem. If we’re just prioritizing giving the lame man alms, and we’re not prioritizing this man’s need to come before the presence of God as a sinner, then we don’t have the right priority. You We need to be prioritizing our heart and soul, and then our might will follow.

You love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might, with all your resources. Whenever we looked at that passage, we saw that. If we are loving God with our whole being, then our resources will follow. And, also, if you look at Deuteronomy 6, if we are obeying God, and we’re loving God, and we’re seeking God, Then all of those physical things that we need and that we tend to think that we’re most, we’re usually most concerned about, those things will follow.

The Lord takes care of us. Christ even said, look at the sparrows, like not one of them falls to the ground without your heavenly father knowing. Look at the flowers in the field. They’re so beautiful. They’re adorned with that. Even Solomon and all of his glory was not adorned like one of these. And they don’t worry about how they’re going to dress themselves.

They don’t worry about how they’re going to feed themselves, right? This is the same problem that we’re, that Luke is presenting for us in this passage. You have a man who is sitting in front of the temple, the place where people meet with God. He has a physical need, and obviously our thought is to look at this man and look at his physical need.

And we get stuck on that. And that’s true, and we should be seeking to meet his physical need, we should be giving him alms. But those are not what he truly needs. What he truly needs is access to God. And I, I want you to see that I think that this text is actually going all the way down to verse 8. It says, And leaping up he stood upright and began to walk, and what?

He entered the temple with them. So you see in the first three verses Luke is orienting us towards the temple, but everything that’s happening This man is sitting there and there’s people going up to the temple there. It’s verse one They’re going up to the temple and then he’s set down at the temple gate And then and he was begging alms of people who were entering the temple and then Peter and John are about to go into the temple But this guy, uh, he can’t.

He’s sitting there. But in verse 8, after the restoring power of the Holy Spirit restores this man, then what happens in verse 8? He is able to walk into the temple with them. Walking and leaping and praising God. That’s the whole point of the passage. He, the Holy Spirit, had actually restored this man. But he did it in whose name?

If you look at verse 6, it is in the name of Jesus Christ. The Nazarene that he said walk. So the third point verses 9 and 10 This is the response of the people wonder and amazement wonder and amazement and all the people saw him Walking and praising God and they were recognizing him that he was the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened and this is this is It would make sense Sproul points out in his commentary that there was, in one of the cities that he was studying in, there was a man who was always in the same spot on this bridge begging.

Always. And he, every time he’d walk by he’d see this man and see, so he said, he was just going to do an experiment. He went into a library and found a historical book that had a bunch of photos of the city. And so he was looking for the historic bridge that this guy used to sit at. And sure enough, when he got to that book, there was the guy sitting in the same spot that he’s always been sitting.

So imagine a staple of a community like that, someone who is known in the community as begging. In this case he’s lame, from his mother’s womb. This is what Scroll pointed out. This man is healed. It’s an undeniable miracle. This man has been restored. The community knows it, and they are filled with wonder and amazement.

Which makes sense. They’re filled with wonder and amazement. He used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement. And then, uh, the next section, uh, and this is, uh, the first part of Peter’s sermon, uh, which is verse 11 And, uh, he’s going to ask them a question.

Uh, so, uh, Peter notices their wonder and amazement, and he asks them a question. That, that was the next point. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico called Solomon’s, full of wonder. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?

Ahem. So, you see what the, what the man is doing. He’s clinging to Peter and John. He’s clinging to Peter and John. We were all lame, blind, dumb, mute at one point in time. Death. Right? We were totally depraved. We are all under sin. There’s none that goeth after God. They are all under sin. And Christ healed us.

He saved us. He gave us ears to hear, and eyes to see, and feet to enter the presence of God. What should we be doing with Christ? We should be clinging to him, just like this man was with Peter and John. It makes sense. Imagine if you had no way to actually go and make a living, and your entire subsistence was dependent upon other people.

That’s what we should be doing. As a man, that’s very, that’s not a very good place to be. Your entire existence is dependent upon other people. And so then Peter and John come to him and they restore this man, they give him feet to actually walk with, he can now make a living. Of course he’s going to be, he’s going to be clinging to them.

But more importantly, and as that passage in Leviticus was pointing to, they gave this man access to God. The Holy of Holies was ripped open. This man has been restored. He’s been healed. He’s now holy. He can enter into the holy place. This is exactly what Christ did for us. We are robed in Christ’s righteousness.

We’re no longer dead and deed unto sin. We’re alive unto God through Christ, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So he is clinging to Peter and John. And then Peter asks him the, asks them the question, men of Israel, why are you marveling at this? It’s as if Peter’s saying, You all should know what’s going on here.

You should know. There’s prophecy being fulfilled and it’s happening in front of you and you should know this. Why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? Uh, our tendency, I think, is to focus on the means rather than the source. And when we can do this, the means are important and we don’t want to diminish them and I don’t want you to take away from what I’m saying that the means are not important.

But, uh, I think it was Thomas Watson who said, That we tend to emphasize the cup instead of the water in the cup that quenches our thirst. This is what was happening here. The people, the people were emphasizing Peter and John. They were amazed at Peter and John. They weren’t amazed at the power that they were just a means of, they were just a means of the life giving restoring power of God.

Um, and Peter’s saying, no, no, no. Don’t look at us as if by our piety. Or our power. We had done this great wonder. It’s not through us. It’s not through works of righteousness, which we have done, right? This is through God. And this is something that you should know. And he’s going to go on and tell them. Uh, and this is the next section here.

Starts in verse 13. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the author of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.

And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man, whom ye see and know. And the faith which is through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. Verses 13 through 16. It’s the name of Jesus is the title of that section. He points out the name of Jesus, and I think that Peter is actually alluding to what he already said in his Pentecost sermon in, about, in Joel.

Um, if you actually look at Joel chapter 2, if you want to, you can turn with me. Joel chapter 2,

one of those little minor prophets that’s sometimes hard to find.

Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel.

Joel chapter 2. Verse 21,

it says,

I’m sorry, verse 28, And it will be afterwards that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male slaves and female slaves, I will in those days pour out my spirit, and I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before The great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. It’s going to be important in a minute. And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be those who escape as Yahweh has said, even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.

Now, the interesting thing is Peter is pointing them to the name of Jesus Christ. It was by Christ’s name that this man was healed. That’s what he’s saying here. But in the passage in Joel. It’s through the name of Yahweh that the people are saved from what? He says, Before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes, and it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered.

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape. It’s in the setting of coming judgment that this salvation in the name of Yahweh comes. So he’s pointing them to the fact that this man was saved, he was healed through the name of Christ. So pay attention, Jews, is what he’s saying.

Judgment is coming, and he’s going to make this clear in a second as we go on, but the point of this section, verses 13 through 16 is, and in verse 16, and on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know. And the faith which is through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

He’s connecting the name of Yahweh with the name of Jesus. The name of Yahweh is connected with the name of Jesus, and this is how we are saved from the coming judgment of God. And he’s pointing to the sign of this lame man being healed in the name of Jesus as proof for that. So he’s going to make this clear in the next section, which I just had titled, That Day.

That Day. In verse 17, it says, And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. And But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time Moses said The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

To him you shall listen to everything he says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not need, heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. And likewise all the prophets have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also proclaimed these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers saying to Abraham, And in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. You see, throughout this section, 17 to 26, he’s making a point to talk about what’s about to happen. He’s saying we’re in the process of seeing fulfillment of prophecy in verse 18. He tells them to repent in verse 19, and this comes on the heel of his accusations in the prior section.

Where he says, you delivered in verse 13 and denied in the presence of Pilate. Uh, verse 14, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer. So on the basis of their condemnation and on their coming, the coming judgment, he says, repent and return, in verse 19, so that your sins may be wiped away.

So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Uh, whom the heaven must receive until the period of restoration. Amen. And then he points to this passage, uh, in Deuteronomy. Uh, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. And listen to what it says in verse 23.

Whoever does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. This is reminiscent of what the Jews actually requested of Joshua. Remember, in the first chapter of Joshua, when they were looking at that, they said, Joshua, we will obey you as we have obeyed Moses. And anybody who does not heed you Will be put to death and it sounds kind of drastic But now Peter’s saying yeah, that was actually talking about Christ The true King and anybody who doesn’t listen to Christ is going to be cut off They’re going to be put to death and the same is true even today This is the keys of the kingdom the proclamation of the gospel, which is to some life and to some death To some who believe it is life everlasting and to some who reject it is damnation and hellfire.

So the question for us, for you, will you heed that prophet? Will you heed Jesus Christ? Will you repent of your sins and believe on Christ as your Savior or will you be cut off? Will you be cut off from the covenants of promise from the life that is to come? Which will you choose? And this is what Peter is, is saying to those Jews, listen, judgment is coming that you will be saved in the name of Yahweh.

The name of Yahweh is actually the name of Jesus Christ, which there is no other name given among men whereby you must be saved. And it is at his name that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul makes that same connection in Philippians. It’s the name of Jesus.

It’s synonymous with the Old Testament name of Yahweh, and it’s, and salvation is through His name. So escape the coming judgment through the name of Yahweh. And lastly, he’s pointing out to them, they’re Jews. The, the, the promise is to them, right? The promises have been to them. And this is fulfilling the Great Commission, it’s to the Jew first.

They’re going to Jerusalem. And Peter says this in verse 26, for you first. First, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you, by what, turning every one of you from your wicked ways. This is the whole point that he’s driving at, the sign and the wonder, the reason that it happened was to point to the life giving, restoring name of Jesus Christ, which was then the way of salvation that’s going to save them from the coming judgment, the coming vengeance of God.

And that is what he means by these days. The prophets have spoke of these days, the great and awesome day of Yahweh, which had come upon them. And, uh, we had talked about before that they’re going to have forty years that God graciously gave them to turn from their sins and enter into the new covenant promises for Jesus Christ and His shed blood.

Um, and many do. Many do. And we’ll see that as we go throughout the texts of the next coming week. Uh, there’s thousands upon thousands and even some of the religious leaders who repent of their sins and believe on Christ. So, just to summarize. Uh, there’s two main sections in chapter 3. There’s verses 1 through 10, which outline Peter healing a lame man.

That’s a sign and a wonder. That’s the restoring power of the poured out Holy Spirit through the name of Yahweh, the name of Christ, that’s indicating to them times of refreshing and restoration. The people respond to this in wonder and amazement, which makes sense. And then Peter’s response to that is to give them all of the reasons why they should know what’s going on.

What moment they’re in. These are the days that have been prophesied by the prophets of old. It’s the times of refreshing are upon us. If you repent of your sin and believe on Christ as your savior. And the application for us, just so it’s not lost on us, we need to be careful that we are not emphasizing anything.

The physical over the spiritual, the physical will be in its proper place if we emphasize what we ought to be emphasizing. And that is the worship of the Triune God that has to be at the center of our community, everything else will fall into place if we have right worship. If we have right worship, word and sacrament, then everything else will fall into its place.

That doesn’t mean we neglect everything else. We have to have everything in its proper place, but we also need to make sure that we’re not getting distracted. And we’re not allowing other things that we think are important, and that may be important, but are not as important as the worship of God, to take place of the worship of God, take the place of, in our hearts and lives.

And when, when we’re going out into our several places and relations this week, we need to remember that. Um, this is a, uh, this is something that we can, we tend to forget a lot whenever we’re out and about. People don’t need to know, uh, how to live their best life now. They don’t really need to know how to fix their problems, and we shouldn’t be pointing them to Jesus as a means to fix their problems.

We need to be pointing them to Jesus, who is the author of life. He’s the giver of life itself. And if they turn to Christ, then yes, we have an answer to all of life’s problems. But we have a tendency to flip that on its head, and we need to avoid that. As the old covenant community was doing with this lame man who was sitting outside the temple.

It was through the Holy Spirit. And the name of Jesus, that this man was restored and brought into the presence of God, which was the most important thing. And then, secondly, uh, as, as Peter was presenting to them faith in Jesus, uh, the same question is put before you. Are you going to listen to Jesus Christ, who is the author of life itself?

He is the king of kings and he’s the lord of lords. And, as Paul says, every knee will bow before him one day. Um, either, uh, coerced or voluntarily. So, on which side of that are you going to be on? Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for your word. Thank you for the things that it teaches us.

We thank you that, uh, we can learn how to be your people, that you teach us these things in your word. We pray that we would not take them lightly, but that we would apply them to our hearts, that they would take root in our hearts, and that they would make us More like your son, Jesus Christ, as we follow our King this week.

And it is in Jesus name that I pray. Amen.