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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bible Lesson: Miracles Of The Power Of The Holy Spirit: Lame Man Healed

Bible Lesson: Miracles Of The Power Of The Holy Spirit: Lame Man Healed.

God's Messengers: Peter and John.

Bible Location: Jerusalem/ Beautiful Gate.

Bible Text: Acts 3:1 - 4:16 KJV

Acts 3:1-26 NLT
1 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service.
2 As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple.
3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
4 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!”
5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money.
6 But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
9 All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.
10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded!
11 They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon’s Colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.
12 Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?
13 For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him.
14 You rejected this Holy, Righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer.
15 You killed the Author of Life, but God raised Him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!
16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.
17 “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance.
18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that He must suffer these things.
19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.
20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and He will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.
21 For He must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through His holy prophets.
22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything He tells you.’
23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’
24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today.
25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants all the families on earth will be blessed.’
26 When God raised up His servant, Jesus, He sent Him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”


Acts 4:1-22 NLT
1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees.
2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.
3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.
4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem.
6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest.
7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people,
9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed?
10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.
14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say.
15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.
16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it.
17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.”
18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him?
20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”
21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God
22 for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.

Here is a man, a forty year old man, who from his birth (Acts 3:2), had been carried into the temple to receive the alms of those going into the temple. Parents, and friends brought him faithfully every day.
They relied upon the generosity of God's people.

Daily the lame man continued to trust in the help of God and His people.
One thing the poor, the sick, the elderly can afford, is hope in God, and His people.

Job 5:1,8-16 NLT
1 “Cry for help, but will anyone answer you?...
8 “If I were you, I would go to God and present my case to Him.
9 He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.
10 He gives rain for the earth and water for the fields.
11 He gives prosperity to the poor and protects those who suffer.
12 He frustrates the plans of schemers so the work of their hands will not succeed.
13 He traps the wise in their own cleverness so their cunning schemes are thwarted.
14 They find it is dark in the daytime, and they grope at noon as if it were night.
15 He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong, and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful.
16 And so at last the poor have hope, and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut.

Psalm 31:24 KJV
Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

Psalm 33:18 KJV
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy;

Psalm 42:11 KJV
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 71:14 KJV
But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.

Psalm 119:114 KJV
Thou art my Hiding Place and my Shield: I hope in thy word.

Psalm 146:5 KJV
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

Psalm 147:11 KJV
The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.

Jeremiah 17:7 KJV
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Lamentations 3:26 KJV
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

Acts 3:6-8 NLT
6 But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.

Some one has well said...”The church of Jesus Christ can no longer say “silver and gold have I none,” and it is also true that they cannot say “rise up and walk.”

What a difference a little silver and gold can make.

The sin of hypocrisy.
Many leaders of today's church masquerade around in cheap suits and small cars, saying that they “rely on God.”
When if the truth be known they are millionaires many times over, and some, yes true, billionaires.

On the other hand some religious leaders openly brandish their gospel wealth, proclaiming, God wants everyone to be wealthy, especially themselves!

What was it our Lord said.......

Matthew 8:20 KJV
And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.

Matthew 17:24-27 NLT (Jesus and Peter, no money for taxes.)
24 On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house. But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”
26 “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!
27 However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

Jesus speaks of the draw of wealth.

Matthew 6:19-21,24 KJV
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
24 No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“No one can serve two masters,” today we have a world of religious workers doing their best to prove Jesus wrong!

Deuteronomy 11:16 KJV
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

Titus 1:7 KJV
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

I Peter 5:2 KJV
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

The commodity Peter and John had, was power, that had been given them from on high, and from which they so freely gave.

Matthew 10:8 KJV
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Acts 3:7-9 KJV
7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
9 All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.

We who long for the works of God's Holy Spirit again in the church, may it forever be realized that revival is not something “worked up,” or that magically “comes down,” it flows from the hearts of holy honest people.

Luke 8:15 KJV (The Good Seed)
But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Acts 6:3 KJV
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
(Notice that the first category of a Deacon, is that of honesty.)

Romans 12:17 KJV
"...Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

II Corinthians 8:21 KJV
Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Philippians 4:8 KJV
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

May all disciples of this day, remember well the calling of Christ's disciples. That not to filthy lucre, or the chief seats (positions of power or prestige), but to the humble work of Christ, and their own cross.

Mark 8:34 KJV
And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Mark 10:21 KJV (The young man of wealth.)
Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.

Matthew 17:8 KJV
And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw...Jesus only.