we're going to continue this morning with our study of the book of Acts and I'm going to be reading from the third chapter beginning at verse 1 and I'll read through verse 11 now Peter and John went up together to the temple at The Hour of Prayer 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 from those who entered the temple who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked for alms
and fixing his eyes on him with John Peter said look at us so he gave them his attention expecting to receive receive something from them and then Peter said silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give to you 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 receive strength so he leaping up stood and walked and entered the temple with them walking leaping and praising God and all the
people who saw him walking and praising God and they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him and as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's greatly amazed he has ears to hear the word of God let them hear this narrative let's pray father would that we would have been eyewitnesses to this astonishing event that took
place by the gate beautiful we pray pray that the impact of it may reach down through the centuries even to this morning to touch our lives where we ask it in Christ's name amen please be seated the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is called Amsterdam because of a dam that was built along the amol river and around this Dam in concentric circles was built a city that is a major European Metropolis to this day we journeyed to Holland for our graduate work and lived 25 miles outside of the city in a small Dutch Village
and so it was my custom to commute to the University of Amsterdam by train from the outskirts in the little village into the center of the city to the hub of the city called Central Station in those days the Free University of Amsterdam was located downtown in fact right around the corner from the annefrank house if any of you have visited Amsterdam and have visited the anrank house you know where I did my graduate work today University is out in the suburbs and the old site is no longer functional as a university but in any
case as I would get off the train in Amsterdam I would walk down the Main Street first across a bridge and then down towards what was called the Dom or the dam and there to make a turn to go on over to the university but every day that I went down that street across the bridge I passed a beggar there was a man who was Seated on the side of the bridge there on the road and he had his little collection basket there and I could not pass him without dropping some coins at least small
Ms as it were into his collection basket and when I was finished for my residency there and returned to the United States and went back to Holland four years later came in the Central Station got off the train walked across the bridge and the same man was still there still begging and I still gave him some coins and on that trip we bought a momento one of those large picture books that celebrate various cities you find them in Prague in London and Rome and wherever for your coffee table and I bought this great big picture
book of Amsterdam and as I was going through the pages I saw a photograph of the bridge and sure enough there was that same guy sitting there with his hands out waiting for arms in other words he was a fixture of the city and it's a story similar to that that we read here in the New Testament about a man who is a fixture by the gate beautiful who encountered Peter and John so so let's look at the text now Peter and John went up together to the temple at The Hour of Prayer that has
to have some comment one of the things that jumps out at me as I read this text is the company that was being kept here this is Peter the one who betrayed Jesus only a few weeks earlier at his crucifixion is now going side by side with his companion John who we know stayed with Jesus during the ordeal of the execution because he was at the foot of the cross when Jesus commended the care of his mother Mary into his hand so the one who fled is now working together with the one who remained loyal
to Jesus at the time of his death and the second thing that we see here is they went to the temple now the the separation of the Christian Community from the Jewish Community took many many years for that to become an accomplished fact in fact it wasn't finalized until the year 70 AD with the destruction of the temple and the destruction of Jerusalem but when we read further in the book of Acts we'll see that when Paul goes on his missionary Journeys it would be his custom to go first into the synagogue and participate with
relationships there and so in the first century Church before the judaizing heresy became something that threatened the very life of Christendom the early Apostles would go to the temple to pray and there were different times of the day established for prayers this time was the ninth hour which would be the time for evening prayers at 3:00 in the afternoon so we get the details now from Luke about where they were at what time and what was going on 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 now Luke gives us a description of the sight and of the situation of the person who is involved in the narrative first of all let's look at the description ion of the man himself Luke being a physician is careful to give us significant details about this occasion that there are many ways in which people can become lame through disease through accidents and we have people in our congregation this morning who for this reason or that have lost the use of their legs they can remember what it was like
to to walk they can remember what it was like to run they can remember what it was like to LEAP with joy but those days are gone as they're now confined to wheelchairs or worse but this man's lameness was congenital he was born lame never in his entire life had he ever stood on his own two feet uned never in his life had he had the experience the experience that we take for granted of walking down the street nothing moves me more than when we take up the offering and I see Rick coming down with
the offering and the Praises of God in his wheelchair what a testimony that is to the faith of the man and the grace of God well this man had never stood never walked never ran never jumped he was only carried and every day his friends or his family we aren't told who carried this man in his helpless condition and took him to that gate that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of thew Jews and sat him by this beautiful gate and it took some effort because not only was the temple elevated but
the stairs from the first court to the second Court made the court of the Jews even higher and so it was difficult task to carry somebody up there they didn't have elevators in those days but They Carried this man and put him by the gate beautiful now Josephus in his history tells us in Vivid terms what the second temple the temple built by Herod looked like it was one of the wonders of the ancient world and all of the doors all of the gates within the temple complex were huge and beautiful but this particular gate
was called the beautiful gate or the gate beautiful because though made of bronze and its interior it was covered completely with silver and gold and so it was a portica of magnificent opulence and next to that symbol of wealth they laid this poor beggar that people who walked past him entering through the gate beautiful coming to the inner Courtyard of the the Jews would be moved to compassion by his pitiable condition and give him arms I might add parenthetically that the giving of arms in Old Testament Israel and in New Testament Christianity was a practice
expected by God from his people to do it's interesting to read the literature of the 2 Century one of the surviving documents the short book called The did o or the teaching of the Apostles that gives us a summary of Christian Duty and obligation and obedience one of which that is stressed is the generous giving of arms and so we see this account where this man sees Peter and John one about to come into the temple and he asked for arms and Peter and John looked at him Peter says to the man look at us
now imagine you're in this man's place and in your pain and in your debility ated state two strangers come by and they make eye contact now that in itself is significant watch what people do with their eyes when they see a beggar on the straight the most normal human reaction to the presence of a beggar is to avert your gaze and to look the other way as if the person didn't exist and if any man was accustomed to watching people approach him and look the other way it was this poor beggar but when Peter and
John came they didn't avert their gaze they looked directly at him they made eye contact with him and they emphasized thate contact by saying to him look at us so the man we read gave them his attention expecting to receive something from him again the Beggars hear somebody say look at me he's looking at him he's watching his hands watching for the wallet watching for the money that's going to come he's now in a state of eager anticipation and expectation for what he's going to get from these two men and it's on this occasion that
Peter expresses The Immortal words Silver and Gold Have I None but such as I have I give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk what man's heart sinks at the first portion of what Peter says I don't have any money Silver and Gold Have we none I the man thinking well what are you looking at me for and what are you saying look at you for you filled my heart with expectation only to tell me you're broke what help can you possibly give I don't have any money Peter says
but what I have I'm going to give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk and then the incredible the astonishing event took place where we read and he that is Peter took him by the right hand isn't that interesting and lifted him up he tells the man rise and walk the man's thinking sure rise and walk what is this your idea of a cruel joke and Peter reaches down and takes him by the hand and helps him to his feet and immediately we're told by the sacred scripture that power
and strength came into the ankles into the legs of this man and were moments before his legs were useless limbs now he could stand and not only could he stand you've seen little Colts that are lying on the ground and they're brought to their feet for the first time with their skinny spindly legs and and they get up and you don't know whether they're going to last very long this man is tentative at first but he takes a step then he takes another step and for the first time in his life he experiences what it
means to walk and when that happens he starts jumping and leaping and praising God what an incredible moment and the thing was he was no staged plant for a healing service this man was known by everyone in the temple complex because like my friend the beggar on the road from the Central Station in Amsterdam he was there every day and everybody knew it everybody knew he couldn't walk centuries later the great Theologian Thomas aquinus visited Rome and had an audience with Pope Innocent II and Thomas was somewhat Amazed by the opulence of the Vatican in
that day this was prior to the building of St Peters but even then it was a glorious headquarters for the church filled with riches and innocent the second was somewhat proud of the riches of the church and he said to to St Thomas Thomas no longer do we say Silver and Gold Have we none Thomas looked at innocent the second and he said maybe that's why we can no longer say rise up and walk now I love Thomas aquinus but there Thomas nodded they may have had a point in saying that to the pope but
it wasn't because of the church's riches that the church ever lost its power to heal people like that it's because this was a power invested by Christ in his Apostles to establish the church in the first place and Thomas knew that but I guess he couldn't miss the opportunity to tride this Holiness for the opulence of the church but whatever power the church had in the 12th century or the 13th century we know the power of of Christ that was invested in his Apostles as we've read of it even this morning and so this man
from the touch of the Apostle Peter in the Name of Christ leaped up stood walked entered into the temple had never been inside walking leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that he was the one who said begging arms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him and as a lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's
greatly amazed and that event became the provocation for the second famous sermon of Peter we finished the first one last week or the two weeks ago and God willing next week will begin a study of the second sermon of Peter that was provoked not after the church was filled by the holy ghost at Pentecost but why the bystanders in the temple were filled with amazement at the power of the name of Jesus
