this message I've entitled a Divine setup and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 10 here in the uh book of Acts as uh Luke who's the writer of this book he writes and he says this verse one of chapter 3 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 carried uh whom uh was carried whom they had laid at the gate daily which is called Beautiful to ask alms from those who entered the temple who seen 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 something from them then Peter said silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give 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 received strength so he leaping up stood and walked and entered the temple with them walking leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God then they knew that it was the one who sat begging arms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him I read a story about an agnostic Professor who' visited A Primitive tribe that had been impacted by missionaries uh who brought the gospel to this tribe and this agnostic Professor was having a conversation with the chief of this tribe and he said this to this Chief it's just a shame that you were DED by those missionaries nobody really believes the Bible literally anymore we're more enlightened than that now the the old Chief pointed to the rock that they used to bashed in the heads of the people that would eat and the oven where they would roast them and he said this to the agnostic Professor if it were not for the gospel message of the love of Jesus Christ which could convert a cannibal into a Christian you'd be our supper by now when I see a changed life especially when the gospel has touched a life it reminds me of the power of God because the gospel is powerful the gospel changes Minds The Gospel will change a life if you let it you know it was Paul the Apostle who confidently said this about the gospel he said this for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to Salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek this morning I want to draw your attention to an amazing story in the book of Acts and it's in Acts chapter 3 in Acts chapter 3 we're going to see the life of an individual that was radically changed because of the Gospel we see the power of God working in this man's life now Acts chapter 3 is the account or acts the book of Acts is the account of the early church and up to this point in Acts chapter 3 great things were happening in the early church let me give you some examples of what was going on they they they experiened great Miracles there was a great miracle in Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon the early Believers and basically ignited a desire a passion to share the gospel they were anointed by the holy spirit so we see a great miracle we also see great preaching in Acts 2:14 Peter's preaching was in the power of the Holy Spirit and he was the first to actually bring forth the first sermon in the book of Acts then we also see great conviction in Acts 2: 37- 38 when they were when they would share the gospel with the with the non-christians the people would respond by saying what shall we do that is a great response when you share the gospel I haven't had somebody say that directly what should I do and if you do the the answer is well you need to get right with God and that was happening we saw great Miracles great preaching great conviction great salvation great salvation in Acts chap 2:37 3,000 Souls were added to the church it's amazing but not only that but there was great hunger there was a great hunger in Acts chapter 2: 46 to continue daily with one Accord to gather together they there was there was a hunger for Unity and lastly is a great unity in Acts chap 2:46 I mentioned that and then great favor and Praises in Acts chap 2:47 people were added to the church and people were getting along so all we see here is a constant greatness of God and you see God's greatness among the people and things were happening in a great way in fact it's summed up in Acts chap 2:43 like this many signs and wonders were done through the apostles so Acts chapter 3 is another great example of the power of God the power of the Gospel the name of Jesus Christ that touches this man's life so let's look here in our text at verse one we see very clearly that the two people involved in this is Peter and John they were going up to prayer at The Hour of Prayer the ninth hour now remember that these two Peter and John were trained a little bit more than the other disciples it was actually Peter James and John that you see a lot with Jesus kind of secluded in and Jesus teaching them lessons and whatnot because of their prominent role that they would actually take when they would actually go into the uh the mission field when they become church leaders so these three were actually taught a little bit more especially Peter and John now what great pair to have in a church a Peter and a John remember Peter was the outspoken one he was the Bold one John remember he was described as the son of Thunder remember Jesus would actually say that you know what you guys are really just your turn or burn Ministry is not going to cut it here you know what I mean it's like you don't follow Jesus then burn right that was John and you have these two guys that Jesus was using in the early church what great pair to have a Peter and a John but there's something else that's interesting that fascinates me about Peter and John and that is that these two were competitive did you know that these guys were very very competitive in fact it was in a uh John 20:4 when Jesus rose from the dead and the the news came to the guys John says this so they R they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first I mean did you know that John is the only one that writes this in all the gospels Matthew didn't care Luke didn't care Mark didn't care John did because he wanted to show that he was faster than Peter that's a very competitive guy and you know I'm sure there are some people here that are very competitive don't laugh you're like like I am I'm just like that guy you know I bet some of you here probably looked at each other like I beat you to church I got here first these guys were competitive there's another time where Jesus was talking to Peter about how he was going to die right how he would experience death that would bring God glory and as Peter as Jesus is talking to Peter Peter looks at John and says well what about him Jus says don't worry about him just it's don't worry about how I'm going to work with him so again we have Peter and John competitive in nature yet they're going to gathered to the temple to reach the lost to reach their own people and notice what time the 9th hour what time is that 3 p. m. 3 p.
m. actually the Jewish people had three different times of prayer they had prayers at 9:00 a. m.
12: p. m. and 3 p.
m. the 3 p p. m.
