- Well, hey everybody. Good evening and welcome. We're in Brisbane in front of a beautiful church behind me.
My name's Steve Dixon, looking forward to these next few minutes with you, but I need you to show some imagination because behind me, isn't some little church in Brisbane, it's actually the temple in Jerusalem, as you can probably imagine. It's three o'clock in the afternoon in Jerusalem, and there are people gathering and walking through walkways, through gate areas, up to the temple, wanting to go into the courtyard and then onto the holiest of areas. Imagine that this area is the entrance way.
One of the entrance ways, because both North, South, East, and West had many gateways, many doorways into the temple, but the people would come in from the Mount of Olives. They would come in from the city of Jerusalem and find their way through these gated gate areas to get close to the temple. Luke, in the book of Acts, who's the author and the writer, designates this gateway as the Beautiful Gate.
And that's the title of these few thoughts this evening. The people, the Jews were on their way to pray. The amazing thing is that Peter and John recent believers, believers for just over three, three and a half years, had walked with Jesus.
Jesus had died, been buried in this very same Jerusalem city. He'd risen from the dead. There was so much going on in the city.
The Church was birthed. In fact, when Peter preached on one day, 3000 heads of homes, people gave their lives to Christ. They put their faith in Jesus.
The Church was in exciting moments right at the beginning. They were so generous, they were so caring towards one another, not only growing, but growing in their love and their sense of community together. It says in Acts 2:46, And here they were on the way to the temple court, Peter and John walking along with the Jews that were coming in to pray, but they hadn't even passed this entrance area.
This gateway area. And this is what happened. Acts chapter three Just think about lame man for a moment.
The Bible tells us he was crippled from birth. That's a terrible and a terribly sad situation. I hate the fact that people can be defined by even ailments.
And this is something, this isn't somebody being defined by their own choices, poor choices. This is someone from the very birth of that life, was forever defined by people as a crippled lame person. And here is this poor guy who positioned himself possibly along with others, to beg not just on the streets, but in the entranceway, the gateway, the doorway to the temple where Jewish believers were coming to pray.
We lived in Spain for 10 years and saw many times in front of the churches in its courtyard, in its doorways, people there just hoping that somebody could show an ounce of kindness and give a little bit of money so there's enough bread to eat for that day. He just wanted to survive another day. But the amazing thing was that he was unaware that on the other side of the gateway, was a people of prayer.
He had no idea of the faith that was in the heart of some of those people that were gathering that day, such as Peter and John. He wasn't coming to ask God for help, he was in the entranceway asking people for help. Today, so sad that so many people are in the same scenario, maybe the whole of their life defined by things that maybe they haven't even chosen to do that has gone wrong in their life.
Others that have and are facing consequences. Even today, 21st century society. So many people just going through the rigmarole of life, to get just enough money to pay for just enough food and bills to survive in life.
I've come to tell you tonight that that is a better way, and there is a bigger way of living life. Let me talk to you about the man's friends. This lame man was laid down by his friends and I don't wanna be too harsh on these guys because obviously they'd picked him up and carried him, they loved him enough to do that.
But his friends that lay him down to beg in the gateway to the temple. I don't know, but maybe it's just because we've been in Hillsong Church so long. I've been Christian so long, but I think I would have preferred to do something myself.
I think Joyce would have been cooking up a storm and making sure he didn't need to get some coins just to buy some bread today. I think together as a church, we're pretty good at this, of just looking after people, because church is good and is family and is community. But his friends had no revelation of that.
They were laying him down so that he could beg just for a coin or two to get him through. I wonder how your friends are. I wonder if your friends are the sort that lay you down or let you down, or whether the sort of friends that lift you up.
We need people in our world that are friends to our future. Not just the friends that leave us as we are, not the ones that settle for who we are is who we will forever be. We need friends in our life that have hope for us and can speak life into our presence so that we can have faith for the future.
We need friends of our future, friends who speak into what could be. I thank God for Mike, the guy that spoke into my life about Jesus for the first time. He changed something in my future.
And thank God for old Allan Griffiths, who felt sorry for me, when he heard me pray the first time. He realised, I obviously knew nothing at all about the Bible and he invited me to his house and just started to explain how the Bible hung together. I thank God he spoke into my future.
I thank God for a Gerald Rowlands, senior now, living here in Australia, who has been like a spiritual dad for so many decades already in our lives, and was there at our wedding. That in one car trip, the first time I ever met him, in a two hour car trip, he spoke into my life. He believed me, he believed in me, he fathered me, he pastored me.
He prophesied the next few decades of my life. It's when people and friends speak into your future, that's the sort of friend or friends that you need around you. Not only the ones that will lay you down and allow you to stay at the station that you are in at this moment.
So carry on with the story. From verse four, it says said, "Come on, look at us, pay attention son. We are watching, we see you.
" Expecting, verse five Now we're about to see a miracle. It's the first miracle actually, after the day of Pentecost. And it starts because a believer, in fact, a couple of them, just chose to help somebody.
The Christian life is a Christian life, not a Christian classroom lesson. The Christian life is about behaviours not only beliefs. It's about helps and not hindrances, helping people and not hindering people in their faith.
The Christian life is about love in action, not only love through words. In verse six, it says, A little bit like me, Joyce never gives me any. And you can imagine the guy just on the side here, people feeling pity for him.
But here you have Peter stretching down, getting down to where he was, giving him right hand to right hand and lifting him up. Peter held out his right hand to the crippled man. As he pulled the man to his feet, he pulled the man up to his feet.
Suddenly, power surged into his crippled feet and ankles. It's a miracle. The man jumped up, stood there for a moment, stunned.
He's never walked in his life, and then began to walk around. I've gotta tell you, God is a God of miracles. And if we can tap in to the reality of who God is, and put aside some of our logic and put aside some of our analysis, and actually replace it with faith in the power of the Name of Jesus, you may see that those who are desperately, desperately believing and praying for pregnancy to happen, you may well find if you put your faith in Jesus tonight, that things can change.
It has done for so, so many people. Maybe sickness or disease or hospitalisation, maybe you're crippled financially. Whatever the circumstance is, why not apply faith to the power of the Name of Jesus.
That's what Peter and John did. They said, I haven't got what you're asking for. I haven't got a big bank balance.
I can't help you out and just pay for all your food. But what I do have, the faith that I have, the belief in Jesus, I can inspire you, I can impart that to you, I can hopefully just spark something in you that causes you to be brought up from where you are. And that's what a pray for you as you're listening right now.
Here's three things that these two believers did for this man. And they're three things that the more I've read it, I think that these are three things that I really wanna do. I wanna challenge myself and I'm challenging you, to live this way so that we can also help people.
Firstly, I wanna introduce more people to the power of the Name of Jesus. I only get one shot at life so do you. But I know one of the main things I wanna do with my life is I wanna introduce more and more people to Jesus.
In verse six of chapter three, it says Notice, it's in the Name and the authority of Jesus, not of Peter. It wasn't his own power. It isn't some superman, some super believer, his faith was in the power of the Name of Jesus.
He was clear with the man that that's what it was. Also after this miracle, you'll find if you read on, that he then speaks to the crowds about this, and he clarifies for them as well. Look what it says in verse 16, In other words, faith in the Name of Jesus.
But just think about the story for a minute. Whose faith? 'Cause the story I read, I don't see any faith in the man.
I don't see any expectation as he was on the ground. He was just looking for somebody to help him out with a little bit of money, a little bit of finance. It wasn't like he was raised.
He was trying to be taken into the temple, get closer to the presence of God. He was just there begging on the side of the street, but there was faith in the heart of Peter and John. If there is faith in the heart of a believer, it is amazing what can be achieved, not only in your life, but in the lives of others.
Faith has to exist somewhere. It triggers miracles, it triggers God to do what only God can do. There's another story in the Gospel of four mates, four friends, who picked up their friend and they got him onto a roof because it was the only way with all the crowds around to get him anywhere near Jesus.
And they dug a hole in the roof, they would do anything to get him to Jesus. Even in that story, doesn't talk about the faith of the man that was being carried. But it does talk about the faith of the four brothers, the four mates, the four friends, the four companions that had faith in this heart to see something happen in the life of their friend.
So have faith for your friends, have faith especially for your family, for your spouses, for your kids, speak life, speak words of life and speak words of faith into their life. The second thing I wanna give myself too, and I'm challenging you to do the same, is I wanna lift people up when they are down. Verse seven, Peter held out his right hand to the crippled man.
As he pulled the man to his feet, as he lifted him up, the miracle took place. We need to be the church, we need to be the Christian, we need to be the friend, the brother, the sister, the neighbour, who lifts people up from where they are and doesn't leave them where they are. Peter took that right hand and there was enough faith in his heart.
And in his spirit he said, "Come on son, just stand. You'll see the power of God take place in your life. " And maybe I can metaphorically, even right now tonight, somehow across and through this screen just inspire you, just spark you enough to say, come on, believe, reach out whatever the circumstances of life are that you find yourself in, just come with me, believe I've seen what God can do.
Please just come and believe. Put in a mustard seed of faith, a little tiny bit of faith, whatever you've got just put it, and give Jesus Christ a chance to do what He does. I don't wanna leave you down there if you're down there.
I don't want you to stay in the troubles and the strife and the traumas. I don't want you to stay with mental challenges and health challenges. I don't want you to stay in the financial hopelessness that maybe you've stepped into or slid into over recent times.
I don't wanna leave you there. I wanna just work, speak some words of faith and say, would you allow me just to lift your faith, just an iota and it's gonna be enough. When Jesus sees, you take a step towards Him, He's gonna come running to you and do what only He can do.
But let me tell you where the man does come in. Even though somebody goes down and say, come on, be lifted up, that man had to do the standing himself. Peter couldn't do the standing for him.
The man had to make a decision to stand. I remember very well a moment when we were pastoring, a lady who was in our church way back and she was a wonderful lady. She had three sons who all followed the Lord and the husband, she was a good, a good woman.
But she'd slid into anxiety and depression, and with mental challenges. And I just remember seeing this woman who I'd heard, pray and seen her as a great person in the church, and here she was just going down and down and down. And she came to church one day, said Steve, I've gotta talk to you.
And she sat in this arm chair. And I remember talking to someone, it was almost like the lights had gone out, or everything had been drained. The faith had been drained out of her, the life, the energy, the spirit, the spark, that was so normal to her.
And I remember saying, you know, and talking to her, and saying all the things that are obvious. And giving her a Bible and giving her a text and giving her some wisdom hopefully, and sharing some things. But when it came down to it, no matter what words I could put into her heart and into her hearing, she had to be the one who stood up.
And I realised that, and I said, Sandra, can I pray for you. She said, absolutely, please do. I said, but I don't want to pray for you while you're in the armchair.
I want you to stand up and you're standing up out of the chair, is your statement to God that you're gonna get hold of Him and keep hold of Him. And you got to put some faith, whatever is left within your heart, into Him to take you through, you know what? It took her 10 minutes to stand and to get out of that chair.
She was fighting with her mind, she was fighting with her thinking, she was fighting with her frustrations, with her disappointments. She was fighting with depression and anxiety. And there she is at an armchair.
Sandra just stand up and then I'll pray for you. And she couldn't get up until she eventually got to the point, where in her heart and in her mind, she said, God, I am gonna stand up as a step of faith to believe that You can turn this around in me. And as she stood up, it became the pivotal moment, set free from the depression and the anxiety, and with more steps of recovery before her.
But she came through that so beautifully, but she understood she had to do the standing. Nobody could do that for her. Look what it says in verse eight, he jumped up.
This is the lame man. He jumped up, he stood on his feet, he began to walk, then walking, leaping and praising God, et cetera, he moves on. But there's one more important thing that Peter and John did for this man.
It says in verse seven, I think it is, "As he went to the temple courts with Peter and John. " Now, that's just a few words and you heard me read them. And if you don't stop for a moment and think about it, this is earth shatteringly fantastic, fabulous, amazing news.
As he went into the temple, you see Peter and John now with a healed man took him into the temple with them. Now a gate is one of three things. It's either an entrance and exit or a barrier.
To the Jews it was obviously an entrance to the temple, to the House of God, but it was also an exit back into their community, into their city. But the gateway, the gate for this lame man was actually a barrier. You see, the lame were categorised with other people from old Testament law of being unworthy to go into the temple.
That's the reason why the friends left him at the Beautiful Gate or at any gateway, because he wasn't allowed to go into the courtyard of the temple, and certainly no further. Now, watch this. He's left at the gate, and Peter and John don't care, whether it's inside or outside, their hearts go out to him, they bring healing to him, outside, just in this gate area.
But now his status has changed. Now he's no longer a lame man, he's just a man. Now, he goes with Peter and John for the first time into the courtyard of the temple.
He's got full rights. He's got open access. Now the religious leaders, teachers of the law, they couldn't really argue because no law was being broken.
He wasn't a lame man trying to get in, he was a healed man who had now been given access to the temple. Let me just remind you of this. Jesus never leaves anybody outside.
Jesus never leaves anybody outside. The third thing I want to challenge you with is this. I wanna connect more people, the same way as Peter and John did.
I wanna connect more people to the House of God. See, the Gospels refer to that time when Jesus turned up in the temple and He got so frustrated with people because they'd gone into the courtyard of the temple and turned it in to a marketplace. It was stuff being bought and sold and traded.
And it was a den of thieves. And there was robbery and stealing, all in the courtyard of the temple. And He went in and He moved all the tables out of the way, and He said, listen, this is a house of prayer.
In Jesus' heart, the House of God was a place of prayer. It was a place of welcome. It was a place of relationship.
It was a place of connectivity with God and with one another, and it was certainly a place of healing. And soon as He told them, this is a house of prayer, this is what it says, this is Matthew 21, and I love it. Verse 14 So that story is in the Gospels, is before the book of Acts.
But it shows us now, that Jesus never had any intention of leaving people out of the presence of God. Anybody who wanted to come to Him, He was more than willing to embrace them and to accept them. It wasn't a gate of a barrier, it was a gate of welcome for Jesus.
It carries on in Matthew 21, Because Jesus brought into the courtyard of the temple, the blind and the lame that the law said they weren't allowed to be, but He just loved people so much, He can't help Himself. Suffer the little children come to me, Suffer those who are marginalised right now, those who are hurting, those who are sick, just come here. Is it in the temple court?
Is it beyond the temple court? It doesn't matter. It's where Jesus is, He will help you and He will heal you.
The religious leaders were furious, but I don't know about you. But they're furious because they're saying you brought defilement in here, when the absolute opposite was true. Now you've got somebody walking in there, with new born faith, with excitement, leaping and jumping and praising and shouting and screaming, because he'd never, ever walked in his whole life, and now in the Name of Jesus, he's been healed.
It's a magnificent and a beautiful thing, and may our churches, not only in auditoriums, but online as well, be an experience of joy and fulfilment and jumping and leaping and clapping and smiling and enjoyment and faith, because that is a relationship with Jesus worth jumping about. One day soon, we'll be meeting together. I can't wait for those moments, but between now and then I know that we can build the Church of Jesus Christ.
We can connect more and more people with the Church. We can get our invitations out. We can get on the text, we can get on the phone, we can get on the emails.
We can get our family and our friends and our neighbours connected to Church so they too can have this sort of experience of getting to know One who can change their lives. So come on people to finish. Three things, let's do this.
Let's commit to introducing more people to the power of the Name of Jesus Christ. Let's lift up people when they are down and not settle for them being where they are, but speak words of life. Be a friend to their futures.
And thirdly, let's connect more people to the House of God. Let me tell you this, stay with me for a couple of minutes. The lame man was laid down and Peter lifted him up.
Jesus was laid down into a tomb, but God, the Father, raised Him up from the dead with resurrection life. And you, my friend might be down right now, down in your heart, down in your mind, down in your thinking, down in your finances, but God is here to find a way of lifting you up and bringing you up and bringing you out of the situation you are in. Let me remind you that Church can help you, but only the Lord can save you.
Only Jesus, why? Because He is the gate. The Beautiful Gate of all Beautiful Gates is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
John chapter 10 Believing that for you my friend, believing right now that we can connect you with Jesus Christ. I'm gonna pray for you. And I would love you to take this moment as being a crucial pivotal moment in your life.
Would you allow me to pray? You pray these words with me. So before you go, two really important things down at the bottom of the screen.
There's a button there that you can press, that takes you to talk to a pastor, and over here it just says the word Jesus. If you've made a decision and prayed that prayer with me, please check that out because that'll open up a whole world of possibilities for you. Back to the team, God bless you from Brisbane, love you.
- Well, thanks so much for being part of the service today. And I certainly pray that it blesses you immensely. I wanna encourage you to take a moment to click Subscribe, to this YouTube channel, to keep up to date with our church services and on demand content that our team prepare for you.
Also, if you'd like to support the ministry of Hillsong Church, as always, we give people an opportunity to give and you can do so by just clicking the Give button and that way you can help us continue to reach people all around the world. Be blessed. We love you.
