Where God's Power Flows
Acts 3:1-10
I want to talk about "Where God’s Power Flows." Acts chapter 3. If you would like the secret to where God’s power flows, pay attention.
We’ll read the first ten verses, Acts 3:1-10
It’s 3pm in the afternoon (the hour of prayer in the Temple), Peter and John head up to join the masses at the Temple, the House of God.
On the way in, they came to the Gate called Beautiful. It was gorgeous. It was really the Corinthian gate made of Corinthian brass, overlaid with silver and gold panels and precious stones.
When the sun would come up over the Mount of Olives and burst upon that gate that looks toward the east, it would just dazzle and almost blind you in its beauty; it came to be known as the Beautiful Gate—the gate called Beautiful.
Here's this man just outside that Beautiful Gate which he cannot enter because Levitical law said that a deformed man could not enter past that gate into the Temple.
But, as Peter and John approached this particular day he saw them, and so he asked them for alms. (Peter and John had just recently been filled with the Holy Spirit, so they would have been full of joy and life – and so this lame man felt sure to get a good offering from them).
Peter and John stopped as he spoke to them and Peter said to him: "LOOK AT US!" Perhaps the man’s head was bowed down; he never looked into the eyes of those who came by for fear of offending them. He didn’t want to embarrass, so he kept his head low - but here is Peter saying, "Look at us!" So he looked up at them "expecting to receive something from them."
Peter said: "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: That’s something that we all ought to have; Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
With that, Peter took hold of the man’s right hand and lifted him up, and in that moment of time "STRENGTH" came into that man’s feet and ankle bones for the very first time in his life and he realized that he's been healed.
The next chapter tells us that he'd been this way for 40 years. A forty-year-old man who had never walked—not one step had he ever taken. And, now he's leaping, dancing, and praising God.
Then he enters into the gate Beautiful—into the temple of God, in with the people of God—loving God, serving God, and praising God with the people of God. It was a miracle.
Don’t you love to hear stories like that of the power of God? Don’t you long to see God’s power move like that in our midst?
So, the question is: In what kind of environment will God’s power flow?
I don’t think we need great complex ideas. I believe God usually deals with us very simply. "The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things." I can see some very basic principles here in this story that we must recognize if we desire to see God’s power.
FIRSTLY: GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE IS.
Sounds simple / obvious / doesn’t it? God’s power flows where God is.
Look at this lame man’s predicament with me for a moment. He had been sitting at the entrance of the Temple for YEARS. The Temple was supposedly the very House of God - the "HOME" of God’s presence and yet here he was all his life camped at its gates, still a cripple!
In all their religious fervor, there was nothing that these people could offer him! The best they could do was a few copper coins to ease their consciences as they passed by - an act of pity.
The Temple was the home of the God who created the universe by the word of His mouth? Actually, He wasn’t there at all. When Jesus hung upon the cross and uttered those last triumphant words "IT IS FINISHED", the Bible records that the curtain in the Temple (which for centuries had barred man from the presence of God) was torn in two, right down the middle, from top to bottom (torn by the very hands of God!)
What did that signify? We usually hear it preached that it signified, because of the sacrifice of Jesus man could now enter the Holy of Holies – and that’s correct, but that’s only half of the story!
The curtain is torn away signifying that God’s presence is no longer veiled in seclusion, now He has come out and He lives in His new dwelling place - the one He has always longed for since time immortal - He dwells in the lives of them that love Him. We are the vessels of God.
When that curtain was torn away, God was making His final declaration about where He intended to reside - But in truth the glory God had been absent from the Temple for centuries. For those who had eyes to see, "Ichabod" was written over its doorposts: "The glory has departed."
I thank God, that the saving, healing presence of God was no longer in this Temple, it was now in the lives of these two disciples of Jesus - Peter and John.
This lame man had been sitting at the gate of the Temple all of his life, but here he experiences the real power of God’s presence (not flowing out the doors of the Temple - but rather walking up the
stairs) in Peter and John.
Peter "fixed his eyes on" the man. No-one else would have anything to do with him. You see the Jews believed that such a man must be a sinner (or perhaps his parents were) to be afflicted by such an infirmity - this was the punishment of God.
But as Peter saw him perhaps he heard the words of Jesus ringing in his ears: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."
So, Peter reaches out and heals the man. Tell me - is the hand that reaches out Peter’s or God’s? The answer is: YES! Yes, it’s Peter’s - but we are His hands and feet - it’s also God’s. What does Colossians 1:27 say - "CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!"
The lame man was healed because GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS. If we would see the power, we must secure the presence of Jesus.
Mary and Martha knew that. When their brother Lazarus died, they called for Jesus. They knew that if He was present God’s power would flow. But Jesus arrived late, and Lazarus had already died.
Remember what Martha said? "If only You had been here..." She knew that where Jesus is there is power. (Her problem was that she saw Jesus as the God of YESTERDAY - "if only You had been here."
Jesus said that Lazarus would live again. Martha replied - "Oh, I know he will live again in the resurrection." To her Jesus was the God of yesterday and maybe of the distant future!
But Jesus said to her: "I AM the resurrection and the life, he that believes on Me though he be dead yet shall he live." Folks, Jesus is THE GOD OF TODAY! Yesterday, today and forever Jesus is the same! Hallelujah.
Oh, if we can but secure His presence. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHEREVER HE IS PRESENT.
In Acts chapter 4, this miracle is called a sign. Why is it called a sign? Because it was more than a miracle—it was a miracle with a message. That is, there was a sermon in this miracle.
It is meant to illustrate an even greater truth, and it would be a shame if we would only see the physical miracle. I don't deny the physical miracle, but there's a greater miracle and a greater truth that lays behind this sign.
You see, it is all of us. This man was born crippled, and he represents all of us who are spiritually and morally crippled by birth. The Bible says, "In sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5).
Here's a man who cannot walk, and here's a man who cannot work. And here's a man who could not worship. What he needed was a touch from Almighty God more than merely in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm.
You see these miracles that Jesus did—John also calls them signs, as in when Jesus opened blinded eyes. The greater truth is that men are spiritually blind, and except for a man who is born again, they cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus unstopped deaf ears, the greater miracle is that men need their spiritual ears unstopped, because, as Jesus said, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark 8:18).
When Jesus raised the dead, He was giving the greater lesson that men are dead in trespasses and in sin. Christ said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"—talking to people whose hearts were already beating, but saying—"I am come that they might have life..." (John 10:10).
When Jesus, through the apostles, healed this man, what He was saying is that all of us need a touch from God to live a spiritual life, to walk the walk of God, to do the works of God, to worship God, and to go through that gate of God into the house of God with the people of God.
Secondly: GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY.
[read v4-5]
The word "expectancy" here means: "TO WAIT FOR SOMETHING IN SUSPENSE". There was something about these two men who would bother to talk to him that made this lame man WAIT IN SUSPENSE, expecting something good. He may have only been thinking about silver and gold - BUT AT LEAST HE WAS EXPECTING SOMETHING. I wonder how many of us are?
How many know that God does "exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think"?!
The problem is that so often we come to God not expecting anything at all! We come to church ready for "just another Sunday service"; we’ll sing some hymns, pray and providing that preacher does the right thing we’ll be out and home for lunch by 12.00pm.
It’s so important to come to church longing to hear God speak. Nothing is sadder than going to church when you aren’t expecting anything to happen - and worse still when you are positively sure that nothing is going to happen!
If it gets to the stage that Pentecostals come to church not expecting anything to happen, then "WE ARE OF ALL MEN MOST MISERABLE." When you feel that way, what a surprise - nothing does happen! Yet so many people throughout the world go to church every Sunday feeling just that way.
Whether it be at home in your private devotional or when you come to the house of God we must come to God with expectancy! "They that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Did you come here EXPECTING God to do something new, something exciting, something fresh in your life. If you did "you won’t leave here like you came; in Jesus’ Name".
This lame man EXPECTED something - and he got far more than he ever expected. GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE THERE IS EXPECTANCY. We need to develop an attitude of expectancy.
I believe in THREE basic premises we need to get a hold of in relation to EXPECTANCY.
First: God wants us to come to Him with expectancy.
In 1 Timothy 2:8 Paul says, "I desire that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath AND DOUBTING."
God wants us to come to Him with believing hearts, faith-filled hearts; EXPECTANT hearts!
Hebrews 11:6 - "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
God wants us to come to Him with expectancy.
The second of my basic premises is that: We have every Reason to come to Him with expectancy, because God always answers His people.
I am firmly convinced that there has never been a prayer that God has not heard and answered EVERY time the righteous call.
The third basic premise: God doesn’t always answer the way we are anticipating.
God ALWAYS answers my prayers, but sometimes the answer is NO! Or sometimes He answers with a different provision than I requested. It’s here that we need to recognize the LORDSHIP of Christ.
We sing "He is Lord" and "All to Jesus I Surrender", here is where the rubber meets the road! Accepting what God decides is best for our lives.
When it’s not His will, God says "NO!"
THE BIBLE CALLS US TO HAVE AN EXPECTANCY IN GOD THAT ALLOWS HIM TO BE GOD!
God will always do what is best for our eternal well-being, and most honoring to Him. We must trust Him. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"
He knows the end from the beginning - I don’t - so I am learning to trust Him. But still, I live with a full expectancy of seeing the hand of God in my life every day.
This kind of expectancy ought to characterize every area of the believer’s life. For instance:
I. You Can Expect God to Direct Your Life.
II. You Can Expect God to Save You out of Dire Circumstances.
III. You Can Expect God to Provide.
IV. You Can Expect God to Heal.
Hudson Taylor’s life motto was this: "Attempt great things for God, EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD!"
He said: "Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them." (J.Hudson Taylor)
Perhaps you’ve never given it any thought before, but let me ask you - HOW DO YOU THINK GOD FEELS WHEN WE COME BEFORE HIM WITHOUT A SENSE OF EXPECTANCY?
If He is the great God who made all of heaven and earth - how insulting it must be to Him when we come not expecting anything to happen!
We must come with expectant hearts to God. When we fully expect to see Him move, we will see his power.
Thirdly: GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE RIGHT AUTHORITY IS RECOGNIZED.
A striking feature of this account is that THERE IS NO RECORD OF PETER AND JOHN PRAYING FOR THIS LAME MAN at all. They simply took hold of the authority available IN THE NAME (nature) OF JESUS, and the man was healed.
(Now these apostles were just baptized in the Holy Ghost, they understood that God’s Spirit dwelt in them and worked through them so when this man presented them with his need, they didn’t feel they had to pray - they simply brought him his healing in Jesus’ Name.)
Folks, we must recognize that there is GREAT authority in the Name of Jesus. Authority to heal and restore, to release and deliver, authority to advance His Kingdom.
In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says: "ALL authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." All authority belongs to Jesus! That’s wonderful enough, is it not?!
But listen further, because if we read on, we see that Jesus has made His authority available to us! Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.
In fact, we read of several occasions in the Gospels when Jesus invested His authority in His followers in order to complete tasks that He sent them to accomplish.
In Mark 16:15-18 ... He gave His authority to ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE!
Hear this: ALL ultimate authority in the universe
belongs to Jesus Christ. And He has invested that authority in us, HIS CHURCH, in order to accomplish His purposes. That is the qualification that we must understand!
On every occasion that we read of Jesus divesting His authority in others - every Scripture which promises us His authority - it is ALWAYS to the end that HIS purposes might be accomplished.
God’s power flows where RIGHT AUTHORITY is RIGHTLY RECOGNIZED. Oh, that Christians would get a hold of this truth - that Jesus’ authority is available to His church to complete the mission that He sent us on!
And this brings me to the last of our FOUR principles from this passage: GOD’S POWER FLOWS WHERE HE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY.
[Read v8-10]
God moved in power, here in Acts 3, and healed this lame man in order that HIS OWN GREAT NAME MIGHT BE HONORED. Peter and John could rightly claim the authority of the Name of Jesus because this moment was going to bring glory to God. God’s power flows where HE will receive the glory!
In the Old Testament God opposed Saul, but exhaled David. Why? Because Saul came to the place where he began to seek the glory for himself - David always sought God! He wanted God to receive glory.
In Acts 19 we read of the "7 sons of Sceva", they had the audacity to try to use the authority of Jesus’ Name to GAIN GLORY FOR THEMSELVES! [Acts 19:13-16]
God’s power flows WHERE HE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY!
In reading an account of the REVIVAL IN WALES in 1858-1860, one of the men whom God so blessed and used in that revival was the REV. DAVID MORGAN. There are many incredible things about this man’s life, but I remember one account in particular. It occurred in the evening service on New Year’s day in 1860.
An old minister who was there with David Morgan wrote these words: "So near was the revivalist to his God that his face shone like that of an angel, so that none could gaze steadfastly at him. On the way home I dared not break the silence for miles. Towards midnight I ventured to say, ’Didn’t we have blessed meetings, Mr. Morgan?’ ’YES’, he replied; and then after a pause he added: ’The Lord would give us great things, if only He could trust us.’ ’What do you mean?’ I asked. ’If He could trust us NOT TO STEAL THE GLORY FOR OURSELVES.’ Then the midnight air rang with the sound of his cry, at the top of his voice, ’Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto THY name give glory.’"
Church, we must GUARD to ensure that everything we do is genuinely for HIS glory alone.
Now, if you still don't believe in Jesus Christ, you've still got Christ on your hands, and He's still performing miracles. I mean: you're going to have to be confronted with a miracle. His life was a miracle. His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension are miracles—then there are physical miracles, such as the healing of this man, and the spiritual miracles that we mentioned, including such as my own life.
Is it okay if I testify for a moment? My life is a miracle—it’s a miracle. You can't explain what has happened to Terry Reamsnyder. You'll never explain what has happened to me these years since I've known Jesus, except that God worked a miracle in my heart and in my life.
I know it is so. I know day by day that the life I live is a miracle life, that God is alive, and that He's doing something in me. And, every Christian who's been changed by the power of God, and all of those of us who will open our eyes and look around will have to testify that God is a God of miracles. He's still changing lives today.
I read of a little girl who was standing on the edge of a crowd while her daddy was giving a testimony. It was an old-fashioned Salvation Army street meeting. This man was standing up, testifying how Jesus Christ had saved him and delivered him from his alcoholism, his craving of drink, and the old life that he had, and he was giving Jesus the glory.
There was a cynic in the edge of that crowd who said, "Oh, why don't you just shut up and sit down? You're just dreaming—just dreaming." That cynic felt that little girl pull at the tug of his coat and said, "Sir, that's my daddy that you're talking about. You say my daddy is dreaming. Let me tell you about my daddy. My daddy used to be a drunkard. He used to come home drunk. He used to hit my mother, and she would cry most of the day. We didn't have good clothes to wear, because my daddy spent all of his money on whiskey. Sometimes, I didn't even have shoes to wear to school. Look at these shoes. Look at this dress. My daddy has a good job. Over there's my mother. She's happy now. She doesn't cry around the house now; she sings around the house, even when she's ironing. My mother's happy now. And Jesus changed my daddy, and Jesus has changed our home. And, if my daddy's dreaming, then please don't wake him up." Amen?
Oh listen, He is a God of might, a God of miracle, and there are miracles that cannot be denied.
They were confronted with the miracle. If anyone doesn’t know Jesus I pray that one day you’ll be confronted with a miracle.
So, there we have it. IN WHAT "ENVIRONMENT" WILL GOD’S POWER FLOW? Here in Acts 3, we have four guiding principles:
1. Where HE is.
2. Where there is EXPECTANCY.
3. Where RIGHT AUTHORITY is RECOGNIZED.
4. Where HE ALONE WILL RECEIVE THE GLORY.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen!
When Voices Of Hope Evangelistic Team is ministering in Word and Song, their Fire Choir will sing several songs and then lead the Congregation in singing. Since that isn't possible on-line, please click here and may you be blessed by the song, "Look What the Lord Has Done."