Do you see them? This is not the sermon I intended to preach; honestly it is not the sermon I wanted to preach. I had originally planned to talk to you today about the foolishness of a shortsighted faith. I was going to compare us to the foolish cripple who begged for silver and gold but instead got something far greater from our God of grace. I was going to ask you if you have ever been so short sighted that you allowed yourself to focus on something besides God’s grace, but as I studied our text from Acts 3:1-10 another question forced its way into my mind, “do you see them?”
The question haunted me. With every vocable I translated, with every verb I parsed I kept coming back to the same question, “do you see them?”. I think it was the verb ἀτενίζω that caused this question to take control of my consciousness. ἀτενίζω means “to fix one’s eyes on some object continually and intensely—‘to look straight at, to stare at, to keep one’s eyes fixed on”.[1] This is how Peter looked at a man in our lesson for today and ever since I translated that word I have been haunted by the question, “do you see them?”.
Our text begins by telling us, “1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.” It is not at all surprising that Peter and John would go to the temple. In the previous chapter we read about the great day of Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised that on that day the Holy Spirit would explain everything to them. And that is exactly what happened. Filled with the Holy Spirit the Peter John and the other disciples finally understood that Jesus had to suffer and die as payment for their sin and not only their sins but the sins of the whole world. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they finally understood that Jesus had to rise from the dead as proof of their salvation and the salvation for all who believed. Filled with the Holy Spirit Peter preached, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.[2] On the great day of Pentecost Peter, John, and the other disciples finally understood that God saw His people’s greatest need and sent His one and only Son to meet that need. So quite naturally our text begins by telling us Peter and John were going up to the temple to express their gratitude to God for seeing and meeting their greatest need.
I suspect that is why you are here today. You too have been filled with the Holy Spirit. Through the procalamation of the Word and the administering of the sacraments, you have come to understand that your God of grace saw your greatest need and sent His Son Jesus to suffer on the cross to pay for all your sins and rise from the dead to secure your salvation. I am not at all surprised to see you assemble in this temple during our time of prayer to express your gratitude to your God for seeing and meeting your greatest need.
Peter and John entered the temple courts through a gate simply called “Beautiful”. We don’t know exactly where this gate was but if it is the East Gate, as many suspect, then Peter and John entered the temple by ascending a grand stairway that brought them to two massive stone arches which opened to an enormous passageway, the ceiling of which is a series of beautifully carved domes. Because of its monumental size, this is the gate most worshipers used to enter the temple. At three in the afternoon this gate would have been packed with people making their way to worship.
The temple gate called Beautiful was a good spot to be if you were a beggar. That is why every day a group of family or friends carried a man who had been crippled from birth and put him at this gate. Sadly, this crippled man was in his 40s and had likely been begging at the gate called Beautiful for decades and you know how it is, after a while this man began to disappear. The people had grown so accustomed to his presence that they could no longer see him.
You are here today because your God of grace sees you, but do you see them? I know that you see each other. The love and support that is shown among the members of Messiah is second to none. I brag about the love the exists among the members of Messiah. When a member of Messiah is in need: cards are sent, errands are run, lawns are mowed, food is delivered, appliances are donated, and bills are paid. You see each other, but do you see them? Do you see the financially crippled mother who has been trying to raise her children without the support of a spouse? Do you see the emotionally crippled child whose parents are too busy to play a meaningful part in their lives? Do you see the physically crippled grandfather who can’t get around nearly as good as he used to? Do you see them?
Peter did. We don’t know what made this time different than all the other times Peter must have passed by the crippled man. Maybe John stumbled and accidentally pushed Peter toward him, maybe that day there was something different in the man’s voice that made him stand out from all the other beggars, or maybe as my Baptists friends would say, “the Lord put it on Peter’s heart”. Whatever it was, God put this crippled man in Peter’s path and Peter saw him; “4 Peter looked straight at him.”
Peter did not have to look very far to see the crippled man. Peter did not travel to some distant land and search some remote corner of the world to find this man. God put this man in Peter’s path both figuratively and literally. I think it is important for us to recognize that because God does the same for you and me. There is no question that there are people in need all over the world. In many parts of the world the need is greater than it is here in north Georgia, but that doesn’t mean the people around us don’t have any needs. Did you know a data collection in 2020 found there are approximately 3,200 homeless people living in the city of Atlanta? Now I know we live outside the perimeter of Atlanta and for most of us that is too far to look for people in need so how about we look just outside the front door of our church. The first thing you will see when you look out the front door of our church are neighborhoods full of really nice houses, but look a little closer and you will see that 3.9% of our neighbors live in poverty. That’s over 3,000 people who are struggling to pay the bills right outside our front door. But finances aren’t the only thing that cripples people. Look at the people around you like Peter looked at the man begging by the Beautiful gate and, if you look hard enough, you will see people with a variety of needs. Look straight across the street and you will see a person in need. Look intently at the person sitting at the desk next to yours and you will see a person in need. Fix your eyes on the person in the square next to yours in the Zoom call and you will see a person in need. You don’t have to look very far to see people in need, they are in your neighborhood, your classroom, and your office building. God has put people in need in your path. Do you see them?
Peter saw the crippled man begging at the Beautiful gate and said to him, “6 Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.” God had put a man in need in Peter’s path. Peter saw the man and Peter did what Peter could do to meet his need. The formerly crippled man who hadn’t taken a step in over 40 years instantly started jumping up and down and running around.
The miracle that Peter performed filled the people with wonder and amazement and understandable so. I don’t want to overlook the amazing miracle Peter performed but I also don’t want us to be intimidated by that miracle. Peter told the crippled man, “What I have I give you.” I understand, you don’t have the ability to perform miracles like Peter. You cannot miraculously meet the needs of you neighbors, classmates, and coworkers. But that’s O.K. God does not expect you to give something you don’t have to give. God only expects that you will do what you can do to meet the needs of the people He has placed in your path. When you see a person in need you can tell them, “I do not have the ability to perform miracles, but what I have I give to you. Out of gratitude to Jesus Christ of Nazareth who has seen and met my greatest need I give you my time, I give you my attention, I give you my support, I give you my assistance, I give you my silver and gold, I give you whatever I have to give to meet your need.” The miracle Peter performed was amazing, but it seldom takes a miracle to see and meet the needs of the people God puts in your path.
After Peter met the needs of the man who begged at the gate called Beautiful, the formerly crippled man followed Peter and John “8 into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.” The formerly crippled man realized it was not just Peter who saw him. Peter told the formerly crippled man that that he was meeting his needs “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”. Peter told the formerly crippled man that Jesus saw his needs and Jesus sent Peter to meet those needs. The formerly crippled man followed Peter and John into the temple because he wanted to know what else Jesus saw and what other needs Jesus could meet.
Ultimately, my friends, this is why God places people in your path. He is giving you the opportunity to see them and meet their needs so that they can see Him; so that they can see what Peter, John and the disciples saw on the great day of Pentecost, so that they can see what you see through the administering of the sacraments and the proclamation of the Word, so that they can see their Savior who died on a cross and rose from the dead to meet their greatest of needs.
This may not have been the sermon I intended to preach but I do feel it is the sermon I needed to preach. God puts people in our path who are in need. I want to see them, and I know you do to. May our God of grace open our eyes to the opportunities around us, so that more and more people will follow us into the temple courts, walking, jumping, and praising God. Amen.
[1] Louw & Nida Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains
[2] Acts 2:38