Prelude
Call to Worship Malachi 4:2
Hymn JBC # 507 He leadeth me! O blessed tho’t!
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 278 There’s within my heart a melody
The Prayer Time
Offering
Scripture Acts 3:1～16
Prayer
Sermon “Be glory to his servant Jesus”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 626 I gave My life for thee
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude
Today’s Bible passage starts with these words:
11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. (v.11)
The place mentioned here was Jerusalem’s temple. Peter and John were direct disciples of Jesus Christ, two of the group of disciples called the Twelve Apostles.
They came to take up a central role amongst the group of believers (the church) after Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, His resurrection and ascension to Heaven.
We first meet the man who was said to be “holding on to Peter and John” in the passage before today’s scripture reading.
This was the man who had been lame since birth, but was healed and became able to walk through his encounter with Peter and John.
This man was a beggar who, since he was born unable to walk, would always be carried and set down beside the temple gates where he would receive alms from passers-by.
He looked at Peter and John as they were going to enter the temple and, hoping to receive money, he begged them for alms. Peter told him this:
“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (v.6)
Having said this, Peter took him by the right hand, and the man stood up. The man’s legs were healed, he stood up straight and began dancing and praising God.
This brings us back to today’s passage, where the man who had been lame was healed, and “held on to Peter and John”.
The expression “hold on to” is normally not a positive one very much. “Hold on to” means to grab on to and not let go.
Although the man would have known that it was “in the name of Jesus Christ” that his legs were healed, he may have upheld Peter and John, who spoke the name of Jesus to him, as people of special importance, and maybe even respected or revered them.
And so, he was clinging on to Peter and John and couldn’t leave their side, and was holding on to them.
Perhaps the man was thinking “If you (Peter and John) are always near me, then I will be okay from now on”.
Today’s passage starts from where Peter is talking to the crowd that has gathered around them.
Peter is starting to tell them about what made it possible for this man who was born lame to be healed, for his legs to become stronger and for him to stand up and be dancing around.
First off, Peter tells them “It was not our (Peter and John’s) power that healed this man.”
This is what people were thinking. They were thinking that Peter and John must have some special power, and that is how the man’s legs were healed.
This is why Peter tells them:
“Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? (v.12)
It is a wondrous thing, that a man who had been lame since birth was able to stand up, that he was freed from his long years of suffering.
But, Peter did not want people to focus solely on the fact that his legs were healed and that he could walk, or on the impression that they had healed him.
Peter tells them of the One who makes such things possible, of the One who they all must know.
That One is Jesus Christ. As is written in verse 16, it is “by faith in the name of Jesus”, and the “faith that comes through Him”.
It is the faith that Jesus gives us that makes wonderful miracles happen. It is never by the power of man.
And so, if there is anyone who we should “hold on to”, anyone that we must “cling on” to, that person is Jesus Christ.
Today’s passage teaches us that we should not depend on or cling to any outstanding person, thing or money, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ that we should depend on and cling to.
In verse 13 of today’s passage, Peter says:
13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
The God who is made known to us through Jesus Christ is the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. The God of the Bible is the God who, throughout history, chose the Israelites and revealed Himself to them.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were names well known to the Jews as the names of their ancestors of faith.
Even for us now through the Bible (the Old Testament), we can see how God revealed Himself to Abraham and the ancestors of the Israelites.
It seems that some people have the impression that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are different gods, however the Bible tells us clearly that there is only one God.
The One who created Heaven, who created all the living things on earth, the One who revealed Himself to Abraham, to his son Isaac and to his son Jacob, is the same God as the One who revealed Himself as Jesus Christ, the one true God.
Let’s read verse 13 once more.
13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
Here, Jesus is called “his servant Jesus”, meaning that Jesus Christ was God’s servant.
Jesus was equal with God. Jesus carried out many mighty works that only God could do.
Even so, at the same time as Jesus was God the Messiah (Lord and Savior), the memory of Jesus as God’s servant was still strong in the minds of the disciples.
Jesus did many mighty miraculous works, healing many people of their illnesses, driving out demons, calming storms and walking on water.
This shows the power of God, and power of Jesus as the Son of God.
And yet at the same time, Jesus had humbled himself and was always serving others, and this image of Jesus as a servant remained strongly imprinted in the minds of Peter and the disciples.
Peter is saying that even though our teacher, Jesus the Son of God, was the greatest of all, he was also God’s servant, and a servant to the point of serving others as well.
Peter must have also recalled Jesus’ teaching that they should be servants of one another also.
While Jesus was living amongst the disciples, He told them this (Mark 10:43~45):
whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
These were the words of Jesus. And these were not only words, but He Himself lived them out, living his life as a servant.,
The One who is God, who is King, the greatest One of all, made Himself a servant. The God of the Bible gave up his divine identity, becoming a servant of all and Himself serving others.
Believing in Jesus Christ is to welcome such a One into our hearts, as our God and as our Lord.
Since the One who humbled himself to be the lowest is our Lord and Savior, shall we not also strive to live as a servant on this earth, seeking to serve others?
Let’s read verse 16, the last verse in today’s passage.
16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
This passage here tells us the truth that what saved this man who had always been unable to walk was the name of Jesus Christ, the faith that comes through Jesus Christ, the grace and power of Christ.
This is what all the people who were gathered there in the crowd needed to know.
Even the man whose legs were healed needed to rethink and know that what had made it possible for him to walk was the faith that comes through belief in the name of Jesus Christ (not through the power of man).
And so Peter made sure to repeatedly emphasize this point many times.
The name of Jesus Christ strengthens us. The faith given to us by Jesus gives us hope.
Each of us are faced with all kinds of troubles and suffering in our own lives.
In trying to solve our own difficult situations and escape from suffering, we often turn to all kinds of things or to other people to help save us.
Seeking help from other people is not a bad thing; in serving one another we also help one another.
But, the root cause of the serious problems that we are faced with on this earth is not something that can be solved by people or things (or even money).
The most fundamental problem we face is not knowing the Lord God and living our lives apart from Him.
In this world, we have pain, sadness and suffering. Even believing in God, sad things are still sad, painful things are still painful.
However, our faith that Jesus is with us, that the God of Immanuel (which means “God with us”) is with us, this gives us strength.
Even as we face pain and sorrow, we are able to live through the faith of hope that Jesus is with us.
In the same way that, in today’s passage, the name of Jesus Christ brought a man who had been lame to his feet, so too does Jesus surely give us the strength to keep rising to our feet in the midst of our troubles.
The Lord God, Jesus Christ, takes us by the hand, raises us to our feet, and walks alongside us.
And so, let us always believe in Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, and continue walking step by step on our life’s path with God and with our family in the faith.
