Now time, I ran out of time last time and I had a brief point on verse 47. Because I've been saying repeatedly that verse 40 to 47 really serve as a paradigm for a healthy church. And one of the dangers you can conclude, reading it from my English version, is that the church was quite inward looking. But actually, verse 47 could be translated, praising God and having generosity to all the people. the Lord was adding to the church daily, those were being saved. That word favour is the word charis, it speaks of generosity, grace, and so the implication here is that one of, and the fact that it's connected with the Lord adding to the church daily shows that there was, as well as this mutual care for each other, there was this outward concern for people around them. They cared for their own household first, and a man who doesn't provide for his own household is worse than an unbeliever. if you only have a certain amount of money to spare and just give it to a brother or sister or give it to someone in the world, you choose your brother or sister, but as the church is able and as the Lord's people are equipped, we also seek to do works of charity and kindness and particularly sharing the word of God with those round and about us. And that seems to be the connection. They were gracious and kind and loving to all the people and as a result of that, people were being added to the church. They were encountering the grace of God in the hearts of God's people. And really, what follows is really an example of that. I'm sure there were many more examples. This is just one. It's a bit like what the Word of God says about Jesus, that he did so many things that not even all the world's books could contain them. That's quite a statement, isn't it? Because Ecclesiastes tells us that of the making of many books, there is no end. So I don't know whether John's using hyperbole just to make the point that there was so much the Lord Jesus did that I can't even begin to jot it down. And it would have been the same for the apostles. Here we are given an example of something that they did, God through them did to this poor man. So let's read Acts 3 verse 1 through to verse 10. 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 was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Who, seeing 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. 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 he who sat begging alms at the beautiful gates of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So here's the word of God, let's pray. Oh Father, we pray that you would exalt your Son in our midst, that you would take us back to when we were like this lame man, lame and sitting at the gate of the temple. and we were passed by by agents of mercy. We pray that you would leave us leaving this place like this man entered the temple, leaping and praising God. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well this evening I hope to preach a thematic sermon really based upon the first verse that Peter and John went up together to the temple. I want to preach on friendship. I want to preach on Christian fellowship and the importance that we treat our friends carefully and that we have friends like Peter and John had in each other. This morning I want to really expound the whole and preach it in its intention really by the holy spirit what i believe is the intention to preach it as a illustration of what the lord does in salvation now i am very excited to preach this passage i've been it's actually when i got back into acts i just i just kept my eyes just kept getting drawn to it when i hadn't finished act two and i'd I just kept looking at it because it's such an amazing passage and to study it this week, which has been a depressing week, hasn't it? It's okay to say that. It has been a depressing week. If you have a heart for the things of God, if you have a love for people and a love for souls, if you have a conviction that eternity is real and that death ushers you into the judgment before God, if you love what God loves and hate what God hates, this has been a terrible week. The text that's been on my mind is the psalmist when he says, rivers of water run down mine eyes because men do not keep thy laws. It's one of, strangely beloved, you can have assurance this week that you are a Christian if you've experienced tears in your soul. If not in your physical tears, you've had heart tears. Because it shows that you love righteousness and you love your saviour and you love his world and you're grieved. But here is hope, friends, hope for the church, hope for lost souls, hope for sinners, hope for all who listen to the preaching of the word of God in every place and in every land. If Christ could be with us in the same power that he was with James and John, Who knows what could do? The government may wish to slay their millions. I read this morning that in Canada, they're getting close now to 10% of all deaths being assisted suicide. They're about 6.4% at the moment, but they're on track to beat that figure in two years. That means one out of 10 deaths every day, every hour, every month, will be state-sanctioned executions. This is serious, serious times. And they hope to slay their millions and bring them before eternity. But we, by God's grace, could see millions around the world in the next few years brought into the kingdom of God. Here is a picture of life in a world of death. Here is a picture of power in a world of futility. You know, we all have our escapes, don't we? When we fall a bit deadened and depressed. There might be a particular novel that you go to or a particular CD you put on of Bach's greatest hits or whatever your thing is and there's nothing wrong with that. We sometimes need to just distract ourselves with something because we just can't live with thoughts. One writer was once asked what he does in melancholy times. He says, I go into the 18th century. He found great delight in the 18th century. And I think many pastors, if they're feeling a bit depressed in their ministries, they also go to the 18th century to read about the great awakenings. But beloved, here is where we should all be at this moment in our time and place and in history, the book of Acts. Because I remind you that the Acts does not record what Jesus did and does no more. It reminds you of chapter 1, verse 1, a long time ago. Last summer we looked at this. But Luke says, the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to both to do and to teach. By implication then, he is continuing to do what he does here. Now, not necessarily the signs, because the signs were there to authenticate the message of the apostles and the reality of what God does in souls and in people's lives. But the reality is what we still have promised to us. And if you're a Christian, it's proof that Jesus continues to do and to teach. What do you think's happening? Every time you gather on the last day, are you hearing Tom Allen preach? Well, in a sense, yes. But if what Tom Allen is preaching is what the scriptures say Jesus is preaching to you, do you understand that? That's a sobering thought, isn't it? It's a sobering thought for me, the responsibility I have and the accountability to God, but also the responsibility you have to listen. You know, I don't say this to chide, but I've been in sleepy churches before, and you hear the comment, oh, who's preaching on Sundays? If they haven't got a pastor, oh, so-and-so, oh, okay. And you notice on Sunday, there's a few people missing. And then Jeff Thomas is announced the following Sunday. Well, everyone's there. Everyone's there. But whenever the word of God is read, whenever the word of God is preached by whoever it is, Christ, if it is his word, is speaking to you. And here is what God can do when Christ is speaking. Here is the church in action. Here is the church as she's meant to be, alive and with power. A dead church is an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in terms. Here is the church as she should be. Here is the church with power, dealing with the deepest problems. We need to stop merely moaning about the world and about the nation, but actually seeking to address the issues that are before us. Because we alone, as the church, I know it sounds an arrogant thing, the world will hear it as an arrogant claim, but it is the claim of the word of God. Jesus said, ye are the light of the world. No one else, ye, the Lord's people. is actually I am the light of the world and that is why we are the light of the world because he abides in us if we are his people and his teaching lives in our hearts and friends here is a church that is more than a match for a decadent society. Israel was apostates at this point. Israel was decadent. Israel was evil and Israel were hostile They didn't even deny, if you turn to Acts 4 after this miracle, they did not even deny that a great work had been done. Look at verse 16. What shall we do to these men? For indeed a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem. We cannot deny it. It's got to be something very badly wrong with your hearts to say we can't deny what's been done and yet we want to do something to stop it. This shows you, I believe, let me put it this way, I believe in the Houses of Commons there are people that know what they did was wrong and they still did that way for party political reasons. They have no conscience. They do not care that other people's lives are at risk. Someone also made the point, and obviously the more and more I thought about this, the more and more dangers have come to my mind. Someone also made the point that one of the dangers of assisted suicide is how convenient for people that need particular organs, and you just happen to have the organ they need. The liability to abuse that this has, without the safeguards, is astounding. But the church here has power, has power to confront the present moment, dear friends. Thomas Aquinas. in the 13th century, he once called on Pope Innocent II. I don't know how well you know your popes, I don't know my popes very well. And Pope Innocent II was counting out lots of money, because the Roman Catholics had a lot of money. They do now, and they certainly did then, from all the indulgences they were selling to people. And you know what the pope said to Thomas Aquinas? He says, you see, Thomas, the church can no longer say silver and gold, I have none. And Thomas Aquinas replied back, true, Holy Father. Neither can she now say, rise up and walk. You see, we have nothing the world wants, do we? We have nothing. But we have what the world needs. And you see, there are great churches with great music and great performances and great orchestras and great activity and great bars. But it does nothing, absolutely nothing, to confront the need of the present moment. But a little church like ours that believes in the resurrected Christ. and that boldly can say to sinners, silver and gold, I have none. I have nothing to give you, nothing that you're seeking, but I can give you something more. I can give you what you don't even know you need to seek. I can give you a new life by God's grace. The Lord can change you. And if you were to go around the world, you would see the people that are changing nations are humble Christians. I read a long time ago that there are many Chinese corporations that want to employ Christians. Why? because the Christians work hard. You see, they're already realising something's happened in these people, and they're just better employees. That's the difference that the Gospel makes, and it's all because of humble people doing the Lord's work quietly. We must not lose heart. We are living in a time, I believe, when surely, surely, people are going to begin to realise there is no worldly solution to the problems men and women face. There has never been a time in recent history where we have given so much power to men, has there? The British state is huge. They control education. They control healthcare. They control the family. They control the roads. And across the board, how are they doing? In every single department, the best of Britain, those who went to Eton, those who went to Oxford, those who went to Cambridge, the highly educated, the cream of society, how are they doing in taking care for men and women? They're not doing very well. The help of man fails. The arms of men, the things that men look to to help, cannot help. You know, some say, well, the answer's capitalism. The problem is that, as a society, it's capitalist, but wicked in the heart. The idea is wonderful, the idea that it inspires hard work. It says to a man who has nothing, if you work hard, you can get somewhere. But in a society where hearts are wicked, and hearts are self-seeking, and hearts are greedy, all that happens is people make riches, and they go, I want to make more. And the gap gets bigger and bigger between the rich and the poor. And so other people say, well, the answer's state-sanctioned communism. And we relinquish everything we have. And they find out, wherever it's been tried, no one wants to work. Because why work when it's worse for you when the state can just give you everything? There are no solutions in politics. There are no solutions in education. There are no solutions in silver or gold. There is nothing that the world can do to fix the problem. Maybe you're thinking about voting for the Reform Party. By all means, vote for the Reform Party. They may be better than the other parties, but why? No, I don't know. But I'll tell you what, society's past reform. You can't reform decadent humans. You can't reform evil. Evil has to be overcome. Hearts have to be changed. And here we see the change that has to take place and that the church is alone in the position to bring about this change. Now, there's also cause for hope here because, question, how often was this lame man brought to the gate of the temple? This was eye-opening to me. How often? Sometimes? Daily? Since when? Look at the text. who was lame from his mother's womb carried daily at the gate of the temple. The implication is as long as anyone knows and anyone can remember. Question, did the Lord Jesus pass this man many times? Yes. Yes. That in itself is proof to dispel the charismatic claim that we should have the ability to heal whenever we want. Jesus did not heal everyone and anyone all the time. That's very clear from this. The apostles would have passed this man daily. when they went up for the hour of prayer. But clearly this man remained a cripple for most of the time showing us that the miracles were done by God's sovereign leading and sovereign appointment and when the apostles knew that it was the will of the Father to do the miracle and it was the same for Jesus Christ. And so there was day after day and day after day and day after day when this man's life carried on as normal and there was no change. And the Lord's people knew this man and walked past this man and didn't help this man. And then there came a day, there came a day in this man's life when he encountered Christ through John and Peter. We do not know what a day may bring forth, do we? Well, an hour. There are people that we pass in our streets that we've never engaged in a conversation with them and they with us, and suddenly there's a divine appointment and something happens. Our neighbors who we speak to over the fence, until now, nothing's really happened. There's been no conversations. They've never gazed their eye upon you and asked you a genuine question, and suddenly, a day comes, and heaven's gaze is upon them, and you just happen to be placed to be the means through which they hear a word which can cause them to rise on their feet and walk, and walk as new people and new creations. You do not know what a day may bring, so we can be depressed about the state of affairs. Indeed, it is bad, but we do not know how God will place us and place his church and use even this church to impact people in the town. We have to have that kind of conviction. With the Lord, all things are possible. Now a word about how I'm approaching this text. This is a miracle, it's a sign, it's a parable, it's an illustration. It's both a fact of history, it's both an event which took place, but it also preaches to us about spiritual reality far greater than the act itself. We read about that in Isaiah 35. Fundamentally, this miracle is about the eyes of the blind being opened, the ears of the deaf being unstopped, the lame shall leap like the deer. This is about the salvation of souls. That's what this miracle proclaims. And furthermore, this is very clear in terms of how the apostles interpreted the event themselves. And so in Acts chapter 4, verse 10, when they're on charge before the Jewish authorities for this miracle, verse 9, so, if this day we are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he's been made well, let it be known to you all and to all people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands before you whole. Verse 12, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. This then is about a miracle that illustrates us the way you were saved, Christian, and the way others will be saved, we pray, in days to come. So, that being said, let's look at the text. Firstly, we see what the world is. In this man We see an illustration of the way you came into this world, an illustration of the way men and women live in this world. And we are all, like this man, lame. This man was weak. This man was powerless. His feet and ankles, they could not function. He's never stood. He's never walked. He's never ran. And there's no faith in it. Someone made the point in a commentary that it was hard work carrying a 40-something year old man up the steps of the gate of the temple, and you could be sure they would not have done it if this man was not lame. Lame since the mother's womb. They wouldn't have been doing this for 40 years, would they? If he wasn't lame. You could argue this man's never lived. Not really. He's existed. He's merely existed. But he's never truly lived. and he's dying a slow and miserable death. He will never know what it is to live normally. He cannot pursue things others pursue. He breathes, but he doesn't live, and he's unable to save himself. He's unable to rescue himself. He can beg for alms, and all alms can do is provide him a little bit of income just to give him a little bit of rest from his condition, a distraction, to buy a bun and a coffee at the end of the day, just to take his mind off things, or to buy a ticket to the amphitheater just to see some entertainment, so that he can be taking his mind off the conditions that he faces and the miserableness of his life. But there's no relief for him in men. There are no doctors that can cure him. He does not live a normal life. He also has no feeling in his legs. If you're lame, it means your legs are without feeling. You could prick them and he wouldn't feel. His life was a useless life. And he's begging for the scraps that he can find in this world. He has no freedom or independence. He thinks he's free, but he has to be carried everywhere he goes. And worst of all, where was he laid? Outside the temple. To highlight this problem for the Jewish paralyzed man, the Jewish lame man, no lame, no paralyzed, no infirm man was allowed anywhere near the courts of God's temple. And this was to teach Israel the very important fact, God is holy. God is pure and nothing unclean, nothing spiritually deformed, nothing that's not right, not one person who has anything about their life that is slightly perverse, slightly crooked, slightly godless can be in his presence. And so therefore he could be laid at the gates of the temple and allowed no further. And so the only one that could help him was unknown to him. He had never had the ability to go into the temple and see the types and the shadows of the sacrificial system and to see the promises set forth in the offerings of a messiah who would come. This is a picture of the sinner. This is a picture of the world. This is why life is as it is. This is why educated people who believe they're so good and who believe they're so self-righteous and claim to be so wise and so intelligent can believe it's good to kill babies and it's good to kill people who are suffering with illness. We are born in a state of sin. We are spiritual cripples. Our souls do not function as they should. The capacities of our souls and our affections do not work. They're disordered. We are lame, so to speak. We do not love God. We cannot please God. Try getting your children to love God. See how hard it is. Try going on the streets and getting people to talk about God. See how hard it is. They're lame. They do not want to. There's just a soul. It's just dormant. It will not do it because that's how we're born. We cannot worship him. Now his head and his heart may have wanted to go into the temple and and may have wanted to do certain things, but his feet were unable to do it. Have you ever had experience, those of you that like sport, football or whatever, of trying to play sport as your body gets older? I did it a while back, playing with a load of 20-year-olds and late teens. It sort of reminded me that my legs can't do what my head wants to do anymore. I have great ideas what I'm going to do, but my legs won't follow me. They won't do it. And he couldn't do what he wanted to do. And that's like sinful men and women, isn't it? The Bible tells us that they agree with God's standard that it is good. They agree that murder is wrong. They agree that stealing is wrong. They agree that coveting is wrong, that taking is wrong. They do generally agree. We know that because when those things are done unto them, they get really angry and get really cross. But they just can't follow through with what they know is good. They just can't. When it's inconvenient, when their flesh is set on something, they're just unable to stop. They live in the lust of their flesh. Our souls are lame. They feel nothing. They do not have any awe or reverence before God. We're in total bondage. We cannot even carry ourselves. You know, we think we're free, don't we, by nature? We often do. But the Bible's teaching is that we are free only to sin. Do you understand that? The man or woman by nature is free only to sin. We're free only to obey our hearts. What's the modern mantra today? Trust your heart. Don't trust your heart, the Bible says. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Look where trusting our hearts got us. It's got divorces on a scale we've never seen before, broken families, orphaned children. Trusting your heart, it's a disaster. Our minds blow wherever we feel the wind is blowing. One minute Elon Musk is a green fanatic. Then he is a Trump fanatic. Drill, baby, drill. Then his stocks plummet. And then he's a Trump hater. And now he's green, baby, green. How do you explain these things? It's because people are not in control of their feelings. They're not in control of their emotions. And they're carried by these things, like this man was carried by these men. And worst of all, by nature, we're on the outside. There are no such thing as Christian children, do you understand that? There are children that are born to Christian parents, but they are born on the outside. That's why it's good for children to witness communion, to realize that there is a distinction between those who are in the church and those who are out of the church. We're made in the image of God. We're, like this man, made for so much more than merely surviving. We were made for so much more than just getting through one day. Is that how you live your life, Christian? Just to get through the day? It should not be so. That's how the world lives. Because the world has no purpose, the world has no goal. The world is just merely existing and surviving and seeking whatever arms and scraps it can get to make life a little bit more bearable. Ultimately, our lives are like this man, aren't they? Seeking arms, seeking whatever distractions we can. You have a bad day, rather than pray and seek God, you put the TV on, you listen to music, This is a problem in churches. It's not public. There's a real issue here. Lots of professing Christians privately demonstrate that they do not cast their burdens on the Lord. They drink them down with a bottle. There are many things that Christians lean to and look to to escape their problems. You're seeking alms from the world. You're seeking relief in the same things that men and women of the world seek relief in. I asked you this morning, have you slipped into seeking alms from the world? Have you slipped into, well, I will distract myself with these things? And the tragedy is, he's seeking arms when God's presence is in the temple, right there. And he's outside. Do you know, you do not get any help when you're struggling by staying away from God. You do not get any help. I know this from experience. I know this as a pastor. There have been times, I'm being honest here, because I'm just like you, so I'm going to let you know that these temptations are common to all men. There are times after Sunday, I'm sure you like to imagine that I go home and I get on my knees in my study and I spend the next six hours wrestling in God for your souls. And that's probably under God what I should do if I was a genuine man of God. But sometimes I just want to get home and what do I want to put on? Mind-numbing animals just doing something in nature just to distract my mind because I'm troubled by the failures of my own ministry. And I ask you, do you think I get any help from that? Do I get any real relief? Does that really deal with the problem? It doesn't, does it? There's no help in men. There's no help in arms. Secondly, see, what the world has. What was the cure for this man? There was no cure but arms. A little bit of money to buy a little bit of food, a little bit of pleasure. That's all the world has. Distractions, reliefs, paracetamol numbs the pain but doesn't stop the pain. Why is it that Christians en masse, particularly the young generation of Christians, and I'm not going to stand here and say none of them are true Christians. Some of them are. But why is it they choose a church which has music that blows your ears away even when the preaching is weak and fluffy and soft? Why is it? Because they believe the lie that they'll be more helped by arms, by temporary emotional ecstasy. I had a dear friend, pastor, who had a young man that was beginning to come to his church from a Pentecostal background. He was really being blessed under the ministry, and he would say to the pastor, pastor, I haven't heard this kind of preaching. I love this kind of preaching. It helps me. And then he just stopped coming. He just stopped coming. So the pastor did what a pastor should do. He chased him and pursued him. Why aren't you coming? He says, I can't deny, your preaching gets me through the week, but I need that fix that I get in my old church. I need that emotional thrill that makes me feel things that I don't feel under your ministry. But the pastor's like, yeah, but by Tuesday, it's all over. By Wednesday, it's completely gone. I know, but I need that fixed. It's just like the world's drug addicts, dear friends. rather than actually having your mind renewed and transformed by the Word of God so that you're able to face your problems bravely and manly in Christ Jesus and to live righteous in Christ Jesus. You're just getting from Sunday to Sunday, getting your emotional fix. We see this in the growing demand in a lot of churches for what I call felt needs preaching. So I've had a bad week and I hope that the pastor's gonna get a word from the Lord to be able to say something that just speaks to my problem. What if you're the problem? What if the problem is you need to be changed to know how to deal with that problem? You see, Christians can be just like this man because ultimately we're still sinners, we still have that fallen nature, we still fall back onto that default position of looking to the world for arms, for relief, for momentary helps. Why is this an entertainment age? Because it's a miserable age. People cannot live without being entertained because they would have to face the misery of a human condition without God. Why is it Christians, God forbid, should Christians be able to enjoy solitude? If you're a Christian, a true believer, you should love solitude. The Lord Jesus craved just time alone with the Lord and he couldn't get it. For the Christian, it's a wonderful thing to be alone with God, but if you can't be alone, I ask you, something might not be right with your soul or your conscience. If Christians have to always be busy, if Christians have to always be begging alms, if Christians have to always be doing something, it tells me that there is no, it is well with my soul. The reason our society is busy and hustling and bustling, wants to work seven days a week, shop seven days a week, watch movies seven days a week, is because it knows it is rebelling against God and God forbid that you have a moment's silence where your conscience that you've suppressed for so long has a moment to speak to you. But it should not be the case with Christians, should it? Should not be the case with Christians. All the world has is arms, the arms of politics, the arms of education, the arms of distractions. They do not help. They do not cure. They just suppress facing the reality of the situation. Thirdly, what the world seeks You see, this man is an illustration of what the world thinks towards us as a church. And I can say, in my own experience, I've found this to be so. You see, he sees John and Peter, doesn't he? Who's seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple. He asks for alms. This man is an illustration of the fact that the world expects from the church what the world can give. So the world wants the church to be basically a salvation army. The world wants the church to say, feed the poor, clothe the naked. Educate the ignorant. Take care of the homeless. Be street passers on the street and get our drunk home safely. Do all those nice things but do not preach to us of Jesus Christ. Do not preach to us of salvation from sin. Do the things that we believe are important. Then we'll take you seriously. And I found it to be the case in church. Many come to church to sponge off Christians. They are not coming to church to repent. to get right with God, to seek God. They're coming because they've heard that Christians are generous and they take advantage of Christians. You need to know Christians. We are called to be generous but not foolish. Perhaps he's heard about them having all things in common, verse 44 to 45. And so he sees them coming and his eyes particularly gaze on them. There's loads of people but his eyes particularly gaze on them because now he's expecting to get something of what he's heard they're doing. And today, the world expects morality from the church. Preach morality. Oh yeah, preach good morals. They expect emotional uplift from the church. Give me an emotional uplift. They expect material help from the church. They expect great cathedrals and great architecture to give them a sense of transcendency. They expect religious pomp and religious ceremony. They expect philosophy and intellectual. Oh, you preach the same message all the time. That's one of the great confusions I find when unbelievers come to church. Why is it so many of the sermons are the same? It's because we've got another message, friend. We've got another message. We preach Christ. Christ crucified. You're bored of that? I have nothing else to offer you. Silver and gold? I do not have. We have nothing else but Christ. You know, imagine this man saved up his money and he paid for a physio. What good would a physio have done? He's lame. There's no muscles there. There's no muscles to even repair. There's no muscles to even stretch. There's no muscles to even work. He's lame. The world... Again, let me stress again. Never, ever, ever, ever believe the lie that your problems in your life can be addressed without going to God. They cannot be. Your fears cannot be addressed by going to God. Your needs. Solomon has already told us, hasn't he, in the word of God, about the futility of arms, of the things that this world can provide by itself. Solomon said when he was given wisdom, he says, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine. while guarding my heart with wisdom and to lay hold and folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks. I gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings. Goes on and on. Whatever my eyes desired, verse 10, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done. Please ask these two, sorry. And on the labor in which I toiled. And indeed, all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. Let me say it clearly. If it is not well with your soul in here, whatever you fix out there won't make your life any better, let alone your eternity. Many people think, I don't like the community I'm living in. We'll be much happier if we move somewhere else. We move to a calmer place, a quiet place. No, you won't be. Because if the disquietness is within your own heart, you'll just take that discontented heart with you and you'll find something else to be discontented about. You know, what did the Israelites do in the wilderness? Oh, if only we had meat like we had in Egypt. And so what did God give them? Meat. And then they just grumbled about the fact that it was the same meat every day. There's always something to grumble about. It is vanity. The arms, the things this world can give do not help in issues of the soul, let alone our eternal position before God, but even as Christians, our contentment and our spiritual wellness, you might say. Now, don't get me wrong. I do believe if John and Peter had arms in their pocket, they would have given it. I don't think this is saying that Christians, when it's in their power to do good, shouldn't do it. But they didn't have it. It may well be that they lost it all in the daily, in sharing all things with those you had not in Acts 2. You know, many, this is one of the great problems I have, with the way we call pastors today and missionaries. Someone says, oh, I want to be a missionary in the Middle East or in Europe. And I say, oh, do you want to come on the street of Angelism in Eastbourne? And they say, oh, I'm not sure I'm ready for that. If you're not a missionary at home, you won't be a missionary abroad. You know, oh, I feel called to leadership or to be a pastor or something like that. Are you pastoring where you are? Are you caring? Are you loving souls? Are you seeking to study the word? Do you pray for people? You see, so often we, again, we think that our issues can be fixed by a change of scenery, a change of role, a change of situation. It doesn't help, does it? It's here that we need to change. It's in the soul. And that's true at the time we need to be converted, but it's also true for our own Christian lives. So what does the church have? that the world doesn't have? What do we have if we're Christians that the world doesn't have? What do you have that you can offer the world? You have Jesus Christ. And the world needs Jesus Christ. Never ever believe the lie that you have nothing to give if you're a Christian. You have everything the world needs. In here, in here, and in this book. He is a living Christ. You see, for this man, and this is where we have to have mercy on those around us, to be fair to him, he's shaking arms because he doesn't know that there's anything else that's possible. You know, a lot of people are living the lives they are, quite frankly, because they don't know about the glories of salvation. They don't know about the possibilities of what God can do by his grace. They've never heard. Most people have never even been invited to church. We always assume that if you invite someone they won't come. There's been surveys done on this. Majority of British people have never had an invitation to even go. They don't know. So you look at them, oh they're silly people, living on the bottle, living on the drugs, well what would you do if you were in their shoes? They don't have the hope that you have. They don't know what you know. They don't know what it is to walk. They're spiritually lame, they're beggars. Can you blame them? The world is dark, the world is miserable. Life is unpredictable. I have to say, if I wasn't a Christian, if I didn't know what I know now, if I hadn't experienced in my heart what God has done in my life, God forbid what I would be doing. What pleasures I would be chasing. What futility I would be living. And so half of our job is actually to offer something the world doesn't even know is there to be offered. So these apostles, they say to this man, silver and gold we do not have. But what we do have, we give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, they're explicitly calling him the Messiah there, the Christ, the Messiah, the Christos. Rise up and walk. You see what they're saying? There's a possibility for you in my Saviour and in my Lord that hasn't ever occurred to you or you've never heard of. You don't need to be begging for alms when you can be cured. You don't need to be seeking temporary pleasures when you can have everlasting joys. You don't need to sit crippled when you can walk. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. Rise up and walk. They're saying to him, you can be a new man, friend. You can be a new man. To walk in the scriptures, it speaks of the life. Rise up and walk, live a new life. Have a new life. Have a new heart. And that's what we preach, fifthly, what the church preaches. We preach Christ. And we call for faith. And by the way, again, Christian, This is what you need to regularly have. It's rise up and walk. You need to hear that regularly. Rise up and walk. Don't halt in the way. Don't sit still. Rise up and walk. You have a new life in Christ Jesus. Now notice again, as we said to the children, to rise up and walk required faith in this man. And faith in particular in Jesus the Messiah, in Jesus of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. Believe that he can transform you and heal you and give you this new life both in body and in soul. Again, verse 16 of chapter three. And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of all. He was given saving faith in Christ. He's been called to put his faith in Christ. And Christian, you're always, daily being called, put your faith in Christ. You say, but faith is a gift. Put your faith in Christ. Rise up and walk. Maybe the Lord's calling you to obey him in a particular area of your life and you've been stubbornly rebelling against him. He says, do it by faith. Rise up and walk. Now, my dear friends, you can blame the sovereignty of God as an excuse to not rise up and walk and say, well, I'll wait until there's a stirring. Or maybe the man could have said, I'll wait till I feel a little tingles in my ankle. No, he wasn't given that option. It was rise up and walk. By faith, he stood. By faith, he walked. And it was as he, by faith, went to stand. that the miracle was given. And it's like that for all Christian living, isn't it? By faith, by faith, Hebrews 11, by faith, by faith. This is the paradigm of how you begin and how you get converted, how you come to Christ, and how you continue in the Christian life. You never wait for something to happen before you obey the will of God. You don't need a secret message of God to do what God has clearly said to do. Yeah? The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children. What God has revealed to do, we do. So by faith, he stood and he was literally given a new life. And if only we had the confidence with Peter and John to say to people confidently, forsake your sin, repent, believe on Christ, Walk, follow him, come to him for cleansing, come to him for forgiveness, and you will experience power. A miracle of faith will take place. God will help you, he will take your hand, as Peter took this man's hand. Now what is the outcome? Sixthly and lastly, see what the saved knows, verse eight and 10. What happens to people who have come to faith and are living by faith. Again, if these descriptions don't describe you, believer, you're not living by faith at this moment in time. If you're living by faith, you'll be leaping, standing, verse eight, walking, and entering the temple with songs of praise. That's the mark, that's the mark of those who've had the touch of Christ in their life. Walking, leaping, and praising God. Because he now has what the world could not give. He has a new life. He is living, he is walking, and that's what it is to be a Christian. We don't need the world's arms, do we? I mean, there's nothing wrong with reading a good book. There's nothing wrong with watching a wholesome film. There's nothing wrong with these things in proportion, but we do not need them. Because there is enough glory in Jesus Christ to consume your mind if you had not those things. I truly believe that a saved man or a saved woman could be on a desert island somewhere with the word of God and find enough material to give their hearts joy and to cause them to leap and to praise and to worship. He has strength now to seek God, strength to live for God, strength to praise God, strength to pursue God. Has God put strength into your soul? Strength to do the will of God against the will of the flesh. Are you fighting against sin? Here are the marks of conversion. Is it in the presence of all? Notice, he was praising God in the presence of all. By the way, as a result of this experience of power in this man's life, look at verse four of chapter four. However, many of those who heard the word, because Peter then had to preach before the people in the temple courts about what had happened to this man. He used it as an illustration to preach the message of Christ And it says, many of those who heard the word believed, and a number of the men came to be about 5,000. Church, church, all we need is one soul. One soul, like this man, lame in sin. One soul, can we not pray for that? Give us one soul before the year is end. Is that too hard for the Lord? Because one soul could lead to a sermon preached to a multitude. That's all it takes to change a church overnight. That's all it takes to change a city. This man's conversion, this man's salvation, this man's deliverance, this man's miracle took place before all people. And if we're going to see people saved out of the gutter, everyone will see. Well, what's happened to Jimmy? Why is he not in the pub tonight? He got involved with those Jesus people. Really? Why? Go and talk to him if you want. And they all turn up at Jimmy's house and, well, come to church and find out. And then there's Dick, there's Bob, there's Mark, there's John. And they're coming in stinking of alcohol because they want to know what's happened to Jimmy. And then John gets saved. And then John cleans up his cupboard. He gets rid of his bottles. And then John's family member's going, well, John, why aren't you drinking anymore? Because I've come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's changed my life. Wow. I'm being baptised next week, would you come? All right. And then the church building's full. We need to see the possibilities here. The power that God can do, it just takes one miracle of grace. And in this case, 2,000 were added to the 3,000 that were already added. We pray for that, but we also need to pray that we would experience daily, weekly, renewed experiences of this reality. Sometimes we do sometimes feel quite lame, don't we? You know, life, life batters us. Church life can batter us sometimes, can't it, you know? And we end up feeling like, I don't think I can walk like I used to. I don't think I can leap like I used to anymore. It's gone. It's gone. The joy is gone. I'll never be the same again. And you need to hear Christ speaking to you, rise up and walk. And by faith, you start putting one foot in front of the other and you realise he's holding your hand and then you realise, I can leap and I can joy, I've got the joy back. This is a message for the lost sinner and a message for the bewildered and crippled Christian. Because life does have a habit, doesn't it, of knocking us over. And the reality is, if Christ is in you, You can do all things through Christ, who gives you strength. Obey him, obey him. All the things we do as a church, street evangelism, even personal witness, it must be by faith. We will never feel like doing it, we will never have any prior experience to doing it, but as we step out in faith, we may see the miracle in our own hearts and the miracle take place in other people's lives, the miracle of the Lord working by his power and by his spirit. So here is an illustration of what the Lord is doing every day in the world, and every Sunday, and for every sermon, he is making the cripple to walk. spiritually crippled to walk. And may we see that in our midst, may it be repeated over and over and over again in your life, Christian. Rise up, walk, and praise your Saviour all the day long. Let's pray.