Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”—Acts 3:1–26

Outline

Introduction: The False Hopes That Only Turn Bitter

1. The Miracle of Restoration (Acts 3:1–11)
2. The Message of Resurrection (Acts 3:2–18)
3. The Message of Refreshing (Acts 3:19–26)

Application: The True Hope That Only Gets Better

Introduction: The False Hopes That Only Turn Bitter

This is our last week of Advent, and throughout this series we’ve seen King Jesus continue to work through the Spirit to shine light into dark hearts that had their hopes set on earthly comforts. This is Advent fulfilled. We’ve seen that King Jesus—hope incarnate—died for our sins, rose again, and called a people to repentance to make them citizens of his Kingdom and a family forever.

Here we are 2,000 years later and we still struggle with running to earthly hopes, don’t we? The problem with earthly hopes is that they either a) are never full enough or b) always run out. That’s true of even the best things in life. Think with me.

Let’s say you have a health issue you want healing for. And let’s say you get healing! We praise God for that. But does that healing guarantee your suffering is done or bring eternal comfort? When the COVID-19 pandemic ends, will it end suffering or bring eternal hope? No. It’s not full enough and it will run out.

Let’s say your party wins the election. You can be happy or relieved. But at best that person can be in office for eight years, and they will never do enough because they’re finite sinners. It’s not full enough and it will run out.

Let’s say Governor Walz or your church starts aligning with your agenda. They do the things you think they should do. No more masks. Stricter on masks. That would be nice for you—until the next time you disagree with a leader or find yourself anxious about what’s happening in our culture. It’s not full enough. It will run out.

Let’s say your family life gets better. You start knocking it out of the park. Or maybe your spouse starts knocking it out of the park. We would be thankful. But your spouse will disappoint you again, your kids will still sin, and you will continue to make mistakes. It’s not full enough and it will run out.

Kids, let’s say you get exactly what you want for Christmas. That would be fun. But in a few days—or a week, or a month, or an hour—you’ll be thinking about something else you want, won’t you? That thing you want won’t fill up your heart forever. Christmas is notorious for having us run around like crazy people seeking an elusive feeling that keeps slipping away.

Now, it’s OK to want these things. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t care. I’m just saying that we put so much hope on these things that we set ourselves up for a life of disappointment. And on the other side of that disappointment is bitterness. Bitterness that shows itself in fear, frustration, and grasping for control. If you’re feeling these things lately, this passage will help us recalibrate our hearts to the only place of sure hope.

1) The Miracle of Restoration (Acts 3:1–11)

We just read these verses, so let me summarize them and hone in on a couple things.

In verses 1–3, we see the apostles Peter and John on their way to pray at the temple. Always praying. As they are on their way, some people are finishing their daily routine of bringing a man who had been lame from birth and, according to chapter 2, was at least 40 years old.

They would set folks like this man at the gate headed into the temple around prayer times in the hope that those heading to pray would show mercy to them. This man asks Peter and John to help.

In verses 4–8, Peter directs his gaze at him and says, “Look at us.” (We’re going to come back to Peter’s look). Peter says they have no money, but they do have something else to offer him: healing in the name of Jesus! Peter takes him by the right hand and in the name of Jesus this man who has been lame from birth begins to walk and leap! Of course he leaps! And he praises God. He knows God is working now.

In verses 9–11, the people see this man walking and leaping and they gather around Peter and John. The people are “filled with wonder and amazement” and are “utterly astounded” because they recognize the man as the one who had always been sitting outside this gate asking for help. Something has happened. This man has been lame for at least 40 years and carried to this gate day-by-day, and here he is leaping and praising God. So the people run to Peter and John.

A mighty miracle has happened. What I want to look at is how it happened and therefore who is at work to get the crowd’s (and our!) attention here. We’re going to get our answer from verses 4, 6, and 16. Look at verse 4: 

Peter directed his gaze at him … and said, “Look at us.”

Now the word for directed his gaze is a word for an intense gaze. Something is going on inside of Peter in this moment. And it’s emphasized in his asking the man to look at him.

Kids, have you ever had your parents telling you something and then they say, “Hey, look at me,” even though you kind of are? Why do they do that? They can tell you’re not quite in tune and you’re not really hearing them. Well, Peter is doing that. I think Jesus is working in Peter’s heart in this moment and he wants the full attention of this man to see it. Now look at verse 6:

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!

We talked about this in the introduction—this man is looking for earthly help and hope. He needs money to survive. Peter doesn’t have that. But he has Jesus for this man. This healing happens in the name of Jesus. Peter is declaring that he is not the worker of this miracle, but Jesus is still the one working and teaching here. Jesus is center stage. Now, how does this happen? Look at verse 16:

And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

How was this man made strong? How does he have perfect health? There are two answers here and we need to see them both. The first answer is “by faith in his Name.” Who had this faith? I think Peter had it. I think that’s what we see as Peter stares this guy down and gets his attention in verse 4. Peter had faith in the name of Jesus that he was about to work a miracle for the sake of his name. Peter’s faith for this miracle is highlighted here.

But there’s a second answer here. This man is healed “by faith” in the name of Jesus. But then it says, “the faith that is through Jesus.” Every other place in this passage we see “faith in Jesus” when it talks about someone trusting Jesus. So I think Luke, who is very precise with his Greek, uses the word through here on purpose. He is saying that Jesus himself gave Peter the faith to trust him. This faith was a gift given to Peter in the moment to work this miracle in the name of Jesus, and it was a gift given by Jesus himself.

In other words, the one giving the faith needed to work this miracle through Peter was Jesus Christ himself. In verse 4 as Peter directs his gaze, Jesus is working in him the faith needed to work this miracle so that the crowd would be drawn in to hear about a greater miracle. Jesus works miracles for his purposes, on his schedule, and Jesus gives the power needed.  

Now, we don’t have apostles any more, but I think we can still see this gift available to us today. In 1 Corinthians 12:9 we are told of the gift of faith, and it’s right next to the gift of healing. In James 5:15, when we see the elders called to pray for healing, we see that “the prayer of faith” will heal the sick. This isn’t talking about faith that brings about salvation. This is talking about a gift of the Spirit, given by King Jesus, to have an unshakable belief in the moment you need it—perhaps to endure through suffering, perhaps for a healing or miracle—all in order to point to the glory of Jesus.  

When was the last time you asked for the gift of faith? When was the last time you thought that King Jesus could break in like this to heal in his Name? We want him to heal all sorts of physical, spiritual, and emotional brokenness if it would get people’s attention for the sake of his Name.

Now, I do believe that this was a special time in history to confirm and spread rapidly the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth. But I also believe these gifts are still available today; King Jesus is still alive today and can still give the gift of faith to work miracles that bring about glory for his name. And here’s what we will see. This miracle was not the end, but the beginning. This miracle was meant to give greater healing than even the amazing ability to walk.

2) The Message of Resurrection (Acts 3:2–18)

Now, in verse 12, Peter says to the people, “Why are you looking at us like we did this?” The people were tempted, as you can imagine, to worship the apostles. There is temptation to make an idol of them, so what does Peter do? He reminds them whom they should be praising and reminds them what they did instead. He cuts them in the hopes it will heal them.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.—Acts 3:13

Here Peter tells them that their God glorified Jesus as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The One who would be slain for sins and rise again. He had the seal and approval of God himself, and they delivered him over to be crucified even after a pagan ruler had decided to let him go. Peter will not let them just marvel at the miracle without remembering their madness.

Jesus is the promised Messiah accepted and glorified as Lord by their God, and they rejected and killed him. Peter goes on to say that Jesus is the Holy and Righteous One. He is perfect. He committed no wrongs. He lived the perfect life. He was God incarnate. And they rejected him and asked for a murderer. Jesus is the Author of life and they decided to take his life. But this Jesus didn’t stay dead: God raised him up from the grave and he is still alive and working (vv. 14–15)!

Then Peter tells them that Jesus—the Author of all physical and spiritual life—was the One behind this miracle of physical restoration that would lead to spiritual restoration (v. 16). There is no life, physical or spiritual, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then finally in verses 17–18, Peter says he knows they acted in ignorance, but what they saw was simply God’s plan fulfilled that his Christ would suffer. And what they are seeing now in this healing is that the same Christ is now alive and working among them. They can plead ignorance no longer. They slaughtered their eternal hope and comfort to pursue earthly hope and comfort.

3) The Message of Refreshing (Acts 3:19–26)

What is the call to us when we see the Lord Jesus in all his holiness, righteousness, and life-giving, miracle-working power, and we see all the obvious and subtle ways we reject him? Look at verse 19. Repent. Peter calls them to repent so that their sins might be blotted out.

The idea of “blotted out” means “completely gone as if it was never there.” Jesus, the righteous, holy, life-giving, miracle-working King stands ready to forgive if we will simply repent. Now, listen, there are only two choices: repent and be saved, or reject and be destroyed. Eternity hangs in the balance if you’re here today and you haven’t trusted in Jesus.

Do you see that in these verses? Option 1: Reject him and be destroyed.

Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.”—Acts 3:22–23

Peter is saying, “You’ve seen him die, you’ve heard he was raised, you’ve seen his power today—now don’t miss him again to your own destruction. Don’t keep running to earthly hopes and earthly comforts. Run to Jesus now or you will be destroyed. You will destroy yourself.”

Option 2: Turn from sin and be blessed.

“And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”—Acts 3:24–26

The prophets have been saying that this Servant would come. Everything has been pointing to him. Jesus is the promised Servant, the promised offspring from Genesis 3 and Genesis 12 who will bless all the families of the earth. One day every tribe, tongue, nation, language, and people will be around the throne to worship the Lamb that was slain for their sins. And God sent him to you first so that you could turn from your wickedness right now!

Peter says, “Turn now. Stop your sin now.” Kids, Peter is talking to you, too. Jesus came for you. To help you trust in Jesus. To help you turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus. If you’re in the room and you know you’ve never trusted this Jesus for forgiveness, would you come to him now? Turn from earthly comforts. Turn from earthly hopes. Turn to Jesus now. Find eternal joy.

Application: The True Hope That Only Gets Better

Now, I skipped two verses that I want to end with. Look at verses 19–21:

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 

Repentance certainly must happen the first time we turn from our sins and Jesus saves us. But, the Christian life is a life of repentance.

Now, repentance sounds scary. It means we have to confess that we’ve been hoping in the wrong things. It means we have to confess that we’ve been looking for life in places other than the Author of Life. It means we have to confess that we’ve been counting on righteousness coming from somewhere outside the only Righteous One. The misplaced hope for life and righteousness outside of Jesus, from the Right and Left of the political scene, is a dead-end hamster wheel. It means we have to confess that we’ve wanted comfort and rights more than we’ve wanted to identify with the Suffering Servant, who said we’d also need to take up our cross and follow him. It means we have to confess coddling hatred in our heart for our enemies when Jesus came for his enemies so that we might be saved. It means we have to own our sin, bitterness, anger, frustration, false hopes, distractions, and pursuit of earthly things over the Kingdom of God—to admit that our biggest problem is in us, not “out there.” But aren’t you ready for this? Aren’t you worn out from all that anyways? Aren’t you exhausted? How’s trying to be a better you in your own strength going? How’s hoping for a better world in someone else’s strength apart from Jesus going for you?

Do you want some refreshing? Do you want to feel refreshed? Repent, that times of refreshing may come. Lay down your sin, that times of refreshing may come. Turn from false hopes. Run to the only hope for true life, that times of refreshing may come. Run to the only hope for true righteousness, that times of refreshing may come. If we want to be a people who offer a cool, refreshing drink of Jesus to a broken and weary world looking for hope, then we need to start drinking there ourselves first. Individually and corporately.

Do you want to be a refreshing church? Do you want to be a place that gives life? Or do you want to be a church that works for things that never satisfy us anyways? A place that shows the world we don’t really trust in Jesus alone? We need to run to Jesus together away from everything else. There’s free life in Jesus. Let’s get up and walk toward Jesus.

Look at me now. We have been paralyzed by our own sin in this season, but we can walk with Jesus again. There is greater refreshing to be had in Christ than even the refreshing in a miracle of healing. There is full, eternal refreshing. The miracle of physical healing was meant to demonstrate the power of the risen Christ to save from sins and refresh your souls. You see, when you hope in Jesus and turn from everything else as your hope, it’s a hope that can only get better. Every time you walk with Jesus and away from sin, you know him more, you trust him more, and you find out he’s worthy and able to keep you and love you and sustain you and fulfill you. Every time you take him up on his offer to come and find rest for your soul away from your hamster-wheel pursuit of comfort in other things, you realize he is where you’ve always needed to be.

And not only will he bring refreshing now—as a Shepherd leading you to green pastures and still waters and restoring your soul—but he’s going to come again. God will send the appointed Christ for us, and he will restore all things. He will make all things new. He will wipe away every tear from your eyes. There will be no more sin or suffering. Jesus is the sure, true hope that can only get better. The more you repent and hope in him, the more refreshed you are in him until the day when we are with him forever, completely refreshed in his presence! That’s the promise for those who repent. And Jesus keeps his promises. Jesus is the only Advent hope that can save you from your sins and that gets better and better for all of eternity.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Introduction: The False Hopes That Only Turn Bitter

• The Miracle of Restoration (Acts 3:1–11)
• The Message of Resurrection (Acts 3:12–18)
• The Message of Refreshing (Acts 3:19–26)

Application: The True Hope That Only Gets Better

• Why are we prone to place our hope in things? What are we longing for?
• Why will all hopes outside of Jesus leave us broken and bitter?
• In the miracle in Acts 3, what happens? When was the last time you prayed miracle-type prayers?
• Who worked this miracle? What was the result of the miracle?
• In Acts 3, what does the apostle Peter show about who Jesus is? What does he show about who the crowd is?
• How does repentance lead to refreshing?
• How are we recipients of the blessing of Abraham?
• What is our ultimate hope, even beyond refreshing?
• How is Jesus the hope that only gets bigger and better?