Acts 3:1-10
The first lesson in Acts that we learned from the early church is how to handle situations when people want to argue with us or make accusations when we are trying to share the Gospel. We don’t respond in anger and we don’t let ourselves get misdirected. We proclaim Christ. Christ crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and ascended.
Then, last week, we saw that the early believers enjoyed the favor of all people by producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their words and their actions. It’s not that people will agree with everything we say, but that we don’t, through our words or actions, give them reason to reject the message of Christ.
Our text today tells of a miracle that God used Peter to perform. This miracle shows us that the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus’ name are as active in the world as it was before Jesus ascended to Heaven. But now, the work of Jesus is done through His followers that remember their first love.
In this text, we see that Peter and John had to draw the lame man’s attention before they could offer him Jesus. The man was so focused on meeting his physical needs, he couldn’t consider anything else. He was looking everywhere for help instead of focusing specifically on the people who could offer him the help he needed more than anything else. Not just help for his physical needs, but help for his spiritual needs.