Focal Passage: Acts 3:12-26
In our study today one might read this passage and say, “Wonderful story about a man getting healed. But how is that fulfilling the Great Commission?” The answer is context.
You see we may think we are the ones that have to create our own opportunities to share Jesus. And we should be looking for those opportunities and be ready to give people a reason for the hope that is in within us. But, where we make the mistake is we sometimes try to force opportunities and that’s why we are not very successful in our witness.
We must truly understand what Jesus commanded if we are to truly understand how we are to obey it. Many take the “Go” to mean it is all on them to make things happen. The “Go” in Jesus’ command in the Greek also can be translated “As you go.” Life is a linear path and is always moving. In other words, as we proceed forward in life, we need to be His witnesses in presented opportunities.
Let me put it a different way. We are not to force opportunities, but we are to be watchful for the opportunities that God through the Holy Spirit presents.
Nimmo
Peter and John were on their way to the temple for prayer. They did not seek out this beggar that was lame to heal him and draw a big crowd to preach to. But it was God who designed this divine intersection and produced the opportunity to share Jesus. We should be ever mindful with a watchful eye and pray that God will make opportunities for us to share our faith.
When I read this passage, I can’t help but see this lame beggar as a picture of us all. Sin cuts us off from the things which we love. The Scripture says he had been lame from the time he was born. He spent a whole lifetime missing real joy in life. He couldn’t even enter the temple to worship.
Cut off from his family and financial support he had to beg for sustenance. But when Peter invoked Jesus’ name into his situation his life was forever changed. Now everything was different.
Who wouldn’t run, leap and praise God in the temple. For the first time the lame man could draw near to God in His sanctuary healed and restored. Truly, that is a picture of all of us after we met Jesus too. Is it not?
This divine miracle did not go unnoticed. It drew the attention of the crowd. But Peter and John wasted no time making sure they understood that it was not them who healed the beggar, but it was Jesus.
Seeing this as a God-appointed opportunity, Peter seized the moment and began to preach to them about Jesus.
Again, as at Pentecost, a simple sermon — God’s Word, personal experience, and the Holy Spirit. Those three elements present a powerful witness. B&R
