The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 25th April 2010 by Robin Hawkins
"The Healing of the Man At The Beautiful Gate"
- Acts 3:1-10/I>
The story is told of Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the 13th century. On one occasion he was standing next to the pope, and together they watched the people queue up to kiss the feet of this statue of St. Peter, and to cast their gifts of money into the offering boxes beside it. The pope is said to have turned to Aquinas saying: "No longer can mother church say, "Silver and gold have I none!" Aquinas turned to the pope and replied, "Sadly, neither can it say, "Rise up and walk"!
We may not agree with Aquinas - I hope not - but it is warning to us to ensure that our trust and confidence remain in God, and not our bank accounts!
You know what strikes me immediately in this story? Peter & John must have seen this man many times. He was crippled from birth. He was carried there every day by relatives. Jesus must have walked by him many times, but He hadn't healed him. It's a reminder that Jesus didn't actually heal everybody He came across. There were many cripples sitting around the pool of Bethesda waiting for the waters to be stirred. Jesus healed only one of them.
The truth is we won't always know why people aren't healed. As our hearts go out to Graham & Pauline's family at this time, and we think about Janice's death, we are bound to ask the question why wasn't she healed? And I don't know the answer to that, but there are two things of which I am certain. The first is that there is no way Janice would want to come back now. She died having made her peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ to forgive her sins. And right now she is enjoying the peace and joy of Heaven which surpasses anything that you and I have ever experienced or could imagine. The second thing is that Jesus will take us home when His purposes for our lives have been accomplished. That something that is different for each person. For Jesus it was 33years. He had finished His work. Now He could go home!
God has a timing in all these things, and it certainly isn't always when we would want it to be. Maybe the man here wasn't ready. Some disabled people don't actually want to be healed. Why them, and not their friends? They would suddenly find themselves in totally different circumstances. They'd have to work for their living, for a start! A friend of ours June Clark was confined to a wheelchair for some years after a fall. One day the Lord healed her, and she was able to walk again. Then her troubles started! She tried to cancel her incapacity benefit, and the DHSS wouldn't let her. "People don't get healed like that. It's only temporary." I don't actually know what they said, but there was nothing in their rule book that covered "Healed by Jesus"! What is clear in this story is that by happening when it did, it produced maximum fruit. Ch. 4:4 tells us that because of it the number of men in the church grew to about 5000. Add the women and children and we'll quickly realise there must have been well over 10-15,000 by now. For all these numbers, Jerusalem was a tight community. Everyone had known this man for years. He was the cripple begging by Beautiful Gate. Now suddenly, there he was healed! Walking, leaping jumping around. This is how revivals happen. Somebody well-known in the community is radically changed, or healed - and you've got the attention of the rest of the community! It happened in the Welsh Revival. It happened to Billy Graham in his first major crusade in Los Angeles back in the 40's.
So what was different on this day? The Holy Spirit put His plan into action to reach all those people. That's what was different. He gave two of His gifts to Peter in order to carry it out. The Gift of Faith & The Gift of Healing. He started by stopping Peter in his tracks. Have you ever had your attention arrested by the Holy Spirit? You're going about your everyday business, and suddenly the Holy Spirit stops you in your tracks, and alerts you to a situation. That's what happened here. Peter & John were about to pass by, when the Spirit stopped them. Faith suddenly rose in Peter's heart - a certainty that this man would be healed if he commanded it.
There have been two occasions in the past 40 years - only two, I'm sad to say - when God has given me the gift of faith. There've been other times when I've stepped out in faith, and often God has blessed those steps. But these two occasions stand out in that the measure of faith God gave me produced a cast-iron certainty of the outcome. This is what makes the Gift of Faith different from other levels of faith we have. It's the cast-iron certainty of the outcome.
Let me illustrate. Do me a favour, would you stand up, please?
Now I'm not trying to take the mick, but I never doubted for a moment that you would stand up if I asked you. That's the kind of faith I'm talking about. Please, sit down. Such faith is a gift from God. If we want more of it, we're going to have to ask, and go on asking till we get it - and you will get it - because He's promised that you will. Our problem is that most of the time we don't go on asking long enough! That in itself illustrates that we're not that bothered if we get it or not! You know how it is. Ask any parent who's son wants a new bike, computer... They make an absolute nuisance of themselves asking. Listen, you can make a nuisance of yourself to God any time you like! But if you do, you've got to be prepared to act on it!
So Peter's first response was to get the man's attention. "Look at us", he said. We read that the man looked at them expecting to receive some money. But Peter was about to impart faith to this man. He needed his undivided attention.
Then Peter uttered this immortal faith-filled statement "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" No long prayers, you notice. The man was so surprised, I don't suppose he knew how to respond. So Peter helped him: "Taking him by the right hand he helped him up, and instantly the man's ankles became strong." Faith needs activating. We get these messages on our computers: "Activate your account by clicking on this link." Your account will be there, but it's dormant, you can't use it - until you activate it. Faith is like that. We say we've got faith. We even pray for more when actually we need to activate what we've got. [Develop the muscle of faith] In this passage, Peter had spoken the words, but the miracle happened when he acted on the words. He helped him up. This was the moment of risk. He could have looked very stupid at this point. But the Gift of Faith released the Gift of Healing, and the ankles healed in a moment, and the man jumped to his feet and began to walk. He didn't just walk. He leapt. He jumped, he danced around with great shouts of joy and praise. He drew quite a lot of attention, and the people in the temple all recognised him as the cripple who had sat begging at the Beautiful Gate. Little wonder they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened.
Soon quite a crowd had gathered and Peter made the most of the opportunity and preached such a powerful message that several thousand came to faith. I believe the Lord wants to triple the size of King's Church, and compared to this, such a goal is very modest. However, I've never thought to put a time frame on this'll take because I know He could do it in a day - quite easily.
So what stops us seeing more miracles?" Patricia King in her Prophetic Evangelism training described how they'd sent teams out to the Philippines and seen lots of healings take place there, but didn't see many at home, which for her was Los Angeles. So she asked the Lord about this, and He took her attention to the last verse of Mark's gospel. "Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it." What the Lord said to her was, "You got the signs because you went out with the message. If you don't go out with the message, you won't get so many signs." That fits with the experience of many of us. Mark Marks...... Susannah Pullens.... Dave Rigby.....
If we want to see signs, take the gospel outside these four walls. You don't necessarily have to preach it on the street corners. In this passage, Peter & John were simply going about their daily routine. Part of that routine was going up to the Temple. As they went, they met this man and a mighty miracle took place. Take the opportunities that come up every day. Seek the gifts. Ask for the gift of faith - then expect an opportunity to use it - because it needs activating. Tell people about Jesus and what He's done for you - then see what He'll do through you - for them. Amen!
