We have healing worth more than silver or gold.

 

Sermon for Pentecost 16, September 8, 2024

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours, forever, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Acts 3:1-10  Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, an hour of prayer.  ²A certain man who was lame from birth was carried there every day and placed at the temple gate, which is called Beautiful, so that he could beg for donations from those entering the temple.  ³When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for a donation.  ⁴Peter looked directly at him, as did John. Peter said, “Look at us.”  ⁵So the man paid close attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.  ⁶But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”  ⁷Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.  ⁸Jumping up, he stood and began to walk.  He entered the temple courts with them, walking, jumping, and praising God.  ⁹All the people saw him walking and praising God.  ¹⁰They recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for money at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (EHV)

We have healing worth more than silver or gold.

Dear restored friends of Christ,

            There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”  This is widely accepted as good and helpful advice.  Likewise, we might be enamored of the miracle preformed for this lame man.  Instead of just giving the man a coin to feed him for the day, he was healed in such an impressive manner that he could now be gainfully employed for the rest of his life.  However, there is a much more important message here, for just as Peter helped that lame man walk, he also brought him the gift of eternal life, for We have healing worth more than silver or gold.

All around the world, there are people whose only means of survival is to beg for a living.  Such was the case for this man.  From the moment he was born, his legs hadn’t worked, and in the economic climate of that time, there was precious little he could be trained to do to make a living.  Pretty much every job required people to be able bodied in order to be productive.  Consequently, the man was carried, every day, to the temple gate to beg for the pennies and dimes of those who came to the temple to pray.  Likely, it was an ideal location, for the people entering the temple were primarily believers who knew that God expects His people to help the less fortunate.

Now, rather than get into a discussion about how well or how little we do in caring for those who need our help, we should first examine how we were in the same circumstance.  Like that man, you and I were crippled from birth.  No, most of us weren’t physically crippled; we were, however, completely unable to overcome our greatest affliction which was our sinful nature.  Our sinful nature crippled our standing before God.  It made all of us selfish, and often leads us to be lazy, boastful, inconsiderate, or even cruel.  It made us suspicious of those who beg for our help and care.  It made us sometimes expect others, or God, to do things for us that we should take responsibility for on our own.  In the crippled condition of our souls, we could do nothing to please God or for Him to value our service in His kingdom.  In fact, our natural lack of faith would even lead us to accuse God of being unfair whenever He allows us to experience illnesses, pain, or loss.

That all sounds pretty serious, you might say, even damning, and the truth is, without the help of Jesus Christ, you and I would eventually be thrown unto the dung heap of hell for our uselessness before God.  Most of the world wouldn’t notice or care, just like most of the people in that time wouldn’t have noticed the passing of that lame man if he had starved.  Oh sure, a few friends, and his relatives would have noticed, but otherwise, his life would have been unremarkable.

As was the habit of faithful believers of that time, Peter and John continued in the tradition of going to the temple to pray and to give thanks to God for all the many ways He helps us, especially, for the forgiveness and grace He shows us as sinners who have been brought to believe in Him.  Their encounter with the lame man wasn’t unusual.  Yet, just as the man was being carried to his usual begging spot, he spotted Peter and John and asked for their help. 

As I am sure you remember, Jesus’ disciples had left their businesses and jobs behind to bring the Good News of salvation through faith in Christ to the world.  They were not materially rich by any means.  Thus, we hear Peter say, “Look at us.”  So the man paid close attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” 

We hear a lot today from those who think faith is foolishness.  Modern man has been taught from youth that there is no god, or to make yourself an idol in effect.  Here, Peter demands the lame man’s attention.  Why?  Because We have healing worth more than silver or gold.  Giving the man a coin would have helped him temporarily.  Even the miracle of restoring his legs would have been only a temporary help if that were all the apostles would have given him.  However, in this brief interaction, that lame man was introduced to Christ Jesus, and it opened a whole new world to that previously crippled individual in which by faith he would receive everlasting healing.

It wasn’t just his legs that were restored when the lame man learned about Jesus.  Far more importantly, his soul was healed, for when hearing about Jesus, he received faith in Jesus and with that faith he was forgiven of all sin and counted righteous in the kingdom of God, and that restoration is not temporary, for it gives life everlasting in the eternal dwellings of our Savior’s Father. 

The evidence to prove the point came immediately.  “Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.  Jumping up, he stood and began to walk.  He entered the temple courts with them, walking, jumping, and praising God.”  A man who had never used his legs previously, now leaped to his feet and continued jumping, walking, and praising God who provided such a marvelous blessing.  Yet notice, he didn’t run off to tell his family and friends.  He didn’t go out to find employment.  Rather, he immediately gave thanks to God.

Naturally, we might assume that the healed man just wanted to praise God for his physical healing.  He might have given a small offering at the temple then went on his way, but that is not what the text implies.  He continued to let his neighbors see that he was healed.  He continued giving all credit to God and to God alone.  Surely, that man was glad he had met Peter and John, but his praise was only for God because he understood that only Christ can save us from the curse of sin that caused his frailty to begin with.

That, my friends, is an example to lead us forward in life.  You and I have been healed of a far greater ailment than just legs that don’t work.  Furthermore, in most cases, our healing was granted to us while we were still quite young and small.  By workers sent by Jesus, we were washed of the curse of sin in Baptism.  By the water and Word there applied to us, we were made whole before God.  Furthermore, it wasn’t a superficial cleansing but the restoration of our souls. 

Just as the guilt of the first Adam made the curse of sin infect us completely—body, soul, and mind—so the healing that comes from the second Adam, Christ Jesus our Lord, makes us completely clean.  Yes, we have yet to experience the great change physically.  That will have to wait until Jesus returns in glory on Judgement Day.  Still, in the kingdom of God, you and I have been made pure, acceptable, useful, and thankful.  By bringing us to faith in Jesus through hearing the Gospel and the washing of Baptism, the Holy Spirit has implanted in us a new and living heart that rejoices to praise God for His mercy and kindness. 

You see, Jesus came into this world to give us healing worth more than silver or gold.  With His perfect life and perfect obedience and trust in His Father’s will, Jesus cured our greatest imperfection.  Because of Jesus’ work and His sacrifice on the cross, the Father in heaven now credits Jesus’ holiness to those who believe and trust in Him.  That means that God no longer sees us as selfish, lazy, boastful, inconsiderate, or cruel.  He no longer sees us as people who only give grudgingly.  We are no longer counted as a people far from God, for He has brought us close to Himself through His Son.  Through faith in Jesus, we are credited as righteous, for “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Indeed, it is Jesus’ righteousness working in us that motivates us to do the things God wants us to do naturally.

Back in the time after our Savior healed that lame man through Peter, “All the people saw him walking and praising God.  They recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for money at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”  Now is our time to spend our days praising God and displaying our joy to show the world how Jesus has healed our defects of sin, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Dear friends, our bodies and souls came into this world completely unable to do anything God wants us to be doing.  We were born without trust in God, without knowledge of His love and kindness, without any hope of everlasting life, without any ability to serve or please our Creator.  However, that has all been changed by the work of the Holy Spirit who likewise worked in that lame man almost two thousand years ago.  Just as through the hearing of the Gospel from Jesus’ apostles, he was brought to believe in the Savior who lived, died, and rose again, so you and I have been made whole and holy so that we may serve God here on earth, but even more so, that we might dwell with the Triune God in heaven forevermore.

For further reassurance that Jesus lived, died, and rose again to heal you, come forward this morning to receive the very body and blood Jesus sacrificed to cure your imperfections which He now gives to you as a medicine of immortality bringing to you again and again the forgiveness and peace with God that is yours through faith in Christ Jesus.  Come, partake of this living food to strengthen you to go forth daily, rejoicing and praising God that We have healing worth more than silver or gold.  Amen.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you—according to the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, . . . to God, who alone is wise, be glory forever through Jesus Christ.  Amen.