"Pandemic" - Acts 3:1-10
- Series: "Pandemic" - The Gospel Unleashed
- by: Chris Mayfield 09/20/09
I Can’t Give You What You Want, But I Can Give You Everything!
Acts 3:1-10
We are told in Chapter 2 that many signs and miracles were done by the Apostles. Here we read about one of those miracles. One of the reasons Luke may have included this miracle was to show us that the charge Jesus gives to Peter to watch over his sheep and the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, was being fulfilled. In addition, we see God’s beautiful mercy towards this crippled man. This lame man asked for money day after day just to get by. But the Apostles, specifically Peter, saw that his greatest need was not money but salvation through faith in Christ. By healing this man Peter gave this man more than he could have ever asked for.
Engage the Text
1. What does it mean to “ask alms of those entering the temple”? Why was this man placed at the temple?
2. Discuss what this man’s life must have been like. He is asking for money, but was that his greatest need? What did he desire even more than money?
3. What gave Peter the ability and audaciousness to say and do such a thing as described in verses 6-7? Was it his emotional response? The Holy Spirit’s leading? The man’s great faith?
4. What was the verbal response of the lame man after he was healed? What do you think tookplace in his heart as well?
From Thought to Action
1. Peter and John had a set corporate time of prayer. Do you have a consistent time of prayer? If not, why not?
2. Spiritually, how are we like the beggar at the temple gate?
3. How do you feel when you are asked for money by the poor and homeless? How do you most often respond to them? How do you decide what is the correct response to them? What is your thought process here? Do you most often feel repulsed and aggravated, heartbroken and sympathetic, or apathetic? *See footnote
4. Do you see unique, perhaps even awkward situations as an opportunity to turn the conversation and attention onto Christ and the gospel? Encountering the destitute was an everyday occurrence for the people of this region and not altogether uncommon for our day. Yet, Peter used this common experience as an opportunity to powerfully impact this man’s life by introducing him to Jesus.
5. What can you do as a community group to help those who are less fortunate?
* “Now dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true Vine… If so, you must be like him in giving…Objection 1. ‘My money is my own’. Answer: Christ might have said, ‘My blood is my own, my life is my own’… then where should we have been? Objection 2. ‘The poor are undeserving’. Answer: Christ might have said, ‘They are wicked rebels… shall I lay down my life for these?’... But no he gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection 3. ‘The poor may abuse it’. Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood. Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be.” B.B. Warfield, The Person and the Work of Christ (Philadelphia: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1950), 574.
