Illustration & Illumination
Feb 19, 2012 Posted in Featured, So That!
Acts 3:6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
You may have seen the movie Avatar. It was the biggest and most expensive movie ever made. Some of you may have even seen it in 3D and in this theater. You were blown away. The visual effects were literally stunning. Then you rushed out & either bought or rented the DVD & watched it at home. You yawned a bit. The effects just didn’t seem quite as special. In fact, for some of you, you may have even noticed that the actual story was a bit shallow…and that in fact it was just the futuristic reincarnation of Dances With Wolves. Some of you just got that too… Here’s the point: The glitz & the glam masked the fact that the story was actually pretty weak. God is different. He works an incredible miracle, and then when we are able to see the back-story, we realize that the story is so much more spectacular than the special effect.
The Holy Spirit, and I believe Luke, is using Acts 3 as narrative example of Acts 2:43. Within this example or expression, we get a glimpse of what the early church was like and what they experienced. Acts is descriptive; it is not prescriptive. Scripture is not providing a pattern for the healing of human bodies, rather the story of God saving human souls.
All of the healing events in the book of Acts involve unbelievers, and they are always used as providing occasions for the Gospel to be preached and proclaimed. Because that’s the point: Jesus is King. Peter performs a miracle because of the gift of faith given him by Jesus, and then takes the opportunity to deliver a 2nd incredible sermon. The preacher was on a role.
Peter essentially equates the lame man to his hearers. We are all natural disasters in need of a Sovereign God of grace to give us transformative life. We are by nature opposed to God and actually work against Him. But He has made a way for us to be re-created into the people He originally created us to be: Repent and return. Literally, turn and run back to Him when we sin; not from Him as is our tendency. The healing is the illustration. The sermon is the illumination. We are as dependent on him for sanctification as we are for salvation. Rise and walk!