Whatcha got? 

Yes, You...that question is directed to you...What do you have? As in, do you have what those believers in the early church had?   I've asked that of myself repeatedly over the years and the answer is usually the same: 'Apparently not'.

 May I direct you to a specific example recorded for us there in Acts 3 which came on the heels of the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the Day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2. That was the fulfillment of what Jesus told them would happen just before He ascended back in to heaven. He told them to ‘tarry’ there in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high that they would receive after the Holy Spirit came upon them. You can read the exact quote in Acts 1:8. 

 So back to the incident in Acts 3.  A lot is going on in Jerusalem after this outpouring. Seems there was quite the buzz given rumors had spread just weeks earlier about some resurrection of the teacher many knew as Jesus. And just when the religious establishment was hoping all that was in their rear view mirror, this outpouring occurs and now some 3000+ have joined the ranks of these new zealous believers (Acts 2:41).  Acts 3 opens up telling about how Peter and John were heading to the temple at the hour of prayer. We don’t know for a fact that is what they were going to do there (pray) but they for sure knew people would be there then. 

 We are told in verse 2 that there was a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb and carried daily to be set at the gate of the temple. (The gate even had a name – ‘Beautiful’) and it was here he would beg...asking for alms. He had no other way to support himself. 

 Pause for a moment and take this scene in: A man, who was lame from birth, is sitting near the temple begging. To be lame, from birth, means that he never could walk the way...he was designed and created to walk. But I bet he rarely missed a day sitting at the temple, given he was taken there ‘daily’. (2). 

 I feel that given the age I am now and having been around for some time in the ‘church world’, I can take the liberty to make this next statement: There is no shortage of people today in our churches who attend regularly that find themselves in a similar position as this lame man we read about. From the day they were ‘born again’, so many have been taught (often indirectly) that while God loves them and they are now ‘saved’, don’t think for a moment you will ever be able to ‘walk’ the way you were designed and created to walk. 'Nobody can really do that', we've always been told. But it's not a bad goal to aim for, right?

 We were created in God’s image and likeness. (Gen. 2:17). Yet sin, corrupted our nature which led to the ‘fall’. Our ‘spiritual gene pool’ was defiled (Rom. 5:12) and we no longer had His nature operating in us. It was our ‘other father’ now who we resembled. (John 8:44; Eph. 12:1-3; Acts 26:18) 

 So just how should a true child of God ‘walk like’ by design today? Simple answer if you believe bible: “just like Jesus walked”. (1 John 2:6). Please know, I’m not here posting these to argue with anyone. I merely want to point you to scriptures in our beloved bible that we might want to go and spend more time reading over again and taking it to heart. We need to know what the book says. Period. Whether you chose to believe it or not is on you. 

 Our lame man here in Acts 3 watched people daily...walk past him; something he was incapable of doing from the day he entered this world. No doubt, he little, if any, hope of ever seeing himself walk like that. So all he could do was beg and depend on others. Until that day, when Peter and John walked by. Seeing them, he asked for alms. (3:3). Their eyes met and Peter makes sure he has this man’s undivided attention: “Look on us”, he told him. (4) 

 Notice what we read there in the next verse...where this man ‘gave them his attention... expecting to receive something...”. (5) 

 Do you think he had any idea what was about to happen or what he was about to receive? I think not. It was just ‘another day at the office’, as we like to say. Or, for the church world so many of us are familiar with...just ‘another good service’ where we got what we expected. Good songs...good message...maybe a tear or two, with a goosebump thrown in for good measure. You even got out at a ‘decent time’ (early) to catch your show and a good meal. Yet, you’d be the first one to admit...you don’t walk like Jesus walked. I mean...who does that? C’mon...get real, right? 

 Peter makes it clear up front: I don’t have money on me. No silver or gold to offer you. (6) 

 Now please underline this next part....”but what I do have...what I do have...what I do have...I give you!” 

 To state the obvious here....you, nor I, nor anyone else...can give to others...what we don’t have our self. 

 Which is why I asked at the beginning...’Whatcha got?” 

 No doubt, many of us could have offered this poor, lame beggar some cash, or a gift card to McDonalds or a plate of cookies. Others might leave a case of bottled water or a new clean blanket for those chilly days. Who knows, maybe a thriving church bus ministry could get him home and back every day after he was done begging. But yet, what he really needed and yearned for...was never an option. That would be to ‘walk...like he was designed and created to walk like’. 

 Then Peter said to him: “What I do have...I give to you...In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” (6) 

 Why on that particular day and moment did this occur? I have no idea. Surely Jesus would have passed this man countless times during His earthly stay/ministry. Yet here we are, reading about what Peter and John had and didn’t have. But what they did have, truly mattered. And they were able to give it to this man in need. They gave Him Jesus...and the power to transform his life in ways that most everyone else would have said was impossible. 

 “You can’t walk that way!...Nobody can...except Jesus!” 

 Peter then took this man by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately....his feet and ankle bones received strength. (7). What happens next? Let’s read on: “So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them- walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And everyone knew it was him...” (8-10) 

 Back in the early 80’s, shortly after I had turned my life over to God and took off for bible college, I got plugged in to a church/movement that was big on preaching about faith and God’s power and healing. I had grand visions of being ‘used of God’ to ‘heal the sick, open blind eyes and raise the dead’. I mean, that was what Jesus sent His disciples out to do, was it not? Did Jesus not say that whoever believed on Him, the things we saw what He did...we would ‘do also’? (John 14:12) I can just tell you now, personally speaking, we heard a lot more about that than what we saw actually happen. But it made for good church services to get revved up and at least talk about it and believe it ‘could happen’. 

 Religion...or better yet, ‘having a form of godliness...devoid of power’ (2 Tim. 3:5) is common place today. We know how to shout, walk, and leap...and even pray good prayers. And our singing and worship services are second to none. But when all the music fades and the lights are turned off as everyone returns home...who today is actually ‘walking like Jesus walked’? 

 And why is that? 

 Were you aware that recorded in the book of James, chapter 5...(which I can imagine is a hard chapter to get to given how James takes most of us to the wood shed in those first four chapters) that we are given this word of exhortation: “Is anyone among you suffering? Anyone among you sick? Call...for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick (Not 'maybe' or 'perhaps', but 'WILL')  and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (13-16) 

 How often do we see that play out in our church services...with dramatic and undeniable results? For churches that still continue this practice, I am guessing that while we may go through the motions of that first part...we probably have had to tap down those ‘expectations’ that sound more like....”May God comfort you in your time of suffering and sickness”...or “maybe God will use the doctors to heal you”. 

 May I ask a simple question here? (It's one I have myself this one for many, many years) - IF God never changes (Mal. 3:6)...Why...on earth would He ‘need to use doctors’? (and more often than not...only if you have a good insurance plan) 

 Let me be up front with you here today...this is not about ‘faith healing’ or ‘knocking doctors’. I'm thankful for doctors. They come in handy when all we do have...is 'silver and gold'.  (I will also add many doctors do many good things for many people around the world...for people who are on that 'second tier' plan).  This is calling into question why we don’t have what Peter and John had to offer people today who are incapable of walking the way they were designed and created and called to walk. 

 I would submit we are totally bankrupt when it comes to having the ‘power’ that Jesus commissioned the church to have. (Luke 10:19; Acts 1:8). Our ‘pockets’ are empty...we have nothing but...’silver and gold’ (and nice buildings with pleasant church services filled with music and such) to give a world...that is suffering and drowning in darkness. We don’t have...what the early church had. And there is a good reason for that. We ended up ‘following another Jesus’ that Paul spoke of in 2 Cor. 11:2-4.  And if something just rose up inside of you saying that could never happen to you...that is pride talking. And pride...is what leads to God’s people to being ‘taken captive’. (Jer. 13:15-17). Join me tomorrow?