Title: Look at Us
Contents
Bible text: Acts 3:1-10
look at us
In a village lived a very rich man. People bowed to greet him when they saw him, but the poor scholar did not bow his head to the rich man. One day the scholar met a rich man on the road, but he was still there. “Hey, everyone in town looks at me and bows down, so why don’t you bow your head when you see me?” “Why do you bow your head when you have a lot of money, but you didn’t give it to me?” “Then will you bow your head if I give you a tenth of my fortune?” “You can’t put your head down over that.” “Then I will give you half of my fortune. Then will you bow your head?” “Then yours and mine are the same, so why do I bow my head?” The rich man got sick, and said, "Okay, I'll give you all of my possessions, so now bow your head." The poor scholar said with dignity. He said, “Man who used to be rich and soon became poor, now that I am rich, why do I bow my head to you, poor man?”
There are people who are neither rich nor powerful, but they can bow their heads. From birth, Peter and John made the lame get up and walk. These are people who have done things that neither money nor power could do. How did they raise the cripple? They said to the lame, “Look at us.” Who are they?
These are people who regularly go up to the temple to pray.
They are people who set prayer times and pray regularly. “At the ninth hour of prayer, Peter and John went up to the temple” (verse 1). Jewish time counting is 6 o'clock at noon, 9 a.m. at 3 o'clock, and 3 p.m. at 9 o'clock.
The 9th prayer time is 3pm. They pray once a day in the temple and twice a day everywhere. Peter and John prayed regularly. Exercising every day builds muscle and builds stamina. A regular life makes a great person. Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived according to a plan. He preached two weeks before he died. It is said that he wrote a sermon a week before his death. He passed away without giving the sermon.
A child who was late every day was also late that day. When the homeroom teacher scolded me, “Why are you late every day?”, “Teacher has a reason.” “For what reason?” “I lead a regular life,” he said.
The custom of setting aside a time to pray is an example for us to imitate. A centurion named Cornelius is also a person who sets the time and prays. He feared God with his family, helped the people a lot, and prayed to God all the time. One day, while praying at the ninth hour, I had a vision. The angel said, "Your prayers and alms have come up before God and have been remembered by God," he said. He told them to send and invite the apostle Peter (Acts 10:1-5).
As our church prays, we must decide who to invite whom God directs and participate in “one person evangelism”. Why do you need to record the evangelists? You might think it's childish. But writing on paper is done. Records of aspiration work miracles. It's important to record seemingly impossible goals. Write down the goals you want to achieve. All the prophecies recorded in the Bible have been fulfilled so far, and what remains will be fulfilled. If you write with faith, what you believe will come to pass. Who will you evangelize? Think and write it down.
These are the people who pay attention to the person begging.
They noticed the person sitting and begging. “People are carrying a man who was born lame, who he puts daily at the temple gate called the Beautiful Gate to beg from those who enter the temple, and he sees Peter and John going into the temple and begs, and Peter pays attention with John. And he said, “Look at us.” (verses 2-4) Who did you pay attention to? We pay attention to those who beg and those who are born with a disability. Peter and John were interested in the man sitting and begging. Interest is the expression of interest in others. Your interest will take care of people, and friendships will develop. It was his interest in the lame that carried the crippled to the front door. This is a scene that shows what the church should pay attention to. That person was born lame and forty years old (Acts 4:22) and is a beggar. When I was young, my parents fed me, and as I got older, I lived by begging.
Of particular note is the “crap at birth”. Humans are sinners from birth. David said, “I was born in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). It has the same meaning as being crippled by birth or a sinner by birth. Man was created from the mother's womb to be lame, and from the mother's womb to be a sinner among sinners. It means “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3).
It is the unbelievers that the church should pay attention to. He's a non-believer. A hairdresser looks at a person's hair and a shoemaker looks at a person's shoes. The church must look to unbelievers.
Who is the beggar? I am not interested in the church. I am not interested in worship. I am only interested in earning and living. A person who looks at the person passing in front of him to see what he will get. It doesn't matter whether you preach or praise. Even while sitting at the temple gate, I have never entered the temple. I had no intention of going in. A crippled man's attention is a coin that he will get a penny and paste in his mouth. Your eyes go where you focus, your hands and your feet go.
The person Peter and John pay attention to is “the beggar looking for what he will get. What the beggar wants to receive is different from what Peter and John want to give. The beggar wants money, and the apostles want to give health and recovery. I want you to wake up. You want to turn a fucking person into a earner. I want to solve a fundamental problem. Please pay attention to unbelievers and those who need to come to church. You must believe in Jesus. You must believe in Jesus.
These are the people who tell us to walk in the name of Jesus.
look at us! what are they doing? What are you talking about? “Peter looked at him with John and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he looked to see what they might get from them, and Peter said, “Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.” , took his right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles gained strength, and he ran and stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God” (verses 4-8).
When Thomas Aquinas went to visit Innocent II, the Pope said, counting a lot of money. “Now the church can no longer say that I do not have gold and silver.” To which Thomas Aquinas replied, “You are right. Pope, but now the Church gives you what I have; get up and walk.” The church should not stay in giving alms. You must come to the point of giving the name of Jesus.
You have something you want to get, and you have something you want to give. Miracles happen where the desire to give and the desire to receive meet. Seeing Zacchaeus climbed up to the sycamore tree, Jesus said to Zacchaeus, come down quickly.
When they say, “Walk in the name of Jesus of Nazareth!”, the crippled man thought, thinking that I am usually lame, lame for 40 years, and lame since the womb of his mother. Nothing would have happened.
It is time for the Apostle Paul to evangelize in Lystra. “In Lystra, there was a man sitting with a crippled foot, and he was born disabled and had never walked before. As I was listening to what Paul was saying, Paul noticed that he had the faith to be saved. “Stand up on your feet” with a loud voice, and the man got up. People offered sacrifices saying that the gods came in human form (Acts 14:8-11).
When we hear the Word, we have faith, and faith works miracles. After sitting for 40 years, he jumped up from his seat, walked, ran, and entered the temple. Let's rise from crippled faith. Let's rise from our past! From beggar faith to self-reliance, from eating to giving, to those who walked and jumped from sitting, hymns erupted from the mouths of those who did not know what a hymn was, and they sang hymns to God as if a mute spoke.
They told us to look. They are people by the power of God. They prayed every day. We also went up to the temple. May God's power be in your power. Turn weakness into strength and turn poverty into wealth. And notice the crippled man sitting in front of the tailgate. What they need is the name of Jesus. If we preach Jesus and receive Jesus whom we preach, he will be saved. You will get up and walk and run and sing.
Fashion model shows new trendy clothes and dresses like me. Peter and John are our models. Let us be like them, praying, paying attention, and saying, Rise up in Jesus name, so that we can be lifters of the lame. Let us, like the apostles, be able to say, “Look at us!”