What Do We Have to Offer a Broken World?
Download MP3You have a bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3. Wanna read the first ten verses. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the 9th hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.
Joel Brooks:Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold. But what I do, I give to you.
Joel Brooks:In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Connor Coskery:This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:It is to your heart. If you would, pray with me. Father, we ask that you would bless the very reading of your word, that even now through your spirit, it would begin to do its work. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, your words would remain, and they would change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So I try really hard to not let people know that I'm a pastor. Sometimes I've been able to fool people for years, which might tell a little bit about my character, perhaps. I don't know.
Joel Brooks:But, I love it when people are surprised when they finally find out. But, but I try really hard. And so when people ask things, you know, about what I do, I give vague answers. When I was in college ministry, I used to say I work with students. And they're, work with student.
Joel Brooks:What does that mean? I was like, well, you know, I work with students. And so they they get the point. They're vague enough. They shouldn't ask any more questions.
Joel Brooks:It got a little more awkward as I became a lead pastor at a church because I would say I work with people. That's like as vague as you could get. And so they would always ask, well, what do you do? And I'd say, well, if you have to know, I'm a heart doctor. And they're impressed.
Joel Brooks:They're like, oh, wow. So so where where are you at, Redeemer Community Church? I'm a pastor. And then you see the look of disappointment come in their eyes when you go from a cardiologist to a pastor. And then this look of, oh my gosh, what have I been saying to him over the years?
Joel Brooks:That that kinda registers And then they realize they're stuck with you and nobody wants to be stuck with a pastor. And people look down on pastors. I was actually looking up, like, how favorably people think of pastors. You know, what professions do people respect the most? And you have like, you know, astronaut.
Joel Brooks:Then you have, you know, like nurse, fireman. There was sea captain. And there was like all of these. And I kid you not that the pastors were way down right by prostitute. That is how people think of pastors.
Joel Brooks:The only thing that was lower was politicians. Alright? But why is that? I'm really just a representative of you. I'm a representative of the church.
Joel Brooks:So really what people are saying is when they think of the church, they don't think favorably upon it. A matter of fact, you could probably go and ask just, you know, random poll on the streets and and say, hey, what do you think of, what words do you think of when you hear the word Christian? Do you think those will be favorable words? Or do you think you might hear hateful, you know, bigot, exclusive? What words might come from their mouth?
Joel Brooks:And if we're to be honest, we would have to recognize that much of the world views us, and they actually think, you know what? We would be a better society if the church did not exist, rather than if the church existed. And this isn't anything new that's been leveled against Christianity. It's been leveled from the very beginning. We will always be criticized for what we believe, but we should never be criticized for what we are doing.
Joel Brooks:That society should look at us and think how could we ever make it as a society if it wasn't for those Christians being so involved in our lives? And so the question I want us to look at is what do we offer the world as the church? What do we offer the world as a church? And this text that we have before us is a great lens and for which we can understand our role as Christians in the world. What we read here is the very first miracle performed by the apostles.
Joel Brooks:And as in all the miracles that will follow, in all the miracles that were before in the gospels, these aren't just random miracles. They're they're not just random displays of power, These miracles are signs. When people see these miracles, they're supposed to to point to something and not just power. When Jesus, when He was walking on this earth, He didn't do just random displays of power. If He wanted to just show how powerful He was, He could have, in faith, commanded a mountain to be picked up and moved into the sea and actually done it.
Joel Brooks:And don't you think that would have silenced His critics if Jesus had done that? Or what about when He went to the temple to clear it out? And yes, He made a whip and He drove out, you know, the animals and people and He overthrew tables, but what if Jesus literally picked up the temple? Literally picked it up and moved it. Now, that would have been a display of power.
Joel Brooks:It would have shut the mouth of every critic, and it would have opened their mouths likely to praise and submission of who he was. But Jesus didn't just do these miracles just as random displays of power, just to show that He's strong. They were signs pointing to something. All the miracles that Jesus did and the miracles we're gonna see as we go through this book of the apostles, the acts of the apostles, they're all miracles that bring healing. They're miracles that alleviate suffering.
Joel Brooks:They're all miracles that are about redemption, not just a display of power. There's signs pointing us to the time when God is gonna redeem all things, when we will be completely reconciled to God. So all these miracles are redemptive. They alleviate sufferings, because they're a signpost pointing us to the kingdom to come when there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain. I once heard a pastor say that the reason Jesus did His miracles is because Jesus was no more happy with the world than we are.
Joel Brooks:Jesus was no more happy with the world than we are. Jesus is not happy with the cancer. He is not happy seeing handicap ramps. He's not happy with hungry children. He's not happy with grieving widows.
Joel Brooks:He's not happy with any of those things because it's not how he created the world. Those are all the result of sin coming and breaking this world and it falling under a curse. But he didn't create the world this way. And when he's gonna redeem the world, it's gonna look nothing like it looks now. Those things will be washed away.
Joel Brooks:And every miracle he did and every miracle that the apostles do are signs pointing us to that reconciliation and redemption. Pointing us to the kingdom of God to come. I've heard that you really shouldn't hear or think of miracles as as God suspending the natural order to do something. He's not suspending the natural order. He's returning things back to their natural order.
Joel Brooks:Every time He healed a blind person, every time He raised a cripple to walk, He's restoring what was meant to be. Restoring things to as the world as He created it and what it will one day be again. And so we need to, as we need to put on these lenses, as we go through these miracles and acts to see these redemptive purposes that are there. This miracle here, it begins with Peter and John doing what they've likely done 100 of times before, and that's just walk to the temple to pray. And as they're walking to the temple, they they come across a man who they have likely seen many, many times.
Joel Brooks:A man who's 40 years old, he's been crippled since birth, and so he's likely been begging outside of this gate of the temple for 30 something years. He he was a fixture there. Everybody would have known and recognized this man. Now all of the other times Peter and John would have gone to the temple, you know, maybe they would have said, hey. Maybe they would have given him a little bit of money or maybe they would have just passed him by.
Joel Brooks:But this day, something is different. Something's different because they are different people than the last time they walked by this man. They are now filled with the spirit. Pentecost has happened and now, they're beginning to wake up to new realities, new possibilities that God can do through them. And so as they are passing by, they they stop and they look at this man and then they demand that this man looks at them.
Joel Brooks:They look him in the eye. Now looking a person in the eye, a stranger in the eye is incredibly awkward. If you don't believe me, on the way home, when you're at some traffic light stopped, I want you to look at the person in the car next to you. I want you to just just lock eyes with them and don't look away when they look at you. Alright?
Joel Brooks:And you're gonna realize you can't do it. You you can't just keep staring at the person. They're gonna think you're a creep for 1, but but it's just so hard to be engaged for that long. So the moment we're in a crowded room or anything and we we lock eyes with somebody, first thing we do is look away. Something to that.
Joel Brooks:There's something about the brokenness that's being revealed there. Eyes are the window to the soul and we can't stand to look at somebody and have them see our brokenness and us to see their brokenness. And so we don't like looking strangers in the eye. We especially don't like looking those who need help in the eye, beggars in the eye. I mean Peter locks eyes with this person who is a beggar.
Joel Brooks:I mean, once again, just think you're you're driving down the road and you get to that that intersection, that that light. And you see you see the people there on the intersection. Maybe there's 3 or 4 of them. You know, they're all with chicken buckets. They're asking for some money.
Joel Brooks:You know, they have the, they always, it's funny to me. They have the chicken buckets there. And then, a lot of times, their hats look like chicken buckets. And they're going around and they are, they're asking for money. And so, what what do you do here?
Joel Brooks:If you're like me, confession. The key is this, you gotta time the light just right to where you don't actually stop. I I don't know if any of you do this, but you gotta I gotta slow down, but I gotta keep moving, keep moving, hoping the light turns green so I don't actually have to stop and have the chicken bucket, thrown at my window there. You don't want I don't care what cause they're trying to raise money for. I don't care if it's for a new stadium or it's or some kind of feed the homeless thing.
Joel Brooks:It's a very awkward interaction to me. And I know this that that you just don't look them in the eye because then you have to engage. Probably a lot of you become very interested in that building to the right all of a sudden. You know, you just kinda look that way for a while. Maybe you get on the phone, you know, you just start talking.
Joel Brooks:Maybe looking at something. You dropped your keys even though the car's driving. You know, you you do something, where where you don't have to engage with the person. We we treat people asking for money kinda like, you know, wild dogs or bears. Don't look in the eye.
Joel Brooks:Just back away. You know, Everything's gonna be okay and safe. But Peter and John look at me. Look at me, and they engage this person by looking them in the eye. And what I believe that they are doing in this moment is they're asking, Spirit, what would you have me do?
Joel Brooks:What would you have for this person, at this time, in this place? This is gonna be a theme we find throughout acts. This isn't the only time an apostle is going to look people in the eye. We're going to find this in acts 13 and acts 14. And each time is going to have a different result.
Joel Brooks:Each time, the apostle's gonna do something different. That's why I think they're they're engaging in that person. They're asking what? What would you have me do? Peter, as he's looking this person in the eye, I think he's getting an inkling of what the spirit of God is telling him to do, And so he says, hey, gold and silver, I have none.
Joel Brooks:It's the first thing he says, gold and silver, I have none. This verse is actually very telling about how the early church, viewed money. Because we know earlier, maybe just 2 to 3 weeks earlier, Peter had just made the catch of a lifetime. 153 fish. You remember that with the resurrected Lord, 153 fish.
Joel Brooks:So he makes this huge amount of money, but now it's already all gone. And we've already seen, be begun to see the radical generosity that the church has had. And so this money has been given out The the way I think of the church thinking of money is, kind of the way I I view some of my tools now. I had to get rid of my truck that I've had for the last 13 years. I love that truck.
Joel Brooks:Some of you have a hard time picturing me not in that truck because I just I've always had it. A salvage title truck, it served me pretty well most of the time. I did have to keep certain tools with it, to keep it running. A matter of fact, the first guy who test drove it, it died on him 3 times when I was trying to sell it. But, so I I would always keep certain tools with it in order to keep that particular truck running.
Joel Brooks:But now I don't have that truck. I've got a a new truck, and it's got a great engine, and I don't have to worry about ever carrying those tools around with me anymore. That's how Christians should view money. I mean, earlier, when we had our fallen hearts that broke down all the time, it's like, we needed money. That's what we wanted because we thought this was necessary to get us where I needed to go.
Joel Brooks:I have to have this. But now we've been given these new engines, fully reliable engines, much better engines. We never have to worry about breaking down again. We know where we're going, and we know we could get there. And so now we look at those tools, that money, and we're like, I don't need this anymore.
Joel Brooks:I can freely give this away. What used to be so valuable for me in order to get me where I wanted to go in life now has no value, and you could give it away. And the early church would just give away and give away their wealth, because it ceased to have the value to them that it had before. They'd been given new hearts, new engines, that take them where they need to go. Peter and John had no more money to give away.
Joel Brooks:I think this is one of the reasons that Peter says, hey, gold and silver, we don't have. But I don't think it's the only reason. I think he's also saying that they don't have any gold and silver because of where that beggar is sitting. He is sitting at the gate called Beautiful. Now this is just one of the temple gates.
Joel Brooks:There was many of them. All of them were beautiful. All of them were ornate and had silver and gold all over them, but this one gate was more ornate than all of them. More gold, more silver. It was simply known as the Beautiful Gate.
Joel Brooks:And everybody knew which gate that was. And here, we have this beggar sitting at this beautiful gate. And I think, now, as Peter and John, as they're going to the temple to pray and they see this beggar there and they the contrast now jumps out at them. The contrast of such beauty there and now such pain right there, and they begin to think it shouldn't be this way. How how can it be this way?
Joel Brooks:How can the most important religious institution of the day with all of its power and wealth not be able to help the guy standing, sitting right in front of its gates. And it hits him. And so Peter begins to pray, Lord, what would you have? This isn't right. And the spirit of God says, heal.
Joel Brooks:You need to heal this man. That's what I would like for you to do. And so Peter says, silver and gold, I do not have, but what I give but I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Now, when he is saying, I have no gold and silver, I think he's making obvious allusions to that gate called Beautiful.
Joel Brooks:And he's saying, sir, I've got none of that. I've got none of, like, all that religion can offer you, with its wealth and its power. I don't have that and I don't want that. It's futile, but what I do have is Jesus Christ, and Jesus brings healing with him, And so Peter heals him. And one of the reasons I think this is what's going on is because we only have one other time in scripture, or in the New Testament, the phrase silver and gold.
Joel Brooks:And Peter says it again. And he says these words in first Peter verse 18. He says that we were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I think that's what we see there.
Joel Brooks:It's a sign pointing towards gospel. Now before moving past this, I do think I probably need to address a question. It's a question I hear often. It's one that was raised this past Wednesday morning's Bible study. It says, does God still do things like this?
Joel Brooks:I mean, does God still heal people? And the answer is absolutely yes. God does. There's there's no reason at all to think that God has ceased doing these things. And I believe that we, as a church, need to be praying towards that end.
Joel Brooks:That's the Lord's revealed will. Once again, we know how God created the world and there was no suffering and pain in it. We know where the world is going to go and there's no pain and suffering in it. So that's the Lord's revealed will, so we pray towards that end. We pray for healing.
Joel Brooks:If the Lord chooses not to heal and to keep a person in suffering, then we recognize that that's the Lord's tool in that person's life, to work his gospel and to work a a deeper relationship in there with him. But healing will someday come, but we pray for physical healing. I I do wanna say that I believe the frequency of these healings, these miracles that we see, they're greater in acts than we see today. I do think there's a greater frequency that we see in acts. That's why when we read through Acts, even within the book of Acts, it calls them the extraordinary miracles they were doing.
Joel Brooks:Meaning, they were not even ordinary miracles. These were above and beyond ordinary miracles. They were extraordinary in their power. Extraordinary in their frequency. I mean, people would lay down the sick in front of Peter just to have his shadow go by them.
Joel Brooks:They would get a handkerchief from Paul just to send it away to go heal somebody. It was extraordinary. And even by the end of acts, we begin to see those things decreasing. I mean, Paul will have sick friends that he won't even pray healing for at times. So we do see the frequency of those decrease as the word of God and the gospels establish, but that does not mean that God still does not do these things.
Joel Brooks:He does. And I would encourage you in this, if you want to see God do this more, go out on the frontiers. You probably have heard, you know, reports often on the mission field about God working and doing extraordinary miracles. Much more commonplace than in places where the gospel's established. And the reason I believe that is true is because we see over and over again throughout scripture, that's our fire alarm, over and over again through scripture that, the Holy Spirit hovers over frontiers.
Joel Brooks:He hovers over frontiers, and he works in a mighty way as he is establishing the name of Jesus among the people. So go do frontier work, And that doesn't have to be overseas. That could be frontier work here in this city. Put yourself out there. That's a frontier work, in which you need God to move in an extraordinary way.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Now, remember that this is not just a story. This is a paradigm in which we are to see how we go forth in ministry, to see what exactly we do offer the world. And it's this, we go into a broken, hurting world, and we look people in the eye, and we offer them healing. Whether it's physical healing or spiritual healing or both.
Joel Brooks:Now why is this so hard for us? I mean, if I were to ask you, when's the last time you've done this? You've gone up to somebody and you've just you look at me. Looked them in the eye, And you've been thinking, Lord, what would he have for this person? What am I to do in this person's life?
Joel Brooks:What would physical healing? Spiritual healing? What is it? Why is it so hard for us to do that? I've I've heard a lot of excuses.
Joel Brooks:I wouldn't call them reasons. I've heard a lot of excuses as to why we don't. One of the excuses I've heard is, well, I don't wanna embarrass the person. I mean, if a person's really down and out, you know, especially if they're a beggar, like, to to ask that they look me in the eye and I look them, I mean, it's just gonna bring shame upon them. And I would say that's not the case.
Joel Brooks:It's not bringing shame upon them. You're not seeing shame in their eyes. You're scared they will see shame in your eyes. That's what keeps you from engaging. Shame that you feel so powerless.
Joel Brooks:It might be shame that gold and silver I have, but I just don't wanna part with it. And we're still holding on to gold, because we think somehow we might use it more wisely. I love C. S. Lewis' comment, when he gave away, £5 to a beggar, and his friend says, you know that guy's just gonna waste it on booze.
Joel Brooks:He goes, well, so was I. But somehow we think, you know, it's my money and I'm privileged. If I do this, well, I deserve it. But him? No.
Joel Brooks:And and so there's a shame there that we actually have money, but we don't wanna give it away because money has a hold on us. But more than that, I think there's a shame that we feel like we have nothing really to offer. That we could look a person in the eye and we and we don't have any money to give them. And as we're praying, we're like, well, God, I I don't feel like you really want to heal this person or you pray for healing and the person's not healed. And you feel like, well, all I could do is just offer them the gospel.
Joel Brooks:So I I I guess I can't really do much. If ever you think the gospel, presenting the gospel is somehow less than telling a person to rise and walk or giving them a small fortune, you don't understand the gospel. That is the best thing, the most hopeful, saving, healing thing we can ever offer anyone is the gospel. Imagine Peter and John, if you will. If if this scenario played out and Peter said, hey.
Joel Brooks:Gold and silver, I I don't have. And I don't think I'm I don't think the Lord wants you healed or prays for healing and it doesn't happen. But what I do have, I give you this, that Jesus loves you so much, he died for you. And your sins are forgiven, and he now gives you eternal life. Is this story diminished in your eyes?
Joel Brooks:Because if it is, you don't understand the gospel. The gospel is infinitely better than somebody getting 2 legs or more money. To prove that, all I have to do is tell you that I know many many people who walk with 2 legs and they are miserable. I know many many people who have a whole lot of money and they are miserable. If just having good legs or just having money brought you happiness and fulfillment in your life, then then yes.
Joel Brooks:That's all we need to pray for, but it doesn't. There's a hole in our hearts that only Jesus can fill. So being crippled by our sins is far worse than being crippled in our legs. And so we offer these people a real healing when we offer them Jesus. Forgiveness, reconciliation with God.
Joel Brooks:You look people in the eye, and you tell them Jesus loves them and can change their life. And eternity with God. That is not a downgrade from a physical healing at all. Even Jesus, when he did his miracles, you know, to alleviate suffering, like He He fed the hungry, He fed the masses, do you know what happened the next morning? They were all hungry again.
Joel Brooks:Or even when Jesus, you know, he he did a huge miracle. He raises Lazarus from the dead. You know what happened to Lazarus later? He died. All of those physical miracles and healings were temporary, pointing to the real miracle that we find in the restoration of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:That's what we have to offer, and don't you ever think that it's anything less. Hear me. If you are presenting the gospel to someone, and if at any point, they don't think this sounds too good to be true, that means you haven't presented them the gospel. Because the gospel is, I mean, we're always in awe at how good it is to us. So what I want us to do when we leave this place, I want us to look people in the eye, and I want us to tell them the greatest news in the world.
Joel Brooks:And so when we come across someone who's begging, if we don't have any money, we still looked at this person in the eye and we say, okay. I don't have any money to give you, but you know what? I can give you an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfaded, kept in heaven for you That comes through Jesus. Or if you come across somebody who is crippled and and as you're praying for them, the Lord doesn't physically heal them, you know what? You still get to offer them this.
Joel Brooks:Hey, Jesus is reconciling all things. He's redeeming all things. And if you believe him, trust me, someday you are gonna dance on streets of gold. Eternal life with him. I was watching as some this last week, there was some kid, kid, I mean, he was a teenager, and he, he was just staring at his phone, like most teenagers do.
Joel Brooks:And you find like, so many people, they find their entire worth based on whether their latest comment was liked or not. Their entire identity, how many likes did I get? We could go to people like that and we say your self worth has nothing to do with how many likes you get. Your self worth is this, Jesus loved you so much, he died for you that he would never be apart from you. Now that's a rock on which you could build your entire life.
Joel Brooks:We could go to the people who are grieving. We say, you know, Jesus, he wept. Jesus came to this earth as a man of sorrows and he wept so that someday you will never weep again. We get to offer people the greatest healing possible. So look them in the eye and shoot straight with them with no shame.
Joel Brooks:No matter the pain, no matter the hurt, no matter the brokenness, we get to offer people the greatest thing in all the world, and that's the healing that comes through Jesus. Pray with me. Lord, this city would be transformed if we truly believed your gospel. I pray that through your spirit, you would give us the courage and the boldness to go out and look the world in the eye and tell them who you are. Give them hope.
Joel Brooks:Change their life. Put a new engine in their soul, one that will never break down. Leave them stranded. Give them fulfillment. Give them purpose.
Joel Brooks:Give them a new identity. Heal every heartache that's come to them. Lord, you can do this, and I pray you would use your church to bring that about. We pray this in your name, Jesus.
