¼³±³ÀÏ : 2018.06.24
¼³±³ÀÚ : Rev. Byunghoon Kwon
º»¹®¸»¾¸ : Acts 3:1-10 |
June 24,
2018
More precious than
silver or gold is our faith
Acts 3:1-10
Rev. Byunghoon Kwon¡¯s
sermon at the KUMC of Metro Detroit
I want to
talk to you about a world-renowned Korean opera singer Prof. Yonghoon Lee, who
is not very well known in Korea. When he started his career, he heard the voice
of God; ¡°I have created you as a singer, and your singing is very pleasing to
me. Can you sing for me from now on?¡± He responded with amen to the voice and decided
to study singing for the glory of God. In due course, he became successful and was
being offered starring roles in operas performed in U.S. and Europe. But at the
pinnacle of his singing career, he suffered the rupture of his vocal cords,
which was like a death sentence for a vocalist. When he was looking at the
x-ray picture of his ruptured vocal cords, he heard the voice of God again;
¡°That picture shows your selfish heart and ambition.¡± Prof. Yonghoon Lee had to
admit that he had lost his original aspirations. He returned home to Korea, repenting
and praying eagerly to God. Then, a miracle happened. His doctor had ordered an
immediate surgery for his vocal cords and long rehabilitation, but after a
month of his intense praying in Korea, his vocal cords were healed completely
without any surgery.
His
testimony was; ¡°During an early morning prayer service, I became convinced of
God¡¯s healing hands on me, as my whole body from the hairs on my head to the
tip of my toes felt really warm as well as my ruptured vocal cords. I realized
at the moment that ¡®I have been just an instrument of the Lord and He has been the
one who sings, instead of me!¡¯¡± From that time on, Prof. Yonghoon Lee has confessed
that ¡°I am a praise singing missionary and an opera singer who is just an
instrument of God. My dream is to manifest God through my singing and to
testify for Him with my songs.¡± To him, serving God is more important than
singing or fame.
Today¡¯s
passage is about the first miraculous sign performed by the apostles of the
first church after the ascension of Lord Jesus. One day Peter and John were
going up to the temple at the time of prayer and saw at the temple gate someone
who had been crippled from birth and was being carried to the gate to beg from
those going into the temple courts.
Peter and
John were going up to the temple to pray and this crippled man was carried there
to beg, and these two parties with different objectives met at the temple gate.
The two disciples saw through the crippled man¡¯s pain and provided this man a new
purpose for his life through the miraculous work of God.
According to
a recent survey in Korea, to the question of ¡®What do you think a church is?¡¯,
the most common answer was that a church¡¯s role is to help the poor and serve the
people in many ways. Of course, the answer is not wrong, but the most important
thing a church does is preaching the Gospel and saving the lost souls.
About the
role of the church, a lot of people want the church to help them improve their
lives and serve the community better. During Lord Jesus¡¯ ministry on earth, He
helped feed a multitude of hungry people and healed many sick people through
miraculous signs. But the reason for His incarnation was to suffer and die, and
then resurrect to save all of us from sins. When Peter heard this plan of Lord
Jesus, he immediately rebuked Him, ¡°Never, Lord! This shall never happen to
you!¡± Then, Jesus said to Peter, ¡°You do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men.¡± Jesus¡¯ plan and what Peter had in mind were completely
different.
A church
cannot provide all the things that the world requests, but a church shares the acute
pain of the people of the world and helps the people see things with the
precious value of mature faith. Now, how does a mature faith look like?
1. The faith that does not shy away
from pain but looks straight into it.
The crippled
man couldn¡¯t stand or walk on his own, so he was carried to the temple gate to
beg. He hoped those people going into the temple to feel charitable and looked
at them for the purpose of begging from them. Verse 3 of today¡¯s passage says, ¡®When
he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.¡¯ And verse 5
says, ¡®So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from
them.¡¯ Even though he had seen so many people pass through the gate called
Beautiful to get into the temple, he had never been interested in the reason
for their going into the temple, but only in the money he was collecting.
Now, Peter
and John are coming up to go into the temple but they are looking straight at
him. Verse 4 says, ¡®Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter
said, ¡°Look at us!¡±¡¯ The Greek word for ¡®Looking straight¡¯ is ¡®Athenisas¡¯,
which means ¡®looking with a purpose¡¯ or ¡®looking with a certain
interest¡¯.
The same
word was used in the Acts 1:10, when Jesus¡¯ disciples were looking intently
up into the sky as He was taken up to heaven. What were they thinking? They
were hoping for His return. In the Acts 7:55, when Stephen looked up to heaven before
being martyred and saw the glory of God, the same word was used to describe
that he looked up to heaven ¡®with the heart of the Lord¡¯. When Peter and
John looked straight at him, they had the heart of Jesus Christ and were hoping
for God to do His work.
Quite a
while ago, I went to lead a service at the Hospice Mission of Seoul National
University Hospital, and I noticed that some of the members of the Hospice
Mission team looked like they could use the medical help themselves. After the
service was over, during the refreshments I asked a member if the Hospice
Mission was not too difficult for him. He answered, ¡°I can feel that they are
comforted when I hold their hands and look straight at them with loving eyes.
Without saying any words, the Gospel is being preached to them by the
expression in my eyes which are filled with the truth.¡±
Countless
people have passed by this crippled man and heard him begging for money but
didn¡¯t pay much attention to him. Now, Peter and John heard his soul crying and
stopped to look straight at him to save his soul.
Just looking
straight at someone will not bring on any changes. Lord Jesus saw many people
wandering around ¡®like sheep without shepherd¡¯ and brought changes in their
lives by His words. He saw many sick people coming to Him and healed them. He
saw many people being hungry and provided food for them, like the miracle of ¡®5
loaves and 2 fish¡¯. What we look at and how we look at things can make a big
difference.
Likewise,
the way we look at the people can hurt their feelings or can heal their wounded
hearts. I hope that all of us will look at people around us with our eyes
filled with our mature faith and with our hearts filled with the mercy of Lord
Jesus.
2. The faith that proclaims the name
of Jesus Christ.
To the
crippled man who was asking for money, Peter said, ¡°What I have I give
you.¡± And then, he ordered the man, ¡°In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, walk¡± and took him by the hand. Previously Peter had confessed to
Jesus, ¡°You are the Christ, the Son of the living God¡±. When he held the
crippled man¡¯s hand, Peter¡¯s faith must have been transferred to the man, so
that his feet and ankles have become strong enough to jump to his feet and
walk, when he heard Peter ordering him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ.
After
reading today¡¯s passage, one Seminary student felt a strong urge to reenact
what Peter had done. He went to Seoul Train Station and saw that a man crippled
from birth was begging, just like in the Bible. He really wanted to proclaim to
him ¡°In the name of Jesus Christ, walk¡± like Peter did, but was too
self-conscious of passers-by to say it. So, he put that man on his back and
went to a back alley and proclaimed ¡°Walk, walk!¡±, but no change happened to
him. He had to put that man on his back again and brought him to his former
place of begging and ran away. This is the story of Rev. Jong-Soon Park, who is
now retired.
What is the
power of the name of Jesus Christ? When we meet Jesus and accept Him as our
Lord and Savior, our lives are changed. Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5:17, ¡°Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!¡± Everywhere He went, Lord Jesus raised up those who
had fallen because of sickness, poverty, and many other problems in their
lives. As we are in Christ, we should also raise up everyone we meet in the
name of Jesus Christ.
When all the
people were astonished at this amazing sight, Peter said to them, ¡°Men of
Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own
power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus.¡± (Acts
3:12b-13a) In other words, this miraculous sign was made possible by the power
of the name of Jesus Christ and by God who wanted to glorify His servant Jesus.
I hope and pray that all of you will proclaim the name of the Lord and testify
the result made possible by the power of His name.
There was a
helping hand in this miracle. The crippled man was helped to stand up by Peter who
was holding his right hand, as well as by Peter¡¯s proclamation. When God uses
us, He also makes use of our hands and feet for His purpose. Today¡¯s clinical
study has found that holding the hands or putting hands on the patients and
praying for them are very helpful in encouraging and strengthening them.
These are
the words given to Prophet Isaiah; ¡°Do not fear, I am with you. Do not be
afraid, I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you truly. I will hold
you up with my righteous right hand.¡± The good news of Christianity is that
Lord Jesus is touching us with His hand of love and grace, holding us tight and
raising us up.
After the Sunday
service, I usually greet our church members and shake their hands. Even though
this interaction does not last long, I feel a lot of rapport with them. When
the hand is very rough, I become concerned, and when the hand is too cold, I
want to transfer my warmth. After shaking the last member¡¯s hand, I usually go
around looking for the hands I may have missed, but in most cases, those hands
belong to the members who were absent from church that day.
When we are
so mired in disappointments and frustrations that we cannot see any hope for
the future, Lord Jesus offers His comforting hands of courage, grace,
compassion and mercy to raise us up again. When Peter took the hand of the
crippled man, it wasn¡¯t his hand but the hand of Jesus Christ.
3.
By faith we get to see beyond of what we do not see.
Not only his
physical disability, the crippled man at the temple gate had also the spiritual
disability. He had not been allowed to enter the temple because of his physical
handicap, which was the usual custom from the Old Testament days. Therefore, he
was suffering from the isolation from God as well as the physical pain. Now, he
is a changed man.
According to
verse 8 of today¡¯s passage, ¡®He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then
he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising
God.¡¯ Not only his body was raised up, but also, he was raised up
spiritually; he was able to go into the temple happily and to praise God. So,
his soul was saved as well as his body.
People there
were astonished and their reactions were; ¡®When all the people saw him walking
and praising God, they recognized him as the same men who used to sit begging
at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and
amazement at what had happened to him.¡¯ (Acts 3:9-10) This kind of
miraculous sign was never done before, but after this miracle was performed in
the name of Jesus Christ by Peter and John, people were just amazed at the
miracle, not seeing the power of God who had made the man walk.
The author
of Hebrews asserts that ¡®Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain
of what we do not see.¡¯
During the
medieval times, a Pope invited the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas to Vatican
and showed him around a cathedral which was luxuriously decorated with gold.
After seeing all the gold, Aquinas said, ¡°From now on, we cannot say that ¡®Silver
or gold we do not have¡¯ and therefore, we cannot say the command of ¡®In the
name of Jesus Christ, walk¡¯ anymore¡±.
If this
crippled man had received any silver or gold, he could not have been made a new
creature. Even if there is no silver or gold, we should hold onto Jesus Christ,
and by the power of the name of Jesus Christ, we are bestowed with the hope for
a new life.
We do not
have to have silver or gold, but there are things we have to have. I believe they
are our love for Christ, our merciful heart for the world, the power and
authority of the name of Jesus Christ.
Have you been feeling down spiritually?
I want you to look straight at Jesus Christ. I hope and pray that you will let
Him take your hand and raise you up by His glorious power!