A Surprising Event

Deuteronomy 18: 14-22           Acts 3: 1-26

Sometimes we can be surprised by God and He can draw near to us in certain situations and we only later realize what happened.

The Lame beggar in Acts 2  faced what he thought was another day of immobility and helplessness having been carried to the temple gate. Another day of dependency.

What he did not expect came out of the blue.

When he saw Peter and John come into the temple he expected money  from them. What he did not expect was a far greater treasure.

Peter said "silver or gold i do not have, but what I do have i give you."  He took the man and helped him onto his feet, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

It was this event that caused a whole series of  new discoveries in that community.  This was clearly a work beyond Peter and John themselves. God had turned up. The Name of Jesus had been amplified.

Yet something greater than a healing miracle had occurred. It was an opportunity to outline the Lordship   surrounding Jesus Name. It was a startling reminder that this was the Messiah whom they rejected.

Only then did the ultimate reason occur for this healing event. In Jesus Christ God had turned up in their world and the One who changed everything in the world itself. The lame man's healing was evidence that the God of recovery was nearby. Times of refreshing were coming, sins were to be wiped out (Acts 3.19). The Messiah was to reappear and restore everything in the entire cosmos back to how God truly intended it to be.

Jesus of Nazareth was God's agent of total restoration of the lost world. This means they, like us now, must make the fullest adjustment to turn back to God and acknowledge Jesus as Lord, Savior  and Restorer.