Yet it would appear not everyone was similarly impressed!I am not typically someone overly enamored with power, but I can’t say as I’ve ever thought of putting bunny ears on one of the most well-known, most powerful governors in the country. Way to go, young Mr. Franklin! When Governor Pawlenty eventually ascends to the White House, this picture will be in big demand. As a side note, lest any of us think less of our Franklin, you should all know this picture was the Governor’s idea. Apparently, our Governor is not so enamored with his own power that he can’t relax and goof off a little.
We all respond differently to power, don’t we? Some take power in stride while others of us completely lose our minds around power. Some of us are so enamored with power we fall all over ourselves trying to get next to it. Some will do almost anything to get and keep it. And some, perhaps even the majority of us, live such powerless lives we are completely surprised when genuine power actually shows up. We don’t know what to do with power. We don’t know what power is. We don’t know where it comes from. We don’t know if we should be excited or suspicious about it; pray for it or run from it. We don’t expect power to be a factor in our lives. Even the idea of power surprises and confuses us.
In Acts 3, just after the Day of Pentecost and powerful coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter and John were going to church like always…
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man 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. While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them: "People 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. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
Why does all this stuff surprise you? What’s the big deal? One little miracle and all you silly people lose your mind! You people are acting like you just met the Governor! Don’t you get it? This power stuff isn’t about us; it isn’t about some new worldly celebrity, religious guru or political superstar – this is just normal God stuff. Do you honestly think fixing the damaged body of one beggar is a difficult challenge for the Creator of the Universe?! Get real, people!
Surprise! This story is just a glimpse of our new, surprisingly powerful, normal life.
I don’t know about any of the rest of you, but as I am praying for God to surprise me this month, I am praying for Him to show up powerfully in my life. I am praying for healed beggars, manna from heaven and dramatic visitations of wisdom. I am praying God would help me notice what He is doing around me. And as I’m doing this, the first thing I’m hearing Him say is that I need to get a new definition of normal. I need to change my definitions of power. In a lot of ways, we all sort of need to put bunny ears on this world’s shallow, superficial definitions of power and start embracing the power God is constantly, normally offering.
If we truly long for God to change our thinking and powerfully surprise us, we need to embrace three important, yet very simple things the Apostle Peter models for us in this story.
Notice The Beggar
First of all, we need to notice the beggar as Peter does. Verse 4 of this passage tells us Peter looked directly or looked intently at the beggar. This wasn’t just an idle, passing glance at a man suffering on the sidewalk. This wasn’t the disinterested, disconnected look of a busy religious leader on his way to other, more important duties. This was the prayerful, powerful, laser beam focus of a godly, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus intentionally listening for what his Heavenly Father might want him to do or say in a critically important moment. While Scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how the Apostle Peter knew God wanted to heal this crippled beggar, we can certainly guess at the moment God made those intentions clear.
Peter fully and powerfully noticed the beggar.
I suspect many of us don’t experience the normal, powerful surprises of God and don’t have a powerful impact on the world around us simply because we live such self-centered, beggar oblivious lives. We spend so very much time focused on ourselves and our own efforts, wrestling with our own miniscule power problems, we don’t notice what God wants us to see. We aren’t looking intently at the beggars. We aren’t looking intently at anything but ourselves. We are oblivious to all the things God wants us to powerfully notice.
You may have heard recently that a repeat drug offender in Oklahoma was so high on methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax that he said he didn’t even remember causing a fatal head-on traffic collision last year in northwest Oklahoma City. Terry Lee Gathers actually thought he had been home asleep, a police officer told a judge a couple weeks ago. The tragically oblivious Gathers was sentenced to 30 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter.
While we might not be criminally oblivious or under the terrible influence of drugs, I wonder how many of us are so completely caught up in our own stuff the effect is mostly the same. Not only do we fail to notice things we should, we fail to bring the power of Almighty God to bear as we should. We plow obliviously through life without noticing what we’re leaving in our wake. As followers of Jesus, filled with His Spirit, we must be the people who notice. We must be the people who listen for the opinion and powerful instructions of God regarding all we notice. Noticing is powerfully normal.Trust The Savior
The second behavior the Apostle Peter models for us is trust. As the Holy Spirit leads Peter to notice the beggar, Peter trusts the Savior enough to believe he has something to offer the beggar. As witness to the rejection, suffering, ignominious death and glorious resurrection of Jesus, Peter understands the power of the Risen Christ. Basking in the powerful glow of the Day of Pentecost, Peter crawls out onto the very end of the branch of faith, trusting completely in the ability of God to follow through on His instructions. Noticing the beggar, understanding God’s desire to heal this crippled guy, Peter had the faith to say, “Silver and gold I don’t have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
What I have I give you and what I have is my utter faith in the Savior who took me back after I failed to believe in Him! I believe in my Savior enough to put my toes in the water here. I believe in this Jesus enough to march seven silly times around Jericho tooting a goofy horn if He wants me too. I believe my God can take out 100,000 Assyrians in one night if He wants. I believe in a God who loves the little ones yet still finds time to part rivers and rip open the earth to swallow the rebellious. I believe in a God who raised my friend Lazarus from the dead a few weeks ago. I saw that happen! I am witness to these things! And, oh my goodness, I believe in a God who just now gave a bunch of us the ability to speak in languages we never learned in school. What is the deal with that? I believe in a flayed and crucified Jesus who walked out of a hole in the ground when none of us believed He would. I now believe in this Jesus, whom you crucified, so much that if He says the rocks are going to rumble and the sky is going to fall I’m going to look for shelter. What I have I give you and what I have is trust!
I trust this Jesus! And if this Jesus whispers in my ear that all the crippled beggars are going to walk home from church today – y’all better tie your shoelaces!
This is normal trust. Trusting Jesus like this is supposed to be normal for us.
Do you see? Do you trust like this?
Expect The Power
When we trust Jesus like this, then we aren’t completely surprised by anything anymore. We move into the realm of normalcy Peter occupied. When we have properly noticed, through the eyes of God, the world around us, when we properly trust the Spirit guiding us, we will live in the glorious and constant expectation of power flowing through us. Dramatic experiences of the power of God will be more and more normal. We won’t question Peter when the cripple walks – we’ll praise God on the mountain tops. It is normal for us to expect the power of God to show up. While God will not always heal, while the manna will not always fall, while there will always be a cross to bear in following Jesus – there will yet always be the power of God on display somehow. When we notice the beggar, when we trust the Savior, we can expect the power. This is normal.
What sort of power are you expecting God to display in and around your life?
When I asked God what He wanted me to do after college, He spoke powerfully.
When I arrived at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina in 1983, strangely convinced God didn’t want me in the unit to which I was assigned, I obeyed and went to my new First Sergeant and told him that. He thought I was a nutcase and immediately transferred me out of the unit. Two days later, as I moved into my new barracks in another unit, I discovered one of my new roommates was a brand new Christian who had been secretly going into the woods each night, praying to God for a mature Christian friend who could explain the Bible to him! When he saw me unloading my Bibles, books and commentaries, he asked me one question: “Are you a Christian?” And when I said yes, he said, “Holy ….!” and walked out of the room stunned!
When God wanted Monica and I to sell our relatively new home in Waconia and accept the pastorate of the Ely Baptist Church, He spoke powerfully, clearly and miraculously to us.
And just a couple years ago, when I strangely noticed big, old Elim Church down here in Northeast Minneapolis, Almighty God powerfully pushed Jimbo Anderson into stopping his car on a business trip at surgically the right moment to call me up and talk about it with me.
I have prayed for miracles and seen miracles. I have asked for answers and received answers. I have needed power and received power. For many, many years of Sundays now, I have prayed for words to share with people and, to the degree I’ve obediently noticed, trusted and expected God to show up, I think He has faithfully answered.
While I have gone through the deep, dark valleys, while I absolutely do carry both thorns and crosses, while Almighty God is sometimes strangely and annoyingly silent, I can honestly tell all of you this morning that I fully expect the power of God to show up in my life and in this place both now and in the future. And if you will give God an honest chance to powerfully surprise you, I believe we will all discover the same thing.
Are you noticing the world around you?
Are you trusting God to keep His promises to you?
Do you honestly expect God to reveal Himself powerfully in your life in one way or another? Or are you afraid to pray this “surprise me” prayer because you’re afraid how God might choose to surprise you? Perhaps some of us are afraid to honestly try this “Surprise Me God” experiment because we’re afraid God won’t show up at all?
Stop all that! Why would we think these things? Why in the world would God not want to answer a simple prayer like the one we’re experimenting with this month? Why would God not want to surprise us and reveal Himself to us more fully? I wonder - do you have any idea how very much your Heavenly Father loves you and just wants to spend time with you?
This world is filled with beggars who need you and I to notice them. Put some bunny ears on what this world wants you to believe is normal, step back from what this shallow world says is powerful and possible and trust that Jesus Christ has something better, more powerful and more meaningful than this world could ever offer.
May Almighty God help us to see His power! May God surprise us with power!
Amen.
