In Life and Death: Acts 3:1-10 - Third Sunday of Easter

My family and I have been so blessed by the prayers, cards, and kind words we’ve received over the last ten days since my dad’s death. God has transformed your deeds into the grace we continue to need.

One person’s words to me have stood out in my mind.

She said, “when Jesus called your dad’s name, he stood up and walked through the gates of heaven.”

Those words touched my soul in a very special way because my dad lost the ability to walk. During the four months he spent in the hospital, he tried with all his might to get back onto his feet but could not. Though his body was weak, his faith was strong.

About a week before his death, he spoke to my sister and mom, with a peace and clarity not seen in him during the many months he was ill. He shared that he had been talking with Jesus about going home to him. Jesus assured him that we will all be okay when he was gone.

Dad’s faith has been another healing balm to our hurting souls. And I couldn’t help but think him when considering the man we encounter in today’s reading from Acts who’d been suffering paralysis. Every day, he would lie at the temple gates, begging for alms from the worshipers of God.

Image by Happy Camper Camper from Pixabay

When the beggar asks of Peter and John, Peter replies that they had no alms to give him. “But what I have I give you,” he said; “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”

He immediately rose into his feet, walked into the temple, and began praising God.

Though my family and I begged God to restore my dad’s ability to walk, the outcome for him was far different. But God did not deny him his grace.

Why did God heal this man? Why does God give us faith? Why does God give us Jesus? Why does God do anything for us?

The answer is all the same: so that God may be glorified in your life.

All too often, we treat miracles, healings, and answered prayers as the direct result of our faith. If you believe enough, ask God properly, and if you are a good person, God will give you whatever you ask. But God never deals with human beings in such a transactional manner.

Whenever God does something good in your life, it’s not all about you. God acts so that God may be glorified in your life. So that you may fulfill God’s purposes for your life. So that other people will see God’s grace and goodness in you and join you in worshiping him.

Reading the text, we know why God healed the man who was paralyzed and begging: to show everyone that Jesus was the Christ and Son of God. To reveal that Jesus has authority over our diseases. To proclaim that Jesus has authority over our lives and the world. To inspire worship and praise.

This is the very essence of the resurrected life: to go from living for yourself to living for the glory of God. To go from living a life controlled by sin to a life empowered by the Spirit. To go from a life dominated by pain and suffering to a life of hope and faith.

As much as I wish that my dad was still with us, I cannot help but be thankful for the life he lived which glorified God, and that even in death, he glorified God. His death cannot take away the myriad ways God has blessed me, my family, and the world through his life and his witness.

The challenge for us here today is to understand our lies in the exact same way. Your life is not your own. Nor are your time, your talents, and your treasures. It all belongs to God, yet it’s been entrusted to you, not for your exclusive benefit, but for the glory of God. Resurrection is God’s redemptive action to bring you to where you can praise and worship, even in the face of suffering, and even in the face of death. You can be bold to ask God to provide you the things to transform your life into worship, and to remove the things to transform your life into worship.

The resurrection life is not something that can be hindered by anything that can happen to you in this life, even death. The resurrected life is too big for this life and this world. This life is but a taste of the future; a warmup to an eternity lived for the praise, the worship, and the glory of God.