Good morning. Mission Grove. It is good to see you this morning. I am not pastor john cradle, he's taller than I am quite a bit younger, lots better looking as well. But as Larkin said, my name is brian Fergus. No one calls me dr brian Fergus except my wife Stacy. But everybody else just calls me brian. And uh, you're, you're welcome to do so as well. I want you to know that I have a tremendous amount of respect for your pastor john cradle. I've known him for uh, several years now. I think about six years. Uh, john and I have known one another and uh, I have been incredibly impressed. And so when I recently retired from vocational ministry after 32 years of doing that to step into the classroom full time, my wife Stacy and I decided that we would make Mission Grove our church home. So we're, we're part of you. I just happened to be up here this morning. We're, we usually come to second service and sit right over there Stacey, please raise your hand. So they don't think I have an imaginary wife. There she is. And uh, so we're just thrilled to be able to, to be with you. And it's a great privilege for me to open up God's word with you this morning. I have a question for you as we begin our time in God's word today. And uh, so set it up. Let me tell you that this question is going to force us to think about something that, that confuses most of us, something that most of us don't understand. And uh it's a kind of question that might bring up some conflicting feelings. And so I suppose I should, should, should start with what the kids today call a trigger warning And let you know that that this question might hit pretty close to home and might tap on some sensitive feelings, but but just give me 90 seconds, okay, because that's all I need To ask the question, just 90 seconds to set it up and then we'll move on to something else. But I promise you we will be encouraged today. Okay, awesome. Here comes the question, Do you ever wonder why God heals some people, but not other people at times his choice of who to heal and who not hell seems rather arbitrary, doesn't it? He'll rescue somebody from, you know, a fatal illness while allowing somebody else to just kind of fade away from that end illness or or he'll he'll he'll step in and he'll he'll save an at risk pregnancy and the baby will be born and everything will be fine and then just kind of out of the blue, another pregnancy will miscarry. I'm going to stop sharing specific examples of what I'm talking about this morning because I'm probably getting pretty close to home for some of you, but you get the idea right. We ask God for miraculous healings and he heals some, but not others, why? It all seems super random to us Now at the heart of this question is a bigger question that has confused christians for centuries and that question is this why does God answer some prayers with Yes and not all prayers with a yes. That's the bigger question. We're going to keep our conversation today in the arena of physical healing. But you do understand that, that it's a subset of this bigger issue that we wrestle with as christians and I have to tell you, I I know I've asked a lot of questions this morning and I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not going to be able to answer all of them with certainty. I don't know that anybody could accept jesus, but I do promise you that we will gain some insight and we will be encouraged. And I know that's the case because I know what I'm teaching about this morning, we're going to look at a story about a miraculous healing today. We're going to encounter a man who was born without the ability to walk and in the event that we'll look at today before it's over, he's gonna be jumping up and down leaping and praising God. And as we look at that story, it's gonna be super tempting for some of us to think why him and not her or why him and not me. The answer to the question that we're going to address will certainly open our eyes to what God is doing. And so please, if you brought your bible with you, I'd invite you to find Acts Chapter three in its pages. Acts Chapter three, if not the passages will be on the slides, but I want you to, I want to invite you to open your scriptures. If you have them, we're gonna read a miracle story together in Acts chapter three. And and as we read through this, I'll pause, I'll make some comments because that's what preachers do, right. Uh and then we'll get to the heart of what we're talking about. But you should know that as Acts. Chapter three opens the apostles. Peter and john are on their way to the temple to pray there in Jerusalem at the time and they are on their way to the temple verse one Now peter and john X 31 Now Peter & John, we're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, devout jews who lived in Jerusalem went to the temple to pray three times a day, nine a.m. noon and three p.m. This is the three pm prayer. That's the one, I'd probably go to the late afternoon when I'd sleep in any way, but this is the three PM prayer and why are they going well, it's because peter and john still saw themselves as devout jews, even though they were committed followers of jesus, in fact all of the first christians did they saw their faith in jesus as an extension of their Judaism And that's going to change a little bit later when gentiles start entering the church a little bit later in acts. But but for now let's keep reading verse two 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. You see what's going on here right. The crowd is assembling for the three pm prayer and a man who can't walk is being carried by his friends and sat at the entrance to the beautiful gate that's the main gate into the temple courtyard where people gather to pray every day and apparently this was this disabled man's habit. His friends brought him daily so that he could ask people for money, they didn't have government programs back then. He couldn't you know apply for disability check or anything like that. And so he was dependent upon the generosity of the people who came to the temple for his daily sustenance. And so there he is sitting at the beautiful gate with his hand out asking people for money and along come the apostles, Peter and john verse three and seeing the disabled man is seeing Peter and john seeing peter and john about to go into the temple he asked to receive arms, Something big's about to happen here in the next verse and Peter directed his gaze at him, he looked at him intently as did john. They both did and said, look at us. Oh, I contact with a panhandler. We know how risky that is, right. We live in phoenix Arizona, we get asked for money all the time from people standing at intersections and we know we know that if we make eye contact with those people, then it's on right, It's on at that point we have to give something or otherwise we just kind of look like jerks sitting in our air conditioned cars blasting our stereos, right? But Peter isn't just, you know, inadvertently looking at this person, he directs his gaze at him, fixes his eyes on him initiates the contact. Peter says, hey look at us verse four, Peter directed his gaze at him as did john and said, look at us. Not only does he make eye contact, he initiates it, he tells the man look over here and the beggar looks at him, probably expecting to receive something verse five and he, that's the beggar fixed his attention on them. Those are the apostles expecting to receive something from them. He's probably lifting his right hand to grab whatever it is. They're going to give him. And then Peter grabs that hand and then this verse six, but Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of jesus christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and he raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong. Peter grabs this man's begging hand and he yanks him to his feet. Apparently this man's disability was in his feet and his ankles and so as peter grabs his hand and pulls him up, God is restoring or making strong his feet and ankles before the guy ever hits the ground. And then the coolest thing happens, this beggar who has never used his feet one day in his life, starts to jump around and leaped for joy verse eight and leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God, he's jumping around, you see what he's doing, right, he's trying out his new feet, he's never done this before. It reminds me of like when, when I was a kid and my mom would take me to the stride, right shoe store back in the Washington dc area and buy me a new pair of sneakers, I'd have to put the sneakers on and then run up and down the aisle real fast to see how fast those shoes were, right to try them out and that's what this guy is doing. He's running around, he's not just entering the temple with him, he's like, hey check this out, I can do, look what I can do, he's so excited to have these new feet and then look what happens next verse nine and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple that was the main gate that people walked through asking for alms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him. So this miracle, it draws a crowd, right? People come over to see what is going on, but but notice why this crowd comes running, this is a super important distinction and I want you to see this with me in the text of scripture. The people, they don't rush over because they see a guy jumping around, they rush over because they see this guy jumping around, they knew this guy, he was a regular, He sat at the beautiful gate. They knew that this was the same guy who sat at the main entrance of the temple begging for money all of the time. And let me tell you why I find this so significant and how this actually helps us answer some questions that we've asked some questions about miracles. Apparently this guy had been sitting at this gate every day for a long, long time. One uh could safely guess he's been begging at this gate for years. Why would I jump to that conclusion? Because everybody knows him, He's a regular and you might be thinking, so what Fergus, He's a regular. What's your point? Well, here's my point if this guy begged at this gate for years, that means that jesus christ himself had passed this disabled man dozens of times and never stopped to heal him. Never stopped to heal him. Are you following me? Everybody knew this beggar. He was a regular at the temple. Jesus visited the temple often and regularly when he was in Jerusalem, he taught there in Solomon's portico. We'll see that place in just a moment. Not only that, he flipped tables there once people at the temple also knew jesus. This healing that we're reading about occurs mere months after jesus crucifixion and ascension into heaven, Jesus had seen this man begging at the beautiful gate and jesus had chosen not to heal him. And that's confusing. But it reveals the truth about miracles to us. And that truth is this miracles always happen in God's time. In other words, miracles happen when God wants them to happen, timing seems to be important for all of this miracles happen in God's time. And let's be super clear on what a miracle is. Whenever I teach on miracles like to make sure we understand, you know what we're talking about here because in my opinion, way too many things are called miracles in our culture. A shady parking spot in july in phoenix Arizona is not a miracle. All right, It's a blessing. Thank jesus for it. Right. It's not a miracle, miracles are something that are very specific. I like pastor chuck swindles definition of miracles best he says this, a miracle is a supernatural event that occurs in the natural realm apart from natural causes for the glory of God. I want to repeat that definition, I think it's significant. A miracle is a supernatural event that occurs in the natural realm, but apart from natural causes for the glory of God, that last phrase is super important for the glory of God. You see God gets the attention and the audience when he performs a miracle and miracles always happen in his time. As jesus passed this disabled man on, on many occasions, he knew that someday this guy would be leaping for joy on the feet that he couldn't use at the time and I wonder, I just speculate, I wonder if jesus as he passed this guy thought to himself, dude, one of these days you're going to be jumping around on those feet, I mean that is if jesus said dude, right, he probably did, he wear sandals? Most people say dude, jesus knew what was going to happen, but he knew that timing was critically important when miracles happen, they happen in God's time. That's takeaway for us today from this story, miracles always happen in God's time. Now, Right on the heels of that there's another takeaway for us right here, miracles always happen for God's glory, miracles always happen for God's glory. As I mentioned a moment ago, God gets the attention in the audience when he performs a miracle and that's because miracles always happen for God's glory. Look what happens next verse 11 while he, this is the healed man, let's not call him the disabled man anymore. He's been healed while he clung to Peter and john all the people utterly astounded, ran to them in the portico called Solomon's News travels fast, right? Someone says, hey, you remember that guy who used to sit over there and beg all of the time. He's jumping around over there, let's go check it out. And so everybody at the temple comes running over to see what was up. And now Peter has a crowd in front of him. And what do Apostles do when they get a crowd of people in front of them, they preached the gospel, which is exactly what Peter is about to do. And I love Peter's message, let's take a look at it. Starting with verse 12, Peter says, it says, And when Peter saw it, this crowd gathering, he addressed the people, Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety? We have made him walk the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant, jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and you killed the author of Life whom God raised from the dead to this we are witnesses and his name by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know and the faith that is through, Jesus has given this man the perfect health in the presence of you all. I love Peter's message there, He doesn't really pull any punches. He preaches like every preacher really wishes they could. He's like, hey people, why are you looking at us? We didn't do this, jesus, the one you denied the one you crucify, you killed the author of life. What are you crazy? You you denied him but he did this. And do you see how the apostle uses this miracle to point people to Jesus, Do you see how he uses this miracle to give glory to God? Peter and john were not interested in getting credit for this miracle. They were not interested in building their brand and becoming, you know, famous miracle workers and preachers, God heals and performs miracles simply to give a platform for his message. In fact, if you look throughout the Book of Acts, you'll discover that every miracle that occurs in the Book of Acts gives the disciples an opportunity to tell someone the truth about Jesus, that's what they're for what miracles are for. And Jesus used his miracles in the same way he he used his miracles as platforms to reveal greater truth about his person and work. The miracle gives credibility to the message. So people will actually listen and learn God's truth. And so here's another takeaway from this account for us this morning. Miracles always make a way for the message. We're racking up some takeaways this morning. What have we got so far? Will miracles always happen in God's time? Miracles always happen for God's glory, miracles always make way for the message. See when God performs a miracle, he's just setting someone up to share the truth of the gospel to share the truth that jesus came and lived and died for us so that we could be with him in eternity. And people of Mission Grove, when when you think about it, that's really why God does anything good for us at all. Every time God does something good for us, it gives us a chance to tell someone about him. I got a great deal on a car. It's hard to find a great deal on a car right now. But God gave me this great deal, man. We got qualified for a mortgage so fast in this crazy real estate market, God was so good. Just every good thing God does for us gives us an opportunity to tell someone about him. Every miracle he performs makes way for that message. Because miracles make way for the message. And sometimes the message is super specific. Look at what else God wanted these temple attending Jews to know, starting with verse 17 of acts three and now Brothers Peter's speaking. I know that you acted in ignorance as did also your rulers. He's giving them the benefit of the doubt. You denied Jesus, you killed the author of life, but you didn't know any better Verse 18. But what God foretold by the mouth of the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. This is all according to God's plan repent therefore and turned back that your sins may be blotted out. That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the christ appointed for you jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago moses said the Lord will raise up for you, a prophet like me from your brothers, you should listen to him and whatever he tells you and it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. Peter uses this opportunity with this captive audience to call these people to repent and turned to jesus. God performed this miracle on this day. Even though Jesus had walked past this guy dozens of times God chose to perform this miracle on this day to cause these people to repent how strategic he is specific it is because these people, these were the ones who blew it. They blew it when they denied jesus, but it wasn't too late. And so Peter's essential message to these people as this folks. It's time to take jesus seriously. Every miracle performed in the name of jesus carries that same essential message. Take jesus seriously, look at what he can do, listen to what he said, turn to him and face. There's more that Peter wants these people to know more that God wants these people to know through the Apostle. Peter verse 24 Peter continues and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days you were the sons of the prophet and of the covenant that God made with your fathers saying to Abraham and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed God, having raised up his servant sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. A little bit of background will help us understand what Peter is saying. Way back at the beginning of the bible In Genesis chapter 12 and then in Genesis chapter 15, God made some promises to the forefather of the Jewish People. Abraham, among other things. God promised Abraham that he would bless the entire world through his offspring or his family. And Peter wants these people to understand that jesus is the fulfillment of that promise that jesus is the way God intended to bless the entire planet, every family on the planet? And if these people Peter says, if they would just turn from their wickedness, if they would turn from their sin to jesus, they would receive that blessing as well. Did you see that verse 26 God having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from his wickedness. You're saying turn from your your sinful and wicked lives the bad choices that you have made and find real life in Jesus, miracles always make way for the message. And that's what this miracle dead and the message is really simple. The Lord of miracles promises real eternal life to all who turned to him in faith. Amen miracles are powerful tools in the hands of a god who just wants his Children back. That's the essential message of the bible. God wants his sons and daughters back and he will occasionally just occasionally use a miracle. So people will actually pay attention to that message like he did here In Acts Chapter three. Now listen, everything that I have just told you is gospel truth. 100% but not everything that I have told you, answers all of the questions that we asked at the beginning of our conversation, some of those questions still linger and you might be at this point wondering all right Fergus, if miracles are such effective tools in God's hands, then why doesn't God do more of them? Wouldn't that bring more positive attention if he just would do miracles more often? Wouldn't that served to get the message out more. Listen, those are all very, very good questions and I don't know that I can answer all of those with certainty this morning, but I am certain about a few things. I'm certain that God loves all of us believers equally because we all cost him his son. Whether we've received a miracle or not, God loves all of us equally. I also know that God gets glory through more ways than one. Now, of course God gets glory through amazing miracles. But but I know that he also gets glory when those who suffer, trust him while they're suffering. Sometimes the gospel of Jesus is advanced through amazing miracles. And sometimes the Gospel of Jesus is proclaimed the loudest through faithful suffering. And so if God has not given you the miracle that you have begged him for, maybe that's what he's up to. Listen, I I don't want to speak presumptuously as if I know the mind of God in your particular situation. I'm not suggesting that at all. But still I am reminded that this is exactly what God did when the apostle paul begged him for a healing miracle, Paul begged God for a miracle of healing? No, Les paul asked God for healing and God told paul, No, I'm doing something different with you. First Corinthians Chapter 12, I'm sorry. Second Corinthians chapter 12. So, it's a beautiful passage, Paul is is talking about some revelations that That God showed him some visions that God showed him. And then in the midst of that, in verse seven, Paul wrote this so, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. The great apostle paul wanted to be healed of a thorn in his flesh. We know that this is a physical problem that he's talking about because Paul specifically tells us that it was an issue with his flesh. That's his way of saying this is in my body, do a little bit of digging in the epistle to the Galatians. And many of us think that paul is talking about some kind of an eye problem. He can't see very well. Maybe it's a disease. Maybe it's some scarring. It's a it's an eye melody. and Paul three times begged God to take it away and God said, No, Paul, I'm not gonna heal you, but I will give you the Grace you need to get through this. I'm doing something different with you. I'm using your weakness to display my strength. I want people to see that I can use someone who seriously struggles to spread the gospel and actually change the world. And that's exactly what God did with the apostle paul. Yes, God gets glory when he performs amazing miracles. There are miracles, right? But he also receives glory through our faithful suffering. He loves us either way and he wants what's best for us. And so my encouragement to you this morning is this if God chooses to bless you with a miracle of healing, weep for joy and praise him because God loves the praises of happy people. If instead God chooses to sustain you through your suffering, then leap for joy and praise him because God cherishes the praises of hurting people. Either way. The promise to you is still the same. The Lord of miracles promises real eternal life to all who turned to him in faith and that my friends is a miracle Amen. Let's pray Lord jesus christ, son of God. We thank you so much for the time you've given us to gather together as a church family this morning to worship you to open your word and consider its truth for our lives. Lord. I pray that as we apply this truth to our lives and make sense of our situations, maybe try to fully understand why we haven't been healed and others have or why we have been healed and others haven't. Would you please help us understand that? It's all about you, jesus, It's all about an opportunity to tell someone what you are doing for us, whether that's healing us or sustaining us through a tough time, jesus, Will you please see our time in your word and our time and worship as an expression of our gratitude for you, our appreciation of all you've done for us and we pray this, jesus in your name. Amen.