Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 3:11-16 (August 19, 2025)

August 19, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 3:11-16

May the Love of Christ surround you today in all the places of your lives, most especially in the places that are emotional fires, frustration fires, uncontrollable health fires, and in any other places that are consuming of the goodness of the Spirit's gift of faith. 

On Sunday we heard from our sister in Christ, Alice, that both she and her daughter-in-law were suffering with depression. Their care, even with Christian's help, for the children in the family, two of whom have serious autism coping and learning issues, plus Elody's and Christian's new twins, has become very difficult for the family. Please pray for this family, who we have come to love so much, that they find the resource of their faith in Jesus Christ more than adequate to help with their depression, and bring to them the resources that they need in answer to all our prayers for this situation. 

Peter and John find themselves too in a circumstance that might be too difficult after they have healed the disabled man in the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem. The very people who called for Jesus' crucifixion are now acting like they are unable to comprehend what has just happened as word has reached into the temple and the people there have rushed to the colonnade of Solomon to find out how this came to be.  It is also likely that some of the people who are seeking information are the ones who accused the Disciple of being drunk at 9 in the morning on Pentecost. We must admit that there have been things happening around the miracles of Christ, His crucifixion, and Jesus' Resurrection that have probably shaken the people as they wonder what might come next. And here it is. This man who they have thrown a few coins at or ignored completely in his infirmity there in the "Beautiful Gate" is now walking, jumping, and rejoicing in their midst. How ironic that for years this man had been there, in need of more than a few coins, and yet now in what has really become the Beautiful Gate he has been healed by the power of Jesus Christ, and Peter's faith in Christ's continuing presence with love for all His children.  At the end of yesterday's study, I commented on the fact that the only words spoken were about the power of the Resurrected Christ to bring about this healing, and they were spoken only to the man who would be healed by those very words.  In our text for today we see Peter's claims to his Jewish brothers, and sisters, if there were women in that area of the temple, that what is happening in their midst, is the power of the Resurrected Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who God sent, and whom they destroyed.  It is His Power and Grace which has restored wholeness to this man who has been healed. And finally, Peter says that he and John are both witnesses to Christ Resurrection, and bearers of the power of the Messiah's faith which lives on even for the people who were responsible for killing him when the offer had been made to set Him free!  Here in this reading we cannot, and must not, forget that it is the sin of the people which placed Christ on the Cross, and yet, even in the face of that sin, in which all people share, including the physically disabled man in the Beautiful Gate, Christ, through his perfect faith, chooses life for all sinners, instead of the death which is deserved.  Remember we continue today knowing that our sin still needs the Grace and Sacrifice of Christ so that we might be made right with God, knowing that the victor over the darkness of sin has come once and for all, and defeated it permanently. I have one more thing to say to you today. The Beautiful Gate in our lives is the living Christ, the Son of God! In this Gate, Jesus Christ, we are the victors over sin through His Love and Sacrifice for us. Peter's words to those who were worshiping and praying that day affirmed their guilt but offered them hope through Christ.

Thanks for being with me today. With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim

A reminder: No Psalm Study on Thursday this week as we will be home in the middle of the night from taking Logan Burt and all his needed clothing, computer and printer, and cold weather gear up to Flagstaff and NAU where he will be attending college this fall.  Keep us in your prayers for God's speed and safety in our journey.