Four Marks of a Spirit-Filled Church

I want to take you today to Acts chapter 3. We’ve already read through the appropriate passage, but let me set the context. The book of Acts is the ongoing story of what the Holy Spirit is accomplishing through believers. It is the story of the beginning and growth of the early church, from a few frightened people in an Upper Room to a movement that spilled out into the whole world. The passage that we are looking at today is the first miracle performed by the early church and highlights four reasons why the early church was successful in spreading the Gospel.

Our story begins with Peter and John on their way to the Temple.

Now I have a map here so you can see precisely what’s going on. Now this is our best guess as to the Temple layout based on archaeology and historical writings. The church is gathering at the Porch, right here on the outside of the Temple grounds. Just inside this is the Court of the Gentiles. This area was open to anyone and not technically a part of the Temple. It was an area of commerce where the Jewish people would buy their sacrificial animals, convert their Roman money into Jewish money, and buy other sorts of goods. From here, you would enter into the actual Temple, the place of the presence of God. And it was on these steps here, at the entrance of the Temple, that we find our lame man begging.

A Spirit-Filled Church Grabs the World’s Attention

3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

I want you to go with me into the mind of this beggar. Nobody pays attention to you, but you are trying to get the attention of everybody else. Your life, your health, your comfort, is all dependent upon the generosity of others. And with every time you beg for a coin, you are reminding yourself and alerting the entire world of your inability to meet the basic needs of life. In Acts 4, we learn that the man, lame from birth, was over forty years old. He’s done this for a very long time. He knows no other life. I say this all to point out that this lame man was defeated, he was depressed, he was marginalized, he was outcast, and he was absolutely and completely without hope.

Is it any wonder then, that when he sees Peter and John, he immediately asks for money, but then lowers his head, wanting to minimize any further contact. He’s been taught his whole life that these people, these walking people, these whole people, they are superior to him, they are better than he is. So he doesn’t want to look them in the eye. He just wants their money, a small part of their pity, and for them to move on. Years and years of begging have taught him this. People don’t want a conversation; they don’t want to know the beggar’s story. His identity is not important to anyone. It’s not even included in Scripture. Every part of his actions indicates a man who has given up on life.

And Peter says these wonderful words. “Look at us.” Here’s my first point: The Spirit-filled church will grab the attention of the world. A lot of times today, Christianity has the attention of the world but not in a positive way. We have not connected the old, old story to the struggles and problems and challenges of today. According to a Barna study, when asked why they don’t attend church, 40% of people said that they find God—however they define that—somewhere else. 35% said that church was not relevant to their lives.

That’s 75% of people who do not attend church saying very clearly, “I don’t see the value in it.” In my own personal conversations with people who stopped attending church during COVID lockdowns and never went back, the number one answer I’ve gotten in dozens of conversations is “I really I wasn’t missing anything.” In the conclusion of their study, the Barna Group writes that: “Adults are aware of their very real spiritual needs, yet they are increasingly dissatisfied with the church’s attempt to meet those spiritual needs and are turning elsewhere.”

The question that remains for us is are we going to be able to grab their attention, are we going to make church valuable again, are we going to meet those very real spiritual needs, or are we just going to walk on by? Peter sees the distress of this man born into a situation that has brought him poverty and shame. He doesn’t just walk by. He doesn’t just throw money at the problem. Instead, he grabs the man’s attention and offers a life-changing, relationship-building invitation into the community of God.

So first, the Spirit-filled church grabs the world’s attention. Second, the Spirit-filled church lifts others up.

A Spirit-Filled Church Lifts Others Up

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Once we have the attention of the people, we have to do something with it. We cannot claim that Christianity is life-altering and go on living life like normal. The power of the early church was the power of the Holy Spirit. The immediate response of Peter is not to give the man a four-step Gospel presentation. He does not say “You need Jesus in your life.” He does not preach a sermon. Instead, he addresses the man’s most immediate need: rise up and walk. Listen to this verse from James, chapter 2, verse 15-17:

Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James is saying this: if you preach the message of the Gospel without showing the power of the Gospel, you have not presented the Gospel at all. The Church must first meet felt needs in order to meet spiritual needs. Meeting the visible, temporary need gives us the legitimacy to then talk about invisible, eternal needs.

The Spirit-filled church should be in the business of meeting the physical needs of the world. Feed the hungry. Provide for the sick. Defend the immigrant and the refugee. House the homeless. Provide accessibility and inclusion for those with disabilities. The list is endless. We have the joyful responsibility of using our position, our power, and our privilege to care for those whom Jesus calls “the least of these.” Our resources—whether that’s monetary, whether that’s our time, whether that’s our talents—it is not ours. It’s God’s. And it is to be used for the glory of God.

There is a story told of Thomas Aquinas, the medieval theologian, who was once called into to meet with the Pope. When Aquinas was brought into the Vatican, he found the Pope sorting through a stack of money. “Look, Thomas!” the Pope exclaimed, “The church can no longer say ‘I have no silver or gold.’” Aquinas paused for a moment and replied, “With due respect, holy father, neither now can it say ‘Rise and walk.’”

Here was a church that was wealthy and powerful and privileged, and outside its walls were the sick, the dying, the poor, those in need. Holding onto our resources does not advance the kingdom of God and is a sure sign of a dying church. The Spirit-filled church is in the business of transforming its community by meeting the needs of those around them.

And we also must be discerning. Because the answer to the need we think we have may not be the real answer. The lame man thought his need was monetary. That was the expressed felt need. But Peter reaches deeper than that, touches upon the actual physical need and changes this man’s life in a real and deep way. Money would have helped, sure, but he would have still been the beggar on the corner.

I’d like to think that the man here has his hand outstretched, expecting Peter to put a few coins into it, and instead, Peter grabs him with all the strength he has—with arms well-muscled from a life of pulling in fishing nets—and as he pulls the unsuspecting man to his feet, says the words “Rise. And walk.” The lame man never thought this was an option. It wasn’t on his radar. He never even thought to ask for that. It’s too big of an ask. It’s impossible. The best thing that I can get is just enough money to live for another day.

Peter doesn’t just respond with subsistence; he responds with flourishing. He doesn’t just do the minimum; he does everything within his power. And it was within his power to heal. Jesus doesn’t just meet our needs, he rearranges them. He offers us something greater than we could ever imagine. And you’ll often find that what you thought you needed and what you actually need are two wildly different things.

A Spirit-filled church grabs people’s attention and meets immediate felt needs, now third a Spirit-filled Church brings people into the presence of God.

A Spirit-Filled Church Brings People Into the Presence of God

Let’s move on to verse 8. For this man’s whole life, he has been separate from the presence of God. Although it was never commanded in Scripture, first-century Judaism did not allow people with disabilities into the Temple area. It was forbidden. The culture which he was born into has told him that the Spirit of God resides within these walls and that he cannot go in.

Here the lame man sits. Hours every day. Watching hundreds of people casually walk into the presence of God and here he is excluded, cast out, separate from God’s presence. The first thing that Peter does is lead the man by the hand past the steps, past the wall, into the Court of Israel, into the Temple, into what the Jews considered the very presence of God. The first thing Peter does is bring him into the presence of God and connect him with a community of God’s people.

He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

Let me go back to those statistics from Barna Group. Of people who do attend church, 45% say they do so in order to feel closer to God. Despite that, less than 20% say they’ve felt close to God within the past month. 27% say they go to church to learn more about Jesus, but only 6% say they actually learned anything while they were there. When people drop out of church, they often do so because they don’t feel like God is there.

I don’t know if it happened here, but most churches that I know of, during COVID lockdowns–people left the church and they did not come back. And in talking with those people who did not come back, it was because they realized that they were going to church because it was a ritual not because it was transforming or affecting their lives.

The major goal of the church should be to make its people aware of God’s presence. If you make people aware of the presence of God, evangelism and discipleship will all fall into place because it is the natural response to seeing God as who they are. That’s the message we have. The message that God himself, creator of the universe, created you with a purpose and you are his favorite. He loves you and he wants to dwell close to you. And a Spirit-filled church will reflect that.

Then, lastly, a Spirit-Filled church witnesses through transformed lives.

A Spirit-Filled Church Witnesses Through Transformed Lives

Look at verses 9 and 10. This formerly lame man comes running into the Temple. He’s dancing and shouting as he takes it all in, he’s running up to people, telling his story, he’s so thrilled to be in the presence of God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 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.

A crowd gathers because they recognize this guy as the lame man, Peter preaches in the name of Jesus, the Temple authorities have Peter and John arrested, the Jewish leaders ask in whose authority they are healing, Peter and John again preach the Gospel and the whole of the narrative ends in this phrase, Acts 4:21:

After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.

The power of a transformed life is an incredible witness. The Jewish leaders could not deny the power of the early church because a lame man they had denied the presence of God was now filled with that presence and dancing. Is that how you look to the world? Does your life—your actions, your attitudes, your behaviors—do they shout the testimony of the power of the Gospel?

A Spirit-Filled Church Lives the Cycle of Transformation

You see how it works. First, we get the world’s attention, then we meet their physical needs, then we meet their spiritual needs, now we have the powerful testimony of a transformed life. And it is the living of that transformed life that gets the world’s attention. This is how the church is supposed to work. The power of the church is in the lives of its people. And a Spirit-filled church will manifest that presence of God. The question I leave for you today for this church and your life is “Does it?” That’s not a question I can answer. That’s a question for those of you that are here every week to decide. Let’s pray: