The Beautiful Gate

John Baw / General

Acts 3:1–10
 

Introduction
Recap last week
• We visited a place called Bethesda (House of Mercy/
Kindness)
• The place was different to the brochure
• Nice name - different reality
• A place can be CALLED one thing but BE something
different.
Revelation 3:1 NRSV
1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are
the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the
seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being
alive, but you are dead.

Things I took away from the passage

• Where was God? / Jesus?
• Outside religious settings (Temple/Synagogue)
• In a place FULL of sick and hurting people.
• A system that favoured the able/strong and disfavoured
the weak - (Phillip Yancey) “ungrace"

The liberation mission of Jesus!

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 1

 Some features to HIS ministry of freedom
• Presence of Jesus is in solidarity with he excluded, the
marginalised, the hurting, the disqualified, the invalid.
[Those who do not fit-in]
• Jesus has the ministry of “seeing” - noticing the invisible
ones.
John 5:6 NRSV
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had
been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be
made well?”
• Jesus has the ministry of being present to people’s
loneliness and alone-ness - “I have no one”
• standing alongside the people who do not fit into the
competitive ugliness of "ungrace".
• He speaks into the situation with an empowering of the
Holy Spirit -
• Because words have power….
• To build and to destroy
Proverbs 18:21 NRSV
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those
who love it will eat its fruits.
• Allowing the person to walk “in the presence” of those
who had excluded him/her.

Being Part of the liberation mission of

Jesus!
• Do you want to sign-up to this same mission?

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 2

 • In reality and not in name only?
• What is Jesus’ message to US?

Revelation 3:1 NRSV

1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are
the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the
seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being
alive, but you are dead.
• Church called to be "House of Kindness"
• to those excluded -
• going against the competitive ugliness of this world
• and empower them to walk in their healing

Another road trip

• Today we’re visiting another holiday hotspot
• This place is also different to the brochure!
• Nice name - different reality!
• Hopefully we will catch another glimpse of the liberation
ministry of Jesus
• This time though His followers.

Acts 3:1–10 NRSV

1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at
the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 2 And a
man lame from birth was being carried in. People would
lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful
Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 3

 temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the
temple, he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at
him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his
attention on them, expecting to receive something from
them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I
have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
stand up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand
and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles
were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to
walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and
leaping and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking
and praising God, 10 and they recognized him as the one
who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of
the temple; and they were filled with wonder and
amazement at what had happened to him.
Context matters!
• In the previous chapter, the disciples have been wrecked
by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost
• Either Christianity is a Holy Spirit-filled reality, or it is an
empty shell
• Alive in name only
• Beautiful on the outside only
• Like a TOMB....
Matthew 23:27 NRSV
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look
beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 4

 and of all kinds of filth.
• NO!
• The Holy Spirit changed things on Pentecost
• There is now a PENTECOSTAL reality to walk-in
• Tongues of fire for all
• And for each one!
• A drunkenness
• Not of wine - but of PRESENCE
• Last-days reality
• Spirit on ALL flesh
• Prophesy / Visions / Dreams
• Moving of God
• In and through
• Men
• Women
• Youth
• Elderly
• Even upon “slaves”
Acts 2:28 NRSV
28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will
make me full of gladness with your presence.’
We arrive at the Beautiful Gate
Acts 3:1 NRSV
1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at
the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon.
• The first healing Jesus’ disciples facilitate after Pentecost
• 3 PM - The Hour of Prayer

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 5

 • Disciples are headed toward the holy place of prayer and
worship

Acts 3:2 NRSV

2 And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People
would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the
Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those
entering the temple.
God’s activity outside religious settings
• The place of prayer was the temple
• The location where Heaven and Earth met
• But this man is outside (the place of prayer) the spiritual
life of Israel
• Lying at the threshold…. Unable to go in.
Ungrace
• The “gate” was beautiful (for some) -
• and Ugly for others -
• the “not good enough” / invalids….
• Who had to watch others walk by as if they were invisible.
[Have you ever felt invisible?]
• Spirit of Ungrace - Blind to the disqualified and those
“left outside”
• May God give us eyes to see those “outside” the temple!

The marginalised is “seen”

• In Jesus’ ministry of liberation
• The marginalised is “SEEN”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 6

 Acts 3:3–5 NRSV
3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,
he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at him, as
did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his
attention on them, expecting to receive something from
them.
• The man first “saw” the disciples
• Then Peter looked intently -
• As if saying......you are seen - you are no longer invisible -
• you are no longer alone
• The essence of community / connection (Gospel?)
• “Look at us” -This was a two-way thing now. -
• You are no longer invisible -
• Family, connection, solidarity, togetherness, fellowship.
• Have you ever felt INVISIBLE?
• Jesus sees you -
• and His followers are called to “See you”
• and be with you. Visible / respected / whole.
• Solidarity of presence - Being “WITH” the person.
• Sometimes the easiest thing to say is “I’ll be praying for
you”
• Sometimes that sounds almost as a write-off
• To this man those were probably the words of many as
they went by and entered the temple.

Speaking to the situations with an

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 7

 empowering of the Holy Spirit
Acts 3:6–7 NRSV
6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I
give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up
and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised
him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made
strong.
• CHURCH - What resources do we have?
• We have spiritual resources
• From a spiritual storehouse
• For a spiritual need.

Ephesians 6:12 NRSV

12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and
flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NRSV
3 Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war
according to human standards; 4 for the weapons of our
warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power
to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5 and every
proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God,
and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
• Here we have a Proclamation of healing
• God is moving in the margins / among the marginalised /
the rejected the lonely / the not good enoughs.
• The man was not praying or seeking God or doing any

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 8

 spiritual gymnastics.
• Yet the disciples empowered him

Allowing the person to walk “in the

presence” of those who had excluded/
bypassed him/her
Acts 3:8–10 NRSV
8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered
the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising
God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10
and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and
ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at what had
happened to him.
• The Gate was Beautiful again
• Just like Jesus in Bethesda - His disciples now, [against
the religious system of their day?] empower the man
• To "stand up and walk" - in the presence all those who
had excluded and marginalised and ignored him.
Psalm 23:5 The Message
5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my
enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with
blessing.

Building a Beautiful Gate

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 9
 • Building a life / a church / a city that is a House of
Kindness (Last week’s message) or a Beautiful gate .

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see You
To see you high and lifted up
Shining in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy

• We sing the songs

• But need to pray them as well
Luke 9:28–29 NRSV
28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took
with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the
mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the
appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became
dazzling white.
• here is Jesus....
• “Shining in the light of His glory”
• And then they come down FROM the mountain
• Down from the spiritual high
Luke 9:37–40 NRSV
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the
mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from
the crowd shouted, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son;

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 10

 he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all
at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the
mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I
begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
• God will probably move OUTSIDE the walls of the
church
• We need eyes to SEE
• As we come down from our maintain top moments
• The hurting,
• the spiritually harassed [acosado]
• those beaten up
• Grace for all!
• Ministry of “Being there”
• And you have a word to speak into situations
• Help bring healing to people’s lives
• Allowing them to “walk” - In the presence of their
enemies.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:13 PM March 7, 2021. 11