Week 28: Get me to the church on time!

 

It is good to go the temple of God at the appointed hour.

Note: “Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” Acts 3:1

Let us truncate the opening statement. It is good to go to the temple of God.

A myriad places sporting fancy ads cry out for footfalls. Where would you rather go? What is our priority?

They went at the hour of prayer. They did not go after the worship started. They were careful not to go late to the Temple of God. They were not casual – arriving late, looking for parking and sauntering in clad in their Sunday best seeking eyeballs, searching for a place to sit under the fan.  They had respect for God’s house.

And how do they go?

Together

With one mind. Check Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”

Now this is after the Day of Pentecost, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with all His liberating, emancipating work. The Way had birthed.

But the disciples did not give up tradition. They went to the Temple.

Some folks in the early days of their conversion throw the baby out with the bathwater. Check out Heb. 10:25 ” Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is”. Why not read Psalm 133:1 as well? “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

Let’s read again:

2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.”

Remember, Peter and John were particular about joining the prayer at the appointed hour. Yet, unlike the Priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan who were also going to the Temple, they had time for the needy on the way. It was widely known that this lame man would be there at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful (for they laid him there daily) and they provided adequate margin of time.

The disciples did not avoid him.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they knew they had something more to give the lame man other than the alms he was looking for.

Reading on: “5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

I beg your pardon!

Jesus of Nazareth? Never heard of Him in all my 30+ years of going to church!! (Acts 4:22)

All of us are lame spiritually, from our mother’s womb. Psalm 51:5 (NKJV) says “⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

And we need to have an encounter with Jesus, be born again. Ah … that brings us to John 3:3. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Let us go back to our narrative. Though he was laid at the Beautiful gate there was nothing beautiful in his life. He is none the better for going to church for he comes back the same way. Lame. There is no change in him.

That should resonate with a large number of church goers today. Going and coming in the same spiritual condition. No transformation. But look what happens to our friend when Peter helps him up in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

“8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God”

For the first time in his life, he enters the Temple of God. Walking, leaping, and praising God he becomes a living witness, for all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Beautiful Gate? No longer a paradox.