JUNE 21st, 2026 PASTOR DON PIEPER
The Spirit In Action! ACTS 3:1-11; 12-26
“FATHER'S DAY REFRESHMENT”
Again – Happy Father's Day! You know why God gave us father's, don't you? It was so we'd have someone to help us understand why things are the way they are. I humbly did this with my son...
Chris: So Dad, how exactly do bank machines work?
Me: Well, Chris, it's pretty simple. You type in the amount you want, and this little green man inside the machine prints out the money and feeds it thru a slot at the bottom.
Chris: So..., sort of like the guy who lives in our garage and opens the door, then?
Me: Exactly. You got it.
Chris: I see.... Huh.... So, uh, I was also wondering where babies come from.
Me: Well, most people just go to Sears, buy the kit, and follow the assembly instructions.
Chris: Wait – what?! You mean I came from a Sears store?!
Me: No, you were actually a blue light special at K-Mart. Almost as good, but cheaper...
Chris: WHAT?! MOOOOOOOMMMM!!
Mom: (from the cong) Dear, what are you telling Chris now?
Chris: (sneezes) Ahh-choo! Whoa! What made me do that? And why did I close my eyes?
Me: Well, if your eyes weren't closed, the sneeze explosion would blow your eyeballs out,
and then you'd have to point them with your hands to see anything, like this.....
Chris: Ewwww! Gross! So how come you know so much about all this stuff, Dad?
Me: It's all in the book you get when you become a father.
Chris: When you become a father you get a book that explains everything in the world?
Me: Precisely. It's very comprehensive.
Chris: Well, then, can I see it?
Me: Nope. Sorry – no can do.
Chris: What? Well, why not?
Me: Because it tells what it's like to raise a kid.
Chris: SO?!
Me: You're not allowed to know that until it's too late not to have one. Explains a lot.
Chris: (exits and returns to seat) MOOOOOOOMMMM!!
So you see, you can learn a lot from Dads like me. In Acts 3, Luke shares a story which features Jesus' disciples, Peter and John. Peter and John were like fathers to the early church. Along with John's brother, James, they were Jesus inner circle, privy to moments that the others weren't.
They were Jesus' most trusted confidants and friends. For three years they saw him in action, were witnesses to his resurrection, and were trained to do what Jesus did after he ascended to heaven.
So here in Acts 3 Luke is showing us what that looked like. Having been filled with the Holy Spirit, as we heard last week, they now spring into action. Acts 3 begins the adventure of Jesus' followers doing what he did, in four specfic ways. As they imitated Jesus, we're to imitate them.
The opening verse reveals the first of the four: “Peter and John went to the Temple one after-noon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service.” (Acts 3:1) From the get go, they're following Jesus' lead. Throughout his ministry Jesus looked to reconnect in prayer with His Heavenly Father. It's how he made sure he was always in sync with what Father God was saying and doing.
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“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does, for the Father loves the Son and shows him everything He is doing. As the Father gives life..., so the Son resurrects anyone he wants.”
(John 5:19-21)
So Jesus prayed in order to hear and see what the Father was up to, and he trained his core disciples to likewise listen and observe what he was doing and the early church likewise listened and observed what his core disciples were doing and imitated them, and it all began with prayer. It's why prayer is a core element of the Alpha Course, council meetings, Bible studies and of Sunday worship.
And yet prayer can be so hard, can't it? I identified with something John Wimber wrote once. Wimber was the Vineyard pastor whose ministry had a huge impact on Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Course. John's wife had come to faith and he saw how often and how passionately she prayed in their home. But when he tried to do likewise he wrote it felt like he was talking to the ceiling tiles.
Prayer can be hard. Maybe that's why its sometimes referred to as a spiritual discipline. Like so many things of significance and importance, it takes practice. When I first took Alpha, I recall Nicky saying that prayer was the most exciting thing. I thought, “Are you crazy? Prayer – exciting? What planet is this guy fromm?!” I'm so thankful noone could read my mind that day...!
So why is prayer so vital to us Christ followers? First, because Jesus did it... Second, because our doing so let's our Father God know that we want to be in a relationship with Him. Our daughter, Nicola, calls us from LA almost every day. Her doing so communicates how much she wants to stay connected. When we pray we communicate the same thing. We're saying, God you matter to me!
Third, it's the main way God releases his power in and through us. Prayer has a way of changing
us, granting us perspective, filling us with peace, and courage. It's through prayer that God's Spirit moves in us and thru us, by which God heals those we pray for and strengthens faith. It's thru prayer that we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit, and like Peter and John, are filled with the Spirit.
As it turns out, Nicky was right. It's when we get in sync with God that things get exciting!
The second thing we see Peter and John doing, as Jesus did before them, is ministering to those who are hurting. Luke writes: “As Peter and John approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in... Peter and John looked at him..., and Peter said, 'I don't have any silver or gold to give you, but I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.' Then Peter took him by the hand and helped him up and the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed.”
(Acts 3:2-6)
I like how John Wimber defined ministry. He says ministry is “meeting the needs of others with the resources of God.” (John Wimber) When we do so we embody for that hurting person before us, the unconditional love of God. This story from Acts 3 is not suggesting that we shouldn't offer money to meet a person's needs, but that the far more signifanct help we can provide is bringing Jesus into the situation. Sometimes that does involve a financial sacrifice on our part. When I was an intern I was deeply moved by the generosity of an elderly woman who regularly put cash in my pocket.
Other times, it may be the gift of our time and presence. My Dad told me once that the most significant encouragment he experienced after his heart attack was my sister Beth, simply sitting in the room with him. She listened when he talked and read a book when he slept or didn't feel like talking. He said she modeled the ministry of presence to him and it brought him great comfort.
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Sometimes the resources of God are His supernatural gifts of healing, or words of wisdom, or a profound sense of God's presence and peace as a person prays in tongues. These are the supernatural resources of God and they too are relased in and through us through the power of prayer. Some times the impact is immediate and profound and other times the impact is gradual and takes time.
I remember how a young woman in our small group opened up one night and shared the painful journey she and her husband had been on trying to conceive and have a baby. Nothing was working, so we gathered around her that night, and many nights to follow, and prayed for the two of them. Each time we got together she shared how they'd gotten past another medical hoop, so we prayed some more.
Nine months later they were blessed with a baby boy. And a couple of years later they were blessed further with triplets. We prayed for more power. She urged us at that point, no more power!
The third thing Peter and John did that Jesus had done, was to urge people who'd witnessed the crippled man's healing and were amazed by it, to repent of their sins. Luke showed how this was at the core of Jesus' preaching – a call to get real with God and one another. James and John would both write about the need for us to continue to do this in Christian community in their letters. Those of us who just finished the Practicing the Way course heard this in terms of the call to go deep, and be transparent with one another. Our former Alpha group has grown to dearly love one another as we've risked being vulnerable with one another. It's the means by which we deeply connect and grow.
After all, it's not in our sharing our successes that our hearts are intertwined but in the sharing of our struggles and failures. As we do so, God responds in some amazing ways. As Peter put it: “Times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus...!”
(Acts 3:20)
That's what we all need – Jesus refreshment. The world and our own waywardness, our tenden-cy to be distracted or discouraged, has a way of wearing us down. We need refreshment and it comes priomarily from experiencing the Lord's presence as we encounter it in worship and fellowship....
Fourth, Peter and John, like Jesus, looked for opportunities to help those on the outside looking in to connect the dots, to discover in Jesus the deepest longing of their hearts. Luke records that “Peter saw his opportunity and said to them: 'Why do you stare at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness? God brought glory to Jesus by doing this! Every prophet of old spoke about what is happening today. You are included in the covenant God promised through them!”
(Acts 3:12-13,24-25)
Peter and John were not only going to a prayer service, they were on the alert. They realized that they were Jesus' ambassadors wherever they went. They were looking for the opportunities God was crafting in the hearts and lives of people they would encounter. Jesus had told them, to tell people when they experienced or witnessed a healing, or deliverance from the enemy, or felt their hearts warmed by surprising acts of love or grace, that it was a sign of God's kingdom breaking in.
Alyssa experienced exactly that in the enthusiastic faith of her grandma, Jackie, and those of us who were here last week saw the result. Alyssa who has never been much of a church goer, stood before us and joyfully expressed her love for Jesus before being baptized! As she texted me this week: “I will always remember that day and how special (and powerful) it was for me! Thank you!”
Claudia Andrews saw a similar opportunity in a conversation with her friend Karl. God was on the move in Karl's heart and as he went through Alpha the dots began to connect as he experienced the love of God through those in his small group. He's rarely misseed a Sunday ever since!
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Most of us are here because someone along the way acted on such an opportunity. Jesus has put us on alert. He's calling us, training us, to follow his lead, doing what he did by making prayer a priority, by meeting the needs of others with the resources of God, being transparent with one another, and by looking for opportunities to articulate and/or demonstrate Jesus' gospel of love and grace...!