Transformative Transitions: Helpless to Healed
Transformative Transitions: Helpless to Healed
Sermon Synopsis
Every person knows transitions. Transitions in family life, work, finances, relationships. The list goes on. Living as a Christian is no different. The Lord is always moving us forward in transitions. As we walk with Jesus, we are constantly being taken from “here” to “there”, one depth of relationship to another as we grow to be like Him in increasing ways.
Luke writes in the book of Acts to a specific audience: “O Theophilus”. Probably referencing one follower of Christ, Luke is writing to the broader “Theophilus” or “Lover of God”. He opens his first book – the Gospel of Luke – writing to Theophilus to provide “certainty concerning the things [he] had been taught”. Luke’s second book to the Lovers of God, Acts, is written in transition. It is a record of what happens to Christians – to the Church – who have been captured by Jesus and are propelled by Him into what is next. The Book of Acts challenges us in the “transformative transitions” that come in a community of believers who are founded in Christ then compelled by Him to witness with all their lives.
Acts 3:1-10
3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze 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 and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise 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 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.