Why Did Jesus Never Heal the Lame Man at the Temple?

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. I think that's all I'm going to announce. I want to get right back into the book because these half hours go so quickly. Acts chapter 3, and now we'll go into verse 1. Just a few days after chapter 2, after the Pentecostal sermon from Peter, and now again watch the language. Oh, I just want people to see what your Bible says. Where did Peter and John go? To the church on the corner? It's what everybody likes to think. But where did they go? To the temple. See, no one has told them to stop temple worship. They're still rabidly involved in it. Even though they have been set apart and they've come apart from the mainstream of Judaism, yet they are still involved in the temple worship. So Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the 9th hour. Now it would probably be a good idea, I'm not saying that it wouldn't, but does the church have any instructions that at a certain hour we all bow down and pray? The Muslims do of course. Judaism did. See, the 9th hour was the hour of prayer, and obediently who goes? Peter and John. Now those are things that the average reader, and I didn't either for years, we don't think anything of it. But like I said several weeks ago, if you think that I may be coming from a little different direction than most, it's because I started asking questions and my students were asking questions that I couldn't answer. And hey, there is no reason for unanswered questions as long as they're legitimate. Now I know there are a lot of things the Bible doesn't tell us that we may think we'd like to know, but legitimate questions we have every right in the world to ask. And here is one. Well, if this is the beginning of the church, what are Peter and John doing going to the temple at a prescribed hour of prayer, when the church doesn't have any of that? And so that's what made me start thinking, and I started looking. And it took a long time before I came up with what I felt were satisfactory answers. But nevertheless, as you study, don't be afraid to say, well, now what's going on here? Well, why isn't this like this? And see, and that's the way you learn. All right. So they go up to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. And while they're at the temple, verse two, 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 of them that entered into the temple. He was a beggar. Now I want you to turn a second the page to the end of the chapter. No, it's more than chapter three. It's the end of chapter five. No, it isn't either. Where did I lose it? No, it's in the end of the chapter. I'm sorry, it's in chapter four, verse 22. I goofed. It's not the first nor the last. Chapter four, verse 22. How old was this fellow? He was 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was shown. Now, why am I bringing this up? Who must have walked by that gentleman time and time again? Christ. Sure He did. Why didn't He heal him? Well, you see, Jesus was leaving all that for this. See, that's the beauty of a sovereign God. Everything is known before it and so Jesus never healed this lame man, knowing that the time would come when Peter and John would pass him by, and this would precipitate another whole group of events. See that? All right, so this 40-year-old man was carried, laid at the gate, which is called beautiful. Now verse three. Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. He begged. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them, probably a coin or whatever. Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give thee. Now watch it in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Now, according to our thinking, what should Peter have put in there? I would have said if I'd had that power and I would have had this happen yesterday, I'd have said, now look, in the name and in the power of the resurrection of Christ, rise up and walk. See, because that's where power is generated so far as you and I are concerned, is in His resurrection. Peter doesn't even mention it. He just says in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Now there again, be aware of what is not in there. Peter doesn't make reference to the power of His resurrection. Peter doesn't make reference to His death. Peter is merely referring to again, who He was, this Jesus of Nazareth and what was He? The Messiah, Israel's promised King and Savior, of course. All right, verse 7. So He took Him by the right hand and lifted Him up and immediately His feet and ankle bones received strength. What have you got? A miracle, pure and divine, a miracle. And He leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple. So now again, what kind of an individual was this? A Jew or a Gentile? He's a Jew, a Jew. He walked and leaped and praising God, and all the people saw Him walking and praising God. And they knew, His fellow Jews, they knew that it was He who sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto Him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them into the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Now you wonder, this isn't that far removed from Christ's earthly ministry. They should have been able to put two and two together. Hey, these are the fellows that were with Him when He performed all those miracles. But I guess memories are short, aren't they? Now verse 12, Now when Peter saw it, not the lame man healed, but when he saw the amazement of the people, they shouldn't have been amazed. They should have been able to say, well, these guys are just doing what their master did. And so when he answered the people, now watch what Peter calls this crowd of people, ye men of what? Israel. Who's he talking to? Jews. I was so thrilled here a while back, I think maybe I may have mentioned before, if not on television, at least to some of my classes, that in one of the recent articles in BAR, Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologists now are finding evidence, up especially around the Sea of Galilee, that indeed early believers of Christ were Jews, because they're finding symbols carved in pieces of wood or in stone that have the menorah, the candlestick of Israel's history, and the cross in the same carvings. And what does that tell you? Those were Jews who had now embraced Christ. And of course much of the Jewish community refuses to believe that. They won't admit that any Jews ever became followers of Christ. But anyway, here he is. He's speaking to the nation of Israel. Now look carefully at verse 13. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob. To what group of people on the world even tonight do those three names just stand up? To the Jew. Oh, all the world recognizes Abraham and all that, but to the Jew, you see, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that was the beginning of their nation. It was to those three men that the covenant promises were repeated almost word for word. When God told Abraham, I will make of you a great nation, your name shall be great. And then the end of that covenant was that through this man salvation would go to the ends of the earth. And then He repeated it to Isaac, He repeated it to Jacob, the same covenant promises. And now here comes Peter, claiming again the covenant promises out of Genesis, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, see how Jewish that is, hath glorified His Son Jesus, whom, now here Peter again accuses the nation of Israel, I'm not, Peter does, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. You know the account, Pilate didn't want to condemn him, but Israel insisted. And so finally he washed his hands, you know, and he thought he was going to be set free of the whole thing, but he wasn't, he's still responsible, but Israel demanded it. And so now Peter says, you caused him to be crucified. Verse 14, but you denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. And now look at verse 15, almost identical with back in chapter 2, and put in the pronoun you, and you killed the Prince of Life. But did that stop God? No, because what did God do? God raised Him from the dead, whom God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Now here is what I made reference to in the last program. What does Peter especially, and of course the other 11, they're all going to be preaching the same message wherever they go. But we're going to be mostly dealing with Peter in these early chapters. And so what does Peter now set up for these people to believe? His Name. And His Name, through faith in His Name, hath made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Now again I have to ask the question. I can't help it. Does Peter make reference to his death, burial, resurrection? Does Peter even mention the power of his shed blood? No. He doesn't even allude to it. But what does he say? Believe in His Name. And what did the Name Jesus Christ imply? He was the Christ. He was the Messiah. He was the Promised One according to the covenants, which of course Jesus had tried to get across to the nation of Israel for three years, and only to the nation of Israel, because they were the ones that had to believe first. It had to go to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, but Israel wouldn't believe. And so Peter now is still coming back, hoping against hope, that Israel would wake up and realize that the One they killed was the Promised Messiah. Now again I have to stop. Do you think Peter would address Gentiles as brethren? No way. No way. Not at this point in time. Now maybe he did by the time he wrote his little letter that we read out of a couple programs ago, but not yet. They have no idea that they're to have anything to do with Gentiles. And so he says, "...brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers." Did what? Killed the Messiah through ignorance. Now this is interesting, because somebody asked me a question years ago. We were still having a class in a restaurant, just a men's early morning breakfast class, and a dear old retired pastor asked me one time, he said, Les, why did Peter give Israel this option that they had killed their Messiah in ignorance? And why did Christ from the cross say, Father forgive them? I think that was one of them, wasn't it? For they know not what they do. And Stephen again in chapter 7 says basically the same thing. Forgive them for they know not what they do. Now it took me a while to figure that one out, but I think I came up with the right answer. You go back into Israel's history, and according to their Law of Cities of Refuge, if an Israeli farmer was clearing rocks off his field, and he was throwing them over a hedge, just to get them off his field, and without his knowing it, someone walks by on the other side and gets hit in the head by one of his rocks, and it kills him. Now what could that Israeli do? He could run to a city of refuge, and he could plead with those city fathers, hey, I didn't have any idea there was a fellow on the other side of that hedgerow, I was just throwing rocks out, and I certainly didn't intend to kill him. Now if they believed him, and he could convince them of that, they would send him back totally set free, because what he had done, he had done in what? Ignorance. Now you bring that right up to the cross. Israel, had she rejected Him, knowing who He was, what would God have had to do with the nation? Put them to death as a nation, destroy them. But since they did it in ignorance, now what could God continue to do? Continue to deal with them in mercy and grace. Now let me show you another verse, 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and drop down to verse 7 and 8, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 7 and 8. Now of course Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, predominantly Gentile, and as I've mentioned over and over and over and over, Paul always writes to believers. He never writes to the unbelieving world. He writes to the believer, but as he writes to the believer, of course his message is going to go to the unbeliever, no doubt about it. Now to these believers at Corinth he writes, verse 7, chapter 2, "...but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a secret, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory." And I'm sure he's using the plural pronoun, our, instead of my, because God knew that this apostle would be coming on and become a writer of Scripture. Now verse 8, "...which none of the princes of this world knew, the Jewish leaders didn't know who he was, Rome certainly didn't know who he was, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it who he was, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Isn't that true? But they didn't know. Now come back then to Acts chapter 3, and so now Peter uses this as an escape route for the nation of Israel. Oh, of course they were guilty of having put their Messiah to death. They rejected Him, and I think Israel is suffering for it to this very day. God's mercy is going to come back on the nation. God's not through with the Jew, not by any stretch of the imagination. He's still going to come back and keep His covenant promises with them as a nation of people, but for the last 1900 and some years they have been suffering catastrophe after catastrophe because of rejecting their Messiah. They killed Him. All right, but now Peter goes on, and he says, "...I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers." They were all in the same boat. They didn't know who He was. And oh, I've told my classes over and over through the years, Israel should have known, Israel could have known, but what? They didn't know, and so consequently they rejected Him. All right, read on, verse 21, "...but those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets." See the Old Testament was full, how that He would come, how that He would suffer, He would die. The grave couldn't hold Him, so that was a reference to His burial. His resurrection, His ascension, it was all back there. But see, Israel didn't know. They couldn't understand. "...And so all those things which God had before shown by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so what? Fulfilled." You can't stop God. Oh, He may move slowly, but you can't stop Him. And the same way here, "...all these things had to happen, and they did." Now verse 19, "...repent," He says again, "...to the nation of Israel. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." But now don't stop there, that's just a semicolon, that's not a period. Verse 20 is a continuation of that same thought. "...And He God shall send Jesus the Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom heaven must receive..." That is at His Ascension. Psalm 110 verse 1, "...come sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool, whom heaven must receive..." And now what's the next word? What kind of a word? Time word. See? He's not going to stay in heaven forever. There's going to come a time when He's going to leave heaven again. "...but He would stay there until the times of restitution of all things." Now when is this old planet going to experience the restitution of all things? Tribulation. During the Tribulation, those of you who were with us when we studied Revelation, the mortgage, the scroll of Revelation chapter 5, which John sees the seals peeled off of, what were they? Well that's the road map of the seven years of paying off that mortgage that Satan has been holding ever since Adam fell. The earth has been under the curse now for almost 6,000 years, but it's going to be restored to its Edenic condition before sin entered, and the world is once again going to be a beautiful Garden of Eden. Now that's the restitution of all things that Peter is making reference to. So even though Peter is expecting the Lord's immediate return to the nation of Israel, if they would repent, he also recognizes that they're going to have to go through the seven years of restitution of all things. Daniel's 70th week. Peter knew that. Peter knew that that was all part of the prophetic program, that all these calamities would fall, and then Christ would return. But what was it all hinging on? Israel's repentance. And so now read it again in that light. Verse 19, "...repent ye therefore, and be converted," in other words experience true salvation, "...that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Well what are the times of refreshing? The Kingdom. But the Kingdom couldn't come in until the restitution of all things, or the Tribulation. And so there's that same format of Psalms chapter 2. They would reject the Messiah, they would put Him to death, God would call Him back to Heaven, set Him at His right hand, until His enemies were made His footstool, and then the next verse in Psalms chapter 2 says, "...then will come His wrath, and vexation, and tribulation." And then what's the next verse? "...yet have I set my King upon the holy hill of Zion." All was to flow right straight, one right after the other. But God in His wisdom has interrupted that, and when this first Advent Israel rejected Him, and God calls Him back to glory, Israel continues to reject, and continues to reject. And what does God do? He sends Him into the dispersion that has lasted up until our own time, and He goes to the Gentiles with salvation, by grace, with no connection to Israel's Law. We call it the Church Age, calling out the Body, a people for His name. But as yet Peter doesn't understand that. And so Peter is still appealing to the nation on the basis of that Old Testament prophecy, that they had rejected Him now. That's been accomplished. The tribulation is going to unroll, and then God would send Jesus. But it was dependent on Israel's accepting the fact that He was their Messiah. And that's what you have to understand. But Israel continues to reject, and continues to reject, as we will see in coming programs, in coming lessons. The first part of Acts is nothing but Peter and the nation of Israel. And then all of a sudden, there is a departure. And what is it? Well you've got the conversion of Saul, and then in chapter 10, Peter goes to the house of a Gentile, Cornelius. Gentiles say, see that's something new. Well what's coming? Israel going off the scene, the Gentiles coming in to God's favor, under the whole system of grace. And once you see that, oh the book of Acts is so exciting to study, because it's just so obvious of what's happening. All right, let's move on just a little further, verse 22. For Moses, see Peter is still sticking to the Old Testament prophets, the Old Covenant program. He says, "...Moses truly said to the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren like unto me." Remember Christ was a Jew. "...Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets," verse 24, "...from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many have spoken, have foretold of these days." What days? Everything that has just taken place. And now look at verse 25. This is what opened my eyes. "...you are the children of the prophets, you are the children of the covenant which God made with Abraham." Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Thank you. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.