A Pitiful Pauper at the Beautiful Gate
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
It is impossible for us even to suggest the many striking lessons that surround the story of the pitiful pauper at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple.
Many things are seen on the surface, but the most striking of all are those things which lie deeper in, and are usually overlooked.
For instance the healing of this pitiful pauper was due to two men who, faithful to their spiritual need, went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer. It is in the pathway of duty that opportunity usually lies.
Again, the fact that Peter and John were penniless did not deter them from going up to church. They gave in service and love, what they lacked in coin.
Once more it is worthy to observe that the disciples went up "together." Two by two, is God's plan in Divine service.
We should not overlook that the study before us followed close upon the tidal blessings of spiritual power that came at Pentecost. Peter and John did not think that the sweep of grace at Pentecost, with about three thousand baptized, was the time to let up in the prayer life.
One thing more impresses us: Peter and John went up to pray, with their eyes open for any opportunity to help some needy soul. They moved under the impulse of "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it." They could have passed the pauper up, but they did not. We should live looking for opportunities to serve.
Mark this also: Peter and John gave what they had, and not what they had not. Because they could not do what the lame man asked, was not, to them, an excuse to do nothing. God wants us to bring to Him what we have. If we have only what Moses had, a stick, let us consecrate our stick; if we have, with David, only a sling and pebbles, let us yield them to the Lord; if we have like Samson, no more than the jawbone of an ass, we can at least give that to God.
Finally observe that Peter and John did not cease serving in the realm of the natural, an easy to be accomplished task; they passed into the sphere of the miraculous without hesitancy, and attempted to do that which they well knew could not be humanly done. They believed God for the miraculous, and entered that realm without fear of failure.
We need to step forth in service, into the regions where faith alone operates.
I. A PITIFUL PAUPER (Acts 3:1-2)
It was enough to be born lame, it was more than enough to be both lame and poor. Lame, and a beggar. Behold, what sin hath wrought! The whole world reels under the curse of sin. Sorrow and sighing, anguish and crying are heard on every hand. The earth is a bridge of sighs that spans the way from the cradle to the grave. Not all are lame, not all are poor, but all are born unto travail and to pain. It is all too true, "Into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary." In the world we have tribulation.
We have before us a case of dire extremity a man both lame and poor. Perhaps he was lame that God might make him strong; perhaps he was poor that God might make him truly rich. This we know God heard the moanings of his spirit and came to his rescue. His tears were turned to triumphant praise. He prayed for alms, the pitiful plea of penury; he received healing for his body, the gracious gift from God.
"A pitiful pauper," are not all sinners this? They are both lame and poor. They have neither strength of limb nor of feet to walk in the ways of the Lord. "Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known." They walk according to the prince of the power of the air, They trudge the way that leadeth unto death. They have feet, but feet unguided; feet that cannot walk in the way of life.
They cannot walk in the paths of righteousness, for they are without power to resist the tide that sweeps them on in their evil way. They are taken captive by the devil at his will; they are driven of the devil among the tombs where death lurks and reigns; they are carried and carted by the crowd.
Sinners wear a yoke they cannot break. They are lame, they are poor, and they are carried.
II. A PITIFUL PAUPER SEATED IN THE SIGHT OF PLENTY (Acts 3:2)
What contrasts are suggested here. A man lame in both of his feet, seated at the place where the hurrying multitudes walk. A man stricken with penury, seated hard by the Temple gate, Beautiful. We wonder if this pauper was dead to these contrasts? Did he not know that his own lameness was the more conspicuous, where the romping rush of the strong of limb were pressing by? Did he not know that the plight of his own dire poverty, was made more bitter by his being placed by the Temple of priceless glory?
Yet, such is life. It is the glow in the cheeks of the child of rollicking health that startles the emaciated sick. It is the majestic grandeur and grace of the hurrying limousine that staggers the swaying form of the impoverished and footsore pedestrian. It is the glory of the glittering lights of the mansion, that makes the hut a hovel.
Yet, such is the way of the sinner. He is sick in the place of health; he is weak in the presence of strength; he is poor where many are rich; he weeps where others laugh; he is dead, in the house of life.
Saddest of all it needs not so to be. The same God over all is rich unto all who call upon Him. God is no respecter of persons. He stands ready to make the lame to walk. He will give healing to the brokenhearted; deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, the opening of the prison to the bound, the oil of joy to the spirit of heaviness, and the joy of liberty to the bruised.
If there was only one leper saved in the days of Elisha the Prophet, it was because but one leper sought his healing. If there was but one man, thirty-eight years sick, who was healed at the pool of Bethesda, it was because only one sought for healing. Our God is not willing that any man should perish. He has written His great "whosoever" over the door of every blessing that He has to proffer.
What then is our conclusion?
Shall the sinner bemoan his fate? Shall the sinner bewail his poverty and his lameness? Not at all. Let him, the rather, know that he can, by faith, be made a partaker of the exuberant joy and rejoicing that characterizes the truly saved. Once more we press this truth, "The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him."
III. A PITIFUL PAUPER SEEKING ALMS INSTEAD OF SALVATION (Acts 3:3)
Here is a strange state of affairs. Two ambassadors of Heaven drawing near; two men of faith and of power with God, hard by; two men standing ready and willing to bring. spiritual blessings, but the poor pauper seeing them, "asked an alms." Here is the statement of Scripture "Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the Temple asked an alms."
It is needless to condemn the ignorance and folly of this beggar. He merely allowed the present stress of his need, to hide his greater stress of body and of soul. He asked alms, instead of healing; he asked money, instead of mercy.
Are not many following in his wake? "What did Christ say, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." Christ was plainly asking, "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" It was after these things that the lame beggar sought; it is after these things that the Gentiles commonly seek, but what shall the spiritually enlightened do? They should seek first the "Kingdom of God and His righteousness." God who clothes the grass of the field, and God who robes the lily, will add all of these needed physical things.
The ones who seek their pocketbook more than their salvation are not all dead. Those who think more of a herd of swine, than of the presence and mighty working's of the Saviour, have not all passed and gone.
There are many possessed with the spirit of Esau, who for one morsel of pottage sold his birthright. There are many Lots who can see in the valley of the Jordan a place of splendid pasture, and in Sodom and Gomorrah a great center for commercial success, but they have no vision whatsoever of the all-glorious City, whose Builder and Maker is God. They sell the eternal, the never-dying, the all-magnificent riches of Heaven, for the paltry pennies that may fall into their little tin cup, on earth.
Why should pitiful paupers seek pennies, when they might be securing health and strength and life for evermore? Why should men of great natural ability, of marvelous intellectual efficiency love the world and the things of the world?
IV. A PITIFUL PAUPER SUPPLIED BY GRACE (Acts 3:4-6)
There is a little verse that is full of meaning: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Another Scripture says, "How much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?"
How gracious is this scene: An impotent pauper asking alms, an omnipotent God giving healing and eternal life.
There was something in the penury of the lame man that appealed to Peter and to John. They knew his real need went deeper than a few coins. In fact they had no coins to give, but they had something better by far: Peter quietly, yet forcefully said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
The gift was offered, the lame man had the opportunity of being healed; the riches of grace stood knocking at His door. The whole matter was up to him, and to his faith. We will notice this in a moment.
Just now let us press this one thing: God's bounteous grace. There is no human need that staggers Deity; there is no poverty that impoverishes the Heavenly riches. God is able to make all grace abound, that we, having all sufficiency, may abound, by the glories of His grace.
There was a poor lame beggar, but God passed by, and he was made to walk, and to leap, and to praise God.
There was a man dead in his trespasses and in his sins, but God passed by and he was quickened, raised, and made to sit in the Heavenlies with Christ Jesus.
There was a demon-possessed man driven of the devil in the tombs, but God passed by and the man was found sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
V. A PITIFUL PAUPER SHUT UP TO CHRIST (Acts 4:12)
As Peter and John stood in the face of the beggar's greater need, they stood helplessly looking on. What could they do? Had not the man been lame from birth? Had not physicians utterly failed to meet his need?
Thousands of pedestrians might have given the beggar alms, but none could give him strength to walk.
We candidly admit that the world can do much to alleviate the pangs of sin; the world can make the sinner more comfortable in his sins. The world can surround him with "divers pleasures" that may help to assuage the agony of the sorrows that sin's curses always bring. There is, however, one thing the world cannot do; it cannot save the sinner from his sins; it cannot give life where there is nought but death; it cannot save that which is lost.
God can operate where man stands helplessly by. Peter said, "In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." The preacher does not serve in his own power, He is sent of God. He is panoplied of Heaven. His power is, a power of the Spirit, in him, and on him. He has no place for boasting in the victories that attend his ministry. He is only a voice. He is a channel. He is a signboard pointing the way. He preaches not himself, but Christ. He leans not on the arm of his flesh.
The secret of all spiritual blessing is the power of a Living Christ.
VI. A PITIFUL PAUPER SHUT UP TO FAITH (Acts 3:7-8)
As Peter and John looked on the lame man, they proffered him healing; they offered it in Christ; they conditioned it on his faith.
They were not adverse to taking the man by the hand, they were glad to do what they could to encourage his faith, they even lifted him up. However, in all it was only when the lame man caught the fire of their faith, and himself believed, that he was healed. His faith is seen in his leaping up, in his walking, in his entering into the Temple, and in his praising God. Peter and John did not keep hold with their hands upon that leaping, rushing, praising man. The lame man did not need their grip to aid his faith, as his own faith grew.
Here is our lesson. Many a man of little faith needs the hand touch, the encouragement which our faith may lend. Let us go to him in person, let us lead him to the Lord. Soon, encouraged by us, he will, himself, be filled with faith, and be able to stand, and walk, and run in the will and way of God.
AN ILLUSTRATION THE ASTONISHED SLAVE
A British merchant, who had taken his passage in a Turkish vessel on the Levant, had his attention drawn, during the voyage, to an interesting slave, a Mussulman, He soon got into conversation with him, and found him intelligent, quick, and of strong, lively affections. He drew from him some particulars of his history, and found that he had been freeborn, but had been made captive in war. The merchant was touched with sympathy for this helpless captive. The more he knew of him, the deeper was the interest he felt in his welfare; and he actually began to entertain the thought of effecting his release. Cautiously inquiring as to the sum requisite for this purpose, he found that it was considerably greater than the mercantile profits of his entire voyage. Still he could not abandon the thought. An offer was at last accepted; but the slave having overheard part of the conversation between the captain and the merchant, and mistaking the design of the latter supposing that the merchant was purchasing him to retain him in slavery for his own use he sprang forward, his eyes gleaming with indignation, and cried out, "And do you call yourself a freeborn Briton, an enemy to slavery, and yet purchase me? Have I not as much right to freedom as you have yourself?"
He was proceeding in this strain of burning, indignant invective, when the merchant turned his eyes affectionately upon him, and said, "I have bought you to set you free." Instantly the storm of passion was hushed: the slave burst into tears, and, falling at the feet of his deliverer, he exclaimed, "You have taken my heart captive! I am your slave for ever!