Acts 03 Round Two: Give What You Have Received

A man sits at the edge of worship, asking for coins and expecting little. We walk with Peter and John to the Beautiful Gate, where a simple pause, a steady gaze, and the name of Jesus transform a lifetime of waiting into a first step, then a leap. What starts as a quiet act of compassion turns into a public invitation, as Peter explains the miracle and points an amazed crowd back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who raised Jesus and is still at work—here, now.

We explore why signs and wonders show up in Acts not as party tricks, but as living proof of a resurrected King and a kingdom breaking in. Peter pulls no punches: the crowd rejected Jesus, yet God’s plan was never off track. The cross fulfilled what the prophets promised, and the resurrection launched a movement of ordinary people carrying extraordinary power through the Holy Spirit. From Moses to Samuel to Abraham, the story has always aimed at blessing the nations, and this healing becomes a doorway for grace to flow through an unlikely witness.

If you’ve ever felt too ordinary to make a difference, this conversation will steady your courage. We talk about giving what you have—even when it isn’t silver or gold—trusting Jesus with outcomes, and inviting others to experience “times of refreshing” from the presence of the Lord. You’ll hear practical encouragements on sharing your story, naming Jesus without hogging the spotlight, and letting compassion lead you to pray bold prayers at the thresholds of people’s pain.

Listen now, share it with someone who needs hope today, and tell us: when was the last time you offered what you had and watched God do more than you imagined? If this encouraged you, follow the show, leave a review, and pass it along to a friend who’s exploring Acts.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Theme: Give What You Have
• 1:06 Calls To Share And Engage
• 1:50 Setting The Scene: Acts Overview
• 3:40 Pentecost And Peter’s First Sermon
• 4:49 The Healing At The Beautiful Gate
• 7:00 Crowd Gathers And Peter Explains
• 9:00 Repentance, Promise, And Prophets
• 10:44 Prayer And Closing Blessing
• 11:10 Why God Heals And Our Role

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter three. If I were to give this a title, it would be Give What You Have Received. Nothing more, but definitely nothing less. We're going to see that today is now this brand new baby church is starting to get its footing, starting to figure out what's going on. And they don't know any different than to just give what they've received. It reminds me of when my kids were real little. I know that that kids sometimes can be selfish and self-centered and all that, but they're also very giving in a lot of ways. And I would just get so tickled how I would be holding one of my daughters and she'd have a sucker or something to drink and she'd see somebody. Well, she just handed to them. She didn't know any different that I can give you what I have and I'm gonna have some too. And it's just this idea is freely you have given or been given, freely give to others. We're gonna get into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe our YouTube videos. Make sure you are sending them to other people so they can read God's word with us. Also, make sure if you're listening to the podcast, leave us a five-star review and a comment. It really does help us get it out to more people so that when they search for the Bible, this will come up. And I would love for you to go to our Bible breakdown discussion or on the Facebook video, leave it. And I want to ask you this question Have you ever shared your story with somebody? You ever shared your story of how God rescued you? And I want to know how it went. You don't have to give me the whole story if you've unless you'd like to, but I want to know how did it go? Did it go well? Did it not go so well? That's part of the journey, but I want to hear about it today. And that's what we're gonna look at. But before we get there, I want you to remember that this is the investigative journalist, doctor turned investigative journalist Luke, who gave us the gospel of Luke. And now the Holy Spirit has inspired him to talk to good old Theo Theopolis and say, hey, this is what happened in early church. And the book of Acts is the chronicling of the first 30 to 35 years of the church as it is taking off and it is going to grow into what we know it to be today, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the overall theme of it is that if you were voted most likely to succeed, if everything's always gone your way and you've never had a bad day, I've got good news for you, and that is God can still use you. But what God usually do does is he uses those who are the least likely to succeed, those who would be considered ordinary folks. God does the best work through the least likely places. And if God can use ordinary fishermen and a used up Pharisee named Paul to shake the world, what can he do through you and me if we just decide that we're gonna follow Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us up from the inside out? And that's what we've been seeing. We have we see that Jesus said in chapter one, stay in Jerusalem, and you are gonna be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then after that, you are going to then do great things. Well, Acts two happens, and the Bible said at the beginning that on the day of Pentecost, the Jewish holiday, that the Holy Spirit filled everyone who was there. And then he began to immediately use them to do the work of ministry. And so they went out of there because what they needed to do is spread the gospel immediately. They began to speak in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. Well, the next thing they needed is they needed somebody to stand up and preach to these fools. And so Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and with boldness. And he got up there and he said, Hey, you jokers, y'all is the ones that kill Jesus, but he's back. And he's bringing forgiveness with him. And over 3,000 people gave their lives to God that day. And then they were able to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, now that's what happened with the crowd. Now we get to see what happens in the one-on-ones. Because in chapter three, Peter and John, they don't know any different. Freely they have been given, freely they want to give. And that sometimes works out real well. And it definitely draws a crowd. And so we're going to look and see what happens when a man who is born crippled is able to experience healing. And then we're going to see what Peter once again uses the opportunity to share the message of the gospel. And there's a great lesson in here for all of us. Let's dive into this. If you have your NLT New Living Translations open to Acts chapter 3, let's read together. Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service. As they approached the temple, a man who is lame from birth began or was being carried in. Each day they would put him beside the temple gate and the one called the beautiful gate. And so he could beg from the people going into the temple. But when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Now pause for a moment. The reason why they put him there is that the lame, the blind, the crippled were not allowed to enter the temple. And so I wonder for a moment, this man had spent likely his entire life at the gates of the temple, but never able to enter in. When we hear about how the temple was made, and we hear about how, even though the original temple by Solomon was destroyed, it was later rebuilt by uh Ezra and different ones, and then it was added on to by Herod, and it was beautiful the way they describe it. So you imagine his entire life, he's at the door of the temple, never able to enter. But today is the day that his dream is going to come true. The Bible said that he saw Peter and John, and look what happened. Verse 4 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, Look at us. The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting to get his next meal, expecting some money. And he said, I don't have any silver and gold for you, but I'll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk. And then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. In other words, Peter was not taking no for an answer. I wonder if in that moment he was like, Get up. And the guy just looked at him. He's like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We ain't doing that, my friend. Get up. And he helped him get up. As he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. And then he probably started walking around like a brand new baby giraffe for a second, right? Just kind of figuring it out. But he jumped up, stood to his feet, and began to walk, likely badly. But he's walking, so who cares? Then he walked, leaping and praising God, and went into the temple with them. His dreams finally coming true. Verse 9. Then all the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. And when they realized that he was the lame beggar that they had seen often at the beautiful gate, they were absolutely astounded. And they all rushed out in amazement to Solomon's uh colonnade, just an area outside the temple where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John. In other words, he got scared to death. He's still trying to learn how to walk. And so he's probably holding on to them, trying to figure it out. And now there's just a group of people everywhere. And here's the thing miracles and healings are always intended to point back to the goodness of the gospel. And that's what we see right here in verse 12. Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. People of Israel, what is so surprising about this? Why stare at us as though we have made this man walk by our own power, our godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all our ancestors, who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus to whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate's decision to release him. You rejected his holy and righteous one, and instead demanded the release of a murderer, which by the way was Barabbas, if you look back in the Gospels. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact. Through faith in the name of Jesus, this guy walking around like a baby giraffe was healed. And now how crippled, you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus' name has healed him before your eyes. Friends, I realize that you and your leaders did to Jesus what y'all did was in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah, that he must suffer all these things. Now, repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. The times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord, and you will again, or he will he will again send you Jesus, the appointed Messiah, for he must remain in heaven until the time of the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up to you a prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you. Then Moses said, Anyone who will not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from God's people. Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about this happening today. You are the children of those prophets. You are included in the covenant of God's God promised your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, Through your descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed. When God raised up his servant Jesus, he sent him first to you, people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways. What I love about this is that, first of all, Peter and John, they realized they didn't have any power in themselves, but they didn't have to. They knew a guy and his name was Jesus. And if they would give Jesus the opportunity, he was going to do something amazing that then would point to the goodness of God. Do you know why God heals people? Number one, because he loves them. But number two, because it is a visible representation of the power of the invisible God. God heals people to point back to himself. And so one of the wonderful things is when we see a healing, we get to see God in action. And that's what we get to see here. So that it can point back to his goodness. And so I'm going to say this again to you. God has given us the Holy Spirit so that ordinary people combined with an extraordinary, amazing God, can do amazing things. Let's pray together and we'll be done for today. Father, thank you so much. You're for us and not against us. You fill us with your power and your goodness. I pray you will help us walk in that every day so we can know you more. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Jesus said in Acts 1.8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer for you is that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can be a witness to your world today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 4.