It was a day, just a day that started out like any other day. His brothers had gotten him out of bed, fed him breakfast and dressed him. On their way to work they carried him to his usual spot. They laid him down on the ground. There they sat him up on his mat and leaned his back up against the building. They sat a small basket in front of him. And then they left him there.
It was just a normal day for him. The sky wasn’t any bluer. The birds didn’t sing any louder. The sun didn’t shine any brighter. And his shriveled, twisted legs stuck out on the blanket in front of him. They were his, but they weren’t really a part of him. He had never felt them, never moved them, never ran as a boy, never walked as a man.
And today was just an ordinary day, no better and no worse than all the other days that had made up the life of this poor crippled beggar man. But without his knowledge and without his permission today would become a day he would never forget.
For today would take him from being a beggar man to never have to beg again. We don’t know anything that happened to this guy before this day. And we don’t know what happened to him after this day. We don’t even know his name. But today he would go from being someone that most people ignored to being never forgotten in the history of the world. Because on this day a doctor would write his story which has been read by millions and millions of people all over the world. This man, this day and this story are found in Acts 3:1-10.

1. A LAME MAN GETS A RAISE (3:1-10)
1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour (3:00 in the afternoon). 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.
This man had been lame (His legs wouldn’t work, he couldn’t walk) for over 40 years (cf. Acts 4:22). He was born that way (3:2). He could never just go anywhere he wanted without having someone carry him there.
And as he sat there he would ask and beg the people coming into the temple for money. But actually money was not what this man needed most. He needed salvation for his soul and healing for his body. And those are two things you can’t get with money.
Peter looks at this guy and says, “In the name of Jesus ... rise up and walk.” Now this guy, along with every other blind and lame person in Jerusalem, had probably heard about Jesus before. Just two months before this Jesus was in Jerusalem during the last week before He went to the cross. He had visited this same temple almost every day. We don’t know which gates Jesus passed by but Matthew 21:14 says, “And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” And since Jesus was healing blind and lame people probably almost every blind and lame person in the area heard about it and wondered if it could happen to them.
And then Jesus’ disciples, Peter and John come by. And Peter says, “In the name of Jesus ... rise up and walk.” Now we will see that this idea of rising, raising, getting up is mentioned several times in this passage (3:6,7,8,15,22,26; 4:2,10,24). But here is the first one. This man’s feet and ankles were made strong. And he rises up, actually he leaps up and is walking and jumping and praising God. In verse 16 Peter said it was by faith that this man was healed; faith “that is through Jesus.” We can see his faith here by the way he praised God after he was healed.

2. WITH THE SAME POWER THAT RAISED ONE FROM THE DEAD. 11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when He had decided to release Him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And His name—by faith in His name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
Another main theme in Acts 3-4 is the name of Jesus (3:6, 16; 4:7, 10, 12, 17, 18, 30). And these verses tell us why that was important. They wanted to know what right, what authority, what power Peter and John did this miracle (4:5-9). If an order was given by the President of the United States or Korea or by the Prime Minister of Japan those who received the order would know that they must obey it. If I gave an order to the President or Prime Minister nobody would pay much attention, because my name has no official authority behind it. But the name of Jesus has all authority behind it, for He is the son of God (Matthew 28:18). Because His name is “above every name” (Philippians 2:9-11). And here in Acts 4:10-12 it says let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
And Peter says that this guy was raised because God (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) released him. God raised him up. And then Peter adds this is the same God who with the same power also raised up Jesus from the dead. this lame man got raised by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

3. WHO WAS THE PROPHET GOD SAID HE‘D GIVE A RAISE
17"And now, brothers, I know you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has fulfilled. 19 So, repent and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. 22 Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you. 23 And it will be that every soul who doesn’t listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.
God said, through Moses, that He was going to raise up (There is that word “raise” again) He was going to raise up a prophet, a Christ, a Messiah. Now this is a quote from Deuteronomy 18:15-19, where Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him.” And Peter is saying (3:20) this is Jesus. Jesus is the prophet that Moses was talking about. Jesus is the One that the OT prophets said would suffer (Psalm 22, 69; Isaiah 50:6; 53:1-12; Jeremiah 11:19; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 13:7 (cf. 2:23; 17:3; 26:22f; Luke 24:25-27, 44-48). In fact all the prophets were saying and the Jewish people were expecting that a Messiah is coming. Isaiah (7:14; 35:5-6; 40:3; 53:1,3,8,9,12), Jeremiah (23:5-6; 30:9); Ezekiel (34:23-24), Daniel (7:13-14; 9:24-27), Joel (2:28-32), Amos (8:9), Micah (5:2), Zechariah (9:9), Malachi (4:5-6) - they all point to a day that a Messiah is coming. Look at Jeremiah 30:9. It says, “But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.” Ezekiel 34:23 says, “I will raise up one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them - My servant David and be their shepherd.” Now when these prophesies were written David was already dead. But God had promised to David in Psalm 132:11 that one of his descendants would be raised up and sit on his throne.
So this lame man got raised by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. And Jesus is the prophet that God said He would raise up. Now let’s turn to chapter 4.

4. AND THAT’S WHY THE BELIEVERS’ VOICES GOT A RAISE
In the first 12 verses we see that the religious leaders did not like what Peter and John were doing. So they arrested them and put them in prison. But verse 4 says that by this point over 5000 men had believed in Jesus. Verse 13 says that “they saw the boldness of Peter and John.” In verses 17-18 they warned Peter and John to not speak or teach at all to anyone in Jesus name. How did Peter and John respond to that? They said, “We have to do what God tells us to.” And even though the public officials didn’t like it there was nothing they could do.
In verse 23 “When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and prayed, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them ... let’s skip to verse 27 ... for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness, 30 while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus." 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
The last thing we see that is raised up in this passage is the voices of the believers. It says that they were bold (4:13) and they prayed for boldness (4:29) and they continued to speak with boldness (4:31). Do you need boldness? Have you ever prayed for boldness? As you read through the book of Acts you will discover that the apostles talked about Jesus all the time. Is was as natural for them to talk about Jesus as it was to talk about food or the weather or sports or music. Why? Because Jesus was really important to them. And if Jesus is important and valuable to us we will be like these first century Christians.
We began this message with the story of the lame man who was raised up so he could walk again. Are you like the lame man? Maybe you’ve felt that you’re not smart enough, not good enough, not talented enough, not like your brother or sister. And you sit like this paralyzed man and beg for understanding, beg to be noticed, beg to be loved and accepted, beg to be made whole. You need what Peter offered the man at the gate called Beautiful. You need to believe that God wants to raise you up. And He has the power to do that. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead? Jesus is the Messiah that God had promised hundreds of years before that He would raise up.
Maybe your legs are not paralyzed but your tongue is. Have you been quiet and shy and almost embarrassed to let other people know that you are a follower of Jesus? Maybe you need to pray for boldness like these guys did - boldness to raise your voices and speak the word of God. That’s the way the gospel spread in the country of Israel in a time that the percentage of Christians was smaller than the percentage of Christians is in Japan today.
The lame man was raised up because Jesus was raised up. He was the prophet that God had promised to raise up. And the result was that the believer’s voices were raised up. Do you need to be raised up? In conclusion I would like to play a song for you that fits this theme. It is called “He Raised Me Up.”

YOU RAISE ME UP
Words by BRENDAN GRAHAM and Music by ROLF LOVLAND
Sung by SELAH and CELTIC WOMAN

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be. (x2)

There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when You come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on Your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.(x3)

You raise me up: To more than I can be.