Trinity and Humanity

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Scripture: Acts 3. Acts 4:1-4 (CSB)

Summary:

What is the ultimate goal of God’s healing and wholeness? Is it simply that our bodies are healed, our circumstances improve, or our problems disappear? In this Gospel-centered message, Pastor Tim takes us deeper into Acts 3 and into Acts 4 to show us that, as wonderful as healing is, healing itself is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of God’s healing and wholeness is restored relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.

The man at the Beautiful Gate expected silver or gold, but God had something far greater in mind. Through Peter and John, the Father spoke a gracious “counter word” to the brokenness of this man’s life: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” His healing was real, physical, and astonishing but it was also pointing beyond itself to Jesus Christ, the One in Whom God is healing and restoring His creation.

Pastor Tim reminds us that this is the pattern of the apostolic Gospel. The Gospel is always “a word of God’s gracious healing in the name of Jesus Christ.” Every word spoken by sin and its consequences is confronted by the Father’s gracious word of healing and restoration in His Son. This is why Jesus must remain at the center of our witness. We do not ultimately point people to ourselves, our power, our goodness, or even merely to better circumstances. We point them to Jesus.

This matters because Pastor Tim reminds believers that we are successors of the apostles, not apostles in the unique sense of those original eyewitnesses who walked with Jesus, but successors in receiving and passing on their testimony. What they testified about Jesus Christ is now the testimony entrusted to us. The times may change. Cultures may change. The language we use may change, but the Gospel does not change. So what does that Gospel sound like?

It begins with grace. With what the Father has already accomplished for us in Jesus Christ, and in the light of Jesus, sin is exposed for what it truly is: not merely immoral behavior, but our rejection of God Himself, the very Source of our life. Yet sin never gets the final word. As Pastor Tim emphasizes, God’s grace is greater than our sin. Jesus has entered our broken humanity, borne our sin and its consequences, taken them into His death, and raised our humanity with Him in His resurrection toward the restoration of all things.

The early Church Father Athanasius beautifully captures this movement of God toward us in Jesus Christ: “the most holy Son of the Father, being the Image of the Father, came to our region to renew man once made in His likeness, and find him, as one lost, by the remission of sins”— St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, §14

This is the gracious movement we see proclaimed in Acts. The Son comes from the Father not merely to repair something in us, but to renew and restore humanity in Himself. God’s healing is ultimately directed toward communion. Our participation, through the Holy Spirit, in the Son’s own relationship with His Father.

That grace calls for a response: “Repent and turn back.” Repentance is not an attempt to persuade a reluctant God to come near to us. The Lord is already present and acting graciously toward us. Rather, we are called to turn, receive, trust, and begin participating in the life that has already been given to us in Jesus Christ. Repentance means responding with our whole selves, body and soul, to Christ.

And here we arrive at the heart of the message: “The goal is not healing. Healing is not an end in itself.” Physical healing matters. Spiritual healing matters. The restoration of broken circumstances matters. But all of it ultimately serves the Father’s greater purpose of drawing us into communion with Himself through His Son and in His Spirit.

That is why Luke does not end this story with a healed man walking and leaping. The healing opens the way for the Gospel to be proclaimed and Acts 4 tells us that many who heard the message believed. The number of men alone grew to about 5,000. The miracle pointed beyond itself to Jesus, and through Jesus people were drawn into relationship and union with God.

The apostolic message also points forward. Jesus, Who is truly present with us now by the Holy Spirit, will return bodily in glory, and God is moving His creation toward “the restoration of all things.” The Gospel therefore carries both gracious invitation and urgency: turn to Christ, trust Him, receive what is already yours in Him, and participate now in the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Reflective Moment:

What if the healing you are asking God for is pointing toward something even deeper?

Bring the Father your need, your pain, and everything that longs to be made whole, but remember that His ultimate goal is more than changed circumstances. In Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, He is drawing us into deeper communion with Himself.

As Pastor Tim concludes, “the ultimate goal of God’s healing and wholeness is a relationship restored to God the Father through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit.”

We encourage you to watch the full message as Pastor Tim walks through the apostolic Gospel in Acts 3–4 and challenges us to consider not only what we believe about God’s healing, but what message we are passing on to others as witnesses of Jesus Christ.