Archive for the ‘Acts 3’ Tag
“Our Father’s Gracious Way of Healing and Wholeness!”
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God | Tags: Acts 3, Acts 3:1-16, Adoption, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Having The Peace Of God, healing, Healing And Wholeness, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life's meaning and Significance, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?, Wholeness
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Scripture: Acts 3:1-16
Summary:
What if our healing and wholeness do not finally depend on the strength of our faith, but on the gracious faithfulness of Jesus Christ for us?
Acts 3 brings us face-to-face with a man who had been lame from birth. Each day he was carried to the temple gate to beg. When Peter and John approached, he looked to them expecting what he had learned to expect. Perhaps a little silver or gold to help him make it through another day. But the Father had something far greater in mind. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk,” Peter tells him. The man is raised to his feet, and suddenly the one who had to be carried is walking, leaping, and praising God.
In this deeply Gospel Centered Message, Pastor Timothy Brassell invites us to see this healing for what it truly is: not a display of Peter and John’s spiritual power, not the result of a technique or formula, and not even a testimony to the strength of this man’s faith. It is first and foremost a revelation of the grace of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.
Peter makes that clear when the astonished crowd turns its attention toward him and John: Why are you looking at us as though we made this man walk by our own power or godliness?
The apostles are not the healers. God is. And that matters because, as Pastor Tim emphasizes, healing is always an act of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is not reluctant to heal while Jesus is compassionate. Jesus is not trying to persuade an unwilling Father to show mercy. And the Holy Spirit is not some impersonal power that can be summoned, manipulated, or controlled. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, united in being, love, purpose, and action. The compassion we encounter in Jesus is the compassion of His Father made known to us in the Son.
Perhaps, then, one of the deepest healings we need is a healed understanding of God Himself. Healing from the picture of a Father more stern than Jesus, from the idea that the Holy Spirit is merely a spiritual power source, and from the belief that God must somehow be persuaded by the right amount of faith before He will be gracious toward us. Jesus reveals something altogether different. Grace is not first something God gives us. Grace comes to us personally in Jesus Christ. The Father’s gracious Way is His Son. In Jesus, God has come into our broken humanity, taken our condition upon Himself, borne our suffering and sin, and brought our humanity through death into resurrection life and wholeness.
This is why the healing in Acts 3 cannot finally be separated from who Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished for humanity. The physical healing of this man is a sign, a real participation now in the complete healing and wholeness toward which God is bringing His creation in Christ.
But Acts 3 also confronts another deeply rooted assumption about healing: What happens when our faith isn’t strong enough? The remarkable thing is that the man at the temple gate does not come demonstrating extraordinary faith. He does not even ask to be healed. He asks for money. As Pastor Tim emphasizes, he is simply trying to get through another day, and then he is surprised by grace. That takes us to the heart of the Gospel. Our ultimate hope does not rest in the strength with which we hold onto Jesus, but in the strength with which Jesus Christ holds onto us.
Thomas F. Torrance captured this beautifully when reflecting on holding his young daughter’s hand as she learned to walk: “She did not rely upon her feeble grasp of my hand but upon my strong grasp of her hand which enfolded her grasp of mine within it. That is surely how God’s faithfulness actualized in Jesus Christ has hold of our weak and faltering faith and holds it securely in his hand.” — Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, p. 83
That image is especially striking alongside Acts 3. Here is a man who cannot walk, being raised to his feet by a grace that precedes his understanding and exceeds his expectations. And this is where Pastor Tim’s emphasis on the faith of Jesus Christ becomes so important. When our faith is weak, faltering, confused, or seemingly absent, the Good News is not that we must somehow manufacture enough faith to make God act. Jesus Christ has already lived the faithful human response to the Father on our behalf and in our humanity.
As Torrance puts it elsewhere: “We rely wholly upon the vicarious faith of Christ and not upon ourselves even in the act of faith.” — Thomas F. Torrance, The School of Faith, p. cix
That does not make our faith meaningless. It puts our faith in its proper place. Our faith participates in His. We trust because we have first been grasped by the faithful One. That is why there is no room here for magical remedies, spiritual manipulation, or so-called faith healers who suggest that healing can be obtained if we perform the right action, possess the right object, or generate sufficient faith.
God cannot be manipulated. But that is wonderfully liberating Good News, because the God who cannot be manipulated does not need to be manipulated. He is already gracious. He already has compassion upon our suffering. He knows our weakness and our need. The Father has acted decisively for our healing and wholeness in His Son, and the Holy Spirit is at work making real in us what Jesus has accomplished for us.
This does not mean every physical healing happens immediately. Some healing is progressive. Some we continue to await. Physical things may become channels through which God graciously blesses us, but the channel must never be confused with the Source. Healing remains grace from beginning to end. And so we wait, pray, receive medical care, walk with one another, and continue trusting, not because we have discovered a formula that guarantees the outcome we desire, but because we are coming to know Who our God is. The Father is for our healing and wholeness. The Son has taken our broken humanity into Himself. And the Holy Spirit is at work bringing us into participation in the life and wholeness accomplished in Jesus.
Reflective Moment
Where are you most aware of your need for healing and wholeness today? And beneath that question may be an even deeper one: What do you believe about the God from whom you are seeking healing?
Are you trying to convince Him to be gracious? Are you measuring His willingness by the strength of your faith? Are you afraid that your weakness or inability to believe strongly enough has placed you beyond His compassionate reach? Look again at Jesus.
In Him we see the Father’s heart toward us. In Him our humanity has been taken up, healed, reconciled, and brought home to the Father. And by the Holy Spirit, we are being brought more and more into participation in that healing and wholeness. Your weak grasp of Him is held within His strong grasp of you. Perhaps that is the invitation of Acts 3: receive the Good News, take the hand extended to you in grace, and, even while some healing remains unfinished, rise up and walk in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
Watch Pastor Timothy Brassell’s full message, and hear more about the Father’s gracious and compassionate heart, the faith of Jesus Christ for us, and the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us into the healing and wholeness accomplished for us in Jesus Christ.
“Jesus’ Membership Has Its Privileges, Rewards, and Costs!”
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Scripture: Acts 3: 1-11
Summary:
“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.”— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
What does it really mean to be a member of Jesus Christ’s Church?
In Acts 3:1–11, Peter and John encounter a man who had been unable to walk from birth. He is carried daily to the temple gate to beg, expecting Peter and John to give him money. Instead, Peter tells him, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” The man rises, enters the temple with them, and begins walking, leaping, and praising God.
But Pastor Timothy Brassell invites us to look beyond the miracle and ask an important question: Who are Peter and John, and what does their relationship with Jesus reveal about who we are as His Church?
Peter and John are not acting independently of Jesus. Acts is the continuing ministry of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ, working in and through His people by the Holy Spirit. Jesus remains the Head of His Body, and His followers are invited to participate with Him in what He is doing. This is not simply Peter and John’s story, it is also our story as members of Christ’s Body. Their lives show us something of what it means to be chosen by Christ, to belong to Christ, and to be sent by Christ for His purposes in the world. That changes the way we understand church membership.
Membership is more than having our name on a church roll, attending worship, or simply identifying ourselves as Christians. As Pastor Tim emphasizes, “Membership is union with Christ and participating with Christ.” We are members of His Body, joined to Christ and to one another for participation in His continuing ministry. To be a member of Christ’s Body means recognizing that we belong to Someone else. Our lives are His, and He has joined and gifted us together for the common good.
The Father has made His purpose for humanity known in His Son. Jesus Christ has taken our humanity upon Himself, represented and substituted for us, and included us in His relationship with the Father. The Holy Spirit invites and enables us to believe, receive, enjoy, and participate in that life, and to freely share this Good News with others.
Peter and John give us a picture of what that participation looks like. They worship together, pray together, witness together, and participate together in what Jesus is doing. The Christian life was never intended to be an isolated, individualistic existence. We are called to be in the world but not of it, learning to think, live, love, and serve according to Jesus Christ. Our life together reflects the relational, self-giving life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Bonhoeffer’s words speak powerfully into this reality:“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.“ Membership in Christ’s Body turns us outward because Jesus invites us to participate with Him in His continuing ministry to others.
Membership Has Its Privileges
One of the extraordinary privileges of belonging to Jesus is that we are real partners with Jesus Christ in His continuing ministry. The risen and ascended Jesus has not stopped working in the world. By the Holy Spirit, He continues His ministry through His Body, the Church. Each believer is gifted for the common good so that Christ may build up His Body and make Himself known to others.
Peter and John were not spectators watching Jesus work, and neither are we. Jesus invites us to participate with Him as He encourages, strengthens, heals, serves, reconciles, and draws people into the knowledge of Himself and His Father in the Holy Spirit. And this participation does not mean that we are doing Jesus’ work for Him. Christ Himself is at work in us and through us as we participate with Him. That is the extraordinary privilege of membership: the One who calls us is also the One who empowers us. Jesus chooses to share His ministry with us.
Membership Has Its Rewards
The greatest reward of belonging to Jesus is not material prosperity or an easy life. We receive Jesus Himself. In Him, we share His relationship with His Father in the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is not merely endless existence; it is participation in the life and love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus gives us His presence, peace, joy, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a hope and inheritance that cannot be measured by the temporary circumstances of this world. This does not mean we escape difficulty. Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble, but He also tells us to take heart because He has overcome the world.
There is no uncertainty about the final outcome. The victory has already been won in Christ. The question Pastor Tim presses upon us is: Will we participate in His victory? Will we take our relationship with Jesus seriously enough to trust Him, follow Him, and participate with Him even when doing so requires us to press through discomfort, discouragement, opposition, or fear? Our greatest reward is Christ Himself and the astonishing gift of sharing His life with the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Membership Has Its Costs
Participation with Jesus also has a cost. After the healing in Acts 3, Peter and John proclaim Jesus Christ and soon face opposition, arrest, and imprisonment. Following Jesus was never promised to be comfortable. There will be times when participation in Christ means denying ourselves, pressing through discouragement, facing opposition, and continuing to proclaim the Gospel even when others do not want to hear it. One of the real costs of proclaiming the Gospel is accepting that not everyone is going to like it or receive it. Yet the possibility of rejection cannot silence the Church.
We live in the world, but we are not called to become of the world. Our thinking, living, loving, serving, and witnessing remain centered in Jesus Christ. Even when following Him carries a cost, we continue participating because we know who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for humanity. Pastor Tim reminds us that this does not mean forcing Jesus upon people, irritating them, or treating His name as some kind of formula. Instead, we look at others with the Holy Spirit, asking Him for wisdom and creativity in how we participate in what Jesus is already doing in their lives.
If someone already believes, we seek to help them believe more and allow them to strengthen us as well. If someone does not yet believe, we desire to help them come to believe. And if someone is rejecting Jesus, we continue lovingly pointing them toward the One who has already represented and substituted for them and desires that they know and receive the life that is theirs in Him. Why? Because we know the privileges and rewards of knowing Jesus Christ. We know the Father revealed in Him. We know the fellowship and power of the Holy Spirit. Having received such Good News, how can we keep it only to ourselves? Acts 3, then, is more than the story of Peter, John, and a man who was healed. It is a picture of the Church participating in the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ.
We are His Body. He is our Head. We belong to one another because together we belong to Him. Each of us has been called and gifted for the common good, and Christ joins us together so that, by the Holy Spirit, His life may be made visible and His Gospel may go out into the world.
Membership in Jesus has privileges. It has rewards. And yes, it has costs. But through it all, we are participating in something far greater than ourselves. The continuing ministry of Jesus Christ and the life and purpose of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit God revealed in Him.
Reflective Moment
What does membership in Jesus Christ mean to you?
Is it primarily a name on a list or a place you attend? Or do you see yourself as a living member of Christ’s Body, someone He has called, gifted, and joined to others to participate with Him in His ministry?
Where might Jesus be inviting you to participate with Him right now? Perhaps there is a believer He is calling you to encourage and strengthen. Perhaps there is someone who does not yet believe whom the Holy Spirit is inviting you to love, serve, and gently point toward Christ. Perhaps there is someone who has rejected Jesus whom you have stopped believing can ever change. Or perhaps Jesus is calling you out of isolation and into deeper fellowship with another believer. With someone you can pray, worship, serve, encourage, and walk with. Remember, you do not participate alone. The Father has called you into His purpose. The Son has joined Himself to you and shares His ministry with you. The Holy Spirit lives and works in you, empowering you to participate.
So the question is not simply, “Am I a member of the Church?” The deeper question is:
“Am I actively participating with Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, in what the Father is doing in the world?”
Watch Pastor Timothy Brassell’s full Gospel Message, to hear more about what Acts 3:1–11 reveals about belonging to Christ, participating in His continuing ministry, and living together as His Body in the world.
“There Is Only One Way To Do Everything!”
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Pentecost, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Acts 3, Adoption, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Having The Peace Of God, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life In Christ, Life's meaning and Significance, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Participation with Christ, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
Comments (1) Participating in the Continuing Ministry of Jesus Christ
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Scripture: Acts 3:1-11
Summary:
The healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate is one of the most familiar miracles in the Book of Acts. Yet this Gospel message reminds us that if our attention remains fixed on Peter, John, or even the miracle itself, we have missed Luke’s primary purpose. The Book of Acts is not ultimately about extraordinary people performing extraordinary works, it is about the extraordinary ministry of the risen and ascended Jesus Christ, who continues His words and deeds through the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Timothy Brassell begins by placing Acts 3 within its larger biblical context. Luke’s Gospel records all that Jesus “began to do and teach,” while Acts reveals what Jesus continues to do and teach through His Body, the Church. The apostles are not the central actors; Christ Himself is. Every passage of Scripture therefore calls us first to behold the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit revealed in Jesus Christ, for He remains the beginning, the center, and the end of every biblical story.
This perspective transforms the way we read Acts 3. Peter and John possessed no power of their own to heal the lame man. They simply participated in the living ministry of Jesus Christ. When Peter declared, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk,” he was bearing witness that the ascended Lord continues to act through His people. The miracle points beyond itself to the One who remains alive, reigning, and actively working in the world by the Holy Spirit.
James B. Torrance beautifully expresses this Trinitarian reality: “The worship and mission of the church are the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father and the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.” — James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, p. 9.
This is precisely what we witness in Acts 3. Peter and John are not carrying out an independent ministry for Jesus; they are participating in Jesus’ own continuing ministry. The Father continues His mission through the Son, and the Son continues His mission through the Holy Spirit as the Church shares in His life.
From this comes the sermon’s central truth: there is only one way to do everything, and that way is in Jesus Christ.
This is far more than a statement about miracles. It is the pattern of the entire Christian life. Whether we worship, serve, suffer, forgive, raise our families, make decisions, or carry out the ordinary responsibilities of each day, we are never called to live independently for Christ. Rather, we are invited to participate in Christ’s own faithful humanity, sharing by the Holy Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father.
As Torrance writes: “The second view of worship is that it is the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father. It means participating in union with Christ, in what He has done for us once and for all, in His self-offering to the Father, in His life and death on the cross. It also means participating in what He is continuing to do for us in the presence of the Father and in His mission from the Father to the world…” — James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, pp. 20–22.
Pastor Tim reminds us that Jesus’ ascension did not distance Him from His people. On the contrary, because the Son now reigns at the Father’s right hand, He is present with His Church more deeply than ever through the Holy Spirit. The ascended Christ continually represents humanity before the Father while simultaneously dwelling within His people, drawing them into His ongoing mission of reconciliation, hope, healing, and witness. Acts, therefore, is not merely history; it is the continuing testimony of Jesus Christ living and working through His Body.
This also reshapes how we understand our own weakness. We often assume faithfulness means trying harder, carrying heavier burdens, or relying on our own abilities. Yet Jesus Himself declared, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” The Christian life begins not with self-reliance but with surrender. True obedience is never independent effort; it is participation in the Son’s obedient life through the Holy Spirit.
The sermon concludes with a simple illustration that captures this profound truth. A father asks his son to move a large stone. After exhausting himself, the boy admits defeat. His father gently replies, “You haven’t given it everything you’ve got, you’ve got me, and you never asked me to help.” Likewise, our heavenly Father continually reminds us that the life of faith is never meant to be lived alone. The One who calls us also gives Himself to us, inviting us to share in His own life, strength, and faithfulness.
The good news of Acts is therefore not that God simply commands us to do more. The good news is that the Father has given us His Son, and through the Holy Spirit we are welcomed into Christ’s own life. Every act of love, every faithful response, every word of witness, and every step of obedience begins and ends with Him.
Reflective Moment
When you face the ordinary moments of your day, where do you instinctively begin? Do you first rely on your own strength, wisdom, and experience, or do you begin with the living Christ? The invitation of the Gospel is not merely to ask Jesus to bless what we are doing, but to participate in what He is already doing. What might change if every conversation, every decision, every challenge, and every opportunity began with the quiet confession: “Lord Jesus, apart from You I can do nothing. By Your Spirit, let me participate in Your Life today.”