“When Maurice first spoke to me, I just kept going. New York in the late 1980’s was a time when vagrants and panhandlers were as common a sight as kids on bikes and moms with strollers. On Wall Street new millionaires were being minted every day. The flip-side was the widening gap between the rich and the poor-- clearly evident on the streets of New York. The problem seemed so vast, so endemic, stopping to help yet another single panhandler could only feel absolutely pointless. Then came Maurice and I walked past him to the corner, started crossing the street and then in the middle of Broadway I stopped. Cars honking, people yelling, I turned around and I went back.”

The BIG IDEA…

Spirit-filled Servants Who Offer JESUS Prevail

The Questions…

#1 - What happened?
#2 - What did it mean?
#3 - What about today?

“He directs the crowd’s attention away from both the healed cripple and the apostles to the Christ whom men disowned by killing Him, but God vindicated by raising Him, and whose name, having been appropriated by faith, was strong enough to heal a man completely. And Peter attributes a cluster of significant titles:
•Jesus the Christ of Nazareth (vs.6)
•God’s servant (vs.13)
•The Holy and Righteous One (vs.14)
•The Author of Life (vs.15)
•God’s Christ (vs.18)
•A Prophet foretold by Moses (vs.22)
•The rejected stone which became the chief cornerstone (4:11)
All this is encapsulated in His ‘Name’ and helps explain the saving power in the name of Jesus.”
- Dr. John Stott
The Spirit, The Church, and The World

The Questions…

#1 - What happened?
(A lame beggar was transformed)

#2 - What Did it Mean?
(Only Jesus can do this)

#3 - What About Today?
(The offer of forgiveness & restored blessing comes through repentance)

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms ... This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”

- C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

“How does God take someone who lives one-half inch from hell and make him live one-half inch from heaven? It is not easy. There is a price to be paid. The divine Surgeon must be permitted to use His scalpel to cut, cleanse, and break, so healing can take place. In fact, such spiritual surgery is more painful than physical surgery. God doesn't use an anesthetic; He doesn't do His work while we are asleep. God can take any brokenhearted believer and make him or her a radiant, loving person. But when He performs such ‘heart operations’, His children are wide awake.”

- Erwin Lutzer
Flames of Freedom

“Repentance is not a ‘fatal’ day when tears are shed, but a ‘natal’ day when, as a result of tears a new life begins.”
- Dr. Ilion T. Jones
Is There a God?

“There is one case of a deathbed repentance recorded in the Scripture. That of the penitent thief, that no one should despair; and only one case, that no one should presume.”
- St. Augustine (354 – 430 A.D.)

“There is no repentance in the grave.”
- Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

“If you, being evil, are overcome by your children's tears, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven find in your repentance and confessions an argument for the display of His pardoning love through Christ Jesus our Lord?”

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834 – 1892)