Does it have to be that the longer one is in the faith, the less he or she is filled with amazement and enthusiasm over the things God is doing in the lives of those around? Does the fire for God have to go out of our lives? And if it does go out, whose fault is it? Is it just a function of familiarity or time spent in church, or is it something more personal?

A while back I read about a young man from the former Soviet Union who really enjoyed a visit to a good old American supermarket. The markets in his homeland were bare by comparison to our well-stocked stores. In his country what was available could be obtained only by waiting for hours in long lines. He was astounded by the sheer volume of goods available here. He was especially impressed by the various instant food items you could take home and enjoy immediately. He wrote a letter to some friends back home and told them of his discovery of instant soup. All you had to do, he wrote, was add water, put it in the microwave oven, and you had steaming hot soup. On a second trip he noticed "instant potatoes." All you had to do is add water to get mashed potatoes. On his next trip he noticed a container with a picture of a small infant on it, and it said "baby powder." He wrote home, "Now, if my mother had only known about this - it surely beats a nine month pregnancy. This is a great country!"

Living here in the United States we generally take our prosperity for granted. Our perspective of how great things are (or aren’t) is related to what we’re used to here. We’re accustomed to many choices in our supermarkets, so instant mashed potatoes don’t mean a whole lot. In fact, some of us might complain about instant mashed potatoes because we want only the "real thing!"

As I said, we take a lot of things for granted. Young people take their health and youth for granted. Wealthy people take their money and investments for granted. Husbands take their wives for granted. Wives take their husbands for granted. Children take their parents for granted.

Sometimes Christians take their salvation for granted. Someone who has been a Christian for a long time may find that the memories of life outside of Christ have grown so dim that there is no longer a recognizable contrast between then and now. They’ve been in the Christian "supermarket" for so long, it no longer holds any amazement for them. Some even wrestle with boredom in their faith.

I’m reminded of the people that Malachi described in the last book of the Old Testament who, with a "take-it-for-granted" attitude toward their worship, "My, how tiresome it is!"(1) God’s response to their boredom was not pleasant. He told them, "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar!"(2)

What a contrast between such uncaring boredom and the enthusiasm of a brand-new Christian who is so happy about his salvation that he can hardly keep still - or perhaps a Christian who has lived under a repressive government and then comes here where he is free to worship. Such a person wants to sing and shout and dance for joy!

There is someone like that described over in the third chapter of Acts. We’re going to drop in on that passage this morning for our message, which I’m calling, Fired up or Fizzled Out. Please find your place in your Bible at Acts 3. We’ll consider verses 1-20.

The event described here took place not long after the Day of Pentecost, 33 A.D. - the birthday of the church. With great signs and wonders through the apostles the gospel was being preached all over the city of Jerusalem. So as we enter this chapter, we find right away:

The ninth hour was mid-afternoon, Jerusalem time - 3PM. According to Josephus, it was the hour of the evening sacrifice,(3) an important time of the day for those worshipping in the temple.

This lame beggar had a regular spot where he lay each day. Josephus tells us that this particular entrance into the temple was the most attractive of all the gates. It was much higher than the other entrances and was adorned with magnificent silver and gold plates. The word translated "beautiful" can also mean "blooming," so there may have been gardens of some kind in the proximity. It was opposite that area of the temple called "Solomon’s Porch," a colonnade. Fourteen steps led up to a gallery and then another five to the Beautiful Gate.

While it must have involved some work for those who carried this man on his stretcher to get him up to this spot, it gave him a real advantage in his begging. It was one of the most used entrances to the temple.

We know from this verse only a couple of things about this man. The text says he was "lame from his mother’s womb." He had a congenital birth defect of some sort. Perhaps he was paralyzed. Perhaps his legs or feet were deformed. Whatever the exact cause, he never once in his whole life had walked. Chapter four adds that he was over 40 when the event described here happened. He had begged all his life. He knew nothing else but the repetitive calling out of "Alms! Alms for the poor! Alms!"

What happened this particular afternoon was that Peter and John overtook this man as he was carried along. Perhaps they even followed him and his friends up the steps. It looks like the two apostles were his first prospects of the afternoon.

Incidentally, according to Deuteronomy 15:1-11, Israel was to have no poor living in her borders, so a person reduced to begging indicates that, at this time the Jews, as Jesus would later say in Matthew 23:23, were "omitting the weightier matters of the law, such as judgment, mercy, and faith." The prime religious issues of the day were not orphans and beggars. The issues were form and ritual and tradition. Such emphasis on ceremony did not require compassion. It didn’t necessitate enthusiasm. We need not look very far in our own day to find the same kind of thing.

Peter and John were about to enter the temple. Perhaps they had to step around this man’s pallet.

No "progressive miracle" here! None of this "Go home and pray - this one may take a little while" stuff used by the charlatans who claim the gift of healing today. They healed this man instantly. Not only that, but he didn’t even have to learn to walk!

This man couldn’t contain his joy! He rushed into the temple where everyone was seriously involved in worship at an important time of the day and was leaping and praising God.

This lame beggar was in some ways like that Russian visitor to the American supermarket. He was overwhelmed that something like this could happen! He couldn’t contain his joy and praise!

Contrast that with the jaded attitudes of the Jewish religious leaders who had seen Jesus Himself do miracles like this and sneered all the way through them. Jesus had Himself said that some would not be convinced even if they saw great miracles. The Lord’s words in Luke 16:31 come to mind: "…neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead."

Let me pose a couple of pertinent questions: Does it have to be that the longer one is in the faith, the less he or she is filled with amazement and enthusiasm over the things of God? Does the fire have to go out of our lives? And if it does go out, whose fault is it? Is it just a function of familiarity or time spent in church, or is it something else?

I cannot speak for you because I cannot read your heart, but I can surely speak for me – and let me do so. When the time comes that I cannot get excited anymore about the things of God, I will consider it my problem. I will consider that there is something wrong with my attitude. I don’t consider it your job or anybody else’s job (or God’s job for that matter) to entertain me so that my faith stays hot. Contrary to what many have concluded today, entertainment isn’t the source of true and lasting spiritual enthusiasm anyway. True spiritual enthusiasm is the result of a living, active, personal relationship and involvement with God and His work.

It is said that as Benjamin Franklin concluded a stirring speech on the guarantees of the Constitution, a heckler shouted, "Aw, them words don’t mean nothin’ at all. Where’s all the happiness you say it guarantees us?" Franklin smiled and replied, "My friend, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself."

Lasting spiritual enthusiasm is something you have to catch yourself. Sure, you may have times when great things happen in your life (like the healing of this panhandler) but no one has a sustained run of those kinds of things. If you want happiness in your faith, you have to catch it.

A man came to a minister of the church he attended and said, "I don’t know what’s wrong with my life, but that first Christian joy I knew has passed me by. I still live a moral life. I go to church. But how can I recover the lost radiance of my faith?" The preacher said, "This is what you should do: go to the store and buy a big basketful of groceries and go to an address of a poor family I will give you. Then when you have given your gift, sit down with them to find out what else they need. Let them know that you are interested in them and that you intend to be their friend. Pray for them before you leave, and then visit them again the following week. The radiance of your faith will come back." And it did.

There are multitudes of people floating around from church to church today trying to find something that will make them happy. So they kick the tires on this one and that. Usually they don’t find what they’re looking for. I contend that they are looking for the wrong thing. They’re expecting others to do what only they themselves can do! Am I making sense to anyone?

When you and I are operating on the edge of our privilege of service to God – even pushing the envelope of it, we’ll begin to see firsthand once again God working in our lives and we’ll become enthused.

By the way, do you know what the words "enthused" and "enthusiasm" really mean? The words come from the Latin "entheos" which means "filled up with God." People who relegate God and service to Him to the fringes of their lives and then fill up their existence with every kind of amusement except God are not going to be spiritually enthused about much of anything. That’s why they feel they need to be entertained.

Are you unhappy with your faith? Whose fault is it? I contend that you will get out of your faith results directly proportionate to the effort you put into it for God.

Well, this noisy, dancing, shouting beggar disrupting the temple activities next brought:

Sounds like a great response until you read in the next chapter that they arrested Peter and John!

Remember, this happened at the hour of the evening sacrifice! It caused a huge commotion. I can see the Jewish leaders, steeped in their traditions and rituals, stroking their long beards and casting a jaundiced eye on this whole thing. "How dare this man disrupt the temple service! Doesn’t he know that what goes on here is important?" What they did not realize was that the Spirit of God had deserted that place because of their deadness.

The well-known chorus says, "Joy is a flag that’s flown from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there." If Christ really lives in the castle of your heart, don’t fly that flag at half mast!

Charles Spurgeon was once emphasizing to his class of young student preachers the importance of making the facial expressions harmonize with speech.

"When you speak of Heaven," he said, "let your face light up, let it be irradiated with a heavenly gleam, let your eyes shine with reflected glory. But when you speak of Hell - well, then your ordinary face will do."

O.K. – the stage is set for a sermon and Peter is about to preach it! He has everyone’s attention. That brings us to the third part of this passage, which is:

So who received the glory for this miracle? Jesus! But the people were ready to give it to Peter and John. The verse says, "…why do you gaze at us…?" Peter and John corrected them by telling them that man could walk because of the power of their God and his Son, Jesus.

Let me point out a couple of important things from Peter’s sermon. First, he got personal. He didn’t speak in vague generalities.

If the gospel message is to get out and be understood, it has to be straightforward and personal. It involves you and me. If, sometimes, you come to church and it seems the preacher is talking to you, hopefully it’s because he is!

Some of the strongest accusations in the entire Bible are in these verses.

In each case Peter points out that they did the very opposite of what God intended. That illustrates an important principle. Like Peter, I’ll make it personal. If you live your life outside of Christ, you do the very opposite of what God intends you to do.

"But wait a minute," you say. "I didn’t do any of those things on purpose. In fact, I’ve never really understood all this business about Christ." If you’re thinking that, join the crowd. You’re just like the people in Peter’s audience.

Many people today are just as ignorant of what the Bible says about them. So does ignorance excuse the wrong? No. But finding out about it does give you the opportunity to make it right.

These people wronged God in ignorance. Were they free from guilt? No. They had sinned and needed their sins wiped away. From God’s perspective, ignorance is no excuse. You are still accountable for what you do. There is a difference though, between acting in ignorance and acting on purpose. God is standing by with grace and forgiveness to the person who understands these things and wants to make them right. Even these people who crucified Jesus were offered a pardon. Look more closely at what they were offered.

They were offered times of refreshing. Words are not adequate to express the refreshing, alive feeling that comes when you know you are right with God and your eternal destiny is secure!

That word "refreshing" in the original language sometimes described the treating of a wound by exposing it to fresh air. Surely you’ve had the experience of a cut that festered under a bandage. What did you do? You exposed it to the air so that it would heal. That is the idea here. The forgiveness God offers is like fresh air that sweeps in and heals a wound.

The word was also used to describe the refreshment that comes to a hot, weary traveler as he takes a cup of cool water from a spring. W.E. Vine defines it literally as "to cool back or return to cool." Living in sin is like living in a desert with no water. Coming to God is like suddenly coming to an ice cold spring to drink.

But there is something else here besides God’s promise of refreshment. Verse 20:

Before the world even existed, God planned all this. He knew what would happen even in an economy of free will. And His plan was to appoint Jesus to be the sin bearer so that those who really want to live with their Creator can do so even though they are not perfect. That’s a wonderful message – one that ought to inspire us again and again if we keep our hearts tuned to the things of God!

The practice of a certain church when the children were dismissed from among the adults to go to their place in Children’s worship was to march out of the building singing a hymn. They all marched past the pulpit as they went out.

The preacher in that church always made it a point to catch the face of each child who went by and give him or her a big smile. He tried never to miss a one, but one day apparently he failed. A little curly headed four year old girl ran out of the procession and threw herself into the arms of her mother, sobbing.

After the service, the preacher found the mother and asked her why her little one had cried. It seems the little girl had told her mom, "I smiled at God, but he didn’t smile back to me!"

Though the little girl should have known better, to her that preacher stood for God. When he failed to smile, her world went dark.

We all know that none of us is God. But when someone who doesn’t know God looks at us, some of them are receiving the only view of God they will ever have. They’re seeing God in us. If our countenance reflects a somber image, what do they think of our God?

So I ask, are we fired up or fizzled out?

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. Malachi 1:13
2. Malachi 1:10
3. See McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, article under "Daily Offering."

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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