IN THE NAME OF
JESUS, WALK
A SERMON FOR THE FOURTH
SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME—C
Sunday, June 2, 2013
by William F. Thomas II
THE TEXT: Acts 3:1-8
1Peter and
John went up into the Temple at the hour of prayer, around 3:00 o’clock. 2There was a man who had been lame
from birth who was carried every day and placed by the gate of the Temple
called Beautiful to beg for charity from those who were entering the
Temple. 3He saw Peter and
John about to enter the Temple, and he asked for charity from them.
4Peter
stared at him, with John, and said, “Look at us.”
5He looked
at them, expecting to receive something from them.
6Peter said
to them, “I don’t have any money, but I will give you what I have: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get
up and walk around.”
7He grabbed
his right hand and lifted him up.
Immediately his feet and ankles were totally healed. 8He sprang up, stood, walked
around, and entered the Temple with them, walking around, jumping up and down,
and praising God.
A few years ago, Winnie and I had
the privilege of attending a class taught by a fine Christian man who has built
a huge business that helps people. In
the process, he has earned a lot of money and built a nice estate, so much so
that American Express invited him to have their very exclusive black card, the
card that is supposed to have no limit. Ronnie gave the card to his mother, and
told her, “Mama, this is your living for the rest of your life. Buy your groceries with this. Put your utilities on this. Pay your doctors with this. If you see a house you like, buy it with
this.” And when he said this, I got
tears in my eyes. I want to give my
mother that card! You can’t apply for
this card. You have to be invited to
carry this card. The average black card holder has a net worth of $16.3
million, and an annual income of $1.3 million.
For the record, I haven’t been invited to carry one this year.
Before Jesus died, knowing that he
was leaving a lot of work for them to do, he gave them his American Express
Black card—his name. He said, “Whatever
you ask the Father in my name, he will give you” (John 16:23). He died, he was resurrected, he ascended, and
a few days later, Peter and John had occasion to try out that black card. They were entering the Temple, and a lame
beggar asked for help. Peter groped for
his wallet before he remembered it was about A. D. 33 and the billfold hadn’t
been invented yet. He said to the poor
beggar, “Man, I’m sorry! I don’t have
any money.” That didn’t faze the
beggar. He heard that dozens of time
every day. Then Peter added, “But I’ll
give you what I’ve got!
“In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, get up and walk.”
On Pentecost, when Peter preached
that first sermon to the crowd, 3,000 people were baptized and joined the new
church. About 5,000 came on board that
day! In the next little while, people
came by droves. They would place their
sick outside on the sidewalks, hoping Peter would come by and his shadow would
touch them. In later years, people would
bring handkerchiefs to Paul. After he
had touched them, they would take them to their sick, and the sick would be
healed.
What if it turns out that you have
it? Your pastor seems to think you
might! He asked me to preach this
weekend by email. He told me the text he
had chosen, the sermon title he had composed, and he told me what he wanted
this sermon to say. He said
As you know, we're in the midst of the
Pentecost-themed sermon series. I had planned to use Acts 3:6 as text. Title
has already been publicized: "In the Name of Jesus, Walk." Here's
what I was working toward: early in the apostolic age there was convincing
demonstration that the power which was availble to Jesus was transferred to the
Apostles. They went about saying things like, "In the name of Jesus,
walk" and "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of
her!"(Acts 16:16-24), etc. Actually DOING what they had been empowered to
do. Imagine...
He
wants you to realize that every human being ever born, Jesus died for; every
human being who ever walked this planet, Jesus loved; every child God planned,
shaped by hand, placed the gifts and graces he chose, and placed on the earth
at the time and place he willed! EVERY
BABY EVER BORN IS GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD.
YOU are God’s gift to the world.
You have Jesus’ Black Card. So does everybody else. But how many souls squander the precious gift
God has given them hurting people? Some
will wake up one day, disillusioned at last.
On that day, they will know NOT that they grabbed for all the gusto, but
that they were cheated, that they missed out, that they could have known real
joy, real life!
But maybe worse, how many of us fritter away the
gift of God, not causing any great harm, nor doing any great good. Getting by.
Just making it through. As if we
believed harmlessness equals virtue. As
if Jesus had given us his American Express Black Card, and we had used it to
buy a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of junk at Wal-mart!
It was my high privilege to have a
course under that magnificent Christian gentleman Bishop Mack Stokes. I got to spend some time with him, not nearly
as much as some, and not nearly enough.
But I learned to imitate his voice!
Every time he preached, he would
refer to [in Bishop Stokes’s voice] “my
wife Rose—I call her that because that’s her name.”
He would tell wonderful stories in
the third person, and I am so sure they are really autobiographical. He told the story of [in Bishop Stokes’s voice] “a little boy who came home with a black
eye. His mother said, ‘Son, who gave
that to you?’ and the little boy responded, ‘Mother, you don’t understand: they don’t give you these things, you have to
FIGHT for them!’” I would bet you money
five-year-old Mack Stokes came home with a black eye from the missionary school
in Korea where he was born.
I don’t know how many times I heard
him say the statement I think was the theme of his life: [in
Bishop Stokes’s voice] “The Lord Jesus did not die for you for the purposes
of mediocrity!”
Another fine Christian businessman I
admire gave a class Winnie and I attended.
He also turned out to be an American Express Black Card holder. His mother died a few years ago, so he has
his card. Driving home one night he
stopped for gas and managed to leave his wallet in the men’s room. By the time he had noticed, somebody had
found his wallet, and that pretty black card.
They decided they were going to do some damage to that card! So they took it to WAL-MART! They ran up a bill for two-three hundred
dollars!
Bill tells this story with a laugh
and a head-shake, saying, “Those poor dumb fools had no idea what they had!”
Do you have any idea what you have?
There are lame to be made to walk,
dead to be raised, souls to be saved, joy to be had! And some of those souls will never know
Jesus’ power unless YOU bring it to them.
It was my 34th birthday,
June 13, 1990, that I was ordained Elder.
I knelt on a kneeler at the Augusta Civic Center, they placed a Bible
before me, I put my hand on the open book, Bishop Ernest A. Fitzgerald put his
hands back on my head, and commanded me, “William Franklin Thomas II, take thou
authority, as an Elder in the Church, to preach the Word of God, and to
administer the Sacraments in the congregation.”
Take thou authority as Apostles of
God to administer the Name of Jesus, wherever it is needed, as often as you
can.
Take thou authority.
In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth.
(Delivered at Jonesboro United Methodist Church, Jonesboro, Georgia, Sunday, June 2, 2013. Many thanks for the honor and trust Dr. George Freeman gave me in allowing me to fill his pulpit while he was on vacation!)
