This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 14, 1993.

We begin in Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 3. We are starting with the first verse. Listen to the word of God. Acts 3.1.

Now, Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, laying from his mother’s womb, was carried, whom they laid and exhaled at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms, and preserved that through his eyes upon him with John. on us.

He gave heed unto them, expecting to see something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

And he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. As the lame man which was healed, that tells Peter and John, all people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.”

Then, turning over to Chapter 16, Acts 16, again, beginning with verse 1. Then came Paul to Germany and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a servant woman, which was a Jewess, and believed that his father was a Greek. which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would all have to go forth with them and circumcise him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered them decrees for to keep that were ordained in the apostles in Belgrade, which were in Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the regions of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mycenae, they were saved to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Mycenae, came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, After he had seen the vision, immediately he endeavored to go into Macedonia, assured the gathering that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing control of us, we came with a straight course to Samothrace and, the next day, to Neopolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and of Colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days. On the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither, and a certain woman named Lydia, seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and bide there. And she constrained us.

Pray with me. We know, Lord God, that this day many will preach, some of whom are called by you. We are asking, Lord God, that those who are called by you may sense your presence and see your blessing. Our God, we are asking that you will increase the time of those called by you, and that you would prosper them. But we would also pray that you would overturn the works of the sons of darkness, those who are not of the Church of Christ, but of the synagogue of Satan. We are praying these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Which of us has not witnessed the red-hot fervency of a newcomer? Which of us has not witnessed the intensity of someone who has just discovered the riches of Calvinism, only to see that intense fervency die, disappear altogether. this congregation has had its share of such cases. An individual apparently electrified by the Gospel, seemingly, of all appearances, very much alive to the word of God, Someone coming to life, it seems, maybe for the first time as they hear the doctrines of grace and are introduced to those riches of Calvinism. Someone who finds a special blessing in the ministry of this particular congregation, professing time and again that it is only here that they can find those blessings. One of joy is their faith alive to talk about God and about their Savior, talk about the Bible and about the great truth of the Word. These people are not only present every time the Church’s doors are opened, they are present with a flare, with an intensity. and at all times assuring the pastor that they, they better than others, maybe better than the rest of the benighted congregation, most assuredly understand his messages and never fail to live in a way consistent with those messages.

But then comes the disaffection. The glow fades. They might have given sacrificially at one time. They now don’t give at all. Their attendance inexplicably drops off. Contacts that they have in the congregation are strained. They are less and less frequent.

And when there is conversation, even with a master that was so emulated before, admired, there is a deep air of dissatisfaction, followed by an endless line of rationalization. And then, sadly, tragically, It’s these sorts of histories that make the more experienced and perceptive ministers less than enthused about the overly enthused.

Jesus met his share of the overly enthused. those momentarily religiously intense. To some of them, Jesus pressed the point immediately. They came at him with their overture, Lord, I will follow you anywhere you go. But Jesus then places before these would-be disciples the high cost of discipleship, and then stepped back to watch them wither on the spot. If you would like to review Jesus’ encounters with the would-be disciples, I direct you to Matthew 8, verses 19 through 22. There were others that Jesus allowed to tag along for a while. And they did tag along for a while enthusiastically, but eventually, as John chapter 6 makes clear, the reckoning comes. And these who had followed Jesus enthusiastically have had enough.

John tells us that when Jesus makes clear the nature of His message and the character of His kingdom, There were many disciples who drew back and walked with Him no more. But Jesus is active in these matters not only for Himself and for the sake of His message as He delivers it to those who originally heard Him. for His ministry along these lines anticipates the ministry which the Church itself shall have, as with the Master, so also with the servants.

And He forecasts this ministry particularly in the parable of the sower. You remember how he describes one of the types of soils upon which the seed falls? He said that the one on whom the seed was sown is on the rocky ground. This is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself. And when troubles and persecutions arise because of the Word, he falls away.

But having said this now, we, stepping back from the overly enthused, We must not think Jesus the champion of a placid, emotionless, stoical style of religious devotion. Quite to the contrary, Jesus is the advocate of a proper type of passion, an appropriate intensity and vigor with respect to the faith, with respect to the living of that faith. All we need do is to think of another passage in which Jesus applies to himself a text out of the Psalms. The wheel for thine house hath consumed me. Now, that is not just pattern for a Messiah. That is pattern for all who would follow the Messiah.

The seal for thy house hath been But nothing less than this properly generated enthusiasm, intensity, and vigor for the faith and the living moment is in view when we come to the Book of Acts. And I believe that that is one of the reasons why we are drawn again and again to this book. What if we find such a solid and substantial exuberance? This book is positively positive. And at the same time, as we appreciate the positive character of this book, we realize that there is absolutely nothing superficial or shallow about the zeal described, the enthusiasm communicated. communicate a message of sustained, and emphasize that, underline its very tone, communicate a message of sustained, enduring excitement for the faith, for the kingdom of God, and for the Church of Jesus Christ. This book is not only inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is inspiring. that the Holy Spirit uses the constant, faithful, radiant enthusiasm of his servant, Luke the physician, the writer of it, for his purpose and for our good.

But what now makes the difference between Luke, who writes Acts, and those wouldn’t-be disciples that we read of in the Gospels? Can we chalk it up simply to the special work of the Holy Spirit in this man by which the Spirit rendered him an instrument of divine revelation?

Or do we chalk it up to Luke’s natural personality, his inherent effervescence, that which he is in and of himself? He’s just an optimistic fellow, brimming over with enthusiasm. I don’t think that the root cause of Luke’s constant, faithful, radiant enthusiasm registering in this book is found in either of these areas. Otherwise, Luke would be exhibiting an enthusiasm that has its cause in reasons that are not open to us. If, in fact, the cause of his enthusiasm is that he is the instrument of the Spirit’s special use, to the end that divine revelation might be given, that certainly isn’t open to us, and none of us are claiming that. But neither is it his personality, for we do not all have Luke’s personality, nor is it a biblical mandate that we adopt Luke’s personality. At the same time, we must admit that as we read through the Book of Acts, Luke’s enthusiasm is infectious.

That is, it is meant to be communicated to everyone who reads. It is that for all of us, and therefore the root of it, the fountain of it, is open to all of us. What then might be the root of it, the root of this sustained, enduring enthusiasm, the fountain of it, of which we all would share? Now, I judge that many have answered this question too quickly.

They have decided that the inherent cause for the exuberance of Luke in Acts is traced to Luke’s personal conversion and the prospect of his personal entrance into the kingdom of God in the coming resurrection. Now, please don’t misunderstand me at this point. Luke is most certainly regenerated by the Holy Spirit, that it can be no question.

And he most earnestly looks forward to the day when he will be raised up in his body and enter into the kingdom of God finally and fully. And most certainly, these truths, his regeneration and his hope, contribute to his joy. but the root of his enthusiasm, the root of his joy, and its sustained character goes much deeper. Most specifically, Luke is caught up with an enduring zeal and enthusiasm. because he has been made a part of an enduring realm in which joy and enthusiasm and zeal do not diminish. Luke is caught up with an enduring zeal, a zeal that is open to us all because he himself has been made a part of an enduring realm, the very realm of glory, where Christ, the Ascended God, sits at the right hand of His Father.

It is the nature of the realm that begets the quality of the zeal. You lose sight of the realm, and then the zeal goes. If you don’t love the realm, you can’t have the zeal. If you do not love glory, the realm of glory, there is no possibility for you sharing its joy. The nature of the realm begets the quality of the zeal. Do you want to write that down? The nature of the realm begets the quality of the zeal. You see, further, what Luke presses home, the enduring realm of glory.

He is declaring to us, has intersected the plane of this world. The enduring realm of glory has intersected the plane of this world, and the point of intersection is not Luke individually. It’s not even one of the apostles. It’s not even those individually described throughout the course of the Book of Acts. The point of intersection, according to Luke, is the Church.

And this is why he is so high on it. The church into which he, with the apostles, and all of these individuals described, are gathered, and in which and from which they serve, But having backed off now from a mere individualistic understanding of what Luke is endeavoring to communicate, we now endeavor to recover the individual emphasis that the Book of Acts properly lays before us. This enduring realm of glory, the source of Lucidium, presents itself in the Church, specifically when we look at the blessings granted to those individually gathered in by the ministry of the Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit. The story of Elaine Baker will push us to this conclusion. That’s why I read it with my own zeal and enthusiasm. The lame beggar of Ash Tree is a figure through whom Luke now will begin to communicate to us the greatness of the blessings from that enduring realm of glory asserting themselves presently upon the plane of this world.

And I hold that there is probably no verse in all of Acts that better lays before us the magnificence of what Luke is endeavoring to communicate to us than Acts 3.8. Look at it again.

He stood upright and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” Focus on the leaping, if you will, because Luke mentions it twice. Obviously, for the purpose of stress, the leaping man formally crippled Rather, the leaping of this man, formally crippled, is not stressed by, look, merely to emphasize the fact that the man has been healed. Rather, the stress upon the leaping is meant to punctuate the irrepressible joy this man experiences. Why? Because he’s healed? Partly. But why else might he be weeping for joy? He has been lame from his mother’s womb. Do you realize what this means? It means that this man has never been allowed to enter into the temple itself. Elite Kingdom punctuates the irrepressible joy this man experiences when he now, for the first time in his life, is enabled to enter the place where we believe.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.