Divine Double Take [Part 1]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher Alan Wright through the eyes of Jesus. You can see miracles in the making. That's Pastor Alan Wright welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light on Dino Britton excited for you to hear the teaching today.

In the series you'll see as presented in an older church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org that's Pastor.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program but right now let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan writing. Are you ready for some good through the eyes of Jesus. You can see miracles in the making. We are in a series that I've called you'll see been a long time and were drawn towards the conclusion and today we go to a story that is well it is not only beautiful, it is powerful. It is the first narrative of a miracle recorded in the New Testament church. We are in acts chapter 3 acts chapter 3 verse 1X3 verse one now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple. He asked to receive alms and Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John and said, look at us and he fixes attention on them expecting to receive something from them but Peter's I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up.

He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him while he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's, and then in verse 16 and his name by faith in his name. This is what Peter says to the crowd by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know in the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. It's a beautiful beautiful story powerful story and it's all about. See notice all the images about seeing that are in this text, starting at verse three. A man seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple. He asked for alms.

And then it verse four Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John and then again in verse four Peter said to them, look at us and then the beggar in verse five, fixed his attention on them and then all the people at verse nine Saul him walking and praising God and at verse 10. All the people wrecking nice Tim, it's a it's a story about seeing it is a miracle that is related to what they see in our perception is what we've been talking about is a strange thing. The way we perceive things that I love you sort of optical illusions, things that you can maybe not see at first but then you can.

Here's one is a relatively famous look at that look at the image on the screen. Do what you what you see you see anything you see a design of any type. Do you see willing to give you a hint it's an animal is still got it right.

It's a mammal with four legs. If you're like me you couldn't see absolutely give you limit help me cheat a little bit here wishes that it's a cow.

Here's the face that's outlined the nose that year over there in the eyes, take a good look at the Cal you see it that here's what's interesting about perception is that once you've seen it when we go back to the original one.

You can't not see it is like now I can't see anything but a cow in the it's amazing how our perception is because when there's something that has been hidden and then it is revealed to you, which means light shines on it. It it becomes apparent to you and you can see it. Once you have, then it's not hard to see it after. And today we learn about kind of seeing that is mysterious, mystical, in the end it is miraculous when you look through the eyes of Jesus.

You can see miracles in the making. Let's get the setting of our story. It is said at the ninth hour, which is 3 PM as the time of one of the two sacrifices they practiced at the temple.

This would've actually been scholars say the most popular hour of worship and sacrifice was offered so lots of people coming to the temple through the temple courts and and to to worship and so is strategic for this disabled man to be at one the most popular places where people are moving by.

He is being strategic. He's asking for alms is he was it's highlighted in the Scripture. He was lame from the time he was born. He has had a disability of some type that he was unable to get anywhere by himself.

So friends we suppose would carry him and put him wherever he needed to be and as people came into worship.

They were perhaps more likely to give alms. The rabbis taught that worshiping God was one form of piety, but a very important form of piety also was the giving of alms giving to those that are in need. So maybe it's not only crowded place. The beggar has come, but he knows that people might be a little more predisposed to be generous. Is there going into worship. I hope that we are more generous when we when we get back to going to restaurants after church.

If it were generous because I heard reports my wife when she was young work at Shoney's and she said that sometimes the worst day was to have the lunch crowd after church to come in and give your Christian track and 1/4 less and wish you part of piety is giving off so he's out of there and he St. Albans alms alms for the poor, alms, alms, and this hundreds and hundreds of people are walking by. It's a beautiful beautiful structure of the temple.

We have good specifications and recreations of what the temple would look like absolutely glorious what Herod had built that is called the second Temple because originally it was Solomon's Temple that the Babylonians sacked Herod had rebuilt and it was beautiful. You could see a large large courtyard for the Gentiles got a diagram of this they can show you that the Lord courts called the core the Gentiles and then inside the court of women.

There were 10 different dates coming into the different courtyards of of that. The temple and people speculate as to what was this gate that was called beautiful nine of the 10 gates, according to Roman historian Josephus were overlaid with silver or gold, but there was one gate that was pure bronze Corinthian bronze and Josephus said that this gate was so massive. The doors were so heavy that it would take 20 men to open. Can you imagine such were not totally sure where this gate called beautiful, which was all likelihood was the bronze doors.

As you can imagine there's one gate like that is made of bronze is probably what was called the beautiful gate. It could have been even into this area into one of the court of the women were not totally sure but it was there at that gate probably that gate. Those doors were made of solid bronze that this beggar was laying and asking for all's in the story then becomes this mysterious and mystical narrative about seeing Alan Wright will have more teaching moment from today's important series. Let us help you give a gift, that money can't buy. Give someone your blessing positive biblically-based faith filled vision for their life in the beginning God blessed Adam and Eve and then told them to be fruitful and multiply, because in God's design blessing isn't the reward for productivity.

It's the fuel for it. Now more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing and we're here to help you craft this month.

Special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft an full blessing the easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based, and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas. Give someone you love a present, not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower write down the blessing and put it in the package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card will never forget it when you make your gift Alan Wright Ministries this month will send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. We are in our final days of offering the special product. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit pastor and.org these teaching now you once again is Alan Wright the first thing to say about perception. One of things I've been learning as I've been a preaching the series and study and some about our perceptions is just how surprisingly and attentive. We actually are.

There is a scholar, Daniel Simons, who has studies, perception, and I thought it was just a wonderful, wonderful little tricky display about how inattentive we really are and he had little card trick that he would he would play just put on the screen like this. Six playing cards and then he had some volunteer which obviously I can't do this on video.

Did you know I was cheating somehow. But if one of you were to come and select a card and let's say in this case you came in you selected the five of spades, then the researcher was hiding. He couldn't see which one was was taken away and they turned back around.

Is that okay I'm going to remove the card that you selected, and outcomes.

The screen and that was gone, which is just, you know how to do that and what nobody realizes is that it's easy to do because all you have to do is come in here put five brand-new cards appear because no putty really can't remember what cards were the ones that were up there the first place and that's the way it is with perception Simons and another scholar Daniel Levine had a another experiment was fascinating. They would go out onto the sidewalk and would have an experimenter looking at a map as if you were lost, who would then stop a pedestrian and asked for directions and while they were talking to one another, the experimenter and the unsuspecting pedestrian who starts to give them directions they arrange for other people. Part of the experiment to come. Walking between them carrying a solid wooden door pass right through with the door for just a moment by just a few seconds, but I like that. But while they pass by the experimenter who had the map swapped out with another person completely different person not dress the same didn't look the same at all, and there is with Matt and continued having the conversation asking for directions and 50% of the time 50% of the time the person who was giving the directors didn't recognize that a whole another human being had just stepped end up like our perceptions.

We are not as attentive as we realize, and what happens when you begin to get more attentive as you see things you didn't see before. But something's happened to Peter and John and these disciples after Pentecost, they have been filled with the Holy Spirit and win, you have the Holy Spirit of the living God in you, it changes things, it changes because you have the spirit of Jesus within you, who can enable you to see what you did not previously see in other words I'm saying is that I think the more where yielded to God's leadership in our lives, the more he directs our attention. We can't pay attention to everything we need God's attention and so it is that when revelation comes as a gift from God that enables you to see something I think. So often we think of the great discoveries of people that are somehow these great inventors are so they're so smart you're so creative, but but really if you go back and look at history.

Most of the great things had been discovered is because it's like someone saw something like this from Isaac Newton who said if I ever made any valuable discoveries is been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent. Steve Jobs is of Apple thing said when you ask creative people how they did something they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it.

They just saw something I know what he means by that is there's a sense in which you just discover by revelation, and any almost can explain it, you just you just see something so what was it that Peter saw will Peter at back to verse three, Peter and John there about to enter the temple and the asked for alms.

He must've passed by hundreds of times. He probably had seen this same disabled man hundreds of time going to the temple a and and it makes you wonder when you when you see so much need around you and me are we supposed to stop and help all the time. We can't, we can't honestly we can't I memory.

Years ago I was finishing up similar. My third year seminary and had a friend a pastor friend who was having to be in an Atlanta where I was at school and we were in the downtown section urban area of Atlanta and there were just so many people out that day.

So many people asking for help large homeless population, and were just walking walking on the sidewalk. I turned to my pastor friend. I said how you deal with it there so so much need and I thought his words were very wise. He said you must realize is a big difference between seeing a need and being called to meet the need as wisdom. I think what happens is the Holy Spirit in Peter somehow began to get his attention, and adverse for this interesting phrase. Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John and in the Greek language this reads as if it is a sort of like you're walking along and then you do a double take it you don't say this.

This is what reads like he's walking and he sees a man and they stop and as a double take and then he fixes his gaze upon him walking by a common site hearing immensely. Alms alms increasing probably hundreds of time and all of a sudden he directs his gaze at him and he gets eye contact with him. He says there verse four he says, look at us look at us is going on here. Someone has said that the eyes are like the Windows of the soul two day old infants prefer looking at faces where the eyes are looking at them.

Three-year-olds are so feel so connected by eye contact that they believe it really feels like to them if they cover their own eyes that you disappear because so connected. Are they to you by eye contact. The faces that we see when we have eye contact with them.

Research shows we remember much better. Research has shown our feelings maybe just a little bit but they get hurt if were walking and we see the face of a stranger who glances at us. But refuses to make any eye contact with us. Interestingly, other studies have shown that when you are making eye contact with someone.

It's harder to concentrate on other things people don't do as well and test like word association tests and so forth. If they have just a video of a face that's making eye contact with them. Our pupils dilate and constrict.

They have a capacity without us realizing when we are making eye contact with someone in a capacity to mimic the pupils of the person's eyes that we are engaged with when you look into someone's eyes for a long time. Strong emotions begin to happen and through eye contact. Research shows we can read emotions, perhaps better than any other way. Eye contact is complex because not all cultures value the eye contact in the same way. For example, though, in Western cultures. When you meet someone and shake their hand, is considered a sign of confidence to look them in the but in some Eastern cultures like in Japan you know you make a glancing eye contact and then divert your your gaze because it's considered rude to look too much and too deeply into someone's eyes, perhaps because when you fix your gaze with someone else's gaze something very intimate is happening as an something almost mystical is happening so Peter is just walking along sees a man stops does Google take and now he begins to gaze at him and tells the man to look at us what is happening is a revelation, a revelation from God. He seeing something. All we can say is that he seeing through the eyes of Jesus. He's seeing somehow that God's anointing presence is there that God is, is there ready to do something wonderful. This is a revelation it's it's the way he seeing the man and and what what happens is that Peter very simply experiences faith Allen Ryan, today's good news message combine double dating in the series you'll see sick with this past rally was back in the studio in just a moment sharing his parting good news thought for the day. Let us help you give a gift, that money can't buy.

Give someone your blessing a positive biblically-based faith filled vision for their life in the beginning God blessed Adam and Eve and then told them to be fruitful and multiply, because in God's design blessing isn't the reward for productivity. It's the fuel for it.

Now more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing and we are here to help you craft this month. Special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft an full blessing for easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based, and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas.

Give someone you love a present, not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower write down the blessing and put it in the package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card will never forget it when you make your gift Alan Wright Ministries this month will send you this booklet is our thank you so you can discover the power to bless and we are in our final days of offering the special product.

Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit pastor@end.org like your note past row in the studio for the person listening right now.

They can hardly wait for the conclusion only to the series but even just part two of this teaching takeaways can we all rest. I first just want to say this with regard to this whole series which is a treasure to my heart, a series that was preached part before pandemic part during pandemic and I think it was prophetic in that way to learn a new way of relating to God and others in this world and that is, instead of saying what would Jesus do in the try more realistically, like trying to keep a law like trying to measure up to something instead of trying, therefore harder just to be more like Jesus.

There's a more empowering way that is a Jesus, how you see how you see this person how you see the situation at easy this season. How you see this time, I found that it just that simple prayer in the challenging moments in and in the moments where things are going well.

Just ask that he'll lend you his perspective on Spirit and what it does is it begins just change everything. There are so many moments during our days where I think if we were walking with Jesus's vision we do just what Peter does is a divine double take is where somebody he seen over and over and over on the way the temple suddenly the state sees him different. It might be because that moment Jesus is seeing a miracle that's going to come to pass.

So what we need is not greater willpower to try to act like Jesus would act. The question is not what would Jesus do. The question is what is Jesus. He asked his eyes. Today's good news message is a listener supported production Alan Wright Ministries