Have you seen the beggar at the gate?
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Peter and John are heading to the 3 o'clock prayer meeting. It must have been something to have those great men of God at the service. I was told that years ago, Mother Theresa came to worship at the International Church in Phnom Penh , the same building we meet for Sunday Service. As the two apostles arrive at the Temple, they notice a lame man being carried to the gate of the temple called 'The Beautiful'. One thing is sure, this poor man's life was everything but beautiful! For how many years has he been begging at that same spot? 10 years? 20 years?
I live in a country with a lot of beggars. I see them every day.
At the Gate of God's Kingdom today, there' s a beggar. Just outside the Church, there' s a broken world. A world begging for hope, for peace and for a new life. Millions of souls, sitting at the Gate.
Many people that day had probably walked past the beggar as they entered the Temple. Over the years, they have seen him so many times that they did not see him anymore. Like a nice painting on the wall of your living room. You see it every day but you probably can't describe it accurately if you were asked to!
Millions of children living on the streets ...We don't see them any more. Multitude of broken lives lying in darkness in slums, prisons, refugee camps and hospitals. We don' t see them anymore. Over one billion Muslims without Jesus, sitting at the gate...We don't see them anymore. Most Christians have no interest in North Africa. No interest in the multitudes without Christ in Central Asia. No interest in reading about the Unreached People Groups of the world.
For a lot of Christians, it doesn't matter that 23% of the world has never once heard the Gospel, as long as they get a good seat in the temple! Some of God's people are so busy going from one Christian conference to another, flipping from one Christian TV channel to another, they've forgotten about the beggar at the gate.
Some have never even checked outside the temple to see if there could be someone at the gate!
''I don't have any money,' says Peter. 'But I'll give you what I have. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk !''
You and I have what Peter and John had. Jesus living in you. We have what money will never be able to give. Only Christ can restore a broken world. Only Christ can bring forgiveness and lasting peace. The apostles did not just see the lame man. They got involved.
''Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up.'' It's not enough to know the facts. It's not enough to watch every day on the News the great needs of the world. It's not enough to read a Newsletter from missionaries overseas. It's not even enough to give to a mission organization. We need to meet the man at the Gate. He needs Jesus!
Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, many years ago, wrote: ''Millions have never heard the name of Jesus. Hundreds of millions know nothing of our King. Shall we let them perish? Can we go to our beds and sleep while China, India, Japan and other nations are being damned? Are we clear of their blood? Have they no claim upon us?''
I remember reading the story of an American missionary reaching the unreached in India through an evangelistic film on the life of Jesus. He and his family were back in the US taking meetings, preaching and sharing about the great needs of the people in India. In one church of about two hundred, while in the middle of his sermon,suddenly his son John- he was just five years old at the times- ran to the altar. His big blue eyes flowed with tears as he knelt in prayer. It was a typical church service. The missionary brought his son along with him. Little John was seated about eight rows back on the center aisle. He liked to draw, but on that night he was very attentive as his father spoke to the congregation. Without an invitation, the little boy slid off his seat and ran down the aisle, dropped to his knees, his body shaking and cried, ''We've got to do something Daddy. We've got to help those people!'' A little 5 year old boy moved by the needs in India. He could see the cripple man, on the othe side of the world, begging at the gate. A.B Simpson, a great missionary of the past, often hugged a globe to his chest and wept over the world's lostness.
''The beggar jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.'' What should have been two men walking into the temple, became three! We don't want to walk into Heaven alone. We want to bring the beggars with us.
Our broken world has the right to come into God's Kingdom too. Jesus died for all.
The Gate is open!
In Cambodia, I spend my time helping children stop working on the streets and get into school . But I really want to see, most of all, is that each one of those boys and girls walk through the Gate of the Temple, into God's Family.
When the man walked into the temple, the people worshiping ''realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often''. So often we've seen the needs. So often we've heard about those without Christ. So often we've
been encouraged to reach the lost. You probably don't have to hear it again. You probably don't even have to read another missionary book. You don't have to sit under another missionary's talk. Now you can go. Start getting busy at the Gate. As long as there' s still one beggar outside the Gate, one lost sheep, one lost son, we've got a job to do.