“Stare” Tactics.

While the man was hanging on to Peter and John, all the people, completely astounded, ran together to them in the covered walkway called Solomon’s Portico. When Peter saw this, he declared to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us as if we had made this man walk by our own power or piety? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him. (Acts 3:11-13)

Have you experienced this?

Maybe you interceded for someone, and then God answered your prayer quickly, dramatically and publicly.

Or maybe you were prayed for by someone, and God’s provision of the answer caused you to behave in a way that made you don’t normally behave. Maybe you shouted, or cried, or laughed, or jumped, or ran.

Or, maybe you were a casual spectator—a person neither devoted to prayer nor to the God who answers prayer, but a person who is found talking about either the intercessor or the behavior of the person who was prayed for.

In this past Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Andy spoke on the phenomenon of spectators focusing on the wrong thing. Our Christian life does not revolve around the people who pray, nor does it revolve around the people whose prayers have been answered. Christians focus on Christ. We are exhorted in the book of Hebrews: “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2a)

In the Acts 3 narrative, Peter and John asked a question of the spectators that surrounded them. It’s a question that is just as important today:

“Why are you staring at us?”

Friends, let us commit to stop staring at people. Let us commit to fixing our gaze on the Lord.