Jesus Lifts Us Up: Get Unstuck!

The Man Who Could Not Walk Discovered He Could Leap

There is a difference between feeling stuck and actually being stuck. Most of us have experienced both. The traffic jam that will eventually clear. The life situation that feels like it never will. The thing you were born into, did not choose, and cannot seem to escape no matter how hard you try.

Matt Edmundson opened his talk at Crowd Church by asking a question that landed differently depending on who was listening: "Do you feel stuck? Like life has mapped out a path for you that you can never, ever escape?"

Then he took that question and held it against the story of a man in Acts 3 who had been stuck — literally — his entire life. And what happened next has implications for anyone who has ever felt that the odds are too stacked to overcome.

The Power of a Name

Before getting into the story, Matt laid down the central idea that runs through the whole passage: faith in the name of Jesus. He used an analogy that made it immediately accessible.

If you ring a fully booked restaurant as Matt Edmundson, you are getting nowhere. But if you ring on behalf of King Charles, suddenly the conversation changes entirely. It stops being about you and starts being about who you represent.

"This central idea of faith in the name of Jesus means that I understand that I am Jesus' representative using his authority and strength," Matt explained. "It stops being about me because it's all about him."

The same principle applies to police officers. A person in casual clothes directing traffic gets ignored or run over. Put on the uniform and everything changes — because it is no longer about the individual but about the authority they carry.

The Man at the Beautiful Gate

The story itself is straightforward but powerful. A man crippled from birth was carried to the temple gate every single day to beg. He had been doing this for years. When he saw Peter and John, he asked for money — the only thing he knew to ask for.

Peter's response is one of the great lines in the New Testament: "I don't have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."

Then Peter grabbed the man by the right hand and pulled him up. His feet and ankles became firm instantly. He jumped to his feet. He walked. Then he went into the temple "walking back and forth, dancing and praising God."

Matt noted the significance of Peter specifying "Jesus of Nazareth" — not a prestigious city, not a place of power. There was no show, no ceremony, no extravagance. "Just a humble man that couldn't give charity to the person in need, but they could do something that would remove the need for that charity."

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Authority

Matt drove the point home: "Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when backed by the power of God representing the risen Christ."

The key shift is from looking at what we do not have to remembering who we represent. Peter had no money. He had no medical training. He had no social standing. But he carried the name of Jesus, and that was enough.

"It is easy to look at what I don't have rather than who I represent," Matt said. "That hits."

He then turned the mirror on those of us who might identify more with the people who carried the lame man to the temple every day. They were doing what they knew — carrying him, placing him, giving him the best chance of receiving charity. But were they also stuck in their thinking?

"Whose chains am I enabling and promoting even through my well-intentioned actions and words, because I'm looking at what I don't have rather than who I represent?"

The Question of Timing

Matt addressed something that could easily become a stumbling block. If this kind of healing is possible, why does it not happen all the time? Why did Peter not go around healing everyone at the temple that day?

His answer was refreshingly honest: timing. "There is something about God's timing and to understand that we need the Holy Spirit to guide us."

If the lame man sat at the temple every day, Peter and John must have walked past him before. Jesus himself may have walked past him. So why this particular day?

"Was it because the Holy Spirit whispered to them, it's time for this guy to get unstuck?"

Matt warned against getting fixated on methodology — trying to replicate the exact circumstances of someone else's miracle. "It's never been about a specific formula, a specific prayer or a specific act. It's always been about following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, understanding his timing and being brave enough to act in faith at that point in time."

From Stuck to Leaping

The transformation in this story is total. The man goes from begging on the ground to leaping in the temple. From shame and dependency to joy and praise. That is the gospel at work — not just fixing a problem but transforming an identity.

Matt noted that this would not have been entirely straightforward. "His identity changed. He would no longer beg. He had to find a different way to live and that can be a little bit scary."

Experience tells us it is easy to fall back into old patterns, especially after the initial euphoria fades. But in that moment, the transformation was complete and the response was pure joy.

The Conversation That Followed

In Conversation Street, Anna Kettle reflected on how easy it is to miss the divine moments in everyday life. "A friend says, I'm having a really rubbish time, and I'll sit there for half an hour, have a cup of tea, give my best advice, cheer them up. All this stuff, none of that's bad. But so often I think we can miss that actually we could speak God's divine healing and lifting up for someone."

Dan Orange shared his own experience of being stuck in a soul-destroying job at BT, feeling depressed but not recognising it at the time. The change came gradually — through prayer, through others praying for him, through new people and new opportunities appearing. Not a dramatic instant miracle, but a real one nonetheless.

Nicola shared in the comments that she felt like "a huge hood has been taken off her head and she can breathe for the first time." Dan was visibly moved: "We used to have healing rooms at church and a guy came in feeling depressed. Those are the exact words he said to us when we prayed. He said, I feel like I had this hood on and it's just lifted."

The Real Challenge

Matt's closing challenge was aimed in two directions. For those who feel stuck: "I believe that for some of you watching this, you're not watching it by accident, and this is a divine moment for you. It is time for you to get unstuck in the name of Jesus."

For those who are not personally stuck but know people who are: "Maybe today is a day that you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and you step out of your comfort zone. Not relying on methodology, not looking at what you don't have, but with faith in the name of Jesus, you help pull someone out of where they are to where Jesus wants them to be."

The lame man discovered he could leap. Not shuffle. Not limp. Leap. That is the scale of transformation on offer — not just a slight improvement on your current situation, but something so far beyond what you thought possible that the only rational response is to dance.

What would it look like to stop staring at what you lack and start acting on whose authority you carry?