Acts 3:1-5 “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer–at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did John. Then Peter said, ‘Look at us!’ So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.”

Go back a couple of months or so, to the first Easter weekend, and Peter and John were timid, cowardly men afraid to venture far from the house where they were hiding. Even after they saw Jesus’ empty tomb they stayed behind locked doors. Even after Jesus appeared to them Easter night, they laid low while they were in Jerusalem. Up until Pentecost day they stayed close to the other disciples in their rented home in Jerusalem.

But things were starting to change. After he rose, Jesus explained to them the meaning of his death on the cross and its necessity. It wasn’t a tragedy. It was the basis for the forgiveness of all sins, the salvation of the world. Their courage grew. Jesus poured the gift of the Holy Spirit out on them on Pentecost Day, ten days after he returned to heaven. Peter and John were bold to preach to the crowd of thousands that gathered to see what all the commotion was about when the Spirit came. Now they were regularly meeting with other Christians in the temple courts, openly practicing their faith perhaps just a couple hundred yards from where Jesus was tried and condemned. They were no longer timid cowards. The gifts of the gospel and the Spirit were turning them into brave soldiers of the cross.

Like Peter and John, we are people Jesus has given his gifts of grace and life so that we, in turn, could be givers. Maybe we have never hidden behind locked doors afraid that people might find out we are Christians. Maybe we don’t share those religious Facebook posts that suggest you aren’t a real Christian, or that you are ashamed of Jesus, or afraid to be identified with Christ if you don’t share it, not because we actually have any fear or embarrassment about our faith, but because we don’t want to encourage that kind of manipulative innuendo.

But maybe when we are face to face with a live human being, and the opportunity presents itself to bring our Savior into the conversation, we are afraid or uncomfortable to go there. Only one thing changes that. Jesus’s gifts make us givers of those same gifts. The more we hear, the more we understand, the more we receive his gifts of forgiveness, his promises of love and life, the less fearful we become, the bolder we are to tell others what we believe, especially when it comes to God’s grace.

Look again at Peter and John here. When the man asks them for money, what do they do? “Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” Have you ever pulled up to a red light at an intersection where someone was panhandling? What do most drivers do? They try to avoid eye contact, so that they don’t have to engage with the person asking for help. Sitting at our church’s booth at the county fair, I notice a similar thing from the opposite side. I would like to engage people in conversation, but many walk by without looking at me. They avoid eye contact because they don’t want to talk about church or spiritual things.

Peter and John don’t avoid looking at the lame man. They initiate it. They are not afraid to involve themselves in this man’s life. They don’t find it a nuisance or distraction. Jesus’ gifts to spiritual beggars like themselves had changed them. It turned them into givers, men ready to show love and compassion to a crippled man seeking a gift.

Jesus’ gifts turn us into givers, too. That doesn’t mean we become easy marks for every con man who wants to relieve us of a few dollars. The apostles could identify the real disability, and thus the real need, of the man begging in the temple. We can be careful, too. But when we serve a master as generous as Jesus, we don’t have to fear getting involved or being taken advantage of. We can trust him to guide our giving and use it for his good purposes.