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Verses 1 thru 10 deals with the first recorded healing after Pentecost. Notice through whom the ministry of healing was done. Peter and Andrew, both of whom had brothers as fellow Apostles but now seemed closer to each other than they did to their own brothers.
Two things seemed evident here. One, God had forgiven Peter for his denial of Jesus. Peter had repented and God had forgiven and forgotten. Secondly, this was further evidenced by the pairing off of Peter with John, the youngest of the Apostles, the one to whom was given the care of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Now lets take note of the time and place where this event occurred. They were at the Temple, more specifically, at the Gate called Beautiful, one of 8 gates that led to what was known as the "fore court" leading to the Temple. The time was 3 PM, the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. The Apostles had not yet broken the tradition under which they were raised. Looking back we might note that Christ did not always follow the traditional hours of prayer nor the traditional places of prayer. He prayed when He felt the need, in the Garden, during temptation, on the cross, He prayed early, He prayed drops of sweat and blood. he did not pray structured prayers. So they came to the Temple at the hour of prayer and there at the gate called Beautiful they came upon a man who had been lame from birth.
Notice the man. He was poor. He was lame. He was a beggar. He laid daily at the gate where he begged for money from those who came to worship at the Temple. He had never walked for he had been lame from birth. Matthew Henry, some 200 years ago, made this observation. "The Beautiful Gate at the Temple was in no way diminished in beauty by the presence of the poor lame man." "Some discourage charity because some merit it and some don't." "But it is better to feed 10 drones of bees and even some wasps than to let one bee starve."
So we have the lame man laying by the gate and Peter and John approaching. Notice what the two Apostles do. "They fasten their eyes upon him." Then they tell him to look into their eyes. Why did they ask this? Well, Peter and John needed to see "expectation" in the eyes of the lame man. We must, when we come to the Throne of Grace, come expecting, otherwise nothing may happen. Notice, the lame man did expect something, he expected to receive money, and Peter knew this but said to the man, "I don't have any silver or gold, but that which I have, I give to you." The Apostles had no money, but that which they had, was better. And Peter said to the man, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
Now came the test of faith. The Lame man could have laid there the rest of his life. We do not know what this man experienced or felt in the process of his healing. We do not even know if, in fact, he was healed until he demonstrated his faith by getting up. This was not just a miracle of physical healing, it was also a miracle of teaching. This man had never walked before. He needed to be taught to walk. This ability came with the healing. But Peter must have sensed the difficulty of his command to get up and walk, so he extended a helping hand to him and lifted him up. How often has someone extended to you a helping hand when you were experiencing doubt?
Notice the team work. Peter did his part, the lame man did his part, the Holy Spirit did his part and God gave the "increase". He stood up and he not only walked, he ran and he leaped with joy, phrasing God and then he went with Peter and John into the Temple.
What about the people who witnessed this miracle? They knew beyond any shadow of doubt, that what they witnessed was a miracle. They knew the man, they knew he had been a cripple sense birth and that he had never walked for they had seem him there by the gate for many years. So they were "astonished". One of the delightful things that we see in this Book of Acts is the effect that these simple Galileans had on those who heard and saw the mighty works that they did. It would appear that the miracles that the Apostles did astonished the people more than the ones that Jesus did.
Notice there was a crowd of people gathered around Peter and John and as the lame
man clung to them there on Solomon's Porch, Peter saw an opportunity to speak to
them. The Second part of this chapter on "venturing out", records for us Peter's
sermon.
The Sermon in the Temple
["Click here for Acts 3:11-26"]
Verses 11 thru 26 records how Peter, led of the Spirit, condemned and enlightened the people of Jerusalem about the Jesus that they had just crucified. He stood there at the Temple on a porch that had been named after King Solomon. It was a magnificent colonnade running along the east side of the Temple. It had been built of materials from the Kidron Valley that laid between the mountain upon which Jerusalem was built and the Mount of Olives. This valley was used as a "mote", during Davids time, for protection of Jerusalem. The Valley was full of large sandstone and overgrown with cedar trees, thus the porch was probably constructed of large sandstones with columns of cedar. It was about 500 feet long and perhaps 10 feet wide.
Here Peter and John found themselves, along with the lame man, surrounded by many people with various feelings concerning what they had just witnessed. Peter knew that he must divert the respect and admiration of some of these people from himself and explain to them the source of his power. It would have been so easy for Peter and John to have basked in their new found fame, but they would not, they could not.
Notice how Peter addresses these people. "Men of Israel". (people of the promise) "Why are you amazed at what you saw?" Miracles were not new in Jerusalem. It was no more than they had seen Jesus do many times in the past three years. It had been but a short time before that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Why would this healing of a lame man be so amazing to them? The answer, of course, was obvious. Peter and John were ordinary men. Galileans at that. Yet they performed miracles. So Peter explains to them that they do not deserve the credit or phrase for what was done, they were only instruments in the hands of the Lord.
Then Peter attempted to tell them who Jesus really was. He was the promised Messiah. He was the Son of God, the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. He had been sent into the world, as promised, and what did they do, they delivered Him up, they denied Him, the common people, were influenced by the shouts against Him and delivered Him up, like a criminal, to be crucified. Peter said to these people, "You were worse than Pilate, for he would have released Him but you desired a murderer instead." (Matt. 27:15-23) "You killed the Prince of Life." "You released a destroyer of life and killed the Prince of Life."
They had killed Him but God raised Him up from the dead and to this they were witnesses, and as to what had healed the lame man, it was simply faith, faith in the name of Jesus. The man now had perfect health and had received it all in their presence. Peter showed them a "changed man", changed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Had Peter been left to his own natural characteristics, he would have lashed out at these people, but here by the power of the Holy Spirit that contained his natural instincts to fight, he contented himself in the knowledge that they had acted in ignorance. Ignorance of all that had been prophesied by the Prophets.
He does condemn them though, then he excuses them on the grounds of ignorance and tells them of their need for forgiveness. To them, Peter says, "Repent". Turn from their ignorant sinful ways that their sins might be blotted out. For God had warned them by the prophets, that every soul that does not listen to His Son, would be destroyed.
Notice what repentance would do for them. Their sins would be forgiven. They would be granted strength to turn from their wicked ways. They would be refreshed in the presence of the Lord and in the promise of His return. Matthew Henry says, "It is by Christ that God sends blessings to us." "The great blessing is turning us away from our sins that we might be able to receive other blessings." Thus Peter attempted to place what they had done in the right perspective and to reprimand these people for what they had done and to offer to them forgiveness by repenting and turning from their wicked ways and accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior.
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