Peter heals the cripple at the temple gate
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📚Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, three in the afternoon. 3:1 Three in the afternoon was the time when the Jewish priests in the temple began their evening prayers and offerings.⚜
2 📚And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was being carried to beg from those entering the temple (daily they laid him at the temple gate which is called Beautiful). 3 He saw Peter and John about to go into the temple and asked for money. 4 📚And Peter, together with John, fixed his eyes on him and said, “Look at us”.
3:4 They were trying to prepare the man for something exceptional.⚜
5 And he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
6 📚Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk”.
3:6 We see here the material poverty of the apostles of Jesus Christ. Compare Matt 4:18-22; 19:27; Luke 6:20. In this they were like their Master – Matt 8:20. But they were rich in spiritual power. Often, it seems, that as the possessions and wealth of believers increase their spiritual power decreases. The Lord gave perfect instructions in Matt 6:19-21. “In the name of” means by Christ’s authority and power. Peter was acting as Christ’s representative – John 14:13-14; 20:21.⚜
7 📚And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
3:7 Peter’s action worked together with his words to produce faith and healing in this man.⚜
8 📚And he leaped up and stood, and walked, and went with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
3:8 The early disciples healed many people (Acts 5:15-16; 8:7; 14:8-10; 19:11-12; 28:8-9). But we nowhere read that they had special meetings for healing. They sometimes healed those they met in their work, or those who came to them while they were engaged in their ministry of preaching and teaching. Notice here that this lame man did not praise Peter, but God. He knew it was God who had done the healing, not Peter.⚜
9 📚And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 📚And they knew that it was he who sat begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Peter’s message at the temple
11 📚And while the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico that is called Solomon’s, greatly astonished.
3:11 Solomon’s portico or colonnade was on the east side of the outer court of the temple.⚜
12 📚And when Peter saw this he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Or why do you look so intently at us, as though by our own power or holiness we caused this man to walk?
3:12 Peter seized this opportunity to preach the truth of God. He did not point men to himself or try to increase his fame by this event. He knew that God had enabled him to perform the miracle and wanted only God to be honored. See also Acts 14:8-15.⚜
13 📚The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus whom you delivered up and denied 📖 in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was a common name in Israel for the one true God (Ex 3:6). The reason can be seen in Genesis chapters 12–50. God glorified Jesus in His resurrection and ascension.⚜
14 📚But you denied the Holy One and the Just 📖, and asked for a murderer to be given to you, 15 📚and killed the Prince 📖 of life, whom God raised from the dead. Of this we are witnesses 📖. 16 📚And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is granted through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
3:16 All their emphasis was on Jesus – His name and His power. Let us follow their example.⚜
17 📚“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as your rulers also did. 18 📚But those things which God foretold through the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled in this way. 19 📚Repent 📖, therefore, and be converted, so that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord, 20 📚and that he might send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you previously.
3:20 This verse with the preceding one states that God has appointed Christ as the Messiah of Israel (Acts 2:36), and seems to indicate that Christ will not return to be their King until Israel is willing to repent and receive Him.⚜
21 📚Him heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things 📖, which God has spoken through the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
3:21 God has set a time for everything, and nothing will take place until His time comes (Acts 1:7).⚜
22 📚For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren. You must listen to him in everything he says to you. 23 📚And it will be that every soul who will not listen to that prophet will be destroyed from among the people.’
3:22-23 Deut 18:15, 18, 19. Peter means that this promised prophet is the Lord Jesus. Come to pass (KJV) is not in Greek.⚜
24 📚“Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed him, all who spoke, likewise foretold these days.
3:24 Peter (as Christ Himself did) emphasized that Christ’s coming was according to God’s promises in the Old Testament (Matt 5:17; Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; John 5:39).⚜
25 📚You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’
26 📚God, having raised up his Son Jesus 📖, sent him first to you to bless you 📖, by turning each one of you away from his sins”.