Articles
Acts 3 (Part 1)
Acts chapter 3 is a chapter that bring a smile to my face. In Acts 3, Peter and John are en-tering the temple at the ninth hour (3 p.m. in our keeping of time) and there was a man there. A man who had been lame since birth and we know by Acts 4:22 that this man was more than 40 years old. So, for his entire over 40-year life, he had been lame and what this man’s daily routine was for some time was that he would be carried to a gate of the temple that was called Beautiful. He was placed there for the purpose of him being able to beg for charitable gifts from those entering the temple grounds. I want to em-phasize how this would’ve been just another day at this point in the eyes of the lame beg-gar. It was just another day in life in which he was carried, sat down, begged and would’ve been carried back somewhere to sleep most likely, and the cycle would continue the next day. This day though, is going to be a day that will change his life, but he doesn’t know that yet. Peter and John come walking into the temple grounds, and the beggar starts to do what his practice was, in asking them for a charitable gift. To the beggar, Peter and John would’ve just been two more potential gift givers at this point. He was looking at them just like how he looked at everyone else that passed him by every day. Peter and John stop though and look at him intently. They even tell him to look at them! The beggar does and, in his mind, again, it’s just another moment in which he’s going to be given a charitable gift, something that he could hold in his hands. Peter says to this man “I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!”
I imagine there must’ve been a brief moment of time in between Pe-ter saying these things and Peter reaching out to grab the beggar’s right hand. For over 40 years if you tried to do this to the beggar, he would fell back to the ground in which he was sitting. This is the state he lived in for over 40 years and now someone that we have no rea-son to believe he knew or had seen before, has told him to walk! What must’ve been going through his mind in the time of hearing what Peter said and Peter reaching for his hand is beyond me and something we aren’t told, but fascinating to think about. Peter grabs this man’s right hand and pulls him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened!! I just love the word immediately being used here as is in other miracles that are done (Mark 1:42, 5:29 as examples). This didn’t take 3-5 business days or 6-8 months before he could walk. A man who couldn’t walk his entire life, at least 40 years, who had never had strength in his ankles and feet, at least enough to walk, in an instant now has strength in his feet and ankles. The beggar leaps up which is something he has never done. He stood up, he be-gins to walk, he’s literally jumping for joy, all things that he had never done before.
He walks into the temple with Peter and John and as this happens, the other people notice. Human beings are creatures of habit, and I imagine there were many people that would go into the temple by the gate called Beautiful daily and grown accustomed to seeing this man. They had seen this man who was unable to walk and would beg daily. They hadn’t seen him like this! He’s not just walking, but he’s jumping. He’s not just jumping but he’s praising God which must’ve been a little noisy (and justifiably and deservedly so!). I went to the university of Cincinnati, and they were many homeless people that
would be in the same spots daily, asking for a gift of some kind. I would see them daily just as these people would’ve seen this beggar. If I saw one of the homeless people I grown accustom to seeing drive past me in a Lamborghini with all designer clothes on, I would be a little amazed and curious as to what happened. I say this as an example to try to pic-ture what this would look like for us today. They knew this man, but they knew him as the lame beggar not as the walking and leaping praising of God guy who was walking with Peter and John into the tem-ple! These people are filled with wonder, amazement, and astonish-ment at seeing this. We also learn that as the people begin to rush to Peter, John and the beggar to see what has happened, that the beggar was clinging to Peter and John! I just love that. He is so excited to the point I don’t think I can comprehend it. Clinging to Peter and John and was just overjoyed.
Peter sees the people coming over to him, John and the beggar, and begins to reply to the people by asking “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why are you staring at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?” You see, the people had it wrong in how they were viewing the situation. From the latter part of his reply to this situation, we see the people were staring at them as though it was because of Peter and John’s own power and godliness that made this man now walk. In reality, they shouldn’t have been amazed at how this happened, because the only way it could was with the Almighty God being the source! I think it’s interesting to see that once the lame man was healed, he was praising God, but the people are looking at what has happened to the beggar as if this was done by man. The lame man got it, but the people did not! Starting in v13, Pe-ter will continue on and teach the gospel to these people, and it will be met with great success as the Acts 4:4 shows us. What a chapter full of joy and one that hopefully pushes us to joy as well! Let’s be thankful for the things that we have, even if it’s as simple or as common as the ability to walk! Let’s remember Who the Giver of all we have is! He is great and awesome, let’s put our trust in Him!
