About Jesus

About Jesus Steve Sweetman

This Section - Chapters 3

Peter Heals The Crippled Beggar (ch. 3:1 - 10)

“One day Peter and John went up to the Temple at the time of prayer – at 3 in the afternoon”. (ch. 3:1) It would be interesting to know how soon after the Day of Pentecost this event took place, but we don’t know.

One thing we do know is that Luke tells us that Peter and John “went up to the Temple at the time of prayer”. This tells us a couple of things. It tells us that these men still practiced their Jewish tradition. The Jewish day began at 6 in the morning. When the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost, it was 9 in the morning. At 9 in the morning would have been the first time of prayer. The times of prayer were every 3 hours. The Holy Spirit came to earth at the first time of prayer. At 3 in the afternoon was another time of prayer, when Peter and John went up to the Temple , here in chapter 3. Going to the Temple was not simply an after-thought. It was their religious duty.

Even though Peter and John were new Christians, as of Pentecost, they were still very much Jewish in their thinking. Their Salvation Theology had not really been developed as they approached the Temple that afternoon. Theology would come later.

Verse 2 tells us that as Peter and John were approaching the Temple , at the gate called Beautiful, a crippled man was asking for money. This gate appears to be one of the more spectacular of gates entering the court yard of the Temple . It had the largest columns, and according to its name was very beautiful.

Peter and John had just arrived at this gate at the same time the crippled man was carried and set down to beg, as was his custom. This obviously was not the first time this man had been at this gate, and it was not the first time that Peter and John were at this gate, but for one reason or another, Peter took note of him. Maybe it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit, something new to Peter.

After asking Peter and John for money, they “look straight at him”, then Peter said, “Look at us. Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk”. (ch. 3:5-6) At this moment Peter reached out his “right hand” and helped the crippled man up. Immediately his feet and ankles gained in strength. They walked into the court yard of the Temple and the man began to jump and dance for joy, giving praise to God.

Here is a thought for any "Prosperity Gospel" teacher who might be reading this. Note that Peter and John had no money, yet I think they were very blessed in the Spirit.

All of those around who had seen this miracle were astonished. They had known this man to be a beggar and a cripple, and now he was up jumping and dancing. This was the first recorded miracle that the disciples performed in the “name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”, as Peter puts it.

Peter and John were given authority by Jesus. They represented Jesus. They were at that gate in the place of Jesus since He could not be there. So in Jesus’ place, Peter reached out and healed this man. This is what “in the name of Jesus” really means. “In the name of Jesus” is more than words, is more than a formula attached to a prayer. It is acting in the place of Jesus here on earth because He has given us this authority.

You would have thought that this miracle would have produced lots of good things in the Jewish community in Jerusalem , but it didn’t. You will see that it actually had the opposite effect on the Jewish leaders.

Peter Speaks To The Onlookers (ch. 3:11 - 26)

Verse 11 tells us that Peter, John, and the once crippled man began to leave the Temple . A crowd gathered on “Solomon’s Colonnade”, or porch. This huge porch was on the eastern wall of the Temple with a roof held up by very large pillars. There were also many steps going down to street level.

“When Peter saw this…”, (ch 3:12) he took the opportunity to preach the gospel. Once again, it was Peter who took the lead in the verbal proclamation of the gospel. It appears, as in Acts 2 that he was the spokesman. Luke does not say that John spoke any words.

Peter asks the question, “men of Israel , why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus.” Peter is linking Jesus to the God of Israel. That's Elohim, or Yahweh. This linking is what got Jesus in trouble with the Jewish leaders in the first place. Now Peter and John are repeating the truth of the Deity of Christ, which will get them in trouble too.

The word "glorify" here is the word that links Jesus to God. In John 17 Jesus uses this word a lot in His prayer to God His Father. In context, when Jesus speaks of being glorified, He is speaking of a very special union that He only has with the Father. That is why I say what Peter and John are saying here concerns the Deity of Christ, and the Jewish leaders would have realized this.

Further to this, Peter connects Jesus to the God of Israel, that is to say, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He wants his listeners to know that Jesus was sent by their God. He was not a foreign pagan God. Thus they should pay attention to what Jesus had to say. Eventually it was this claim that got Peter and John in trouble. They would have been better off if Jesus had not associated Himself at all with the God of Israel. But this was not the case and could never be the case. Jesus can't deny who He is, and we cannot deny it either.

Peter makes it clear that he and John had no power or special godliness that could cause such a miracle to happen. It was all a result of Jesus, the one they “handed over to Pilate and disowned”, even though Pilate was willing to release Jesus.

Peter is very bold in his words, something else that got him into trouble. He told the crowd, “you disowned the Holy and Righteous One … you killed the author of life”. This is quite an accusation for Peter to make, yet how true it was. Such boldness shows what the Holy Spirit can do in the life of the believer.

Yet Peter does not leave Jesus dead in this his second sermon. He says that God raised Him from the dead and that he and others are witnesses to this fact. Then in verse 16 Peter says outright that the crippled man was made better because of Jesus and faith in Him. Faith simply means to trust. What Peter is saying is that he trusted Jesus to heal this man, and as a result the miracle took place. It is in the “name of Jesus” this man was healed, says Peter. The authority that Jesus gave Peter to represent Him on earth and trust in Him made this man whole.

We should also note once again the word “glorified” as seen in verse 13. Peter says that “God glorified His servant Jesus”. Remember that the glorification of Jesus eventually took place at His ascension. Jesus was not fully glorified at the resurrection. He was fully glorified when He returned to be with His father in Heaven, where He once was, and where always wanted to be.

In verse 17 Peter softens his remarks by saying “now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance.”. Peter had just told them that they “killed the author of life”, but here he says that they did this in ignorance, that is to say, they really did not understand what they were doing. Yet, as the old saying goes, “ignorance of the law is no excuse”.

When thinking that the Jews killed Jesus in ignorance, it makes me wonder if they would then have a legitimate excuse for their actions. To make sure that they did not have a valid excuse, the apostles preach the gospel to the Jews who handed Jesus over to Rome . They had a chance to repent, before the apostles would turn to the Gentiles. Because Israel did not repent as a whole, judgment finally came on them when Rome devastated Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The term "author of life" is interesting. I think Peter understood Jesus as being the author of life because it is clear from John 1:1 through 4 and elsewhere that Jesus was part of the creation process. In Genesis 1, every time it says, "and God said, let there be…" The words of God, the words He spoke are the "logos" word spoken by John in John 1:1. Jesus was in fact the words that God spoke creation by.

Peter goes on to say that their killing of Jesus was actually a fulfilling of prophecy. Many Old Testament prophets said that “the Christ must suffer”, and suffer He did at the hands of the Jews and Roman authorities. The Jews of that day failed to see and understand the prophecies of their suffering Messiah. They only saw the prophecies concerning their ruling and powerful Messiah.

Even though these people did this in ignorance, Peter tells them “to repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out”. Once again you see the importance of repentance. Repentance is the first step in salvation. One must take this first step before successfully taking the next, which in this case would be faith, or trust in Jesus.

As stated here in this verse, when one truly repents “his sins will be wiped out”. A person’s sins will not be held against them on the Day of Judgement if true repentance and faith is found.

We need to note here that Peter is telling his audience that they need to repent from sins of ignorance, not just sins they knew they committed. This tells us something about the justice of God and how He views sin. Sins of ignorance seem to be important to God.

Once one repents, his sins are blotted out of God’s book, so to speak. Yet this is not the end of the story. Peter goes on to say, “that times of refreshing might come from the Lord”. What does this mean? I “interpret” this to mean the refreshing of the Holy Spirit. Some may not agree with me on this point but as Peter says in Acts 2:38, once one has repented and trusted Jesus, he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. The same sequence should be seen in this verse, that is, repent, believe, sins are forgiven, then receive the Spirit, which in this verse is suggested by the words “time of refreshing”. Those who have received God’s Spirit could easily agree with Peter and say along with him that the Holy Spirit brings times of refreshing.

There is still more to the story. After these times of refreshing, after the age of the Spirit, “He (God the Father) may send the Christ”. This speaks of the return of Jesus. At the end of what theologians have called “the age of grace”, or “the age of the Spirit”, Jesus will return to earth.

So this is the picture Peter paints here. Repent – your sins will be wiped out – times of refreshing – Jesus will return.

The next verse has stirred up some controversy. It says, “”He (Jesus) must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything…” Some say that this verse means the Kingdom of God will be restored to such a degree on earth, and that things will get so good that Jesus will have no other alternative than to return. To put it this way, the earth is in such good shape, God will say to Jesus, “it is time for you to return, they have restored the Kingdom and the earth is full of my glory”. Jesus thus returns to a restored church and planet.

But this verse does not say any such thing. Read it carefully and you will see that Jesus “must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything”. It does not say “Jesus must remain in Heaven until all things are restored”. Do you see the difference? God restores all things at the return of Christ, and not before. Peter says it pretty clearly. I believe that part of this restoration process is the restoration of Israel to prominence. During the thousand year, rule of Christ, and I believe also on the new earth, Israel will be the most important nation on earth as a direct result of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Peter quotes something that Moses says to back up his point. The intent of what Moses said is that God would raise someone up from among Israel . He will be like a prophet. You must listen to this man and if you don’t you will not be counted as God’s people. Obviously Peter is saying that Jesus is the man spoken of by the prophets. If any Jewish person does not listen to Jesus, he will be cut off from God’s people. God’s people thus become those of faith in Jesus, and not a people based on descending from Abraham.

This is what Paul says in Romans 9 through 11. No longer does simply being a descendent of Abraham make you a true child of God. You must listen to Jesus. Thus, this would include anyone on earth, even Gentiles, something that Peter really didn’t understand as he spoke these words. All that being said, and I won't get into it here, God still has plans for His chosen people Israel . Israel still has prophetic and historical significance. Paul explains all of this in Romans 9 through 11 and he ends the discussion with the point that all Israel will be saved. "All Israel " means the remnant that he also talks about. The remnant are those Jews who are alive at the end of this age, who God Himself will pour out a spirit of repentance on so they will recognize their Messiah who is Jesus. This has all been foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

In verse 24 Peter says that all of the prophets have spoken of these very days in which we live. These are the days where forgiveness of sins can be found and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence in a life can be experienced. He says, “you are heirs of the prophets and the covenant that God made with your fathers”. Those listening to Peter, and us too, are the recipients of God’s prophetic promises. Part of these promises was God’s covenant He spoke to Abraham. God’s covenant promised many things. One thing was that through Abraham’s descendents, “the world would be blessed”. It also promised that Abraham's offspring, who Paul says is Jesus, will bless the world as well. Both of these promises will be fulfilled at the end of this age with the return of Jesus to earth. So it is clear that what Peter is speaking here of is connected with the Abrahamic Covenant.

In verse 26 Peter says that God raised Jesus up and sent Him to the Jews first to be a blessing to them. John in his gospel tells us that Jesus came to His own. (John 1:11) Then beyond this, when the Spirit came in Acts 2, He came to the Jews only. God, as Paul says many times, puts the Jew first. The sending of Jesus, and the sending of the Spirit came first to the Jews, to bless them. This would soon change, because God’s plan has always included all of mankind.

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