Acts 3

1. One day Peter and John went to the Temple. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. This was the time for the daily prayer service.

Jews who had become Christians did not go to the temple for sacrifice. They waited for the afternoon prayer. This shows how strong they were tied to the Jewish faith. God used this to bring a witness to the Jews, but later Christians were put out of the temple.

2. There, at the Temple gate called Beautiful Gate, was a man who had been crippled all his life. Every day he was carried to this gate to beg. He would ask for money from the people going into the Temple.

It is interesting to see how God was going to make a man’s body, which was not beautiful, to become healed at the beautiful gate.

3 – 4

The man saw Peter and John going into the Temple and asked them for money. Peter and John looked straight at him and said, “Look at us!”

Peter could see in the Spirit that this man had the faith to be healed.

5 – 8

The man looked at them; he thought they were going to give him some money.
But Peter said, “I do not have any silver or gold, but I do have something else I can give you: By the power of Jesus Christ from Nazareth—stand up and walk!”

Then Peter took the man’s right hand and lifted him up. Immediately the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk. He went into the Temple with them, walking and jumping, and praising God.

The Old Testament said that the Messiah would bring healing. The crippled will leap like a deer! Isaiah 35:6

9 – 10

All the people recognized him. They knew he was the crippled man who always sat by the Beautiful Gate begging for money. Now they saw this same man walking and praising God. The people were amazed. They could not understand how this could happen.

The Jews had heard of Jesus healing people before this. They may have thought that those days were over.

11. The man was holding on to Peter and John. All the people were amazed and ran to Peter and John at Solomon’s Porch.

The early church used to meet at this place in the Temple.

12. When Peter saw this, he said to them, “Men of Israel, why are you surprised? You are looking at us as if it were our own power that made this man walk. Do you think this happened because we are good? No!

Be careful when you are looking at men instead of looking at God. Today we have pastors in the media doing things that make people look at them instead of Christ.

13. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, gave glory to Jesus, his servant. But you gave Him up to be killed. Pilate decided to let Him go free. But you told Pilate you did not want Jesus.

The Jews knew that Isaiah said many times that the Messiah would be called My Servant. A Roman history writer said that Pilate had Jesus crucified. This is interesting because men who hate the Bible have said that there was no such person as Pilate until a stone was found with Pilate’s name and title on it in Caesarea!

14 – 15

He was pure and good, but you said you did not want Him. You told Pilate to give you a murderer instead of Jesus. And so you killed the One who gives life! But God raised Him from death. We are witnesses to this.

Peter is accusing them of murder. They would not listen when Pilate said that Jesus was innocent but now the Holy Spirit is convicting their hearts.

16. It was the power of Jesus that made this crippled man well. This happened because we trusted in the power of Jesus. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of trust in Jesus. You all saw it happen!

Peter is showing them that there is no other way to understand this healing unless it was from the power of God.

17. “Brothers, I know you did those things to Jesus because you did not understand what you were doing. Your leaders did not understand either.

But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 1 Corinthians 2:8

18. God said this would happen. He said through the prophets that His Christ would suffer and die. And now God has made these things come true in this way.

Many scriptures said that the Messiah would suffer and die. See Isaiah 53, Psalm 22

19. So you must change your hearts and lives! Come back to God, and He will forgive your sins.

Peter is saying, “Take back your words and say now that Jesus is not guilty!”

20. Then the Lord will give you times of spiritual rest. He will give you Jesus, the One prepared for you.

The Old Testament promised Israel times of spiritual rest. Peter is telling them how they can have this rest.

21. But Jesus must stay in heaven until the time comes when all things will be made right again. God told about this time long ago when He spoke through His holy prophets.

Peter is saying that now is the time that the prophets were speaking about.

22 – 23

Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will give you a Prophet like me. He will be one of your own people. You must obey everything He tells you. Anyone who does not obey Him will die, separated from God’s people.

When the people saw Him do this miracle, they said, “Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting! John 6:14, Deuteronomy 18:15-19

24. Samuel, and all the other prophets who spoke for God after Samuel, told about this time now.

Samuel did talk about the Messiah. 1 Samuel 2:35, 2 Samuel 5:2, 2 Samuel 7:6, 2 Samuel 23:3

25. You have received what the prophets talked about. You have received the agreement God made with your ancestors. He said to your father Abraham, ‘Through your descendant all the nations on the earth will be blessed.’

God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture does not say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child and that, of course, means Christ. Galatians 3:16, Genesis 22:17

26. God has raised up His servant and sent Him to you first. He sent Jesus to bless you by turning each of you away from doing evil things.”

The Jews knew that God would send the Messiah to them first, what they did not know is that He also came to save non–Jews.