Chapter 3

(Acts 3 KJV) "Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. {2} And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; {3} Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. {4} And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. {5} And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. {6} Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. {7} And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. {8} And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

This is a staggering miracle from several points of view. One, the healing in itself is all magnificent. But you do understand don’t you, that just making your feet and your ankles whole doesn’t mean you can walk when you have never walked in you life? This man had never had taken a step. His muscles knew nothing about walking. You know we do all of our walking with muscle memory. We have been trained to walk. We’ve had to learn to walk. It is not merely a matter of physical strength. When God healed this man’s ankles and feet He changed the neurological systems, the systems of his brain and he was able to walk and leap and run. This is wonderful to think about.

{9} And all the people saw him walking and praising God: {10} And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. {11} And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. {12} And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? {13} The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

Peter did not hesitate to rub this in. Pilate was ready to let Jesus go, but you said No.  No, you denied him. You wanted Barabbas. You had Jesus killed, right?

{14} But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; {15} And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. {16} And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

You can't just walk away from this, Peter said. . You have to deal with the fact that we healed this man, and that we didn’t do it in our own name. It was done in the name of Jesus Christ whom you delivered to Pilate. Jesus' name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong whom you see, whom you know. Yea, the faith which is by Him which has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

{17} And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. {18} But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. {19} Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

This is Peter’s consistent message. Repent and be converted. To be converted means to be changed. If you repent of your sins you can’t go on living your life the way you’ve always lived it. You’ve got to stop doing those things that are wrong and start doing those things that are right.  Repent and be converted, says Peter, and through that your sins may be blotted out. One would think that it would be obvious that forgiveness of sins means nothing unless you’ve repented. Because you can be forgiven of a sin this minute and go out and do the same sin the next minute and what has been accomplished?

{20} And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: {21} Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Peter does not attribute this to some of the prophets, but to all of them. Nor does he limit it to the latter prophets--he goes back to the beginning.  If you just follow your Bible's chain references looking for Old Testament references to Jesus, you will be likely to make it no further back than Isaiah.  But Peter took his audience back considerably further than that, for the first writings in the Bible were done by Moses after they had come out of Egypt. And so in the very next verse, he cites Moses as a prophet who foretold the Messiah.

{22} For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. {23} And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

Moses is saying that at some time out there in your future, there will come another prophet  like me, and who will be the one to direct you toward God  and you’d better listen to Him when He comes. The prophecy in questions comes from Deut. 18:15 ff.

"The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken . . . . I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him."

This prophet would have the full authority of the Father and the person who would not listen to Him would be guilty. Peter identified that prophet as Jesus.

{24} Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. {25} Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Once again Peter reminds them that is not merely for the Jews.  It has to go to the entire world. Peter's later actions will lead us to wonder how early he understood the import of what he was saying here.

{26} Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

Jesus has come to bless you, to turn you away from your iniquities, your lawlessness. Why? Because lawless behavior will wreck your life.

The Sinless Life
Have you ever considered what it would mean  if you could just live a sinless life?

Youth in Action
Never in our history have young people needed Bible learning and Christian youth programs more than they do today.