Acts 3:1-10
Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar
1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
Here is an example of how Jesus’ disciples became like their master. Disciples of rabbis in Jesus’ time left everything to follow their rabbi. They were like apprentices, and the purpose of being a disciple was to learn to be like their master, to do the things that he did. After 3 years of following Jesus and being transformed by him, Peter and John now performed miracles in much the same way that Jesus did, and they taught and preached with the authority of Jesus.
The first believers still practiced a form of Judaism. They didn’t make sacrifices, but they did observe the ritual prayer times and celebrate the Jewish festivals, at least for a while. They were Jews, after all. They had been raised with these traditions. They entered the temple through the gate called Beautiful. There were 9 gates into the temple, all of which were 45 feet high, except for the Beautiful Gate, which was 75 feet high, and made of fine Corinthian brass which shone in the morning sun as it faced east, according to Josephus. A lot of traffic went through this gate every day, which was why this beggar was placed there every day.
Acts 4:22 says that this man was over 40 years old. He was a very familiar sight to those who entered through this gate. How many times had Jesus walked by this man without healing him? When it seems like God delays, it may be because he has a greater purpose in mind. Verse 3 says that when the beggar asked for money, Peter and John looked straight at him. As anyone who lives in a big city knows, when you see someone begging on the street, you don’t make eye contact with them unless you intend to give them something. Otherwise, you pass them by without acknowledging that they’re even there. Peter went a step further in telling the beggar to look back at them. Maybe the beggar had seen someone else who looked like they had more money and was trying to get their attention. But when Peter said “Look at us,” they had his attention again. He was right in thinking he would get something from them, but he was about to get far more than he expected.
6Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
This was not the first time Peter and John had performed miracles in Jesus’ name. Jesus had sent the Twelve out to “preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” in Luke 9:1-6 (blog). He had done the same with the 72 in Luke 10:1-24 (blog). Though the disciples had had success on those occasions, now Peter and John acted with the power of the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit.
This is the second time that Peter used the name Jesus Christ in the Book of Acts, the first being in his sermon on the day of Pentecost (2:38). Matthew, Mark and John use that name to refer to Jesus in their gospels, but at the time the gospels were written, decades later, people were used to hearing the names Jesus and Christ used together. Today, we tend to think of Christ as Jesus’ last name, but it’s not. His given name was Yeshua bar Joseph. Christ is his title. It means Messiah or Anointed One. It was one thing to talk about Jesus of Nazareth in the temple courts in Peter’s day and quite another to do something in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth there that soon after his crucifixion. It’s no wonder this event led to Peter and John being put on trial before the Sanhedrin, which we’ll see in the next chapter.
Just as Jesus had healed cripples and immediately they got up and walked, Peter and John were enabled to do the same in Jesus’ name. When someone is crippled, they don’t retain their muscle tone. Atrophy sets in. But when God heals someone, there is no need for months of physical rehabilitation. Luke, as a physician, notes the man’s feet and ankles in verse 7. In some translations, such as the Amplified Bible and the New King James, ankles is translated ankle bones. Apparently this man’s infirmity resided in his feet and ankles rather than his legs or hips. I don’t think we need to read much into the fact that Peter helped him up. It wasn’t Peter’s touch that healed him, it was the name of Jesus Christ.
Luke doesn’t indicate anywhere in this account that the beggar had any faith at all. When he looked up at Peter and John in verse 5, he wasn’t expecting healing, he was expecting money. What does this tell us about to role of faith in healing? If someone tells you that you weren’t healed because you didn’t have enough faith, point them to this passage. As soon as the man got up, he started walking and jumping and praising God. This fulfilled Isaiah 35:6:
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
It was a sign to everyone there that the Messianic age had come. I believe that the Bible teaches that God performs miracles chiefly for two reasons; to glorify himself, and to help people believe. I came to that conclusion in my study of the Gospel of John. God feels compassion toward us in our suffering, and he may miraculously help us in our time of need, but he doesn’t perform miracles primarily to help us. When God performs a miracle, the purpose of the miracle is to bring glory to his name, and to help those who witness the miracle to believe in him. Both of those things happened as a result of this miracle. God was glorified when the former cripple walked and jumped and praised God in front of all of those witnesses. And in the next passage, which I’ll get to tomorrow, this miracle resulted in Peter preaching a sermon which caused many to believe in Jesus as the Christ.