Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

³²As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. ³³There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. ³⁴“Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. ³⁵All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

During a time of relative peace for the church in the region, Peter was able to leave Jerusalem and spread the gospel in other areas. Lydda was a coastal city 25 miles from Jerusalem. As we will see in the next passage, Joppa was nearby, and Azotus, Gaza, and Sharon also were coastal cities that Peter probably visited on this trip, since verse 32 says that Peter traveled about the country, or as the NKJV puts it, he went through all parts of the country.

In Lydda, Peter found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed for 8 years. We aren’t told whether Aeneas was a believer at that point. But if he wasn’t, he soon would be. Peter, like his master before him, healed the lame and told Aeneas, essentially, to “take up his mat and walk.” But Peter made clear who was doing the healing. When Peter healed the crippled beggar at the temple in 3:1-10 (blog), he healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Here Peter’s language is even more direct. He says, “Jesus Christ heals you.” Peter was always careful to give his Lord the credit. When accolades come our way, we must be careful to do the same.

As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, and as everyone knows, when someone is crippled, they don’t retain their muscle tone, especially when they’ve been bedridden for 8 years. Atrophy sets in. But when God heals someone, there is no need for months of physical rehabilitation. Aeneas got up immediately. God doesn’t do things halfway.

Another thing I keep saying in this blog is that the purpose of miracles is twofold; to glorify God, and to help people believe. Both things happened as a result of this healing. God was glorified, and the people of two towns turned to the Lord. God could have healed Aeneas long before this had he chosen to, and could have done it without Peter’s help. But he chose to use Peter to heal Aeneas at this particular time so that the maximum amount of people would be won to Christ. That’s why miracles happen.

Mark Bible Acts, Aeneas, miracles, Peter

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.

Mark Bible Acts, John, Luke, miracles, Peter

¹ When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, ² “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³ and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

⁴ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵ and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

⁸ So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. ⁹ Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been ^[a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

So much of the story of the Exodus and conquest of the Promised Land is like this. It’s a picture of obedience. First God tells Moses or Joshua something, then Moses and Joshua tell the people what God said, and they all obey God. The church still operates on this model. God speaks through human leadership, and as long as that human leadership is following the Word of God, we must trust that God is speaking to and through them. The test for those of us in leadership is, are we walking close enough to God that people will believe he told us something?

Each of the twelve men, one from each tribe who had been chosen before the crossing (Joshua 3:12), did as God commanded Joshua and carried one large stone from the riverbed to be used in the memorial. It’s important to remind ourselves and our children what God has done for us. It helps our faith to remember God’s faithfulness.

¹⁰ Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, ¹¹ and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. ¹² The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. ¹³ About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

¹⁴ That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

After the twelve tribes of Israel crossed over, the armies of the eastern tribes crossed over to fight for Israel, just as they had promised. God had just confirmed Joshua’s authority with a great miracle, and any doubts some in those tribes might have had would have been erased by what they had just witnessed. How many years did Joshua serve as Moses’ protege? At least 40. He had prepared for this day for many years, and had been faithful in many small things. Do we want God to exalt us to a position of leadership? We must be willing to serve and prepare for as long as it takes. Joshua was not a young man when he took over the leadership of Israel. It was only after a lifetime of faithful service that God exalted him in Israel’s eyes.

¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁸ And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

¹⁹ On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea ^[b] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴ He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”

I still am struck by the effect witnessing the crossing of the Jordan must have had on these priests, which I commented on in Saturday’s blog. What an amazing experience that must have been. I mentioned in that same blog that some have speculated that an earthquake somewhere upstream may have stopped the Jordan that day, and there is evidence of that. But even if that is the case, the fact that the river immediately started flowing again when the priests carried the ark onto the shore shows that this was God’s doing.

Continuing his obedience to God, Joshua set up the memorial as God commanded. Whatever chronicler wrote this down said the memorial is still there “to this day”, so this all must have been written down later. As Joshua set up the memorial to remind Israel of what God had done, God made sure at some point that all of these events were written down so that future generations, including ours, would know what God had done and have our faith strengthened.

In verse 24, Joshua says that God performed these miracles for Israel for two reasons, so that everyone would know that God is powerful, and so that they would always fear the Lord their God. If you have read my blog with any regularity, you know I have come to the conclusion that Jesus performed miracles for basically the same two reasons; to glorify God, and help people believe. When God stopped the Jordan, it helped Israel enter into the Promised Land, but that was not the main reason he did it. When Jesus healed people, it helped those people, but that was not primarily why he did it. When God performs miracles today, those miracles may be a great help to someone, but even today, the purpose of miracles is to glorify God (so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful) and to help us believe (so that you might always fear the LORD your God). When we need a miracle, we should pray for God to help us, but we should also pray that God will glorify himself through the miracle we’re asking for, and that people will believe in him because of what he does for us. That’s what miracles are for.

Mark Bible Bible, crossing the Jordan, Joshua, miracles