Verses 1-26
Chapter 3
3:1-10 Peter and John
used to go up to the Temple at the hour of prayer at three o'clock in
the afternoon, and a man who had been lame from the day of his birth was
in the habit of being carried there. Every day they used to put him at
the gate of the Temple which is called the Beautiful Gate, so that he
could beg for alms from the people who were going into the Temple. When
he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple he asked to be given
alms. Peter fixed his eyes on him with John and said, "Look at us." He
paid attention to them because he was expecting to get something from
them. Peter said to him, "Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I
have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk!" And he
took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Immediately his feet and
ankle bones were strengthened, and he leaped up and stood and walked
about; and he went into the Temple with them, walking about and leaping
and praising God. Everyone saw him walking about and praising God; and
they recognized him as the man who had sat at the Beautiful Gate of the
Temple to receive alms. They were filled with amazement and astonishment
at what had happened to him.
The Jewish day began at 6 o'clock in the morning and ended at 6
o'clock in the evening. For the devout Jew there were three special
hours of prayer -- 9 a.m., 12 midday and 3 p.m. They agreed that prayer
was efficacious wherever it was offered; but they felt that it was
doubly precious when offered in the Temple courts. It is very
interesting that the apostles kept up the customs in which they had been
trained. It was the hour of prayer and Peter and John were going into
the Temple to observe it. A new faith had come to them but they did not
use that as an excuse for a licence which broke all law. They were aware
that the new faith and the old discipline could walk hand in hand.
In the East it was the custom for beggars to sit at the entrance
to a temple or a shrine. Such a place was considered the best of all
stances because when people are on their way to worship God they are
disposed to be generous to their fellow men. W. H. Davies, the tramp
poet, tells how one of his vagrant friends told him that, whenever he
came into a new town, he looked for a church spire with a cross on the
top and began to beg in that area. Love of man and love of God must ever
go hand in hand.
This incident brings us face to face with the question of
miracles in the apostolic times. There are certain definite things to be
said.
(i) Such miracles did happen. In Acts 4:16
we read how the Sanhedrin knew that they must accept the miracle. The
enemies of Christianity would have been the first to deny miracles if
they could; but they never even try.
(ii) Why did they stop? Certain suggestions have been made. (a)
There was a time when miracles were necessary. In that age they were
needed as a guarantee of the truth and the power of the Christian
message in its initial attack on the world. (b) At that time two special
circumstances met. First, there were living apostolic men who had had
an unrepeatable personal intimacy with Jesus Christ. Second, there was
an atmosphere of expectancy when faith was in its floodtide. These two
things combined to produce effects which were unique.
(iii) The real question is not, "Why have miracles stopped?"
but, "Have they stopped?" It is the simple fact that any doctor or
surgeon can now do things which in apostolic times would have been
regarded as miracles. God has revealed new truth and new knowledge to
men, and through that revelation they are still performing miracles. As a
great doctor said, "I bandage the wounds; but God heals them." For the
Christian there are still miracles on every hand if he has eyes to see.
3:11-16 As he clung to
Peter and John everyone came running to them in the colonnade which is
called Solomon's, in a state of complete astonishment. When Peter saw
them he said to them, "Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Or
why do you keep staring at us, as if we had made him walk by our own
power or goodness? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, your
fathers' God, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and
disowned before Pilate, when he had given judgment for his release. You
disowned the holy and the just one and you asked for a man who was a
murderer to be given to you as a favour. You killed the pioneer of life
but God raised him from the dead; and we are his witnesses. And his
name, through faith in his name, has given strength to this man whom you
see and know. It is the faith which is through him, which has thus
given him back his health in presence of you all."
Here sound three of the dominant notes of early Christian preaching.
(i) The early preachers always stressed the basic fact that the
crucifixion was the greatest crime in human history. Whenever they speak
of it there is a kind of shocked horror in their voices. They tried to
stab men's minds with the realization of the sheer crime of the Cross.
It is as if they said, "Look what sin can do."
(ii) The early preachers always stressed the vindication of the
resurrection. It Is simple fact that without the resurrection the Church
would never have come into being. The resurrection was proof that he
was indestructible and was Lord of life and of death. It was the final
proof that behind him there was God and therefore a power which nothing
could stop.
(iii) The early preachers always stressed the power of the Risen
Lord. They never regarded themselves as the sources of power but only
as channels of power. They were well aware of their limitations but were
also well aware that there was no limitation to what the Risen Christ
could do through them and with them. Therein lies the secret of the
Christian life. So long as the Christian thinks only of what he can do
and be, there can be nothing but failure and frustration and fear. But
when he thinks of "not I, but Christ in me" there can be nothing but
peace and power.
3:17-26 "Now,
brothers, I know that it was through ignorance that you did it, just as
your rulers did. But God has thus fulfilled those things which he
foretold by the mouths of all the prophets that his anointed one should
suffer. Repent, then, and turn so that your sins may be wiped out, so
that times of refreshing may come to you from God, and so that he may
send Jesus Christ who has already been preached to you. It is necessary
that heaven should receive him until the times when all things shall be
restored, times of which God spoke through the mouths of his holy
prophets since the world began. Moses said, 'The Lord, your God, will
raise up from your brethren a prophet like me. You must listen to him in
everything that he will say to you; and it will be. that everyone who
will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from the
people.' And all the prophets who spoke from Samuel and those who
succeeded him, also announced the tidings of these days. You are the
sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your
fathers when he said, 'In your seed all the nations of the earth will be
blessed.' It is to you first that God, when he raised up his son, sent
him to bless you by making each one of you turn away from your evil
deeds."
Almost all the notes of early Christian preaching are sounded in this short passage.
(i) It begins with a note of mercy and warning combined. It was
in ignorance that the Jews perpetrated the terrible deed of the
crucifixion; but that ignorance is no longer possible, and, therefore,
there can be no excuse for their further rejection of Jesus Christ. This
note of the terrifying responsibility of knowledge sounds all through
the New Testament. "If you were blind. you would have no guilt; but now
that you say 'We see,' your guilt remains" (John 9:41). "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin" (John 15:22). "Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (James 4:17).
To have seen the full light of the revelation of God is the greatest of
privileges, but it is also the most terrible of responsibilities.
(ii) The obligation this knowledge brings is the obligation to
repent and to turn. The two words go closely together. Repent might
simply mean to change one's mind; and it is an easier thing to change
one's mind than to change one's life. But this change of mind is to
issue in a turning away from the old way and a faring forth upon a new.
(iii) This repentance will have certain consequences. It will
affect the past--sins will be wiped out. This is a vivid word. Ancient
writing was upon papyrus and the ink had no acid in it. It therefore did
not bite into the papyrus like modern ink, but simply lay on top of it.
To erase the writing a man simply wiped it away with a wet sponge; so
God wipes out the sin of the forgiven man. It will affect the future; it
will bring times of refreshing. Into life will come something which
will be a strength in weakness and a rest in weariness.
(iv) Peter goes on to speak of the coming again of Christ.
Whatever else that doctrine means, it means that history is going
somewhere.
(v) Peter insists that all that has happened has been foretold.
The Jews refused to assimilate the idea of a Chosen One of God who must
suffer; but Peter insists that if they search their own scriptures they
will find it all there.
(vi) Peter reminds them of their national privilege. In a very special sense the Jews were God's chosen people.
(vii) Finally, he lays down the inescapable truth that that very
special privilege brings very special duty. It is the privilege not of
special honour but of special service.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)