Acts 3 (Bible Study)
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One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame 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. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they 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.
Peter Speaks to the Onlookers
11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’[a]
24 “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. 25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’[b] 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
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Acts 3
Introduction to Acts
Luke writes that Peter’s testimony is a comprehensive view of the person and work of Jesus the Christ, divine (the Holy and Righteous One) (v14) who died and now risen (v15) and coming again (v20), and it is because he is alive that he can send his power into our lives (v.16).
Luke wrote in 2:43, that many signs and wonders were done by the apostles, and in Acts 3 he provides an example. He quotes Peter who says, “we are witnesses of this” (v15) i.e. physical resurrection. This is testimony of a historical event — eyewitness accounts. “It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Peter that has given this man a healing, “as you can all see.” (v16).
‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ (Acts 3:6)
Read Luke 3:1-16
What is striking about the healing of the disabled man? What does it tell us about how God works in our lives?
• It demonstrates the historicity of what happened. The comment “At three in the afternoon” (Acts 3:2) is a detail that is the mark of an eyewitness account. Legends do not contain such unnecessary details.
• It demonstrates the power of God. The physical ailment was not a passing injury, but was congenital, severe and permanent “a man crippled from birth”. (v.2)
• It is demonstrates that the Messiah has come. This is a fulfilled prophecy. Isaiah said that when the Messiah came “Then will the lame leap like a deer” (Is.35:6), and that is what this man does — ”walking and jumping” v.8. The “jumping” is a vivid, wonderful picture, and it is another mark of an eyewitness account detail.
• It demonstrates a first principle of God’s work — that divine power comes in the act of faith, not before. Peter takes the crippled man “by the right hand” and “helped him up” but it was not until he got up that his “feet and ankles become strong”. It is interesting to notice that he did not feel the power before he got up, but as he did. He had to agree to try to stand before God’s healing worked. Even so it is often the case that the sense of God’s strength comes to us as we obey, not before we obey.
• It demonstrates a second principle of God’s work — that usually we begin by seeking far less than God wants to give us. All the man wanted was money (v3), but he got physical healing (v8) and probably salvation (4:14 indicates that the man now took up with the company of disciples). Even so, a person ordinarily goes to God just for help with a problem or strength in time of need or forgiveness for a particular sin — but when we come to the real God, he ends up making far greater changes in our lives than we ever envisioned.
• Lastly, this demonstrates that God uses changed lives to draw others to hear the gospel. It was because of the clear change in the man’s life (v.10) that a crowd gathered and was open to hearing the gospel (v.11- 12).
How does Peter prove from Scripture that Jesus is the Messiah? What is it important to see Christ in the Old Testament?
Peter’s exposition of the Old Testament is startlingly Christo-centric. He says that God had spoken about Jesus through “all the prophets” (v.18). He says that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the “suffering servant” prophecies (v.13, 18— cf. Isaiah 53), and is the fulfilment of the prediction of a “final prophet” by Moses (v.22-23--cf. Deut.18:15, 18, 19), and is the Davidic King (v.24 and Acts 2:30 — cf. Ps.132:11) and is the promised “seed” of Abraham (v.25-26 — cf.Gen.12:3 and 22:18). This is astounding. Peter shows that every major figure (David, Moses, Abraham) was a “type” or foreshadowing of Christ. Christ is the greater Moses, bringing us the truth in a way that no one else could. Christ is the ultimate king, the greater David, delivering us and ruling us in a way that no one else could. And Christ is the ultimate blessing for the world, the child of Abraham through whom every nation would find salvation (v.25).
Of course, the Holy Spirit would have been prompting Peter in an unusual way, since he was an apostle. But his grasp of the OT reveals that the risen Jesus must have trained his disciples extremely well in the Bible and theology. We actually get a picture of the “curriculum” that Jesus went through with his disciples for those forty days in Luke 24:44-49. “He said to them… ’Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” This was the main thing Jesus did — show them how literally everything in the Old Testament — the law, the psalms, the history, every prophet, priest, king, and hero — was “really” about him.
Importance of seeing Christ in the Old Testament?
If we do not see Jesus behind everything in the Bible, then we will read every character as only moral examples, and they will load us with guilt! But they are not just that.
They are pictures of our Saviour — and in them we find hope and learn how God’s grace works. Then we are motivated (through hope and grace) to live as we should.
For example, if David, in fighting Goliath was just our moral example, then it is a rather crushing one. David teaches us that we should take on great tasks without fear. A hard example to follow! But if David points to Christ, we see that David was the champion — the one who fought representatively for the people, so that his victory was their victory. He risked his life, and saved the whole people. That points us to Jesus, who gave his life, and saved the whole people. As our representative, his victory is our victory. Then David becomes first a picture of our salvation by grace. It also helps us understand why God could keep using him despite his failures! It was for the sake of his greater Son that God could use David as a mini-champion. Then, strengthened by this vivid picture of the gospel, we can turn to David as our example. He was the anointed redeemer, and through the true anointed Redeemer, we too can take risks, trust God, and save others.
Notice in Acts 3:17-26 what Peter says are the results of receiving Christ?
The heart of what Peter invites his listeners to do is in 3:19 — they must repent and turn to Christ. Note that Peter says here “repent and turn”, but another place “believe”, indicating that turning from and toward is always involved in saving faith.
(NB Peter does not insist on water baptism in Acts 3 & Acts 16, implying Peter was using baptism as a “synecdoche” figure of speech (physical act represents a spiritual act.)
Peter promises three things as results of turning to and receiving Christ.
1st, he promises that your sins will be wiped out (v.19b). The Greek word used here is ‘exaleipho,’ which means to wash off and obliterate without a trace. It means our sins are gone to God, as if they had never been committed.
2nd, he promises that times of refreshing will come from the Lord (v.19c). The Greek word anapsyxis means relief or re-energysing. It means that God will not simply wipe away our sins legally, but he will infuse his Spirit and power in us actually. Notice, in relation to this second item, that Peter says Christ “blesses” us by “turning you from your wicked ways” (v.26). So again we see that God’s blessing is not simply forgiveness, but a changed life. He will change our character, heart, and behavior with an infusion of his power. “Wiping out of sins” is always accompanied by joy of heart (“refreshment”) and change of life “turn from wicked ways”.
3rd, he promises that Jesus will return to restore everything, as he promised long ago (v.20). This means that Christians do not only hope for their individual, personal restoration of soul. We also can look forward to the complete restoration of the universe — materially, so that all sickness, death, disease and decay will be healed, and spiritually, so that all confusion, evil, hate, and sin will be healed. The Greek word for “restoration” means literally “regeneration”. In other words, through Jesus, not just people will be born again, but all of nature itself will be born again! So the Christian is not only concerned with helping people be spiritually healed, but we are also concerned with facilitating psychological, social, and physical healing as well.
