Acts 3:1-11

¹ Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. ³ Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. ⁴ And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” ⁵ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸ And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹ While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.

Three years ago, a former atheist, now a New Testament scholar, named Craig Keener published a massive two-volume work of over 1,200 pages entitled Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts.  In this work, Keener argues against the modern naturalistic dismissal of miracles and points instead to the philosophical bias of those who simply wave claims of the miraculous off as impossible.  Furthermore, he pulls together numerous modern claims for the miraculous and points to the staggering number of people today who claim to have seen or witnessed the miraculous.  In an article he wrote for Huffington Post, Dr. Keener offered the following statistics concerning modern belief in miracles.

Various polls peg U.S. belief in miracles at roughly 80 percent. One survey suggested that 73 percent of U.S. physicians believe in miracles, and 55 percent claim to have personally witnessed treatment results they consider miraculous.

Even more striking than the number of people who believe in miracles is the number who claims to have witnessed or experienced them. For example, a 2006 Pew Forum survey studied charismatic and Pentecostal Christians in 10 countries. From these 10 countries alone, the number of charismatic Christians who claim to have witnessed or experienced divine healing comes out to roughly 200 million people. This estimate was not, however, the most surprising finding of the survey. The same survey showed that more than one-third of Christians in these same countries who do not claim to be charismatic or Pentecostal report witnessing or experiencing divine healing.

And the reports in these countries appear to be merely the tip of the iceberg. The survey did not include China, where one report from the China Christian Council over a decade ago attributed roughly half of all new Christian conversions to “faith healing experiences.” Another report from a different source in China suggested an even higher figure. Clearly many people around the world experience what they consider miracles, sometimes in life-changing ways.[1]

Keener points to this massive belief in the miraculous as an argument for the truthfulness of the New Testament accounts.  It is a fascinating approach!

Regardless of what one thinks of this approach, it is abundantly clear that miracles and divine works of power went hand-in-hand with the bold proclamation of the gospel – oftentimes opening doors for the proclamation of the gospel – in the New Testament accounts.  We see this clearly in Acts.  We have already seen it in chapter two:  the miracle of Pentecost gives way to Peter’s great Pentecost sermon that, in turn, results in mass conversions.  We see the same in Acts 3, though here the miracle is focused on one man in particular.

What is clear was that God touched and touches human lives through miracles.  He touches human hearts through other means as well, but oftentimes through divine manifestations of his power.  This means that we can study the aftermath of miracles as presented in scripture to see the effects of Christ taking hold of a human being.  The example before us this morning provides us with just such an opportunity.

When Christ takes hold of a person, His blessings always exceed the person’s expectations.

Our text is a case study in exceeded expectations.  It begins with Peter and John, two friends, two men whose lives were forever changed by Jesus, going to the temple to pray.

¹ Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.

It would not be unusual to find beggars at the various gates to the temple.  Nobody is exactly sure which gate is the Beautiful Gate since we have no record outside of this of a gate going by that name.  F.F. Bruce offers some helpful comments on a possible solution.

This may be identical with the Nicanor Gate, as it is called in the Mishnah, leading into the Court of the Women; the name here given to it may be more readily understood if it is further identified with the gate of Corinthian bronze described by Josephus, of such exquisite workmanship that it “far exceeded in value those gates that were plated with silver and set in gold.”[2]

Furthermore, John Stott says of the beautiful gate, “It was about seventy-five feet high and had huge double doors.”[3]  This gate, then, was massive and its doors were stunning.  If this is the gate, it was the only gate with doors that were not gilded, covered with, say, gold leaf.  The doors were actually copper doors.

Imagine, then, the contrast between these stunning doors in this massive gate and the little, broken beggar who sat before them.  He was daily put there so that he could beg.  And this makes sense.  He would beg the observant Jews as they came to the temple three times a day for prayers and sacrifices.  John Polhill notes that “the rabbis taught that there were three pillars for the Jewish faith – the Torah, worship, and the showing of kindness, or charity.”[4]  Obviously the Jews who would go up for temple worship might be inclined to practice their charity upon the lame beggar.

He is there, begging before the gate, and he sees Peter and John approaching.

³ Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. ⁴ And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” ⁵ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

This is a stunning turn of events, and it galvanized the attention of the unsuspecting crowd.  The poor man had hopes and aspirations but they did not rise above his expectations.  Hopes and aspirations never do rise above expectations.  Being held is nowhere on his radar, but getting a few coins in.  It is all he has ever known.  His has been a life of coins and measured pity.

So he calls out to the two men asking for the only thing for which he dares hope:  alms.  “Alms!  Alms!” he cries.  And Peter and John stop before him.  What they say to him had to have hit his ears like words from some other realm of reality.

“Look at us.”

What is this?  Nobody in the passing throng ever had asked such a thing before.  In general, people do not want to look at beggars and they certainly do not want beggars looking at them.  Think of the ways we are tempted to avert our eyes at busy intersections hoping that we will not make eye contact with the man with the sign.

“Look at us.”

There is intimacy in such an exchange.  To look into a person’s eyes is to see him as a human being, as a real man or real woman.  So we look away.  “Do NOT look at us!” our body language says.  “Look anywhere but at us.”

Not Peter.  Not John.  Something had happened to them.  They had walked with Jesus.  There were no more mere beggars to them.  There were only men and women, men and women with bodies and souls, men and women who bore the image of God, men and women who mattered.

“Look at us!”

And he looked.  It took something for Peter and John to see the man, to really see him.  And it took something for the man to look at them, to lift his eyes to their faces.  It took courage.  This man was accustomed to the casual tossing of coins from people rushing to get in the temple.  But these two stopped.

“Look at us!”

And he looks.  “And he fixed his attention on them,” Luke writes, “expecting to receive something from them.”  Something.  But not everything.  But they have everything to give!

⁶ But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

The first words had to disappoint the beggar.  Was this a joke?  “Silver and gold have I none,” as the King James puts it.  But that is what he wanted!  And that is what he wanted because that is the most he thought he could receive!  Our hopes never rise above our expectations.  We have to learn to hope audaciously, and we can only do that when somebody smashes our expectations and shows us that we have hoped for too little and contented ourselves with too little.

When Christ takes hold of a person, His blessings always exceed the person’s expectations.

⁶ But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Rise up and walk!

And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.

Thomas Walker, speaking of Peter helping the man up, said, “the power was Christ’s, but the hand was Peter’s.”[5]

Indeed!  The power of Christ heals.  The power of Christ spills the banks.  The power of Christ washes over us like a flood when we dare to trust in Him.

He hoped for alms.  He got the storehouse of Heaven poured out upon him instead.

This is how God works, Church!  This is how our God works!

There is something else here.

Luke tells us that Peter and John went up to the Temple at the ninth hour.  The Jewish day began at 6 am and ended at 6 pm.  There were three times of prayer:  9 am, 12, and 3 pm.  The ninth hour was therefore 3 pm.  Twice a day, at 9 am and 3 pm, the priests would offer sacrifices.  They would sacrifice a lamb, then offer an offering of “an unleavened loaf of wheat flour and oil,” then they would offer a drink offering.  The Mishnah tells us that, after the drink offering, the priest “clashed the cymbal” and the Levites would begin to sing. At certain intervals, however, the singing would stop, a trumpet would blow, and the people would prostrate themselves in prayer.[6]

I wonder:  did this man stand up when the lamb was slain there just inside the temple?  That would be fitting, for it was only because the Lamb of God has been slain that any of us can stand up.  Did the lamb give up his life on the altar as the healing power of God surged through his broken body?  That would be fitting.  For it is only because the Lam of God gave up His life that the healing power of God surges through any of us.

Or it could it be that Peter lifted this man to his feet just as the worshipers inside fell on their faces?  That, too, would be fitting, for we break under the law of a Holy God but we rise under the gift of grace.

When Christ takes hold of a person, He brings exuberant joy!

What, then, does this man, our brother, do?

⁸ And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

He stands.

He walks.

He leaps.

Do you see the progression?

I cannot help but see in this a contrast to the regression of Psalm 1:1.  “Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”

Ha!  Do you see?  Do not walk, stand, or sit in wickedness…but do stand, walk, and leap in righteousness!

John Polhill has pointed out that there may a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy here as well.

Luke perhaps gave a veiled reference to the man’s healing being a sign of the messianic times that had come in Jesus.  He used a rare word (hallomai) for the man’s jumping, a word found in the Septuagint text of Isa 35:6 with reference to the messianic age:  “Then will the lame leap like a deer.”[7]

How amazing!  How beautiful!

He was broken, but now he is whole!

He was lowly, but now he is exalted!

He was poor, but now he is rich!

He was hopeless, but now he rejoices!

And there it is:  exuberant joy!  He is not merely that he rises, walks, then leaps, it is that he does so with exuberant joy!

⁸ And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

He was “walking and leaping and praising God!”  He is bursting with infectious, uncontainable joy!  His heart is glad!  He laughs, and in his laughter one could hear the laughter of Adam when he first realized that God had made him from the dust and breathed life into him!  He rejoices!  He worships!  He praises!  He is glad, Church!

Do you know the joy that forgiveness brings, the sheer, wonderful gladness of a heart that has been unburdened?

I once spoke to a man who told me of being caught up in secret sin, of living a double life, of hiding his wickedness.  Then he was found out.  Then he cried out to God to forgive him and to save him.  And God did!  And he spoke of the amazing joy he felt at being free, at being healed, at being put back on his feet again.

Friends, there is great joy in Jesus!  Show me a person who has been lifted out of the gutter, and I’ll show you a person who knows how to praise his great God.

When Christ takes hold of a person, He binds him or her together with others who are in His grasp.

But may I point out one more thing that Christ does when He takes hold of a person?  Listen closely to verse 11.

¹¹ While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.

Some commentators hypothesize that the reason he clings to Peter and John is because he is unsure and afraid.  But I ask you:  does this running, leaping, praising man seem unsure or afraid?  I think not.

No, he clings to them because he sees in them men who have likewise been touched by the healing hand of Christ and he knows in ways deep and mysterious that he needs them to live out the full implications of what has happened to them.

He needs Peter and John.  He knows that God did not save him to leave him alone.  He knows that he is now part of a movement of other Jesus followers, other people who have likewise been saved by the name.

That is how this works.  When Christ takes hold of a person, He binds him or her together with others who are in His grasp.

The New Testament knows nothing of solitary Christianity, of what C.S. Lewis once called “the heresy of Jesus-and-me.”  It is Jesus-and-us.

Yes, He has saved me…but He also saved us, and the us must matter to me.

So he clings to Peter and John.  He clings to them as if to say, “This has happened to me…but it has also happened to you.  I am not part of you and you are not part of me.  And we are part of all those who have been raised to their feet by Jesus.  And we have a story to tell.  We have a life to live!  We have a Jesus about whom we bear witness!”

This is what Jesus does, Church.

This is Church:  broken beggars who have been lifted to their feet by the nail-pierced hand of the Lamb of God!