Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0816 – April 20, 2008 – Acts 3:1-11 – The Healing Of The Lame Beggar

Acts 3:1-11 Πέτρος δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης ἀνέβαινον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ὥραν τῆς προσευχῆς τὴν ἐνάτην. 2καί τις ἀνὴρ χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων ἐβαστάζετο, ὃν ἐτίθουν καθʼ ἡμέραν πρὸς τὴν θύραν τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὴν λεγομένην Ὡραίαν τοῦ αἰτεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην παρὰ τῶν εἰσπορευομένων εἰς τὸ ἱερόν· 3ὃς ἰδὼν Πέτρον καὶ Ἰωάννην μέλλοντας εἰσιέναι εἰς τὸ ἱερόν, ἠρώτα ἐλεημοσύνην λαβεῖν. 4ἀτενίσας δὲ Πέτρος εἰς αὐτὸν σὺν τῷ Ἰωάννῃ εἶπεν· βλέψον εἰς ἡμᾶς. 5ὁ δὲ ἐπεῖχεν αὐτοῖς προσδοκῶν τι παρʼ αὐτῶν λαβεῖν. 6εἶπεν δὲ Πέτρος· ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον οὐχ ὑπάρχει μοι, ὃ δὲ ἔχω τοῦτό σοι δίδωμι· ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου [ἔγειρε καὶ] περιπάτει. 7καὶ πιάσας αὐτὸν τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρὸς ἤγειρεν αὐτόν· παραχρῆμα δὲ ἐστερεώθησαν αἱ βάσεις αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ σφυδρά, 8καὶ ἐξαλλόμενος ἔστη καὶ περιεπάτει καὶ εἰσῆλθεν σὺν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν περιπατῶν καὶ ἁλλόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν τὸν θεόν. 9καὶ εἶδεν πᾶς ὁ λαὸς αὐτὸν περιπατοῦντα καὶ αἰνοῦντα τὸν θεόν· 10ἐπεγίνωσκον δὲ αὐτὸν ὅτι αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ πρὸς τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην καθήμενος ἐπὶ τῇ ὡραίᾳ πύλῃ τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν θάμβους καὶ ἐκστάσεως ἐπὶ τῷ συμβεβηκότι αὐτῷ. 11Κρατοῦντος δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸν Πέτρον καὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην συνέδραμεν πᾶς ὁ λαὸς πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τῇ στοᾷ τῇ καλουμένῃ Σολομῶντος ἔκθαμβοι. (NA27)
Acts 3:1-11 Now Peter and John were ascending (3PIAI; descriptive imperfect) to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2And a man lame from his mother’s womb was being carried (3SIPI; descriptive imperfect), whom they were laying (3PIAI; iterative imperfect) each day at the gate of the temple called “Beautiful,” to ask (PAInf) a donation from those going into the temple. 3Seeing Peter and John about to go (PAInf) into the temple, he began asking (3SIAI; inceptive imperfect) to receive a donation. 4And Peter looked intently (3SAAI) at him, with John, and he said (3SAAI), “Look (2SAAImp) at us!” 5And he began paying attention (3SIAI; inceptive imperfect) to them, expecting to receive (3SAAI) something from them. 6But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not possess (3SPAI), but what I have (1SPAI) I give (1SPAI) to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, “Get up (2SPAImp) and walk (2SPAImp)!” 7And having taken him by the right hand he lifted (3SAAI) him up and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened (3PAPI). 8And leaping up he stood (3SAAI) and began to walk (3SIAI; inceptive imperfect), and he entered (3SAAI) into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw (3SAAI) him walking and praising God, 10and recognized (3PIAI; descriptive imperfect) him as he who was (3SIAI; iterative imperfect) sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, for a donation. And they were filled (3PAPI) with astonishment and amazement at what happened (PerfPart) to him. 11While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran together (3SAAI) toward them at the portico called by the name of “Solomon.” (Author’s Translation)
Acts 3:1-11 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 2And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. 4But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” 5And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” 7And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. (NASB95)

Alright, we’re starting a new chapter, Acts 3 and just as a reminder as we shift chapters, Acts is a book of transitions; it is a book that begins with the Kingdom on center stage and ends with the Church on center stage and because of this gradual transition it is a book that must be handled with particular care. The danger is establishing norms and standards for the church which are not norms and standards at all. So at each passage we have to see what is normal vs what was transitional. 

The outline of the Book is given in Acts 1:8, where the witness will occur, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. The witnessing in Jerusalem occurs in the first section, Acts 2-7. This is where you see Jewish witnessing being practiced. At each opportunity we’re seeing how the Holy Spirit has set up the opportunity for the witness. The witness begins, often with a miracle which is then followed by an emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus as a historic fact. There is need, constantly, to go back and fortify ourselves that this is the main point of witnessing. It is not about our personal subjective experience, it is about Jesus Christ, who He was, the Messiah, and what He did, He was crucified for the sins of the whole world and raised from the dead. Now that’s history. That’s history in the sense of George Washington, yet you will rarely, very rarely find the resurrection of Jesus Christ in a history textbook. So we have to constantly be reminded of this or we tend to think of it as pseudo-history, something less than what really happened. We tend to relegate it to the subjective, a feeling experience. That is not all it is. It is objective history, we place our trust in the objective revelation of God in history. So what we are witnessing to is the objective revelation of God in history. And Peter and Paul’s evangelism challenges us; challenges us to focus not on what Jesus did for me personally but on what God has done in history whether you believe it or not. 

So in the first section, Acts 2-7, we see the witnessing and the results of the witness. For example, in Acts 2 we have the day of Pentecost and Peter’s first sermon. In Acts 3-4, we have a lame man healed and Peter’s second sermon. Acts 4 ends in the rise of the first persecution. The national leaders become hostile to the gospel. And here’s something that sound doctrine will always produce, it will produce a positive response or a negative response. That’s the nature of the word of God, that’s the nature of the gospel, it divides and while you see some Jews responding positively, really receiving Peter’s message you have on the other hand an antagonism growing. This is always the case with the word of God, it will always be attacked, it may be intellectual persecution, it may be warnings, it may be ideological, it may be political but it will happen. And by the time you get to Stephen in Acts 7 it’s turned into a bloody mess. So just be aware, the gospel is offensive and the powers of darkness are opposed to the gospel and so there will be persecution. 

Today we’re going to look at the healing incident of the first part of Acts 3. This is a model of how, in general the Holy Spirit works in witnessing. We can’t build doctrine out of this but we can find some principles here to apply to our evangelism. Verse 1, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 2And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. 4But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” 5And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” 7And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.” 

Now this is one miracle among apparently many that were happening. Notice back in Acts 2:43. Last time we looked at these verses and we said this is a report card on early church practices. It’s not what must be practiced; it’s what was practiced in anticipation of the kingdom. Some of this is normative such as the teaching and fellowship, the sharing with others but it is not normative to sell all your property and move into a commune. That has validity only in an emergency situation. In verse 43 one of the things that was going on in the early church was that “every one was getting struck with fear; and many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.” We said last time that everyone refers to unbelievers, those outside. How did they get the message of Jesus Christ? This incident in chapter 3 is one way they got the message. 

Let’s get the setting; we want to see what was going on theologically and historically in this miracle. Turn to Isaiah 35:6, this is the theological setting. The Holy Spirit arranged it; Peter and John did not. You’ll see numerous times in the text that this was not orchestrated by them and that’s why this book is better known as the Acts of the Holy Spirit and not the Acts of the Apostles. The apostles didn’t start things off, the Holy Spirit did. Now, don’t just think of this as another miracle story. There were lots of miracles going on but this one was singled out by the Holy Spirit for a particular reason. He wanted Luke to record this one. The reason goes back to the kingdom and manifestations of the kingdom. There would be particular manifestations that would take place when the kingdom was near. What were the signs of the kingdom? Well the signs of the kingdom have to do with the character of the kingdom. And there were several characteristics of the kingdom every Jew knew from the OT. There would be tremendous changes in nature, there would be agricultural blessing year round, there would be world peace, no more war, there would be a perfect justice system and so forth. So there were signs when the kingdom was just around the corner, foretastes of the kingdom order. Now in Isaiah 35:5 one of those signs and symptoms is that, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.” So the lame leaping like a deer is a sign that the kingdom was near. When was the first time we saw this miracle? Did it occur in the gospels or do we have to wait till Acts? It did occur in the gospels. Jesus healed a lame man in John 5. This was the case where a man was always down at the Pool of Bethesda but his problem was he was crippled and when the waters swirled he could never get to the waters in time. So Jesus told him, “Take up your pallet and walk!” And the Jewish leaders got mad at Him because He healed on the Sabbath. But the point is that this miracle has occurred before just as Isaiah said, in connection with the nearness of the kingdom. Then you come over here in Acts and we see it again. It’s not by chance this miracle happens, this is a particular kind of healing here, namely, a lame man who starts leaping around, just like Isa said, “the lame will leap like a deer.” In other words, the theological significance is that the kingdom is near, the powers of the age to come. 

Now, on your way back to Acts 3 let’s stop again at Matt 22. We went here last week and we just want to review what’s happening to get the significance of this miracle. This is the parable of the wedding feast and the wedding feast was always linked with the kingdom because it’s a time of great joy. Verse 2, Jesus said, 2“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king,” the king is God the Father, “who gave a wedding feast for his son.” that Jesus Christ 3“And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast,” that’s an invitation to the nation of Israel. When was the nation of Israel invited to the wedding? In Matt 10ff, when Jesus sent out His disciples two by two and he gave them authority to do heal the lame and give site to the blind and to proclaim the kingdom is at hand. That was the message. Why proclaim that? It was an invitation, accept the king and you can have your kingdom. So verse 3 is the invitation, the first invitation extended to the nation of Israel during Jesus’ life. At the end of verse 3 what was the result? “and they were unwilling to come.” They didn’t want to come, they rejected the king and thus ends the first invitation. Now verse 4, this is another invitation. Don’t get confused. It’s an invitation to the same group but it’s a second invitation. 4“Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.” ’ Alright, when did this invitation take place? After the crucifixion has taken place. That’s the significance of all the food on the table. Jesus Christ has already been crucified; everything was on the table when the invitation went out so this is an urgent invitation. Two invitations were given to the nation of Israel, v 3 records the first, verse 4 the second. In the Book of Acts they still could have had their kingdom. That’s why I say when you look at Acts 2-3 don’t get that confused with your normal evangelistic sermon, these are kingdom evangelistic sermons, the kingdom is being re-offered to Israel. If they will repent of crucifying their Messiah then the kingdom will come. But what’s going to happen, verse s 5-6 predict they will reject the second offer. Some ignored it in verse 5, others in v 6 got so angry at this Messianic movement that they finally started killing them off the messengers. So, how do we know that vv 4-6 are discussing early Acts? Here’s the test, “Were any of Jesus’ disciples killed in the gospels?” No, not a single one, but in Acts you have Stephen being martyred. By AD70 John’s the only guy left. So, that’s the second rejection. As a result what happened? Verse 7, “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.” That’s the destruction of Jerusalem by fire in AD70. And that’s exactly what happened. Bible prophecy is just as plain as day, it’s not some kind of enigmatic thing. The Bible says what it means and means what it says. Why AD70? Why? If you think of it Jesus began His ministry in AD30, so you have a period of 40 years when the kingdom is being offered to Israel. First offer for three years by the Messiah Himself in the gospel period. They rejected and crucified their Messiah. But remember that odd thing Jesus prayed on the cross. Do you remember that prayer? “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.” What’s He asking for? For the nation of Israel to get another chance, for an extension of grace, another 37 years of grace, a second offer. Remember, there’s always grace before judgment and Jesus Christ’s prayer was answered in the Book of Acts. For 37 more years the offer remained, “Israel, if you believe in your Messiah your kingdom will come.” So that’s what the prayer of Jesus accomplished, it gave the nation another chance. So, in total the nation was given 3 years under the first offer and 37 years under the second offer. That’s 40 years. What’s the significance of 40? That’s the period of testing in Scripture. How long did the nation of Israel wander in the wilderness? 40 years. How long was Jesus tempted for? 40 days. 40 is the period of testing and Israel was tested for 40 years, “Will you accept Jesus as your Messiah?” When the time elapsed there was nothing left to do but judge. They had rejected the second offer. So, Jesus’ prayer, “Forgive them Father,” gives Israel another chance and that prayer is the story of Acts. So Acts 3 begins with that in mind. 

So, now we have the theological setting; that Israel is being given a second offer of the kingdom and that’s why we have this miracle of the lame man leaping like Isa. The kingdom is near; it can come if Israel will repent. Now let’s get the historical setting. Verse 1, Now Peter and John were going up, they were going up the steps, to get to the Temple you have to ascend a series of steps. It was the ninth hour, that’s 3 in the afternoon. To get the picture, here’s a model of the Temple Mount. 

You’d come up the Huldah gates from the south side and they came up inside the court of the Gentiles. You have three courts, Court of the Gentiles, the large one on the outside, the Court of the Women, Jewish women and the Court of Israel, the men.

Out here, this is the court of the Gentiles, that’s where they are here; they’re walking in this large area. Over here is Solomon’s porch, that’s where the money changers were always set up, where the Sanhedrin met, and where Christ and the scribes taught and debated (Mk 11:27; Lk 2:46; 19:47; Jn 10:23). That’s where everything is going to end up after this event, Peter second sermon will be delivered right there. There was a lot of activity out here in the court of the Gentiles and you can see that to go up into the Court of the Women you had to ascend these steps and go through this gate. There was no other way. This is the gate called Beautiful because it was beautiful; it was made of brass, Corinthian brass, so it was sometimes called the Corinthian Gate. But it was a remarkable gate which led from the court of the Gentiles into the court of the Women. Josephus tells us it was 75 feet high and 60 feet wide. Archaeologists haven’t found the gate but they have discovered Greek and Latin inscriptions among the ruins that forbid the Gentiles to cross that threshold on pain of death. So here come Peter and John, they’re going up the steps. It’s an imperfect and there are several imperfects here and they really paint the picture, it’s a descriptive imperfect which means they’re just walking along. This is not a planned event, planned by them at least, they’re just walking, that’s the picture you want to keep in mind because over here, verse 2, you have a man lame from birth being carried, another imperfect. So the picture is that this man is being carried to the Beautiful Gate, simultaneously Peter and John are going up the steps to go through the Beautiful Gate into the Court of the Women. They’re not going to miss by five seconds; they’re almost going to run into each other. God the Holy Spirit has timed the situation to occur, like He can time things to occur in your life, the witnessing opportunities will be arranged by God’s sovereignty. So we have Peter and John going and the lame man going, not one before the other but both at the same time, both arriving at the critical location. Therefore you don’t need to arrange opportunities; you let the Lord arrange the opportunities. Watch how He does it here; Peter and John have studied, they’re equipped. They’re not just any believers; they’re Peter and John, trained believers, prepared believers. These men have answers. And at that time, verse 3, Seeing Peter and John about to go (PAInf) into the temple, there’s precision here in the timing, everything is set, they are about to cross the threshold, The emphasis by Luke as he writes the text is on what we would call an “accident,” it just happened, the sheer chance meeting of these people right at this location. He began asking to receive a donation. He started asking and he kept on asking. Verse 4, And Peter fixed his gaze upon him, as did John, and he said, “Look at us!” Now I’m aware that some healers say this is hypnosis and hypnosis is a valid way of healing people. Put’em in some kind of trance or something. Is that what this is? No, do you know why he says “Look at us”? Well remember where they are. If you were standing at the gate of that temple, outside the Gate Beautiful, how many people do you think are going by every minute? Well, if you figure there’s two or three thousand people in there, there’s probably a hundred people walking by in an average minute or so, it’s a busy thoroughfare, it is the main place in the temple. This gate is busier than any other gate in the temple. The gate that’s up above it where the men go in is decreased by 50% because all the women stop here. So 50% less people are going through this gate so where does the Holy Spirit choose for this miracle? The busiest place in the temple. Now in the busiest place in the temple wouldn’t you imagine there would be confusion, there’d be noise, there’d be everybody talking, everybody having a discussion as they walked through the gate. That’s distracting so Peter gets his attention. You’ve got to have someone’s attention before you can preach the gospel. If there’s distraction all around it’s hard to concentrate. So he says “Look at us!” and it’s a word of mental engagement, not hypnosis, he’s saying “Focus here mentally.” Verse 5, And he began paying attention and you see the italics. Normally I say that’s not in the original, take it out, but here they’ve reflected perfectly what’s taking place, this is an inceptive imperfect, he started really fixating on Peter and John. Obviously because he is expecting to receive something from them. That’s the guy’s whole life mission, get a handout, get a handout, get a handout. So this guy thinks he’s gonna get a handout. And he’s locked in on them, undivided attention, he’s blotted everyone else out. So the first way the Holy Spirit works, He providentially arranges trained believers to be on the scene. Second way the Holy Spirit works, He arranges the situation and the timing perfectly, they literally ran right into each others path. Third way the Holy Spirit works, He expects the believer to get the persons attention so the word of God can get a hearing. You can’t preach the word of God in a mob. Verse 6, But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you, “I the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” There’s a famous story related to this in the 1100’s. Thomas Aquinas went in to see the Pope Innocent II. As he went in the Pope was counting a large sum of money it had received by donation. The Pope said, “You see Thomas, the Church can no longer say, silver and gold have I none.” But Thomas answered, “True Holy Father, but neither can it say, arise and walk.” Who had the right focus? Peter and Thomas. Now, that’s an interesting story but we want to get to the meat. Is it true that Peter had no silver and gold? Here we’ve just had everyone selling off their property and possessions. Surely they’ve got a stockpile going somewhere for anyone who has need. Yet Peter says “I don’t have silver and gold.” Now he’s not lying, he’s not carrying the moneybox around. But he could certainly get him some money if he wanted to. And what this little remark tells us is volumes about the social action of the early Christians. They did not give financial aid to every Tom, Dick and Harry that needed it. They were not into the social gospel, solving the world poverty, world disease and all the rest of it. They preached the word of God to the society around them and helped their fellow believers. That was the way they worked. So he says, but what I do have I give to you: in other words Peter had a possession, the ability to heal this man and as such here’s Christian charity. Peter had genuine compassion for this man, he’s probably seen him there hundreds of times at that gate. And Peter says, In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk! Actually there’s two commands get up and walk! But why the name Jesus Christ? Surely this crippled man had heard this name. My goodness, He’d been the talk of the town, especially the last 60 days. Well in the Hebrew society a name signifies something. It’s much more significant than in our society. This is why they were real strategic when they named someone or the fact that you find many people re-named in Scripture. Why do you see all that? What’s in a name? Well, what’s in a name is the essence of a thing. So to invoke the name of Jesus is to invoke Jesus’ essence; namely His power and authority. 

So we’ve seen several things the Holy Spirit has set up in this evangelism situation. He chose the believers, He got the believers there in the perfect situation and at the perfect time, He got the man fixed on Peter and John, concentrated and He’s done it all in this public place, the central place of worship among the Jewish nation. Now we want to look at one last thing. Who did the Holy Spirit use to record this miracle? Luke. What was Luke’s profession? Medical doctor. Who better to relate the details of a miracle than to a medical doctor, someone who has intimate knowledge of anatomy and physiology? And, not surprisingly, Luke uses several medical terms to describe the results. 

At the command to Get up and walk! Peter reached down, verse 7, The first thing he says that Peter did was “seize him by the right hand,” now that’s a grab. Peter was a fisherman; and in Peter’s day you didn’t have big pulley systems and cranks to pull the nets in. You had to pull them in with your own arms. So Peter had biceps like you wouldn’t believe and so when he reached down, this poor lame person sitting at the gate, he just picked him up and so the idea is that Peter was physically lifting this man right off the pavement. But as Peter starts to lift this man up off the cement, off the stones there at that gate, something else happens. and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. Now the cripple must have had virtually no muscle mass, when you set these people down their legs just sort of crumple underneath them but as Peter grabs him and pulls him up, midstream the guy’s muscles in his feet and ankles suddenly became strong. The motion starts out with Peter and winds up with the man on his own, he stands up. So in those very, very seconds of the miracle, Luke himself didn’t observe this, he must have gone back and said Peter, tell me about it, I want the details of what happened, and Peter gave him these details, so Luke could tell us the medical facts of the situation. 
This is medically significant because if you have a person with this congenital defect, they have never developed the ability to coordinate. Suppose we had a cripple here in the front, and suppose we were able to inject some chemical that would suddenly give them full use of their muscles; do you realize that that person still couldn’t walk, even though they had full use of their muscles; even if the nerves had been healed, all the synapses worked fine; in spite of all that the person still couldn’t walk because you have to learn to walk, it involves a patterning of the brain through the spine down through the legs. All that was done in an instant of time; that’s what Luke is talking about here. It takes a child how long to walk, one or two years, rolling around, crawling, standing, finally getting enough coordination to walk a few steps, but this is all collapsed down to fractions of a second, as God’s Holy Spirit works one of His great miracles. And now He does something else, verse 8, With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and that’s an imperfect tense, it means the guy just started walking around and around, left, right, lift, right, “Hey, I can walk now.” He doesn’t start leaping immediately; he could have, God made him so he could leap immediately but it’s such a fantastically new experience to walk. Think of it, all of his life this man has watched people above him, looking up at these people walking by, walking by, pleading that if I could only use my legs, and now he uses his legs, so it’s an utterly radical experience. And where does he walk? Where’s the first place this guy went? and he entered the temple with them, he didn’t go tell his mom or his friends, he realized something. In those few seconds this man realized it wasn’t material things he needed, it wasn’t a donation, it wasn’t human resources, it was the resources of God. So he enters “with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, See the word “leaping,” remember what we read in Isaiah 35:6, when the kingdom was near the signs of the kingdom would appear. So we have the lame leaping. and praising God. He doesn’t praise Peter and John, he praises God, his eyes were opened to the fact that it wasn’t in Peter’s power or name but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that’s who gets the praise, that’s who gets the glory. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple and beg alms. Who took note? Those Jewish people who went through that gate day after day after day for years, thousands of people had passed that guy and knew he was crippled since birth. and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11While he was clinging to Peter and John, so by this time they had already been in the Temple and gone back out and all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. That’s a significant location, over here on the eastern colonnades. What had happened there a few months ago? Turn over to John 10. Here’s the gospel of John and John’s purpose was to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah through eight miracles. These proved the Messiahship of Jesus. And at this point their asking Him, “Are you the Messiah, speak plainly to us?” Verse 22, 22At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.” same location, right here where the crowds are going out to hear Peter’s second sermon, 24The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Are you the Messiah? 25Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.” So this location is where Jesus reminded them of His miracles and proclaimed His Messiahship during offer number one, “Israel will you accept Me as your Messiah? You’ve seen my works? You’ve seen my miracles.” Now, here’s another miracle and Peter’s going to preach the Messiahship of Jesus to the nation a second time, offer number two, Israel, here’s your second chance, will you accept Jesus as your Messiah? And both of these offers occur at the same place. Remarkable correspondence. So the Messiahship of Jesus will be the substance of Peter’s sermon in verse 12ff which we’ll get to in a couple of weeks.